In case anyone thought I was being a whiner (and I wonder if anyone even reads this stuff) I just counted the bites on my calf and there were sixteen on my left calf and six on my right calf. No wonder I bolted from the pond yesterday.

Today I decided to go to Shinagawa. Looking at the tourist guide, it looked like a lot of walking through the city. Most of it was just that.

Things weren’t looking good when the first shrine I saw was hemmed in by buildings. I didn’t see it on the map, either.

But it was a nice shrine.

The side building looked different.

And there was a portable shrine inside.

My first real stop was Sengakuji Temple, where the graves of the 47 Ronin and their master are.

It must be a popular temple, as it had a small set of temple shops.

The gate was fairly impressive.

The temple was impressive as well.

The graves of the 47 ronin have markers and a map.

The other spots of interest were all the way across the neighborhood. I stopped into a nameless restaurant because I saw a bunch of businessmen entering.

I had to pass through Shinagawa station again. There was a hallway with large screen TVs advertising Starbucks. I think I counted 44 monitors. If they’d only just give ME the monitors instead.

I tried to take a quick picture of a cop on a stand. I guess there’s something going on in town (G7 meeting?) and there’s a police presence in the major train stations.

There are a lot of office buildings in Shinagawa I wandered through, but I didn’t take any pictures. I even went into a small corporate museum for the Mitsubishi group.

The next “recommended spot” is listed as houseboats and fishing boats in Shinagawa-ura.

Nearby there was a small shrine for the fishermen.

The next stops Tennoz Isle, which is a long walk through industrial areas.

Tennoz Isle had some office buildings and a large park. This is a full-sized baseball field.

Oddly enough, there wasn’t anywhere for spectators.

While the park was large and new, it was also a bit sterile. It was time to head towards the old Shinagawa-juku, the first post on the old Tokaido road.

On the way there was a shrine with a plaque in English. This is one of the 100 interesting sites in Shinagawa.

They also had a portable shrine, but it was tiny. You can see umbrellas to the left of it for scale.

There were also other random shrines with nothing to tell me anything much about them.

I wasn’t sure where the Tokaido road was, but I did find the Ebinara Shrine.

The shrine itself was impressive.

The carvings in the eaves were especially impressive.

I finally realized that the Tokaido road was just the shopping street that I went past.

 There were several temples and shrines on the road.

This was a particularly colorful, though small, shrine.

There was also this costume shop. It’s hard to see into the shop to see some of the giant costumes, but there’s a giant tiger head outside.

I also headed to Shinagawa Jinja which also had several shrines around it.

There were quite a few stairs leading up, and the stone mound to the left of the stairs in the previous picture is also lined with small shrines to the seven gods of good fortune. The entrance is on the first “landing”.

Here’s the entrance to the path up the mound.

This is the second stop (right behind the left lantern). The statues were only about a couple of feet tall.

The stairs are fairly steep.

But the view from the top was pretty nice.

Huh, I’m missing pictures of the main shrine. There are pictures on Google for Shinagawa Jinja. It’s impressive, and there’s a stage for traditional Shinto dances. (Sorry Megan, I’ve failed you here.)

There were sub shrines, though I and I have some pictures of one.

And a bunch of gates leading to a smaller set of shrines to the right of the main shrine.

The smaller shrine had a tiny shrine with a kneeling pad in front of it. It was kind of dark and spooky back there with lots more mosquitoes.

This is just a gate on the road leading back to the Tokaido road from Shinagawa temple.

The last picture I took in Shinagawa is of the hotel my mom always stays in when she goes to Tokyo. At least I think it’s this one.

I guess I knew before, but had to see for myself, that the Yamanote line that circles central Tokyo is much more crowded than the Chuo line that crosses central Tokyo. I figured that out while I was pushing my way through the train to change lines at Yoyogi Station. I was afraid the Chuo line would be as crowded (and it was only about 3:45PM) but it wasn’t at all.

I got back to my hotel and had a drink and took a nap. I think I figured out that I’m a little sick again.

I was tired, so I went to Saizeria again.

I finally had something that wasn’t that great. This was sort of like a TV dinner. But it was pretty cheap and very close by. I still want to go to Bikkuri Donkey and have the hamburger steak there.