The other days in Tokyo or the Botanical gardens and Golden Gai

 We find ourselves in Shinjuku Gyoen gardens. It's a large park with a greenhouse, which I was eager to visit.
Above-a Japanese crow. It's actually called jungle crow! Huge bird with even bigger voice and appetite.

 The day was warm and sunny like the most days of our trip. We were so lucky, because there has been an earth quake and snow in Tokyo as soon as we had left. And it hasn't snowed in Tokyo in November for 54 years!

 The colorful and elegant spiders.

 There was a chrysanthemum show in the park. The pyramid the ladies are admiring is actually one live plant. It has been shaped while growing, the flower stalks meticulously weaved into the position on a metal frame.

 Sometimes we saw the equisetum plants (puzzlegrass, horse tail) as tall as a human.

 I have never seen so sad/funny looking crysanthemums before.

 Something strange was happening under each big tree in the park. There were no other plants, except for the moss and a fern like crawling plant. 

 Nice free accessories.

 I heard a chirping and tracked down this grasshopper pretending to be a stick. I've seen very similar ones in Australia. 

 To our amazement we've found some autumn blossoming sakura trees.

 The tree or the bush was alive!

 Inside the greenhouse.

 This cluster of staghorn ferns was gigantic. It took me a while to walk around it. It's only one fourth of it in this photo.

 There were some orchids in bloom.

 I love this Alocasia micholitziana 'Frydek'!

 The greenhouse was very different from all the green houses I have seen around the world. It was very orderly and lots of plants were positioned as if in an exhibition. Maybe a bit too artificial for my taste.

There were always groups of people taking photos of the sakura blooms. I was not an exception either. I think photos of flowers always turn out beautiful, no matter what!

 Praying to sakura god :-)

 I still have to find out what kind of bush is this...

 The green house.

 Ema are small wooden plaques on which Shinto worshipers write their prayers or wishes. The ema are then left hanging up at the shrine.

And sure enough we've missed another flea market next to a temple in Shinjuku. Maybe for the best as our bags were getting already too full.
I managed to snatch a pair of vintage geta for my daughter and a kakeshi doll the last second.

 We then turn towards Golden Gai. Shinjuku Golden Gai is a small area of Shinjuku, famous both for the architecture and it's nightlife. It is composed of a network of six narrow alleys, connected by even narrower passageways. Over 200 tiny shanty-style bars, clubs and eateries are squeezed into this area. 
We were there a bit too early, everything was still closed, but it gave us a great opportunity to look at things with no rush and in the light of dusk.

 G in Golden Gai.

 There were so many fun logos and names, I had to collect a few to show you here.

 Mostly cats...

 Ahhh...

And on our to the train station we come across this mysterious bar...