Day 3 Touring: Tokyo, Sunny, 16 (after our winter this feels like a heat wave!)

Meiji Jingu: Shinto shire where the souls of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken are enshrined. 100,000 trees are planted on the grounds.  

 

 

A wedding was in process. The bride and groom. The guests were exquisitely dressed with many of the women in traditional costume. Very beautiful...couldn't arrange an invite.

 

 

Imperial Palace: Previously the famous Edo Castle. A huge sight with beautiful pine trees, no access to the palace, no access to the trees or grass area and huge parking like gravel areas without any parking! It's a tranquil place with water filled moats and calming environment. The local Japanese love to ride bikes and run on the roads. 

 

 

 

 

Tokyo International Forum: cultural convention centre. Amazing architecture and design. Erin, the 2017 Tokyo Art Show was on...had you been here we would have attended for sure. As it was, we walked by. Sigh...  There was also a graduation ceremony just ended.

 

 

 

Zojoji Temple: Founded in 1393 as a fundamental nembutsu seminary it later became the family temple of the Tokugawa shogunate. A peaceful, beautiful place in spite of the many people and tour groups. Nice views of the Tokyo Tower. There is also a shrine that protects children, grandchildren and still born children. You'll know from the red caps.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tokyo Reflections:

We have really enjoyed our brief, but busy visit to this enormous habitat. The city of Tokyo has a population of approximately 14 million and the Greater Tokyo area is almost 40 million souls. We have at times been overwhelmed by the numbers. That said, the society is clearly extremely orderly and polite. There is relatively little crime compared to many other places we have traveled and people are strangely trusting, almost careless with their possessions in crowded situations such as the metro. It's refreshing, but I worry for them when they head off to travel elsewhere. They seem almost vulnerable.

Whenever we've ventured out to eat and to shop in the small groceries and larger stores we've found the people there to be genuine and truly delighted when we make our feeble efforts to converse in their language. Case in point at lunch today. After enjoying two lovely bowls of ramen (soup like pho) I went over to pay and complemented the person in Japanese on how good the food had been. The smile and bows that followed showed how much he appreciated my effort to at least try. His response has encouraged me further...this poor population have no idea what awaits them!! But what fun!

We've started to get past the culture shock and to get our bearings. However we are still seeing new things every time we step out of our tiny, tiny room...I hope the next place is just  a bit bigger. There's no where to stretch here and we dance when one of us needs to get past the other to the sink! However, our bath (oban) on the roof has been great...hotter than hell, but great.

 

Hey Rob. Last night we went International for dinner. Can you guess what type of restaurant?! 

 

Tomorrow we travel south to Kyoto for 5 nights on the Shinkansen, THE high speed bullet train! Over 300 kph! Yowzer! I likely won't post tomorrow, but I hate to miss a day because this is in reality my travel journal. So will see. I'm finishing with a surprise from Annemarie. A haiku poem (575, 31 syllables). Sarah, Neil and Annemarie amused themselves last fall composing these Japanese poems as they walked. My head doesn't quite work this way. And while I enjoy listening to them and appreciate the effort, I'm too lazy and default to my music! Enjoy!!

Haiku series for Tokyo

Temples, trains, towers

Tempura, udon, sushi

Dragon festival

Museums, and art

Poets, blossoms, parks, people

A human River 

Orderly line ups

Modern and traditional

Culture is alive

Tokyo highlights

Our Japan introduction

Kyoto is next