Tokyo, Day Two

Hello again　from Tokyo!　　This was our first full day in the city, and we spent it well. After grabbing some toast at our　hostel, Dimitar and I walked the streets to Ueno Park, perhaps a couple of miles away. We have a guidebook Dimitar brought that has been fantastic for getting us around. The park, which was surrounded by tall buildings on all sides, was beautiful. It had fountains, groves of trees, people wandering about, and a bunch of museums, including the Tokyo National Museum, which we went to. There was even a Peruvian flute band playing! We took pictures around the park, which had several temples. The temples here are quite casual. People are always milling about, and there was a homeless guy sleeping at the base of one.

After spending the morning in the park, we walked down to the river that runs through our part of Tokyo, Asakusa, to Tokyo Harbor. We purchased tickets for a ferry that would take us down the river, and then got lunch at a sushi place nearby. This was one of the places where the sushi comes by on a conveyor belt, so we could just pick what looked good without worrying about how to communicate what we wanted to eat. We took the ferry down the river to an island garden surrounded by the harbor and the citys Financial District. It had a lake within the garden with a man-made island within. On the island was a tea ceremony building. Dimitar and I crossed the bridge to the building, where we watched a little of the ceremony going on.

Next, we walked into the Financial District and got on a monorail train which took us across the Rainbow Bridge to an island on the other side of the Harbor (it was called something like Odaiba). We walked around there, going up to a giant ferris wheel that is a city landmark, and we ended up along the waterfront facing the city center. We got some great pictures of ourselves in front of the skyline, with the sun setting in the background. It was the most red I have ever seen the sun look--just like on the Japanese flag.

To finish the day, we took the train back to Asakusa, got some food at a nearby restaurant, and, since it was Dimitars birthday, hit up a sake bar. Dimitar insisted on sake bombing, even though that seems to be an American invention. The Japanese people in the bar seemed to be drinking the sake from glasses like an American would drink wine.

One of the strange things weve noticed about Tokyo is the prevalence of smut. Our neighborhood is home to Tokyos most famous temple as well as strip clubs and seedy night theaters, and a local chain of convenience stores known as FamilyMart sells graphic anime porn. The Japanese also seem to be enamored with gambling (weve seen lots of slot machines) and video games (there are huge arcades full of adults and kids alike). Despite these oddities, the Japanese people weve met have continued to be very friendly and courteous, with the exception of one old woman who kept yelling at us in Japanese.

Were going to visit Central Tokyo today, Ill post more soon!