Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Tokyo

I awoke at 2:30 a.m. and was unable to get back to sleep. And so, I was the first one to breakfast this morning. While waiting for them to open the restaurant, I met a few of my fellow travelers. On couple from Houston, Carol and Charles were in the lobby using the Internet at $1.00 for 10 minutes. I am going to have to check to make sure there is no charge for using the internet in my room.

I met another very nice couple names Leroy & Eileen. They are of Japanese descent. They told me that the left side of the breakfast buffet was American and the other was Japanese. I just could not imagine trying some of the Japanese items on the table for breakfast. I copied a few of them down and they are: Whitebait (looked like a dish of white worms), fish paste cake, baked egg and bean curd. I learned that nine of the people have been here for five days and the guide has been running then ragged.

And Pat, the single gentleman, Rubin is at least 85 years old.

We had a short meeting at 8:30 so those of us who just arrived yesterday and the 9 who had already been here for five days could be introduced.

When we first set off on our bus tour of Tokyo there was a light drizzle. Our first stop was the Imperial Palace. The first Shogun began building his castle here in 1590. His successors made this into the world's largest castle. Only the inner circle remains. The Empower and his family still live in the western part of the grounds which was rebuilt after the previous one was bombed in WWII. Public access is granted twice a year on New Year's Day and the Emperor's birthday which is December 23.

The most famous landmark is the Nijubashi, a double arched stone bridge.. Completed in 1888 it was the palace's main entrance. In the park surrounding the palace there were beautiful trees all perfectly trimmed. There was also a huge statue of the first Samari on a horse. While we were waiting to board our bus for the next stop, I found 3 vending machines with very interesting looking drinks in them. I thought it would be fun to try each of them but settled for one that said it was made of Aloe and white grapes. It was really good but very unusual in the fact that it had some sort of chunks in it. I think this was the aloe. I will try a different one tomorrow.

Our next stop was the Asakusa Temple. We were told all about the giant incense burner and cleaning fountain. Inside the temple was one of those fortune drawers that we saw in Thailand. There is a box with sticks, you shake the box up and then a stick comes out of a small hole. This stick has a number on it from 1-100. You then open a drawer with the corresponding number and take out a sheet of paper with your fortune on it. Our guide warned that about 60% f the fortunes were not favorable. One of the women in our group tried it and hers was terrible gloom and doom. I was the only other one to try and mine came out as EXCELLENT FORTUNE. Our guide said she had never seen that. She had only seen as high as very good fortune.

Between the temple and the main gate was Nakamise-dori. This street is a treasure trove of traditional wares including hair combs, fans, dolls and kimonos. It was on this street that I bought a Christmas tree ornament. It is a small red paper lantern.

Our next stop was the famous Ginza shopping district where all of the high-prices department stores are. The Rodeo Drive of Tokyo. Several people went of shopping and about 6 of us took Yuki's advice and went into the basement of a large department store. Here there were thousands of different kinds of "box lunches". You could get Sushi or large selections of all unidentifiable things. I selected one and had no idea what it was. We then all took our lunches up on the roof of the 9 story building where there other locals eating their lunch as well. Both of the items in my box were delicious. One was like a croquet filled with shrimp and the other was a croquet willed with cream cheese and I think eggplant. Afterwards when we visited the WC there was a great hand drier. It had a slot like a toaster. You put your hand into the slot for only a few seconds and when you removed them they were dry. After our lunch we had about 20 minutes left before our bus was to pick us up. It was during these 20 minutes that it started to rain very hard. I just stood under on overhang and waited for the dry bus.

The last stop of sightseeing was the Tokyo Metropoliant Government building. Up until about six months ago, this was the tallest building in Tokyo. There is an observation deck on the 45th floor. Before entering to go up we saw another impressive invention. There was a rack and you could put your umbrella in it and twill it around and it would come out dry. I think the sides were made of a shamee material. Any way the view from the top was much better than I thought it would be due to the rain. We could see in all directions. On the 45th floor was a gift shop where there was another neat invention. They were 500 piece jigsaw puzzles and the pieces were transparent. When you completed the puzzle, you could frame it and hand it in a window like a sun catcher.

We returned to our hotel about 3:30 and have 2 ½ hours before we go to our welcome dinner at a traditional Japanese restaurant. Here we will have to remove our shoes, sit on the floor ad use chopsticks. Fortunately I did a very smart think--- I put the plastic fork and knife from my fl8ght into my bag for emergencies.

I have talked to Pat on the Magic Jack. It works fine. If the time difference was not so bad, I could talk to him more often. Will finish the diary after dinner.