Jun 23 - First Day in Tokyo

Having slept really well, I got up quite early to watch some of the world cup games, I was hoping that US would beat Ghana and make it to the next round, as Italy had taken care of business for them, but that was not to be as the Black Stars were way to quick for them. The game between Australia vs. Czech was amazing and I ended up watching that rather than to see Brazil really drub Japan. After the games it was quick shower and down to the concierge to plan my day. She suggested the Dynamic Tokyo, which basically covered most of the stuff and was for the whole day. I hopped on a taxi from the hotel to head to the Hamamatsucho Bus Terminal and I was on my way exploring Tokyo.

First stop of the day was the Tokyo Tower from where you can get some really nice panoramic views of the city, on a clear day you can even see Mt. Fuji, no I didn’t have such luck it was overcast all I captured was a picture of the direction of Mt. Fuji. From there we headed to for a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony at the “Happo-en” Japanese Garden. This was really an interesting experience as there is so much finesse in whole ceremony.  As most of you know I don’t drink any type of Tea ( or coffee, mocha, latté and the cousins in that family…), I ended up sitting (without knowing) on the seat which happened to be the head of ceremony (guest of honor). This I did not know till, the tea was made and the lady headed my way with big bowl of Green Tea, and they really want you take big sip and make slurping sound. Well thinking very quickly I said, how can I have tea, which a such beautiful lady sitting next to me (Ellen from New York….68 years), it would be my honor if she took the first bowl….whew…I had really dogged a big one here, well after Ellen had drank the first bowl, we were all given bowls of tea and I someone managed to slip out without taking a sip :-).  From the gardens we made our way to for our lunch at “Ghinzan-so” garden restaurant for some nice Teriyaki (Vegetarian for me….there was no fish unfortunately). After lunch it was quick stroll through the garden to look at some of the Bonsai Trees and Three Story pagoda which amazingly was built without using a single nail, as you can see in the picture behind me.

The next 30 min’s were driving through different parts of the city from the National Diet Building to the Japanese Parliament, before we ended up at Imperial Palace. This is also a great time to tell you a bit about our tour guide. This is the funniest Japanese I have ever come across and I have met a few over the years.I guess he gets to practice his jokes on a daily basis with all the tours of the city. He totally made the trip a lot of fun and interesting. Anyway having reached the palace I availed the quick photo opportunity at the palace before we headed to the Sumida River Cruise which was eventually going to take us to Asakusa Kannon Temple. As I sat on the boat for the cruise the sun finally was making it’s way through the overcast skies and timing could not have been perfect to enjoy the boat ride. Sumida River Cruise’s main highlight was the 13 different bridges the boat passes under before reaching Kaminarimon the main gate to the temple. Making my way through the main gate one cannot miss the Nakamise Shopping Arcade which is along the way to the main temple hall. Here one can buy souvenir’s and other stuff, so I decided to look for the fridge magnets that I have been picking up on the way from the other cities. To my amazement I could not find a single shop in the whole Arcade with magnets, so I figured maybe I did not look hard enough so I went a second time around to look for them, nope no luck again. Having given up hope finding any magnets I made way to the main temple. The first thing that strikes one at entrance is Incense Burner. This is constantly surrounded by people wafting the smoke over them to keep them healthy. Making sure I followed the tradition of the visitors at the temple, I took some smoke over my freshly shaved head and wished that I could grow my hair back :-). After spending the next hour in and around the area, I eventually made it back to my bus where, before driving to my hotel in Ginza we stopped at the Hanazono Shrine, where it was quick in and out of the temple.

It was almost 5:30 and Ichiro was going to meet my hotel at 6:00 pm for dinner, so I got dropped off at my hotel rather then to make it with tour to the Ginza shopping district. Met Ichiro in the lobby and we took the subway to our restaurant “Sorano-Niwa” a traditional Japanese Tofu place. Yes Tofu!!, much to Ichiro's delight, he was so glad that I ate Tofu, as Rika had told him I was vegetarian (go figure that…she has only known me since 1998 :-), as he did not like vegetables just like me. After a dinner Ichiro took me to Shibuya, an essential place to visit in Tokyo. This place is just electric and Friday night in this area really crazy. Mostly this area is a hang-out for teenagers. The place is full of different stores, bars, clubs and places to eat. Having found out that Ichiro had never had Haagen-Dazz’s Beligan Choclate ever before, we headed to give him his first experience. Having indulged in some nice ice cream, I asked Ichiro if he could help me find some magnets and postcards, can you believe it we went around in the whole area and I could not find a single place with magnets or post cards. I see a great business opportunity here sell some magnets in Tokyo :-) Ichiro you up for it? Exhausted from our unsuccessful search we decided to call it a night and headed to my hotel on the subway. Reaching our stop, Ichiro forgot the way to our hotel so he said no worries, I have GPS on my phone, let me punch in the address and we will be there in no time. Please note from the time he entered the address in his phone to time we got our hotel it was good 45 min, and in the end we were no more than 10 min’s walk away. I blame the delay on user error….not on the service on the phone. It had been a long day and we decided to meet up in the morning for some more sight seeing and maybe to find those magnets.