Sunday, October 17, 2010

Japan - first real day out

Well, first about our room. It is fairly small with two twin beds (which we are used to from traveling in Europe). Even though it is small in size, it comes complete with everything: TV, fridge, closet, very small table and one chair. There are robes and slippers to wear in the room, but Dave can't begin to put his robe on as it is much too small. The tub in the bathroom is tall, but it does include a shower which is great. The toilet is interesting as it is also a bidet so you have to be very careful which button you push! We had a buffet breakfast which was interesting. One end of the buffet was traditional Japanese food: miso soup, rice, vegetables, pickles, raw fish, herbed cheese squares, seaweed and the other was American: mini-omelets, rolls, cornflakes with either thin yogurt or thick soy milk (it was hard to tell) which had large chunks of fruit in it. It was fun to try some of the different choices. I managed to eat it all except for the cornflakes with my chopsticks! After our meeting, we took a train to the Imperial Palace. On the way to the station, Junko took us to the "Times Square of Tokyo". Crazy intersection of streets with huge changing bill board on the building. After our train ride, we visited several Buddhist temples and looked in on a cemetery. There were over 100 temples at one time in that immediate area, but the number is down to 70. Junko told us when she was explaining the cemetery that all Japanese people must be cremated. We also took a walk through an old section of the city nearby where the houses were made of wood and the screens separating the rooms were of paper. From there we went to lunch at a very nice restaurant: small salad with greens, onions and marinated fish, broiled fish with scalloped potatoes, carrot and a small cooked green pepper. Desert was a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. We then went to the National Museum of Tokyo where we visited the exhibit which explained the progression of Japanese art. It was very informative and visually appealing. I took quite a few photos of 16-17th century kimonos - beautiful! We took another train back to the hotel just to drop off our stuff and grab a jacket. We then took a train down to a man-made island in the bay so we could see the lights of the city at night. Part of the train ride was on a traditional train and the second part was on a remote controlled one - no driver at all! Lovely sight of the Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower and a small rendition of the Statue of Liberty which was a gift from France to Japan. We had dinner in a small restaurant which cooked Japanese style pancakes at an hibachi in the center of the table. One was with vegetables, beef and noodles and the other was just the vegetables. We also had a portion of noodles with cabbage and soy beans. Everything was quite tasty, but some of us could have done without the sauce which was combination of mayo and a thick flavored brown sauce. The appetizers before dinner were quite good: small cukes with sesame seeds and young soybeans. The train we took back was interesting as we traveled under the bay in a tunnel instead of on the bridge. We walked across to a convenience store just to look around. One of the items for sale was a bag of almonds with fish. Kelly seems interested in trying this so we will buy a bag tomorrow - Junko says it is good. We are now back in the hotel and will be going to bed soon as we still haven't caught up with the jet-lag. Tomorrow were are going to the other side of Japan to see the giant Buddha and walk through a park. Will try to publish some pix tomorrow.

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