First Day on Tour

Saturday, October 16^th

We still haven’t adjusted to the time change – I was awake at 3am – yuk! So we got our bags ready for tomorrow – we will only be taking an overnight bag for the two nights that we are in Hakone.

We met the whole group today and there are 15 of us. It seems like a nice group. We had a short city tour first heading to the Imperial Palace area where we got out and walked over the get a glimpse of it from the Nijubashi – the famous double arch stone bridge.

Next we headed to Senso-ji Temple – it is Tokyo’s most sacred and spectacular temple. It also has a beautiful Five- Story Pagoda. People take their children at ages 3, 5 and 7 to be blessed at the Shinto Shrine – we got some pictures of a beautiful family there in their traditional clothes.

Then it was time for “Discoveries” – first, we were taken to a grocery store which was very interesting. Then we had a couple of hours to roam around the Ginza shopping area which is very, very nice with amazing department stores. They make Harrods look a little dowdy in comparison. The food halls are magnificent – fruit can be individually wrapped etc.

Lucy, our guide, says Tokyo is known as a city of 4 C’s – construction, congestion, confusion, and contradiction. We added a 5^th – cleanliness – it is the cleanest city we have ever seen!

Tonight we have our “Welcome Dinner” and then tomorrow we are out of Tokyo! We probably won’t have internet connections for a couple of days. So sayonara for now!