Asia trip Day 27 - in Tokyo

Friday March 24

Today is one of the two full days we have here. We had inquired yesterday about tours but it all seems to be so complicated here in Japan. Today looked like the better weather of the two days, but The Mt Fuji tour was not available on Friday etc etc. Always issues.

So, guesss what? We saw Mt Fuji, ha-ha. From the lobby window on floor 25 there it was. Of course we have more photos but these two will do. 

From what we heard most often it is clear in the morning and about by lunch time it disappears. 

Time to have a little breakfast. Actually, we already had some coffee in the room. Remember those filter coffee throw-aways we had used yesterday? We had not thrown them away and just for fun I had tried to pour some boiling water on them again. Ha-ha, James thought it tasted better than the first time.

But we wanted a little something so we went to Tully's Coffee (which we had already passed a dozen times). 

After that we were ready to tackle the Imperial Palace. The grounds were supposed to be so pretty and then, of course, the Sakura (cherry blossoms).

Yes, we are walkers. It is fun. First along the train lines. Then across plazas between tall buildings. You get a good understanding of a city. Surprisingly not really that many tourists.

This plaza had a flower statue in the middle. One side had a pedestal you should stand on for somebody to take your photo. Ok, I did the standing. James took the photo. In another photo I threw a kiss, but you didn't really see it.

 

First we came to the Hibiya Park right next to (part off?) the Imperial Palace. James asked why our pansies didn't look like this.

Can't help it. I have a special fondness for camellias. 

Then we came to the right place to cross onto the Imperial Palace grounds. 

To be honest: that was a big disappointment. If I had paid for a tour, I would have liked to get my money back. Everything was closed. Something was prepared for tomorrow (?). 

We couldn't even go into the (supposedly) free East Garden. The Guards told us because it was Friday but who knows?

There was something going on but we could not understand it. Something with the translations. There was a 50 minutes "window" were you might get some tickets for a certain viewing in the garden later in the afternoon but you had to do it online. It sounded so complicated. We lost interest. 

We went "undergrounds" and actually decided to take a train back. A nice man helped us with the machine and we had the right amount of cash. We noticed that the credit cards don't seem to be used as much as in the USA. And deffinately not USA cash. 

I think the underground platforms are so super here. There is something like a half-wall/fence (whatever you call it) with sliding doors when a train has arrived. So safe!

Ha-ha, but finding your way out of the rabbit warren. On the other hand you see something nice like this stand-glass kind of window.

This is close to our hotel. We have gone past it a lot of times but finally decided it was worth a photo. It's some sort of landmark for us.

We had gone back to the hotel to change some clothing (the weather had changed) and get our passports. We needed them to get train passes for a certain time frame rather then buying a ticket one at a time. Should have done that right away. Oh well. 

Tourist tip: Get a 24, 48 or 72 hours train pass right away. Buying a single ticket is not that easy. We got them at an Information Office and you need to bring your passport. And they took a credit card.

We had wanted to go to our hotel room, get the passports and have lunch at this place at the bottom of the escalator. It had looked so good. No room in the inn. We continued to get our train passes. Information office now closed.

Goodness. We went further into the "rabbit warren" and found another of "those places". Nothing in English. No idea what it is even with photos. The girl might have understood chicken and we understood pork. The fun of traveling in a different country. 

Yes, we had a very nice lunch and it was reasonable. 

And we almost licked the platter clean.....

Back to the information office which was now open. The girl recognized us and was happy to see us. 

But we didn't use the 48 hours train passes for the rest of the day. The Hamarikyu Gardens were really in walking distance of our hotel. The only problem: how to get across the busy road. Japanese are so particular about overpasses and underpasses and with this wonderful net of train system it should be easy ... if you know where you are going and can read it.

This lead to another nice experience. We were still on the other side looking for a place to cross when we met 2 girls/young ladies. I asked and they said that they were going there too. They surgested we should join them. But it wasn't a minute until we found out that they didn't know either. I had to laugh and said that they may be should join us which they found funny too. 

I saw a security guard and asked him and he knew. No problem. We walked together and the 2 young ladies were delighted. 

When we came to the ticket office to pay the entry fee I saw "seniors" and said great, pointed to James to tell that he was 80 followed by the fact that I was 74. The reaction was precious. The lady at the counter was sweet too. It was such a nice interaction. 

And then there were cherry blossoms. Sakura!

I would have loved to know how old this tree was.

We had a map and wandered around into the direction of whatever interested us.  Some trees had sparcely blooms and others more. We were not even sure what some where but it didn't matter.

The camellias were stunning.

We liked the garden very much. It wasn't pristine but it didn't matter to us. Nature in front and modern buildings in the back. What a contrast. 

And a little bit of history here and there.

We had to get our umbrellas out several times. Just happy we had them with us. 

At this point the sign explained to us: "In the Edo period, this spot was used by successive shoguns when leaving and returning to the residence by boat. It looked like there was a canal and even a lock.

Loved the ponds and several wooden bridges. 

How this tree could still have that much green on it. The photo is not very good to tell but the trunk was almost hollow. 

At one point our backs where killing us but the Japanese benches are perfect to take care of that. This one was more like a platform and you could stretch out for a moment ... but no photo. Sorry.

This sign on one of the ponds is for our grandsons. Any of these creatures in the Virginia waters too?

Japanese style of a house used to be so different. 

And here is were we had entered the park. 

It really started raining hard but we knew our way. Once we were in the "rabbit warren" it was better. And we had to do a little shopping too.

Things looked different in the reception area when we got back. Do you remember this photo from this morning of Mt. Fuji?

This was 3:43 pm this afternoon. I tried very hard to do it from the exact same spot.

Make the best of the situation. We had tea/coffee in the lobby area. And of course we brought our cards. 

It was too early for a bit of dinner so we explored the hotel a bit more. It is a bit strange. There is one elevator which has only 3 buttons: 1 for ground floor, 3 for information and 25 for Park Hotel Tokyo reception. We think that some of the floors are used for offices.

You can go to level 2 on foot from 1 or 3. There was an exhibition from the Tokyo newspaper. Very interesting. 

This panel talked about the use of carrier pigeons. On October 30, 1947, five pigeons carried to Tokyo films of the closing ceremony of the 2nd National Athletic Meet held in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. "Kyodo 331" was one of them. With its four mates "Kyodo 331 was released in Kanazawa at 10:05 am and flew back to Tokyo. The bird covered the distance of 350 km in 4 hours 20 minutes. Information from what it carried was in the morning editions of the newspaper the following day.

The city looked different in the evening than during the day. I tried to get a nice photo but the large windows on the lobby floor all mirrored things inside the building. I tried several methods but finally took some from our room turning all lights inside the room off.

I could not take a photo of what they call here "the Kyoto Eifel Tower" (because it is not in view from our window) but it mirrored into the highrise next door with its yellow, orange, red colors. I thought that was funny.

Having had a good lunch meal we didn't want a big meal for dinner. We had window seats in the bar and had a salad. There was only one salad on the menu but it was good.

I had tried Sake the evening before (fruity Mimurosugi). On the next pages of the menu were choices of Japanese Shochu (not from rice like sake but made from sweet potato). We chose Tomino Hozan (yellow koji) with refind taste with crispiness and refreshing citrus aroma.

Ha-ha, but then you have to make more choices because it asks: on the rocks, with water, with hot water.

I decided on the rocks. Yup, it came in a glass with one of those (almost tennis ball size) balls of ice.

Interesting.

And then it was time to say "night, night". It was a good day. We were happy that we did our own thing and will do it again tomorrow.