Tokyo Trip

Wow, so after a LONG delay I am finally going to write a post about my trip to Tokyo… :-) It seems like so long ago – and, in fact, it has already been a month since I went! I left Nagoya on Tuesday, August 8th and took the shinkansen to Tokyo. I arrived at around 9pm and met Sister Morinaga for the first time (yes, she’s a nun). She was SO sweet to invite me to stay with her at her niece’s house outside of Tokyo. The first day (Wednesday) Hitomi (the niece’s 14 year old daughter) chaperoned me all around Tokyo. First we went to Ueno, then Asakusa, then Ginza, then Roppongi, then Harajuku and finally passed thru Shinjuku to go back to the house utterly exhausted!!! Pics below…..

So, in case you missed it, the play by play for the first day’s adventure is in each thumbnail. Yes, you have to click on the picture if you want to get the story. :-P So, after a fantastic dinner cooked by my hosts and a good night’s rest I was off and running for my second day. I now felt MUCH more comfortable with the various strands of spaghetti strewn across the city that they affectionately refer to as a subway system. Especially since Hitomi had found me an english map of the subways. It had rained pretty much the whole first day (but we still walked around in it) but the second day was hot and muggy.

Sister Morinaga was on her way to Kamakura for a retreat so she and I left early in the morning and took a train towards Shinjuku. It was the local train so it stopped at every single stop and we leisurely made our way to Shinjuku. She doesn’t really leave the grounds of the convent other than for a retreat or to teach at another school so she went walking with me in Shinjuku. We went to the governement building and took in the panoramic views of the city (amazing!). And then we walked a bit in the park too. Then we parted ways at the subway station and I headed back to Ginza for one last walk around before heading back. I went to two small museums (one for calligraphy and the other for pottery). I had intended to go back to Ueno to see the museum but started feeling like crap in the afternoon (due to rain the previous day) so hopped on the shinkansen around 3pm and headed back to Nagoya. Pictures of my Thursday adventures:

And that’s the end of my Tokyo adventure. Of course I went back to Nagoya and had to work the next day. Had a fever and thought I was going to pass out at work…. And then I lost my voice over the next two days!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!! I’m sure I’ll go back and check out Tokyo again before I leave but in all honesty – it was depressing. So busy and claustrophobic. The only place people actually looked happy was in Harajuku. And that’s just cause they were rebelling. It was an interesting contrast to see so many labels and brand names and couture things and then to actually see homeless people in Japan. Felt a little like America. People weren’t really any friendlier than in Nagoya, though my Japanese skills don’t exactly help the situation very much.