The flight went well, I only thought I was going to die once, and that was only for about ten minutes, a rough patch midway between Perth and Hong Kong. We had a bit of trouble at honkers, just after passing through the immigration check point, I discovered I had lost my glasses, and with little time to get to our next exit gate, I had to return there and try to find them. There was only one way back, down an upwards running escalator, so this poor old 69 year old had to race down it, and by good fortune one of the surprised Chinese officials down there found them!
Tokyo has surprised us from the very start, at the airport, just how well organised everything is, how clean, how friendly the people are. I don't know why, but I think we expected a fair amount of seriousness and scowling, instead there was smiling and good humour. The traffic control has surprised us as well, for a huge city, drivers seem very well behaved, and traffic is not as heavy as you'd expect.
We went for a guided tour on the first morning, saw such things as the Tokyo Tower,
the Meiji Shrine,
the Imperial Palace Gardens, (note the huge blocks so carefully aligned),
and ended up on the Ginza shopping district, where we bought lunch.
I had soba, which are buckwheat noodles, with vegetables in tempura, which was very good. We're trying to eat Japanese food as much as possible, but it's not that easy, because the menu displays are mostly in Japanese, and even with pictures it's difficult to work out what you're getting.
Next day we went to the famous seaside town Kamakura, where we visited a number of shrines, in particular the
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine,
the Hokoko-ji Temple, with its fantastic bamboo garden,
the Great Buddha,
and the Hasadera Temple.
I hope I got all the names right, after a while sight seeing, especially shrines, although they are unique, there are a lot of similarities!
Tokyo has surprised us from the very start, at the airport, just how well organised everything is, how clean, how friendly the people are. I don't know why, but I think we expected a fair amount of seriousness and scowling, instead there was smiling and good humour. The traffic control has surprised us as well, for a huge city, drivers seem very well behaved, and traffic is not as heavy as you'd expect.
We went for a guided tour on the first morning, saw such things as the Tokyo Tower,
the Meiji Shrine,
and ended up on the Ginza shopping district, where we bought lunch.
I had soba, which are buckwheat noodles, with vegetables in tempura, which was very good. We're trying to eat Japanese food as much as possible, but it's not that easy, because the menu displays are mostly in Japanese, and even with pictures it's difficult to work out what you're getting.
Next day we went to the famous seaside town Kamakura, where we visited a number of shrines, in particular the
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine,
the Hokoko-ji Temple, with its fantastic bamboo garden,
the Great Buddha,
and the Hasadera Temple.
I hope I got all the names right, after a while sight seeing, especially shrines, although they are unique, there are a lot of similarities!
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