Day Nine

May 9th

Today we took a tour of Tokyo. Ken and Miko's daughter Madoka arranged a sightseeing tour in a bus for us. We went on the "Dynamic Tokyo" tour. She also arranged for us to have the front row seats on the bus, which made it easier for mom to get in and out of the bus on our many stops. Our tour guide was a Japanese girl named "Mai." Our bus driver was Mr. Kubo (no, not Bert, my brother-in-law!)

Our first stop was the Tokyo Tower which is about 1,000 feet high. It looks kinda like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I was reminded of the Space Needle as I walked around the observatory deck of the tower. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very clear day, but at least we got an idea of what Tokyo looks like from 1,000 feet up. Mai told us that Tokyo's population is around 12 million! 10% of the population of Japan lives within it's 700 square miles. That amounts to around 17,000 people per square mile! The people and the buildings are quite overwhelming to say the least.

Following the Tokyo Tower, we headed to the "Happoen" Garden where we experienced a tea ceremony. It was a condensed version, and definitely designed for tourists. But it was still good to get a sense of what a Japanese tea ceremony is like. We were told to expect the tea to be very bitter, but I didn't find it to be so. Maybe because I've been having quite a lot of green tea since being in Japan.

From the tea ceremony we headed to the the Chinsanzo Garden on the north side of Tokyo for our "barbecue" lunch. When I think of barbecue, I think of something we do outside over a grill, but this was done inside, with the food cooked dry on hot lava rock from Mt. Fuji. We were told that this is the only place they do this in Tokyo. We sat at a table with several others from our tour. We sat at a table with some college students from New York and their teacher. There were 15 of them all together in Japan for a couple weeks to learn more about Japan.

After lunch we headed to the Imperial Palace where the emperor of Japan and his wife live. The emperor is more of a figure head more than anything. We learned some about the "royal family" on our tour. The oldest son of the emperor and his wife have a daughter, but no son. It is rumored that the oldest son's wife is feeling so much pressure to have a son, that she is sick over it. The second oldest son and his wife did have a son recently, however, so at least there is a male heir now.

Since we were not able to go in to the Imperial Palace grounds (allowed only two times a year), mom and I hung around the bus and just relaxed before our next tour stop which was a cruise of the Sumidagawa River which goes through Tokyo.

The cruise was nice and relaxing. I was again overwhelmed with the density of the people and buildings. We saw some signs of homeless people along the river (visible by the blue tarp). Our tour guide told us that there are approximately 6,000 homeless people in Tokyo. We first saw them on the lawn not far from the Imperial Palace. They are allowed to be there during the day, but must leave at night. I wondered where they go to.

Our cruise up the river took us to our last stop of the day, the Sensoji Temple. To get to the temple, we passed through the Kaminarimon Gate. From the Kaminarimon Gate to the Sensoji Temple, we were faced with a myriad of tourists and shoppers perusing the many different kinds of shops on both sides of the narrow street. In front of the temple I noticed these small locker-like boxes which people put requests for good luck into (for a price, of course). I also noticed an area where incense was burning in front of the temple. People would come by the incense and "wave" the incense over their bodies. There was also a small fountain beside the incense which people drank from with ladles. It made me think of Jesus who said that He is the Living Water and the person that drinks of Him will never be thirsty again.

Our tour ended back at the bus terminal around 5:00 pm where Miko and Madoka picked us up. We spent the evening at Madoka's for a wonderful meal she prepared for us. She lives in a nice condominium not far from Ken and Miko. I was fascinated by her parking situation. She drives her car into a spot which is in between two other spots kind of like in an elevator. Another ingenious device the Japanese have come up with to be efficient with the space they have.