Tokyo!

I probably should post more often while we're here or I'll get lost in the photos that we take every day. Everywhere you go, there is something photo worthy. So let me start at the beginning, we flew to Seattle a day early, spent the day and night with Ira's buddy Justin and then had barely a 10 hour flight from Seattle to Tokyo, which wasn't bad. We both fell asleep almost immediately and then stayed awake the rest of the flight. We arrived in Tokyo mid afternoon and needed to stay awake so after checking in to the hotel, we went for a brisk walk.

A park in the city

It was about -4℃ with a bit of a wind. We were bundled up for it, but there was a bridal couple getting photos taken. I can't imagine how cold she must have been.

Starbucks

This was so pretty, all lit up in the night. It's the prettiest Starbucks I've ever seen.

Giant City by Luigi Mainali (Italian)

He kinda looks like a sparkly Snoopy, right?

Lately I've been appreciating the architecture of staircases, like the one in the museum in Edmonton. I thought this one was pretty cool in the lobby of the office building attached to our hotel.


We grabbed a few snacks at the 7-11, they are really big in Japan and carry everything you could conceive of needing. Plus they have ATMs which is super convenient for getting cash. We made it till 8pm which was pretty good and slept through the night, which was awesome!

In the morning we went back to the park and beyond to see the Imperial Palace. It wasn't open so we just walked the perimeter. It was still pretty cool though.


It's interesting to see the ancient construction against the modern skyscrapers.


The stone wall construction is so precise! By then it was time to head back to the hotel as we had reservations on the bullet train to Kyoto to meet up with our tour.

The bullet train arrived about 10 minutes early. Before we were allowed to board they had a cleaning staff jump in, switch the direction of the seats, vacuum and pick up the trash. It left precisely at the scheduled time. In 2 hours and 15 minutes we were in Kyoto. This was the best shot of Mount Fuji I was able to manage. The train was so fast!

Mount Fuji

After we checked in, we went for a walk to stay awake. Our friend David (Kobayashi's dad) didn't sleep as well as we did, so he needed to stay up to try to get on schedule. You can't throw a stick without hitting a temple in Kyoto. Here are a few of the highlights on our random walk.

Karamon Gate



I'm not sure if you can see the 3D of the side panels in this 2D picture. You'll have to take my word for it that they were spectacular.

Gate to Founders Hall


Look at this tree in the courtyard of the hall. This is a single tree who's branches are so heavy, they have to be propped up to keep from breaking off. This is not going to be the last picture of a tree you'll be seeing, so be forewarned!

That's it for now. Stay tuned for Day 1 of the tour, it was jam-packed.

A dopo!






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