Tomorrow is our last day in Japan. A very short stay! Too short of a stay, but still rewarding. Our guide Haru introduced us to Japanese culture and train travel. it would have been boggling to get thru all the train stations and trains without her. We had a good breakfast at the hotel, many options. Many Japanese options like miso soup, pork dumplings, goyza, mackerel, plum sauce, bean curd… I had bacon, eggs, rolls. somehow Japanese options do not taste as good with coffee. It rained most of the day, supposedly the rainy season is June but I guess this is monsoon season. We made it to an open fish market which was fascinating. We saw the Japanese version of the Statue of Liberty and had a traditional Japanese lunch, Soba noodles, Miso soup, and Donburi bowls of shrimp and vegetable tempura. We saw a huge statue of a Transformer, Dumdum? that may not be right! Visited the Ota museum, filled with 1800’s master woodblock works of daily life in the Edo period. Visited Harajuku, a young peoples area of fashion trends/styles. we saw coffee shops where there was an entrance fee that entitled you to pet dogs, cats and in one, otters, while you were there! Very elaborate sweets our guide kept trying to get us to buy, ice cream cones with a large cloud of cotton candy around the cone, or elaborately decorated crepes with fruits and sauces. Walked to the Meiji Shrine, which was built in honor of a modernist emperor of the 19th century. There are many traditions that involve helping your fate in life… for a few yen. You can buy Ema’s which you write a wish on and hang up in public. They also had many small packages of various sizes that you can purchase for various enhancements, like finding the right partner, scoring well on the entrance exams, and making lots of money to name a few. We ended the night first on top of the Park Hyatt for some Gin & Tonics with panoramic views of the city. We then found a small Sushi restaurant where Katie kept saying yum and humming.
