First we had a delightful complementary buffet breakfast at ANA Intercontinental. Great view from our table. After breakfast we took a short walk outside in the vicinity of the hotel. It wasn’t raining yet. Unique window cleaning method!
Forecast called for clouds. What we got was a steady light rain. We had a walking tour scheduled with Kyoko Kitagawa of Chris Rowthorn Tours. Rain be damned, we went ahead as scheduled. Kyoko met us at our hotel. We set off for a subway ride on Tokyo’s Metro which has 14 different lines. Riding the Metro was fun. Our first stop was at Ueno Park where we had a nice walkabout. See the famous moon pine?
The highlight in Ueno Park is the Ueno Toshogu, which is the Tokugawas Shogunate‘s Golden Mausoleum, a Shinto shrine. The Sacred Tree is over 600 years old.
After another Metro ride, we stopped for lunch at a very small family run restaurant. Maybe eight tables. We all had some sort of ramen or noodles accompanied by draft Asahi beer. Yummy. Here’s mine:
Next we visited the Asakura Museum in the Yanaka District, an area of Tokyo undamaged during WWII. Fumio Asakura was famous for his sculptures of cats. From the museum there was a view of the Sky Tree tower through the rain and fog. You could barely see it. The museum is where he used to live. No shoes allowed in the museum. And there were only certain round blue mats from which you were allowed to take photographs. There was an excellent (long) video that showed the tedious process of how the cat sculptures were created. The one created in the video is the actual one in the next to last photo in the gallery below.
Then we had a walkabout in the traditional Yanaka District with its small food markets and shops. By now it was raining pretty steadily. Time to call it a day.
Then it was back on the Metro to return to the hotel to say goodbye to Kyoko (who was delightful). Uncharacteristically, we decided to stay in tonight and skip dinner. We did share a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread.
Tomorrow will be a long day. Checkout at 11:00 am. Then we have to kill time until our ride to Haneda Airport and our 9:55 pm Delta One flight to Honolulu. Then we have the red eye night flight – business class with lay flat seat, thank God (or maybe Buddha) – that arrives in Honolulu around 10 am the same day that we leave (the dreaded International Date Line again). So the next post will not be until we are comfortably checked in at the Royal Hawaiian.
How nice to have a personal tour guide. And what a lot of sights to see. Love the cat museum. I can understand why you stayed in – – a very busy day with another one tomorrow.
Just like Sue wrote, smart to get a guide. Kyoko looked delightful. So much to see in that city. Safe travels to Hawaii. Have some sweet pineapple and chocolate covered macadamias for me. What about you Sue? All good with everyone. XO
Me too, Cindy. Pineapple and chocolate covered macadamias sound good. Right after the luau!!