[Day 1], [Day 2], [Day 3], [Day 4], [Day 5]

We woke up at a modestly early hour. About 10! I had woken up earlier, but fell back asleep. We stumbled out of bed and began our day by going over to the Government Building and going up to the observation deck and looking out over Tokyo. It was overcast and cool, as was every day. Outside of Gov't Building View from inside of Building

Next we wandered over to the parks. There are several large parks in Tokyo. I am sure on a sunny day, they are crowded. But we were the only ones in them now. We checked out several of them. We also swung by some Shinto temples which were really neat. They say in Japan, "Be born a Shinto and die a Buddhist". We saw a Japanese wedding as well. Well, the picture part. The groom was dressed in traditional Japanese attire and the woman was wearing a western wedding gown. Park next to Gov't Building Shinto Temple Shinto Arch More Shinto Stuff

After walking through several parks, we swung by the baseball stadium, thinking it would be neat to see it.  I had just read that some team in baseball had signed the Japanese Greg Maddux.  Somebody really ought to help translate some of their stuff.  Check out the sign we saw at the stadium. Sign at Stadium

Now it was time to check out the Emperor's Palace.  The palace itself isn't open but one day of year and that is the Emperor's birthday, which is Dec 23rd.  But the grounds are open to the public for free.  You just need to get this plastic domino looking thing and return it when you leave.  We wandered around the grounds.  It was nice, and again, we were the only people there! Palace Grounds, part 1 Palace Grounds, part 2 Palace Grounds, part 3 Palace Grounds, part 4

From here, we continued to the electronics district. We took the subway part way. As with many large, non-American cities, the subway system is excellent. Ok, I suppose New York and Boston have a nice ones, but LA doesn't! We wandered around the electronics district which is huge, I think. Many stores with stuff.  We walked through many stores and along the way checked out the latest news on the internet.  Even departments stores have computers hooked up to the internet for people to use.  So we checked out email.  But it was trying to find a computer with a usable keyboard that was an issue.  Some computers were configured for the Japanese character set and when we typed, would produce Japanese characters.  That provided some amusement.  Trying to IM was fun because once you got the keyboard in Japanese mode, all the IM you typed was garbage.

I was starting to get hungry around this time.  We walked around a lot of places to look for food.  Tam likes to see what every restaurant has to offer.  Which is fine, but when I start to get hungry, yikes, I start to get hungry.  So while walking underneath the train tracks, a gentleman at this restaurant motioned for us.  I was hesitant at first and we initially continued walking onward, but Tam said to go for it.  So we did.  We ate Yakitori underneath train tracks!  Yup, that is right, literally under the train.  You would feel it rumble by.  As we ate dinner, we saw these Japanese males leaving and one guy fell.  The unique part about his falling, other than he was drunk, was that is appeared to go in slow motion.  It was as if he was trying really hard not to fall and was stiffening his muscles as he went down.  In the Japanese culture, it is quite common for male colleagues to go out after work and drink and socialize and release stress from work.  Many of the restaurants were quite full.  This time, we enjoyed some Asahi beer.   Under the train tracks

On to Day 3 of our travels.

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