Konichiwa! Japan Day 1 (Pictures to come)

Our first day in Tokyo had a jam-packed itinerary. First, we headed over to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. This was a very cool museum all about the history of Tokyo shown through life size replicas of houses, art from different periods, and artifacts. It had some interested wording about how World War II began and several interesting artifacts and videos on how people from Tokyo experienced the war.

Then we went to the Nezu museum. It is a small art museum that had a special exhibit on Buddhist mandalas which were beautiful, but the highlight of the museum is it's garden. It has a big Japanese garden full of wandering paths, Buddhist statues, tea houses, and koi ponds.

As we left the Nezu museum, it was starting to rain a bit, which was too bad because out next two stops were gardens. So, we bought an umbrella in a convenience store (they are just as big here as 7-11 is in Taiwan, but they have several different companies).  We took the metro to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. The metro system here is really great. It's a little overwhelming at first, because there are so many lines and they are run by several different companies, but the trains are fast, clean, timely, reliable, and easy to follow once you get used to the map.

The Shinjuku Gyoen garden was really beautiful. It rained for the first 30 minutes that we were there, but we still loved it. It was divided into three large sections: a traditional Japanese garden (with a mother and child forest and beautiful ponds with Japanese bridges), an English Landscape garden (basically a big huge open grassy area), and a French garden (complete with a rose garden and two avenues of sycamore trees which felt just like Paris.)

Then we headed over to the Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Park. The Meiji shrine is dedicated to the Emperor and Empress who died in 1912 and 1914. They were so beloved by the people of Japan, that the Japanese decided to construct a forest and shrine to their honor. Over 100,000 trees were donated from across Japan and people volunteered to plant them and create a man-made huge forest in the middle of the city. This isn't like an ordinary city park with some large grassy areas and clearly visible skyscrapers around it; all you can see any way you look is trees 100 ft tall.

Then we went to Yoyogi Park where some interesting characters can be found (we saw a group of Japanese people in leather jackets and pompadours rocking out to some Elvis). Then we got back on the train and went to Roppongi for dinner of ramen, pan-fried dumplings and rice before heading back to the hotel. Also, Tom got us a really nice hotel, so good job Tom! 

Unexpectedly interesting lesson from our trip: The Japanese people are super nice and helpful! We often stopped to look at our map and on two separate occasions, people came up to us and asked in very good English if we needed any help. Even though we weren't really lost, they showed us where we needed to go on the map or walked with us to make sure we got there.

Also, we are currently on the hunt for the many different flavored Kit Kats that are rumored to be popular in Japan, but so far ave only found green tea flavored ones. The search continues.