Asakusa, Japan

Today we hung out with Sachiko and Aoi (Aoi went to Creekside her 3rd grade year with Courtney). Sachiko was a wiz tourguide as we jumped the train to Tokyo and checked out Asakusa. The train (like a bullet train) was smooth as silk and clean and fancy. It was practically silient too! Sachiko said it was one of the newer trains. This stained glass dragon is back lit and creates a gorgeous image along the train station wall.

Japan is the cleanest city I've ever been in. We wondered how high the income taxes are here to pay for the cleanliness. The Sekiyama's lent us some warm jackets to wear today because it was the coldest day in the winter here in Japan! Huge snowflakes fell from the usually blue sky. So we had a rare day in Tokyo.

We enjoyed Asakusa market and temple (you can see the gate in thie picture...behind Rusty is an incense well where you can swaft the smoke over your body to cure you of any ailment.) We went to the well and then up to the temple where I am standing to take the picture. Opposite to the sucess of the well all four kids played their fortune at the temple receiving only bad luck!! YIKES! Sachiko couldn't believe it, becuase bad luck is so rare!!! LUCKILY there was a place to tie the bad luck papers to release them away from us.

We purchased some more souveniers and ate a delicious Japanese lunch before heading to a museum to learn the fascinating history of the Edo era with the Shogun. We also checked out the fire wars exhibit which was just as devastating as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The picture below shows original transportation.

We tailored our touring to accomodate the freezing temperatures. Unfortunately the Emperor's garden was closed on Fridays, but the winter cold wouldn't showcase the garden in best form anyhow.

We joined Shoyushi and Nobu for dinner at an all you can eat family restaurant close to their home. ALL YOU CAN EAT sushi etc!!! We were in heaven and ate more for dinner that we've eaten in 30 days!

Tomorrow we zip to one more market before heading down to Narita to catch our flight home. We've learned so much and thank goodess we've kept our journals filled with details so we can remember it all!

Oh did you know that Chinese characters and Japanese characters are the same, but their pronuciation is completely different? That means that when talking they cannot understand eachother , but they can write each other and completely understand? Fascinating fact.

See you all soon! TTFN (as Tigger says...everyone loves Pooh, Hello Kitty, and Disney in this country...many elements of cuteness everywhere).

Lots of love!