Tokyo is a beautiful and fascinating place. How such a large and populated city can stay so clean and friendly is incredible.

I am happy to see that biking is a popular form of transportation and the Japanese have mastered the art of pedaling. We witnessed women carrying two babies and groceries on one bicycle and men romantically taking ladies for a ride on the back of the bike sitting side saddle style. What is most impressive is that everyone leaves their beautiful bikes around town unlocked.

Today we visited the traditional neighborhood of Asakusa, known for its old-town atmosphere and Buddhist temples. I absolutely loved this area. This may sound cheesy, but I remember going to Disney's Epcot when I about 5 years old and was infatuated with the make-believe temples there. As the Asakusa Kannon Temple came into view, I had to fight the urge to run around the area like a little kid. It was breathtaking.

The temples had a few rituals that were really interesting. Before going into the temple, there was a firepit where people would wave smoke onto their bodies to ward off sickness, enhance beauty, or get rid of a few extra pounds: ) Other people poured water from an ornate fountain on both hands, which is said to clean ones soul. In one of the temples, I imitated others by picking up a box, shaking it and then flipping it over so that a chopstick with Japanese characters (also called kanji) came out of the box. We matched the kanji on our stick with one of the many drawers that contained small sheets of paper with fortunes on them. I was happy to get a "regular fortune," which said many things, but my favorite takeaways were: marriage and employment are both well and that starting a trip is well, with no harm. Awesome : )






Lunch was a fun experience - Jim and I picked a place where we went in and pointed to pictures. I tried to say "I'm a vegetarian," in Japanese, but I must not have nailed the pronunciation. I would up pulling out my small trusty Tokyo guidebook and pointing to the phrase. That seemed to do the trick - we picked out two dishes that we weren't quite sure what they were, but it was an absolutely delicious lunch.

We ended the day eating dinner with Yuju and Maho and two of their friends. They are both making our stay so pleasant. We are staying at Yuju's wonderful place (which we will have to dedicate a blog to) and we're really enjoying spending time with them.