ladynox25

After the long day at Kamakura, we decided to take it a little easier on Tuesday. By now, though, my legs and feet were getting used to all the walking, which was too bad, as we were going to leave soon, but oh well.

Tuesday morning we took a more leisurely breakfast before

hoya99 took me back to Ginza. We'd passed by there the first morning, but at the time, it was too early to see it in action. Tuesday being the Vernal Equinox, it was a holiday in Japan, and Ginza would come alive. And it was. Not packed with crowds to the point where you couldn't move, but bustling. Among all the action, the thing that stood out most to me was a lone figure standing in the shade of a building. A monk, a Buddhist monk, I think, standing there with his big hat hiding his face, holding a bowl in one hand with the other one raised in blessing, completely silent, just standing there as people walked by.

I'd seen a couple monks before, at various places, but to see one in Ginza, the shopping mecca of Tokyo, was somehow more ironic.

hoya99 and I walked up and down streets and wandered in and out of stores--mostly jewelry stores--and discussed jewelry. What I liked in the way of rings. What he liked in the way of watches and, perhaps, cufflinks. Mind you, these weren't any old jewelry stores. These were the Tokyo flagship stores of Tiffany, Cartier, and Mikimoto. We even found a DeBeers outlet in one of the department stores.

hoya99 offered, but I declined, an offer to go into Harry Winstons. Their security, even from the outside, just made me shiver.

Still, in a way, it was nice to pretend that I had several thousand dollars to spend on a piece of jewelry. And, by and large, the pieces were worth looking at. I do like looking at beautiful jewelry. By and by, we wandered down to the Imperial Hotel where we had a lunch date with

hoya99's parents--they had offered to treat us to lunch at a little French[1] place they liked to go to occasionally. To sum up that meal, I can only say "WOW". I've only had real French cuisine once before, when

belle_canto treated me to dinner on my 25th birthday. This was even better. Escargots as an appetizer, filet mignon topped with a piece of fried foie gras served with truffle sauce as an entree, and an exquisite dessert cart. Just...wow... *grin*

After that, we bid them farewell, with many thanks, and headed back to Ginza for a little more window-shopping, then hopped the train to Asakusa. Asakusa apparently used to be the site of the old Yoshiwara[2], but is now more famous for its Sensoji Temple. On the way to the temple we passed all sorts of gaily colored booths selling all sorts of things from kimonos (not real ones, alas) to swords, to chopsticks. At the temple, we bought some incense and burned it in the central burner. Standard practice is, you waft the smoke over the parts of you you want to be blessed or cured.

hoya99 admitted that sometimes you do see guys there wafting the smoke downward. I didn't see any, though.

After taking pictures of that, we headed to the Sumida River (Sumidagawa) and

hoya99 treated me to a boat ride downriver to Tokyo Bay as dusk was falling. My camera wasn't much use after dark, but the boat ride was lovely. The wind was brisk and clean and the lights of the city were gorgeous at night. At the far end, we boarded another train which took us back across the city to Ogikubo and chow mein, courtesy of

hoya99's dad. Now I know where he gets his cooking skills! *grin*

[1] Technically, it's Alsatian, for those who care about such things.
[2] The red light district in Tokyo during the Edo period.

To be continued...