If I begin with a nice little smiley, will you all forgive me for taking so long to get back to this? (Gonna try it...here goes...):)
(Hoping that worked.)
Well, as you might have guessed, the last few days have been ridiculously busy. So let's see...over the past three days, I've seen:
- One Tokyo Okeyo-e Museum (try saying that five times
fast :p)
- One Harajuku Bazaar
- One Caligraphy master (assisted by three calligraphy
helpers)
- One rather unusual Tokyo jazz bar (Sam's)
- One gigantic water sculpture (O-torii Gate)
- One Shinto shrine (Itsukushima)
- One Buddist temple (Daishoin)
- One enormous pagoda (Five-storied Pagoda)
- One Japanese garden (Shukkeien)
- One Japanese University (Hiroshima University)
- Two a-bomb related museums (Fukuro-machi and Hiroshima Peace)
- Three a-bomb related landmarks (Hypocenter, A-bomb Dome, Children's Memorial)
- Seven momiji-manju cakes (yum)
- Bunches of crazy Harajuku kids
AND
- More tourist-loving deer than can be counted
Can you even imagine that I've had some time in between to sleep? :)
It has been a great few days. Lots of stories to tell...some rather surprising ($35 dinner consisting of 10 olives, 5 mushrooms and water) , some rather heart-warming (sharing momiji-manju cakes on the Miyajima Ferry; watching school children present paper cranes at the Children's Peace Memorial; observing the devastating after-effects of the atomic bomb through exhibits at the Peace Museum), and some enlightening (meeting with professors and students at Hiroshima University.) What an amazing time! :)
Oh the adventures that tomorrow is sure to bring! (Be on the lookout for the photo of me in a Samurai costume...that will let you know that I accomplished my goal!) Hiroshima Castle, here I come! :)
2 comments:
$35.00 for olives and mushrooms.. Um, I'll never complain about the prices at Tom Thumb again. it all sounds great. I wonder if people coming from Japan to Dallas would find our sites as captivating?
Pretty crazy, right? They were yummy and all, but even still...(I'm thinking perhaps the restaurant owner considered us all to be fat Americans. Perhaps he was doing his part to fight obesity. :p)
You know, I've also been wondering if the experience would be as captivating if the roles were reversed. Based on the attention we receive everywhere we go, I'm thinking it likely would have much less impact for a Japanese visitor to the United States. We stand out here. But in our country, it's not unusual to see people of Asian ethnicity.
Post a Comment