Tokyo, Japan, January 18, 2020

This is our first day in Tokyo. The beginning of the story.

Friday, January 18, 2020, From My Vacation Journal

At the hotel was minestrone soup, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and little cocktail wieners. You could pick your beverage like, straight Tea, (spelled wrong) or café latte, hot or cold, or milk green tea. We talked with a young woman we met in the hostel who travels without her husband for 3 months a year. She was from Toronto, an international tax collector, who was a charming and interesting lady. She came out as we were leaving and asked to take a picture with us. What a lovely idea!

It was raining and cold on this day. Umbrellas. I had read in the travel sites that you could borrow them from the convenience stores, but... How do you know which ones you can borrow? We took the subway to Ueno Park. Paul bought his temple book and got his first stamp in the temple in Ueno Park.

Once upon a time there was a famous temple called Kan’ei-ji, whose 30-something buildings once covered the whole Ueno area and more. Once a burial temple for the Tokugawa Shogunate, it was a big deal in its day until the shogunate fell and most of the temple was destroyed in the process.  The five-storied pagoda and Ueno Toshogu Shrine remain standing and made a photo opportunity for the rainy day. It was cold, and we were jet lagged, but it was Japan and beautiful.

We spent a good amount of time in the Tokyo National Museum, where I had visited 18 years ago. It was as beautiful as I remembered.

Some of our favorite art pieces were textiles.