My mom came to visit me for a couple of weeks, and we hit the ground running with a visit to Ginza on the day she arrived. This is the Tokyo International Forum, an ultra modern and huge conference hall. It's amazing that all this glass can withstand earthquakes.
The next day we went Odaiba...
... where we visited the Museum of Emerging Technology. This globe was very cool, as it rotated so you could see the Earth from many angles. It was made of pixel screens, so you could also see changing weather patterns.
There was also a demonstration of ASIMO, the robot. He could dance and kick a ball.
From Odaiba, we took a boat cruise to Asakusa.
The boat dropped us off in front of the giant beer glass building, Asashi (beer) headquarters. The tower on the left, Tokyo Skytree, will be the world's second tallest building when it's completed.
I've been to the Senso-ji Temple many times, but this was my first time to see it at night with all the lanterns lit up.
Even the side streets had some interesting light fixtures.
We had dinner at my favorite teppanyaki restaurant. It was actually Thanksgiving that day, so it wins as the most exotic Thanksgiving dinner ever.
Our last stop was Akihabara. Normally full of lights, it's still a bit dark after the earthquake.
We also took a day trip to Kawagoe. I noticed this unusual billboard near the station; the surrounding buildings made it look authentic. Japan is like 1960s America in so many ways.
We visited Kawagoe because of the Kawagoe Festival. The festival is over 360 years old, and involves lots of food stands, as well asportable shrines being dragged around the city.
In some places, there were stages set up with masked dancers. This drunk fool mask is very common.
Interesting festival food:
And of course we had to visit the garden of 500 statues of disciples of Buddha.
The festival was all over the city, but the main spot was the historic district. Here, giant floats were pulled through the streets by unenthusiastic festival volunteers.
These people don't look like they're having a lot of fun...
In the evening, the floats were brought together and the people on board had a masked dance off.
We stayed well into the evening, yet celebrations remained in full swing by the time we headed home.
I took a couple of days off, and we also visited Hakone, a mountain town famous for its hotsprings. It rests on lake Ashi, which has reconstructions of European ships offering cruises. In the background you can also see a red Torii gate on the water; we visited this temple on the last day.
Can you find the lookout?
We took a cable car up the mountain to see some sulfuric vents. They boiled eggs in the sulfuric water which then turned them black. The eggs tasted like regular hard boiled eggs, but if you eat one, you live 7 years longer. I ate 1.5.
We took the cable car down the other side of the mountain, and discovered this pretty garden surrounded by mountains and forest.
Local train filled with school girls. Cute!
Our amazing hotel restaurant, overlooking lake Ashi. The chandelier is made up of faces in fancy feathered hats.
The cedars around the hotel were extremely tall. They sheltered us from the outside world when we were hanging out in the outdoor hot spring (naked, as per tradition).
Our hotel had an interesting design; the rooms were built in a circle, so the walls were curved.
If you zoom in you can see the jagged peak of Mt. Fuji sticking out over the clouds. I've climbed that mountain but barely got a look at it.
On our last day in Hakone we visited that red temple with the torii gate on the water. The contrast of the red temple against the green hills was beautiful.
I think this might be a cemetery...
Back in Tokyo, we spent the evening in Shibuya.
Shibuya is full off these arcades with photo booths. They are really into glamour shots here - you can even rent costumes (including one of Buzz Lightyear, so not so glamorous).
The teddy bear store:
From Shibuya we walked to Omote-Sando. This neighborhood is very close to Shibuya, yet much more peaceful.
Another mandatory stop in Tokyo is my favorite garden, the Hama Detached Palace Garden. We had tea in the tea house in the middle of the pond.
The 300 year old pine:
I had a meeting in Shinjuku, so we headed over together and wandered around some of the side streets.
We also visited city hall, and went up to the lookout point.
Cute statue; the building to the left is my dentist.
Shinjuku is very close to Shibuya, so we had lunch there after my meeting. Shibuya crossing one more time, this time by day.
On our last night together in Tokyo, we went to the awesome ninja restaurant I visited on Valentine's day, Ninja-Asakusa. The menus were scrolls:
The blackened fish was presented as coals in this grill...
And this grapefruit crab came with a giant sword in it...
We also wandered around the neighborhood near the Ninja restaurant, and I was surprised to find out how close it was to some of the other neighborhoods I visited earlier. Tokyo has gotten much smaller since I got here; even though it's a huge city, it's totally manageable. We had a great time in Tokyo and I was sad to see my mom go home, so I'm really looking forward to leaving Japan in a few weeks.
