JET LAG!!! Ugh!
We went to bed early Sunday night because I just ran out of energy and go! But, of course, we woke up early, 0300 local. So, we caught up on things, unpacked a bit more and got ready for the day.
This nice bust of President Reagan is in front of the elevators. My Sweetheart makes him look good!
This is a Mikoshi replica. A full-sized one is carried around in a wild, happy harvest celebration in late September. We will be missing the local one here because we leave this coming Sunday to go to Seoul. But, we may be lucky to see a harvest celebration there in Korea during their Chusok.
This is our breakfast which is part of the program. The tour includes all breakfasts and two dinners. Lunch and other dinners are on our own. The New Sanno has a nice breakfast buffet that had lots of good things, from omelets on order, scrambled eggs, bacon, French toast, and many other delicious choices. We'll need a good breakfast each day to keep up with all the walking!
The New Sanno Hotel logo and my Darling!
From this
to this... quite a change!
A look at the indoor pool area
Our medium size tour bus... we have just 11 other tour folks this time, 13 total, with one gentleman's wife not here due to personal reasons, but he wanted to come...
Today we went to the Meiji Gardens which is a national park and memorial shrine to the late Emperor Meiji, who ruled from 1867 to 1912. He led Japan's transition and modernization from an agrarian, feudal system to a modern, industrialized nation during his 45-year reign. His son, Emperor Hirohito was the titular head of the Japanese nation that fought the WWII.
My Sweetheart in front of the torii gate that leads to the memorial hall/shrine/temple to Emperor Meiji. The torii gate is uniquely Japanese and is a vital symbol in Shintoism, a fundamental foundation of the Japanese culture, mores, norms, and behaviors.
Adriana in front of the sake barrels that were given for the dedication of the garden.
Our small group on this tour... our band of travelers! We're getting to know most of them, most of whom served in the great U. S. military in its several branches... Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and DoD civilians. Our tour guide is on the left with the red flag!
My darling in front of the Shinto shrine that venerates the vital rains so needed for rice production, the very foundation of most Asian nations.
In front of the inner torii gate that leads to the memorial shrine,
This is the "wishing, prayers tree" where you can place a prayer, wish. There are thousands here...
A long pathway along to and from the shrine,
After the Meiji memorial, we were escorted to the Imperial Palace area. We are not allowed on the actual grounds, but around the palace grounds, there are several people's parks where we visited.
One of the outer buildings that stand at the walls that surround the palace. The whole complex is surrounded by a 100-foot wide moat. This is both symbolic separation of the emperor from the people but also served as a defensive measure to protect the emperor.
There is a visitor's center that explains the history, function and other aspects of the imperial palace complex and surrounding areas.
Adriana in front of a statue dedicated to one of the greatest samurai warriors, showing the protypical armor, weapons, war horse and sense of honor that the samurai lived by... bushido.
A picture of the moat...
We then went to the GINZA district, the "Rodeo Drive" of Tokyo... incredible wealth and prosperity, conspicuous consumption, and commericialism at it's zenith are all here in the Ginza district...
Adriana and I went to the Ginza Six building to have a light lunch...
We both had the Soba noodles and tempura combo for lunch. This was not cheap, but keep in mind that we were in Ginza where one square meter of land is price over $3,000,000.00! Per square meter!!! Not cheap, not easy!
This shows 8,000 yen. It's about 100 yen to one U. S. dollar, so that 1,000 yen is about $10.00 U.S.
Can you figure how much lunch was for us? Wow!
After lunch, we had about 45 minutes to self explore the Ginza area... total conspicuous consumption with some jewelry nearly a million dollar, a watch for over 3 million dollars, and all of the big names represented there... Prada, Fendi, YSL, Gucci, and whoever you think is a top name... yep, they're here if they are anybody...
The National Kabuki Theater is here in the Ginza. It is the Japanese opera equivalent, with all of the players must be male, even in the female roles... not "metoo" here!
Adriana in front of the UNI QLO store. A new hot fashion name in Japan. You'll see it more and more in the USA...
If you look closely you can see "Ginza 6" in that street sign.
So, that was it. We returned to the hotel for a short break before the "Welcome Dinner" in their elegant Ellington room.
OK, that's it for today. Look for more tomorrow. We are headed to the Tokyo Sky Tower and other commercial areas.
Stay healthy, happy, and be filled with God's love!
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