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Our Round The World Trip home page is here.
Part One is here.

October 4 (Thursday, Day 3, Tokyo)

Woke up at 5 a.m. due to jet lag.  We had talked about going to Tsukiji Fish Market to see the $10,000 tunas being sold during the early morning daily auction, but decided to take it easy so instead we finished unpacking.  Snookums washed our travel clothes in the bathtub.  We went to breakfast in the Regency Club at 7 when it opened (which is very late for a US hotel).  After breakfast we walked to Snookums' old apartment at Azabu Terrace.

Snookums' old apartment

Vending machine

Green tea—now in aluminum bottles!

On the way Filbert needed to try out a vending machine for a beverage.  He selected a cute aluminum bottled drink and was pleasantly surprised to find it was iced coffee.  We both thought it would be tea.  He did the polite Japanese thing and drank it while standing next to the vending machine.  (Japanese don’t eat in public so the most they do is to eat or drink while next to the vending machine.)  We took the subway to Tokyo’s city hall to see Tokyo from the 45th floor observatory.

Tokyo from the city hall

Snookums and Arisa

Snookums called her executive assistant that she worked with while in Tokyo, Arisa-san.  We agreed to meet her at the City Hall observatory--which she had never been to before!  We had a great time seeing her again.  She brought us a very nice “welcome to Tokyo” bag of gifts that she put together.  They included a table runner, two small textiles (her words) for chopsticks, a miniature teapot and rice cooker set (for decoration) and two boxes of green tea.  They were wrapped beautifully and although we wasn’t expecting anything, we really wasn’t surprised knowing the Japanese culture.  We were just thankful that we had brought for Arisa a “gourmet” box of Kansas City manufactured Russell Stover candy as a gift in return!

Autumn sakura

Flowers in the garden

After spending a few minutes catching up, the three of us headed to Shinjuku National Garden to see the annual two-week chrysanthemum display.  But, we were dismayed to find out that it is scheduled from Nov. 1 – 15. But, we did get to see autumn sakura (cherry blossoms) which are rare in October.  Arisa-san had never been to Shinjuku National Garden and after Snookums scolded her, she told Arisa that she had to come back in November for the chrysanthemum show and she promised that she would.  Janet had seen it when she had lived in Tokyo, and was fascinated by the shapes in which they grew the chrysanthemums. 

Crow in the garden

We took a cab to Arisa’s favorite ramen restaurant for lunch.  It was a typical Japanese casual restaurant since it was just counter seating of about 15 seats.  It was packed but somehow when we got to the front of the line to order (you pay in advance), 3 seats next to each other emptied and we sat down.  Filbert HAD to have a beer with his ramen, which was way too spicy for Snookums and almost too spicy for Filbert.  It was good, though.

The trip continues in Part Three, here.
Part One is here.
Our Round The World Trip home page is here.