Had a lovely flight to Tokyo, watched 5 movies and thoroughly enjoyed Victoria and Abdul despite the mixed reviews.
Upon arrival, we had to walk through a heat sensor to see if we had a fever or not, then walked over a disinfectant pad, then on to have both our index fingers scanned and facial photos taken!! Apart from that customs was very orderly and quick. Met a few of the women on the tour and headed to our hotel. Narita Airport is in the country about an hour or more from Tokyo city, it was so lovely viewing the city at night with all the lights and reflections on the water.
Today we went to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. Our Guide, Toshi, said that there was an ambassador arriving today and they choose to be escorted to the Palace by horse and carriage, the men were practising while we were there, the horses were beautifully groomed and they kept going around in a circuit.
There were several ‘Poo sweepers’!
They have moles here!
I love how the stone walls around the gardens were irregular but still quite controlled, they trees and plants were groomed within an inch of their lives as well. The gardens would be absolutely spectacular in spring, there were heaps of azalea.
Next we went to a Boro museum, Boro is Japanese textiles that have been worn and mended over and over, they were works of art.
We then went on to the Senso-Ji Temple.
Apparently these girls aren’t Japanese they are from other Asian cultures and they come to the market area around the Temple and hire these outfits – our guide said quite disdainfully that the kimono they hire are polyester!
This area was inside the temple. You shake that silver box while making a wish, then you tip it upside down and through a very small hole a chop-stick like stick comes out with a symbol on it, you then match the symbol to one of the drawers and in the drawer is the answer to your wish or your fortune! The English translation is hilarious and we compared some of them, they say something very similar but in different ways
We had a lovely lunch and then headed of to the Nippori area of town which is the sewing district.
That is a live owl!! I have no idea what she is doing with it!
Saw some amazing sights in the sewing district, this girl was going to a shop called Tomato, it has several floors of fabrics etc (a wee bit like our spotlight, but way better).
The leather shops here was incredible, it went to make a purchase and the zip on my purse got stuck – bloody Trevor must be controlling the purse strings from home!! Rest assured I got it open and have sorted it so it doesn’t happen again.
We headed back to our hotel around 4pm it had started raining, everyone here has umbrellas and they are everywhere to buy. I had a wander around the lovely shops near the hotel like Tiffany, Salvatore Feragamo, Harry Winston etc. Went to an amazing stationery shop, they have such a selection and beautiful taste here.
We then went to an authentic Japanese restaurant down the road from our hotel, it was interesting getting into our seats, your legs and feet went into a ‘well’ under the table, hilarious but quite comfortable, the steamers were sitting on induction plates that heated while you sat there.
