East Tokyo

Saturday, 10/5

Add you can see, I'm running a little behind posting blog entries. Our schedule has been full with sightseeing. Today is mostly a travel day so I'll try to catch up.

On Thursday we took a water taxi to Asakusa. It was a nice change of transportation mode to travel by water after a couple days of riding the rails of Tokyo. 

This is one of 12 dinner theater cruise boats. This one is built in the style of Tokunaga in the Edo Period.

Sliding water gates like this are spaced along the banks. In case of typhoons with storm surges, they can be lowered to block the rising water. 

There are many examples of futuristic architecture. From bridges like this to new buildings, we saw a thriving, and always changing city. 

Bullet train style on the water. Maybe not quite as fast. 

Kaminarimon, Thunder Gate to the famous Nakamise Shopping street. Actually it's an area of shopping streets. Lots of things to buy and lots of shoppers. They were mostly tourists with many foreigners from around the world. 

Sensoji Temple.

There were many things to admire but these intricately carved panels caught my eye.

We also toured Shibamata and Taishakuten Temple. 

There are small gardens wherever there is space. Even where the earth is covered, people put out greenery in pots.

Last stop for today was the Tokyo Skytree. It is the tallest freestanding tower (not atop a building) in the world. 

After riding the high-speed elevator up we took in the sights and made out way down three floors through ample opportunities to spend some yen. 

I didn't go out on the glass floor for a photo op. I did that last we were here and I didn't enjoy it. A few years back we visited the CN Tower in Toronto and I didn't like being out on that glass floor either.  Don't think my body would react differently today. 

Part of the group went to the Soramachi Shopping Mall. Still fighting some jetlag, we caught the subway back to Shinagawa for dinner and recuperation.