March 13th--If we are honest with ourselves, exploring around Tokyo just doesn't have the same appeal as it did before our Kyoto trip. Before the trip, Tokyo was new and exciting and a window into the Japanese way of life. Seeing Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima allowed us to see a whole new side of Japan. It also gave us a whole new outlook on Tokyo. We realized that Tokyo is......very western compared to what we were able to see of Japan on our Kyoto trip. We have been told by natives that Tokyo is the most modernized city in all of Japan and is known for embracing other cultures in the world. We didn't really understand that until we were able to see other parts of Japan. Now, we can see that Tokyo is indeed very different from the rest of the country. It is very modern and western, and that's not necessarily bad. It just made it so that Tokyo didn't have the same appeal to us as it did before our Kyoto trip. But, Tokyo is still a window into the Japanese way of life, and we needed to continue to explore it.
Our first adventure after returning from our trip was to accompany Dad to work on a Friday afternoon. Normally, Raymond doesn't work on Fridays, but he had a social lunch engagement that he needed to attend for work. He had seen a large torii gate near the building that he works in, and he wanted us to go with him to explore the shrine that accompanied it.
After walking through the torii gate, we saw a long escalator just out in the open air. This shrine is known as being the "most urban shrine in Tokyo", and the escalator leading up to it seemed to be evidence of that.
The gate.
In place of the usual warriors or demon looking guards, this shrine is guarded by two monkeys.
This shrine is called Hie Shrine and was established in the 14th century as part of Edo Castle. In the 17th century, it was moved outside of the castle walls to its present location. See the large Prudential building behind the shrine? The building that Raymond works in is very close to it. It's only 4-5 stories tall, so it doesn't tower over the shrine like the Prudential building does.
This shrine is dedicated to the Tokugawa shoguns (who led Japan during the Edo-era). They are enshrined as gods here.
The last of the plum blossoms were showing off their colors at this shrine.
We noticed when we came in through the gate that there were a lot of photographers and cameramen gathered around. We looked around, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. After we had been here for just a few minutes, we had to go so that Raymond wasn't late for his engagement. As we left, I noticed this couple getting ready to be married. There were a lot of people running around helping them. It seemed like they were very important people. I snapped a picture and we asked around later to find out who they were. Apparently, the groom is a famous kabuki actor. This explained the reason for the cameras, photographers, and reporters everywhere.
We went out of the shrine a different way than we came, and were happy to see a series of small red toriis, just like the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. It wasn't even close to the Fushimi Shrine in size or the number of toriis, but was reminiscent of a place very dear to our hearts and helped us to get back into enjoying Tokyo.
We followed Raymond into his office and met his boss. Koboyashi San is almost 90 years old and still working as a lawyer. He was gracious and kind and sat with us and talked to the kids about some of their favorite things in Japan so far. He gave each of the kids a small box of candy before we left. We also met the wonderful "ladies in the office", as we call them. They are the ones who keep the office going. They are incredible! They are our go-to when we have questions or need help with something. They are the sweetest ladies on the planet and it was wonderful to meet them in person and thank them for helping our family this semester. And, as if they haven't gone above and beyond already--as we were leaving, they gave us a bag full of crackers and other snack stuff for the kids! We simply love these ladies!
(These ladies will bring around tea and some kind of treat to everyone in the office everyday around 3 p.m. It helps to wake everyone up and get their blood sugar going again. This is a normal occurrence in this country--very different from America. Kind of interesting.)
Raymond left with his boss to their engagement, and the rest of us got back on the metro to head over to Hibiya Park. We found some swings and the kids made good use of them while we ate lunch. This picture cracks me up. I had been holding Kirstin and helping her eat. Caitlin took a picture of her while I was giving her a kiss--look at her expression! She looks like she's thinking, "Ahh, what are you doing?! Get off of me!"
We haven't found many playgrounds in Tokyo, and this park had a nice one. We spent almost two hours here and the kids enjoyed it. It even had a rope on a cable line that went back and forth. Caitlin was good to run along side Audra and Nathan while they were on so that she could catch them if they fell off. Audra is on the rope in this picture.
Nathan on the rope.
We saw some plum blossoms.
Look how this bush is pruned. We got a kick out of this little guy!
This fountain had gold fish instead of the usual koi fish. It was too small for koi fish.
We saw a heron sitting in the grass on one pond.
There were a lot of turtles in this pond! They were all over!
We also found a piece of stone money from Yap Island. The plaque nearby told us that stone money varies greatly in size and are based on four characteristics: diameter, surface texture, shape, and ease of transportation. This piece of stone money was presented to Japan in 1925 and at the time it was worth about 1,000 yen.
After walking around for a while, we finally found the reason we had come to this park! These trees!
In 1912, Japan gave the U.S. cherry blossom trees and these are the trees that make Washington D.C. simply gorgeous when they bloom in the spring along the Potomac River. In 1915, the United States reciprocated the gift by giving Japan flowering dogwood trees. These trees were planted, but were either burned during the WWII air raids over Tokyo or cut down due to anti-American sentiment at that time. All but one of the trees were destroyed, and it was housed in a botanical garden up until a couple of years ago when it died. Dogwoods live to be around 80 years old, and the lone surviving tree was well beyond its life span.
These trees that we came to see are the offspring from the original flowering dogwoods that were gifted to Japan. Unfortunately, they were still in their winter state. It was still neat to see them, however. Someday, maybe the kids will be able to go to Washington D.C. and see the flowering cherry blossom trees. Then, they can remember this day when they saw the flowering dogwoods and remember the good relationship that Japan and America have with each other.
We also found an old drinking fountain for horses. Of course, it is no longer in use, but it was really fun to find!
Another pond with a fountain in the middle. There were a lot of business people sitting around this area taking a break from the office.
We noticed this turtle sunning itself on a rock. The kids were able to get right up close to it!
We were able to look him over pretty good before he finally got tired of us and swam off.
Hibiya Park is really pretty and we didn't even look at everything that there is to find here. But, the time had come for us to move on to our last stop for the day.
We rode the metro up to Kanda Shrine, which we chose to check out because the pictures of it were bright and colorful, just like the many shrines in Kyoto that we enjoyed. Remember, we were still lamenting that we were no longer in Kyoto with its brightly painted vermillion gates and temples.
The gate did not disappoint us! It was beautiful with its ornate detail and wood carvings of the four Taoist gods who are: the red phoenix, the white tiger, the blue dragon and black turtle-snake
The washing areas are all unique and beautiful in their own way. Each one we have seen is different from the others.
Would you believe what we found once we washed? This cute little pony! We had no idea why it was here, but it was fun to pet it. Nathan and Audra were too scared to pet it, but the rest of us made friends with him.
Pretty sculpture.
Inside the Haiden.
To the right of the Haiden there was a small fountain.
It was beautiful, especially with the plum blossoms flowering next to it.
Today was a very good day for us! We started out none too thrilled to be going around Tokyo after being in Kyoto. But, Tokyo reminded us that it is special in its own way! We were able to see a famous kabuki actor right before he got married, get really close to a turtle, touch the flowering dogwood trees that were a gift to Japan from America, find stone money, see gorgeous vermillion gates, and pet a pony. We may miss the traditional part of Japan that we came to love in Kyoto, but Tokyo is still a fun and beautiful place to be!
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