Wanderings - June 30

Joy, Julia and I were all awake by 5:00 AM.  After morning tea and lots more chatter, we decided to take the family dog, a happy-to-lucky Irish Setter named Chestnut (otherwise knows as “Ches”), for a long walk around the neighborhood.  It was sunny and as we started out, the morning air was cool and light; unusual for this time of year.  Joy showed us her beloved corner of Tokyo, and by the end of a couple of hours, it was completely clear to my why she loves it so much.  It was full of charming back alleys with “vertical gardens” and sleepy cats, winding streets with lots of shops, temples around every corner, close to the expansive Ueno Park, and lots of history.  We stopped at a temple where the last samurai battle was fought and saw the bullet holes of the Meiji troops in the gate.  I was struck by how many strangers just spontaneously struck up conversations along the way.  Joy said it was the dog.  It was also clear to me, though, that after many years in that neighborhood, she had strong connections, too.

We took our leave for the time being and headed out to catch our train to Kyoto.  It was a smooooooth, fast and beautiful ride, with rice paddies and green hills behind more hills.  However, low hanging clouds prevented us from seeing Mt. Fuji.  Soon after boarding, Julia and I went exploring to find the facilities.  There were “Western” and “Traditional” options.  I showed Julia the “Traditional” one.  She stared at it, dumbfounded.  I explained how to use it.  She stared at it for exactly two more seconds, then without a word turned around and walked into the “Western” option.  She’s enthusiastic about almost everything Japanese so far, but I guess that doesn’t extend to traditional toilets.

After getting settled in our hotel, we struck out across town.  It was late enough in the day that we decided it was pointless to have much of an agenda.  We just wanted to get a feel for the area and browse any shops we might come across.  We ended up walking a couple of miles and how it is possible to do that and not encounter a single interesting shop, I do not know, but we pulled it off.  We must have picked one of the most highly uninteresting routes possible.  We just scrounged up some food, ate in our hotel room, patted ourselves on the back for managing to stay up until a reasonable bedtime, then crashed hard.