Day 1: Arrival in Tokyo

We landed on time (about 9am) and were met charmingly (we had never been met by one of those people waiting at the arrivals gate with cards before!) by our driver who took us swiftly and smoothly to the hotel. We were a little too early to check in, but the hotel were very happy to look after our luggage while we wandered around the Asakusa district looking for lunch (duly located at an excellent noodle restaurant, apparently featuring "English staffs").

Temple, Skytree

The view from the hotel room was a perfect combination of old and new Japan; a Buddhist temple nestling next to the Tokyo Skytree:


We found the nearby temple: Senso-ji which was busy with worshipers cleansing themselves with water and with incense, seeking fortunes from various devices and, like us, taking photos of each other in front of this, Tokyo's oldest temple. We were lucky enough to be able to view the Demboin Garden (the head priest's garden, so a bit like the Bishop's Palace gardens we used to frequent when we lived in Fulham I suppose ;-))

The hall had an interesting exhibition about the history of the temple, and the garden itself was a gorgeous space with a traditional teahouse (used for tea ceremonies and not open to the public) and a tranquil lake as centrepiece. The gardens are not usually open to the public, but this was a special occasion, to raise money for victims of the 2011 Fukushima earthquake. We found this charming statue just outside the garden:

Buddhist Statue

Supper in the hotel seemed the best option tonight as jet lag took its hold; a curious east-west fusion (spaghetti with Ume plum sauce and bonito flakes flapping lazily, if disconcertingly, in the steam wafting from the pasta).

Samuel woke later and very confidently walked over to the wardrobe in our hotel room, opened the door and got in to sit in the darkness. After some gentle prompting he was persuaded to come out of the wardrobe, at which point he proceeded to open the hotel room door as if preparing for a late night walk around Asakusa in his pyjamas. Back to bed!