I did a thorough 'Spring' cleaning in anticipation of guests ...who never did actually make it to our apartment.. but that's alright, the house is clean!
Our friends arrived in Tokyo last Saturday and we got them all settled into a nearby hotel. The next day was Sunday and we had two good church services with Jimmy preaching and Patsy singing a couple of songs!
On Monday, we proceeded to show them the town! Monday, I took them out as Gary had church stuff to attend to. First we rode the train to Tokyo station and enjoyed the sites there. We decided to spare our feet and ride the Sky Hop bus which drove us all over Tokyo and allowed us to hop off and on to explore when we wanted. We decided to get off and see Venus Fort, the large mall in Odaiba that looks like an old Venetian village. I hadn't been back since the one time we went with Atsuko back around early 2013. The neat thing is the way the ceiling lights change the time of day from morning to night! (here's a few old photos of when Gary and I went in Jan of 2013...my camera wasn't working on Monday)
We had a delicious lunch at a Hawaiian restaurant. I had a delicious avocado burger and we all shared the best shoestring french-fries with a sweet chili sauce and sour cream!
We also lucked into a really neat antique car exposition that was going on...it was SO cool!
The next day we went exploring the Shibuya area, being sure to take our picture with the famous Hachiko (the dog who faithfully awaited his master at the train station every day even after his owner died) There was a display nearby that showed pictures of the real Hachiko and his owner and also a picture of when Heller Keller visited and was allowed to feel the statue to 'see' Hachiko.
Mitos from church met up with us there to give the Pena's a gift she had for them.
There were some young people giving out Free Hugs so they happily took their picture by us!
If you look closely you can see we are holding our stomachs next to the Gaspanic restaurant sign! (We didn't eat there!)
Instead, we went to this restaurant! It's on the 14th floor and we managed a table with a view! Patsy had a chicken egg and rice bowl. Gary had a grilled unagi with rice in a sizzling hot, lava stone bowl, and Jimmy and I did Yakitori! I had 4 different types of yakitori, the regular grilled chicken, grilled leek with a miso-wasabi sauce, bacon wrapped asparagus and one that was so delicious we had to order some for everyone. It was a ground chicken mixture stuffed into a shitake mushroom and grilled.
On Wed. we headed to old town Tokyo to visit the Senjoji Temple area and to do some last minute souvenir shopping! Here's the famous 5 level pagoda.
In front of the temple there is a large incense bowl where people use their hands to try and pull the smoke onto themselves for purification.
There is also this flowing fountain where hands are washed and I also saw some folks drink of water.
I couldn't find out who the guy is in the statue but it was pretty cool looking.
Around his feet there are individual dragons with water flowing from their mouths.
Off to the side there was a nice resting area with wooden benches and large stone seats to sit on.
The overhead is ingeniously designed to give shade. You can see the two trees that provide all of the greenery on top. Their branches are woven out into a flat lattice pattern .
If I could only pick one picture to describe our visit with our friends this is it! With these friends we're always laughing and laughing!
Patsy and I
This was cast back in the 1700's
Off in the distance we could see Skytree, the tallest building in Tokyo.
Then it was time to head back. We stopped and had some Ramen in Kichijoji and then sadly said goodbye until next time!
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