Our first night in Tokyo, we ate in the hotel's teppanyaki restaurant. Teppanyaki is one of the most popular and familiar style of Japanese cooking to Westerners. The food is prepared and grilled by the chef in front of you. After dinner, we went for a walk to a nearby park, then called it a night. We had planned on going down to Roppongi (the bar and club district). But, seeing as we had just spent 14 hours on a bus, we were kind of tired; besides, we had a full day planned for Saturday.

Day 1:
Question: What stands 333 meters high, weighs 4,000 tons, broadcasts 14 signals, is covered with 28,000 liters of orange and white paint, and lights up the night sky with 164 floodlights? The Tokyo Tower! I was trying real hard to think of a funny joke, but couldn't. Hey, it's 1:00 in the morning, give me a break! The Tokyo Tower was the first stop of our world wind tour of Tokyo. We had a hazy, but full view of the city, to include Mt. Fuji. We only went as far up as the main observatory, the special observatory was an extra 600 yen. If you would like to know more about the Tokyo Tower, you can visit its site at www.tokyotower.co.jp/e-index.html.

The morning had started off as hot, and by the time we left the Tokyo Tower, it was even hotter! We decided, if we wanted to stay cool, we needed to ride the subways; and we took advantage of our free 1-day subway pass. Our next stop was the Hamarikyu Gardens. This area was an official hunting ground for the Tokugawa Shogunate in the 17th Century. This vast reed field was reclaimed to build the residence of a regional feudal lord. In 1704, it became a shogun's second residence, and was called "Hama-goten (palace)." In the Meiji Era, the Garden was renamed Hama-rikyu. Hama-rikyu Gardens has a typical Edo Era setting which took advantage of the beauty of the waterfront location and the rippling waves of today's Tokyo Bay. The Garden is home of the 300-Year Old Pine, this tree is said to have been planted by the 6th shogun lenobu when the garden was extensively renovated. This is one of the largest black pine trees in Tokyo. Another area of interest in the Hama-rikyu Gardens is the Shin-senza and Koshindo Duck Hunting Grounds. The Hunting grounds were in operation until 1949. The last leg of our garden's tour, which by chance was the first part of our Sumida River tour.

This 40 minute river tour took us along the Sumida River and under twelve unique bridges, 4 of which are illuminated at night. During the river tour, we caught a glimpse of one of the two barges which held about 20,000 rounds worth of explosives for Tokyo's most famous, and oldest fireworks display. It is said that this festival, which draws over 1 million people, has begun sometime in 1733. The fireworks were called off in 1961, because of the huge traffic jams it caused, and the potential danger it caused to the new homes in the area. However, in 1978, the fireworks started up again, but not as grand as they use to be. Our river boat tour ended at Asakusa and the Kannon Temple.

Also known as Sensoji Temple, it's the headquarters of the Sho Kannon sect of Buddhism. The temple was founded in the 7th century and is dedicated to the goddess of mercy, whose golden image (housed in the temple) was fished out of a river in 628. Although we weren't able to see the image, we still were able to absorb the atmosphere of the temple, with its huge torii gates and mammoth size lanterns. Leading up to the temple is Nakamise Shopping street, a carnival-like area with assorted shops and restaurants. Inside the temple was just as grand as the outside. Crowds of people making their way to prey, buy a souvenir, or read their fortunes. While we were wondering around the temple, taking pictures, a young Japanese couple came up to us and asked if they could take our picture with their son. For some reason, the Japanese are fascinated with Americans, and blondes. If you're blonde, and speak English, you'll be revered as a movie star in Japan.

The Japanese idea of electronics just amaze me, everything is so small! There cars, phones, computers; everything. We had heard so much about Tokyo's infamous Electronic District in Akihabara, we had to go down there and take look for ourselves. Avenues and tiny alleys lined with rows and rows of stores, an electronic geeks most wild fantasy! Ken was like a small child in a toy store, even I found myself wanting to play with the merchandise. Especially the cellular phones, they are so tiny; 3 1/2 - 4 inches long, and about 2 inches wide. Not wanting to leave the electronic district empty-handed, we bought a box of 3 1/2" floppies for my digital camera. Our next stop, Ginza Shopping District

The Ginza Shopping District is a woman's shopping paradise, not to sound so stereotypical, but the fact is: women love to shop. On this day, the streets were closed to traffic, and pedestrians were able to stroll from shop to shop in the middle of the street. It was wonderful! Every famous high priced western shops were on this street; Gucci, Calvin Klein, a Mersadies dealership; just to name a few. Sad to say, I was not able to stay long enough to do some serious shopping. I was repressed by male tyranny of the Fitzgerald Empire. But not to worry, I did leave the Ginza with Coco Butter Hand & Body Lotion from the Body Shop, victory! It was getting close to 1700 (5:00pm), and we made our way back to Asakusa for the Fireworks display.

It was a mad house! Literally everyone who lived in Tokyo and the surrounding areas were there! You'd think with so many people in one area, there would be problems. The only problem worth noting was our frustration of trying to get back over the bridge so we could be closer to the trains. Oh no, the Japanese police didn't let anyone cross the bridge. They formed a human barrier, and sweeped the bridge every 10 minutes or so making sure everyone was going in one direction. Finally after the show was over, and it was an amazing use of explosives, we were able to squeeze on to the train with everyone else. I'm sure you've heard of or seen how packed the Tokyo subways can be during rush hour? Well, we got to experience it first hand. There were people who's main job was to shove us on to the trains so the doors can close. I really enjoyed the togetherness.