Tokyo 4/14.15/24

 Tokyo, Japan 

Our welcome in the port as we headed out on our first of two days in Tokyo.  

A cultural tour for the day starting at the Senso-ji Temple. It is one of Tokyo's most colorful and popular temples and is a Buddhist temple dedicated to Kannon. According to the legend, a statue of Kannon was found in the river by two fishermen, and even when they put it back in the river, it always returned to them. The chief of the village recognized the statue as significant and remodeled his home into a temple for Kannon, the goddess of compassion. It is known for its curative powers of smoke that billows from the bonze urn burning incense. This temple was the busiest we have visited so far - it was mobbed, and everyone was burning incense at the urn. The temple was bombed during WWII and also partially destroyed by fire several times but was rebuilt into the current temple of today.

This is the Akusa Shrine which is immediately adjacent to the temple's main building. It is one of the few buildings that was not damaged in the war.

As you move through Hozomon, or Treasure House Gate, you’ll see a huge bronze incense burner in front of Senso-ji’s Main Hall. Visitors actively fan the wafting incense smoke toward their bodies, as a kind of protective talisman against illness and other misfortunes. It is the picture in top right corner.

A popular item to purchase is Sensoji’s omamori which feature traditional good luck charms made out of colorful fabric. At the omikuji counters you can purchase little paper fortunes. Senso-ji’s omikuji are notoriously varied, unlike most temples, it’s not unusual to get a mediocre fortune, or even a negative one! There is a group of young folks in traditional wear getting their fortunes. Top right picture

There is also a water fountain area called the chozuya, where you can cleanse yourself before entering the temple. The cleansing ritual can be just cleaning your hands to actually drinking from the ladles and spitting it out after swishing around in your mouth.

This is one of 2 gates to enter the grounds to the temple. It is the Hozomon or the Treasure Gate House. It houses 2 statues, three lanterns, and two large sandals.

This is the other gate - the Thunder Gate and features massive paper lanterns dramatically painted in red and black to suggest thunderclouds and lightning.

And you can't visit Japan without seeing pagodas. This entire site was incredible and has been rebuilt by funds from the Japanese people as the original buildings were severely damaged by war and weather.

And more lovely locals in their traditional attire.

We wandered down the market searching for souvenirs and lunch. It's lucky we did not lose each other in the crowds. It was absolutely packed as you can see in the pictures. We had a great lunch and did some sake tasting with Deborah and Peter.

This was a lovely garden area off the beaten path.  It was very serene and a welcome spot to relax after the huge crowds around the main temple.  You can see the Skytower in the background.  That was as close as we got to it - not one of the stops on our tour.

Our last stop for the day was the Imperial Palace.  While we were not able to enter the formal grounds and tour the palace, we did get some nice pictures.

When you first enter the grounds, you are greeted by this amazing bronze statue.  It is so lifelike, and you are waiting for him to gallop away.  It is Kusunoki Masashige, a samurai regarded as the paragon of loyalty to the Imperial Family. He is awaiting the return of Emperor Go-Daigo from his exile.

The Main Gate and the Nijubashi Bridge at the Imperial Palace which is home to the Emperor and his family.  It is only open to the public for the emperor's birthday and January 2nd.  The gate is used when the emperor leaves the palace and important state occasions.  It was formerly known as Edo Castle.

A few views of the city on our way back to the ship.  A picture of the Skytower, one of the famous skyscrapers in Tokyo. a few photographs courtesy of Telah Morrison.

We had a few hours to take a break and grab a quick bite to eat on the ship, and then we were off to a Tokyo at night tour.  We first visited the iconic Tokyo Tower, a huge structure inspired by the Eiffel Tower that is illuminated at night and offers incredible views over Tokyo.

Built in 1958, it stands at 1,092 feet tall and is really a sight to see.  It is the 2nd tallest structure in Japan.

After our tower visit, we were driven around the Ginza neighborhood, a night view of the Imperial Palace (which if you blinked you missed), pretty disappointing tour once we finished with the tower.  Just drive by's at night and not that spectacular where they took us.  Bad Royal!  But there were some cool window displays in the high rent district!

Day 2 in Tokyo, we went to Kamakura to vsit the ancient Kotoku-in Temple that features a 36ft tall copper statue of Buddha dating back to 1252.  It was an impressive statue but after the Big Buddha in Hong Kong, it rather paled, but we enjoyed the visit and the weather was very mild and pleasant.

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu (quite a mouthful!) is Kamakura's most important shrine.  It is dedicated to Hachiman, the patron god of the Minamoto family, and of the samurai in general.  We did climb the stairs to the main shrine, where Emperor Ojin and Empress Jingu are entombed.  They would not allow pictures of the interior of the shrine and their tombs.  The springtime  Kamakura Matsuri was being held on April 14, the day we were there.  We missed the parade but got to listen to some of the musicians playing and observed the military lining the steps.

The top 2 pictures are the gate to the shrine, the lower left is the shrine itself. 

These fountains are at all the temples and shrines so that you can cleanse yourself before entering the shrines.

We then wandered down to Komanchi street, full of shopping and eating establishments so we had lunch, but the shopping was really not very good so got my magnet and called it a day. After a long day, we headed back to the ship just in time to board and say goodbye to Tokyo in the evening.... overall Tokyo was quite clean and crime free, some beautiful buildings but the city was not as architecturally stunning as Hong Kong or Taiwan...and now, on to Mt Fuji.

Photos courtesy of Matti Chan.