Tokyo (May 23)

We all met Jerry in Tokyo yesterday and we are spending 5 days here as a family.  Bill has to come over here about 4X a year to visit the prisoners and have other meetings.
The hotel is beautiful and close to everything.
First, my Tokyo manicure...

Caroline's manicure...

Bill is off to work and we are off touring....

Caroline explains the Tokyo metro to Jerry

We made it!  Caroline and Jerry navigated our way around all day.  I literally fell asleep in between stops.  The day I have been praying for has arrived!

First Tokyo Metro for Patrick and Jerry

I am relaxed.

Our first stop was Sensoji Temple.  A bunch a shops line the way to the temple.  You may recall Sensoji from an earlier post back last Fall.  I thought this would be a slam dunk.  Funny, when the day you have been praying for finally arrives, it isn't what you thought.

Now, my cool excursion does not appeal to the teenage set, they don't need me to get around and Bill was at work.

Hmmm...

They were not as impressed as I thought they would be.  I still love coming here and looking around.  The shops did not even grab them.

They were mostly into horsing around and having fun together.  Maybe the day I had been praying for did arrive after all, but better.

At the gate entering the temple grounds and heading toward the shops.

I took this picture as we were crossing the street. The gold building behind them is the Orion Beer Factory.  It is designed to look like a mug of beer.  Gold bottom for the beer and silver top for the foam.

Caroline was explaining the meaning of the urn to Patrick and Jerry.  People burn their wishes. Buddha can not see you but he knows your presence by smell and sound.  People gather the smoke on themselves for luck.  Then they toss a coin inside the bin that has bars on it.  Each coin toss produces a unique sound for Buddha to hear your wish.

OK, back on the Metro to check out the trendy-outlandish Tokyo fashion scene.  They were more interested in seeing this.

We stopped at the Nescafe Cafe (yes, Nescafe) for lunch.

Patrick is heading up the stairs to a trendy shop.

This area actually ended up being too far out there for Jerry.  Patrick is exploring a new look (from bleach blond to jet black hair).  So this wasn't a great stop either.  I like to people watch.  Some of the clothes is much crazier than New York City.  

So tomorrow we will look for a less out-there look.    The mall that I want to take them to will have to wait until Thursday when Bill can join us.  I have a surprise planned for him.

We caught up with Bill about 5 and had dinner in the Teppanyaki restaurant in the hotel.

Our Chef.

Jerry thought it would be good idea to put the entire serving of Wasabi in his mouth at once.  He just about exploded.  His eyes were watering and he could not breathe, just laughed.

A good day!