If you're not here on time, the bus will leave without you

Sunday was the first day of our six-day guided tour. We hopped on a bus filled mostly with Americans (haha, who else?) and met our guide, Mr. Sato, a witty gentleman who carried around a carp-like flag so we could spot him better. Our first stop was the Imperial Gardens, site of the Edo castle ruins.

The Edo castle used to be the shogun’s main residence, but it suffered so many fires that, by the time the emperor re-assumed the power, they probably didn’t bother building it up once more. As it is right now, the gardens make for a relaxing place to stroll, featuring a few scenic Japanese-style gardens, including a couple of carp ponds, and handful of service buildings (a teahouse, a storage room, a guardhouse) which survived the last fire. For the most part, though, you wouldn’t have been able to guess that a castle once stood there, that is, except for the thick walls and moat that surround it.

Our next stop was Asakusa, one of the few Tokyo neighborhoods that still retain a little of the charm of the old days, before the skyscrapers and neon lights and all that madness. One of the main features of Asakusa is the Sensô Buddhist temple, which consists of several buildings and gates painted in typical red and white. It seems to be a big attraction, judging by the crowds of both Japanese and foreigners. Because there were so many people, we didn’t spend that much time at the main compound and started making our way to the gates. There were stalls everywhere, selling food and souvenirs and, after passing the first gate, we found ourselves on Nakamise-dôri, a covered street with dozens of stalls on both sides that leads to the main gate. It was so crowded that it was hard to make our way through. There were stalls selling salty soy crackers, others selling cheap kimonos and yukata, and all sorts of junk (you know, chopsticks, lucky cats, Japanese sword imitations, et cetera.)

Since the crackers didn’t cut it, it was a good thing that lunch was next. They took us to a nice western-style restaurant, with a pretty good view over the Tokyo bay, and from there we left for a short cruise along the bay. Truthfully, there wasn’t that much to see. There are a few cool modern buildings around the recently developed Odaiba area and the bridge that links the city to it reminded me of the Verrazano bridge in NYC, but most of the landscape becomes a bit boring, after a while. However, there was a wedding taking place on the cruise ship and watching the mix of Japanese and western customs – the bride was wearing a white gown, but some of the guests were wearing bright kimonos -- kept us occupied for a while.

After we docked, the bus crossed the Verrazano-like bridge that took us to Odaiba, where we could appreciate a different view of the bay and check out the smaller-scale Statue of Liberty that they have there (yes, you read that right.) And that was the tour for the day, which was pretty decent, considering that I’m not a big fan of big group tours in buses. We got out in Ginza, and strolled past some moderns and elegant skyscrapers on our way to the Sony Building, which used to host some cool virtual reality exhibits, but not anymore, as we found out. Still, we got a few more Mini-DV tapes at a discount, so it was worth it. We ended up having a tasty Japanese dinner in a little hole-in-the-wall of a place, near the train tracks and, on our way home, stopped at the convenience store to buy some cereal and milk for breakfast.