First off, I realize I haven't blogged in a while and I apologize. This was meant to be a travel journal and I don't travel by boat all year long. When I'm in Yokosuka it is often just easier to stay indoors online or with a good book then to decide on a place to go and what to do. I need to work on that. I also haven't been doing much on my projects although I have finally finished a very rough draft of the book I hope to send out to publishers by the end of the year. Now I have set that aside while we travel again and need to catch up on my blogging. The first blog is my trip to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Although, to be more accurate, I should say the grounds of the Palace. Nobody other than workers get beyond the moat except for on two days of each year: New Year's Day and the Emperor's birthday. However, outside the moat is a large park used mostly by runners, bikers, and tourists. I got a lovely picture of Tokyo skyline over a river as I left the subway station and got pictures of a number of gatehouses but nothing really of the stuff inside the high walls.
I also got a picture of a bridge over the moat and noticed that there is a wire just out of the water on short black poles on the grassy shore that is used to sense if people jump in the moat and try to climb the grassy bank under the bridge. Definitely a sign of the modern era. Another thing I noticed was that one of the gaurdhouses seemed to have a gaurd where the street was cordaned off and statues of gaurds by the gate itself that I thought amusing and very detailed. As I watched, the statues ddn't seem to move. It wasn't until a few minutes later when I was looking from the side that I realized they were actually real gaurds!! the one on the right seemed to be going up and down from heel to toe of his feet to aleviate the pains of standing for so long. It wasn't obvious but if I stared at the gaurd long enough I could see the movement. Next I sat down on one of the benches to eat my lunch. One of the things I love about Japan is its convienience stores, like the gas station stores in America. They sell things like sushi rolls or salads, all sorts of native dishes that were made that morning or that afternoon and just ready to be unwrapped and eaten as well as selling drinks. I can get a whole meal, enough to fill me for hours, for under five dollars easy. One of my favorite things, and one I have only found in such stores, are triangles of sticky rice stuck together so I can hold it in my hand by a corner and not really have it crumble. there are two types of rice cakes I've seen, the type where the flavor maker is mixed in with the rice, like my favorite version with tuna mixed throughout the cake, or the tyupe where the flavor was only in the middle, such as the version I had that day which was seaweed. I've also found some awesome drinks such as the peach mango tea that I can only find at the stores. The rice cakes are wrapped in plastic to keep them moist and the plastic is wrapped around a flat sheet of seaweed I'm supposed to eat the rice cake with but I rarely do that, I prefer the rice without the dry seaweed flavor Anyways, my breakfast had been a roll of the sushi with rice wrapped in seaweed that Americans are so familiar with and my lunch was a rice cake while I sipped from a few drinks all day. It turned out rather nice.
After lunch I went through the East Gardens. There I saw a number of green trees and bushes that all looked alike. I definitely came in the wrong season but I was also getting grumpy. The day had not statred out lovely, a friend had kept me talking a number of hours after I had planned to start out, by then I had probably walked well over two miles in flipflops, and I had a backpack on that must have weighed at least thirty pounds that I had been carrying for going on four hours by then. Also, I was sightseeing alone, it was hot and sunny, and my mind barely registered the music coming in from my I-pod any longer. It was time to head back and relax so the Gardens were not all that interesting for me. I did manage to see two long gaurd houses the old samuris used to live in to keep an eye on all the old courtiers travelling through the East Gardens to or from the Palace. I also saw a break in the wall that showed into the Palace grounds but all I saw was a modern looking street. Above one of the gaurd houses I saw satellites so the royal family or their servants apparently get satellite and dish hook ups. Other than that I decided was too much so I headed back to the subway station. On the way I stopped at a square area of fountains. There was one fountain near me that sprayed water high into the air from a number of sprouts and one on the other side that rained down water in a sheer wall or a light mist above a fountain that formed a ball of water. Each fountain worked in harmony so each one was the focus at a different time and created quite the show.I sat down and rested my bag on a seat for about a half hour watching the fountains and a pigeon that had no fear of humans. After that I managed my way through the subway and finally got to my bed for a welcomed shower and rest.
And that was my day in Tokyo so this is Li'l B signing off until the next post.
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