Japan day 4

April 4 - first day of our tour and it turned out to be interesting. We were taken to the main bus station along with hundreds of other tourists and told exactly which place to register, which bus to get on and which seat to sit in. Once we got started, something just didn’t feel right, and when we sailed past the Tokyo Tower, which was supposed to be our first stop, we knew we were on the wrong tour. However, it was a bit late to do anything about it and it turned out that the one we were actually on was much more to our liking than the one we were supposed to be on, so it was all good. We went to a Shinto shrine, the Meiji Jingu Shrine which was set in some spectacular gardens with hundreds of trees. At both ends of the roof, there are golden fish tails which are supposed to protect the shrine from fire (fish live in water ….) However, the shrine had apparently been burned down at least twice in its long life, so don’t place your faith in a fish tail. We were lucky enough to witness a traditional wedding - kimonos, head dresses etc. although we couldn’t stay long. Back on the bus, and then on to the east gardens of the Imperial Palace which were very formally laid out. Not much was flowering except the cherry trees, but I can imagine that in a few weeks it will be pretty amazing. Then on to the Sensoji Buddhist Temple which was very beautiful - highly decorated and ornamental inside and out. Again our timing was good - when we came out of the Temple, a group of traditional dancers, singers and musicians were just starting a performance. I find myself saying “That’s quite extraordinary” a lot - these kinds of things are so foreign and so interesting. The musicians were playing the guitar-looking things with big picks and there was a man playing a sort of flute. The dancers (men and women) were dressed in strange costumes with long dangly sleeves which were caught up between their legs in festoons. They all had red headbands on which were part of the dance - sometimes the bands were untied, sometimes put on like a babushka and sometimes tied on top with a bow. All the movements were ritualized and of course, the singing is atonal, so sounds very strange to western ears. It was quite extraordinary!! We decided to leave our tour at that point as they were going on to the Ginza where we had already been and it was quite cold, so we found a little hole-in-the-wall noodle place where once again we pantomimed what we wanted. John thought he had ordered shrimp for me, but I ended up with some very tasty noodles in broth with vegies and 3 pieces of quite unidentifiable meat. I did eat them, but I have no idea what kind of meat it was…... By that time I was tired with wandering, so we came back to the hotel where I had a lovely hot bath (real tub here!) and John went out in search of some item of electrical equipment that apparently we can’t do without.