Next morning Norio and I went up Landmark Tower, which isn"t that exciting on a cloudy day- the view is rather obscured. Apparently you can see Mt. Fuji from there on a clear day! From there we continued to Harajuku, where Norio hopped on the train to go home.

I wandered around Harajuku for a while, shopping and people-watching. This is a particularly fashionable end of town for young people, and some of the clothes that people we wearing were very¡K interesting. I also visited Meiji-Jingu shrine and walked around the gardens there. It was quite peaceful, and there were very few people there. The only low part of the day was when I spent an hour and half walking in the rain, trying to find my hotel! Bah. Mental note: learn how to read Japanese.

Thursday morning I went to Ueno, to the Tokyo National Museum. It's a huge place, split into several buildings. I only managed to see 2, in the space of about 4 hours. (Yeah, I'm one of those people who must read every label and description available) There's more Japanese art and artefacts that I didn't manage to see, so I guess that means I'll just have to go back. Afterwards I met Kate and her roommate Rachel in Ginza, and we went to a kabuki play! The theatre, Kabuki-Za, really stands out, since it's the only traditional Japanese architecture in an area full of functional-looking (read: boring) highrises. The costumes were phenomenal, especially those of the "onnagata", or female characters. In kabuki there are only male actors, and acting is a tradition passed down through the family. It was wonderful, particularly since we could rent headphones with English translations of the obscure old Japanese lines. Afterwards I had to run to catch the Shinkansen home, since I really couldn't afford to stay for another night: it was, after all, Tokyo.