Sightseeing
Here some pictures of our sightseeing trips. We try to visit a different part of Tokyo
every weekend. Before we went to Japan we bought a book about Japan, The Rough guide to
Japan by Jan Dodd and Simon Richard. We use this book to plan day trips. Trip has read
almost through the whole book and made notes about places to see.
Here is a picture of a very peaceful early-seventeenth-century stroll garden (Koishikawa-Korakuen) in Suidobashi.
The entrance to Senso - ji, a Buddhist temple in Asakusa, Tokyo.
View of Hamariku garden.
The building in the above picture is a traditional teahouse where we participated in a tea ceremony. You have to take your shoes off before entering a room with only mats on the floor. After sitting on one of the mats either on your knees or with folded legs, the hostess serves you a cup of dark green tea and a small soft cookie. We were enjoying it very much but when we were done, the hostess sat on the floor in front of us, bowed very deeply, and asked us something in Japanese. We thought she was asking if we would like some more tea, and Ruud answered "ie" which means no. Then she looked at us and asked us something else, making a gesture with here hands. We then realized she had asked us if we liked the tea and was now asking "Not even a little bit?" Well we were very embarrassed and tried to indicate that we did like the tea very much. When we left they gave each of us a nice origami piece (a folded paper object). We don't know if this is always given, or if they gave it to us because we said we didn't like the tea. Whatever the case, Ruud left with very red cheeks.