Tsukiji District of Chūō, Tokyo

Day 4

Today was a sunny 85 degrees with 85% humidity, Tokyo is proving to be a 3 shower a day kind of place.

Breakfast was provided at the hotel this morning and was a strange experience, more on that later. Upon entering the cafe we were required to take our temperatures (which we will need to report to our trip leader each morning) and “glove up” with those plastic gloves that are too big for everyone just to use the tongs for the buffet.

Since we don’t officially meet up with our travel group until Tuesday morning we decided to spend the day exploring the area around our hotel and we made our way to Hama-rikyu Gardens. The crews here use a variety of extension ladders, saws, bracing, and techniques to maintain the bonsais. They were amazing.

But, the highlight of my day was finding a hole in the wall basement restaurant that served amazing food with a former US College student as our waitress. Cultural lesson learned: being required to remove one’s shoes at the door does not mean leaving them there.Read more