Tokyo, Day 3 - Guided two

Some more observations:  one, business men always wear black suits with white shirts and maybe a tie, even in the rain, and I mean always!, professional women also wear black or shades of black;  two, the technology is impressive, universal and reliable (for example, every ticket selling machine for the subway is always functioning, unlike what typically sees in the US);  three, Japan has a geographical location that ranges from Nova Scotia to the Bahamas, and 72% of the land area is mountainous.  There are only 3 or 4 plains in the country, the Tokyo area, being the biggest.

Our tour today was more Edo history-related sites with a focus on temple and shrines.  Most were built in the Tokugawa timeframe and currently located in surprising places north in Tokyo.  We would be walking along a street of typical commercial establishments and then a gate would appear behind which lay a shrine or temple or both.  We started the day with a subway ride, the first of many, to Senso-ji Temple at Asakusa, the most famous of the temples in Tokyo, which appears frequently in travel articles for Japan.  It is a multi-roofed temple fronted by an active bazaar of souvenir sellers.  I am not sure any locals frequent the location.  

After seeing the temple we wandered around the grounds, which have numerous shrines and other buildings and special places.  There was a blessing going on for 3, 5 and 7-year old children, something that occurs each year for these ages and at differnt times of the year for different aged children.  It was fun to see parents with their young girls fully dressed out in kimonos. 

I asked about what was the difference between temples and shrines but didn't get much of answer.  As we later found out, shrines are Shinto and temples are Buddist; also at one the faithful clap, at the other they don't.  After leaving Senso-ji we had a group lunch in a nice restaurant that was off the tourist path.  It was quite good.

We next went to Ueno, which is the first National Park of Japan, meaning a park like a city park, not like a national park in the US.  We visited a famous statue of the "last samurai," Saigo San and to Stupa, a Buddist shrine.  It was Sunday in the park for many folks here and much less touristy. 

 

We made several more stops which I forgot about initially until I looked at the photos, including the Mausoleum of the Shoguns, fronted by rows of stone and brass lanterns.

Our next stop was Kyoouji Temple in the Yanaka District, which I think was a temple and shrine combination in a single building.  We had a delightful gentleman explain  a number of aspects about the site and his personal involvement with a women honored by it.  

We next walked douwn "Snake Street" which literally curves amongst single family homes, a rather rare sight.  After emreging and crossing a busy thoroughfare, we arrived at Nezu Shrine, the last place for the day.

We "subwayed" and "trained" back to our hotel, stopping iat the Rose and Crown Pub for drinks, treating Chiaki  to a "thank you" beer.  We eventually had a light supper of British fare before saying goodbye to our compatriots for the past two days.  They are traveling back home to Australia and Canada, respectively and we are off for Osaka to start the first of our two walking tours.  

 

As an aside, I am keeping my eye out for woodworking.  The timber framing techniques are quite evident in the temples and shrines, but below is an example of the classic dovetailed joint for a chest  Note the book joints in between the dovetails.