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2016 Travels
Tokyo, Japan

September 18th to 29th, 2016

Tokyo was a wonderful experience. We saw many attractions and events but it was the Japanese people themselves that left the biggest impression. This is a very polite culture. Most everyone was very friendly and went out of their way to help us. Toyko is a clean city and we felt safe everywhere we went. Few people spoke English so we had our challenges ... especially at restaurants ... but we got around just fine. Overall the food was high-quality and delicious but every day we ate foods that we could not identify. Just eating a meal was a fun experience for us!

Below: Sumo wrestling was our first exciting event. This is a big sport in Japan and the audience reactions were as entertaining as the wrestlers.





Below: We went to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market and watched large tunas get auctioned off for large prices!



Below: Tokyo Disneyland was a lot of fun. It makes sense that the Disney employees would all be Japanese, and most of the visitors would be Japanese, but it did feel odd to be a total foreigner at Disneyland.





Below: Japanese salsa dancing in Yoyogi Park.



Below: We attended "Mayuko's Little Kitchen" cooking class ... held in Mayuko's own home ... where we learned how to make sushi rolls, pork dumplings and Japanese curry. Of course we got to eat our delicious creations!





Below: Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world with 38 million people. Some of the popular shopping areas were quite crowded.



Below: Preschoolers on a field trip?



Below: This is the Sensoji Temple.



Below: A wedding at the Meiji Shrine.





Below: The Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden was walking-distance from our hotel.



Below: The Tokyo Skytree, a woman in a kimono, and our view of Tokyo from the Skytree at night.