After breakfast we piled into our buses and went to the Sumida River.
At the Hinode Pier we got onto a boat that cruised to the Asakusa area.
Twelve unique bridges were part of the thrill of the boat ride. In a
year where we are concentrating on Building Bridges it is also important
to remember to maintain existing Bridges. Bridges built that are no
longer are bridges that have to be rebuilt. Once goodwill and understanding
are established (a bridge built) it is important to do the things that
are important to maintain that bridge.
When we arrived at the Asakusa pier we looked across the river to see
a very strange building, the headquarters of the Asahi Beer Company.
The building is designed to look like a mug of beer with the foam at
the top of the glass. The funny looking object at the side of the glass
is a flame that was to difficult to place upright so they built the
flame sideways and they still have quite a problem in being able to
clean it.
Asakusa in 1657 found itself square in the road between the city and
the licensed brothel quarter. It was more or less halfway between the
city and its only nightlife. 
The
village became a suburb and a pleasure quarter in its own right. In
the narrow streets and alleys around the temple built for the gilded
statue of Kannon there were stalls selling toys, souvenirs, and sweets;
acrobats, jugglers, and strolling musicians; sake shops, and teahouses.
Asakusa became the cultural center of Tokyo when Kabuki moved to that
part of town in 1841.
Today the stalls of lots of little shops are there and there are many
interesting things to see. Cindy and I got to see a lovely little dog
who when you got close to he would jump into the little basket that
you see in the picture.
Then we walked to the temple, Senso-ji which has both a Buddhist temple
and a Shinto temple next to each other. This area is an area that Cindy
and I will probably visit on one of our extra days since it has so many
interesting little shops to browse through.
Then we boarded the bus and went to the Edo Tokyo Museum. The facility
was built in 1993 and is to preserve the historical heritage of Edo-Tokyo.
Here
we see President-Elect Jolene Bortz getting ready to go far. After we
went to the Museum we returned to the Hotel for a free afternoon.
Cindy and I rested for a bit and then we went to the Zoo in Ueno Park
which was right across the street from our hotel. There were Penguins
who were waiting to attend a Rotary meeting.
The Eurasian Otters got very excited when we got close to the cage
and we thought they were just happy to see us. It turns out that the
person behind us was their feeder and they were climbing the fence trying
to get at him and the food. It was really cute to watch them eat. It
reminded us of our dogs.
We also got to see the Panda Bears. Ling-Ling, Shaun-Shaun, and their
2 babies who were in the Zoo. All 4 of them were visible and active
except for Shaun-Shaun who allowed us to observe while he was sleeping.
Even though he was sleeping we did get to see his foot flinch as he
must have been dreaming of going for a walk or something.
Saying goodbye from the Sofitel Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.
See you tomorrow on the web site.
Ron and Cindy Sekkel
