Day 2 A trip back in time

We took a trip back in time to the Fukagawa Edo Shiryoukan.



The museum preserves buildings from the Edo era in a an indoor museum. Each building is furnished based on the life of a fictional person. There was a modestly furnished home of a new resident in Edo working as a street vendor. This room did not have tatami and had very little personal belongings.

There was a more upscale room that was occupied by a well to do shamisen instructor. The room was furnished with a stately dressers and fine kimono.

Night One. Finally on vacation

Finally here in Tokyo. It is always good to be at our friendly neighborhood sake establishment, Meishu Center. We are always greeted by our friend Nobuko-san. The store carries over a couple hundred different sake at any time. She always selects sake that we all enjoy. javascript:void(0)

Day 0.5

Waiting at the airport to board our flight marks the beginning of our journey. We check in early so we do not have to stand in line. But we really go there early to relax and enjoy the company in anticipation of our trip. We just sit around talking story. To kill time, we walk into the Duty Free shop to gawk at all the luxury goods that we cannot afford. I am sure that the clerks think that we are just taking up space.

I cannot believe that the Burger King at the Honolulu airport charges 8 bucks for a breakfast value meal. There must be gold flakes in the tater tots.

The flight is full.............

Next stop Tokyo!!!!

The second day of our trips to Japan is always the most challenging as we battle jet lag. This is the longest day as most of us usually wake up around 3AM (8AM HST). It's a battle to stay up until 10PM or later so that we have normal sleep patterns for the rest of the trip.



There is no better day to go to the World's largest fish market, Tsukiji. Tsukiji is indeed Japan's pantry. You can find any species of fish from around the world at Tsukiji.



Tsukiji is broken up into sections. The inner market is home to the auction. As you move outward, there are wholesalers. On the outside, there are retailers.



My breakfast was this Otoro Donburi. Chunks of Otoro scrapings on a bed of sushi rice, with japanese scallions. The bowl included a crab claw. The total cost......1400 yen. What a deal. The quality of fish used by the restaurants in Tsukiji. Kurt, our resident fish expert concurred that the fish was fresh and of high quality. The otoro melted in our mouth.

Beware!!!

Traveling can sometimes be dangerous. Here is a curious sign that we found on our trip to Hakone in 2006.

I think it means that we should make sure that we are not the slowest runner. In fact, we should be faster than three other people in the group to escape danger.

Countdown to Vacation

We had our trip meeting at Ojiya Restaurant in Honolulu.

We had one unidentified guest join us. He is prominently seated in the second row of the picture.

We enjoyed great food and drink. It was our "training" session before the trip.

Gobo chips were a pleasant surprise. Complements beer very well. After all they are chips.

Yakitori was also pretty tasty for Hawaii standards.

Mom, Rae, Malcolm, Tim, Chris, Lee glad you all could make it.

Rich, glad you could make it. Since you have internet, you can follow our trip from Hawaii.

Counting down the days.