Next we quickly walked over to Yo Yogi Park to check out the Meiji Shrine. The park was really nice. We only got to take a quick look as we raced over to the Shrine.
They were in the process of taking down a display of ice sculptures and lanterns that probably would have been really pretty if we had gone to the park the day before.
We took a really quick look at the Shrine. It was a pretty simple wooden structure which looked beautiful against the lush park. I wish we had more time to appreciate the area as well as Takeshita. It would have been a great place to spend the afternoon. We didn't plan well, if the morning tickets hadn't sold out for Ghibli our timing would have worked much better.
At any rate we rushed over to the Ghibli museum next. It was a really cool place. Ghibli is an animation studio that produces a lot of really cool movies. I think people in Japan think of it the way Americans think of Disney. Ru is an exceptionally talented animator and since she recommended the museum I had really high expectations. I made Danny get a bunch of Ghibli films so I could watch them before we went. I hadn't seen very many previously. The museum was really cool and worth the trip. The only thing I didn't like was it was a bit small and the gift shop was sort of lame. I was really excited to check out the museum shop and was surprised a place as inventive as Ghibli didn't sell more unique items. I was also sad they didn't let you take any pictures inside. Despite that, the place was awesome. There was a film playing which hadn't been released elsewhere. It was a 15 minute movie about mice that were sumo wrestlers. It was adorable. The movie tickets were little mini film negatives. The museum had life size scenes from some of the movies like a cat bus and various displays of unique forms of animation.
After the museum we had a late lunch at one of those revolving sushi restaurants. The food moves around the restaurant in a little conveyor belt. They have them in Shanghai and elsewhere but it was fun to try one in Tokyo. It was really cheap, about a quarter the price of the place at Tsukiji fish market. The waitress had them make my vegetarian rolls without a problem. All the restaurants in Japan and in Shanghai have photos on the menus which makes it easier. They also usually have very realistic plastic displays of the food.
We decided for the evening to go back to Roppongi so we could see the Mori Museum and the observatory. It was located on a high floor of a shopping mall. Now that we got to see the mall during the day while it was opened, we saw that it was a really nice area with random pieces of public art. The work exhibited at the Mori Museum was beautiful. They didn't let me take photos but I ended up buying a really beautiful book of Kuniyoshi's work. Afterwards we hung out in the observatory and got some sorbet at the restaurant there.
After Roppongi we were so exhausted we decided to go back to the hotel for the night and just have dinner at the restaurant next door. We didn't plan to do much else but when Danny checked online at the hotel he found out his friend Kevin who lives in Tokyo had written him back so we arranged to meet him for dinner next door. I think it is always really cool to meet someone who lives locally when visiting a foreign country. I had never met Kevin before but he was a really nice guy and he had some interesting insights into living in Tokyo. After dinner we went for a walk with Kevin to look at the Asakusa Shrine. He pointed out to us that the Japanese words at the bottom of the lantern in the middle of the Shrine say brought to you by Panasonic. He also told us that in Japan it is legal to drink outside on the street so we proceeded to buy a beer at the convenience store and have a drink on the way back.
In your posts, it struck me that eating vegetarian in Japan is something that requires some effort on your part. You would think that with their Zen heritage, it would not be such a problem. One of the great things about Chinese cuisine is the copious veggie and mock-meat dishes. Isn't seitan a Japanese product? Strange.
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