Tokyo - first day of sightseeing

We left the Narita Airport area
at 9am, picked up a fast train
into Tokyo proper, and headed
to the Oak Hotel, our base camp
for the next 6 days.

The train ride was amazing, and
although there were may
picture taking opportunities, we were just so amazed at all
we saw that we just didn't think to have the camera going
too often. Not only that, the Keisei Skyline train is a high
speed train (not the bullet train, which is reserved for next
Sunday, June 24th) we were in Tokyo in just over an hour.

After some minor misdirections, and some help from
a few Japanese individuals (including two policemen who
did not speak English, but pointed out directions on a large
map) we made it to the hotel, where we dropped off our
luggage, and waited for our friend, Yoshiko, who was going
to be our tour guide for the day.

We did not know what she was planning for us, but it was quite
an adventure. The bus and subway system is amazing, and I
am so glad we had someone familiar with it the first time out,
as it has given us a sense of how it works!

Our friend met us at our hotel (the Oak Hotel in the Ueno
district of Tokyo) and took us on a tour of two different
areas of the city.

She first took us to the
Tokyo Central train station,
with the focus of our
direction to be the
Emperor's palace and the
government buildings section
of the city.

It was a humid and hot afternoon, but we were blessed
with periods of a cooling wind that came thru to cool us
off.

I was so impressed with the amount of trees that had
been planted in this part of the city. A good day to be
tourists! Our friendly "tour guide" mentioned that a
few weeks ago, during a special week of celebrations,
there was a 60km traffic jam in the area near the
parliament buildings. Hard to really picture.

So far, we have seen many people, but have not had to
deal with extremely full subway buses and jam packed
sidewalks, allowing both Ken and I the opportunity to
really soak in the atmosphere. The buildings are narrow
and tall, and lots of bikes and trains transporting people
hither and yon.

I have to keep remembering that Japan drives on the
other side of the road! Then I need to be looking right
instead of left when crossing the road.

Our second stop of the afternoon was at the Sensoji Temple
and that was amazing. the buildings were so large. Very
ornate, with lots of gold leaf
highlighting ornamentation.
If I figure out a better term
for it, I will put it in.






We will update with some more pictures after our next day of
sightseeing and just taking things in.

Hope you enjoy today's pictures. Eventually we will put more up
on a different website, but I will include that link when we have done
that.

Until next post!

Ken & Penny in Tokyo.