Claustrophobia Setting In

We have never lived on base and right now we are living there but not in a house...in a hotel room. We don't have a car and are relying on our great sponsor, Joey to show us around. Chad and the girls and I had to get out today to do some exploring. So...we set out for Tokyo. There is a ton to see in that massive city, but today we went to the Imperial Palace and Asakusa.

Here are the girls waiting on our first train ride.

The Imperial Palace is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is only open to the public 2 days a year, today not being one of them. They have beautiful gardens to walk around and is an oasis in this large concrete city. The girls loved watching the fish and swans in the moats. They also had a fantastic fountain garden.



Here is one of the old guardhouses (Obansho).

After the Imperial Palace we hopped back on the metro and went to Asakusa (pronounced Asocksa) where there is the oldest Temple in Japan. We first stopped for lunch at this Tempura place that we read about. Again, Lauren loved her meal and Allie ate sticky rice. Allie did like the custard for dessert. Chad and I both thought the food was delicious. It is so much more fun to eat at out in town than on base. At the entrance to the Temple area is a long street that has tons of shops. The girls loved the ice cream shop. They got grape and citron (lemon), but there were many more interesting varieties to choose from.

After the ice cream treat we went to the main temple. They were burning incense and washing their hands in water. Many traditions that we didn't understand, but just stared and gawked.

This below is the 5-story pagoda.

We had a very fun day today and learned a lot. And it was then nice to get back to our small slice of America on base.