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| Kaminari Mon (Lightning Gate)--the main entrance to the Asakusa Grounds |
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| Atop Tokyo Tower (Japan's slightly taller version of the Eiffel) along with friends Jon and Jean |
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| The subways are a great option, but you've got to have your hands free--Edie had to ride in back |
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| It was so crowded that we were constantly checking to make sure we hadn't lost anyone |
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| Yep, there sure are a whole bunch of people living down there--as far as the eye can see |
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| Edie quickly figured out that the Japanese have the sleeping on trains idea just right |
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Our weekend visit to Tokyo turned out to be quite a lesson in traffic jams of all sorts (vehicular as well as pedestrian). We unknowingly visited one of the major Tokyo tourist atractions, the Asakusa Temple near downtown Tokyo, on a major festival weekend. (Of course, how do you define downtown in a city of 30 million?) In terms of having a true tourist experience, we couldn't have chosen a better time to visit Asakusa.
As we drove into the city on the expressway, Grandma Sue looked up at all the buildings and commented that it really is a big city. What she didn't realize until we pointed it out to her was that we were riding on an elevated highway about 4 or 5 stories off the ground. Tokyo is an amazing mess of multi level highways and local roads, so we opted to use the subway once we got to the city.
As our day of sightseeing came to an end, we decided to try one last mode of transportation: the taxi. We heaved our tired bodies into a taxi and our stroller and diaper bag into its trunk and headed for the parking garage where we had left our car. Though we made it to the car safely, our belongings, unfortunately, did not. We had forgotten to retrieve them from the taxi's trunk! Our Tokyo adventure ended up costing us more than we had expected. While we hadn't lost one single item of great value, our losses totaled about $200---a high price for a ten minute taxi ride!
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