Thursday, August 4, 2011

The BLOG Resurrected! A New Chapter in Travels: JAPAN

It's 4:30am in the city of Tokyo- this journey is a new chapter in the blog that began over a year ago with my daughter Jubie and now will be carried on my myself. Rather than setting up an entirely new blog, it seemed easier to resurrect our original travel blog and breathe new life into it.
I am here in Tokyo to share at a conference of drum circle facilitator's. As I arrived in the Tokyo airport after a surprisingly easy 14 hour flight from EWR, I noticed the airport staff in a rather large group doing movement exercises- it was around noon and this must be one of the ways in which they take their breaks. Fascinating!
My host for the conference, a lovely friendly man named Tak, met me at the airport (always a most wonderful treat) and off we went into the city of Tokyo. The city is a busy bustling place like so many other cities I have seen along my travels, but there is one major difference for me- it is one of the quietest cities I have ever experienced. The streets are filled in the late afternoon with cars and people, but I have yet to hear a single horn blow, a siren, loud music booming from cars - it is simple astonishing to me!
It is, as I said, now almost 5am and I have my window open to a rainy (of course I happen to be here at the beginning of monsoon season, a seemingly signature feature of travel for me) morning in Tokyo and I can hear all kinds of birds, if I close my eyes I could imagine being at the seaside from the sounds I am hearing. What an amazing difference!
Yesterday we visited a temple that resides in the middle of downtown, it was fun to see the mix of people, many were in very traditional Japanese garments in and around the temple. After our temple excursion and a visit to some wonderful music and percussion stores, I was beginning to fade quickly so Tak took me to my hotel and we dropped off bags and walked down the street to a cute little sushi place that had all kinds of unrecognizable sushi variations moving in front of us on a conveyor belt. I pulled off things I knew I had eaten before such as shrimp, crab and salmon and left some of the other more gelatinous looking fish versions, including a bunch of octopus variations on the belt. I have been to sushi bars in the states and I really like this idea that an ever changing array of food appears in front of you and you just pull a plate off when you see something you like. Ah sushi!

2 comments:

Daryl at Vermont Cottage said...

How wonderful for you, Mary! Have a terrific time. I'll be here in Vermont following your latest journey :).

Yosustah said...

great idea. Mary. I look forward to following your adventure. Love, Mary Lu