Tokyo, Japan - Day 35 (day 2 in Tokyo)

A subway entrance is actually inside our hotel, so we didn't even have to walk outside to begin our day.  We caught the "H" line, changed to the "G" line and arrived at Senso-ji Temple in a half hour.

Senso-ji Temple (aka Asakusa Kannon) is Tokyo's most sacred and spectacular temple.  There has been a temple on this site since AD645 but nothing survived after the destruction of WWII. The current layout follows earlier periods layout.

We first walked the Nakamise-dori, basically an alleyway of traditional wares, obi sashes, haircombs, fans, dolls, kimonos and lots of souvenirs.  The temple's main hall has a gold-plated shrine that houses the original Kannon image found by two fisherman in AD628.  Next door is a beautiful five-story pagoda.  The temple is very interesting especially seeing all the locals praying and doing their daily rituals.

Then we caught the metro over to Ueno Park to visit the Tokyo National Museum.   This park is huge and has many museums, a zoo, shrines, a festival hall, natural science venues and more.  Along the way, we ran into squads and squads of children on their way to see the Giant Pandas at the zoo.

The park also has an ornate complex of halls called Tosho-gu Shrine and is one of Tokyo's few remaining Edo-era structures.  Ieyasu was enshrined here before he was reburied at Nikko (which we are going to visit tomorrow.)

We didn't notice until we reached this sign that the beautiful shrine we were photographing was actually just a plastic shroud (I deleted the pictures once I caught on.)  The temple was under reconstruction!  Disappointment but what can you do?

We finished the park by a walk along the lake.  It was hard to find since it is actually under all these plants.

We then headed over to the shopping alleys that surround the metro station for the park and shopped for an hour or so.  We then headed back to our hotel to have a fabulous dinner at the restaurant that sits atop our hotel.  It is named Peter's and has awesome views across the parks of the Imperial Palace.  Dinner was more than one could ask and we enjoyed it tremendously.

By the way, this city is very, very expensive for Americans.  The exchange rates make even the most ordinary things pricey.  Tipping, though, is considered insulting.  So you do save some money there even though a 10% service charge is added to most things.