So very very tired. I guess we’ve been walking 8-10 miles a day and we’re hurting! Everywhere you go is by subway or train and all the stations are well below the city so you have to walk up and down stairs all day to get in/out of the stations. Our legs hurt in all kinds of ways. Seeing an escalator is a blessing. The stations are incredibly busy, the busiest in the world, and it’s fascinating to watch the people come and go (and learn not to get flattened). You figure out which line, which station, how much, buy a ticket, put the ticket in the machine, keep the ticket handy because you need it when you get out, and go go go.
This morning we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Towers. It’s a twin set of towers with observatories at the top of each tower about 45 stories up. Here a view of the city from one of them. We were hoping to see Mount Fuji (60 miles away) but the weather has to be just right for that and today it was clear but hazy.
We also went to Ueno, via a marketplace where they sell lots of American goods. (The Japanese are crazy about Mickey Mouse, Sesame Street, Levis and Winnie the Pooh.) In Ueno we went to a park where there were different artists set up along a long promenade. Some were singers, one was a comedian, others were musicians. We turned a corner and a young man was set up playing a theremin! That was a weird thing to come across. We also saw people feeding tofu to a feral cat colony.
We went to a small museum that houses examples of how people in Japan lived in the last eighty years or so before WWII and the big earthquake of 1923. There were replicas of houses and businesses and the materials that are in them, beds, fire places, clothes, etc.
We also went to the National Museum, which houses the historical arts of Japan going back to 10,000 BC. Scrolls, armored clothing, weaponry, embroidery, painted screens, lacquer ware, etc.
Here are some of the goofy signs we’ve seen so far.
A doctor’s office? 
I have no idea….
My favorite, a parcel delivery service:
The Japanese food pyramid: 
Oh, and best manhole covers EV
ER. 
