Sunday, March 29, 2026
I woke up at 4am and had to check on the No Kings rallies happening at home. I had a picture from Donna of Nancy
and pictures from friend Jean.
Friend Cheryl had listed some things she heard that she really liked. I liked them too.
We are all connected. None of us are free ’til all of us are free
Push the lines forward
Rebellions are built on hope
Hold steady. Touch the ground.
We will take back our damn country.
We will not be broken.
Diversity is our witness.
We get there together or never get there at all.
Radicalized by compassion, radicalized by decency.
Don’t walk past suffering, act!
On to our recap of the day:
Our room last night had mats on the floor for sleeping, a low table to use from the floor, a common bath area on the lowest level, cold water-only tap in the sink, and a toilet that spent about 4 really loud minutes filling the tank after flushing. We decided that it was fun to “camp” on the floor one night, but we moved hotels tonight (leaving Kristine and Mike behind) (they are campers, afterall). We are really glad to have had the experience for one night. Our new hotel is fancy. We appreciated curling up in the king-sized bed this evening as we tried to watch Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. We got to watch the previously (to remember the oh so much of season one) but it wouldn’t show the video for the new season, so we had to abandon it. We thought Godzilla was the perfect choice to watch in Japan!
This morning we went to the Imperial Palace here in town. It was built circa 745, and rebuilt several times in the intervening thousand years (pesky fires) until the emperor moved to Tokyo in 1869. The cherry blossoms are making everything look like it needs to have its picture taken.
At one point, we walked through an gateway and I said, “Epcot.” I recognized the inspiration for the building in the Japan pavilion of Epcot right away. I had no idea if I was right, but I asked my phone and confirmed.
There was a display showing all the parts of dressing for court back in the day. It was not a small deal, but the end result was beautiful.
The POTD is of a demonstration of a game called Kemari. The outfits were the best part – those and the emperor from Mulan standing in the corner watching. It is basically hackysack with a bigger ball. Fun to watch. And there were chairs.
The emperor was not stingy in making lovely gardens within the palace area.
We trained away to a neighborhood known for people wearing traditional clothes. Kristine found a gluten free ramen shop, and we found a burger place next door. We were going to ramen, but the burger smells lured us in. Lucky us, because our meals were terrific!! Mike’s ramen came with raw beef slices on the edges of the bowl (curious), and the ramen lady came and used a torch to cook them at the table. Not gonna lie, that would have been cool. But still, Upit burger for the win.
We walked all around the food booths in the area (after we ate. We didn’t know).
I took so many pictures of lovely kimonos. There were men dressed up too, but I never got a good picture.
At a shrine, people were putting prayers on papers – then if you could fit through the hole in the bottom it would increase your chances of your prayers coming true.
As we were walking to the train, I heard a distinctive click click click coming from inside a store. I had watched a video about making candy before we left and I just KNEW that was what was happening inside the Candy Show store. I was right. They were on the last step – snapping tiny pieces of candy off the long sticks that had been rolled out. There were so many choices, by the time I came out, the ice cream brigade had scored their latest treats. My candy was better.
We stopped in a chopstick store to shop for potential presents. I wanted them all. I picked out the ones with tiny kitties for Alexander. I didn’t get them, because he would just give me wrinkly eyebrows when I gave them to him, but they sure were cute.
We got here with the information that we should stay to the left when walking. They drive on the left, they walk on the left. So far, that has been true, except when it isn’t. And that is pretty often. There are sometimes arrows on the steps in the stations – there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for left or right up or down.
Mike navigated us home with precision ability. Kristine hoped aloud for an upscalator – her knee is hurting (no surprise since all days have been over 20,000 steps) and we are all all worn out. She won.
Random pictures from the day
Every day just seems to be better – wonderful stuff to see and interesting stuff to eat. The money tied up in all of those kimonos is very significant – makes my head spin to think about so MANY of them. Thousands at the Traverse City No Kings rally. It was a huge day across the U.S. The Twin Cities are inspiring. Thanks for making smiles from Japan every day!
There were stores that rented kimono, and some looked not as … luxurious? I wondered if they were rental. I wore my MN shirt yesterday to help me feel closer to the people standing up at the rallies.