So much going

Saturday, April 4, 2026

We wanted to visit an art store that is right on the corner by our train station before we took off for the day, but when we got there it opened a half an hour later than the internet had said. Mike knows all the things so he suggested we go to the Hands department store a few blocks away. It was exactly the kind of store that I wanted to go to when I suggested the fancy department store the other day. We ended up spending several hours. Each of the six floors had three levels. It was an absolute delight to look at all their craft stuff and their homewares and woodworking tools and stationary and pens and markers and cool things where you melt the wax and seal your envelope and build your own wooden things and music boxes and… I think you get the idea. (You also get the idea what I was interested in. There was everything – there were 50 different kinds of umbrellas!)

Kristine bought a bag and got a free rain cover for it. Everything was 5% off today because it was a rainy day – but the app is not available for us, so we couldn’t get the discount. We all went back to their room (at a different hotel down the street from us because we couldn’t get a room there) to drop off the bag. Kristine says she has learned from Keith to check the size of the room in the future. Rooms are not as standard outside of the US as they are in it.

It took three trains today, but we were rewarded when we got off with a grocery store. It was a small grocery store, but it was still a grocery store. We have been very interested to find one because grocery stores are always super interesting. Christine has been looking for peanut butter in all the convenience stores because she found some rice crackers and she loves peanut butter on them. She found it today! To get the price in dollars for something, divide the number you see by 160.

Our major adventure for the day was visiting a museum that just opened on March 31st. We were not the only people who thought a rainy Saturday would be a good day to visit a museum.

There were five or six of these umbrella stand stations around. Everywhere has umbrella stands and hotels all offer umbrellas to use.

It was kind of slow going through the museum because there were so many people. There was an audio guide for the beginning section, which was good because everything else was in Japanese. I was concerned when the audio guide was done because we had a lot more museum to see, but they had translated most of the signs into English. Most of – because we skipped whole sections of pictures and posters and drawings and maps because we had absolutely no idea what they were. It still took many hours to get through the museum so that was probably good for us that we couldn’t read it.

There was a big display of models of Edo as it was built as a shogunate. They were so interesting to look at but the pictures will be really lame because that is somehow always how pictures are.

The armor was amazing. I don’t know how it was made. Obviously, it was made by hand, but I really wanted information on the process of sewing or creating or however it was made. I will have to use the Googles.

This big bell was the Bell of Time. There was a time bell guy whose job it was to strike it every hour. The peasants who lived within earshot of it were charged a very small amount of money every month for the service. I don’t think it was optional.

This palanquin was actually from the Tokugawa family. It is amazing to look at the small space for the passenger. I wonder if it was comfortable.

This giant thing is a float – as in a parade float. There was a big celebration – I can’t remember what they were celebrating- on the 15th of the 9th month every year. They made giant floats and this is an exact copy of one.

I was really interested in their buried wooden water pipes. Huh. Starting in the early 17th century, they had water running all over the city. Good job guys.

Theater back in the day was really important to the rich and the peasant.

I have never really studied the Pacific front during World War II. I know a lot about the Holocaust and a lot about battles in Europe, but the Pacific is pretty much unknown to me. For example, on March 10th, 1945, the United States bombed Tokyo and killed 100,000 people that night. Tokyo was so bombed that it was basically obliterated and taken off the bombing target list because there was nothing left. That information makes it harder to understand the decision to use the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There was a very cool section called 100 Famous Views of Edo. Japanese artist Hiroshige completed 98 prints before he died in 1858. A student of his finished a last one, and a title print was added to make 100. They are all hung in a gallery, with QR codes to see what the view is today. We did not take the time to look at all of them, but I still thought it was very cool.

One time, I was in a rickshaw. Keith missed it. I went in a different rickshaw so he could see me. I cannot imagine having a person work to pull me. Mike said it was what the soccer team does to train in the off season. I thought that was both funny and possibly true.

I’ve never seen Olympic medals before. They are bigger and thicker than I expected.

As we walked out of the museum, there was a lady posing (there is ALWAYS a lady posing) and I told Kris we should learn and do. They walked away and Keith said it was my turn. Kristine said she could only do it if no one was around (there is ALWAYS someone around.) I had to work SO hard not to laugh.

We did our usual walk and look and try to figure out menus outside the train station. I was thinking that it would really help a restaurant to get a visitor from the United States to make a sign to put outside the restaurant to explain the restaurant to the passing tourists who are trying to figure things out. They could advertise NOT SCARY CHICKEN PARTS!! And FOOD IS COOKED! And WE HAVE VEGETABLES! (Which they wouldn’t have to do because hardly anywhere has vegetables, but wouldn’t it be great if they did) Stuff we want to know but can’t figure out from the awful pictures or unappealing plastic food samples. Everyone we have interacted with has been very willing to try to communicate (very patient), but English is not common. There is more spoken in Tokyo, but more written in the other towns. Interesting.

We ate at Pepper Lunch for our early dinner. It seemed to have hamburger patties with rice on top, but they looked really raw. If you got an egg and a hamburger, only the egg looked raw. If you got two hamburgers, they looked really good, but two hamburgers seemed like a really lot. We ordered from a kiosk outside. Keith and I both ordered steak. When we clicked on side items, I decided to just go wild. I ordered corn and cheese and onion sauce. Keith ordered corn and broccoli and garlic margarine and a double order of rice. When our food came, we found out that corn and broccoli just come with the steak, so we had ordered extra. The garlic margarine also came on the steak, but Keith got extra. The meat came raw but in a sizzling hot metal bowl. There were tongs at the table so we could turn our meat over and cook it. Cooking at the table just seems like a thing here even when you don’t expect it. So, I guess the raw hamburger was going to be cooked by the bowl and I didn’t have to worry about it. Wow, I could have had a cooked egg….

We had quite a debate after dinner about whether or not we were going to go to the brand new world’s largest fountain – think Bellagio type of fountain. I have real FOMO about things, so I was torn, but Keith’s feet were really hurting him, and we needed to do a load of laundry. Laundry. Just seemed like the right thing to do is to come back to the hotel. Kristine and Mike were going to go to the fountain and we were going to have to navigate the three trains home. I really believe that Keith could get us home, but I was really really glad when Kristine and Mike decided to put it off and maybe go tomorrow. On the way to the train station, we saw some proof Keith and I are not the biggest people in Japan.

We have seen chocolate fish here and there and have been talking about having them. Now was the time. It’s a little fish-shaped pastry filled with chocolate or custard or red bean paste. Guess which one we didn’t consider? We all ended up with chocolate – Kristine just gets extra chocolate squeezed out of Mike’s. I think it might be the best $2.10 that you can spend.

We checked on the laundry machines on the way into the hotel, and they were both in use. One had 16 minutes left. There was a man and a woman there with a bag of laundry, but they both left. We scurried upstairs and grabbed the laundry. I sent Keith back to wait it out while I started this picture of the day. He texted that a lady came 5 minutes before the washer was done and said she wouldn’t be drying (it’s a washer dryer combo machine). He got in! We so totally lead a charmed life. No one else can take your clothes out of the washing machine because you have to put in a code that locks it in before you start the laundry. How cool is that? I love it so much. Keith ran the dryer cycle twice – all the coins he had left – and things are not very dry. Hopefully decorating the room with hanging clothes will work tonight. He met a nice Bulgarian man who was waiting for a washer. And waiting. And waiting. The other washer was done, but the person didn’t ever come back. HEIGHT OF RUDENESS, PERSON!!!! Eventually he went to the front desk. They took the clothes and left a note – if you want your clothes you have to face us. (Maybe not exactly that….)

Add on pictures from today…

We missed this one from yesterday and it could not be denied!

Best part of this was Kristine saying, “This looks like avocado…”

K is for Kristine

Cute McDonald’s art. (Yes, we had breakfast there again.)

Saw it, forgot to go back and look inside