So, the Prime Minister of Japan resigned....

..... and in other news, my father is here and I am slowly introducing him into the wonderful edible world of cold, raw, semi-slimy quivering slivers of crustaceans, bottom feeders and non-scaled sea dweller.  It's baby steps right now.  We're still working our way up to sushi.  Hopefully, some day we'll get there.

After maneuvering from the airport to my house and collapsing into a coma-like sleep at 8:30 p.m., Dad woke up chipper, bright-eyed, and ready to start the day at 4:15 a.m.  We had a great time exploring the Asakusa area of Tokyo, much of which survived the fire bombing during the war.  We started off at Senso-ji temple, getting our fortunes, tossing coins into the temple offering bank, munching crunchy rice crackers and glutinous sweet rice cakes.  Dad got a good fortune, but I got a bad one, so I tied mine to the beams so that the wind would disperse my bad luck.  Dad delighted almost everyone by saying "sumimasen" (Japanese for "excuse me") as much as possible.  Men and women alike would turn around, break out into big grins and compliment him on his extremely good Japanese.  It was pretty hilarious.

After Senso-ji, we trotted off to the Inari-cho district of Tokyo, which sells Buddhist and Shinto alter goods that people use in their homes.  These basically consist of beautifully carved small wooden chests that have many shelves inside to hold prayer beads, incense, small bells, photos of a deceased family member, candles, religious statues like foxes and buddhas, and probably best of all.... small wax models of food or drink that the deceased was known to enjoy.  We saw small plastic sushi, curry rice models, beer and sake.  Pretty great.  The beer can was actually a candle as well, so it doubled in function... so efficient!

After Inari-cho, we took a brief break at a Shinto shrine that the district was named after.  We ritually purified ourselves by rinsing our hands and then sat on a bench in the shade to people watch.  A couple of men sat at a nearby bench taking a cigarette/tea break.  A black suited business man approached the shrine, briefcase in hand and neatly progressed through his religious observation.  A young woman in a hat, backpack, walking shoes and camera meandered in out, snapping photos and offering lengthy prayers.

We ate a hearty teishoku lunch of rice, miso soup, glazed meatballs and pickles.  Dad had tempura seafood and veggies and I had an eel egg bowl.  We wandered down the frenetic Ameyoko Arcade, up to Ueno Park, and all the way up the length of the park until we arrived at the Tokyo National Museum.  We both agreed that it's a museum complex that deserves much more time than the average visitor is able to give it.  I've blogged about this museum, which is mainly concerned with the development of the Japanese aesthetic from prehistoric times to present.  It's at the top of a Tokyo recommendation list.

We were pretty tired at that point, and wandered back to my house where we ate a small snack of Calpis Soda and curry bread and then collapsed and tried to reclaim some energy.

Photos to come....