Alex seemed to fare better than I did his first night. Like a smart person he went to bed at 11:00 and got a good night's sleep. We said that we were going to try to get up and see the Tokyo fish market but our drinking the night before kept us from doing so. The market is where tuna is sent after it is caught off the east coast. It is unloaded and sold at auction at six in the morning. Getting there would mean waking up around five. I guess we will try again tomorrow. Pete, Alex and I got cleaned up and then walked into Shibuya again. I find and internet cafe and a bunch of disks so that I can continue to post these pages. It has been difficult because, like everyone here, Colin has a cell phone so he has no need for a phone line in his house. This leaves me with nowhere to connect to the internet. When it is time for lunch, we decide to try a sushi place Pete knows. The restaurant looks more like an eating factory. A half dozen chefs constantly prepare dishes. The food gets placed on a conveyor belt and as you see a dish you like you pull it off the line. Even in this expensive country, each dish is only 100 Yen or about a dollar a plate.
Alex is a little timid at first but he soon starts eating the tuna. There is a five dish minimum at the restaurant and Pete takes one of my plates. I have three dishes of tuna, rice and wasabe and one of rice, chewy tasteless squid and wasabe. They are all excellent. From the sushi restaurant we get on a train and went to a large park with a temple in it. As we enter the park there is an immense Japanese-style arch that we read is the largest one in the country.
We walk under one more arch on the way to the temple. The Shinto temple was built in the 1920's to honor an emperor who used to love the park. It is built in traditional Japanese architecture and is very serene.
Monks dressed in elaborate robes move about the temple, conducting their business. We watch as one kneels in and prays in the building above.