Seizo, our companion for the day, took us crisscrossing the city today. First to Meiji shrine, then to the shopping area, Asakusa, and its Buddhist temple, Sensoji. He taught us the rituals to clean hands and mouth, and offer a 5 yen coin for luck and bow. And clapping at the Shinto shrine but not at the Buddhist temple. Because the Shinto religion focuses on happiness in this life and is more spirit focused than monotheistic religion, while Buddhism focuses on happiness in the next life, Shinto is used for happier occasions, while Buddhism is more used for funerals and quiet, somber occasions. They pick as they like to suit the purpose. We even had our fortune told at the temple by shaking a box and picking a paper note. Terry got the “best” and I got “good”. Lucky, because this temple is famous for giving bad fortune, which you are then to tie to a rack.

He also took us to see what’s visible of the Imperial palace where the emperor lives, but the actual palace is off limits to regular people.

Seizo said goodbye at Ueno park where a samurai fest was going on. We watched the shows and then went to see the grave of the last shogun nearby. The graves are also famous for cats strolling around but today was a rainy day, and not a cat was to be seen to my dismay.

In the evening we visited Shibuya crossing, the busiest traffic crossing in the world. We saw some insane arcade machines playing a sort of pinball named pachinko. Then we got lost in a 7 floor discount store and bought lots of stuff to bring home. Hours went by. One of the cool things about Japan is that you can shop tax free even in the city if you bring your passport. We ended the day with a nice yakitori restaurant. Yakitori is basically tiny bbq meat skewers and they are incredibly delicious. Of course accompanied by some Japanese sake, the meal was complete.