Thursday in Tokyo

Thursday was verrrry cold! The high was forecast to be about 4 degrees and that would not be till the late afternoon. So we decided to try and do as much as we could indoors to stay warm.  Late on Wednesday night on the way back to the apartment, we saw a glasses place where Fran saw frames that she liked and the price was quite reasonable (not at all like China but certainly cheaper than North American prices). So we began Thursday with a visit to the optician and we ordered glasses. 

We then headed to a section of town called Roppongi Hills, close to our apartment. This is a fairly upscale area and it contains many foreign embassies; as a result you see many Westerners in the area. The tallest building in the area is the Mori Towers, a 54 story skyscraper named for its builder Minoru Mori. It has a floor space of over 4 million square feet making it one of the largest buildings in the world. There is an Art Museum on the 53rd floor and an observation deck (one of many in the Tokyo area) on the 52nd floor. It was still quite

overcast so we opted to save our visit to an observatory for a clear day and instead went to the art museum. There were two exhibits; one of Rembrandt, Vermeer and their colleagues and one modern art exhibit. We chose the Rembrandt exhibit which had art pieces on loan from major galleries around the world.  It was a very beautiful exhibit and we spent a few hours marvelling at the numerous paintings by the Dutch Masters.  When we emerged from the museum, the sun had come out and even tho the temperature had not improved, the heat of the sun made walking quite pleasant.  We walked back to our apartment, ate lunch and then headed by subway to Ginza, one of the most famous

and most expensive shopping districts in the world. It is not the names on the stores but the very distinctive architecture of the buildings that amazed us. And as night fell, there was an exceptional neon display on all the buildings. 

We had arranged with Kyle, the chef from Chabad to prepare an authentic Japanese meal for us and had set a time for dinner at 7 PM. We were the only diners that night and Kyle had prepared a miso soup as well as three types of sushi; fresh tuna, fresh salmon and fresh sole. He must have thought that we were very hungry because this was the largest amount of sushi that we had ever seen; about 20 large rolls for each of us. We could not finish it so we gave whatever we could not eat to one of the local Chabad people. Here is Fran with what was on her plate after she finished eating!

After such a large meal, we decided that walking back to the apartment (about 35 minutes) would be a good idea and we staggered into bed after a very busy day. Tomorrow, Friday, as it is expected to be clear and much warmer, it is off to Bunkyo Civic Centre and its observation deck for a chance to get a good pic of the Tokyo skyline and perhaps a peak at Mount Fuji in the distance.  All the best  Fran and David