Day 1: Tokyo. Teri arrives at the airport and needs to get into town. The trains and subways are confusing (this is the train map), Teri is over-burdened with luggage and is given bad directions by the Tourist information booth in Tokyo station and treks a long way out of the way. She arrives at the New Otani Hotel very tired.
Teri takes the subway to Roppongi and eats dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. This is a "comfort food dinner", the first of many to come.
An example of plastic Italian food outside a restaurant.
This is a busy restaurant/bar district near the hotel. Bright lights, Big city.
Day 2: Tokyo. Teri ventures back to the subway.
After a lunch of "fried something on a stick" and a spring roll, Teri is ready to visit Sensoji Temple, one of the premier sights in Tokyo.
The walk up to Sensoji is lined with vendor stalls.
These are hagoita, elaborately decorated paddles. From the Internet: "Hanetsuki is a kind of Japanese badminton game played with shuttlecocks called hane and decorative paddles called hagoita. During the Edo period, artisans created elaborate designs on the backs of the paddles with quilted silk, featuring Ukiyoe caricatures of popular Kabuki actors, and many merchants set up hagoita shops outside Sensoji Temple. Since hagoita were especially popular among women collectors, it has since become a custom to give a hagoita as a gift to celebrate the birth of a girl. The game of hanetsuki is also a traditional celebration of spring."
This is the main courtyard of Sensoji Temple.