April 2

The next morning, our first priority was getting more Yen (since Wamu changed to Chase we have a ridiculously low withdrawal limit on our checking account... grrr). It was time to use my Japanese. Fortunately, Japanese for ATM is: Ay-tee-Emmu. Unfortunately, none of the ATMs we tried would accept foreign debit cards. And not all of them were in English. We would just push buttons and figured it was "Deposit" when the machine picture asked for our card and some bills, an "Withdrawal" when it only asked for our card. This plan seemed brilliant, but the machine still wasn't accepting our card. We asked the guy in the ATM next to us for help. It didn't work for him either...so he escorted us to another ATM down the street. Another Japanese person going out of his way to help us. Nice. Sadly, this one didn't work either. Also, it was REALLY windy (the news showed a bunch of bicycles that had fallen over... it was a big deal), so the train that goes by our apartment (and is above-ground), was not running. So we made the really long walk to the next-nearest line... I almost flew away... anyway...
Next to figure out the train system. We figured out how to buy day passes from the machine, and were trying to get through the gate to the platform (the trick is, you have to put your ticket through this little slot... don't worry, it gives the ticket back) when a nice British man asked we needed help. I don't know if I can describe the relief of hearing English after a morning of confusion and kanji. Anyway, he helped us on our train, and told us the location of a Citibank that would accept foreign bank cards.
Let me just say, Citibank, you are my best friend. Any qualms I may previously have had with you are now well in the past.
Here:

Clap for citibank. Do it. I'll give you a minute.
Ok, you ready? Cash in hand, our first stop was the Edo-Tokyo museum. It is a museum of the Edo through modern periods of Tokyo history. It was some pretty interesting stuff, and a good background for the trip. The pictures don't really do the models justice, sadly, but... they did have some pretty cool models:

A daimyo's estate, Edo period
Townspeople's quarters, Edo Period



Also, me in a palanquin. Important people would be carried in these little boxes for travel. They are pretty small and... no little TVs for entertainment! ::sob::


This one was interesting... this is the home of a regular townsperson/merchant during the Edo period. The woman in the back has just given birth. After giving birth, the women had to sit up for 7 days straight, because they thought it would be bad for their health for all the blood of childbirth to rush to their heads. Apparently, the reverse was true, and a lot of women suffered/died due to this tradition.


Here's one of a Kabuki stage. Such elaborate costumes.


And Erik riding a Meiji era (very westernized) bicycle


We also liked this post-war era advertisement for a car.


We tried to get sumo wrestler food in the sumo wrestler neighborhood, but we couldn't find the restuarant we were looking for, so we just settled for one that had plastic food models in the window. We went inside and kind of awkwardly stood there, until one of the waitresses pointed out a vending machine at the front of the store. It looked like this:


We were still confused when some nice English-speaking Japanese people told us how to use it. You input money into the machine and push the button to indicate which food you want. The machine then prints out a little paper that you hand to the waitress. This way, when you're done eating, you can just leave. Also if you don't speak Japanese, you can use pictures and eliminate the necessity of communicating with the waitress! Yay!
After lunch we went to the Asakusa Kannon temple. The approach to the temple was filled with shops and cherry blossoms.


They had little gift shop-like places, as well as people cooking food right there on the street. We bought some yummies and went up to the temple.

Below is a picture of a big pot that people put incense in. While the incense is burning, people walk up and wave the smoke into their faces with their hands. At least, that's what they seemed to be doing, so I went up and did it too. Erik thinks I am silly.


I didn't want to drink from the fountain though:


There was a really pretty garden next to the temple:



***
Some observations:
1) Tokyo women are BEAUTIFUL, and always impeccably dressed. I guess it's pretty similar to New York, but I don't know if I was expecting everybody to look like TV stars.
2) We have run into A LOT of very nice people that have come to rescue our clueless American butts.