Hello everyone,
Today was our only totally free day. I went with some friends to a big central park called Uedo park. We saw several beautiful Shinto shrines. You take your shoes off to go in and pay your respects. I bought a blessing for educational success to hang in our classroom.
I also saw a couple of fire trucks and lots of firemen gearing up for a practice. The pictures on on the photo page. Their fire trucks have pretty much the same gear ours do but they are much smaller.
There was a flea market in the park today so my friends and I spent a lot of time looking at all the things for sale. There was all kinds of snack food and teas. There was also lots of pottery and furniture and clothes and just about anything else you could want. It was HUGE, with lots of booths.
After the flea market, we went to the National Museum. The main exhibit was about the history of Japanese art. There was pottery and metal work, paintings and scrolls and clothing. There was a whole room full of samurai armor and some pretty awesome swords!
Then we took a taxi to a fabric wholesale area. The taxi ride took us through some residential areas with very narrow streets and past a school that was filled with kids (on a Saturday!). It was fun to see the areas where people really live, not just the office buildings and stores of downtown Tokyo.
It was a fun day filled with shopping, art and LOTS of walking. Now my feet are tired and so am I. Tomorrow I leave with my group to take the bullet train to Hiroshima. I can't wait to put our cranes on the statue at the Peace Park!
More from me soon.
Love to you all,
Mrs. Calkins