Semi-Sensei, Day 7: Penultimate Day--Gardens, Olympics, an Accidental Shrine Visit, and a Dash of Tourism

I have been slow to post as our last days were busy and then I have been jetlagged while I catch up on my day job.  Still, our last few days were fun and interesting, so I thought I would have four last posts--day7, day 8, some reflections, and then some thoughts on being a tool of info operation campaign.  They should dribble out over the week as I travel to Calgary and then ski in the Banff area.  Yeah, it is a tough job, but someone has got to do it.

Juxtaposition between garden
and 21st century Japan

Bailey and I at the garden.

We visited the Hamarikyu Gardens, which are situated smack in the middle of the Shinbuya/Shinjuku area, which juxtapositions an amazing, large garden with tall, super modern buildings.  For me, this ended up being far more educational as I bumped into and then walked and chatted with Bailey, a U of T student who shared with me her research (comparative kimono evolution) and her background as a Japanese Canadian.  It was a fascinating conversation, helping me understand a bit a part of Canadian history and society I knew nothing about. 

This tree is 300 years old, surveying not just the firebombing
of Tokyo but many fires over the centuries.  With some help
these days.

1940 games?

From there, we went to the Japan Olympic Museum.  The biggest surprise to me is that the 1940 games were supposed to be in Tokyo. That originally resonated deeply in 1964 where those games helped to usher Japan back as a normal country.  It resonates again as another Tokyo games might be cancelled, this time due to pandemic.  We shall see what happens, but Japan would only make that decision if forced to do so by other countries.

The new O stadioum

Torches from previous games

This was a big deal at the time apparently

Paralympics got much explanation including
individual sports.

Great display of Olympic spirit

A display identifying the element's of
an athlete's entourage.

A bunch of us, including our guide Yuki, at the phototaking spot

They had a couple of Olympic cauldrons.

From there, because of a malfunction at the Honda presentation, we went to the Meiji Shrine instead.  I had been there a couple of times before.  This time was special since it is the 100th anniversary, so there were many banners explaining the history and showing what things looked like long ago.




 So very big. 

The ritual cleansing has been changed, presumably because of corona virus from a beautiful station with a common pond to this:











My Saturday tradition continues--running into weddings  at shrines:

We went back to the hotel for a last dinner--we toasted our guides who did such great work for us.

Then we scattered.  I was on a mission to find good gyoza, since I had had none. 








I then went in search of the Ted Cafe (a theme cafe focused on a Mark Wahlberg movie) that I saw in 2016.  It was gone, replaced by an LGBTQ cafe (I am inferring from the sole decoration of rainbow flags). 





Then we had just one day left before hopping on a plane.  I will try to get that posted later today.