Sightseeing and good company!

First day of sightseeing in Tokyo - now I have a list and it is a long list of places that I am going to visit. Some may take a while, some might be done in minutes. As I am staying very near to Senso-ji temple it made a good place to start. It was not a long walk so that was good, and I enjoyed looking at the stalls on the tourist approach to the temple. Will post images in due course.
 (Briefly, you must be patient as need to back cards up every night and it takes a while. If I am early home it can wait till after the blog writing but if I am late starting then words have to do for now. There will be time to sort out the backlog soon so don't panic!) 

After a good mooch at all the usual stuff - fans, chopsticks, rice crackers, temple paraphenalia, ice cream, kebab sticks, kimonos, bags etc etc I gt down to the photography of the temple and its environs. Ticked the boxes there including performing monkey and kimono clad people, I decided to move on to the Amuse museum since it was close. I hadn't appreciated that it was more or less next door and had walked quite a way ppast it before I realised. Out came my Kindle and I consulted Google maps and found 'the little blue dot' worked.  This shows you where you are and as you walk the dot movs so it is easy to tell if you are going th right way.  Later in th day I realisd one of the things I have been doing wrong with regards to the gear - I have rented a mobil wi-fi device for the duration of my trip and had been leaving it on so it was easy when I needed it. I now realise this is not what I should do as the battery doesn't last for eveer but takes overnight to charge as the power level is lower here than at home. (As explained by Steven!)

At 2pm I had my rendez-vous with Ann and husband Steve and we took up our seats in the small theatre on the 6th floor of the information offce building. Ann and Steven had e up early and in the front of the queue for the free tickts to a geisha music/dance show. It was excellent and we were all impressed. One of the geisha - the singer - was a mere 93! No comment necessary about vocal quality, but when it is a different style of music one can be more forgiving! 

The show included dance and music by true geisha and comedy from a mal geisha - japanese equivalent of drag which was hilarious.  THen all non japanese had t play rock paper scissors as prizes were available.  People who had been selected by entry ticket umbers being pulled out of a bag were required to compete in a speed test to see who could wind up the sake-cup up with a thread attached to a chop stick. Very entertaining as luckily e didn't get selected - phew!!

Next we did walk about for a while with me very definitely being taught a few tricks, so to speak. We went for a meal at a really interesting type of restaurant called an Okonomiyaki - where you cook your food. Imagine fondu party japanese style and you won't be far wrong. This is good for me as I am difficult where food is concerned!

Suitably replete, we took to the streets again and before long it was procession time where locals paraded around the area dressed in costumes of indigo with white print - perhaps kanji characters. Music was playd by flute and drum bands and the floats passed. Earlier in the day Ann and Steven had been lucky enough to see the floats being made. They are of paper with wire ineernal supports. Painted in scarey style the intention is to ward off the evil spirits that might burn your home down.  Our time together came to a close after an introduction to me of several shops - more about them in another post - and a final drink at Starbucks!  Ann and Steven are off to Nikko tomorrow and then home on Monday so I hope they have a safe return. We will be communicating in due course to swap more info!

Thanks to both of them for allowing me to join them today and for all the hints given.

Now time to plan tomorrow and slep - 7 minutes past midnight - yikes!!