Highlights: Tokyo by Day

Bonsai

I had always thought that all there was to creating bonsai was diligently clipping a young plant. As usual, I was oh, so very wrong.

You begin by carefully selecting a tree from the mountain area, because its growth has already been stunted by the poor, rocky soil. THEN you slowly start clipping away, attempting to form an asymmetrical triangle. You help it along by wiring branches into position and by grafting shoots where you need a little extra oomph (sorta like what humans do when they want a little more ‘junk in the trunk” , to quote my friend Kathleen).

But if you have more money than time and patience, you just drop a million dollars and the 600 year old black pine on the left will be all yours. I preferred the one on the right, which was equally old, but a few hundred thousand dollars less.

I continued to demonstrate my total lack of sophistication and fine taste by being more captivated by OTHER sights at the site, like this beautifully simple floral arrangement in an exquisite vase.

I won’t tell you how much time I spent at the koi pond. Let’s say my little friend in the blue jacket got bored before I did. I couldn’t help but notice the gold one with the big mouth and think about a human version who continues to make a splash.

The National Museum

One could easily spend a full day admiring the ceramics, samurai swords and scrolls in Tokyo’s National Museum. MY favorite objects were the Buddhas and clothing.

I absolutely LOVE his facial expression. Yes, that guy’s a Buddha. In case you don’t believe me, here’s proof.

Of course, there were more traditional Buddhas, like this one

One final Buddhism photo, before I move to the clothing displays.

Now, whenever you see an onion shaped object, you should make a wish. If it comes true, then you will know that you had encountered a “ wish granting jewel”.

KIMONO

Back in the day, they had to figure out a way to keep that intricately embroidered clothing clean. Voila! The drying rack! But this one has a twist. You see that little object under the rack? That’s for burning incense. I couldn’t help but wonder how many kimonos went up in flames.

Fortunately, THIS kimono survived.

But not all of the beautiful kimonos were in glass cases.

Later, while admiring the stunning architecture of this building,

we noticed a flurry of kimonos, so we dashed to where they were gathering for several photo ops.

Cherry Blossoms

Okay, it’s still early, but every time we’d see a tree in bloom, we got super excited. we didn’t care if it was in front of a fence!

Notice our attire. That was one VERY COLD and windy day.

Famous “fish”market

I’ll be honest. This was my least favorite experience. The market extended over several streets and they were all pretty much like this.

The crowd gave me the perfect opportunity to practice my Zen breathing.

I was pleased to discover that the market offered a whole lot more than just seafood. I didn’t leave there empty-handed.

Today is the last day of our pretrip, so I’ll close with a photo of our fantastic group, taken by Mori in front of the national Museum.

Tonight, five more women will be joining us for the start of the main trip.