Japan – Episode 2 (Tokyo)

Today was a fantastic day in Tokyo. We seem to fall into rhythm with the city more and more.

It is late and we are tired so here are bullet point highlights.

– bought pastries at bakery and while eating them on the street met, Greg, psychologist from Berkeley who is in town for a friend’s art exhibit at the Mori, which we happened to be on the way to. Greg introduced us to Lee Mingwei,whose exhibit is on “the Art of participation”. He is coincidentally from Taipei originally. We really connected with the exhibit which coincidentally was about “connections” and “bonds”, the human stories of these ideas and how they shape the world today. The exhibit was very participatory. You could sign up to be selected from a lottery to have dinner at the museum with either the artist or staff. There was a room with fresh daisies and the artist encouraged guests to take a daisy and give the daisy to a stranger (acknowledging the change that takes place when you approach a stranger and offer a gift). A woman in caped attire approached Chea and asked if she could give Chea a gift. She had Chea sit in a chair while she stood 10 ft away, music came on and she sang to Chea operatic style in a very beautiful and captive way. There was another exhibit where one was encouraged to write a letter or read letters that past guests have written to loved ones, future loves, etc. We caught up with Greg at the end of the exhibit and he had Lee sign the book we bought. We also got great 360 views of the city on the 52nd floor of the Mori building, even caught a very distant glimpse of Mt. Fuji!

We then had Lunch under train tracks at Yurokucho station – bento box for david and ramen for Chea.

We the headed to Ueno Park, a sprawling, picturesque Park similar to New York’s Central Park.

Christmas lights at Shiodome were amazing. The dazzling display of lights turn on every 20 minutes and the performance lasts about 6 minutes.

Finally, we had a super late dinner at a restaurant specializing in kabobs. There was no English on the menu so we had to point at the types of meet we wanted skewered. We had some questionable meat for sure. Luckily, the word “beer” is universal,

Home now. New record 27k steps!