NOTE:  I apologize for the delay in posting.  I had a few technical difficulties.  I'm hoping to catch up the blog soon!!!


Saturday, April 1, 2017
Tokyo

We slept in as long as we could Saturday morning but obviously our body clocks were off so we got up kind of early.  Breakfast was included at our hotel so we ventured up to the 26th floor to check it out.  It was buffet style and the variety of food choices was unbelievable!   Lots of stuff we don't eat -- fish prepared many ways, salad, rice, etc., but many things we like were available too.  Fresh fruit, wonderful baked goods, lots of sweets AND ice cream in these cute little cups.

I figured if the Japanese were eating fish and salad for breakfast, I could eat ice cream!

After breakfast we left the hotel and followed our tour leader's directions to the subway, took it two stops and got off at Ueno Park.  This is a huge park with many cherry trees.  It has been cold and rainy in Tokyo so only about half of the trees had bloomed.  They were gorgeous!  

The Japanese people take recycling very seriously.  These massive recycling bins were set up in a few places in the park and everyone used them -- no littering anywhere!

We had a few hours to spend there so after walking all over the park, we visited the National Art Museum.  It was beautiful and the displays were very well done.

I especially liked the hand-painted silk screens.

David preferred the armor and the swords (I don't seem to have any pictures of the swords). 

 After a few hours we were really starting to drag so we took the subway back to our hotel and stopped at the patisserie in the hotel lobby for treats to take up to our hotel room.  David chose a cream puff and I, of course, chose a piece of chocolate cake.  Both were delicious!

These rolls looked good too and aren't they cute?

We knew we had to meet our tour group for a get-to-know-you meeting at 7:00 and we were still jet lagged so we took a nice nap.  We had a good meeting with the group and then we all headed to dinner at a Japanese tappas restaurant.  Our tour leader had pre-ordered a ton of tappas for us so there was plenty of great food to eat.  Even for picky people like me.

On the walk back to the hotel we saw this beautiful cherry tree.

We were exhausted after the long day so immediately fell into bed.  The next day would be the first full day of the tour.