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Published: April 3rd 2017
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Tokyo in the rain
I wore everything I owned. Weather has been unseasonably cool the whole time. It’s been a while since I’ve posted, mostly because we’re traveling to many different cities and Tom’s been on the computer confirming travel plans and doing business with US companies (including the Navy Exchange, unfortunately) that can’t comprehend that someone might travel outside the US and not be able to just pick up a phone and call during their business hours. Skype has been very useful, but those companies who say “just mail us a copy of …” should be disestablished.
I tease Tom that the reason he likes Japan so much is that it’s pathologically organized. We breezed through immigration and customs at Tokyo’s Haneda airport and were in our taxi within 25 minutes – and almost immediately were tangled in traffic resulting from an overturned truck on the elevated highway. In our hotels, there are detailed procedures for room cleaning – everything is spotless and organized exactly. At the small inns we frequently use, you take your shoes off at the entrance and put on slippers they provide. Every morning, I’d find that they’d taken my shoes, which I THOUGHT I’d set down neatly and aligned them precisely, tucking in my shoestrings. At our Tokyo hotel, clerks chased
Honda Automation's Robot
Asimo was actually cute. You knew he was a robot, but you still "anthropomorphed" him. us across the lobby with towels for our dripping umbrellas, because we hadn’t put them into the plastic bags at the entrance. (We tried, but our umbrellas were too fat!) Even Tom is not that precise, and in Vietnam, no one cares what you do with your umbrella or if you use one at all.
The next morning, we met our local guide at 9:00 and embarked on an 8-10 mile (forgot to put on my FitBit) whirlwind tour of Tokyo – in an all-day pouring rainstorm. We didn’t get many outdoor photos, as we didn’t bring a dive camera! Our excellent guide showed us many facets of the city, from business to government to nightlife (special cafes for men with waitresses dressed in little sexy maids' uniforms and for women with waiters dressed in suits and ties), to a huge electronics market selling everything you could possibly need to fix your stuff.
A highlight was a visit to Honda’s robotics building, where they displayed the benefits of their work on automated balance and movement. The Uni-Cub is a one-person machine that’s 130 cm high, weighs 50 kg, and can go 7 km an hour. Tom’s favorite was
Rainy Weather in Tokyo
Our excellent guide was a fount of knowledge about Tokyo today and yesterday. She walked us 8-10 miles through the rain until we cried uncle in mid-afternoon. Asimo, a really cute (sorry) robot that’s been in development since 1986. It can walk, run, hop sideways, and communicate using (I assume) the Japanese version of ASL. See Tom’s photo.
Most folks have heard of "cat cafes", where lonely Japanese people go to drink their tea along with friendly cats. We found a place that has "wildlife", including owls, otters (babies sleeping that are apparently being fostered), a meerkat, chinchillas, turtles, and a dog -- accurately labeld "Schnauzer".
Our first evening in Japan, we braved the rain to find a recommended sushi restaurant, and enjoyed the fresh wasabi that accompanied it. Milder than the mixture we usually make from the dried powder.
Tokyo was fun for a day of big city life, but the next day, we started on our trip through the smaller and even more interesting northern and western countryside.
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