"At Our Store We Cope With Various Languages"

We nodded and bowed our way around Tokyo all day. Those actions, along with smiling, go a long way when language is a barrier. Lots of pointing. Then more nodding. Nodding all around. We saw a sign posted inside a store today that said, "At our store we cope with various languages." Cope indeed.

We built today in so we could explore on our own - no official tours or reservations. We walked around the gardens of the Imperial Palace, had more sushi, re-caffeinated at Starbucks, went to a Samurai museum, and capped off the day at a shrine located within what I now call the Sherwood Forest of Tokyo.

I forgot to tell you guys - we saw a Sumo wrestler yesterday at one of the Tokyo towers! OMG he was huge. He was decked out in full guy kimono gear, with his hair gelled into the high pony tail and everything. It was insane. There are big Sumo (<-- pun intended) tournaments three times a year and one just finished up in May, so we were hoping we would see some of the wrestlers.

Some pics from today:

You asked what G eats. He said I should post a picture of an empty plate. Ha! Here's an example of a G-friendly snack - a blueberry scone.

Don't feel sorry for him, though. We spent a million years, half the day, a couple of hours in the Samurai museum, roaming around original uniforms (costumes? get-ups?) from 400 years ago. There were swords and spears and all kinds of...warrior stuff.

Things got a little cray cray.

I think this picture captures his true personality. I'm going to put it as his contact pic in my phone for that reason.

Tomorrow morning we take the bullet train. It only stops for 60 seconds in each station and is considered late if it gets off schedule by one minute (as opposed to 10 minutes in the UK and up to 15 minutes in France). We will be lugging two large suitcases and frantically trying to read the signs and signals. God help us.