Ohio (Good Morning) from Tokyo!

Here we are at the Nijubashi Bridge at the Imperial Palace

We've been here nearly a week and we've been so busy, this is really the first time I have had time to sit and write.

Tokyo is an amazing, modern, busy city and we've explored just the tip of the iceberg. We are living in a modest, small but comfy well-equipped apartment associated with the University of Tokyo where Miles is working basically full time M-F. He'll probably skip out occasionally to do fun stuff with me. Our apartment is conveniently located near the Metro, supermarket and even 100 Yen store (yep, they actually have things that are CHEAP for only 100 Yen ($1).

Impressions: in a city so large, the streets are quiet, people talk softly, cars don't honk their horns. Women and most men are slight and slender and you see all types: modern punk, girls in high heels and short frilly skirts, young men in suits and pointy shoes, conservative older people, some tennis shoes. Lots and lots of cell phones that aren't allowed to be used on the Metro, except for playing games/checking text messages, etc. No talking! How refreshing! People don't speak much English but are SO friendly and helpful. It's amazing how much you can communicate without words. The Metro has English signs for the stops, thank goodness, and is very well-organized.

We've explored Ueno Park and the Imperial Palace Gardens. Lovely family-oriented places with beautiful gardens. The Ginza shopping area is magnificent and we especially loved the department store food stalls with every conceivable Asian delicacy so beautifully wrapped and displayed, manned by adorable hat-clad venders in cute outfits. Some free samples! Yum! We also found the kimono dept. Words can't describe the beauty of the silks, the colors, the embroidery...So far the most expensive one we saw was $15,ooo. They even have a cobbler on site to make the shoes that look like blocks of wood in every conceivable color. It is truely an art-form and we've seen a handful of women walking around in kimonos.

Shrine in Ueno Park

We had a special treat and attended the final dress rehearsal of La Scala's "Don Carlos" by Verdi. Here's the back story: Miles' colleague Edo Mazza from Zurich, originally from Italy, knew we were here and told us to contact his brother, Camillo, who is married to opera singer Irena Bespalovaite with La Scala which is here on a world tour. Camillo had free tickets and accompanied us to the 4 1/2 hour production. What an amazing experience. This was Grand Opera at its best! The Japanese are crazy about opera and we saw adult men rushing towards the stars gettting autographs. The only "star" I saw was Daniel Barenboim who is directing another performance here of "Aida". Wow! A celebrity! During the intermissions, there were some technical adjustments, but the performance was superb. Too bad it was in Italian with Japanese super titles, we didn't have time to read up on the story and didn't have a clue as to what was going on. Didn't matter.

Having our eel meal. Yum!

Last night we were invited out to dinner with Miles' host/colleague Mie, her father, Noboru, visiting from the island of Shikoku and 2 Vietnames students here studying Japanese. What was the specialty of the restaurant? Eel! It was delicious and served grilled over rice, along with a bowl of small pieces of interesting vegetables, sweet bamboo shoot, salmon, prawn, fish cake and things I didn't recognize. Wonderful dinner! We also had a fun sushi lunch at a local place where you sit at an oval counter, the cooks are standing in the middle preparing sushi and then placing it on plates along a conveyor belt, so you just pick what you want and as much as you want. They charge you by the plate, like dim sum. Delicious!

Enjoying sushi at the local sushi bar