Day two started with us waking up very early (4 am!) although as I said to Joey, he wakes up that early every day so I don't know if its really jet lag! It gave us some time to plan our day, since this trip was sort of thrown together last minute. We decided to go to Asakusa, the older area of Tokyo with its shrines. Unfortunately, the whole day was gray and rainy, but we enjoyed it anyway.

We ventured into the Tokyo subway system to get there. Now, as a New Yorker, I have been on plenty of crowded subways during rush hour. I have been jammed up against people I never want to see again. So suffice it to say I am used to packed subways. Tokyo subways surpassed my wildest dreams! The conductors push you in and then when you think you are shoved in as far as you can go, they push you in another few feet. You don't even need to hold on, because there is no way to get anywhere -- you are packed tighter than sardines in a can. What an experience :)

Once we arrived, it was still very early (about 8:30) so we wandered over to the shrine areas. Being that it was so early, we were able to see a lot of people praying. There are about 5 different large shrines, and a few small ones in one area. Japan built most of their structures out of wood, which meant that fires were rampant (and earthquakes into the mix -- in the early 1920s, a huge earthquake and fire combo killed several hundred thousand people). In addition, the city was bombed during WWII so many of the structures have been rebuilt after being destroyed. So they aren't centuries old as they are in Kyoto (where we will be going), but they were still interesting.
Before (and seemingly after, but I haven't confirmed that yet), the people wash their hands with salt water to purify/cleanse themselves. They also burn incense sticks. We even got a glimpse of one of the priests (I don't know the correct term and use that for lack of a better one) walking from one shrine to the other. After that, we wandered through the open air market, looking at knockoff bags, Japanese souvenirs and all sorts of food. They actually had this cookie machine that created sandwich cookies. It was a lot of fun to watch the contraption open, close and squirt.

Next we went to Ueno Park, one of the famous parks in Tokyo. During the spring, people flock here to see the Cherry Blossoms in bloom. The country is famous for it (though, we are here in the winter :-P). Its a nice park, surrounded by plenty of interesting museums, which was our draw (I don't see the big deal with parks -- if you live in the city, its your only chance at nature, but if you don't, then its just a park! If I were visiting NYC as a tourist, I wouldn't really spend much time in Central Park -- there are too many other interesting things to do there!). We went to the Tokyo National Museum, which has old art work and artifacts from Japan and around the world. Everything inside had English translations so we were able to enjoy the museum. They had all sorts of interesting work from old pottery to seals to statues (even a mummy from Egypt!). One thing that surprised us were how empty some of the rooms were. In one building of the museum, there was nothing but ottomans too sit on!

After the Tokyo National Museum we went to a completely different type of museum called the Shitamachi Museum. This museum showcased how the common folk lived and worked for a long time. Inside, was a reconstructed shop and homes, as well as an exhibit on toys and Japanese theatre. The English tour guide was an old woman who volunteered, and she took us through the museum explaining everything. It was nice because you can touch everything in the museum and see how it was used.


At that point, it was time to go to the Chabad for Shabbos. We had been schleping our stuff around all day and were thankful to sit on the (not so crowded anymore) subway. The Chabad house is about a 20 minute train ride outside of the center of Tokyo (almost like staying in downtown Brooklyn). Because there aren't really hotels nearby, they had invited us to sleep at their house. When we got there, it turned out they were Moshiachites which we were somewhat worried about, but it turned out fine. They also hold by the Japanese custom of removing your shoes in a house, so your feet are always cold! They had minyan Friday night (thanks to Joey -- he was then tenth man!) and a long meal, after which we went to bed at 1 am! The other people who spent Shabbos with us was an Israeli who comes 3 times a year for business, a guy from the Upper West Side who is in Japan on business and a guy from Toronto studying Japanese history. Add in the Chabad Rabbi (from Kfar Chabad), his wife (a crown heights girl) and their 4 kids (one named Moshiach), and it was an interesting day. The Rabbi explained why the seaweed used for sushi cant really be kosher (which I still need to check into because he made some really good points and he toured the factories). I hope it turns out not to be true. And thus ended Chanukah (which i still cant believe is already over!)