Then we moved on to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. The Palace itself is off limits except for two days of the year, but the gardens are always open, and are full of gorgeous landscaping maintained by volunteers.
Our third stop was Asakusa. This is a collection of shrines and temples between which is a lively shopping street called Nakamise. I do believe every souvenir made in Japan was available for purchase somewhere on that street.
The next stop was lunch, at a French restaurant on the 12th floor of a hotel. Despite the height, most of the buildings we could see around us were even higher. This was followed by a 50 minute cruise, and then a brief stop at Odaiba Marine Park, where Japan's copy of the Statue of Liberty resides. The route to Odaiba crosses the Rainbow Bridge, which is white in the daytime, but at night is brought to life by floodlights of all colors. The picture below was taken at sunset, when the many particulates in the air reflected the pink rays of the setting sun beautifully.
In the background you can see the Tokyo Tower all lit up. Maybe tomorrow! Tonight I completed my hunt for my new camera, a Canon SX1IS. The night before I had tracked it to its lair in a BIC Camera store, and later that night had scoured the Internet for an answer to the eternal question: was it possible to change the menus from Japanese language to English. It was! Hurrah! So the next day, armed with my phrasebook Japanese, I went to buy it. The first clerk quickly realizing my situation, took me over to the clerk who sounded like she had spent at least half her years at Oxford University. So now I am the proud owner of a new camera. I can't wait to get it home and try it out!
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