We are on the eve of our last full day in Tokyo and are getting excited for home. We have walked for miles and miles over the past few days, and have seen a few interesting places along the way. We have seen the gardens of the royal palace (the palace itself is off limits), a number of shrines and temples, some big parks, two art museums, and two science museums. We have seen the premier shopping areas of this city on the weekend, when people walk their dogs that are wearing full outfits that probably cost more than what I am wearing. Just walking around the city, gawking at everything is generally entertaining enough. Ordering food in a resturaunt hasn't gotten any easier, but we have had good luck with our pointing at pictures and everything so far has been edible even though sometimes we don't know exactly what it is we are eating. The language barrier here is pretty intense, mainly due to an unshared alphabet, I think, though sometimes we feel that some people know more english than they let on. We have met a few friendly people who have come to our rescue with fluent english when we needed them most.

Today we visited a man-made island just across the river (bay?) from the downtown area that is home to some futuristic-looking buildings. And we finally got to see a few robots at a science museum there. We spent the day in two pretty neat and very hands-on museums, one sponsored by Sony, where we got to play with computers and see robots and think about the future. Adam has come down with a cold, so our nights have been quiet - just wrapping up in a big blanket to ward of the cold and reading. We are both pretty excited to get on that plane and finally fly towards home. Only one and a half more days to struggle through and we've made it.
Stay Tuned...
Andrea