Tokyo to Shizuoka

Thursday, October 04, 2007
Shizuoka, Japan
My original plan for this morning was to visit a Ninja Museum which I had mistakenly believed to be in Ueno Koen, a park famous for its Zoo, Science Museum and other tourist attractions, located a short distance from the ryokan. But alas, after getting blank looks from everyone I asked about it, some further research revealed its location to be in another Ueno Koen, in Mie prefecture - miles away from anywhere along our intended route.

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth from my would-be ninjaka children (Yes, I had stupidly told them about the museum before I'd done all the research) we ate a Japanese style breakfast at the ryokan, checked out, bought some souvenirs in the Kaminarimon markets and headed for the subway .

At Tokyo Central Station we met up with Taka, a friend from my JTB Tour-guiding days in Sydney. He took us to a delicious buffet lunch then had us taste the fruits of his new venture - desserts made out of sweet potato. The product has been developed in the southern island of Kyushu, where Taka hails from, and he plans to market it in Tokyo, then hopefully in Sydney.

The fact that my finicky children tried them at all was amazing - but they actually liked them and said so too, much to Taka's delight.

After lunch we caught the shinkansen (bullet train) to Shizuoka for our next adventure - to see Hirohisa & his family.

On the train Lewis spotted a couple with a cat in a cage so he headed over to see what their story was. They had been living on England and had just come back home to Japan with their cat in tow.

Once we got to Shizuoka we were met at the station by Hirohisa Fukuyama, my "brother from another mother" - he is the son of my host parents when I did my exchange year in Fukui back in 1985. The same age as me, he is now married with a young daughter and lives in Shizuoka.
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