We woke up at 3:00 this morning because of the time change. Not good! I had only 4 hours sleep. However, we got some computer time done and reviewed our options for today.
We had breakfast at the New Sanno which is a R & R hotel for active duty and retired military personnel. It's a lifesaver since hotels are quite expensive in Tokyo.
We caught the subway to the Shibuya Station to exchange our vouchers for JR railway passes. You can only purchase these out of country and are fabulous buys. We left my mother in our hotel room and my aunt came to help us with translations. Like I said before, she is so wonderfully helpful.
Once we got our passes, we had to reserve our tickets for all our train connections throughout Japan. Luckily, our friend in Japan had written everything out for us beforehand. I don't know what we would have done otherwise. We were still there for an hour and a half! However, we're relieved that it's DONE!
Since we were at the Shibuya Station, we took my aunt to see the Hachiko statue. They've even made a movie about that dog. I would attach the link but I can't think straight...
It was now about 12:30 and we knew my mom must be starving at the hotel. We looked around at all the different kinds of food for us to buy.
Mom was contentedly watching Japanese shows and had enjoyed being indoors out of the cold and rain, RAIN, rain.
After that late lunch, mom and Auntie rested while we did everybody's laundry.
At 4:30 my uncle and aunt came to pick us up in a taxi. It was great to see them. They took us to the Westin Hotel. We'd seen that hotel before from the outside but had no idea of the grandeur within.
I brought the family album and the two sisters had the most wonderful time talking to their "baby" brother about all they'd been through during the years after the war. He was still much too young at the time to understand the ordeal his family had gone through.
It was completely satisfying. Watching the two sisters laughing, teasing, happy and relaxed brought me incredible joy! It was everything I'd hoped for. I couldn't stop soaking in their smiles and chuckles of joy.
And then came the food. I've been to just a few fancy restaurants in my life but this blew us away. We had a beautiful private room that my uncle and aunt had reserved. Then came the courses. I think there were at least twelve courses... Is that possible?
I won't post all the photos. This was one of the first dishes. It was lima bean, tofu, crab meat in chestnut sauce.
The spring vegetable tempura was incredible.
This tempura at the bottom was an actual flower. Each dish was truly a work of art.
This was some kind of fish wrapped in a cherry blossom leaf and myoga (mild ginger of some kind) and sweet potato.
A plate of sushi arrived for each one of us. I ate it all! I really did. So did everybody else. The sushi was topped with clam, cuttle fish and tuna.
Then came this fish dish with some gobo (burdock root) with a sweet green onion.
Was this possible? Another plate of sushi arrived. No kidding. This time it was eel, abalone and tuna.
Then came the clam and miso soup. This is actually the second soup we were served.
And then came this plate of sushi.... or was this before? Yikes! I'm forgetting the order. I loved the broccoli sushi best.
The dessert was sakura (cherry blossom) mochi (glutinous rice). Absolutely wonderful!
This dinner will stand out in our memories forever. I shudder to think what this cost my uncle and aunt but they sure did give us a most incredible experience.
What an evening!
We returned to our hotel and got ourselves organized for our visit to Sendai to see my aunt. I'm looking forward to seeing those three sisters together. I hope I can stay awake for it. I hope we can get ourselves to the train station OK. I hope we're able to get the wheelchair around the rush hour mob OK. I hope we can get on the trains OK. I hope we can make the connections OK... Everything is a little trickier when you have to consider the wheelchair. I have a new understanding of what handicapped people must go through.
