National Memories in Action: Day 5 - Conquering Edo-Tokyo... Peacefully?

Today, we returned to Edo-Tokyo after a cheap, hearty, protein-filled breakfast at, of all places, Denny's--which has a surprisingly immense presence in Japan. Thankfully it was also a reasonable temperature today, so we were not disgustingly sweaty by the time we made it to the museum, like we have been most days so far this trip.

We spent the morning finishing up our "initial walk-through" with Kathy playing the role of intensely observant political science/Asian studies professor. Unfortunately, Katherine felt ill the other day during our initial pass through Edo (with our amazing 80-year-old tour guide who lived through all the horrific events in WWII), so she also had to catch up on the museum's narrative. For lunch, we went to the fantastic restaurant on the top floor of the museum, where Kathy, Kelsey, and I had the Japanese version of fried chicken, and Amanda and Katherine ordered other tasty Japanese fare.

After lunch, Kelsey, Amanda, and I returned to the museum for a few hours of observation. Kathy took Katherine to a bank near Tokyo station to change some money, and Katherine expertly navigated her way back to the Edo-Tokyo museum. We all made some very interesting observations, and then decided to go to Shinjuku after our time at the museum. We shopped around in the Takashimaya building, housing, among many other amazing stores, a Tokyu Hands, which bills itself as a "creative life store." We had some superb Indian food on the 13th floor of the building, and went outside on an open-air promenade to get the most impressive view of the east side of downtown Tokyo. We tried to go to a famous book store in the building, but it was closed when we went there. Why must everything close early in Japan--on a Friday night, no less?

Now with photos!!!