No Place Like Tokyo

After the Garden we had plenty of other adventures to behold. We went to a 11 story mall. It only had about 4 stores for every floor and most were pretty pricey but it was nice to walk around and enjoy our time together. Mike was looking for a wallet (we never did get one) and I was looking for a kimono. (Wow, are those lots of money!)
We did see some interesting things however.

 The top 2 floors of the mall were a movie theater. We walked up there just to check it out. We found out that The Amazing Spiderman had an early release there. We decided to leave because Mike didn't think the movie was going to be that good.

From the mall we went to the Art Museum. It was Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art. I expected this to be amazing. It was all about Contemporary Art and we were in Japan. Turns out it was just a gallery and it was some French guy's weekend. All the art looked depressing, all of them began to look the same. It was dead quiet in there. In the hour we were there maybe one person whispered to another. it was a place meant to explore art. Not talk about it. No cameras, no noise, just walk and look and walk and look. Needless to say, we probably won't do anything like that again.
Here are some buildings we passed on our way:

I think I found what's left of the Titanic?

We rushed out of there s soon as we could and by this time I had finally convinced Mike that the Spiderman movie wouldn't be just another first episode, that it didn't have Tobey Macguire and that it would actaully be good. As we walked back to the mall, we past a parade. I am still not sure what the parade is for. I have Googled and tried to figure it out but alas, it's beyond me.

We got to the mall, went up the 10 flights of stairs and made it to the theater.
The movie was great. But just like the art museum the Japanese people were quiet through the entire movie. They didn't laugh, they didnt gasp, they didn't clap. It is bizarre feeling so together yet so disconnected from everyone around you. In a tiny part of it, they bring up Tokyo and Godzilla. It hit us both that we were in Tokyo and no one made a noise. I held in my laugh, Mike on the other hand couldn't.  kept trying to get him to quiet down but that would just make both of us laugh more. Luckily, we were pretty excluded from most of the other people so we couldn't have been too much of a disturbance I hope.

After that we headed home, full on popcorn and tired from all our walking and sun and decided to go to bed early.
On our way back to the hotel we passed an interesting building. Mike called it Lego Building (Or Jenga)

But it really explains the society I think. There are holes in every culture, every government, every country. Nothing can be perfect but in Japan they work around those problems to solutions that can make a stand.

Whether it's helping trees who need a lift,




Or the blind find their way,







Or respecting the roots for where they've come from.





This culture cares about what it has built and it recognizes the beauty that it has and it won't let a few holes break them down.

Instead, those holes give them more of a reason to build higher and become stronger.

Thanks for the lesson, Tokyo.