Today we started out once again at Starbucks. I took a picture of our meal. When Ravi got there, I asked him to take a picture of Gary and me. After a few missteps, we finally got a picture. Then the Starbucks employee came over and told us no flash photography. Ravi says that happens a lot. You’re not allowed to take flash pictures because “it annoys the neighbors.” I apologized.
After Ravi and Gary left for work. I explored the area around the hotel. I walked over to Hibaya Park which is right across the street from the hotel. It’s a western style park. I have posted a couple of pictures from there. Next I walked over to the area around the Imperial Palace. You can’t get on palace grounds. Gary said I got closer than they did a few days before. I noticed from the Palace grounds an impressive red brick building in the distance. So I walked over that way. Turns out it was the Ministry of Justice. Of course, it drew my attention. I looked to the right and noticed the National Diet Building. That is the Japanese Parliament building. I walked up towards it to get a better picture. I also encountered another park which had a lovely waterfall and pond area. While I was walking through the park I smiled at a Japanese man and he greeted me in English so I say good morning to him in Japanese although it was now time to use “good day.” He exclaimed in English that I knew Japanese. I assured him I just knew “good morning!” He smiled and waved at me as he left and said he would see me soon! Next I made my way around the government buildings so I could see their family law building. It’s massive. I thought about going inside but decided not to. By this time I was back at Hibaya Park on the opposite side. I was getting hungry as it was lunch time. I noticed a building called Villas des Marriages. It’s a little french restaurant there in the park. If the trees weren’t in the way, you could look directly at the family center. A little irony, n’est-ce pas? I was delighted to learn they had a menu in french so, I had no problem ordering lunch.
After lunch I walked through another section of the park and then went back to the hotel. I wanted to go to a museum I noted on my map but wasn’t clear exactly where it was. The gal at guest relations called the number she located for the Riccar Museum and it was not working. So maybe it closed. I also learned another museum on my agenda was closed for just this week. Oh, well! She directed me to another museum nearby – the Idemitsu Museum of Arts. It took some doing to find it on the 9th floor of a building, but I eventually got there. The gal at public relations also gave me ticket so I was able to view their exhibits for free. Their main exhibition was about 70 works from various periods depicting the Tales of Ise (eezay). It seems the noble young man perpetually fell in love and got his heart broken. They also had a small exhibit of about four of Edvard Munch’s paintings – two were self portraits. The museum also had a nice view overlooking the Imperial Palace grounds but due to the tree cover, I still could not see the Imperial Palace. All in all, I enjoyed the museum.
I managed a little shopping on the way back to the hotel. When Gary and Ravi got in from their meetings we went to dinner at a Thai restaurant. It was good. Gary and I had planned to go the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office for spectacular night time view of the city; however, dinner ended up just being a break for the two of them. Hopefully, we’ll make it tomorrow.
Tags: Hibaya Park, Imperial Palace, Tokyo
