Losing it

Tokyo Japan Things are starting to get lost. Let’s start with our minds.

Today we spent hours getting to and touring the Meiji Shrine, dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken.

I had a distinct sense of deja vu, but Don insisted we had never been here before. Yet it all seemed so familiar.

The chrysanthemum displays were new, to commemorate the emperor’s November 1 birthday. But I just knew I had already taken some of the same pictures.

And there was even a wedding procession in the main plaza, just as I remembered it. I began to suspect that we were either in a time machine, or that we were repeating ourselves and actors put on these weddings every day for the tourists. The groom seemed grumpier than the last time, but who could tell with the bride? They process one way and then I think they go to a special building nearby to formalize the event, and then come back across the plaza, have made it official — or so it seems to me.

So…finally Don admitted that we indeed had been here before — six long weeks ago. You can’t fool the person who takes the pictures!

And then, while taking a rest break, Don lost the pages of his guidebook that told us where we were going next. But you know what? We were fried, the weather was gloomy, we just wanted to get “home” and curl up with Netflix, which we discovered we could watch here.

If only they were serving tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, it would be perfect.

(The tour guide’s reaction: Six weeks of finding and navigating shrines, temples, gardens, museums, festivals and historic houses not to mention trains and countless busses, subways, taxis and hotel reservations later, nothing should come as a surprise as the result of an exploding brain. Is someone looking for a refund?)

(The tour member’s reaction: One slip can be forgiven!)

Don’s Food Corner

Adjacent to the shrine, we found a cafeteria, serving a broad range of classic Japanese dishes. How did we miss this the last time we were here?

Jo ordered some tempura shrimp in a soba noodle soup bowl. I ordered a fried noodle dish with pork.

We swapped the two dishes back and forth. These are basic dishes you can find just about anywhere. They are the backbone of Japanese fast food. In other words, cheap and filling. The versions we had today were a little above average. The broth was unusually rich and flavorful.

This tourist spot is kept honest by serving a mostly Japanese tourist population. They would expect a certain level of preparation and presentation that a non-Japanese tourist wouldn’t demand. We’ve found that to be the case wherever we’ve traveled, especially in France and Italy. Things drop off in tourist areas serving mostly non-natives. Of course, finding restaurants serving only locals is the best. Otherwise, those restaurants would go out of business fast. (I wish that were true in New York, where it seems that our local restaurants are getting worse and worse and more and more expensive.)