Tuesday in Tokyo

We started the day with a visit to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.  In the tea ceremony you don't just drink tea, there is a step-by-step process.  You have to hold your cup a certain way, drink a certain way, and make a large slurp at the end to indicate that you are finished.  The tea was very green in color.  It was frothy, very much like hot chocolate, except that the froth was tinted green.  It tasted like someone had mashed up grass and tree leaves and added in a little soap, except worse. It had a very bitter taste.  I found it difficult to keep a straight face but my dad enjoyed it.

The building we had the tea in was 150 years old with lush gardens surrounding it.  There was a row of impressive bonsai trees, some of them 500 years old.  They were twisted and gnarled to a point that it seemed they could not be any more twisted and gnarled. 

Later on we to the Meiji shrine.  It is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji.  The shrine was located in a large wooded area.  Inside the shrine area was a very large taiko drum.  We were not allowed to take photos inside so I sketched this picture of the drum.

The shrine was mostly wooden with a lightly deocrated curved roof.  It was surrounded by thick trees.  It was a very peaceful setting.

The shrine was in a large courtyard and at one point a wedding party walked through wearing traditional clothes.