Day 19 Disembarkation/Tokyo

We arrived at Yokahama and got our suitcases to the tour bus. The bus ride to Tokyo was about an hour. Tokyo is a big modern city with a lot of tall buildings. Surprisingly, it’s not madly crowded and the traffic was also very civilized. We drove through the Ginza district with its high-end shopping and luxury hotels. Many well dressed women (saw 3 in traditional kimonos), but men were mostly wearing their work uniforms – either dark pants and a white shirt or a dark suit and a white shirt. We stopped at the imperial palace, which is located in a huge park-like setting in the middle of the city, which somewhat resembles Central Park. Then we went to visit a famous Buddhist temple, which has an adjacent shopping area. The guide told us that this shopping street is the most crowded street in Tokyo visited by 100,000 people each day. It sure was crowded. From there to Narita airport and back home. Overall, the things that impressed us most about Japan were the toilets (Japan has the best women’s toilets in the world. You can regulate the temperature of the seat, select music to play, control water temperature when you turn it into a bidet, etc). They are also spotlessly clean – everything in Japan is. Things also run on time. The famous bullet train between Osaka and Tokyo, which is now 50 years old and runs with the speed of 300 km/hr is on the average no more than 36 seconds late. Another impressive thing are their vending machines. They are everywhere. There is one vending machine for each 27 people. And they work!