A thousand experiences in Tokyo

Tokyo is expensive but no more expensive than Sydney, and as tourists we were never charged any more than the locals, though we could have been easily exploited. At all times, we were given every assistance to help us understand exactly what we were buying and how much it would cost us. Different customs, such as methods of bathing and prohibitions like not wearing footwear inside houses and some restaurants, were explained to us beforehand to prevent any embarrassment. More familiar utensils would be discreetly offered if we were having any difficulty eating with chopsticks. I wondered if the same consideration is shown to Japanese tourists in Sydney or anywhere else in Australia.
On our own again, we determined to see as much of Tokyo as possible though it would take many weeks to see all the major attractions in this vast city. By now we were becoming blase to the sight of temples and shrines and our adventures on the way to see them were becoming more significant. This was the case when we went to visit the Meiji shrine which was rebuilt by the war ravaged people of the city at the end of the Second World War. Near to the shrine we saw some of the oddly shaped cement and tiled buildings from Japan's hosting of the Olympic Games with rooves tapering towards the sky, now fallen into decay and drabness, having long ago fulfilled the purpose for which they were built. In the public park, adjacent to gardens surrounding the Meiji shrine, are the lovers, the drunks, the homeless and hopeless and others who for one reason or another seek privacy and anonymity in this heavily wooded and thickly shrubbed area.
That night we decided to treat ourselves to a restaurant in the neon wonderland of the Ginza. We settled on a Shabu Shabu restaurant mainly because the proprietor, seeing us vacillating outside his establishment, emerged to show us his English written menu. You cook the food yourself in boiling water which is used later to make soup. Needless to say the food was delicious and the service excellent. Unobtrusive but ever watchful eyes made sure we were comfortable. Although growing up in Asia, Elizabeth never mastered the basics. She was given a pair of trainer chopsticks bound together by elastic and forewarned about which bowls we drank from, dipped our food in, or whatever.
Time was running out for our stay in Tokyo and in Japan itself and with it came a greater pressure to see as much as possible. The trouble with seeing too much too quickly is that the sights start to run into one another and their impact lessens. So it was with the Imperial Palace's East Garden beside the stone walled moat of the Palace; Uno Park with Japan's largest zoo and the most miserable animals I have seen but with a great collection of cormorants and other birds on an enclosed lake; the old Asakusa Kannon Temple said to date from the seventh century with a narrow passage leading up to it between gaily decorated souvenir shops; and the Shinjuka area famous as a shopping and entertainment district; all fitted into one days touring.
We said our final farewells to the good hearted Katsuyasu over lunch, his head bobbing side to side as he ran to greet us (a difficult feat to achieve when I experimented later). He would dearly love to travel but is limited by the demands of Japanese employers who expect long-term loyalty and discourage people from changing jobs by scaling holidays and pay to the time a worker has remained with the company. Only a very brave (or foolish) man leaves his job to travel for any length of time even if he can raise the money.
We said goodbye to Tokyo by taking our only paid, organised tour, including the glittering cabaret show of the Mikado where some of Tokyo's two hundred thousand bar hostesses entertain businessmen on seemingly unlimited expense accounts, and a display of Geisha dancing in the last officially area of prostitution (such approval being withdrawn in the fifties though the area now abounds in massage parlours).