Pouring rain drove us to the refuge of the Doutor cafe. The cherry sauce topped cheese cake was recommended to help waterproof the two itinerant Gaikoku-jin who seem to be haunting the cafe every day. The rain abated enough to prevent a second helping, which meant a short stroll to Ueno station to get the Ginza and the Toei Asakusa to Ota-ku. The rain had resumed a profound downward intent when we exited the metro station. We were bound for Ikegami Honmonji temple complex, but the map and lack of any visible signs to the place, lead to a short "Lost in Space" feeling. The absence of a Class M-3 Model B9, General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot didn't help, so we asked a policeman at the koban for directions. I had the distinct impression he kept calling me Will Robinson. Instructions were now clear and we set off, in the rain, towards the temple.
After about one kilometer the stomach warning lights started to flash which caused an emergency divert to the nearest fuel supply depot. Unfortunately the only one in this remote part of the Tokyo Galaxy was run by a settlement of Scottish space travelers - the McDonalds. Language was still a problem since their auto-translation computer was malfunctioning. Try as I may, Japanese in a broad Glaswegian accent, reduced me to sign language and mime. The whatever-it-was in a bun was sufficient to allow us continue on our way to the temple. Fortunately the rain had stopped and was replaced buy a sort of foggy-cum-misty atmosphere.
Walking back to the metro station was a simple - we put our inbuilt inertial navigation system into reverse. On the way we noticed a large garden which was mainly fruit trees and azalea bushes. This would look spectacular in the spring, but today it looked lush, green and very damp.
The Toei matter transporter projected us to the Asakusa portal which, buy some sort of miracle, opened at the door of a Doutor cafe! What puzzles us is the technology used to effect matter transport involves the use of hundreds of stairways; up and down, up and down ... we suspect the engineers would have them sideways were it possible. Thank Newton it isn't!
Tired as we were, it was still necessary to shop for dinner and breakfast. Home at last, dinner prepared, we settled down to watch some excellent TV coverage of the tsunami recovery programme. Despite the coverage being Japanese, the film and diagrammes were sufficient to leave us very impressed with the effort and general attitude to recovery - it is amazing ...
Time has come to wrestle with the duvet ..
The Toei matter transporter projected us to the Asakusa portal which, buy some sort of miracle, opened at the door of a Doutor cafe! What puzzles us is the technology used to effect matter transport involves the use of hundreds of stairways; up and down, up and down ... we suspect the engineers would have them sideways were it possible. Thank Newton it isn't!
Tired as we were, it was still necessary to shop for dinner and breakfast. Home at last, dinner prepared, we settled down to watch some excellent TV coverage of the tsunami recovery programme. Despite the coverage being Japanese, the film and diagrammes were sufficient to leave us very impressed with the effort and general attitude to recovery - it is amazing ...
Time has come to wrestle with the duvet ..