We made it into Tokyo by about 2:30 PM yesterday, which left us with less than 24 hours to enjoy being in Japan. This interlude made me realize how much we’ve become creatures of habit. We stayed in our usual Ueno hotel—nothing fancy, but large enough to easily accommodate all four of us. We ate at our favorite kaiten sushi restaurant around the corner from the hotel. The waiter there recognizes us now and loves to talk to Tim about fishing and Guam and recommend all his favorite delicacies. We ate breakfast at our favorite bakery – a Japanese interpretation of a French bakery. We ordered our usual Panda anpan – shaped to honor the pandas at the nearby Ueno zoo.

Even so, we still found some new delights in the city. I let Amelia lead me on a tour of all the nearby pet and pet supply stores, and we found a few additional gems along the way. And this morning, I woke up to do an early morning photo walk. It’s one of my favorite ways to experience a city, and it’s been difficult to accomplish for years, for various reasons that no longer seem to apply. So now I’m hoping to get back in the habit.

The city was already moving at 6:30 AM. The streets of Ueno were filled with early morning commuters, shopkeepers sweeping the streets, and ravens overseeing it all. In the park, I was overwhelmed by the cacophony of the cicadas—they were nearly deafening. I found a temple in the park that is usually packed with tourists, but at that time of morning, there were only a few worshipers making a quick visit to begin their day. And finally, I made it to Shinobazuno Pond, where the lotus flower buds were just beginning to open up for the day – a truly surprising beauty in the middle of a bustling urban landscape.

I realized when I got back that I had accidentally under exposed all the photos I took, so my apologies for how dark some of these are. But I’m also slowly realizing that the photos I take are a nice souvenir of the walks, but the value I gain from them has more to do with the meditative time focusing on the place and the moment.

Postscript: Once again, this entry is from over a week ago. I’m continue to slowly move my way into the present moment.