Shawn arrived a couple of days ago and met me in Tokyo. We have had a couple of days of fun, interrupted only by my mandatory attendance at the meeting of the JSPS fellows. It was evident that JSPS really meant it when they said that attendance at all lectures and workshops was mandatory when the meeting chair knocked on my hotel room door on the second day of the meeting when she noticed that I wasn't on time for the first lecture of the morning. I was hoping that I would get away with attending the odd lecture here and there and skipping out to go for lunch with Shawn but it was not in the cards. Shawn was understanding and spent the time while I was in meetings to wander around the Imperial Palace (photo above).
While Shawn watched Sumo on TV, I was on an evening “study tour” to Tokyo tower. We were there at sunset so we got a nice chance to view the city at dusk.
It seemed that the city goes on forever and with the smog, you can't see anything beyond. I have included a photo of the city at twilight from the observation deck of the tower, and the tower from below lit with the signature orange light. That night Shawn and I headed to a pub with some other researchers that I had met at the meeting. We were all from pretty different research fields so the conversation was light and mostly centred on the shenanigans of a British seismologist who has been enjoying the night life in Hiroshima. 
The next day we smuggled Shawn onto the bus with us for the all day Tokyo tour. I had found a fellow who was not attending the bus tour and got his name tag from him for Shawn to wear. Shawn spent the day as Sam, a postdoc working on string theory at Tokyo University. If anyone I know is creative enough to BS his way through string theory, it's Shawn! On the tour, we went to an earthquake simulation centre, the Edo-Tokyo Museum, and ended off at the oldest Shinto shrine in Tokyo, Senso-ji temple. Here is a photo of the shrine.
The shrine and Buddhist temple were built in 680 A.D. and were beautiful. We were told that this place was unique because it is not very common to have a Buddhist temple and a Shinto shrine next to one another although many Japanese people practice both religions. As expected, it was bustling with tourists which was a bit weird for me to see because I haven't really seen many white people around in Sapporo. We learned how to properly pray at both the Shinto shrine and the Buddhist temple (they are slightly different because you have to clap at the Shinto shrine to get the attention of the Shinto gods, while the Buddah is always listening so you don't have to clap). Here is a photo of me cleansing my hands and mouth at the temple fountain. And here is another photo of Shawn using the sacred smoke, which is considered a gift from Buddah, to clean his body of ailments.
We strolled the tourist trap area and enjoyed a cup of hot sweet sake and some very average kaiten sushi. Here is a picture of us having sake at a street vendor. We had a great time and saw some of the fun sights of Tokyo.
I found Tokyo to be a very easy place to be for a non-native speaker. There seems to be many more foreigners here and more Japanese people who are willing to make efforts to help out and to speak with you. It will be nice to return and see some more of the interesting and historical places in Tokyo. We are in the airport now on our way back to Sapporo. I am looking forward to showing Shawn our apartment and the university. Tonight, we will go for yaki niku (BBQ meat) and sleep late tomorrow.
I have now included Shawn as an author on the blog, so look forward to updates from him from both of us from now on. He writes as Booken (=adventure) and I write as Canadian Onna (=woman).
