Our final day in Tokyo wasn’t really a full day, as I had to be back to Kyoto in time for my dance lesson at 5:30pm. As such, we had really done all of the things that we’d planned for the trip on the preceding days and thus had a bit of a free-form morning. First, we went to see the famous temple located very close to where we were staying: Sensouji. I don’t really know much of the history of the place, or why exactly it is so famous, (though I do intend to look into it) but it was quite pretty and had a massive lantern out in front of it that we could have fit ten people inside of, I think. While we were there we bought some souvenirs for our host families. I decided on these rice crackers that came in several different festive colours that I had heard were the official gift from Sensouji temple. After this we decided that we had enough time to go back to Hibiya and do some more Takarazuka-related shopping at the stores that they have around the theatre, and so checked out of our hotel and parked our luggage in lockers at Hibiya station. In an interesting stroke of luck, we managed to arrive just as the actresses were heading into the theatre to prepare for that day’s show. The procedure for greeting the actresses entering the theatre appears to be identical to that for greeting them as they leave the theatre, which we had seen the previous day. We were, luckily, on the opposite side of the street from the last time, so we were able to see a little better one of my favourite actresses, who had had her back to us before. We didn’t stay to watch the whole thing, however, as we had a train to catch, and so proceeded with our shopping. That done, we schlepped our luggage over to Tokyo station, bought some lunch to eat on the train and another souvenir called ‘Tokyo Banana Cakes’, which I had heard were popular, and then headed home. Once I was back in Kyoto I really only had time to drop off my luggage and grab my dance things before I had to head to class, which went alright, but a bit difficult.
-Tokyo’s very exciting, but it’s nice to be back in Kyoto.
-When praying at a Buddhist temple you’re not supposed to clap like you do at a shrine. I didn’t know this until my friend pointed out a large group of Chinese tourists doing so.
-Tokyo seems to believe that it is in the tropics. The Denny’s that we went to their had take-out mangos (just the fruit, no preparation), the Thai restaurant we went to had papayas as a featured item, and the most popular gift at Tokyo station is a banana-cream-filled banana-shaped cake.
-Overall, even though the Tokyo subway system is confusing, it is extremely cheap, with the most expensive ticket that I bought all trip still less than the minimum fare on the Kyoto subway.
-Station pay-lockers are extremely helpful.
-When messing up in dance class, remembering that a Takarazuka actress thought you were cool helps with keeping a calm expression.
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