The thing I noticed about Tokyo this trip is that I could breathe.  The first time we spent the night in Tokyo I had trouble breathing.  It was1969, Suzi and I were on our way to a summer study program in Taiwan and the pollution was intense.  We did not see the sun coming or going, not because of overcast, but because of the polluted haze.  We stayed at the Hotel Hokke Club, which was not, at the time, air conditioned so sleep was difficult.  The change I noticed most about Tokyo this trip was I could breathe, although I was a little sneezy. More than the new buildings, the modern sheen of the Ginza, the change I noticed was I could breathe.

The other change I noticed was the public toilets. In 1969 toilets were a hole in the floor that flushed.  Now they are a space aged wonder with built in bidets, deodorizers, and even music to cover the sounds you can make while sitting on the can.  Although in one restroom there were the two types of toilet stall by stall.  You had a choice.

One reason to repeat travel is to notice the changes over time.  But the main reason for me to go, this time, was to recapture some of the remnants of the old, pre–Meiji Restoration, Tokyo.  I decided to do this on a tour rather than taking it on our own.  It was supposed to take an hour into Tokyo, but it took an hour and a half.  There was a traffic accident in one of the tunnels under Tokyo Bay.  I was amazed how well the traffic was handled and that we were not delayed further.

I am going to tell you about our second stop in Tokyo first. It was the Edo Museum.  It has a full-scale recreation of a neighborhood from the Edo period in Tokyo.  The row houses are wooden with paper partitions separating families who shared communal kitchens.  The neighborhoods had open spaces to serve as fire breaks and fire watchtowers.  With the wood and paper construction they could go up in flame quickly.  The firebreaks did not protect the neighborhoods in 1945.  The reconstruction was indoors.

Walking from the bus to the museum we passed several scarecrow like effigies placed by school kids to honor the Fall Equinox holidays.  I tried to google search them but could not find much.  If you know any more about this custom, please let me know.

The next post I put up will be our first stop, the Asakusa district.  It had started as a fishing village the Suida River.  Now it is a complex of temples, shrines and shops surrounded by high rise Tokyo.  Stay tuned.