Next stop, Aizuwakamatsu

Today was great - a Salvation Army and a lovely shrine in a small neighborhood near Shinjuku, the massive craft store with amazing scores (over 900 meters of silk, a bag of Noro Silk Garden, and a small ball of a multi-colored Japanese yarn - I couldn't figure out the fiber content, but it was very pretty), a very quick dashes through Harijuku (with lunch at a sushi place where you pull plates off a conveyor belt - each plate has a specific cost - SO GOOD!!), Oedo, and Akihabara. If nothing else, I feel like I was able to get an idea of what these neighborhoods are like, and am making plans for where I would like to go when we get back here next week.

Oedo was amazing, and I am so glad we decided to head out there. A lot of ideas swirling about issues of peace and education and making this world better, tied in with a session about peace education). Will probably go on about this later. I could have done without Akihabara (the electronics district - not the deals I anticipated), although we found a pretty great place for dinner. Mostly a noodle shop, but it was good and cheap, the latter being something rare in Tokyo. I'm glad I saw the neighborhood, but I don't feel the need to go back.

I feel like I could spend all three weeks here and still not see all that I would like to.

Tomorrow we start to head out to Aizuwakamatsu, a fairly small town to the north-east. We will take the bullet train out to Fukushima City, be there for a night, then out to Aizu.