One night layovers are fun!

Our trip involved a layover in Tokyo anyway, so we added a night and spent some time in Tokyo. Cowgirl was very fascinated by all the different memorials and how they are decorated and how there's a little donation box for your favorite personage. We also tried some street foods and stayed in a lovely Ryokan, which is a traditional style inn called Homeikan Ryokan. On our way to the Ryokan, Mom accidentally left her camera in the taxi, and the taxi driver actually got out of his taxi and ran to give it to us since the Ryokan wasn't on a car accessible street. It was so very representative of the honesty of the Japanese people. They'll go out of their way to be honest.

Bibs on these statues. Not sure why.

This statue has clothes.

This is some version of a lollypop, freshly made with a piece of fruit inside, with a crunchy little cup to eat. Very sticky and sweet.

The Ryokan was gorgeous. The bathroom is a typical communal one, and really nice, but of course we didn't bring our camera down. We had breakfast in the room in traditional style, although I forgot to take pictures then. Probably my mom did, she had the camera out all the time.

Entryway to our room.

Hallway outside our room

 Our flight out was a late flight, departing around 11pm, so we had a full day. It was cold though, and I had to layer all the clothes I had, since I was going from a warmish climate to a warmish climate with a single day in a coldish climate.

This little hanging toy was something we bought out of a vending machine. There are vending machines everywhere. Street corners had drink vending machines, for both cold and hot drinks. What you can't see very well is that the little girl has a cigarette in her hand. I couldn't believe it. Kids toys representing smoking so casually. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and later on we managed to lose the thing anyway.

Airplane food never looks this nice in the US!