A little tidbit:
When we say Tokyo we pronounce it “TOE-KEY-YO”.
but that’s not right.
In Tokyo, they pronounce it “TOKE-YO”
Lesson for the day.
We spent our fourth full day in TOKE-YO in the city. Ron had wanted to do some geocaching and see some sites.
As usual, Sydney and Ron were up in the morning before Karis and I. The headed out for a stroll while Karis and I showered and got ready for the day. When they returned, Ron informed us of how ‘chilly’ it was out. We dressed for a ‘cool’ day.
Now I don’t doubt my husband’s information. Just that this information was WRONG!
It WAS cool… but got HOT shortly after. Really hot. By the time we realized this, we were out of the subway and downtown.
We exited the subway near the Imperial Palace. Now seriously… there is an actual Imperial Palace that is NOT a hotel in Las Vegas!!! Who knew! 
It was beautiful! (Click to view in Google Earth)
We never went inside (It’s huge by the way consisting of many, many buildings) but walked around one side of it getting pictures. It was here where we found – to Karis’ delight – a washroom with traditional Japanese toilets! This slowed us down a little while Karis’ explored and used her stall! 
Then we walked. And walked. And walked.
Then we walked some more.
We took many breaks, escaping into seven eleven’s whenever we could to cool down. It was SO HOT.
The kid’s ate ice cream, and drank juice. We found beverage machines scattered throughout the sidewalks and would purchase juice or water at nearly every one. It was HOT.
We walked a really, really long way!
We stopped for lunch at an outdoor cafe in a park. Refusing to eat the weird food on the menu, I ordered a glass of wine while Ron and the kid’s ate.
I was SO hungry.
Ron gave me a bite of his rice with just a small amount of freaky curry chicken on the fork. It was REALLY GOOD! Who knew! Knowing that I would probably keel over and die after eating it, and not knowing if my Mother would eat it or not… I took the plunge and ordered a plate.
I ate it all. And I’m still alive. Wow.
Right after we ate, and feeling ’slightly’ cooler, we searched for a geocache. We were fairly sure that it was somewhere in a rock wall by this pond. As we were searching and trying to look casual (for the police walking by) we hear a voice say, “You??? Geo-cacher??” We turn and I flinch… completely expecting it to be the police. I envision the four of us living out our lives in a Japanese prison. I have flashbacks of the movie ‘brokedown palace’ and quietly curse Ron for taking us geocaching in a foreign country.
smiling at us was a Japanese man and his daughter. They are holding the geocache. AND – they speak english. Kinda.
He had found it a few minutes before us and as he was signing the log book, saw us searching for it.
Ron talked with the Man about geocaching stuff while I talked to the daughter who I assume was about 20 or so. Even thoughs she speaks english, I still animate my speech with over the top gestures. Seriously. Can I NOT do that? Embarassing.
After we take pictures with the two of them, we continue on. We find another geocache at an absolutely amazing location. There are stairs that lead steeply upwards and we take some more pictures and take a break in the shade. It’s so hot.
After a few hours, we reach the Zojo-ji temple that Ron was hoping to see. It’s closed due to constuction. Figures. However, we’re still able to explore around the outside of it and come across and area with thousands and thousands of tiny cement statues. They all look the same and most of them are wearing little red caps. Ron remembered reading about them online. They are called “Jizo statues”. Each one is a memorial for a the lost life of a child.
(Click to view in Google Earth)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zojoji
After taking time to look at the statues, we continued on to Tokyo tower. Tokyo tower is the world’s tallest self supporting steel tower. Taller then the Eiffel Tower. 13 meters higher to be exact. We went to the top.
It was amazing. You could nearly see forever. We took picture after picture. It was beautiful. There were spots at the top where you would stand on a window in the floor looking down at the ground…. way….. way…. way… down. Ron enjoys things like this. As he jumped on the glass obnoxiously, he laughed at me yelling at him in anger. Two Japanese girls laughed and gasped at his actions. Not knowing if it was funny that he was doing this… or completely stupid. I go for the later.
(Click to view in Google Earth)
Tokyo tower has a wax museum. Everyone knows I love a wax museum. However, it was more of a ‘Victoria, Vancouver Island” wax museum and not a “Las Vegas” or “New York” wax museum. Seeing as my family doesn’t enjoy them like I do, and considering it wasn’t an overly spectacular one, we chose to go through the “Ripley’s believe it or not” exhibit instead. It was okay… no where near as impressive as the one in Newport, Oregon. (IMO) 
After we left Tokyo tower, we found one last Tokyo geocache. It was at the top of a hill in a georgeous location. The only downfall, it seemed to also be a location for um… teenagers… to enjoy aswell.
Pretty, pink, used… “balloons”… littered the ground behind the tree where I was sure the geocache was. Forunately, Ron is a better judge for where geocaches may be and found it within another tree a few feet away.
After the day was done, we chose to take a cab back to the subway to return to the Hotel. We met a very friendly Lady who learned English from watching TV. I resisted the urge to bow and flap my arms in animated speech while chatting with her all the way back. Ron is always so good at speaking to people who have broken English. I wish I could do that. I become flustered and try to make a run for it every time. He held the conversation together. Bravo Ronald!
Now we were ready for Manila…. 
“Sweaty and bowing” Shannon