More travels through Tokyo

The next day, I met my friend Jackson for some more sightseeing.  He was an afterschool teacher and a teacher’s aide in my classroom in Berlin, Germany.  Now he teaches English and Social Studies at Tokyo Metropolitan Junior and Senior High School. 

He also had done his research about “mathy” sights to see and so we went off on a hunt for a collection of mathematical “ema”. 






These are the wooden tablets that are hung at shrines to record your wishes and prayers.  In ancient times, some shrines were known as places to communicate the mathematical work of the scholars in the area.  Instead of research journals that we have today, their new discoveries or the problems they were working on were put on ema tablets and hung at the shrine.  



We looked in every building on the shrine grounds but did not find a collection.  We did, however, get a book of some of the problems that had been put on those ema.  And we saw the largest Taiko drum that I have ever seen.  The shoulder of the person in the picture gives you some context for the actual size!

I did get a chance to go through this ring again (as I did in Hiroshima) to ensure my good luck for the next 6 months.  I'll try to share it with all my Lawrence family!

We then walked through different shopping areas of Tokyo and stopped at Starbucks for the Matcha Frappucino that Mrs. Kida had recommended.   

These two pictures show Japan's love of collectibles.

All sidewalks and train stations have these braille walkways.  Lines for go and dots for stop.

The Japanese love baseball and a growth mindset

The cashier at the department store made sure to carefully choose the right sized gift bag for each of my gifts!