Our first stop was Tokyo’s only city-owned fire station, where the fire chief took us on a tour of the station and explained the 119 system (known to us as the 911 system). We asked a lot of questions and one person asked to try on the uniform.
We then hiked up to see the Anazawa Tenjinja (Shinto Shrine): Edo no Satokagura which was designated by the National Government as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. The chief took us on a tour including everything behind the scenes. After having already visited many shrines and temples it was very useful to understand what everything was used for and why. The shrine is 2400 years old and before the building was built, the whole mountain was considered the shrine. Every morning the chief purifies himself and puts on his white kimono before offering rice, Sake and water to the Shinto gods. He even took us down into the cellar to show us how the pure rice is made, which included a special process of rubbing sticks to start the fire. We were then honored to meet his wife and daughter and see his collection of masks and costumes that had been passed down through his family. They were used in the very special Kaguda type of theater. His wife dressed as the goddess of the sun and did a short performance for us. We were able to try on the costumes and masks and have a little fun of our own.
The next stop was the library. Here we saw a brand new, state of the art facility. It was beautiful and included an art gallery from a local origami artist. After telling the Superintendent how much we loved the origami she made a phone call and arranged for us to meet with the artist at school the next day. The library also had a very unique feature called the “Book robot”. In the basement of the library (a very huge basement) they stored the books that were not very popular. If someone requested one of these books the information would be put into the computer and in a matter of minutes the book would be found among the thousands of books in the basement and the robot would deliver it up to the circulation desk. It was mind blowing to understand how a single book could be found among thousands that were stacked in boxes to the ceiling. The library also included flat screen TV cubicles where you could watch TV, computer areas, a self-checkout and so much more. They even had recording areas for making audio books incase someone requested one.
We were met next by a neurologist who took us on a tour of the city’s hospital. Once again we were impressed. The three main things that stuck out were:
1. The silence of the hospital (no loud speakers were used, only pagers)
2. Every single bed had it’s own window (the shape of the building was like that of a butterfly)
3. The building was built with shock absorbers to withstand an earthquake.
After a meeting with some of the doctors and nurses we headed back to our hotel and off to find a restaurant for dinner.
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