Tokyo: Day 5

Today Peter went to his meeting as the respresentative of the Royal Society - the one that paid for the trip!  It was called Science 20 and was attended by delegates from scientific instutions around the world.   They agreed a statement on plastic waste in the oceans.   Peter was amused to find himself seated behind a Union Jack.  In the afternoon the key participants were taken to the residence of Shinzo Abe, the Japanese Prime Minister, where they were rehearsed three times before Mr. Abe appeared and received the statement.  Here they are (left) lined up behind him.  Peter is giving his arm to a German colleague who had difficulty standing for any length of time and, despite requests from Peter, no one from the organising group felt empowered to fetch a chair.  It wasn't in the programme.   There was also a photo of everyone seated and they received instructions about putting clenched fists on their knees.   You can see from the shot that many could not keep up this conformity.

Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister and Peter (right)

Delegates in a row

The delegate from Saudi Arabia

 

In the evening there was a reception at the Paul Baucuse restaurant in the Art Gallery we had visited on our first day.   The buffet food was western and included roast potatoes.   Peter was in seventh heaven!

Rather blurred line up at the reception

Making spoons - sent this to Abe the Whittler!

There were several speeches and the delegate from Saudi Arabia, which will host the next meeting, told everyone what a young and forward looking country it now is.  ??

While Peter was representing his country, I went to explore an exhibition of Japanese artifacts which turned out to be very near our hotel.   Unfortunately they had changed their opening time to accommodate a group of young men filming and I was an hour early.   Rather than go off somewhere else, I whiled away some time in a nearby coffee shop and then returned.   There were some fine things on display, ceramics, laquer ware, carving, wood work etc but all quite expensive and not quite the large ramen bowls I was looking for.   I was in two minds about going back to the Ginza shopping area and going to a couple of department stores or exploring another area of the city which was described as off-beat, full of small boutiques etc.  It was two stops away on the metro and turned out to be a bit disappointing.   Not quite the boutiques I had in mind.  It turned out that the department stores were the best place to buy bowls, but I discovered this too late.

My solo lunch stop

I was looking at a restaurant menu (or rather peering at the plastic replicas in the window) when a Japanese looking woman with long grey hair and an impeccable English/American accent advised me not to go to that restaurant!   She told me about somewhere much better just nearby and took me there.   She would have ushered me across the road, but I felt that if I didn't fancy it when I got there she might be disappointed.  The restaurant she pointed out was open but there was no menu outside and no indication of what type of food they were offering but it looked like an interesting building (albeit under a flyover) and I went in.  Turned out to be very traditional with middle aged waitresses in kimonos and was basically a noodle restaurant.   I had soba noodles in soup with chicken on top and a tray of things to add to the soup - onion, sesame, and a couple of unidentifiable things.  It was very good! 

I did a little more wandering around after lunch and was taken by photos in a window and the sight of men rounding up bikes parked on the pavement and hurling them into the back of a lorry.   At least two had child seats on the back! 

Bike round up

Mom and Pop and Twins

And that was the end of the trip.