We were thankful to have the hospitality of Michael and Anne Marie who knew about several fun cultural events going on in Tokyo while we happened to be in town. The first morning we all, including their adorable six and three-year old daughters, donned Hapi coats and paraded through the streets of Tokyo following the shrine in the Kanda festival. It was really interesting to see this annual event—and even if we didn’t understand the chants, it was fun to clap along! That afternoon, Russ and I headed to the Tokyo Dome to see the Yomuri (Tokyo) Giants take on the Chunichi Dragons. The organized cheering that went on during the game was like nothing we’d ever seen—at one point the fans kept up one cheer for about a half-hour with no rest!
That night we had an interesting culinary experience—ordering a restaurant meal through a vending machine! Step 1: Insert Yen into vending machine. Step 2: Make dinner selections. Step 3: Hand tickets to maitre d’ and sit down to wait for food. It doesn’t get much more efficient than that. And, more importantly, the food was delish! The Japanese really take vending to a whole new level. About every 20 meters or so on the street you see a vending machine, similar to what you have in your office lunch room, except you can get all sorts of cold and hot drinks, ice cream, even ramen, and now dinner!
Shinto followers carrying the shrine in their Hapi coats. A great cultural experience and the participants were happy to see us outsiders joining in their celebration.
Michael and us during one of the breaks of the parade. 
Post-game after the Giants pulled off an 8-7 nailbiter with Sakamoto hitting a 3-run shot in the bottom of the 8th. Definitely an exciting game for the home crowd.
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