What a great day to be in Tokyo

We awoke and the sun was pouring through the windows and the view over the Temple grounds was quite beautiful. We had breakfast and left the Hotel and wandered down through the busy shopping streets to the   Senso-ji Temple and watched the activity and took a load of photos of the Temple and also the people milling around.
Sensoji is perhaps the most famous and photographed of Tokyo's temples. It is the oldest Buddhist temple in the capital, and the five-story pagoda, trails of incense and vast eaves will take you back to a Tokyo of time gone by.

The Temple was very popular this morning and apart from the local Japanese visiting there were quite a few of tour parties with there leaders carrying a flag of one type or another and leading around and up and down and then to their favourite shop (that is the tour leaders favourite shop). From there we went down to the Sumida River to see if their were any boats operating today as overnight the wind had been strong again and in other areas South of Tokyo there had been some problems with falling trees, electric cables down and the friends who we are joining for dinner have had to rush down to their house on the coast in Kamakura as there had been some storm damage and they were having challenges to get there as some train lines were not working. We also spotted some children practising some organised walking and a routine being prepared.
However the Water Bus was operating and so we purchased two round trip tickets to a place called Obaido which was about 40 minutes ride away and on the outbound leg there was more crew than passengers ( i.e. 3 crew and us two) and so we had the complete boat which would normally seat about a hundred people or more. The trip in the glorious clear blue sky weather was most enjoyable and we went past the Harumi Dock area where we landed from the Silver Sea Cruise liner and is also the home of the 2020 Olympic Games and there building springing up everywhere and a forest or cranes.

Then on past Tokyo Sky Tree tower the tallest free standing tower in the world, the commentary said, and then past the very famous Tsukiji Fish Market which has closed recently and moved to another location. The market was dark and dingy and was in need of a clean up and we understand that the new one is much better but we have no time to visit and also to get up to wait in line from 0200 hrs till 0500 when the market opens to see loads of wheeler dealers buying the Tuna and other fish is a bit to early for us.
From there boat went under the Rainbow Bridge
The Rainbow Bridge (レインボーブリッジ Reinbō Burijji) is a suspension bridge crossing northern Tokyo Bay between Shibaura Pier and the Odaiba waterfront development in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.It was built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries,^[1][2] with construction starting in 1987 and completed in 1993.^[3] The bridge is 798 metres (2,618 ft) long with a main span of 580 metres (1,903 ft).^[4] Officially called the "Shuto Expressway No. 11 Daiba Route - Port of Tokyo Connector Bridge,"^[5] the name "'Rainbow Bridge" was decided by the public.
The towers supporting the bridge are white in colour, designed to harmonize with the skyline of central Tokyo seen from Odaiba. There are lamps placed on the wires supporting the bridge, which are illuminated into three different colours, red, white and green every night using solar energy obtained during the day.

We got back to the Asakusa boat pier at about 14.45 and headed back to the hotel to grab a bite to eat and then a sort out for the evening. With a change of clothes we left the Hotel and walked to the local station and caught the train to Akihabara where we changed on the the Hibya Line to Tsukiji to join our friends for dinner in his favourite dive. We started off with a new type of sashimi, this is where they market dealers have taken off most, if not all, off the Tuna meat from the carcass but there is some meat which is between the ribs of the fish and so you have a sea shell to scrape between the ribs and extract the remaining parts of the fish meat. Most enjoyable. Then we had some fish on a charcoal grill and with a few rounds of yakitori to finish and it was all quite filling and clearly aided by two nice bottles of Chardonnay wine.

Then back to the Hotel by train again and a little light shopping in one of the many 24 hours food shops and home for a well earned rest after we had both walked quite a long way to day.