Adventures on the Town

Today (Saturday) was our only free day. Some people took side trips out of Tokyo, which were expensive and required a good portion of the day being used up going to and from their destination. A group of us decided to explore a couple of the many sights to see here in the Tokyo.
The first order of business figuring out how to get where we wanted to go -- easier said than done. We’d already had the harrowing taxi ride, so we decided to brave Tokyo’s efficient but complex subway system. It’s a virtual warren of color-coded tracks intertwining beneath the city. I’m sure we provided some amusing anecdotes for native Tokyo-ites (??Tokyo-ans??) as they described observing a group of middle-aged Americans poring over a map and retracing their steps before at last boarding a train. We nearly headed off in totally wrong directions but ultimately made no errors.
It was a beautiful day for strolling through the Imperial Palace Gardens. We could identify some flowers and trees and mis-identified bamboo before we came across the real thing. People were sitting in the shade on benches or on the ground under a tree. One man was sleeping, stretched out on the ground in the middle of a lawn. Although we saw homeless people later in the park near the National Museum, this man seemed just to be enjoying the sunshine.
After another subway adventure, we opted for some culture in the National Museum. It sits in Ueno Park, which is filled with tree-lined paths, people of every sort, street performers, and the Japanese version of an ice cream truck -- this one again serving interesting flavored soft-served ice cream with no identifying flavors, at least not in English.
I was intrigued by watching a number of people eating a food that I couldn’t identify. It was long and red on the outside (at first I thought it was a red banana-like fruit I’ve seen here) with a yellow inside. People were buying them from a vendor, breaking them open , peeling the skin, and eating the inside. They smelled good, so I decided to buy one. When I stood in line, I noticed that they were shaped more like a sweet potato. It was almost too hot to hold and break apart, but it turned out to be some kind of potato. Oishii!
Tomorrow we take the bullet train to Hiroshima. Another new experience.