I write several sentences about botanical gardens, as well. It is a fortune that there is a real Eldorado for us in only three stations away: the Tokyo Metropolitan Medicinal Plant Garden. We have spent 2-3 ours here almost every week. Mainly in the greenhouse so far, but it is getting warmer now, so we started to explore the outside area. It is unbelievable to a maniac plant photographer like me...

Previous week we have managed to go to the botanical garden of the university (called Koishikawa Garden) in Tokyo. I took this picture there, and not in a local Jurassic Park. It was founded by the Tokugawa Shoguns (who else), originally for growing medicinal plants. It still has a small part dedicated for medicinal plants, but it is not to big (appr. 120 species). The parts representing the native Japanese vegetation (like this one on the picture) are more interesting.

We have found two little shinto shrines in the garden so far, usually in small valleys. They have a very good atmosphere, very similar to that of stone rings and dolmens of the ancient celts.

I meet the most disgusting cat of my life here in the garden. It was so full of parasites, that (despite its obvious lasiness) it was not able to sleep in the sunshine, it was scratching itself all the time. I included it for the sake of Renata.

There is also a traditional Japanese garden part, here with two very friendly people.

After the practices, there is small talk with tea, but people also can practice, if they want to. The atmosphere is very good, this is the time to ask people if you want to know something, or just to talk. There is always some cake to eat, and filling the cups is the job of the uchideshi.

The same at Kodaira-dojo. The second person from the left (smoking) is Kanda sensei (5. dan), who practices in a very light and forceless manner. And he is a very funny person, too.

Barbara sensei (6. dan) seems to a be a harmless lady - but don't underestimate her! She has been in Japan for about 30 years, and very helpful.

A nice moment. Kobayashi sensei (71 years, 8. dan) decided to learn to ride this monocycle, for the sake of his grantchild. He is at the very beginning now, but he enjoys it a lot, and practices insistently. Fortunately, he also likes being photographed.

The hard and dispiteous way of uchideshi life is really amazing. You can eat as much as you are able to and you will loss weight. You are continously looking for warm, sunlit places (like a cat), and, if you have half an our for resting, you don't vaste your time: you can sleep anywhere.

On Monday we faced a real challenge: it turned out, that despite the MasterCard and Visa logos on Japanese cash-mashines, they don't accept Hungarian and Swedish cards. What to do? After surfing a bit on the internet, we learned that there is one single bank (Citibank), whose cards are compatible with the rest of the world, and there is one placed somewhere in Ikebukuro. We found it within one hour, which is not a bad result. And, believe me, getting money here, far away from home, was a huge relief...

After grabbing the money we headed to Akihabara, the quarter dedicated for electronic whatever. Björn wanted to buy a digital camera és we helped him. We got it in one our, but it was hard to bear...

A Buddhist Temple with very good atmosphere: the Zozo-ji. Sitting here was quite nice, but we were sorry for the local uchideshi: it must have taken lots of time to keep this floor clean. Well, empathy is a basic feature of buddhism...

Our last target was Tokyo-tower, which resembles the Eiffel-tower, but a bit taller, of course.

The highest floor is 250 m above ground, with full panorama - you can even see the Mount Fuji, as well. The whole scene is a bit Star Wars-like.

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