Saturday - departure day
We woke up in Tokyo and packed up our things for the final time on our trip. We found an excellent coffee spot nearby and then a breakfast spot. It was starting to feel pretty warm, even early in the day, though we had been very fortunate all trip with mild June weather.
In our discussions with Vivien, she had mentioned a neighborhood in central Tokyo that she called Omotesando Hills. She mentioned that Rene Omi (my maternal grandmother) had lived in this neighborhood with Charles and Bodil Davidson when she was a small child. This would have been in the 1930's, before World War II broke out. Rene was born in Japan in 1931, when they presumably lived in this neighborhood. After the war, Charles Davidson would return to Omotesando Hills for his work with the Salvation Army, and Vivien remembers visiting him there as a very young child.
We knew that the neighborhood had changed a huge amount over the last 90 years, including a devastating world war and a major cultural overhaul, but we wanted to get a feel for the area and also see if we could track down any pre-war vestiges. We were able to find a luggage storage location, Natalie and Julie set off to a different, less ambitious destination, and I went off to Omotesando Hills with the kids.
Omotesando Hills had clearly been entirely rebuilt after the war, and was now the site of a major mall complex and a series of high end luxury retailers. Behind the shopping complex were a series of winding streets and a mix of residential and commercial buildings, mostly clearly post war, but with a few potential hold outs from an earlier era. This was a fun walk and definitely worth our time. Amazing to think of how far our family has come since the 1930's, and how far Japan has come as well.
If only we could come up with a few Davidson street addresses! Next time ...
Then we were off to the Tokyo metro to meet up with Julie and Natalie and begin our journey to the airport.
On the final leg of our journey to the airport, Yevgeny Progozhin began his march into Russia. We were following the updates in real time all the way until take off.
And then finally, SFO ...
Before any sleep, a run up to Sonoma to pick up our doggie before kennel closing time.
And then rest ...
Japan, we'll miss you! We are already thinking about our return.
