FRIDAY, MAY 16, TOKYO — We both woke up around 4 this morning, our confused internal clocks simultaneously agreeing that we’ve had enough sleep. On these long spring days in the East, it was already first light when we opened the curtains. The photo above was taken from our 22nd-floor room at the Prince Park Tower Hotel, and looks out over a small slice of the Tokyo skyline, and in the foreground, the Shibakoen area, including the grounds of the Zojoji Temple, with a wooden gate dating back to 1622, the oldest wooden structure in Tokyo.

We had a good, on-time flight here, and both of us even managed to sleep several hours on the plane. Courtenay has spent months planning this trip, and we’re both so excited to be back in Japan.

After we sped through Japanese passport control and cabbed to our hotel, we took a short walk around the Shibakoen, we saw the Toshugu Shrine, and inside Zojoji, got a lucky peek at a beautiful statue of a black Buddha, which was Tokugawa Ieyasu’s favorite, and only displayed to the public three days a year. We also walked past a 4th century keyhole tomb and a shell mound dating to the Jomon period (14,000 BC to 300 BC). We finished our arrival day by over-ordering on a yakitori dinner (chicken and vegetable skewers) in the basement of our hotel), and waddling back to our room.

We have a big day planned today, starting with a trip to the TeamLab Borderless art installation, which is just a 15-minute walk away, followed by a visit to a Japanese woodblock print museum, a soba lunch, and then our long-awaited first-ever sumo wrestling competition. We’ve already started our first day in Japan by watching the wrestling highlights from last night’s sumo bouts. At home, we watched all the reruns from the March tournament and have our favorite wrestlers. We’re so ready for tonight’s action!