Tokyo

Day 236 AND Day 237 – From blow-up mat to Tatami mat

This morning we woke up around 5.30am, packed up the tent, hopped in the car (which thankfully started first go) and were off for our 8am flight to Tokyo.  We were there with plenty of time to spare, but by the time check-in took forever and then security took for ever, we were one of the last they let on the flight.  Plenty of people missed theirs!

Getting this flight was quite silly really as when we were booking our flights it turned out to be $300USD cheaper each if we flew from Seattle to Tokyo via Vancouver on the same plane as direct from Vancouver to Tokyo!  So of course we took the cheaper option and were lucky that Elliott and Kat were happy to make a weekend of it, otherwise it would have be $25 and 4 hours on the bus.  Cheaper, but not as fun!  We called up to try and cancel the first leg, given we were in Vancouver anyway and Air Canada told us that if we didn’t get on in Seattle, they would cancel the whole ticket!  How silly!

So anyways, our first flight was short and sweet back to Vancouver airport to sit around for 4 hours, but it ended up working out well as we had some time to book some accommodation in Japan and the exact window of time we needed to watch the World Cup Final.  They even held the plane by about 3 minutes so that us and a hand full of others could watch the dying minutes!

Of course out of all the seats on the plane, I got the one with the broken headphone jack, but we were quickly re-seated and ready to begin our task of watching as many movies as possible in the next 9 hours.  We did well.  It was only a problem once we had arrived in Tokyo and with the heat and humidity punching us in the face, it was quite a struggle to stay awake on the two trains and 90 minutes from Narita Airport into Tokyo.

Once we had arrived in Tokyo and navigated to our executive box at the Dormy Inn Hatchobori Hotel, we hit the streets for some food and to stay awake just that little bit longer so that we could go to bed at a normal bedtime.  We managed to find a tiny 8 seater place, the first place we saw with at least a couple of English translations, ordered a few random things, exchanged smiles and head-bobs with the chef who threw in a tough dried piece of fish snack to try at the end of our meal and then we were on our way to fall into our futon – 25 hours after we had woken up in a tent in Seattle!  We had also lost a day during that time.

Day 238 – Finding food in Japan.

This morning we got up and took a walk to Ginza, one of the famous shopping districts, although at 9am everything was still closed!  We wandered into a building and downstairs to what looked like a food court.  A little old Japanese lady came up to us and in perfect English said “Good morning, what are you looking for?”  We explained that we just wanted some breakfast, and straight away her reply was “Why, you passed McDonalds just upstairs!”  We gave a little chuckle and explained that we wanted Japanese breakfast (but didn’t bother to add that neither of us has actually ever had a McDonalds hamburger!).  She spoke to her friend for a minute and I believe they were conferring as to where would be open at this hour.  She turned back to us and explained that everything near here opened at 11am so we were out of luck.  So we trudged back up the stairs and out onto the street. 

 
Ginza, our first glimpses of Japan in the daylight.

It was almost another hour before we found a little back street Ramen noodle place.  Delicious and easy, as you make your purchase by picking a picture off a vending machine that dispenses you a ticket and then food arrives!

The Sony Centre also didn’t open until 11am, so we were there waiting when it did.  We spent an hour or so wandering through all the present and future gadgets on offer and played a few of the video games.  The most impressive piece of new technology (for the average consumer) were the new 3D televisions, however I’m not sure how they will go with customer satisfaction as watching it was giving us a headache after only 10 minutes.  Must take a bit of getting used to.

Matt having his golf swing analysed (like he will ever need to know that!).

And now watching soccer on the 3D TVs.  3D was really freaky!

After the Sony Centre we continued on our walking tour to the Imperial Palace East Gardens...

The Imperial Gate.  Unless you swim the moat and climb a fence, you can’t actually go inside the Imperial Palace, just the gardens to the East.

A small amount of green in a city of grey!

After that it was up the hill a little bit to the Modern Art Museum, which coincidentally was showing yet another architecture related exhibition called “Where is architecture? Seven Installations by Japanese Architects”.  The exhibits were more artsy than architecture, but the best exhibit was one where they had made a model house and set a model sun rotating around it and then in the next room projected what the sun and shadows would look like from the inside of the house.  Clever.  The main museum was also quite good as there were explanations in English.

As it was included free with our ticket, we walked even further up the hill to the Craft Museum, which was showing all kinds of Japanese textiles such as kimono, pottery, lacquerware, glass and the exhibition was called “Colours” so all of the wares were set up to show a different colour in each room.  I loved it, but I’m not sure Matt was son keen.  Luckily there was a man bench on each floor.

Continuing on with our walking, we walked back through Ginza where I found an 11 storey stationary store.  Gold!  As we were so tired, we only did the first two floors, but I marked it for return as it looked like the perfect place to pick up some cute little (lightweight!) things.  

Only in Japan!

With our feet killing we had just enough energy to freshen up for dinner and find something local again.  We each picked a picture off the wall and sat up to the counter in the tiny eatery.  When my food arrived it turned out to be a cheeseburger (it looked like an okonomiaki (Japanese pancake) in the picture) which if I wasn’t feeling so tired and lazy, I would have known if I had bothered to read the description of the meal I had picked!  It came in an obento box though, so there were plenty of other bits and pieces to try!

We jumped on google maps and worked out we had walked at least 14km today.  Japan is going to be good for us, but not for our poor feet.  I did all of that in my Havaianas!

Day  239 – Mushrooms and Beer!

This morning we woke up early as we had wanted to hit the Tsukiji Fish Market before 8am, which was when it was supposed to be at its best, but as Matt read the description on how to walk there from our hotel, he realised it was closed the second Wednesday of each month, which happened to be today.   Not wanting to waste the fact we were up early, we caught up on domestic things and found some more phrases on the internet to learn and waited for Tokyo to wake up.

We got a snack at Daimaru given it was at the train station.  We have already learned that Japanese people are the way they are because they never rest!  Not a bench or stool in site in the entire Tokyo Station or its surrounds.  We settled for a quite corner to sit on the ground and munch on our sushi.  The second thing we have noticed is that there are never any bins anywhere, despite the streets being spotlessly clean.  So we carried our rubbish around most of the day (because of course everything comes in tiny individual packaging!)

First destination this morning was the Metropolitan Government Offices Observation Tower, which is a free ride up to the 45th floor of the offices for a view out over Tokyo.  From the view we saw a really interesting looking building called the Cocoon and as it was on our way, we popped in there too, but only got a look at the foyer.

The view out over just part of the city.  It looks like this in every direction!

The Cocoon Tower.

Matt had our lunch destination picked out already, a restaurant called “Mushroom”.  It was a bit on the fancy side and we had a lot of trouble with the menu which was all in Kanji (I can read Hiragana and Katakana, but not the third alphabet Kanji!) but managed to explain what we liked and got the waitress to pick.  We weren’t disappointed!!

 

Next on Matt’s destination list was the Yebisu Brewery for some beer tasting.  We weren’t disappointed there either!  Matt decided he would work towards being a “Bi-i-ru tou”, “Beer Master” or “Beer enthusiast” and earn himself a Yebisu Happi coat with the Yebisu God on the back.  I think he may already qualify!

Some Yebisu sexy advertising from back in the day.

The Yebisu God!

Around the same area was the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography which was showing the World Press Photography 2010 exhibition.  The exhibition was made up of all the winning photos for each category from World news events in 2009.  The overall winner was very moving being of a lady calling out in the middle of the night from her rooftop in Tehran in protest of the resent election results, thought to have been rigged.  There were even a couple of photos of Victoria’s Black Saturday that won awards.

The Ebisu neighbourhood was quite trendy in itself so given we had some time to spare we went for a wander.  One of my favourite things to do in new places is exactly this, people watching as everyone goes about their daily routine (and often watches back!).  We came across a really cool bookshop, so that put an end to the wandering, so much so we had to quickly hike back to the train to get back across town in time for our dinner date.

Tonight was very exciting as we were meeting up with Shouko, an exchange student my family hosted when I was 15 who had come back to Australia and stayed with us again two more times since.  The last time was about 6 years ago, just after we came back from our last long overseas trip, so we weren’t sure if we would even recognise her.  Of course we did straight away and although she is still tiny, she has turned into a gorgeous little women!  It was so different to see her dressed up in her business clothes and drinking beer!  Shouko took us to a trendy, tall stooled tapas-type bar filled with salary men and women near her work and we caught up on the last 6 years.  She particularly remembered my very tall brother and we remembered that she never got lost in Melbourne (but now we now why – if you can navigate Tokyo, you can navigate anywhere!).  She is now working as a pharmacist with the Japanese Government’s drug approvals agency and works from 9am until 7pm everyday, commutes an hour each way on the train and has learnt to sleep standing up!  The poor thing hadn’t finished her work for the day and had to go back, so we tried not to keep her long, but had organised to come back towards the end of our trip to visit properly when she had two days off work.

Back at the hotel, we decided to bite the bullet and try the hotel’s onsen (hot spring/bath, traditionally enjoyed naked, genders separated).  We had a shower in our room, so hadn’t had to experience communal bathing yet, but decided we had better get used to it!  The setting was very pretty (no photos sorry), but the baths a scorching 40 degrees, so I only stayed in about 10 minutes and returned to the room to find Matt had done the same. 

Costumed (or lack there-of) ready for our onsen!

Day 240 – Smells like fish

Up early again for a second go at the fish market, we made it down there by about 7.30am.  An extremely busy place, made even more dangerous by the forklift/mini truck drivers zipping about the place at top speed, we walked up and down a few isles looking for interesting fishy creatures and giant tunas.  Walking around in thongs was a bad idea, but I only got a minimal amount of fish guts on my dress! 

 

We picked ourselves up some fresh tuna for breakfast and ate it on a park bench on the walk back to the hotel.  Before leaving on our Shinkansen to Kyoto I got to visit Itoya Stationery again and we had a tasty vending machine picked lunch.  This one didn’t have pictures so we had to match the Kanji on the plastic food out the front with the machine!