Monday, April 23, 2007
April 7
Today, sightseeing really begins.
We woke up at 5:30 in the morning, enjoying our jetlag, and set out to explore the city of Tokyo. First stop: Tsukiji fish market, the largest fish market in the largest city in one of the largest fish-eating countries on the planet. This should be fun.
On the way, we stopped to take our picture in front of the Sapporo building, one of the largest drink producers (alcoholic and non) in Japan. I won’t tell you what the iconic ‘golden beer foam’ on top of the building has been compared to, but let’s just say it’s rarely likened to actual beer foam.
The Tsukiji fish market was EPIC. There’s no other word for it. Fish gets brought in from all over and is sold by stand upon stand upon stand UPON STAND of fishmonger stalls. We walked through a lot of fish market, and I’m sure we covered a bare fraction of the total floor. The place just went on for ACRES.
Tuna. Huge frozen tuna. They cut them with a band saw and skinned it with an axe. Tuna heads were laying around, each the size of a snare drum, with eyes as big as my fist. Heck, both fists!
It was really fascinating. Jess was a real trooper, too, considering how much she doesn’t like fish. The place didn’t smell, though, they kept it pretty darn clean. One of the most awe-inspiring sights of the vacation.
We stopped briefly at a little shrine outside the fish market. Japan is filled with shrines, some old and important, many more of them small, intimate, and tucked out of the way somewhere you aren’t expecting to see them. This one wasn’t either, being fairly large, though perhaps not historically important. It was our first, though, and a pretty impressive sight.
We walked through the back street shops near Tsukiji, next. It reminded me of some of the places I’d seen in Chinatown, just stalls where people have things that they will sell to you. No pretension, and very little marketing, just stall upon stall of stuff, from food to household supplies. An early Japanese mall, if you will.
This was our first temple, just down the street. (Key: Temple = Buddhism, Shrine = Shinto) Run by one of the many sects of Buddhism, the temple style was obviously, and elegantly, I think, inspired by Indian influences. I didn’t take any pictures of the inside, it seemed inappropriate at this place, but the insides of temples just fascinate me. It’s like there’s just layers and layers of symbols and icons I don’t quite understand. Carvings on the walls, steps leading up to an altar, with flowers in front, surrounded by knots, with carvings on the side, and a little box on the altar, and some folded paper in front of the box, and elegant, gilded doors on the box, with elegant carvings on the doors, and then a little Buddha statue, underneath a braided rope. Then behind that altar, another one, larger and higher up, with boxes and flowers and carvings and gilding and lace, and statues and paintings and folded paper. Everything was just so different and there was so much of it. I really just liked looking at temples and shrines, so many new things to look at.
Blossoms! We hit Cherry blossom season dead on. The blossoms were in full bloom in Tokyo when we wandered through a park in Tsukiji. Lots of pretty pictures, and it was a really nice park, so I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.
We met a very nice lady taking a walk through the park who immediately pegged the two white people walking through the park with huge backpacks on as tourists. She took the opportunity to ask us where we were from, what our plans were, whether or not we liked Japan, that sort of things. Very enthusiastic. She ended by asking us, *asking us*, to please enjoy Japan. I’d like to think we did.
There were also a lot of cats hanging out in one corner of a park near a building, and one was quite happy to let Jess pet him.
All this before noon on the first day.
Next up, the fashion district, Harajuku. Big, busy, crazy, and stuffed to the gills with Teenagers on the hunt for the next big thing, be that Goth-Loli, dressing up like young, dark, disturbed gothic dolls, or wearing a collection of completely unrelated clothes and dying your hair green, there was a little bit of everything there. Including, yes, well dressed young women in conservative coats and long pants. How would you recognize the crazy people if they didn’t have normal people to dress ‘stranger than’? We sat for a while, looked, around, had some Crepes with ice cream, and people watched.
I don’t know who this is, but as I sat and watched below, a famous person came into a perfume shop and started signing autographs or allowing pictures, or something similar. When she strolled up, face hidden by a hat and escorted by her manager or someone similar, someone realized the famous person was here and *instantly* there were 25 camera phones shoved in every quadrant of her face. They wrassled their way into the store and the line clogged the way. Every time the people asked gawkers to move along, more people would stop to see what they were supposed to be dutifully ignoring, and the clog would get worse. I think she was on a show called ‘Love to Magic II’, because that was the shirt all the staff was wearing.
After that, we made our way to the ‘Hostel’ where we would be spending our second night in Japan. Turned out it was less of a Hostel and more of a Ryokan, or traditional Japanese-style inn. They laid out futons for us, escorted us to our rooms, and even provided some Yukata for us to wear while wandering to and from the baths.
Bathing in Japan is very different than in America. You wash yourself off with a shower thing first, then soak in nice hot water to relax and cleanse yourself. I’ll tell you what, that is a great way to relax after being all around Tokyo with big backpacks on your shoulders. We got to clean together in the private bath, soaking together in a hot bath and slowly transitioning from solid to gel and then to liquid. We melted into the futon and fell very heavily asleep.
(Note, more pictures can be found on snapfish, e-mail me if you want the link. They also have bigger pictures, and I have really big ones if you want.)
-N
Today, sightseeing really begins.
We woke up at 5:30 in the morning, enjoying our jetlag, and set out to explore the city of Tokyo. First stop: Tsukiji fish market, the largest fish market in the largest city in one of the largest fish-eating countries on the planet. This should be fun.
On the way, we stopped to take our picture in front of the Sapporo building, one of the largest drink producers (alcoholic and non) in Japan. I won’t tell you what the iconic ‘golden beer foam’ on top of the building has been compared to, but let’s just say it’s rarely likened to actual beer foam.
The Tsukiji fish market was EPIC. There’s no other word for it. Fish gets brought in from all over and is sold by stand upon stand upon stand UPON STAND of fishmonger stalls. We walked through a lot of fish market, and I’m sure we covered a bare fraction of the total floor. The place just went on for ACRES.
Tuna. Huge frozen tuna. They cut them with a band saw and skinned it with an axe. Tuna heads were laying around, each the size of a snare drum, with eyes as big as my fist. Heck, both fists!
It was really fascinating. Jess was a real trooper, too, considering how much she doesn’t like fish. The place didn’t smell, though, they kept it pretty darn clean. One of the most awe-inspiring sights of the vacation.
We stopped briefly at a little shrine outside the fish market. Japan is filled with shrines, some old and important, many more of them small, intimate, and tucked out of the way somewhere you aren’t expecting to see them. This one wasn’t either, being fairly large, though perhaps not historically important. It was our first, though, and a pretty impressive sight.
We walked through the back street shops near Tsukiji, next. It reminded me of some of the places I’d seen in Chinatown, just stalls where people have things that they will sell to you. No pretension, and very little marketing, just stall upon stall of stuff, from food to household supplies. An early Japanese mall, if you will.
This was our first temple, just down the street. (Key: Temple = Buddhism, Shrine = Shinto) Run by one of the many sects of Buddhism, the temple style was obviously, and elegantly, I think, inspired by Indian influences. I didn’t take any pictures of the inside, it seemed inappropriate at this place, but the insides of temples just fascinate me. It’s like there’s just layers and layers of symbols and icons I don’t quite understand. Carvings on the walls, steps leading up to an altar, with flowers in front, surrounded by knots, with carvings on the side, and a little box on the altar, and some folded paper in front of the box, and elegant, gilded doors on the box, with elegant carvings on the doors, and then a little Buddha statue, underneath a braided rope. Then behind that altar, another one, larger and higher up, with boxes and flowers and carvings and gilding and lace, and statues and paintings and folded paper. Everything was just so different and there was so much of it. I really just liked looking at temples and shrines, so many new things to look at.
Blossoms! We hit Cherry blossom season dead on. The blossoms were in full bloom in Tokyo when we wandered through a park in Tsukiji. Lots of pretty pictures, and it was a really nice park, so I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.
We met a very nice lady taking a walk through the park who immediately pegged the two white people walking through the park with huge backpacks on as tourists. She took the opportunity to ask us where we were from, what our plans were, whether or not we liked Japan, that sort of things. Very enthusiastic. She ended by asking us, *asking us*, to please enjoy Japan. I’d like to think we did.
There were also a lot of cats hanging out in one corner of a park near a building, and one was quite happy to let Jess pet him.
All this before noon on the first day.
Next up, the fashion district, Harajuku. Big, busy, crazy, and stuffed to the gills with Teenagers on the hunt for the next big thing, be that Goth-Loli, dressing up like young, dark, disturbed gothic dolls, or wearing a collection of completely unrelated clothes and dying your hair green, there was a little bit of everything there. Including, yes, well dressed young women in conservative coats and long pants. How would you recognize the crazy people if they didn’t have normal people to dress ‘stranger than’? We sat for a while, looked, around, had some Crepes with ice cream, and people watched.
I don’t know who this is, but as I sat and watched below, a famous person came into a perfume shop and started signing autographs or allowing pictures, or something similar. When she strolled up, face hidden by a hat and escorted by her manager or someone similar, someone realized the famous person was here and *instantly* there were 25 camera phones shoved in every quadrant of her face. They wrassled their way into the store and the line clogged the way. Every time the people asked gawkers to move along, more people would stop to see what they were supposed to be dutifully ignoring, and the clog would get worse. I think she was on a show called ‘Love to Magic II’, because that was the shirt all the staff was wearing.
After that, we made our way to the ‘Hostel’ where we would be spending our second night in Japan. Turned out it was less of a Hostel and more of a Ryokan, or traditional Japanese-style inn. They laid out futons for us, escorted us to our rooms, and even provided some Yukata for us to wear while wandering to and from the baths.
Bathing in Japan is very different than in America. You wash yourself off with a shower thing first, then soak in nice hot water to relax and cleanse yourself. I’ll tell you what, that is a great way to relax after being all around Tokyo with big backpacks on your shoulders. We got to clean together in the private bath, soaking together in a hot bath and slowly transitioning from solid to gel and then to liquid. We melted into the futon and fell very heavily asleep.
(Note, more pictures can be found on snapfish, e-mail me if you want the link. They also have bigger pictures, and I have really big ones if you want.)
-N
Labels: Harajuku, Japan, Ryokan, Tokyo, Tsujiki
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