Friday, May 11, 2007
April 21, twice.
We woke up at some normal hour or another and made our way v…e…r…r…y slowly to the airport, where our plane left at 4:00. We stopped for breakfast/lunch at Andersen’s bakery again, eating lots of breads and generally relaxing. We had repacked all of our stuff so that we could check through a duffle bag and take smaller backpacks on the plane. We knew what we were doing. Unfortunately, it was a pretty heavy bag, but Jess is good at carrying around huge bags like this (it’s what she uses for her hockey gear) and so she helped out my technique.
We took our time at the station, looking at various stores (another bookstore…man, I wish I could read Japanese!) and then took a private rail line (which just means ‘not JR’) out to Narita, since our JR passes had expired. We timed that really well. We had the passes to help us while we didn’t know how to use the rail systems. By the end of the trips, we were pro.
We arrived at Narita airport roughly 4 hours early for our flight. No problem checking in, so we walked around some stores to get rid of some extra yen and time. We had lunch at a restaurant where the cups were made in the USA. Ha!
After that we went through security (didn’t have to take off our shoes! HA HA!) and then wasted some more time at duty-free shopping where we picked up some Sake and a couple of cartons of cigarettes for me on the cheap. No, no, kidding. No cigarettes or perfume, though those seemed to be the most popular items. We could have bought more stuff, but we actually have Asian markets in America and they sell most of this sort of stuff no problem. I did get this Sake that was packaged in a container that looked like one of those old-style sake-fermenting vats I’d seen before. Really neat, I thought. After that, we wandered over to our gate, Jess took a quick nap, and then we got on our plane bound for America.
Another long, boring, overnight flight, and I don’t think I slept much. Strike that, I really didn’t sleep at all. Planes. Yuck. But we flew all through the night and landed…earlier that morning! Thanks, international dateline!
Got our bag, breezed through customs and got a ride home. That’s where we saw Jessie’s favorite surprise of the trip. One of Jessie’s hockey teammates had volunteered to come over and feed Tigger while we were gone and they also used the opportunity to raid our place and throw a party, ‘decorating’ our house in the process. We walked around and found balloons tucked away, streamers everywhere, and all sorts of things wrapped in aluminum foil. Jess was just tickled pink that she had so many great, strange friends and called everyone to tell them how much she loved the surprise.
Can you identify what is wrong with this picture?
After that, we did a little bit of unpacking before jetlag caught up with us and we both konked out around 4 in the afternoon.
Vacation: Success.
-N
We woke up at some normal hour or another and made our way v…e…r…r…y slowly to the airport, where our plane left at 4:00. We stopped for breakfast/lunch at Andersen’s bakery again, eating lots of breads and generally relaxing. We had repacked all of our stuff so that we could check through a duffle bag and take smaller backpacks on the plane. We knew what we were doing. Unfortunately, it was a pretty heavy bag, but Jess is good at carrying around huge bags like this (it’s what she uses for her hockey gear) and so she helped out my technique.
We took our time at the station, looking at various stores (another bookstore…man, I wish I could read Japanese!) and then took a private rail line (which just means ‘not JR’) out to Narita, since our JR passes had expired. We timed that really well. We had the passes to help us while we didn’t know how to use the rail systems. By the end of the trips, we were pro.
We arrived at Narita airport roughly 4 hours early for our flight. No problem checking in, so we walked around some stores to get rid of some extra yen and time. We had lunch at a restaurant where the cups were made in the USA. Ha!
After that we went through security (didn’t have to take off our shoes! HA HA!) and then wasted some more time at duty-free shopping where we picked up some Sake and a couple of cartons of cigarettes for me on the cheap. No, no, kidding. No cigarettes or perfume, though those seemed to be the most popular items. We could have bought more stuff, but we actually have Asian markets in America and they sell most of this sort of stuff no problem. I did get this Sake that was packaged in a container that looked like one of those old-style sake-fermenting vats I’d seen before. Really neat, I thought. After that, we wandered over to our gate, Jess took a quick nap, and then we got on our plane bound for America.
Another long, boring, overnight flight, and I don’t think I slept much. Strike that, I really didn’t sleep at all. Planes. Yuck. But we flew all through the night and landed…earlier that morning! Thanks, international dateline!
Got our bag, breezed through customs and got a ride home. That’s where we saw Jessie’s favorite surprise of the trip. One of Jessie’s hockey teammates had volunteered to come over and feed Tigger while we were gone and they also used the opportunity to raid our place and throw a party, ‘decorating’ our house in the process. We walked around and found balloons tucked away, streamers everywhere, and all sorts of things wrapped in aluminum foil. Jess was just tickled pink that she had so many great, strange friends and called everyone to tell them how much she loved the surprise.
Can you identify what is wrong with this picture?
After that, we did a little bit of unpacking before jetlag caught up with us and we both konked out around 4 in the afternoon.
Vacation: Success.
-N
Labels: Bread, Japan, Shopping, Tokyo, Travel
April 20, Last day…of shopping!
Slept in again, we were on vacation. We set the alarm for 6:00, then reset it for 7:00, then just turned it off and slept until 8:30. I think I got the tiniest cold in the world in Japan, going right from sore throat right to runny nose with neither aches nor pains to speak of. Yay for that and for warm lemon tea available in vending machines. Really nice on the throat.
On the way to the metro we stopped at a shrine we had walked by a couple of times. It turns out it was a shrine for travelers, and was generally visited by people who would be traveling soon, like us! So we offered some small coins and I burned some incense. I’ve always really liked the idea of burning a whole bundle of incense all at once. I’ve seen it a couple of times on video and always wanted to just grab a handful of incense and set it all on fire at once, so here was my chance! A small thing, but I liked it. Smelled nice, too.
Akehabra! It was nice to goof off there again, and we walked around checking out lots of different stores. Eventually, though, we realized the stores all pretty much fell into one of several categories.
1) Model shop: actually these are pretty impressive. There are lots of really pretty models and collections of things you can get from vending machines, like tiny little figurines and key chains. In fact, most of the gifts we got for people back here came from those vending machines, just cause they’re so ubiquitous and so very, very Japanese. So we hung out in a few of these places and went crazy buying little capsules with figurines and key chains and cell-phone accessories. As I write this, I have a couple of adorable little Gundam critters sitting on my desk. Really cute. After a while, though, all the model stores start to look the same.
2) Game shop. Lots of neat video games that either: a) are in America already or b) require too much Japanese to really understand, so I really couldn’t justify buying anything. It’s neat to see stuff that will be coming out in America soon, though, and most of the really good stuff does. After a while, though, all the game stores start to look the same.
3) Book stores. I could spend a fortune (I love books!), but it would all be a waste: I can’t read Japanese. After a while, though, all the book stores start to look the same.
4) Tech stores: Neat stuff. Cell phones that do more than I need and wouldn’t (probably) work in the US, personal organizers and PC stuff. I did see some HUGE monitors, though. Those looked amazing. Some places sold audio gear, too. Fun to browse through, but After a while…
5) Home appliance stores…nah.
6) Tech components…pass.
I could have spent more time in Akehabra, but the stores actually started repeating themselves pretty quickly. Not, therefore, perhaps that different from America.
Had some *tasty* curry, and miso soup feels good on a rough throat.
I got a trick box, which is a neat little device that requires 12 steps to open. It’s a neat souvenir, but I haven’t thought of anything to put inside it yet. :)
Also, did some video-gaming at a couple of arcades. The ‘Sega’ arcade was a little booring. I walked around and it was all games I’d played before, just a *lot* of them. Jess let me check out another one, though, (she’s so good to me!) where I got to play some fun stuff. Smaller, random games and a fighting game called “Melty Blood” that I had to play just for the name. ‘How’s your blood?’ ‘Mine? It’s a little melty.’ I just like that phrase. So yeah, even if I didn’t spend tons of money on any crazy souvenirs, at least I got to play some awesome games.
Anyway, we left Akehabra so we could do some more gift shopping in Asakusa, which Jess finally figured out how to pronounce. (a-sa-ku-sa, not a-su-casa. That’s Spanish popping up right there. Oh, and on a side note…when we first got to Japan, people would ask us questions and Jess instantly reverted to her most comfortable ‘foreign language.’ “Ah, you have customs form filled out?” “Si!”) Got some neat stuff (and neat wrapping jobs), and then called it a day.
Back at the hostel, for the *last time*, watching wacky Japanese TV (pet tricks, Quiz shows, and strange Anime). We’ll pack up tonight and get ready to head home. I say, glad to have gone, and glad to go back.
-N
Slept in again, we were on vacation. We set the alarm for 6:00, then reset it for 7:00, then just turned it off and slept until 8:30. I think I got the tiniest cold in the world in Japan, going right from sore throat right to runny nose with neither aches nor pains to speak of. Yay for that and for warm lemon tea available in vending machines. Really nice on the throat.
On the way to the metro we stopped at a shrine we had walked by a couple of times. It turns out it was a shrine for travelers, and was generally visited by people who would be traveling soon, like us! So we offered some small coins and I burned some incense. I’ve always really liked the idea of burning a whole bundle of incense all at once. I’ve seen it a couple of times on video and always wanted to just grab a handful of incense and set it all on fire at once, so here was my chance! A small thing, but I liked it. Smelled nice, too.
Akehabra! It was nice to goof off there again, and we walked around checking out lots of different stores. Eventually, though, we realized the stores all pretty much fell into one of several categories.
1) Model shop: actually these are pretty impressive. There are lots of really pretty models and collections of things you can get from vending machines, like tiny little figurines and key chains. In fact, most of the gifts we got for people back here came from those vending machines, just cause they’re so ubiquitous and so very, very Japanese. So we hung out in a few of these places and went crazy buying little capsules with figurines and key chains and cell-phone accessories. As I write this, I have a couple of adorable little Gundam critters sitting on my desk. Really cute. After a while, though, all the model stores start to look the same.
2) Game shop. Lots of neat video games that either: a) are in America already or b) require too much Japanese to really understand, so I really couldn’t justify buying anything. It’s neat to see stuff that will be coming out in America soon, though, and most of the really good stuff does. After a while, though, all the game stores start to look the same.
3) Book stores. I could spend a fortune (I love books!), but it would all be a waste: I can’t read Japanese. After a while, though, all the book stores start to look the same.
4) Tech stores: Neat stuff. Cell phones that do more than I need and wouldn’t (probably) work in the US, personal organizers and PC stuff. I did see some HUGE monitors, though. Those looked amazing. Some places sold audio gear, too. Fun to browse through, but After a while…
5) Home appliance stores…nah.
6) Tech components…pass.
I could have spent more time in Akehabra, but the stores actually started repeating themselves pretty quickly. Not, therefore, perhaps that different from America.
Had some *tasty* curry, and miso soup feels good on a rough throat.
I got a trick box, which is a neat little device that requires 12 steps to open. It’s a neat souvenir, but I haven’t thought of anything to put inside it yet. :)
Also, did some video-gaming at a couple of arcades. The ‘Sega’ arcade was a little booring. I walked around and it was all games I’d played before, just a *lot* of them. Jess let me check out another one, though, (she’s so good to me!) where I got to play some fun stuff. Smaller, random games and a fighting game called “Melty Blood” that I had to play just for the name. ‘How’s your blood?’ ‘Mine? It’s a little melty.’ I just like that phrase. So yeah, even if I didn’t spend tons of money on any crazy souvenirs, at least I got to play some awesome games.
Anyway, we left Akehabra so we could do some more gift shopping in Asakusa, which Jess finally figured out how to pronounce. (a-sa-ku-sa, not a-su-casa. That’s Spanish popping up right there. Oh, and on a side note…when we first got to Japan, people would ask us questions and Jess instantly reverted to her most comfortable ‘foreign language.’ “Ah, you have customs form filled out?” “Si!”) Got some neat stuff (and neat wrapping jobs), and then called it a day.
Back at the hostel, for the *last time*, watching wacky Japanese TV (pet tricks, Quiz shows, and strange Anime). We’ll pack up tonight and get ready to head home. I say, glad to have gone, and glad to go back.
-N
Labels: Akehabra, Arcades, Asakusa, Japan, Tokyo
Thursday, May 10, 2007
April 19, Tokyo! Again!
This morning we decided to visit the imperial palace in the morning and Shinjuku in the afternoon. So we woke up at 7 and got to the Tokyo Metro Station…AT RUSH HOUR!
Good grief, absolutely crazy. The subway showed up and had *no* space available. It was literally packed shoulder-to-shoulder along the whole subway. But we watched as people just *squeezed* their way in and everyone just kinda shuffled and squeezed to make a tiny bit more room. People would come to the doorway and just sort of stick their butt into the subway car then grab above the door and literally *lever* themselves into the car, turning their head sideways so that when the door closed it would not *crush their face*.
Eventually Jess and I managed to find a way to shuffle ourselves in, tucked in with everyone else. I actually had to try pretty hard not to accidentally molest anyone. We got to the JR station (rail, as opposed to subway) and it was even crazier! The Yamanote line, a loop that goes around Tokyo (think ‘freeway’), ran every two minutes and was still packed to the gills. There was a line to get up onto the platform! Crazy!
But yeah, we got to the Imperial Palace, the grounds where the Emperor of Japan still lives! (So you can’t go inside. He’s, y’know, walking around in there.) We walked past the fountain garden and walked around the outer moat, which sported koi and swans! One of them even had a nest.
The garden was pretty spectacular, too. Considering we were literally in the *middle of Tokyo*, that much space is pretty much the biggest luxury you can have. There were some really neat old buildings from back when such a place actually needed to be guarded and fortified, but y favorites were the mixed bushes and the bridges over the lake and waterfall. Everything was artistically done, and there was quite a lot of garden.
We walked around the outside of the palace, through a large, open space filled with Pine trees and tour groups, another luxurious empty space. More bridges and swans and the like. We took a short stroll through the nearby government district, too.
Next: Shinjuku! It took some doing to find the main drag, but find it we did. We actually saw an adult movie theatre, naked posters just all over the building. We walked around the stores but spent most of our time in…another arcade!
I went crazy enjoying myself on more games (more Mario cart!) and Jess got to rest her feet. She thinks I look adorable in this picture. :)
Evidently Shinjuku turns into more of a shady nightclub/bar district at night, but we didn’t stay that late. We found a nice curry & rice place that Jess and I really like. I need to practice making Japanese curry.
Next day, Electric town again!
-N
This morning we decided to visit the imperial palace in the morning and Shinjuku in the afternoon. So we woke up at 7 and got to the Tokyo Metro Station…AT RUSH HOUR!
Good grief, absolutely crazy. The subway showed up and had *no* space available. It was literally packed shoulder-to-shoulder along the whole subway. But we watched as people just *squeezed* their way in and everyone just kinda shuffled and squeezed to make a tiny bit more room. People would come to the doorway and just sort of stick their butt into the subway car then grab above the door and literally *lever* themselves into the car, turning their head sideways so that when the door closed it would not *crush their face*.
Eventually Jess and I managed to find a way to shuffle ourselves in, tucked in with everyone else. I actually had to try pretty hard not to accidentally molest anyone. We got to the JR station (rail, as opposed to subway) and it was even crazier! The Yamanote line, a loop that goes around Tokyo (think ‘freeway’), ran every two minutes and was still packed to the gills. There was a line to get up onto the platform! Crazy!
But yeah, we got to the Imperial Palace, the grounds where the Emperor of Japan still lives! (So you can’t go inside. He’s, y’know, walking around in there.) We walked past the fountain garden and walked around the outer moat, which sported koi and swans! One of them even had a nest.
The garden was pretty spectacular, too. Considering we were literally in the *middle of Tokyo*, that much space is pretty much the biggest luxury you can have. There were some really neat old buildings from back when such a place actually needed to be guarded and fortified, but y favorites were the mixed bushes and the bridges over the lake and waterfall. Everything was artistically done, and there was quite a lot of garden.
We walked around the outside of the palace, through a large, open space filled with Pine trees and tour groups, another luxurious empty space. More bridges and swans and the like. We took a short stroll through the nearby government district, too.
Next: Shinjuku! It took some doing to find the main drag, but find it we did. We actually saw an adult movie theatre, naked posters just all over the building. We walked around the stores but spent most of our time in…another arcade!
I went crazy enjoying myself on more games (more Mario cart!) and Jess got to rest her feet. She thinks I look adorable in this picture. :)
Evidently Shinjuku turns into more of a shady nightclub/bar district at night, but we didn’t stay that late. We found a nice curry & rice place that Jess and I really like. I need to practice making Japanese curry.
Next day, Electric town again!
-N
Labels: Arcades, Imperial Palace, Japan, Rush Hour, Shinjuku, Tokyo
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
April 6
We fly on, and I consult...*the blue folder*. All the information about every place we are staying is in that folder. It has maps, reference numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and everything we (should) need to find our way to the Hostels. Jess was in favor of just winging the hostels and seeing what was open, but I wanted to be sure I'd have a place to stay, especially because many of them had begun to fill up. I knew where we were sleeping, and I knew how to find these places, but other than that, the trip was wide open. We had our copy of Fodors Japan (2006 edition), comically referred to as 'the bible', or 'the orange book'. It contained (nearly) everything I knew about our trip, and we got most of our sightseeing cues from it's pages. Definitely a nice recommendation.
We land. Finally, we land. I've been on a plane for 11.5 hours, and am pretty sick of the plane. Though not, it seems, as sick as the kid behind us, who wakes up as we land and proceeds to throw up all over himself shortly afterwards. His mom is there to help clean him off, though, and Jessie lends some 'moist hand wipes' to the cause. We're off.
My first time through customs now. I have the phrasebook ready to go for any missteps. I've filled out the card (front AND back, after some prompting) and I'm ready to get my virgin passport stamped. We go through, and I get a sticker. A sticker! Japan is so crazy advanced! Then we pick up our checked baggage and just get waved right through inspections. Slick! I’m in Japan!
There are two tasks to tackle before we traipse off to the hostel. I find a counter and rent a Cell phone, and then get the most important item of the trip. A Japan Rail pass. If it helps, think of the JR pass as…a magical carpet capable of transporting you all over the country for free. You walk into any JR station in the country and you get to take any train anywhere you want to go. It’s like your own personal set of wings. The cards are foil-embossed. Fantastic.
The first test of my planning skills is to get us from the airport to the Hostel. It’s early afternoon, but we’re jetlagged and ready to sleep, so Jess admits she’s quite glad I planned the hostels. Certainly beats wandering around Tokyo looking for one now. We hop on the train (the wrong one, but going to the right place, luckily) and start to check out the scenery.
It’s like a light from above, manna from heaven, or finding $20 on the street. The station names are written in English, blinking across LED displays over each door. I don’t have to worry about looking up kanji characters for every place I want to go; I can read it off the walls. This makes travel about 3 orders of magnitude easier. They even do automated announcements in English on a lot of the trains. Thank you JR and Tokyo Metro, thanks so much.
I follow directions from the blue folder. JR line to Tokyo station, Yamanote Line to Ueno station. We call up the Hostel to make sure reception won’t close until we get there, but they’ll be open for a while, and we are good to go. There’s a little bit of confusion as we try and navigate our way from the JR station at Ueno to the Tokyo Metro line, but we follow signs (in English!) and arrows (English arrows!) and read maps, and eventually we make it there. Tokyo metro to Asakusa station on the Ginza line. The blue folder directs me along the 7 minute walk from the station to the hostel. We’re walking along alleyways and side streets, but everything is still clean, people have plants growing at their front doorsteps. It’s all very pretty.
The blue folder serves me well, and we make it to the hostel.
It’s late…well, it’s late in LA, anyway, and we’re tired, so we crawl into bed and fall asleep.
-N
We fly on, and I consult...*the blue folder*. All the information about every place we are staying is in that folder. It has maps, reference numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and everything we (should) need to find our way to the Hostels. Jess was in favor of just winging the hostels and seeing what was open, but I wanted to be sure I'd have a place to stay, especially because many of them had begun to fill up. I knew where we were sleeping, and I knew how to find these places, but other than that, the trip was wide open. We had our copy of Fodors Japan (2006 edition), comically referred to as 'the bible', or 'the orange book'. It contained (nearly) everything I knew about our trip, and we got most of our sightseeing cues from it's pages. Definitely a nice recommendation.
We land. Finally, we land. I've been on a plane for 11.5 hours, and am pretty sick of the plane. Though not, it seems, as sick as the kid behind us, who wakes up as we land and proceeds to throw up all over himself shortly afterwards. His mom is there to help clean him off, though, and Jessie lends some 'moist hand wipes' to the cause. We're off.
My first time through customs now. I have the phrasebook ready to go for any missteps. I've filled out the card (front AND back, after some prompting) and I'm ready to get my virgin passport stamped. We go through, and I get a sticker. A sticker! Japan is so crazy advanced! Then we pick up our checked baggage and just get waved right through inspections. Slick! I’m in Japan!
There are two tasks to tackle before we traipse off to the hostel. I find a counter and rent a Cell phone, and then get the most important item of the trip. A Japan Rail pass. If it helps, think of the JR pass as…a magical carpet capable of transporting you all over the country for free. You walk into any JR station in the country and you get to take any train anywhere you want to go. It’s like your own personal set of wings. The cards are foil-embossed. Fantastic.
The first test of my planning skills is to get us from the airport to the Hostel. It’s early afternoon, but we’re jetlagged and ready to sleep, so Jess admits she’s quite glad I planned the hostels. Certainly beats wandering around Tokyo looking for one now. We hop on the train (the wrong one, but going to the right place, luckily) and start to check out the scenery.
It’s like a light from above, manna from heaven, or finding $20 on the street. The station names are written in English, blinking across LED displays over each door. I don’t have to worry about looking up kanji characters for every place I want to go; I can read it off the walls. This makes travel about 3 orders of magnitude easier. They even do automated announcements in English on a lot of the trains. Thank you JR and Tokyo Metro, thanks so much.
I follow directions from the blue folder. JR line to Tokyo station, Yamanote Line to Ueno station. We call up the Hostel to make sure reception won’t close until we get there, but they’ll be open for a while, and we are good to go. There’s a little bit of confusion as we try and navigate our way from the JR station at Ueno to the Tokyo Metro line, but we follow signs (in English!) and arrows (English arrows!) and read maps, and eventually we make it there. Tokyo metro to Asakusa station on the Ginza line. The blue folder directs me along the 7 minute walk from the station to the hostel. We’re walking along alleyways and side streets, but everything is still clean, people have plants growing at their front doorsteps. It’s all very pretty.
The blue folder serves me well, and we make it to the hostel.
It’s late…well, it’s late in LA, anyway, and we’re tired, so we crawl into bed and fall asleep.
-N
