Ancient shrines meets skyscrapers
Trip Start
Nov 03, 2009
1
3
15
Trip End
Nov 17, 2009
Where I stayed
Tokyo, Kanto, Japan
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Then onto our first experience in Shinjuku station. There was just another world underground. We discovered that our hotel was actually on top of another station which connected to an underground shopping mall which connected to another mall which connected to Shinjuku station). It took us a while but we finally made it to the behemoth that's Shinjuku. It actually just looked like a big underground space with lots of corridors (Shinjuku actually has 200 exits!). But the amount of people everywhere was astonishing. And they were all walking quickly and intently. You really had to dash across if you want to cross someone's path. Else they'll walk right through you and not even give you a blink! And everyone was wearing black and white! All the men are in suits, women in black business wear (and most look very stylish), and teenagers in school uniforms. I really stuck out with my red jacket. The ticket machine was pretty easy to figure out all b/c of the English mode. We went through the gates and after some searching we finally found the platform we were suppose to get on. Shinjuku actually services at least 10 subway lines! The train itself wasn't too bad. I've heard stories about the station master literally pushing people into packed trains. But it wasn't too bad. The train had a lot of people but not anymore than what I've experienced during rush hour in the DC metro area. I thought the train departure tune was cute. Apparently each station in Tokyo has some whimsical tune to signal that the train is about to leave.
After about 30 minutes, we reached our first designation: Ueno park. It was a nice tranquil area in the middle of the city. We got there early and saw some older folks doing their morning exercises near a shrine. We then visited a small shrine called Toshogu. Unfortunately the shrine itself was closed for renovations. Visited a flea market that was in the park. Lots of pottery and woodwork.
A few subway stations later, we found ourselves in the Asakusa area to visit Sensō-ji, a famous Buddhist temple. The huge gate with the giant lantern was an awesome sight. Of course there were a bunch of tourists there. There was an endless alleyway of stores leading up to the temple. The temple was huge. As with all Japanese temples, there was a fountain area where you can wash your hands and face to cleanse yourself before entering. There was also a place right out front to place incense sticks in honor of the deceased. This temple was one the few ones that we didn't have to take off our shoes. There was a massive alter with many gold decorations and statues. People would toss a coin into the coin box and pray. To the side of the temple, there was a nice garden with smaller shrines and a koi pond.
Next stop was the Akihabara Electric Town. This is where you can find the latest tech gadgets and Anime (Japanese comics). My brother was really looking forward to this. After a quick lunch, we started going around the different shops. There were lots of cameras, laptops, video games, DVDs, and software. There were even shops just selling cables and wires! We also saw some of the famous cafe maids on the streets. Cafe maids are basically girls who dress up in funny outfits and their job is to bring you into their cafes and service you. Usually they serve you coffee, you can get a massage, and they can play games with you. To the delight of my brother, we hit up some of the Anime stores where he bought a few things.
We still had some time to kill so next on the agenda was the Imperial Palace right in downtown Tokyo. Unfortunately the garden was just about to close so we settled for some photos outside the gates.
Next, we went to a bus station in the south part of Tokyo to meet our tour group. We ended up doing just one tour the whole trip. It was the Tokyo night tour from Viator. The tour started with a Japanese dinner at the top of the Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel. I had the tempura dinner and Larry had the sashimi. The restaurant had nice views of Tokyo Bay. Then we took a short ride across Rainbow Bridge (which actually isn't colorful) to the harbor area and saw a replica of the Statue of Liberty. Apparently the replica that was in Paris was so popular that they decided to do one for Tokyo. Seeing the statue and Rainbow Bridge kind of stirred up memories of NYC. Though I didn't come halfway around the world to see a piece of America! We then took a short bus ride to the Roppongi Hills area. We went up the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower and got a very nice 360 city view of Tokyo at night. It was gorgeous. There are really a lot of skyscrapers in Tokyo. We even saw fireworks coming from Tokyo Disneyland far in the distance. One floor up from the cityscape was an art gallery with an exhibition by Chinese abstract artist Ai Weiwei. Abstract indeed!
The tour was over and on the way back to the hotel we decided to go to the Shibuya area. This is where famous Shibuya crossing is. This is a famous landmark where basically the traffic lights turn red on all roads and hordes of people cross the intersection at the same time. It was getting close to 10pm and there were still tons of people out crossing the street. Been there, done that (now).
