Shinagawa: our hotel is crazy
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2009
1
11
17
Trip End
Jul 05, 2009
Where I stayed
Shinagawa, Kanto, Japan
Saturday, June 27, 2009
On Friday we first went to the Sengakuji Temple, which is the home of the legend of the 47 Ronin (you can read about it at that link, I won't write too much about the legend aside from it being a big deal here in Japan). So, the corpses of the 47 Ronin are at this temple. People visit on a frequent basis and pay their respects by leaving incense and praying for the lost soldiers there. There were of course some nice privately owned gift shops nearby, and one man scared Kat and I off by attempting to communicate. An act that Kat and I have deemed the assurance of a loss of a sale.
We didn't want to take too many pics, especially of the graves. We didn't want to appear disrespectful even though the taking of pictures there is no doubt a common practice. We still always want to remain respectful wherever we go, we're representing not just ourselves but also our country over here! Unfortunetly, we dont't have much more that interesting that happened on that day, we went shopping around the area and got some grocerys. We can't talk about shopping because of the gifts and what not, and grocery shopping was largely uneventful.
The next day we thought we'd finish up our local tour, since we had laundry to do anyway. So, we explored what our hotel had to offer.
We bought some tickets to the aquarium in our hotel, and got a nice suprise to see our hotel key acted as a discount for the attraction. I think it was a really nice aquarium, and was suprised that in some ways I found it better then the Baltimore aquarium. The most noticable thing is how clean the water is in the tanks. You can really get a great look at the animals this way, and its nice to know they aren't swimming in their own filfth anymore then they have to. The entrance to the area was a giant tube you could walk through with rays and sharks (ala Seaworld). We spent a good while looking around this area, and took some fun pics. My favorite was a really giant ray that would pass overhead. You can almost imagine the "woosh" sound accompanying it. Kat enjoyed how the sharks blindly followed one another.
After the tunnel was some smaller fish that had bizarre anime characters decorating their tanks. Kat and I both found this to be extremely amusing. It's like a fish tank you would have in your house more then a normal exhibit when regarding that kind of decoration. Next was a penguin exhibit, which we spent a good long time viewing. Kat thought it was funny that the penguins would stare off at the fake backround at their tank as if it was a mountain range, not knowing if he/she walked two feet he'd run into a wall. We both liked watching the penguins diving and how fast they could go, although it presented problems taking pictures. We also always get really annoyed by people tapping on the glass, isn't that something we are all taught not to do when we're 5 years old?
We were walking and enjoying the fish when we heard a rucuss at the dolphin show exhibit, to my shock the dolphin show is free once you buy a ticket to the aquarium, so we walked on in. To our shock we walked in on a wedding taking place! No joke, a real life wedding! I thought it was a really cool idea, I think Kat thought I was getting some whacky ideas and made it known that she was not interested in doing such a thing. Still a cool idea none the less. After they signed what appeared to be the documents nessecary to wed, the dolphins did tricks in their honor to fun love related music. The trainers even let the new couple tell the dolphins to do a few tricks. It was pretty strange, but it also seemed really well rehearsed, which made us think this was not an uncommon thing.
After this we went into the sealion show which was just about to start, and was once again free. Nothing was in english, but it still presented amusement for us. One trick involved basically just placing a fake horses head on the sealion and having him stand there, the crowd was very impressed.... as it seemed to be impressed with just about anything the sealions did. On the way out of the aquarium we saw a restaurant where we could dine with fish tanks as the center pieces of our table. We liked this idea, and I commented on how all the cool restaurant ideas always have to be way over priced. A hamburger for 20 dollars.
After the aquarium we visited some of the other things to do in the hotel. We bought some tickets for some rides. That's right, our hotel has an aquarium, a music club, and a miniture amusement park in it. We were interested in the indoor coster, but nothing was in english. While we were trying to figure out how to buy tickets our next few hours started to become clear as to how they would go. A women came up to us and asked if we were staying there, we said we were. Then she kept trying to get us to go to the aquarium for our discount. Kat tried for a good 5 minutes to explain we wanted to ride the rides, and had already been to the aquarium. The women was not having it, she really wanted us to go to the aquarium. She only quit after I presented her with the ticket we had from visiting the aquarium. She finally understands and points us to the rides.
While we were trying to get tickets there, a man comes up and asks what we want to ride, we point to the roller coaster. Then he points to some price, and we say "Hai" (yes). Then he repeats himself, and we confirm that yes that is a price once again. This goes on for a while until I figure out he's saying we can get 4 tickets at a discounted price instead of buying 2 seperate tickets for each ride. With that out of the way we buy our tickets.. but the akward events were not over. When we go to line up, an extremely nervous young man informs us it will be ten minutes in his best attempt at english. We say okay (which is luckily also a Japanese word). Then we come back in 5 minutes and he (still very scared) says five minutes. We say okay and wait. He gets really uncomfortable looking. Kat and I came up with a theory that his soul purpose was to make people feel uncomfortable as they approach the ride. While we waited he gave us a sign in english explaining this was a loop coaster so if we weren't comfortable with that then let it be known. We read it and give it back to him. Then he precedes to try and explain to us what the sign just said, even though he knows very little english. I give him a "thumbs up" to let him know we understand and neither of us will get sick on his roller coaster, so he finally skidishly goes back to scaring off people who approached the entrance. The result of this is that only Kat and I, and another couple wound up getting on the coaster. The communication barrier continued on the ride. There was a whole story accompanying the ride, which we didn't understand, but it took like 10 minutes to tell. With animatronic robots and shaking floors and everything. Kat, knowing a little Japanese could only establish that one of the characters had a show down with his father and shot him. The rest was a mystery. But, the story looked resolved as far as what happened. Then the doors opened and we got on the coaster. Which confused us because we didn't understand the point of the story at all then. But the coaster was a fun indoor coaster with lights and such. It was also one of those magnet coasters, meaning it didn't rely on gravity to move the coaster, and just jump starts at a fast speed right from the get go. I was scared I might be too tall for the coaster and knock my head off, being reminded of this by my legs not exactly fitting in the restraints, clearly not built for people with longer legs.
After the coaster we go to get on one of those rocking boats. This one was pirate themed and right next to a restaurant. Where people causually ate with the pirate motif. This time, Kat and I are the only ones on the ride. This results in both of us being rather uncomfortable. Not ones to waste a good akward moment we decide each of us should get on one end of the boat. As the ride started, (with just Kat and I on) music begins to play and the patrons of the restaurant start to clap along and laugh. This while the man running the ride yells "hey!" every 4th beat. I do the only thing TO DO in this situation, I dance to the music, much to the delight of our spectators. After Kat and I get off the ride we both take our bows and try to recover our faces from the blushing/laughing from the moments before.
Afterwards, we went around the hotel more and I played a bongo game at the arcade while some lil kid watched me. I was pretty good at it, but only played it at the easiet setting. So I expect, (as with all rhythm games) it would have gotten much harder had I been more daring.
We then took some pics of the hotel and walked around the streets for a while. Our days are growing less and less, and I'll miss Japan knowing I may never come back here. I'll also definitely miss not being able to spend as much time with Kat even more so then that, we've spent every waking minute with one another these last few days and I'm still not sick of her at any level. This is the first day our computers haven't been right next to eachother and I still wish they were, so that's saying something I suppose.
Until next time readers! Please leave comments I think they encourage us to be more witty as well as to do these more regularly.
Comments
Nice hotel...
I'm trying to catch up after a long weekend at the beach, but wow, that's some hotel. The aquarium reminds me of the one we *thought* we'd see in the Mandalay Bay hotel/casino in Vegas. We saw signs for it, and it looked cool. So we walked, and walked, and walked, eventually to the end of this really long hallway only to find a sign that said, 'Closed for Renovations.' Grr. Glad you all had more luck!
Re: Nice hotel...
We've definitely had plenty of experiences like that while here. Sort of reminds me of our difficulties finding the Imperial Palace, walking for what seemed like forever only to find it had closed for the day.