Sayoonara

Well, I am mostly packed. My suitcase is full and all that is left to do is pack my laptop, cameras, a book, iPod, and assorted items that I am carrying onto the plane with me. It has been an amazing vacation and I cannot thank my boss enough for not laughing at me months ago when I first asked for so much time away from work. I did so many things, learned so much, and met so many people on this trip that Tokyo has become like a second home to me.

So this isn't "Goodbye" Tokyo (and Japan) this is "So long and I'll see you again" because I fully intend to return to my new home some day. But before I go I would like to give a little advice:

1) Things that do not belong on pizza are mayonaise, fried eggs, boiled eggs, sarad (or salad), tuna, and corn.

2) A large drink usually means something bigger than a dixie cup.

3) The person on the other end of the phone cannot see you bow.

Sakura and Sunshine

Thursday was a beautiful and sunny day so I headed back to Shinjuku Gyoen to take more pictures of the sakura. First I went to Tokyo station for one last lunch of curry pork udon.

Lunch




Shinjuku Gyoen
















Many artists were out drawing and painting the scenery.












I took a short video as well.

Sakura

The sky was completely cloudy today and it looked like it might start raining but I headed to Shinjuku Gyoen anyways to make sure that I would leave Japan with pictures of sakura (cherry blossoms). Shinjuku Gyoen was absolutely beautiful, even on a cloudy day, and I wasn't the only one out enjoying the park. Many families and couples were taking the afternoon to sit beneath the trees and enjoy the sakura as well. The pictures turned out fairly well, but I would really like some taken in the sunshine. So if the weather is better on Thursday or Friday I will definitely head back to the park.

Meiji Shrine and fresh air

I was feeling much better today. I had spent the last two days pretty much just sleeping while trying to get rid of this cold. I decided I would go out for a walk in the sunshine and fresh air so I headed over to Meiji Shrine near Harajuku station. It was very peaceful and beautiful with some of the plants and trees finally showing the life of Spring. The area Meiji Shrine (and the attached Yoyogi Park) covers is quite large so I had a good long walk to stretch my legs. Tomorrow, if the weather is good, I will head to Shinjuku Gyoen to get some pictures of sakura (cherry blossoms).










The fish in the pond were huge.

Good times

My friend left Japan today and headed back home to Arizona. He and I agreed that this was definitely the vacation by which all future vacations will be measured. We had a great time seeing the sites, laughing at the little idiosyncracies of the Japanese people and Japanese society, seeing Yoko Ono, meeting and talking with Yoshindo Yoshihara, and being overseas for the first time in both our lives. This definitely was the vacation of a lifetime for both of us.

This is my last week here and after I recover from this cold which I have caught I hope to be out and about for most of the week. The cherry blossoms (sakura) are out so I need to get some pictures before they all fall off the trees. As well I would like to spend as much time as possible soaking up even more Tokyo life before returning home.

I, Robot

Today we went to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Technology in Odaiba. Some of the displays were pretty cheesy. For instance they had a special exhibition about aliens. My friend and I joked that it was probably just a room full of gaijin. A room of gaijin would have been more interesting than the poor attempt at alien themed toys, movie posters, and film clips that they were showing. The only interesting display they had was white table that had an animated display projected onto it. There were sensors above the table that would detect if you touched within the display and would open windows showing larger images and more information.









On the second floor they had an area of displays of robotics and physics.

A picture of a magnet "floating" above a semi-conductor.





A video of a floating mag-lev train.





And of course they had ASIMO the Honda robot.

















Google video seems to be having some issues right now. I have a couple more videos I would like to post so I will try posting them later.

Hello Kitty

On Thursday, we visited the Hello Kitty store in Shinjuku. Strangely it was supposed to be the flagship store but it was a little disappointing because it was quite small. It was entirely Hello Kitty merchandise other than an odd shelf of Snoopy and Woodstock goods.














Strangely there was even a set of Hello Kitty theme wedding stuff.

Surreal

Today was just surreal. It is the only way to describe it. My friend and I met and had tea with Yoshindo Yoshihara a master sword craftsman. In fact Yoshindo is a "cultural asset" to Japan. Not only did we meet and talk with Yoshindo but we were sitting in his living room having tea and chatting like old friends. Yoshindo and his wife were the epitome of Japanese hospitality by allowing these two gaijin into their home. We had a very interesting conversation about the methods he uses to craft swords, how he chooses the metal he will use, how he learned the craft from his grandfather, etc. I was in complete awe during and after our visit that Yoshindo would take the time to open his home and his workshop to complete strangers.

I didn't get any pictures but my friend has video from our visit. I will link to it when he posts it.

Down for the count

My friend has been fighting off a bad throat infection for the past few days. We had to find our way to a doctor on Sunday so that he could get checked out and get some medication. So we really haven't been up to too much over these past couple of days. I feel bad that his vacation time in Japan is almost up and he has been brought down by a bug.

Yesterday we were supposed to meet up with my contact here in Tokyo and go visit the workshop of a Katana craftsman. My contact was late in arriving and my friend and I left after waiting for more than an hour. We received an apology later and had hoped to reschedule our trip to today but being out in the cold rain yesterday really did my friend in. Hopefully he gets better soon so that he can enjoy his last few days here.

Konnichiwa Yoko

Friday we went to the Ghibli Museum. It was very interesting, their displays were fantastic but like many museums in Tokyo no pictures were allowed of the inside. My friend and I were entering the museum when he noticed a man and a woman standing beside us. He noticed that the man was wearing an odd purple hat and round glasses and turned to me to say "Someone is trying to look like John Lennon" but quickly shut up as he reached the "John Lenn...." part. He did a double take on who was standing beside us and then quickly whispered "I think that's Sean Lennon." I didn't get a good look, so I let the couple walk past us. As we were entering the lobby of the museum I finally managed to see the guy straight on and agreed he was either Sean Lennon or his twin. Just as I was agreeing with my friend a group of people walked in front of us and I looked down at a short Japanese woman in the group and said "There's Yoko Ono." As I spoke she must have heard me say her name because she looked at me so I bowed a little and said "Konnichiwa Yoko". She looked right at me, over the top of her glasses, and bowed her head slightly and then looked at my friend as he quickly said "Konnichiwa."

As we were walking through the museum we would see both Sean and Yoko occasionally and agreed to ourselves that the museum was pretty interesting but this chance encounter made it that much better. We went out onto a roof patio and sat near the cafe taking some outside pictures of the museum when my friend said we should stay in the area for a bit just in case. Not five minutes had passed when out walked Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, and their group. We managed to get a few pictures of them but didn't want to be paparazzi and shove the cameras in their faces so we were at quite a respectable distance away.


Sean Lennon and his companion.




The only picture of Yoko Ono I managed to get. She is wearing the white hat.





As for the actual museum itself, it was interesting. I have only ever seen one film produced by the animation studio that runs the museum and that movie was "Spirited Away." There were many drawings, figures, displays, and short films, with characters I had never seen. Much of the information was in Japanese but the artwork was nice.

Ochanomizu

Another rainy day today. We didn't do too much because it was very cold and very wet. This afternoon we headed to the Ochanomizu area of Tokyo. There is quite a collection of musical instrument stores in Ochanomizu and my friend (who is a musician outside of life as a computer programmer) wanted to browse a few stores. The whole area is packed with stores offering every kind of instrument. There was even one store exclusively for violins.

We wandered around for a bit, going in and out of every guitar store we came across. My friend indicated that while he was seeing some guitars that just are not available in Canada or the U.S. he was noticing that prices were quite a bit higher here in Japan. Tired of the rain, we headed to Tokyo station to get something to eat. On Monday when we were heading to Kyoto we ate in a great noodle restaurant and we wanted to go back. After a great lunch of udon noodles in a curry soup with pork we headed to Shinjuku with the plan of visiting KrispyKreme. The lineup was fairly long and I felt like I was back on campus waiting in line at Tim Horton's in between classes but we managed to get away with a dozen donuts and headed back to the apartment.

Tomorrow we are heading to Mitaka to visit the Ghibli Museum a museum built by an animation studio.

Kyoto (con't)

After touring the Imperial Palace we headed over to the Gion district in Kyoto. We walked around the Yasaka Shrine which was decorated and ready for the Higashiyama Hana Touro later that night. Higashiyama is an area of Kyoto and during our stay they were having a festival at night with streets lit up with lanterns and various events happening in different locations.


We took a few pictures of the Yasaka Shrine and then headed down a street and found a Starbucks. We each grabbed a drink and then spent about 2 hours sitting at a table outside "people watching". It was pretty interesting to realize that we were sitting at a table on a small patio outside a Starbucks in Kyoto Japan watching the world go by.


Yasaka Shrine









Plum blossoms




Realizing that two hours had passed, we headed further down the street and around a corner and found ourselves on a narrow street lined with older buildings. This was definitely the Gion area because women passed us that we thought were Maiko (apprentice Geisha).














We headed back to the hotel to rest and get something to eat before the evening's events. At about 8:00 pm we returned to the area and got some pretty good night pictures of the lanterns lighting up the small back streets. We didn't catch any of the festivities, but I managed to get a small video of a procession that passed us on one of the small streets.


















Video of the procession that passed us. Unfortunately my camera chose to not record any sound. At the end of the procession is a woman wearing a white cloak and a white mask riding in a rickshaw. I'd like to find out what she "represents".

Kyoto Imperial Palace

On Tuesday (our second day in Kyoto) my friend and I went on a tour of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. This was the home of the Imperial Family before the capital of Japan was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo. We had signed up for the hour long, English speaking tour. I was hoping that we would be the only ones on the tour or at the very least it would be a small group. Unfortunately there were about 100 to 150 of us on the tour. Worse than that the tour guide's accent made his English utterly impossible to understand. We gave up in about the first five minutes from trying to listen to him and just spent our time at the back of the group taking as many pictures as possible. However, even that was hampered by the guards following the tour group that would herd us along when they felt that we were dawdling too much. It seemed I would just get a picture lined up the way I wanted and we would be asked to move along. This is the very reason why I hate guided tours. It is always rush here, rush there, and you never really get to see anything.






























As we were exiting I noticed some workers trimming and shaping a tree.