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.

Asakusa

On Saturday I visited the Asakusa area of Tokyo. Most of Asakusa is based around the Sensoji Temple. The first thing I saw when I left the subway station was the first gate to the temple, Kaminarimon (Kaminari Gate). From the crowds I guessed that perhaps a Saturday was not the best day to visit the area.





After walking past Kaminarimon, I was on the Nakamise shopping street. Both sides of the street were lined with many small stores and booths selling every kind of Japanese-y, tourist store, made in China trinket you could think of. I was surprised with the type of junk being sold that most people walking Nakamise were Japanese and not tourists.








At the end of Nakamise shopping street is the second gate to the Sensoji Temple, the Hozo Gate.





Sensoji Temple




I headed back to the subway and went over to the Ginza area. There is a lot of money in Ginza, both in the businesses there and in the wallets and purses of the people on the streets. I had been there on Friday when it was raining and felt very much out of place with everyone walking around in designer business wear...Saturday was no exception. Some streets in Ginza are closed to vehicles and the streets are packed with people out shopping in their designer casual wear. I wandered around for a bit but became quite self-conscious and feeling out of place so I high-tailed it back to the subway.


On Sunday my friend from Arizona arrived so the day was basically spent getting out to Narita Airport to meet him when, show him how to get back to the apartment on the various trains, and then we headed out to wander around Shinjuku at night. I think everyone's first exposure to Tokyo should be Shinjuku at night!

Updates

Heading off to Kyoto today for two days. My friend from Arizona arrived in Tokyo yesterday (Sunday).

On Friday it was raining here in Tokyo so I didn't do too much. On Saturday I wandered around around Asakusa and Ginza. I have a few pictures from each area that I will post when I get back from Kyoto sometime on Wednesday.

Yokohama

Today I went to Yokohama, about 30 minutes outside of Tokyo. I decided to travel light today and only took my little "point and shoot" camera with me. Unfortunately I only managed to get a few pictures before the battery died. The battery indicator quickly went from fully charged to completely dead. I will have to watch this in the future to see if maybe there is something wrong with the battery.

Anyways, technical problems aside, I decided to visit Yokohama's Chinatown which is supposedly Japan's largest. It was amusing to go from hearing Japanese almost exclusively to hearing Mandarin and Cantonese being spoken. There were plenty of shops and restaurants and quite a few people out shopping on a warm and sunny day.





They must sell some good steamed dumplings.






Temple dedicated to the Chinese god of prosperity.




After walking through Chinatown I headed to the Yokohama harbour and managed to coax 2 more pictures out of my dying battery of Minato Mirai, Yokohama's "futuristic" city area. I headed over only to find that if Minato Mirai is any indication of the future, most things will be closed.










I did however manage to get one last picture of something I have noticed in practically every city I have visited or passed through....a ferris wheel. I'm not joking, I have seen one (of fairly large size too) in almost every city I have been in so far. I guess the Japanese love their ferris wheels.

Himeji

On Tuesday I went to the city of Himeji to visit Himeji Castle. Originally established as a fort in 1333, the Himeji castle complex was completed in 1609. As soon as you arrive by train your attention is immediately drawn to the castle sitting on top of a small hill overlooking the city. It is a short walk from the train station up a major street to Himeji-jo. Much of the vegetation was still brown from winter. I would love to be able to visit again later in spring, especially when all the cherry-blossoms (sakura) are out.














"Murder holes" for shooting arrows or muskets or dropping stones on enemies attacking the castle. These are all throughout the castle and its buildings.







There were displays of armour and weapons.







Looking down from the top of the castle tower.











This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Everything else is just icing on the cake!