Day 2: Tokyo Morning Tour

Day 2: Tokyo Morning Tour

We are staying at the Hotel Grand Palace Tokyo. Walking distance from the Imperial Palace, which has nice rocks. This is pretty good digs. I am glad it was included in the price of the tour because I am too cheap to have paid for it separately. My son and I both love the Japanese Plumbing. The shower is great fun. The tub might even be big enough to actually take a bath in. I may have to try it.

Right now I am sitting down doing my blogging in my Happi Coat (supplied by the Hotel) while Dan does the shower thing (I decided against the picture of me in my happy coat). You can set the temperature of the shower, but you have to do it in C. There is also a water fountain built into the toilet. I suspect this is mainly for customers that have their pet Dogs with them. (ok, that was a bidet joke).

Daniel commented that the included breakfast buffet is by far the best hotel breakfast he has ever had. This is mainly because he is a vegetarian that doesn't like pancakes, waffles, eggs or cereal. So a breakfast with Rice, pickled vegetables, french Fries, and Miso Soup, is a special treat. I also thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed the little pieces of fried fish and the Korean pickled vegetables (whose name eludes me at the moment) (Kimchi!! (Why, thank you future proof-reading self)(You are welcome, to many beers to remember Kimchi past self).

After breakfast, we were signed up for a morning outing with Sunrise Tours. We had a pretty young thin japanese girl (no dark blue uniform this time, dammit) meet us in the lobby and put us on a tour bus bound for the place where the real tour busses leave from. This was a somewhat disconcerting time, because we drove around the area in circles for an hour just picking people up from other hotels. But since it was our first day here, we were constantly amazed by simple things. Like the boxy little cars that are so popular here. And the traffic lights. And the fact that everyone drives on the wrong side of the road and never hits each other.

 

 

After several go rounds and ticket exchanges we ended up on a different (but identical)(and very nice) tour bus for our “Tokyo Morning Tour”. These buses are pretty cool. They look and feel much more modern than any American buss that I have ever been on. Though this could be because I have not been on an American tour bus in 3 decades. However, they are evidently designed for Japanese size butts. Because my son's and my American size butts really didn't fit into them, side by side. I must say that there was a similar complaint from the Canadian and English contingent. I really should have asked the spanish speaking persons but I didn't know the spanish word for “fucking tight”. (Not sure that “punta de la madona verde” would have worked in this particular situation).

First stop: The Tokyo Tower. This is an orange copy of the Eiffel Tower (hey, we are 9 meters taller). 50 years ago it was a statement of Japanese engineering and the tallest radio tower in the world. Now it is the 2^nd biggest tourist trap that looks like the Eiffel tower in the World (the first biggest being the Eiffel Tower. Hey, I am not making this stuff up, the tour guide told us this).

The view from the observation level of the tower is similar to the view of the observation level of the Eiffel tower. Except that you are looking at new Japanese buildings instead of old French buildings. Why are all of the japanese buildings new? Because we fire bombed Tokyo to the ground in 1942 is why. If we had done the same thing to New York in 1942, it might look as good as Tokyo does today. I am thinking that it is not too late.

 

 

If you jump. They bury you where you hit.

 

Oh, and what is that in the distance. It looks something like Tokyo tower but it seems to be a hell of a lot taller. That is the Tokyo Sky Wind Tower. (Sky Tree Tower?). It is the tallest television broadcasting tower in the word. Tell those guys in Toronto to take a hike. (Really, another thing our guide told us).

Oh, so you want to know more about our guide? He was the 5^th of 5 boys. In fact his name means (literally) “5^th Son”. He is 63 years old and runs a 8K every day. He speaks good english but can also do German and Korean. He dotes on his only daughter (who is majoring in sports and is 178cm tall). He has a son studying music in Vancouver (majoring in music and 187cm tall). Last year he declared 11 million Yen as his Salary (down from the previous year).

So, a tour guide in Japan makes something like $130K a year. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Then go buy a Subaru.

If this guy had taught me as much about Tokyo as he did about himself, I am sure I would have told you.

Second stop was the Imperial Palace. This turns out to be just a few blocks (ok, perhaps miles) from our hotel. We must explore this more later, since this stop was only for 10 minutes photo op.

I love these trees. I believe they are Black Pine

Third stop was a Buddhist shrine near Electric City. This was a pretty neat place. Very old. Lots of people. A very interesting mix of commercialism and devout worship. Not sure if the vatican sells officially sacred souvenirs so close the bones of Saint Paul...... but I bet if they do they claim that they had originated the idea.

 

 

 

After this, we cruised down the main drag of Electric city and then were dropped off at Tokyo Station. This turns out to be a very victorian looking station built before the war and evidently one of the few structures that survived the repeated American bombing. I was assured that though it looks like a result of dutch architecture, it was in fact designed by a Japanese architect (who probably went to school in Holland).

The final note on this tour was that, though they picked us up at the hotel, they did not leave us off there. They deposited us a the Tokyo Station, which is around 3 miles from our accommodations. I can't find anything in the literature that says this would happen, but I can't find anything that says it wouldn't either. Bastards. So we had a nice walk home, mainly along the pretty scenic sidewalk that runs around the Imperial palace. There is a moat around this entire thing. Because the moat was traditionally a national defense mechanism, knowing the depth of the moat was considered taboo. (10 meters).

Later Dan and I tried our hand at the Subway in order to get back to the Imperial Palace and check out the gardens. The subway was great fun. Everything is so clean and functional. Even the automated ticket buying machines were easy to use once Daniel found the “English” buton.

The gardens are part of the grounds of the Imperial Palace. They have been recently (in the last 100 years) re-done in what we think is close to the original format. They are free to anyone that wants to wonder in, though you do have to go through so simple security to get in. They were very nice, though not overwhelming. In all truth, the Japanese Gardens in Portland are more impressive (though smaller and without the huge fortifications (which, after all, have nothing to do with the gardens)).

 

Look at the size of those rocks. 

 

 

This is the only real garden part of the garden

I like this shot. And this tree

For Dinner, we stumbled around trying to find a place to eat. Our first frustrating event. I guess that I thought that more people in Japan speak english. Our guide told us that 20% of the population know some english. It turns out that very few people in the food industry speak english. Nor do most places have an english language menu. In fact, “We have an English Menu” is a huge draw (at least for me).

Imagine, if you will, you find what appears to be nice authentic little tokyo restaurant across the street from you hotel. You enter and the young thin cute japanese girl in uniform smiles and bows to you and says “Kumbawa” and shows you to a table saying “aragato”. She hands you a warm little towel to clean your hands and a menu. You nod and smile and say silly english things. Then you look at the menu. It is written in Japanese. Well you were expecting that, a French menu is in French, after all, and you did ok with that (well, except for thinking the fish was poison, but lets move on). But with Japanese, it is like you can't read. Nothing is in any way comprehensible except for the price, and that you have do to 10 seconds of math on before you feel like you can afford a “biru”. Here is a visual aid for those of you following along:

<Jon will put a picture here of the menu. Trust him>
<but not too much>

If you ask for an English menu the waitress may say “No English”. Now what do you do? If you are lucky, there are pictures of the food and you can order that. But if you are unlucky (or the guy behind the counter really doesn't care for your buisness because you don't look like rich Tokyo buisnessmen who are going to drink a lot of sake) then you may just have to be on your way.

So, needless to say, Daniel and I were very hungry and a bit grouchy before we found a place that we thought we could eat at. (We need to have someone write down the japanese for “Vegetarian”). The food was pretty good, but I am sure that it could have been better for the price we paid. Also, I think the wait staff should have paid us for the entertainment we must have given them as we tried to eat civilized food using civilized utensils which were clearly incomprehensible to us.

Day 1 and a better way

Blogging Japan

DAY 1

The very first time I visited Japan was in 1970. My Navy Commander Father had received orders to report as CSO for Mine Flotilla 1 in Sasebo Japan, and he requested surface transport to his new assignment for he and his family. In this case, Monterey California to Sasebo Japan by surface meant a 2 week luxury liner sea journey from Long Beach to Tokyo via Honolulu.

Needless to say, that trip was quite a bit different from the 10 hours in a 747 that I put my butt through yesterday. There has got to be a better way to do this whole cattle car transport of people thing. The jammed in seats 3 deep just can't be the optimum engineering solution. Perhaps stacked bunk beds? I sort of like that idea. Make them like 4 tall to the ceiling. You can give them some recline so they come up and you can sit up. Perhaps like the Japanese Cube hotel rooms. Put a little screen in there to watch TV. You can get out anytime to go to the bathroom or stretch and you won't bother the other passengers.
Some other easier suggestions:

1. No carry-on suitcases. You get a briefcase or large purse, and that is fraking it. Don't even attempt to make some damn excuse about your fraking guitar case I REALLY DON”T CARE. Get in your bunk and shut up.
   
2. No infants or children that cannot be threatened into silence. They should be wrapped in plastic and gate checked with the car seat.
   
3. Perhaps catheters for the poor guys with the window seats 3 in from the aisle.
   
4. The ultimate suggestion: The boarding area for your plane should be set up exactly as the plane. Since only passengers can come into the area these days, they can then check tickets etc. before allowing you into this virtual seating area. Each passenger then sits in their virtual assigned seat and puts their bag(s) into a labeled space that represents the actual space the bag will occupy on the airplane. Now everyone knows where they will be sitting, who is next to them, and where all of the bags go. We know that your damn Guitar is not going to fit anywhere, hippy dude, and we know that your 3 lap children don't really have a seat, “Can't stop the Screaming” lady. So we can handle that now, while we can still stand up and easily access our side arms.
   Then, when it is time to really board the plane, the airline staff can start with the people at the back of the plane and we just BOARD. No reason to ever stop until you get to your seat because everyone in front of you is going to a seat further back. We know this. If someone stops to put their Guitar in your overhead bin, no judge in the land will convict you.
   
5. While we were at it, they could probably give you all of your meals before you board in a nice zip lock bag.
   
   
   
   

So, you do this thing where 3 Adult American Males sit next to each other other in seats designed for 3 japanese females for 10 hours, and then you are in Tokyo. If you are lucky, you get to cry a little bit when the baby Whale dies or when Sherlock homes falls off the waterfall. Other than that, pray you are asleep.
Ah Japan. Everything is so clean and efficient here. Going through Immigration and Customs is a breeze. Dan and I decided to take a tour for the first leg of our journey, so we were met right at the the exit to customs by a nice thin little japanesse girl in a blue uniform with a card that said “JON NATHAN”. Made me smile. She told us to please wait for 30 minutes and then go to the meeting place. I asked here where the meeting place would be. She got a strange look on her face which quickly turned to a smile. “Please to Follow” she said. So our pretty blue luggage and us followed her a little ways to the side of the loby to a place with a bunch of seats and vending machines and a big airport sign that said “The Meeting Place”.
“Please to be at the meeting place at 1600,” she said. “I will come find you”.

Daniel and our new Luggage relaxes by the Ultimate Vending Machine.

Daniel played with Yen and the meeting place “Vending machine O Japanesse coffee drinks”. He had an Iced Oreo Cafe and I had a hot latte. Pretty damn good, actually. Then the nice lady came back and took us to the Bus area and waited until we got on the right bus. Such nice busses in Japan.

The ride in was very educational, Once I got passed the gut horror of oncoming traffic to the right. So much green. Lots of Bamboo and Rice fields. Such nice little houses. Everyone drives Toyotas and Subarus. The only American car I saw was this huge old Lincoln town car. It was a collectors item and looked like it must cost $100K. It was on the back of a truck. Probably illegal to actually drive in Japan. There are a lot more SUVs and crossovers on the road than the last time I visited.

That's Me !! (sorry, no sleep in 36 hours...)

There is a big new tower up. I don't think this is Tokyo tower. I think I was looking at the new (Second Tallest in the world?) tower that opened for visits just last week. Perhaps Dan and I can be some of the first people to go into it. That could be coolish.
We checked into our hotel. The new and different nice cute thin Japanese girl in a blue uniform (I think this is going to be a recurring theme) took our luggage and showed us to our room at the Grand Palace (just up the street from the actual ancient grand palace, I think).

After a quick shower (oh, a bidet!) we went out for a walk around our little corner of Tokyo to find some dinner. I had a great view, as I am like a foot taller than the other pedestrians. But they have suits and probably feel superior. First thing we noticed? There are a lot of bicycles parked on the sidewalks up against the buildings. They are nice little bikes, but they aren't the high tech super thin tire 10 speed go fasts that you see in Portland. They are the slow going beach cruiser style. With the standard handle-bars, you know? And they are everywhere. Just parked nicely in out of the way spots. And none of them are locked up. Really. Well, I saw one with a cable lock but an American Bike thief would have laughed and then left a thank you note for using such a simple to cut lock.

Can you see the locks? Turns out they are there, just very small.

This not locking of bikes is, I believe, the clearest proof of the lawfullness of the japanese people. Can't tell you how safe I felt walking around at night. Dan and I had dinner in a little place we found that had cold beer and served little shiskabobs of meat and vegtables hand cooked on charcoal brazziers. What fun. I love watching the japanese waiting staffs do their act. Greating everyone as the enter “Kumbawa!”.

We managed to stay up late enough that we thought we had a good start on getting over our jet lag. However, Japan wanted to give us one more little welcome present. Around 1:20am Dan and I both woke up with the thought that something was wrong. I had a hand clenched in a fist because I was sure that there was someone in our room. “Was that a noise?” I asked Dan. Then the room started to shake. It did so for about 10 seconds. Not that big or long, but enough to get two round eyes on the 18^th floor out of their beds and standing in the doorway like any good Californian. Probably just a little after-shock. Didn't see any falling buildings outside of the window. Back to Bed.

Daniel wasn't sure which was worse, the earthquake or my snoring.