We reached Tokyo at around 3.00pm – we took the train back to Minami-senju to pick up our luggage from the hostel we had stayed in earlier. We would be staying in a different place since the hostel didn’t have any rooms for us for that weekend. It turned out that the new place was only a 10-minute walk from where we were. We dropped off our luggage at the hotel – it was an interesting place with a modern design but the rooms were still the traditional Tatami-style Japanese rooms. The room, however, was tiny – it was probably the size of a walk-in closet in a standard suburban American home! We weren’t too concerned since we planned to be out most of the time and would use it only to sleep.

Kabuki-za

We really wanted to get a taste for the Japanese performing arts while we were there. Our guidebook informed us that the Kabuki-za in Ginza offered tickets to single acts of a kabuki performance, along with headphones providing English translations. This seemed too good to pass up – so we headed for Ginza to catch the act that was to begin at around 6. The line was already snaking alround the side of the building – a ticket official came round to tell us that the tickets we’d get were standing-room only. We were determined to get a glimpse of the performance, even if we had to stand for two hours!

We rented the ear phones which provided English translations – best money spent ever!   The theatre was pretty big; we had seats in the upper balcony area behind the very last rows. The balcony section was packed, mostly with foreign tourists eager for a taste of Japanese theatre. The curtains opened and the act began. The stage decor and sets were lavish, as were the costumes and make-up worn by the actors. The music score was provided by an orchestra that sat off-stage. The story was one about 4 thieves that get into some trouble with the police, with several melodramatic twists and turns along the way. The actors enunciated the dialogues very forcefully and dramatically. It was a thoroughly enjoyable performance – parts of the plot reminded us of Hindi and Tamil films we’d seen in our childhood. The act wound up with a fight scene where one of the heroes fought 10 men all at one time, on the rooftop of a temple – this was so like a Rajinikanth movie that R & I speculated that this was the reason why there are claims of his films being wildly popular in Japan !

Nara was the ancient capital of Japan before the capital was moved to Kyoto. According to lore, the Buddhist priests at Nara began to wield a lot of influence and this forced the rulers to move the capital to Kyoto. Nara is home to a number of temples, the most significant of them being Todai-ji. The Todai-ji houses the Daibutsu-den , or the Great Buddha hall, which, as its name suggests, has one of the largest bronze statues of Buddha – this was the main reason we had wanted to visit Nara

We took the JR Nara line from Kyoto to Nara – about a 45-50min ride. We walked from the JR Nara station toward Todai-ji. Since the Kofuku-ji temple was on our way, we stopped there briefly. The Kofuku-ji is another ancient Buddhist temple that, like the Todai-ji and several other temples in Nara, is designated a UNESCO world heritage site. The main sight in the grounds of Kofuku-ji is a 5-story pagoda. The grounds were pretty crowded, especially with school children. There were a lot of deer roaming the grounds and approaching visitors for food. The vendors made brisk business selling deer biscuits, among other trinkets and snacks.

We continued our walk towards Todai-ji, cutting through the Nara Park to get there. The Nara park sprawled a large area; surprisingly it was not very crowded. Deer seemed to be the dominant visitors to the park!

A short walk away from Nara Park was the entrance to Todai-ji. Like most other temples we had seen, the approach was lined with vendors selling food, charms and souvenirs. The deer were here too and were pampered heavily with treats by all the visiting school children. The Daibutsu-den was an immense wooden building inside which sat the bronze Buddha statue. The building is said to be the largest wooden building in the world. Like other Buddhist temples, visitors washed their hands in the water fountain in front of the building, before entering. We entered the Daibutsu-den – the Buddha statue was HUGE! The statue was so intricately made you could see each fold in the Buddha’s robe – truly a sight to behold! We walked around the statue admiring all the details. Behind the statue was an area where there was hole in a pillar that several of the school children were trying to squeeze through. Legend has it that anyone that can make it through the hole will be blessed with enlightenment!

We made our way out of the building and back into the courtyard. As we were walking out, a couple of eager school children approached us – they must have been about 8 or 9 years old. One of them said ‘Hello’.  We replied back Konnichiwa – the kid was so surprised that we replied back in Japanese that it took him a few moments to get over his amazement His English was limited but he was very keen to converse with us – we tried to understand what he was saying but sadly, our knowledge of Japanese was even more limited than his English So, we bid him goodbye and left to walk back to the train station.

We got to Kyoto early in the afternoon. We were ravenous and ate in an Italian-inspired restaurant on the top floor of Kyoto station, that had nice views of the city. After a good meal, we headed to get to Kinkakuji or the Golden pavilion.

The Kinkakuji is one of the most famous tourist sites in Kyoto – it is a 3-story building that sits on a pond. The top 2 stories are covered in gold and a golden bird sits atop the roof. We had heard friends praising kinkakuji and were prepared to be disappointed because of all hype surrounding it. However, nothing could prepare us for its breathtaking beauty ! It was a dazzling sight to view the building with its reflection in the pond. The gardens and the pond are amazingly beautiful and serene. We even managed to spot a crane in the pond ! We walked around the gardens a little bit, admiring all the flowers and plants. We noticed some people gardening – surprisingly, they didn’t seem to be using many tools – they seemed to be removing weeds by hand. Tremendous patience, I must say!

Our next stop for the day was Ryoan-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple. The main attraction of the temple was a rock garden made up of a set of large boulders and gravel. There was a viewing area of the garden where visitors could sit down and contemplate the meaning of the arrangement. We sat down for a little while, trying to decipher any shapes and patterns but none came to mind readily. I was a little disappointed with the garden since I could not see anything fantastic about it – maybe one does really need to be enlightened to see further than the physical and into the abstract !

]]> http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/day-9-gold-bronze-and-zen/feed/ 0 mstompkins http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/day-8-the-imperial-capital/ http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/day-8-the-imperial-capital/#comments Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:39:59 +0000 mstompkins http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/?p=29 ]]> We arrived in Kyoto early in the evening of Wednesday. We had left Koyasan earlier that day and taken the train to Osaka, where we ate lunch. We didn’t tarry long at Osaka; we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto, which got us there in only 15 minutes.

Kyoto Station was a massive building of steel and concrete, that was home to several department stores and restaurants. We took the bus to the ryokan where we would stay – it was 40-minutes away. We checked in and decided to call it wraps for the evening since most of the sights would be closed and moreover, we were a ways from the city.

On Thursday, we rose early and took the bus to Kyoto station. Kyoto station was our base for the next couple days. We were on a whirlwind tour of Kyoto since we were only here for two days and there was a lot of ground to cover. We ate breakfast (yummy chocolate croissants!) at a little cafe outside Kyoto station – this also became our standard breakfast spot for the next couple days

Kyoto is a city with a lot of history behind it – lots of temples and historic buildings. Our first stop for the day was Kiyomizudera, one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Kyoto. The pagoda was an impressive sight towering over the city of Kyoto. There were platforms where visitors could get sweeping views of the city.

After having walked around a little bit, we headed toward our next stop – the Kyoto Imperial Palace. The palace was home to the Emperor until the capital was moved to Tokyo. There is an official guided tour of the palace that is given to tourists twice a day – you had to fill out a form and present your passport at the Imperial Household Agency inside the palace grounds. We made it to the palace just in time to show our documents and line up for the tour.

The tour took us around the outside of the palace – tourists were not allowed inside the palace out of concern for damage to the historical buildings. There were several buildings in the palace, each serving different purposes. The notable thing was that the rooms in each building all had very high ceilings and were very well ventilated. There were no heating arrangements whatsoever – the buildings were all built for a comfortable stay during the summer, the logic being that you could bundle up in clothing during the winter but it would be hard to keep cool during the summer! Many of the walls were painted vermillion – the color is said to ward off evil. The gardens in the palace were exquisitely maintained – very serene and calming, inspite of all us cackling tourists

At the end of the tour, we decided to take a break for lunch. We had been eating udon and yakisoba for a while now and it was getting a little monotonous. So, we decided to eat at a McDonalds that we spotted nearby. We almost never eat at McDonalds and I, for one, never thought I would eat at McDonalds to break the monotony! Well, that’s what being in a country with unfamiliar food does to you, I suppose

After the burger-and-fries break, we headed to Nijo castle. Nijo castle used to be the residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns. It was a fortified structure that had been through fires and reconstructions in the 18th and 19th century before being opened up to the public in the 1930s. One of the palaces – the Ninomaru palace was open to visitors. We rented an audio tour headset and guided ourselves through the palace. The entrance to the palace was made of wood embellished with gold. The palace was surrounded by thick walls and a moat. The palace itself had several rooms lined with tatami mats and decorated with paintings by artists of the era.

After our self-guided tour of Nijo castle, our next stop was Ginkakuji or the silver pavilion. Sadly for us, the temple was being renovated. However, the gardens were beautiful and we spent sometime walking through them.

By this time, we had had quite enough of temples and castles for one day So, we decided to change our focus for a bit. We headed to Gion, which is the Geisha district of Kyoto, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of one of a geisha or a maiko. We did catch sight of one of them by accident, as we walked along the streets near Gion. She was very well-dressed and seemed to be running off on an errand. Gion seemed to be a popular shopping district. There were tons of shops and shoppers in the area. A short walk away was Nishiki-koji, Kyoto’s famous covered food market. There was all kinds of food being sold there – from seafood to produce to freshly made snacks and sweets. We sampled some of the snacks and they were quite yummy!

We were quite tired and wanted to eat dinner before hitting the sack. We headed to Kyoto station and ate at one of the okonomiyaki places there. After a satisfying meal, we waited outside Kyoto station for the bus that would take us back to the ryokan. An elderly Japanese gentleman and his lady stopped to say ‘Hello’ and inquire where we were from. On hearing that we had traveled from the US, the gentleman told us he had lived in the Seattle and San Francisco areas for a few years. He introduced us to his wife and was quite pleased when we greeted her in Japanese ! Our bus arrived in a few minutes and we were in zzzzland within the hour!

Koyasan is the headquarters of the Shingon sect of Buddhism and is dotted with several temples and monasteries, many of which take in lodgers for the night. We had heard about Koyasan from a friend and wanted to include it in our trip to experience the more traditional side of Japanese life. We had booked our stay for the night at one such temple, Shojoshin-in – the only condition being that we attend prayer services in the morning. The bus from the cable car station let us off right outside the temple. The temple/monastery was quiet and peaceful, with blooming sakura trees that lined the entrance. We checked in and were led to our room on the 2nd floor. It was a Japanese style room that was divided into a sleeping area and a dining area. The dining area overlooked a well-manicured Japanese garden. Our hosts had informed us that dinner would be served at 5.30pm and we would receive a call when they were ready for us. We decided to take a short walk around town before the call for dinner. It was a small town – I think you could walk the entire length of it in 3-4 hours. There were several temples we saw during our walk. We headed back soon since we didn’t want to be late for dinner.

We received our dinner call shortly before 5.30pm. We were served dinner in a room with traditionally painted room partitions and bamboo-covered floors. It was served the traditional Japanese way – we would take our meals, sitting on the floor. Food prepared at temples and monasteries in Japan is vegetarian – no meat, no fish or even onions and garlic. The meal was elaborate and incredibly tasty. There was no one dish; there were several small plates – it was almost like Japanese-style tapas The chef had made use of vegetables like mushrooms, daikon radish, cucumber, cabbage and of course, tofu – the food was cooked simply. It wasn’t drowned in spices; there was just enough to embellish the natural flavors. It was one of the best meals I have eaten !

Our appetite more than satisfied, we decided to call it a night since we were tired from all the traveling and moreover, all the sights in town closed at 4pm

The next morning, we rose to attend the prayers at 6.00 am. The prayers were in the temple adjacent to the monastery. The walls of the room were made of dark wood panelling, decorated with gold-colored metal and there were lamps and other prayer objects all around the room. The air had the smell of freshly-lit incense. There were 2 monks in attendance – the younger monk chanted the prayers, reading from a book, while the older one prayed quietly. We sat behind the monks observing the proceedings.

The prayer ceremony lasted about 30 minutes, after which the younger monk led us to breakfast. Breakfast was similar to dinner the previous night, but less elaborate. After breakfast, we decided to head out to see some of the important landmarks in the town. We packed our bags and left them at the office so we could pick them up before heading back to Osaka.

We visited the Okuno-in, a cemetery that includes the grave of Kukai, who was the founder of Shingon Buddhism. One of the other guests at the temple had mentioned that there were English-speaking volunteers who would be giving a free tour of the cemetery at 8.30am. We waited outside the cemetery for the guides. The guides showed up promptly at 8.30am. They were from the Koyasan Cross-cultural Communication club and gave guided tours in English every so often to visitors. Our guides were two women, each with day jobs that had nothing to do with being tour guides but both had an immense passion for Koyasan and its history. The tour was fascinating – our guides spent almost 3 hours with us and another couple from Spain, giving us several details about the history of Kukai, the tombstones, the hall with lanterns, Japanese traditions, etc. We saw several pilgrims walking through the cemetery to pay their respects to Kukai. Our guides informed us that many Buddhists undertake to visit 88 of the most important temples in different parts of Japan and Koyasan is the final destination. Some of the tombstones were very lavish – there was one shaped like a rocket ! And, it was interesting to note that many companies like Nissan and UCC (the Japanese coffee company) had set up tombstones in memory of their employees who died while working there – hmmm … is that spirituality with publicity ??

At the end of the tour, we thanked our guides for their time and effort in educating us about Koyasan – it was extremely generous of them to take the time to do this for us. We had learned a great deal about the country and its traditions that morning !

We wanted to travel light since we were going to visit a few other places before coming back to Tokyo. The people at the hostel were nice enough to let us leave the luggage we weren’t going to be carrying – they’d store it for us until we came back. We took the bus to Ueno station and the JR line train to Tokyo station, where we had to connect to Odawara. It was early on Monday morning and the JR line train was packed with rush hour commuters. It took quite a bit of effort to get into the train; now, I think I understand what it means to be packed like sardines We didn’t have to move an inch to exit the train – the crowd automatically pushed us out!

We reached Odawara in less than an hour. We bought ourselves the Hakone free pass, which covered all modes of transportation in the area for 2 days. We boarded the bus outside Odawara station to get to Senkyoro Mae, where our ryokan was located. It took about 45minutes to get there, though beautiful, lush green mountainside. We checked in at the ryokan. The lady running the place gave us some tips on what to see and do around the place. We were most interested in getting a view of Mount Fuji and asked her what the best place to do that would be. She smiled and said our best bet would be Owakudani but then “Fuji-san is very shy” and that we would have be very lucky to get a glimpse

We followed the standard tourist route by riding the bus to Gora, the cable car from Gora to Owakudani, where we could see the hot springs and then on the ropeway to Togendai, followed by a boat ride across Lake Ashi, to Motohakone and Hakonemachi – looks like we were taking every possible mode of transportation!

We stopped at Owakudani for some pictures. However, much to our disappointment, we weren’t able to see Mount Fuji The lady at the inn was right – Fuji-san is pretty shy!

Old Tokaido highway

We walked a short distance on the Old Tokaido highway, before heading back to the town. We wanted to stop at the Hakone shrine which is another landmark in the area. The entry into the shrine was lined with lanterns, all of which were orange in color. The shrine was pretty empty and incredibly peaceful.

Hakone shrine

After our visit to the Hakone shrine, we decided to head back to the ryokan. It had been a long day and dinner followed by a soak in the onsen sounded incredibly tempting! On reaching the ryokan, we rested for a little bit and then set out to find some food.

The village of Sengoku was a short walk away and there were several restaurants there. We walked a bit and finally settled for the one closest to our ryokan. The people that ran the place were very friendly. On learning that we were from India but living in the US, the host brought out an Indian flag and an American flag and set them at our table. The food was decent, the service spectacular – the Japanese could teach restaurants in the US and India more than a thing or two about customer service! When we were paying for our meal, R told the chef “oyshi katta” (Japanese for “it was delicious” – he’d quickly whipped out the phrasebook and found it ). The gentleman was delighted and asked if we spoke Japanese – I answered cheekily “wakarimasen” (Japanese for “I don’t understand”) ! As we left the restaurant, the hosts gave us each an origami crane and doll as a gift. Very hospitable and generous of them! We felt very welcome and happy as we left the restaurant.

We went back to the ryokan, and spent some time planning for the next day, when we would head to Koyasan. We spent some time soaking in the onsen (that was SO relaxing!), to round off the busy day.

Our next destination for the day was Harajuku. Harajuku is famous for its shopping district – the Takeshita dori is a street in Harajuku that is filled with shops that cater to teenagers and young adults. The street is a pedestrian-only street and was crowded with people shopping for the latest in clothes and accessories. Unlike Ginza or Omotesando (which is known as the Champs-Elysees of Tokyo) in Shibuya (which we had just walked around), the stuff here seemed more affordable By this time, we were hungry and stopped at a food court on Takeshita dori for lunch. The food court was very crowded too – seating was limited so we ate standing at the counters overlooking the street. Our appetites whetted for the time-being, we ventured out again and continued walking. It was pretty hot and our legs were begging for a rest. So, we stopped for tea at a little cafe. We ordered some milk tea – green tea is normally served in Japan, if you want tea with milk you have to specifically ask for it (they call it mirukku tea ). The lady who ran the place served it to us in very English style – complete with a shiny silver teapot, snow-white cups and saucers, a little stainless steel jug with milk and silver teaspoons to round it off. It was the most formal tea I had been served in a while

The next stop was the Meiji Jingu (shrine) which was just a short walk from Takeshita dori. The Meiji shrine is a Shinto temple dedicated to Emperor Meiji and the Empress. Much of it was destroyed during World War II but it was reconstructed in the 1950s. The path into the shrine winds through a shaded walkway with lots of trees and a line of sake barrels that were donated to the shrine. Just outside the shrine itself was a stone basin used by visitors to wash their hands before entering the shrine. In Shinto tradition, visitors are required to wash and washing is considered as purification.

In the courtyard of the shrine was a wall with many wooden plaques hung – visitors could write their wishes on these plaques and pray that the deity grant them. The visitors prayed in the inner sanctum of the shrine. There was also a wedding party at the shrine. The bride was dressed in an eye-catching black and red kimono and seemed to be the center of attention of her family and friends as well as the gawking tourists who all wanted to take pictures with her by their side. She obliged many of them until some of her friends came to her rescue We sat in the courtyard of the shrine for a little while, giving our legs a rest and watching all the people come and go.

After visiting the Meiji shrine, we decided to walk to Yoyogi park. On the way to Yoyogi park, we saw several street performers, caricature artists and people dressed in costumes (we were told they dressed like Anime characters).

The route to Yoyogi park was packed with street vendors selling all kinds of food and drink. We weren’t in a very experimental mood so we passed on those When we entered Yoyogi park, we were greeted by crowds of tourists watching a street performance. It was a performance by a number of men that were dressed like Elvis Presley (correction: apparently they are not dressed like Elvis, but as Rockabillies. Thanks tokyo5, for the correction!). They looked hilarious! They were very good dancers and were very entertaining. The interesting thing was they did not seem to be performing for money but just for pure personal enjoyment! As we walked through the park, we saw a number of people practicing music (people playing trumpets, flutes, violins and other instruments) or dance. There was also a group of drummers from all over the world (Japanese, Caribbean, African, etc.) just jamming. We sat for a while listening; the music was great, the ambiance was lovely – it was the perfect way to wind down !

]]> http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/day-4-souvenirs-shrines-and-elvis/feed/ 3 mstompkins Souvenir shop Takeshita dori sake barrels Prayer votives street performers anime drawings street performers elvis dancers http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/day-3-fish-and-fashion/ http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/day-3-fish-and-fashion/#comments Wed, 28 May 2008 02:34:50 +0000 mstompkins http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/?p=10 ]]> The first order of business for the day was a visit to the Tsukiji Fish market. Having seen numerous travel shows feature the Tsukiji market, our curiosity was more than piqued. The Tsukiji fish market is one of the largest in the world; the wholesale auctions of seafood and other produce happen early in the morning. However, the auction areas are not open to the public any longer.

We reached the market at around 9.00 am. The market was a beehive of activity – lots of vendors doing brisk business, serious customers making purchases and needless to mention, tourists like us gawking and taking pictures The market was huge; the salty smell of the sea permeated the air and there were rows and rows of stalls selling seafood that glistened under the tungsten lights. Men in motorized carts transported the seafood from one place to another. We had to watch our step since the aisles were quite narrow and the floor was slippery. The variety of seafood was amazing – anything that could be caught at sea seemed to have a place there; some we recognized and some we had no idea about ! Our visit would not have been complete without a sushi breakfast – what better place that right at the source ? So we stopped at a nearby restaurant for a plate of freshly prepared sushi. We watched from our vantage point at the counter as the chef artfully sliced the fish and vegetables and made the nigiri-zushi (topping placed on the rice) and the maki-zushi (rolls). After a filling meal, we walked along the alleys around the fish market – there were lots of shops selling fresh produce and kitchen utensils.

Our next stop for the day was Ginza. Ginza is a high-end shopping district of Tokyo – the destination for people who shop at Prada, Swarovski and the likes We had originally intended to skip Ginza since we weren’t all that interested in shopping; however, we had to go there to exchange our travelers’ checks at a Citibank. We took the Tokyo subway from Tsukiji to Ginza. We found the Citibank but they didn’t do currency exchanges. However, they were able to direct us to a place nearby where we would be able to exchange our checks. We got that done in a jiffy and decided to explore since we were in the area anyway. We peeked into a couple of the department stores (our guidebook recommended Matsuzakaya and Mitsukoshi) but didn’t buy anything. During weekend afternoons, Chuo-dori in Ginza is closed to vehicular traffic and opened to pedestrians. Not even bicycles are allowed – cops carry around signs forbidding bicycles and shove the sign in the faces of any hapless bicyclists on the street Benches and beach umbrellas appear out of nowhere and people sit around enjoying a cup of coffee or a chat with friends. As I walked around clicking pictures, a woman came up to me and spoke rapidly in Japanese. I gaped at her, totally taken aback since most Japanese people I’d met had taken one look at me and switched to either English or sign language And of course, I had no clue what she was going on about. After a minute, she stopped, as if realizing for the first time that I wasn’t Japanese, apologized and walked away!

Rain was in the forecast; so we decided to head for the Tokyo National Museum located in Ueno. We were a bit confused on which direction to head from outside Ueno station. There was a pretty cool interactive map outside the station that gave us directions to the musuem. It being a weekend and given that there are a number of museums and other attractions near Ueno Park, the area was pretty crowded. The Tokyo National Museum has several galleries; we spent all of our time in the main gallery (Honkan), which is dedicated to the history and evolution of Japanese art. There were several exhibits of pottery, sculpture, paintings (of particular interest were the ukiyo-e or the woodblock prints) and of course, samurai weapons and armor It gave us a sense of the art as well as the different periods during which art flourished. It certainly was time well-spent!

Since we had some time on our hands, we headed for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku. The building is among the tallest in Tokyo and the observation deck at the top of the building has good views of the city. From the deck, the city appeared to extend way beyond the eyes could see. By all accounts, Tokyo is huge but the urban sprawl was a bit of surprise. The city seemed like a cross between New York City and Bombay, but of course, with its own identity. It was a mix of the modern and the traditional, with the high rises and high-tech on the one hand and the temples and shrines, on the other. Great view of the city!

That afternoon, we decided to visit the Tokyo imperial palace. The palace suffered quite a bit of damage during World War II but was rebuilt after the war. We took the train to Tokyo station and walked about 15minutes to get to the outer gardens of the palace. However, on reaching there, we found out that the gardens were closed to visitors on Fridays. Bummer ! Serves me right for not reading the guidebook more carefully. Anyway, we looked around a bit more and then decided to head to Akihabara.

We took the train to Akihabara from Tokyo station. Akihabara is the mecca of electronics in Tokyo. Be it a digital camera or a television or a laptop, this is where people head for the best deals in electronics. Each of the major electronics stores in Akihabara occupies an entire building of 7-8 floors, selling everything from home appliances to software to cellphones. At the entrance to every store were greeters (most of them young men and women in their late teens or early 20s) that were handing out brochures and trying to attract customers to their store. Other than electronics stores, those selling comics (manga) and related souvenirs and toys also seemed to be very popular.

We wanted to get a cup of coffee and went looking for a coffee shop that the guidebook recommended. Frustrated after walking around for a while without finding it, we settled for Starbucks and a cup of Tazo tea. The Starbucks looked uncannily like the ones in the US – looks like they bulk-order the same decor and accessories for their stores all over the world!

We wandered around a bit more and then decided to head back. We had to connect at Ueno to get back to the hotel. On reaching Ueno, we decided to step outside the station and see if we could get a bite to eat. It was dark by now and the lights were all on full strength. This was the Tokyo I had imagined We reached Ameyayokocho, which is a street with stores and stalls selling food and produce. There were several restaurants, glitzy pachinko parlors and game arcades in the area. Many of the patrons seemed to be men in suits and ties that were winding down after a day’s work.

As we were walking around, we ran across a restaurant that served Curry. The pictures outside the restaurant looked appealing, so we went in. It turned out that we had to purchase a ticket from a vending machine and give the ticket to the lady at the counter, who would prepare and serve the meal. It seemed pretty straight-forward, except for one small detail – the ticket machine had all signs in Japanese and NO pictures! We stood there trying to compare the signs on the picture with those on the machine – we didn’t get too far with that. The lady at the counter must have noticed us standing near the machines, staring at the signs and looking totally lost. So, she came along and asked what we wanted in Japanese – we pointed to the pictures of the dishes we wanted to eat and she quickly punched the right buttons to get us the tickets. We thanked her in Japanese – arigato gozaimas – one of the definite must-know phrases while traveling around Japan We sat at the counter while she brought us our meal. The curry did not taste great but it was an interesting experience !

The first stop for the day was Asakusa. Asakusa is an older part of Tokyo that has retained some of the pre-war temples and building. The most famous of these is the Sensoji temple. We took the Tsukuba (pronounced scuba ) Express train to Asakusa. We had all the train schedules, which we figured out using hyperdia, in our massive print-out.

This was our first chance to really get a glimpse of a historic part of Tokyo city. It was a fascinating walk to the Kaminari-mon, which is the gate to the Sensoji temple. Except my camera’s batteries ran out, right about then! Grrr !! We found a 7-11 on our way and we decided to stop there for the batteries. 7-11s are everywhere in Tokyo – only one thing is more common than a 7-11 in Japan and that’s a vending machine (more on that topic later ) ! I removed the batteries from my camera and showed it to the lady at the counter, to indicate what I wanted. She quickly understood and took me to the section where the batteries were. Unfortunately, they didn’t carry the type of batteries I needed

On the way to Kaminari-mon, we found a store carrying the batteries for my camera. I bought a set and loaded up quickly. Now, I was all set for the remainder of the day

The street leading to the Sensoji temple is called Nakamise and is lined with stores that sell souvenirs and food. The stores were just beginning to open and the crowds were beginning to gather. We sampled some of the freshly prepared, hot red-bean buns that the street vendors were selling – SO yummy !

The entry way to the temple was lined with lanterns. This seemed to be the norm for all Buddhist temples we saw during our trip. There were a number of people there, offering prayers. The temple seemed to be popular with school children dressed in uniforms, probably on a field trip with their class.

We looked around the Sensoji temple, the surrounding garden and the Asakusa shrine nearby. Unfortunately, the signs were all in Japanese so we weren’t able to read anything about the history of the temple.

Plastic food

Most Japanese restaurants display elaborate models of the food that they serve, at the entrance to the restaurant. The models are all made of plastic and look incredibly realistic. Kappabashi in the Asakusa area is known for shops that sell these models. We spent a little bit of time exploring the stores and their goods. The models were amazing – they had models of sushi, udon, sandwiches, cakes and even a frothing mug of beer! And it was obvious that each model had a great deal of attention going into the details – the models of udon had the all the trimmings, right down to the brown broth that the noodles are covered in and the green onions that are sprinkled on top.

After looking at all the plastic food, our stomachs were beginning to rumble We lunched at a food court in a mall in the Asakusa area. Neither of us was very experienced eating with chopsticks (though R handles it way better than I do), so I suspected we were going to spend a while at lunch – I was already consulting the phrasebook to figure out how to ask for a fork Luckily, it turned out that eating udon with chopsticks was pretty easy! We polished off the food and paid the check at the counter near the entrance. At most Japanese restaurants, you pay for your food at the counter, as you leave the restaurant. According to our guidebook, it is also not customary to leave a tip.

]]> http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/day-2-asakusa/feed/ 1 mstompkins Kaminari-mon dolls souvenirs Sensoji temple Plastic food http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/day-1-landing-in-tokyo/ http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/day-1-landing-in-tokyo/#comments Wed, 21 May 2008 05:37:32 +0000 mstompkins http://mstompkins.wordpress.com/?p=4 ]]> We had an uneventful flight to Tokyo. We had one of those personal TVs and were able to keep ourselves occupied with random movies that were showing. I had downloaded an audio lesson of Japanese from the public library website and tried to listen to it on my MP3 player. I don’t think I registered much of it – the phrasebook we picked up seemed more useful!

We landed in Narita Airport at around 5pm in the evening. The airport seemed empty; surprisingly, there were few people in line at the immigration counters ! Being used to the interminable lines for clearing immigration in the US and India, this was like being in a dream ! We cleared immigration, collected our baggage and cleared customs, all in under 30 minutes.

We walked out to the terminal. The first thing to do was to exchange our travelers’ checks for cash. There was a Travelex counter right there where we could exchange travelers checks. R filled out the forms and exchanged some of our checks for cash. We decided not to exchange all our money here since airport exchange counters don’t exactly have the reputation of giving the best exchange rates. While R was filling out the forms, a Japanese man dressed in a suit approached and asked to look at the form. R hesitated a bit at first, not realizing that the man was actually an employee of the exchange counter, trying to help him out. We’re not used to getting such help – in other places, it usually means that guy is trying to con you out of something

The next thing was to exchange the Japan Rail (JR) pass voucher that we had bought back home, for the actual Japan Rail pass. We asked the lady at the information counter and she told us to go down one floor to the JR travel office. As we came down the escalator, the first thing that greeted us was a Starbucks! For some reason, that sent us into peals of laughter. On the one hand, it gave us a sense of familiarity. On the other hand, Starbucks is ubiquitous back in the US but here, in Japan ?? I guess Corporate America has a very wide reach !

We found the JR office easily enough and exchanged our vouchers for the JR passes. The lady there spoke English and helped us with directions to the hotel we were going to stay in. She also gave us passes that would be valid on the Keisei train line (where the JR pass is not valid) to help us get to Tokyo, since there had been an accident on the JR line.

We took the Keisei train line from Narita airport to Nippori – it took about an hour and 30 minutes to get there. At Nippori, we switched to the JR Joban line, to get to Minami-senju. The hotel (rather the hostel) we stayed at  was about a 10 minute walk from the Minami-senju JR train station. However, it had started to rain pretty hard by the time we got off the train at Minami-senju and we had no desire to lug our suitcases, while at the same time trying to figure out the directions to the hotel.

So we took the bus to the Hotel. I was just getting ready to start matching the Japanese characters on my print-out of directions to the ones appearing on the screen in the front of the bus Fortunately, the screen had signs in English indicating which stop was coming up! The bus stop was right outside the hotel so there was no more walking with the suitcases. We checked in at the hotel and went up to our room, which was on the 7th floor. The room was small but clean. Tatami mats lined the floor and there were futon mattresses to sleep on. We were pretty tired and not really hungry, so we just washed up and decided to call it a night.

We were finally in Tokyo; all set to start exploring the city the next morning.