Golden flower above the Suitengu Shrine entrance.
I learned something really important today. Never go out for seven hours wearing pants that are too tight. If they don't quite fit in the morning, they certainly won't fit after you've had a big bowl of ramen for lunch. Lesson well learned.
Today marks the first day that I will be putting pictures in with my text. Be excited!
It was just as cold, windy, and cloudy as it has been for several days, but no rain! Yay! Two of my roommates had left when I set out for a day of trekking. Also, the plum trees have blossomed (cherry blossoms come later, in March, so I won't get to see those, but at least I got to be here for plum blossom season).
They smell nice too!
My first destination was Nihonbashi [日本橋], because my guidebook of wisdom claimed that the Bank of Japan offered English-language tours on Tuesday mornings at 11:00 am. Sadly, my guidebook did not explain that sometimes, places that are "Open on weekdays" are inexplicably NOT open on weekdays. Go figure. Luckily, there was a nearby Japanese currency museum, so I got my coin fix taken care of.
On my way to the currency museum I had noticed a bunch of older Japanese people waiting outside a building marked Mitsukoshi [三越], so I made a mental note to come back and see what it was.
It turns out, it's a really fancy swanky department store. Surprise! I guess my guidebook isn't lying when it claims that every part of Tokyo is full of fancy trendy shopping centers. This place had 12 floors. I saw nothing interesting, so I moved on to my next destination, Suitengu Shrine [水天宮], a shrine dedicated to seven Shinto gods of fortune. I really enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere. Though I couldn't help but notice how overshadowed it was by the nearby skyscrapers.
My next stop was Nihonbashi itself, or Japan Bridge. It holds the "zero marker", or the point at which the old Japanese roads originated. Five of the major routes in feudal Japan originated at Nihonbashi. Finally, I went to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, but the only room that the public is allowed into is a creepy stone room with one TV screen and some vending machines.
45-degree upward-angle shot of the inside of the Tokyo Stock Exchange public room.
Next I went to Marunouchi [丸の内], which is "one of the leading business and shopping areas of Japan with modern buildings and high-end shops." Ooh exciting. More shops. Sure enough, the first places I went were the Marunouchi Building and Shin-Marunouchi Building, both attached to the Tokyo metro station. I had heard the jokes about the Starbucks located in the parking lot of the Starbucks, but I'm pretty sure that was actually the case here. The two buildings are connected by the subway station, and between these three areas, there were literally THREE Starbucks, within about 500 meters. RIDICULOUS. Anyway, these two buildings were more swanky shopping areas, both more resembling classy hotels than shopping centers. And the Marunouchi building has 36 floors... why is all of that necessary?
I think I've found my least favorite tourist place in all of Tokyo. And it was my final stop for today! The Imperial Palace gardens. Sounds neat, right? Well apparently the whole area burnt down awhile ago. So picture, if you can, a bunch of really cool wooden buildings. All of them burnt down, leaving just flat ground and some stone walls. Add a couple of tourists WAY in the distance, and you have:
There actually are a couple of Asian tourists there. Just look REALLY closely.
But if empty fields aren't your thing, perhaps murder sounds interesting. What's that? you ask. Yes, for in this very place an awful murder took place. Something about samurai, betrayal, intrigue. You can even look at the very walkway where the crime occurred. Of course, at this point there's nothing left but the walkway, which looks just like everything else. But neat, huh? X_X. Just add a bunch of noisy birds that go BWAH! BWAH! BWAH! and you've got the best place in all of Tokyo.
Impressions: Japanese people, like Chinese people, seem to be incredibly spiritual. This is not the same thing as religious, but every shrine I've gone to in either country has been packed with worshippers. Interestingly, the Japanese rituals are different from the Chinese rituals. I can follow along with the Chinese rituals (as I've seen them done often enough), the Japanese ones are foreign to me. It is very strange to see similar architecture, identical writing, yet completely different rituals.
At Japanese shrines, people wash both hands and mouths before they pray. This does not happen at Chinese temples.
Randomness: Japanese ramen is AMAZING. Quite possibly the best thing to happen to noodles since Italy. That's right, the whole nation of Italy happened to noodles. And now the whole nation of Japan has too. I had two bowls of it today, and now I wonder why Japanese restaurants in America can't make such delicious ramen. Ramen actually has an interesting history. The Chinese long ago invented a pasta dish called la mian (拉麵), or lo mein, which I'm sure everyone knows of. At some point this dish was brought to Japan (ramen being the approximation of the Chinese word). In Japan they added veggies, seaweed, hot water, etc. etc. and when it came back to China, it was such a different dish that it even has a different Chinese name; it is now called "convenient noodles".
More randomness: Also, the clock in the hostel's common room chimes "A Whole New World" from Aladdin every hour, on the hour. LOVE IT!
Tomorrow is my final full day in Tokyo! I will be going to Ueno [上野] and either Ginza [銀座] or Shinjuku [新宿].
No comments:
Post a Comment