Tokyo

Sorry for the absence of posts for a while. At the moment, I'm borrowing free wireless bandwidth in Shinjuku park before I drop in at NOVA's head office to pick up some paperwork.

I arrived in Tokyo around 6:30 pm on Friday night, and managed to send an email, get my luggage shipped (I'm assuming it'll be delivered!) catch a train, get off at the right station, wander out one of the dozen or so exits and, after walking around a few different blocks, find the hotel.

In the morning I headed out to the Public Garden at the Imperial Palace. You can only walk around the outside, but they had a cool water garden and several nice views of buildings on the other side of the moat. I walked through a 5k/10k run, and managed to not get trampled. I wandered through a little park, past the government buildings, and eventually to the Hie-Jinja shrine, behind the Prime Minister's official residence - it's a cool little shrine right in the middle of downtown - there seem to be a number of little parks and shrines scattered throughout Tokyo.

After ceremonially washing my hands and mouth at the chozusha, I walked into the main shrine area, tossed in an offering, rang the bell to summon the deity, prayed, clapped twice, bowed and left. It was different praying to something/one I'm not sure I believe in, but it seemed appropriate. After walking around the hill on which the shrine is located at least once, I found the stairs with the "infinite Torii" mentioned in the Lonely Planet guidebook. Took the requisite photo. (By the way, when I post large batches of photos, I'll probably post them to flickr as opposed to here.)

Afterwards, I headed out to Harajuku, since it was the weekend, but I must have been too early or late, as there were only a few kids decked out for cos-play. Oh well. Since I was there, I checked out the Meiji shrine, with the giant torii made of 1,500 year old cypress from Taiwan.

I also wandered through an outdoor equipment store, with a reasonably good selection of stuff, although most of the brands were new to me. Prices were crazy high - if I do need anything, I'll have to buy it online.

I headed over to "Electric Town" where the prices were really not that much better than at home. In some cases they were actually quite a bit higher. Apparently big box stores in other areas now have better prices. At least I haven't seen a Wal-Mart yet. I picked up a webcam for about the same cost as I'd seen in Ontario.

A nice waitress helped me figure out that if you want a meal at a lot of the fast-food places, you actually buy a ticket from a vending machine just inside, hand it over and get your food in about two minutes. Sticky rice with beef curry. Good stuff.

A little footsore, I headed back to the hotel and went to bed early. I still managed to take the wrong exit out of the subway station and wandered around for twenty minutes before I found the hotel.

I had planned to get up at the crack of dawn and check out the Tsukiji fish market, but fortunately I had internet in the room, and found out that it's closed on Sundays. Next time.

Woke up at 4:30am. Apparently not adjusted to the timezone just yet. Got rolling around 6:30 - which is not normal - I hope I adjust soon. Had rice and a barely fried egg with nori and salad and sausage. Plus some kind of oatmeal stuff. Have so far managed to avoid "natto" which really doesn't sound appetizing - fermented soybeans.

Went up to Asakusa and checked out Senso-ji, another old shrine. As much as I don't like early mornings, it was really peaceful before the crowds arrived. None of the shops lining the street to the temple were open, a few people wandered through - others just stopped on their way past and bowed and prayed in the direction of the temple. Really peaceful. The shrine had a nice little waterfall/stream with lots of fish - who were not shy at all - odd that they're called coy. Afterward, I wandered past a smaller shrine dedicated to Tanuki, and then through some random streets before just making the 10:00 am boat from Asakusa down the Sumida river. The boat took about 40 minutes down the river to Hama Rikyu, which is the old river palace of the Shogun. Very nice gardens. Interesting methods of duck hunting - they would actually raise tame ducks, and build channels off of the main pond. When wild ducks landed, they would wait in "blinds" at the end of the channels and call in the tame ducks. When the wild ducks followed, they'd throw nets over the lot of them. Seems somewhat unsporting, but I can imagine duck hunting with arrows would be tough. There was also a small monument to all the ducks that had been killed. Maybe that makes up for it.

After Hama Rikyu, I wandered past the Tsukiji Market and found a sushi place recommended by the guidebook. The salmon and tuna were definitely fresher than back home, the octopus I couldn't tell, and I decided that I do not like saltwater eel (anago) nearly as much as freshwater eel (unagi). Stuffed, I wandered over to a bench in a shaded area and rested for fifteen minutes. Looked at the guidebook, made a plan and headed over to Kabuki-za theatre to try and catch one act. No Kabuki shows today. Next stop, Contax Gallery of photography in Ginza. Couldn't find it - actually I found the building, but it seems it's not there anymore. Oh well. Wandered past Gucci, Coach, Hermes and several others way out of my price range (and taste). Checked out a department store - found out that it too was well out of my price range. Even the cool foods in the basement were too pricey. $4.00 for a cup of cherries. Found the Japanese equivalent of the GAP - UNIQLO - looks like they might even have my size!

I've discovered that I don't stand out nearly as much as I thought I would. There are quite a few people my height, and enough variety in features that I blend in reasonably well. A number of people have started speaking to me in Japanese hopefully someday I'll understand some of it!

Well, that's it for now - got to go pick up paperwork and make my way out to Hitachi - I'll try to post more frequently and in smaller chunks for easier reading!