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Published: August 6th 2007
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"Ohayo Gozaimasu" (Good Morning). It started getting light about 4am. They don't have "daylight savings time" in Japan, and they must be just west of a time zone line, so it gets light early and dark early. We had a great breakfast at the hotel, a buffet with American and Japanese style dishes.
Meiji Shrine, Imperial Palace, and Asakusa Kannon Temple Then, we headed out to Yoyogi Park/Meiji Shrine. The tour guide briefed us on the Shrine. This isn't just a historical exhibit, this is still a functioning house of worship. People work there, and go there and pray.
We also checked out the Imperial Palace Park, the official residence of the Emperor. Then, we went to Asakusa Kannon Temple.
On the grounds just outside of the temples and shrines, there is usually flowing water available to clean your hands for purification purposes, and possibly for drinking. Also, people may go up to an area where incense is burning to take in the smoke for a specific purpose. At Asakusa, you could buy incense for a particular purpose, such as for good health, good fortune, whatever. By taking in the smoke, perhaps this good fortune may come
to fruition. Once inside the temple or shrine, the prayer routine starts with putting a donation into the collection box in front of you, bowing, clapping twice (to get God's attention), saying the prayer, bowing again and then moving on. I thought it was interesting. This kind of stuff is right up my alley. I participated in the ritual myself. I even devoted a video to it.
"Watashi wa nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimas" (I speak a little bit of Japanese) I stopped in this store on the way back to the bus to get something to drink. I found one in the cooler. I said to the lady working there, "Konnichiwa" (hello), "hyaku?" (100?), meaning that it cost 100 yen, as I gave her a 100 yen coin. Then, I said "arigato gozaimasu" (thank you, polite). She responded with "jozu ni", meaning "you are skilled". I told the tour guide about it, and she said that she must have said that because my pronunciation must have been pretty good.
We got back to the hotel in the early afternoon and had the rest of the day free. I grabbed some lunch and went to the Post Office
to mail a postcard to my parents, and get some Japanese yen out of an ATM that accepted American ATM cards. (It only took 4 days for the post card to reach my Parents house in North Carolina). I walked around and got some pics and videos.
I enjoyed trying to speak some Japanese to people. Fortunately for me, many people in Tokyo can speak English, more so the younger crowd, and it seems more women than men. It is mandatory for every Japanese school child to have at least 7 years of English. Many do more than that, and some study it in college.
It seems that quite a bit of shopping in Japan takes place in relatively small stores or in small outdoor booths, as opposed to big superstores.
Funny thing in Shinjuku, as crowded as it is everywhere, there are these little bars, right off these busy streets, that you can go in, and it's dark and quiet with hardly anyone in them. I went back to one of those cozy dark quiet little bars. They wear suits and gloves, bow when you come in, pull out your chair for you, etc. When they
make a drink, they pull out all the stops. They don't just scoop ice out of a vat or machine. They break out and unwrap an ice ball, and chip away fresh chunks with an ice pick. They meticulously combine fresh ingredients together, and shake them just the right way. Strain it out into your glass, which is respectfully placed in front of you. Everything is very nice, formal, polite. The places are impeccably clean, including the restrooms.
I enjoyed talking to the servers. I asked them what they think of America, do they know Western music, etc. I was also trying to practice what little Japanese I had learned in the prior few weeks.
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