Tokyo Weekend

So, a few weeks ago Erin and I caught a plane and headed to Tokyo, Japan for the weekend. It might seem silly to spend only a couple of days in one of the culturally richest countries in the world, but when it comes down to it, we got to go to Japan! We wished we had more time, but what can you do? We did as much as we could.

We flew out of Incheon International Airport Friday afternoon. It wasn't a bad flight at all, as far as flights go. I did get a reminder to make sure that whenever I travel I have to hide my tattoos. I got through security without any hassles, but right before I boarded the plane I got pulled out of line and had to take off my shoes and get a more thorough metal detection. The girl dug through my shoes, looking for drugs? I guess. I dunno. I wasn't worried about it, as I am a very good boy, but still it was a little annoying. I just took a breath and relaxed, knowing that once I decided to get heavily tattooed this is one of the unfortunate side affects. After a couple of minutes I was allowed on the plane, and off we went.

A few hours ago we landed at Narita, the international airport for Tokyo. Immigration into Japan is easy, if it does take a bit of time. You get fingerprinted and have your picture taken. They must have quite a collection of pictures of messy-haired, jet lagged travelers.

To tell you the truth, I was underwhelmed by the airport. It wasn't that big and I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it failed to deliver. I think I wanted something more futuristic, something sleeker, cooler, more...Japanese. I dunno. I think I am also spoiled by Incheon airport, which so far is the best one in the world I've been to. Many of our friends have said the same thing.

Narita is actually a fair ways out of the city so you have three choices getting out of there; cab (very expensive), bus, or train. The bus and train cost about the same and one of the buses went to a hotel that wasn't too far from our friend Mary's work so we took that.

The bus ride was actually kind of dull. I was hoping to see some countryside but the highway we were on was sunken into the ground so all I could see was traffic and the edges of the road that sloped up to the sky.

So, after about an hour on the bus we arrived, finally in Tokyo. It's hard to describe the first impressions Tokyo gives you on your ride in. It is a huge city, in every sense of the word. It goes on and on, but it also rises very high into the sky. We passed over humongous freeways past the harbour, and near to the Tokyo Disney World, whatever that's called. The bus took us into the city, to finally the hotel where our friend Mary was to meet us.

She is a teacher in Tokyo, at a private school that is entirely in English. The students are the kids of diplomats, business men and the richest people who want an English education for their kids. She was waiting for us with bags of her own because she had just returned, herself, from a trip with her kids to Mt. Fuji. What was surprising was that she had her arm in a sling. Apparently from falling off her bicycle, and I'd believe it. Tons of people there ride bikes, but they ride them on the busy sidewalks, weaving around people, forcing people out of the way. I can totally see falling off a bike in situations like that.

Mary's school was putting on a Mexican potluck dinner for the returning teachers and she took us along. By that time there wasn't much food left, but there was beer, and that was a nice treat after many hours of traveling. We stayed for a while, met her co-teachers, then headed out for a bite to eat, as we were very hungry.

Now, I have always wanted to go to Japan. It is the source of so much that is cool and weird and excellent in the world. I wanted to see the city of the future that I have always imagined, but mostly I wanted to eat there. I love Japanese food. Sushi is wonderful and my favorite comfort food is Ramen. I eat it with veggies whenever I want a nice, warming, satisfying meal. And that's what we went for. Ramen, wonderful Ramen.

There was a restauraunt a couple blocks away from Mary's school where her and her co-workers all go for good eats so that was where we headed out for. It was one of my favorite meals I've had so far, on this side of the world. The broth was hearty, tasty and salty, and the noodles were perfect. So with much slurping and "ahh"ing, we had our first meal in Japan.

From there we headed over to Mary's apartment where she, out of the kindness of her heart, was letting us sleep on her couch. She has a nice place. It is small, but that is to be expected in Japan, but it is well laid out. And she had a comfy couch which was a good thing.

We slept in the next day, which was too bad, seeing how tight our time was. We went to a local grocery store with Mary to pick up fixin's for breakfast. We wandered around the store looking at all the strange goods, and marveling at the prices. They were hard to believe. Everything there is at least double what it is here, but in much smaller packages. It made us appreciate shopping here all the more.

After we had eaten we finally set out to explore this large, strange city. First stop; Shibuya!

We took the subway there (nice, clean, quiet, and fast) and exited at the famous intersection. If you recall the scene in "Lost in Translation" where they show this crazy intersection where thousands of people cross at once in all directions, that was where we were. It was something else. Words don't really give it justice. People come out of every direction and pile up at the side of the road, then the cars stop and everyone surges into the street and for one second it's like a mosh pit at a concert, and then it completely disperses. Then five minutes later it happens again. And again. And again, all day.

If we had more money we would probably have gone into some of the stores to do some shopping, but we were on a budget so we went strait to Tower Records. Now that may be the coolest place in the world. I forget how many floors it was, seven or eight, but it was huge. Each floor was dedicated to a different style of music and the choice was endless. We went to the rock floor a bit later, but first we went to the coolest part. The top floor, the bookstore. We were in heaven.

It was a vast sea of books. We checked out the tattoo books first, thinking that since we couldn't afford the time or money to go down to Osaka to get some tattoos of our own we might get a nice book about them. We did, in the end buy a book of ink paintings made by Horiyoshi III, probably the most famous and best living tattoo artist, at least when it comes to Japanese style tattoos. It was very expensive but very worth it. It is beutiful and as far as i know, unavailable outside of Japan. We also picked up a few Christmas presents to send home.

After we were in there for !almost three hours! we decided to head out for Asakusa Temple. This is a beutiful temple, with a huge, I'm not sure what to call it, maybe a lantern? Look at the pictures and you will see it. Everyone who goes here gets their picture taken beneath it and we were no exception. It is huge and super cool. It is at the entrance to a path that leads to the temple that is lined with souvenir shops. Our plan was to wander through the shops and visit the temple.

As plans tend to this didn't really work out. We arrived there at around seven in the evening, around the time that the whole thing shuts down for the night. So we didn't get a chance to go in the temple (it sure looked cool from the outside) and all but three or four of the shops were closed. On our way to the street we stopped at a roadside shop selling hundreds of chopsticks. They were piled in troughs and you had to pick through them to find pairs and sets. It was actually lots of fun. We got some for ourselves and some for gifts. Then we headed to see the shops that were still open.

The shops were super cool. Souvenir shops, I find, tend to be full of crap that you really don't want, but for one second think might be cool. Then you are stuck with some crappily made kitchy piece of garbage that you don't know what to do with. And these shops had those kind of things, but they also had a lot of nice stuff. We avoided the crap and picked up some cool stuff. Some stuff for us like, a wall hanging of "The Great Wave", a cloth print of a samurai that we will get framed one day, some toe boots for erin. We also got some Christmas presents we can't say what they are, because of obvious reasons.

After we had got some shopping in we decided to head down to Odaiba. This is an area down on the Tokyo Harbor. On the way we found a "Lush" store which made Erin and Mary very happy. It is cool to find Canadian shops over here on this side of the world. Then we hopped the metro to Odaiba. It was a fun ride. We got into the front car of the train, and since it is driven by some invisible robot, we got to sit in the front seat looking out the front windows. It seemed like we were driving it. Fun.

Odaiba is where you will find breathtaking views of the Tokyo skyline across the water and also where you will find a mini version of the Statue of Liberty. It actually felt kind of like we were in New York, but that is probably because we have never been there.

We were feeling pretty hungry by then so we went on a search for some food. It was too bad that it was so late because we had a hard time finding any place open, let alone a place for Japanese food. We found one restaurant but discovered it was closed, so we settled for an Italian place. It was OK. We had some pasta. Not exactly what I was looking for in Japan, but it filled us up.

We then caught the last train back to Rappongi. Rappongi is one of the bar/nightclub districts in Tokyo popular with foreigners. We were kind of tired and wanted to be up early the next morning so we didn't hit the clubs, but we walked around. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but frankly I think that it came off pretty tame. Hongdae here in Seoul has a lot more people, life and excitement if you ask me.

We did find a super strange and cool store that apparently is open 24 hours (or very late at least) called Don Quixote. We went up to the seventh floor first where they had only high end designer goods. Thousand dollar watches, twenty five hundred dollar hand bags, and the like. It was interesting to see. But one floor down was a floor with plastic lawn furniture, two dollar zellers shoes, and exercise equipment. One floor down from there was clothes and dirty dressup costumes. One floor down from there was electronics and Japanese porn. A very strange store.

We then headed to check out the Rappongi Hills. Rappongi Hills is about as close as the world gets to an Arcology. It is a huge tower that contains everything you need to survive. If you lived there you could work there, shop there, go to the grocery store there, go to bars there. You wouldn't have to leave. It is a cool idea, but still not quite there. It is still just a huge consuming community, not producing anything. But a different way to live. It also has a wicked cool sculpture of a giant spider full of eggs called Maman (or something like that).

We then cabbed home to Marys where we stayed up late talking and getting ready for the next day.

One of the things I was looking most forwards to was a visit to the early morning fish market. You can go down there, see the people auctioning off the fish and then go eat some of the freshest sushi in the world at a nearby restaurant. Sounds like heaven to me. But, alas, it was not to be. Apparently the market is closed on sunday and so are most of the restaurants. That was a total bummer. It really would have been the highlight for me.

So instead we woke up at a reasonable time and headed down to Harajuku. And yes you have heard that name before. It is the place where the world famous Harajuku Girls hang out. But first we went to the Meiji Shrine which is at the same station.

To get to the temple you walk down this long path through the woods. I guess the shrine is in a large park. It was a nice walk on a beautiful day. You walk under these huge (and I mean huge, check out the pictures) gates made of whole tree trunks, and past these rows of piled up saki casks and wine barrels. Apparently these are donations to the shrine (the wine came from france) that no one drinks. I'm not sure what the point in that is but the saki casks have some cool labels on them.

Then you come to the shrine. Here is our first real sense of the juxtaposition that exists in Japan. This shrine is old and yet it is only a block away from one of the coolest hippest shopping areas in Tokyo and you get there by a futuristic subway. On your way into the shrine people stop at a fountain and rinse their hands and mouths in a cleansing ritual. I took part, but Erin didn't feel like she should, being a doubter in all things spiritual.

Then into the shrine itself. It has the cool old architecture, and is in a walled compound. On display were all these toys and dolls. Thousands of them. I think (we aren't entirely sure but we think this is so) that these dolls are offerings with wishes or prayers attatched to them. Then every so often the priests at the shrine burn them sending the offerings to the gods or spirits. Anyhow they were very cool to look at.

Near the back of the compound were these troughs with slats across them. People would clap throw a coin in the trough, which makes a thunking sound then clap again, sending prayers. It was nice to watch and soothing to listen to. I liked it a lot. The slats were worn smooth and fuzzy from thousands of coins bouncing off them over the years.

Also there are these two huge beautiful trees. One had these racks around it with these wooden placards with wishes written on them. Most were in Japanese, but there were many languages on them, Korean, English, even some written in Crylic. We spent some time reading these, but didn't send any wishes ourselves. We were on a trip, in Japan, on the other side of the world. What else could we ask for? More time, I guess.

Then, just as we were about to leave, a wedding procession passed by us. The people were in traditional dress, the woman was in a gorgeous outfit with her face all white and done up. We watched the procession and took some pictures. Then it was off to the dollar store for some more souvenirs and to check out the Harajuku Girls.

I have to say that i think the whole Harajuku Girls thing might have run it's course. Or maybe we just were unlucky on the day we went down there. There weren't too many of them, and only four or five of them were really done up in really interesting ways. There were lots of people there trying to take pictures of them, us included, but they aren't that interested in having their picture taken by anyone who isn't from a magazine, so they stand around in tight little circles with their backs to everyone. It kind of makes me wonder why they would go to all the work of dressing like that if they are just going to hide, but whatever. It was something different to see.

We wandered down the shopping street there to see it, and really, we probably could have spent hours shopping there. The clothes were super cool, but we just didn't have the time. Or money, if it comes to that.

Then we checked out the "Elvis'". Or that's what we've heard them called. But let me tell you right now, that is not what they are. They are Rockabilly boys and girls. There is a difference. These are basically the way cooler and male version of the Harajuku Girls. These are guys who after working at whatver office job they have all week, do their hair up in Pompadours and put on their electrical taped shoes and put on their leather jackets and go hang out in the park and dance to Rockabilly music. These are my kind of dudes. We took pictures of them and I posed with one of them who was showing off his Tats. I told him that I liked them and he told me that mine were "Bad Ass".

Just outside of the park where the Rockabilly Boys were was a line of street food stalls, and here was where I had my most "Japanese" food experience. I had octopus balls. These are bready balls of batter stuffed with an octopus leg cooked in these cast iron molds. They are served covered in a mayonnaise sauce, some brown sauce and coated with bento flakes (shaved, dried fish). They were molten hot inside, but so very, very good. I am glad I had them.

Unfortunately that was the end of our time in Japan. It was too short, but unforgettable for all of that. We hopped the train to the airport, said goodbye and thank you to Mary, our very gracious hostess, and headed home to Seoul.

We got to the airport and got in line to get our plane. We had though that we had a ton of time, but apparently it was a very busy day and time. We crawled through the line realising that we weren't gong to get to eat sushi at the airport (thus killing our hopes of Sushi in Japan). When we finally got to the front of the line we were informed that the flight was overbooked and asked if we wanted to be bumped. At first this was annoying, but then we were informed that they would give us $300 each if we agreed. At first they offered the 300 in coupons to United Air, but we said that we weren't going to be using them anytime soon so they said that we would be cut a check. All for just waiting three hours. So of course we agreed. They said it wasn't for sure, and we'd find out at our gate. So we went to the gift shop where Erin bought a Yukata (less formal version of a kimono). Then we headed to our gate to find out what was up.

We got there and realized that we were probably going to get on the plane. Kind of a disappointment. We could have used $600 after the trip we just took, but oh, well what can you do. We got in line but were told to wait to one side. We didn't know what was going on, but we were given new tickets.

Then we got on the plane and went to our seats. We had been upgraded to Business Class!!! This wasn't cash but it was pretty freaking cool. The seats were huge and comfy. They reclined all the way so you could sleep in practically a bed if you wanted, and they greeted you with champagne. On the flight we got a meal that was twenty times better than the crap we had gotten back in Economy, and we got as much to drink as we wanted (us being tired, this wasn't very much). It was a nice treat, let me tell you.

Then we landed in Seoul, had a minor fracas getting our dogs delivered from the kennel and then we arrived home. It was nice to be back but it was a great trip.

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