Day 4 Japan

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Day 4 Japan
Travel day. I grabbed the Shinkansen Nozumi 2 to Tokyo at 9am and arrived at Tokyo station at 11 am. Not to bad for 513 km. At first it made me a little dizzy to stare out the window at the quickly receding landscape, I busied my self typing up a blog entry. Sorry for the late entries, but wifi is not so readily available in Japan. Once my eyes adjusted I was able to look out the window and take photos. Very hilly with towns and cities built in the plains between mountains, vegetable fields everywhere there wasn't a building. Announcement were in Japanese, English and Chinese, so,I knew when to get off the train. Very important step 1. Check. Step 2 navigate Tokyo train station, get to the subway station, and find the right train. Luckily, a nice lady at the information desk in the train station instructed me and got me on the right subway train to my hotel. This was very much appreciated as there are several interconnected private subway lines that will take you anywhere you want to go in Tokyo. And Tokyo is big. Step 2 check. When i arrived at my station, i took the A1 exit as indicated on the hotel instruction sheet and the hotel would be a two minute walk away. Well as many of you know i do not speak Japanese nor am i able to interpret the address on my information sheet, it is English, but that didn't help. So I thought God willing I will make it to the hotel. God willed it. First after having it explained that what I thought was the street name was in fact the name of the whole municipality and no there was no street map, because no piece of paper wouldn't be big enough. So I figured I would walk 2minutes and that would be the outer edge of the circumferenceof an area that I would start to sweep. So north or south? I guessed north, or it could have been south depending on which street map you looked at, I walked a bit and decided to ask. With no English a nice security guard at an entirely different train station on a different private line was able to direct me with a series of hand gestures and a lots of pointing to my hotel. So i made it to my hotel and it seems that I am stepping up in the world. Very boutique hotel from the outside. I went to the check in desk, but it was to early. They stored my luggage and told me to come back at 3 pm. It was now 12:30. So what to do on the first day in Tokyo - eat sushi of course. I was right next to the worlds largest fish market. Simply put it was fabulous. For 18 dollars I had fish that had been swimming in the ocean 24 hours earlier.It was a lot of sushi with the best miso soup, I was full and I had to walk all that protein off. I meandered through an open market, filled with fish mongers, sellers of kitchen ware, fruit venders and noodle restaurants. Standing room only. I headed to a garden next to the fish market. It was originally a shogun's Tokyo residence from the Edo era, filled with cherry trees, pine trees, hugh crows and a tea house on an island in the middle of a lake.I checked into the hotel, showered and met up with Kazumi, friend of mine hooked me up with her knowing that I would be in Tokyo. We had dinner on the 50th floor of a skyscraper in the Shinkuju district. The meal was fabulous and view spectacular. We talked about life in Tokyo, she answered many of my questions and reminisced about Toronto. Unfortunately, the evening ended early as she had to go back to work (at 9:30pm) and I had to get up for the fish market the next morning. I really like Tokyo, there is an energy that I live in all big cities.Ciao

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Comments

[Michela]

Excellent updates
Hi DaniJapan, I was not receiving updates through FB so I thought I would just google your name and travel blog. I found you. I loved your writing about Japanese gardens and the politeness the people. It sounds like a great trip and I look forward to seeing more pictures when you get back. C u soon. Michela.