Tuesday, April 16
We enjoyed a lovely breakfast in the Towers restaurant here at the Ritz. Then we met our new A&K group for a welcome briefing at 8:00 AM. There were thirteen people in our group. In addition to us, there was a couple from Ecuador, Humberto and Max; a couple from Cincinnati, Julia and Harry; Shirley from near London, UK; Spencer from Boca Raton; Allen and Susan from Hawaii (Allen has Japanese ancestry); and a mother and two daughters from Spain and Mexico, but who are actually German, Susanne, Claudia and Silvia. Our guide, Mimi, whom we had met yesterday, introduced herself again. Her actual name is Mihoko, "Mi" means Olympic Games, "Ho" means flame, and "Ko" means child. She was given this name because she was born at the time of the original Tokyo Olympics (the city will host again in 2020). Her assistant here is Tokyo is Yoichi. "Yo" means son, and "Ichi" means first. He was his family’s first son. Mimi also handed out a sheet of paper with common Japanese phrases (we will be practicing them later), along with nice maps of Tokyo and Japan. After the briefing, we all looked out the window to admire the unusually clear view of Mt. Fuji.
We departed the hotel at 9:00 AM, and Mimi provided some good information as we drove to the main imperial gate for a photo op. She told us that Tokyo became the capital of Japan in 1868, the end of the Edo period (when Japan was ruled by shoguns) and the beginning of the Meiji restoration (return of power to the emperor). Emperor Meiji is the great grandfather of the current emperor and remains very popular to this day. The name of the city had been Edo, but was renamed Tokyo, which means eastern (To) capital (Kyo). Kyoto had been the imperial capital from 794 to 1867. Edo was the capital for the shoguns who were the top of the power system at that time, ruling over regional lords called daimyos, who were over the samurais. The last shogun ws Tokugawa. The site of the current imperial palace had been the site of his capital's Edo Castle.
As we were driving, we could see the moat that surrounds the imperial palace grounds and also the old stone wall inside the moat. Only the emperor and empress live in the imperial palace along with 1,100 workers, which include 300 members of the security forces and 100 gardeners. The crown prince lives in the Akasaka Imperial Residence compound (which also includes the guest house that we had visited yesterday). There are eight gates to the palace. The main gate is opened two times per year: on the emperor’s birthday (December 23) and January 2 to celebrate the new year. Anyone can enter on these dates, and the imperial family will come out to wave to the crowds. There are currently eighteen members of the imperial family. The current crown prince has no son, only one daughter, but his younger brother has produced a son who will presumably be next in line at some point. Women are not permitted to inherit the throne. Also, members of the imperial family are not supposed to marry commoners. However, the family is so small that there are no royals (cousins?) for anyone to marry. So everyone marries a commoner, including the current emperor (who married the first commoner, the current Empress Michiko) and the current crown prince. The crown prince’s sister married a commoner, but as a woman this meant she had to lose her imperial status. That rule should change per Mimi, but probably won’t. On April 30, the current emperor will resign, and on May 1 the crown prince will become emperor, which is very unusual. There should be a grand coronation ceremony on television.
We arrived at the main gate and admired the beautifully manicured pine trees (1,500 in total) — bonsai style, which means longevity.
There is a famous statue here of the samurai Kusunoki, who is a symbol of loyalty to the emperor. The main entrance is next to the business district called Otemachi. At the main gate there are two bridges visible: a stone bridge and a metal bridge. The current palace was built in 1888 but was destroyed in WWII. The current buildings were completed in 1968, but are not visible from outside the gates. There are two fish on top of the gate with their eyes open. This is a symbol of fire prevention.
We returned to the bus to proceed to the Tsukiji Fish Market, a major tourist destination. Along the way, Mimi told us about the custom of Japanese bowing. There are three degrees of bowing: 15, 30, and 45, from casual “hi” to formal (for a VIP). Mimi also told us about Japanese religion, of which there are two major religions in Japan: Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto is unique to Japan and involves the worship of nature with eight gods. "Shin" means God, and "To" means Way. People go to Shinto temples to celebrate happy events like weddings. Buddhist temples are more for sad events. 90% of Japanese believe in Shinto, and 80% of Japanese believe in Buddhism, which means that most people believe in both!
The fish market has two parts: the inner market for professionals only (like chefs) and the outer market for the public. The inner market has recently moved, so we did not see that. Adjacent to the fish market is a Shinto temple, which we visited first. Shinto temples are signified by the torii gate. There is no statuary at the temple, but there are sacred items like mirrors. Buddhist temples have statues of Buddha (which came from India originally via China and Korea). There are two types of Shinto temples: imperial and local. When one arrives at the temple, one is supposed to bow when you go through the gate (torii). The worship process is as follows: (1) donate coin, (2) ring bell (which means "Hey God I’m here"), (3) bow twice, (4) clap twice (5) make a prayer, then (6) bow again.
Then we all had some free time to view the market. There are new buildings that are very clean and neat for buying seafood (like bonito flakes), then there are the older sections, which are several blocks of narrow passages crowded with people selling all sorts of things. There are also restaurants. We walked through this quickly — too crowded, and we were not interested in buying or eating anything.
We returned to the bus to head to our next destination, a top attraction called the Senso-ji temple. "Ji" means temple. Along the way we passed through the Ginza business district and saw a grand kabuki theater. The temple is in the area called Asakusa, which is another name for this temple. One name is Chinese and the other is Japanese. The temple dates to 628, but the current main hall was built in 1958. It was founded to honor the goddess Kannon (source of the camera name Canon), because two fishermen found an image of her in their nets here at the Sumida River. Nearby is the new Tokyo Skytree television broadcasting tower and the unusual Asahi brewing headquarters building.
We entered the Buddhist temple. Worshiping here entails: (1) coin, (2) no clap, (3) hands together to make prayer, and (4) a final bow. Clapping is not needed because you can already see Buddha (a statue), so there is no need to call him. The two main symbols of Buddhism are Buddha and the pagoda, of which there is also an impressive pagoda on this site (which you cannot enter). The pagoda has five levels: the top is heaven and the others represent elements such as earth and fire. A Buddha was burned, and his ashes are on the top level. We also passed a large incense burner. Directing the smoke from the burning incense toward a body part (such as an aching back) is supposed to have a therapeutic effect.
After this was time for lunch, then we would have time to stroll this area on our own. Lunch was at a nearby restaurant called Gon Pachi. We were served several courses starting with some small potatoes with seasoned tofu, then a shrimp ball in a nest of some kind of fried noodles, then there were chicken and mushroom skewers, tempura shrimp, eggplant and squash, and then soba noodles in a delicious broth.
As we returned to the shrine we had the opportunity to ask Mimi a few questions. It turns out that the reason that we have seen so many people wearing surgical masks is because 40% of Japanese people have hay fever. On an unrelated subject, we learned that much of Tokyo had to be rebuilt after the earthquake of 1923. Then we walked through the long shopping area, which had many items for tourists to buy including chopsticks, fans, key rings, etc. We didn’t buy anything. We did return to the shrine areas to take a closer look at the various buildings and statues. We then re-entered the Buddhist shrine to pay 100 yen to learn what our luck would be (shake a silver container, get a stick, match the stick number to a drawer and get your printed fortune, as Mimi had demonstrated earlier). A nice lady in a kimono helped us translate the number. My result was “small fortune,” which advised me not to aim too high, because it wouldn’t happen. It came true very quickly, as I spotted a ten yen coin on the ground. Roy also purchased for 800 yen a good luck charm to turn away evil. The group reassembled at 3:00 PM, when Mimi offered us some type of pound cake cookie with a sweet bean paste filling.
From here we rebounded the bus to go to our next destination the Shitamachi museum in the Ueno Park (also home to Tokyo National Museum). This museum is meant to have exhibits showing what everyday life was like for Japanese people before modernization. Shitamachi is the traditional name that refers to the parts of Tokyo that were low-lying (near water), typically where the merchant and artisan classes of people lived. In the museum we saw items that represented the "old ways" of living. We saw recreations of old tenement-style homes. We saw a typical small Shinto shrine that a home might have. The traditional rooms are all floored with tatami mats. Even today, rooms are measured by how many tatami mats the room needed (6 or 8). The mats are still made only in standard sizes. In commercial exhibits, we saw the “lucky cat” who sits in from of a shop waving which is to invite people into the shop. We also saw the black curtain, which indicates that a store is open. These are still used today. This was a nice, small museum in a pretty lake area of the southern end of the park.
From here we rode the bus and saw many other sites: the Nihonbashi bridge, in the main business area of Tokyo, which has the national bank and stock exchange, then we crossed into Ginza ("gin" means silver), where we saw Tokyo’s equivalent of New York's Fifth Avenue — very impressive collection of designer stores. We also passed the Tokyo Tower, which is now too short to transmit television signals. It was built in 1958. The current transmitting tower, the Tokyo Skytree, was built in 2012. It is the tallest tower in the world and the second tallest structure after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. We observed carp wind socks hung to celebrate the upcoming Boys' Festival on May 5, a Japanese holiday. March 3 is the holiday for girls. Carp are a symbol for boys and can turn into dragons if they swim upstream. Then we entered the Roppongi area, which has many embassies. On the bus, Mimi taught us the phrase "mata ashitane," which means "see you tomorrow." "Mata ne" means "see you" or "see you later." Mimi also presented us with small white objects/dolls called "teruteru bouz," a “fine weather boy.” Children will make these to try to get good weather for an important day.
We had about one hour before our welcome dinner, so there was a little time to relax. Dinner tonight was at the Ritz Carlton fancy Japanese dinner, called Hinokizaka. We started with a glass of sparkling wine. We had a multi-course meal, but unfortunately, we did not save the menu to document exactly what we ate. The main highlight was cubed wagyu beef. We learned that wagyu really just translates to “Japanese beef.” Kobe (a town in Japan) beef is a type of wagyu, very high end. We did not have Kobe beef. Among the other dishes, we had sashimi (clam, yellowtail, and one other raw fish), as well as udon noodles. The meal was fabulous. We were seated at a table with Max and Humberto, Harry and Julia, and Shirley. After dinner we joined Shirley, Max, and Humberto for a few after-dinner drinks in the lobby bar (really nice). Our waiter was Bradley, a young French man who took a shine to Shirley we think.
We departed the hotel at 9:00 AM, and Mimi provided some good information as we drove to the main imperial gate for a photo op. She told us that Tokyo became the capital of Japan in 1868, the end of the Edo period (when Japan was ruled by shoguns) and the beginning of the Meiji restoration (return of power to the emperor). Emperor Meiji is the great grandfather of the current emperor and remains very popular to this day. The name of the city had been Edo, but was renamed Tokyo, which means eastern (To) capital (Kyo). Kyoto had been the imperial capital from 794 to 1867. Edo was the capital for the shoguns who were the top of the power system at that time, ruling over regional lords called daimyos, who were over the samurais. The last shogun ws Tokugawa. The site of the current imperial palace had been the site of his capital's Edo Castle.
As we were driving, we could see the moat that surrounds the imperial palace grounds and also the old stone wall inside the moat. Only the emperor and empress live in the imperial palace along with 1,100 workers, which include 300 members of the security forces and 100 gardeners. The crown prince lives in the Akasaka Imperial Residence compound (which also includes the guest house that we had visited yesterday). There are eight gates to the palace. The main gate is opened two times per year: on the emperor’s birthday (December 23) and January 2 to celebrate the new year. Anyone can enter on these dates, and the imperial family will come out to wave to the crowds. There are currently eighteen members of the imperial family. The current crown prince has no son, only one daughter, but his younger brother has produced a son who will presumably be next in line at some point. Women are not permitted to inherit the throne. Also, members of the imperial family are not supposed to marry commoners. However, the family is so small that there are no royals (cousins?) for anyone to marry. So everyone marries a commoner, including the current emperor (who married the first commoner, the current Empress Michiko) and the current crown prince. The crown prince’s sister married a commoner, but as a woman this meant she had to lose her imperial status. That rule should change per Mimi, but probably won’t. On April 30, the current emperor will resign, and on May 1 the crown prince will become emperor, which is very unusual. There should be a grand coronation ceremony on television.
We arrived at the main gate and admired the beautifully manicured pine trees (1,500 in total) — bonsai style, which means longevity.
There is a famous statue here of the samurai Kusunoki, who is a symbol of loyalty to the emperor. The main entrance is next to the business district called Otemachi. At the main gate there are two bridges visible: a stone bridge and a metal bridge. The current palace was built in 1888 but was destroyed in WWII. The current buildings were completed in 1968, but are not visible from outside the gates. There are two fish on top of the gate with their eyes open. This is a symbol of fire prevention.
We returned to the bus to proceed to the Tsukiji Fish Market, a major tourist destination. Along the way, Mimi told us about the custom of Japanese bowing. There are three degrees of bowing: 15, 30, and 45, from casual “hi” to formal (for a VIP). Mimi also told us about Japanese religion, of which there are two major religions in Japan: Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto is unique to Japan and involves the worship of nature with eight gods. "Shin" means God, and "To" means Way. People go to Shinto temples to celebrate happy events like weddings. Buddhist temples are more for sad events. 90% of Japanese believe in Shinto, and 80% of Japanese believe in Buddhism, which means that most people believe in both!
The fish market has two parts: the inner market for professionals only (like chefs) and the outer market for the public. The inner market has recently moved, so we did not see that. Adjacent to the fish market is a Shinto temple, which we visited first. Shinto temples are signified by the torii gate. There is no statuary at the temple, but there are sacred items like mirrors. Buddhist temples have statues of Buddha (which came from India originally via China and Korea). There are two types of Shinto temples: imperial and local. When one arrives at the temple, one is supposed to bow when you go through the gate (torii). The worship process is as follows: (1) donate coin, (2) ring bell (which means "Hey God I’m here"), (3) bow twice, (4) clap twice (5) make a prayer, then (6) bow again.
Then we all had some free time to view the market. There are new buildings that are very clean and neat for buying seafood (like bonito flakes), then there are the older sections, which are several blocks of narrow passages crowded with people selling all sorts of things. There are also restaurants. We walked through this quickly — too crowded, and we were not interested in buying or eating anything.
We returned to the bus to head to our next destination, a top attraction called the Senso-ji temple. "Ji" means temple. Along the way we passed through the Ginza business district and saw a grand kabuki theater. The temple is in the area called Asakusa, which is another name for this temple. One name is Chinese and the other is Japanese. The temple dates to 628, but the current main hall was built in 1958. It was founded to honor the goddess Kannon (source of the camera name Canon), because two fishermen found an image of her in their nets here at the Sumida River. Nearby is the new Tokyo Skytree television broadcasting tower and the unusual Asahi brewing headquarters building.
We entered the Buddhist temple. Worshiping here entails: (1) coin, (2) no clap, (3) hands together to make prayer, and (4) a final bow. Clapping is not needed because you can already see Buddha (a statue), so there is no need to call him. The two main symbols of Buddhism are Buddha and the pagoda, of which there is also an impressive pagoda on this site (which you cannot enter). The pagoda has five levels: the top is heaven and the others represent elements such as earth and fire. A Buddha was burned, and his ashes are on the top level. We also passed a large incense burner. Directing the smoke from the burning incense toward a body part (such as an aching back) is supposed to have a therapeutic effect.
After this was time for lunch, then we would have time to stroll this area on our own. Lunch was at a nearby restaurant called Gon Pachi. We were served several courses starting with some small potatoes with seasoned tofu, then a shrimp ball in a nest of some kind of fried noodles, then there were chicken and mushroom skewers, tempura shrimp, eggplant and squash, and then soba noodles in a delicious broth.
As we returned to the shrine we had the opportunity to ask Mimi a few questions. It turns out that the reason that we have seen so many people wearing surgical masks is because 40% of Japanese people have hay fever. On an unrelated subject, we learned that much of Tokyo had to be rebuilt after the earthquake of 1923. Then we walked through the long shopping area, which had many items for tourists to buy including chopsticks, fans, key rings, etc. We didn’t buy anything. We did return to the shrine areas to take a closer look at the various buildings and statues. We then re-entered the Buddhist shrine to pay 100 yen to learn what our luck would be (shake a silver container, get a stick, match the stick number to a drawer and get your printed fortune, as Mimi had demonstrated earlier). A nice lady in a kimono helped us translate the number. My result was “small fortune,” which advised me not to aim too high, because it wouldn’t happen. It came true very quickly, as I spotted a ten yen coin on the ground. Roy also purchased for 800 yen a good luck charm to turn away evil. The group reassembled at 3:00 PM, when Mimi offered us some type of pound cake cookie with a sweet bean paste filling.
From here we rebounded the bus to go to our next destination the Shitamachi museum in the Ueno Park (also home to Tokyo National Museum). This museum is meant to have exhibits showing what everyday life was like for Japanese people before modernization. Shitamachi is the traditional name that refers to the parts of Tokyo that were low-lying (near water), typically where the merchant and artisan classes of people lived. In the museum we saw items that represented the "old ways" of living. We saw recreations of old tenement-style homes. We saw a typical small Shinto shrine that a home might have. The traditional rooms are all floored with tatami mats. Even today, rooms are measured by how many tatami mats the room needed (6 or 8). The mats are still made only in standard sizes. In commercial exhibits, we saw the “lucky cat” who sits in from of a shop waving which is to invite people into the shop. We also saw the black curtain, which indicates that a store is open. These are still used today. This was a nice, small museum in a pretty lake area of the southern end of the park.
From here we rode the bus and saw many other sites: the Nihonbashi bridge, in the main business area of Tokyo, which has the national bank and stock exchange, then we crossed into Ginza ("gin" means silver), where we saw Tokyo’s equivalent of New York's Fifth Avenue — very impressive collection of designer stores. We also passed the Tokyo Tower, which is now too short to transmit television signals. It was built in 1958. The current transmitting tower, the Tokyo Skytree, was built in 2012. It is the tallest tower in the world and the second tallest structure after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. We observed carp wind socks hung to celebrate the upcoming Boys' Festival on May 5, a Japanese holiday. March 3 is the holiday for girls. Carp are a symbol for boys and can turn into dragons if they swim upstream. Then we entered the Roppongi area, which has many embassies. On the bus, Mimi taught us the phrase "mata ashitane," which means "see you tomorrow." "Mata ne" means "see you" or "see you later." Mimi also presented us with small white objects/dolls called "teruteru bouz," a “fine weather boy.” Children will make these to try to get good weather for an important day.
We had about one hour before our welcome dinner, so there was a little time to relax. Dinner tonight was at the Ritz Carlton fancy Japanese dinner, called Hinokizaka. We started with a glass of sparkling wine. We had a multi-course meal, but unfortunately, we did not save the menu to document exactly what we ate. The main highlight was cubed wagyu beef. We learned that wagyu really just translates to “Japanese beef.” Kobe (a town in Japan) beef is a type of wagyu, very high end. We did not have Kobe beef. Among the other dishes, we had sashimi (clam, yellowtail, and one other raw fish), as well as udon noodles. The meal was fabulous. We were seated at a table with Max and Humberto, Harry and Julia, and Shirley. After dinner we joined Shirley, Max, and Humberto for a few after-dinner drinks in the lobby bar (really nice). Our waiter was Bradley, a young French man who took a shine to Shirley we think.
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