Wednesday, April 17
Another great breakfast buffet in the Towers restaurant started our day. Our group was scheduled to start later today, and we were not expected on the ground floor until 9:50 AM. Our first destination was the Samurai Museum in the Shinjuku area. Our bus brought us past the Godzilla (Gojira in Japanese) on the roof, which we had seen before, but the others had not. Then we walked through the somewhat seedy, but entertaining Shinjuku area (more lively at night we suppose) to the museum. We saw the Robot Restaurant on the way. We also learned that the Shinjuku Station is the busiest train station in the world with three million people per day passing through.
The Samurai Museum is very small but had some impressive items in its collection. Our tour began with a demonstration of Samurai sword fighting by two local actors. Actual Samurai fighting no longer occurs, however. Then we had a photo op with the actors. You could also try on traditional clothing for photos. Roy tried on a Samurai helmet (it hurt!). After the demonstration, a young lady guided us through the collection with a lot of great information on Japanese history. There were swords and armor from the Edo period (roughly three hundred years ago) that were interesting to see.
From here we went to the Shibuya business area where we had lunch and saw the Shibuya crossing, also called the “scramble.” Lunch was at a sushi restaurant called Kinka. We each started with Caesar salad (not typical but good), two types of sashimi (raw fish by itself), and then each person was served a beautiful array of ten pieces of sushi: four pieces of nagiri (fish by itself over rice) plus six pieces more like from a roll. We weren’t sure what each piece was (although we surely could have asked), but some were cooked (beef) and some were raw. There was one piece that was very fishy that most did not especially like. It was probably cooked eel — a first time for us to eat eel! We then walked to the Shibuya Scramble, where several streets come together, and the crosswalk is activated for all pedestrians to cross at the same time. As a group we crossed the intersection, and it was not easy! Everyone is walking in a different direction, so you have to be careful not to run into anyone. Mimi then took us up to a viewing platform/bridge where we could photograph (and video) the crossing from a good viewpoint. It was fun!
Down below we admired the statue of Hachiko, the Akita dog who was very loyal to his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. Hachiko would meet Ueno at Shibuya Station every day after his commute home. This continued until May 21, 1925, when Ueno died of a cerebral hemorrhage while at work. From then until his death on March 8, 1935, Hachiko would return to Shibuya Station every day to await Ueno's return. The dog is esteemed in Japanese culture as an example of loyalty and fidelity.
We walked a bit to a spot where the bus could pick us up and then proceeded to our next destination, the Harajuku and Omotesando shopping areas. (We recalled that the singer Gwen Stefani's backup singers were once called the "Harajuku Girls.") We passed the Toyko Olympic Park from 1964, under renovation to be used again in 2020. The edifice known as the “Empire State building” (NTT Docomo) in Tokyo was also pointed out to us. The bus took us past Takeshita Street, the “teenager street” — very crowded shopping area.
At this point everyone had free time to roam the shopping area at leisure. Then each person of the group could return to a meeting point and ride the bus back to the hotel or elect to find one's own way back to the hotel (with assistance/directions from Mimi as needed or requested). We chose to walk along Omotesando Street, the “Champs Elysee” of Tokyo for a bit and then followed the subway directions that Mimi had provided in order to visit the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. The shopping is of course very nice. We saw an Apple Computer store (the third one we had seen in Tokyo), and this was the largest, most impressive one. The avenue is wide and has nice trees. This areas is not too far from the Meiji Shrine park area (just to the west).
Mimi’s subway directions were very helpful, as we knew which exit to take that would put us at the entrance to the gardens. We walked right in — no entrance fee, just a bag check. The weather today was mostly overcast and cool. In the gardens we saw large stone defensive walls, a natural park area with dogwoods, a manicured area with azaleas, a lovely pond area with beautiful irises, and many manicured trees. We walked up to a higher level where there was a large open space that was the site of the long gone Edo Castle. Up there we also saw an orchard, tea plants, bamboo garden, and a defensive tower, among other things, very pleasant. The defensive tower has never been used, however, as Edo Castle was never attacked.
We departed the gardens and decided to walk back the hotel as it was only 4:00 PM. This would be a long walk, but it took us past the Diet, an impressive building, which houses Japan's legislature.
We took side streets and walkways through the neighborhood north of our hotel ending up in the park just north of the Midtown tower. The park there had many children playing. Since many embassies are in this area, we heard English being spoken.
Back at the hotel, we had a little time to relax, then we went to the lobby bar for a drink before dinner, where we met Max and Humberto, so we joined them. For dinner, the four of us went to the Italian restaurant in the mall where we had eaten before. Even though our reservation was for two people, the owner accommodated our party of four (very crabby owner, though). Dinner was very good. After dinner Max and Humberto went to pack, and we had another glass of wine in the lobby bar.
The Samurai Museum is very small but had some impressive items in its collection. Our tour began with a demonstration of Samurai sword fighting by two local actors. Actual Samurai fighting no longer occurs, however. Then we had a photo op with the actors. You could also try on traditional clothing for photos. Roy tried on a Samurai helmet (it hurt!). After the demonstration, a young lady guided us through the collection with a lot of great information on Japanese history. There were swords and armor from the Edo period (roughly three hundred years ago) that were interesting to see.
From here we went to the Shibuya business area where we had lunch and saw the Shibuya crossing, also called the “scramble.” Lunch was at a sushi restaurant called Kinka. We each started with Caesar salad (not typical but good), two types of sashimi (raw fish by itself), and then each person was served a beautiful array of ten pieces of sushi: four pieces of nagiri (fish by itself over rice) plus six pieces more like from a roll. We weren’t sure what each piece was (although we surely could have asked), but some were cooked (beef) and some were raw. There was one piece that was very fishy that most did not especially like. It was probably cooked eel — a first time for us to eat eel! We then walked to the Shibuya Scramble, where several streets come together, and the crosswalk is activated for all pedestrians to cross at the same time. As a group we crossed the intersection, and it was not easy! Everyone is walking in a different direction, so you have to be careful not to run into anyone. Mimi then took us up to a viewing platform/bridge where we could photograph (and video) the crossing from a good viewpoint. It was fun!
Down below we admired the statue of Hachiko, the Akita dog who was very loyal to his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. Hachiko would meet Ueno at Shibuya Station every day after his commute home. This continued until May 21, 1925, when Ueno died of a cerebral hemorrhage while at work. From then until his death on March 8, 1935, Hachiko would return to Shibuya Station every day to await Ueno's return. The dog is esteemed in Japanese culture as an example of loyalty and fidelity.
We walked a bit to a spot where the bus could pick us up and then proceeded to our next destination, the Harajuku and Omotesando shopping areas. (We recalled that the singer Gwen Stefani's backup singers were once called the "Harajuku Girls.") We passed the Toyko Olympic Park from 1964, under renovation to be used again in 2020. The edifice known as the “Empire State building” (NTT Docomo) in Tokyo was also pointed out to us. The bus took us past Takeshita Street, the “teenager street” — very crowded shopping area.
At this point everyone had free time to roam the shopping area at leisure. Then each person of the group could return to a meeting point and ride the bus back to the hotel or elect to find one's own way back to the hotel (with assistance/directions from Mimi as needed or requested). We chose to walk along Omotesando Street, the “Champs Elysee” of Tokyo for a bit and then followed the subway directions that Mimi had provided in order to visit the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. The shopping is of course very nice. We saw an Apple Computer store (the third one we had seen in Tokyo), and this was the largest, most impressive one. The avenue is wide and has nice trees. This areas is not too far from the Meiji Shrine park area (just to the west).
Mimi’s subway directions were very helpful, as we knew which exit to take that would put us at the entrance to the gardens. We walked right in — no entrance fee, just a bag check. The weather today was mostly overcast and cool. In the gardens we saw large stone defensive walls, a natural park area with dogwoods, a manicured area with azaleas, a lovely pond area with beautiful irises, and many manicured trees. We walked up to a higher level where there was a large open space that was the site of the long gone Edo Castle. Up there we also saw an orchard, tea plants, bamboo garden, and a defensive tower, among other things, very pleasant. The defensive tower has never been used, however, as Edo Castle was never attacked.
We departed the gardens and decided to walk back the hotel as it was only 4:00 PM. This would be a long walk, but it took us past the Diet, an impressive building, which houses Japan's legislature.
We took side streets and walkways through the neighborhood north of our hotel ending up in the park just north of the Midtown tower. The park there had many children playing. Since many embassies are in this area, we heard English being spoken.
Back at the hotel, we had a little time to relax, then we went to the lobby bar for a drink before dinner, where we met Max and Humberto, so we joined them. For dinner, the four of us went to the Italian restaurant in the mall where we had eaten before. Even though our reservation was for two people, the owner accommodated our party of four (very crabby owner, though). Dinner was very good. After dinner Max and Humberto went to pack, and we had another glass of wine in the lobby bar.
Comments
Post a Comment