Tokyo Round 2

Last week I went to Tokyo for the second time. This was a much briefer trip with a lot less done. The main reason for the trip was a job interview on the 15th, which I have previously discussed, so I'll talk about the rest of what I did in Tokyo here.

I caught the night bus on Saturday night, and arrived in Tokyo at about 6:30 am on Sunday. My first order of business was to get some breakfast, which ended up being MacDonalds (I like their breakfast menu). I stayed in MacDonalds reading until about 8, at which time I went across the corridor to Starbucks, which had comfier chairs. I ended up staying in Starbucks until 1, in which time I read, watched some Futurama, updated my Japanese dictionary, and practiced writing Japanese sentences.

After I left Starbucks I went to Tokyo Tower (東京タワー) via Zojoji temple. It's a nice place with some gardens around it. I actually went into the main temple and sat for a little while, because some sort of ceremony was going on and there were some monks chanting, so I watched and listened. Then onto Tokyo Tower itself. I only went up to the main viewing platform, about 150m or so up. The view was not bad, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building has a much better view. Also nice was the trick art gallery, a collection of works by a guy in which all the pictures are optical illusion types of things. They were pretty interesting.

After that I met up with Tyrone, who quite kindly allowed me to stay at his place for the night, thus saving me the expense of a hostel. I got to sleep on a real bed for the first time since I went to Okinawa, and had a very good night sleep. He also knows a shop that sells TimTams, so when I ate my first TimTam for I don't know how many months, I was in heaven.

Monday was the day of the interview. The interview was at 10 in Ginza, and I got there with plenty of time. The interview lasted about 25 minutes, so at half past I was free for the day. Nearby was a kabuki theater, at which a show was starting at 11. After finding out prices and deciding it was cheap enough (700 yen) I got a ticket for the first act. My seat was in the very back row, but what do you expect for 700 yen. I couldn't really pay attention because I couldn't understand what they were saying and may have nodded off during the show. After the show finished I wandered around Ginza looking for the Godzilla statue that apparently exists. Unfortunately I didn't find it. I spent an hour or so in another Starbucks, and then headed back to Tyrone's place to collect my stuff.

Then began the long wait for the bus back, which left at 10pm. This was filled with some time in an internet cafe, a bookshop (I picked up starship troopers, and managed to read most of it on the bus), dinner at MacDonalds (noticing a trend here), then about 20 minutes waiting at the bus stop. Then on the bus and heading home.

A quick tiring trip that didn't get me a new job, but the rest of what happens made it a worthwhile trip.

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Tokyo Day 4

The final day in Tokyo. The plan for today was to visit Harajuku, Meiji Jingu, Tokyo Tower and Ginza. This plan did not quite get fulfilled. I first headed over to Meiji Jingu, a shrine dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and the Empress Shoken. The shrine is in another of Tokyo's huge parks. The walk from the entrance to the shrine is nice, with old fashioned fences, creeks, forest, wine barrels, torii, the barrel things they have at shrines and more. The shrine itself was nice. I also went to the museum there where there was a display of ceremonial clothing that belonged to the emperor and empress.

After this I walked around Harajuku, a shopping district for a bit. I had lunch at a Coco Ichiban (a curry house) and then decided I'd had enough of walking around and all that so decided to head home. I went back to the JR Tokyo station, got my bag from the locker and caught a shinkansen back to Osaka.

Thus ends my Tokyo trip.

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Tokyo Day 3

Another day of walking around. Today, Shinjuku. The city part of Shinjuku wasn't that amazing or different to anywhere else, but there was a very nice park there, Shinjuku Gyoen. In the park was a tree wrapped in a blanket, and a traditional tea house with the traditional ticket vending machine.

After the park I headed over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, and up to the observation deck on level 45. The view from the top is pretty impressive. I think I may have just seen Mt Fuji. At the least, I saw to angled lines that kind of came together at a point which was in the direction of Mt Fuji, which is good enough for me.

After that I went back to the hostel for a bit of rest, and that evening went into Shibuya to catch up with Tyrone. We wandered around for a bit just catching up.

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Tokyo Day 2

Slept in a bit. Got breakfast from a nearby Lawsons (cheese karage, a banana and an orange juice) which I ate while planning the day. Thanks to a map on the table at the hostel, I learnt that Asakusa shrine was quite close, and so decided that would be my first destination.

After I ate breakfast and read my emails, I walked down to Asakusa shrine. On the way, I passed a weird toy shop and a restaurant that advertised Okinawan cuisine. After about 15 minutes I reached the front of Asakusa shrine. Between the entrance and the shrine proper is a street of shops, a bit like that at Kiyomizu, but not as long. I looked at some of the shops there, mainly those selling yukatas, but they only had yukatas with patterns on them, and I'd prefer a plain one. I also saw this shirt at one of the shops. The shrine itself was pretty good, with a large main shrine and then a number of smaller shrines surrounding it.

After Asakusa, I headed over to Ueno to visit Ueno Park (うえのこえん). This park is full of statues, shrines, fountains, homeless guys, galleries, more fountains, giant heads (although not the Face of Bo), a zoo I didn't go to, cats, and more.

I then headed over to Akihabara, the Den Den town of Tokyo. Lots of computer and electronics stores, as well as comic book type shops. I saw one shop with a famicon (the Japanese version of a NES) and some old school LCD Nintendo games. The problem with the comic shops was that there was no clear separation between the ordinary comics and games which I'm interested in and the hentai which I'm not. In fact, a lot of the time they were mixed together. I didn't take many pictures here, as it's much the same as computer and comics shops all over the place.

I headed back to the hostel after that, and went to dinner at the Okinawan restaurant, which was dissapointing as the food was small (on a large plate) and expensive. It was good, but for that much money, you should get more. I went to Bar JD's Style for a few drinks, then called it a night.

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Tokyo Day 1

I arrived in at JR Tokyo at about 7 o'clock. My first act after getting my stuff was to go and buy a shinkansen ticket for the return trip. Then, I dumped my big backpack in a locker near a curry house, and got breakfast at a cafe. When I actually walked out of the station, the first thing I saw was a giant NOVA flower, and then a giant Usagi at the top of the building. I wandered around the station for a while (an area called Nihonbashi). I found a currency museum that was part of the Japanese mint which I thought I would go to, but it turns out that it was closed on Mondays. So a bit more wandering, then I decided to head to the Imperial Palace and visit the gardens there, where I intended to sit around for a while and not do much, to try and gain a bit of energy. Well, guess what else was closed on Mondays? So instead I sat down on a small garden on the street outside the palace. I read for about ten minutes, then laid back and used the book as a cushion. I lay with my eyes closed for maybe half an hour when this guy in a suit came over and told me the emperor would be driving by soon. So I sat up and got my camera ready, and waited for about 20 minutes until the motorcade went past. It was about 4 cars and I didn't see the emperor, but I did see an old lady wave from one of the cars, so I assume this was the empress.

After that bit of excitement, I walked around the imperial palace, at one time being overtaken by an old man (I blame the lack of sleep). After making the round of the palace I walked to Yasukuni Shrine. The shrine was interesting with a few statues and other bits and pieces, but the good bit was the museum. It started out with a documentary in Japanese, which I went into with the intention of trying to pick up as much as possible, but after about 10 minutes nodded off. I hope I didn't snore. Anyway, the rest of the museum had information in English and Japanese (although more in Japanese. Can't really blame them for that though.) and was quite interesting. It made me somewhat more interested in the history of Japan from about 1900-1940 (My knowledge sort of goes "samurai, samurai, something, something, Pearl Harbour").

After that it was late enough in the day for me to check into my guest house, so I headed out to Asakusa. I got my room key, and checked out the room. It had it's own toilet and sink, and four bunk beds. For Tokyo, pretty good value at 2800 yen per night. I had a bit of a nap, and then headed out for dinner. I had a curry at a surf themed restaurant, that was nice, if a bit pricey (that seems a common theme in Tokyo, nice but a little pricey). Then I tried out a bar called Bar JD's Style. It was nice and the barkeeper was friendly. The decor was mainly Jack Daniels paraphenalia. After a few drinks there, I went back to the hostel to get some sleep.

Pictures are here.

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Tokyo Day 0

Currently en route to Tokyo. I'm waiting at a service station, a sort of get out and stretch your legs place, with a huge dose of commerce. The place is next to the highway, and there is a footbridge going across which I can not see the other end of.
Have not got much rest so far. The aircon, while not hot, is not cool enough. I bought an inflatable pillow which should help, and some coke. which won't