Tokyo Day 4: "The Futuristic District" and ....fire fighter drills?

Hello Friends Near and Far (well, mostly far),

Here's the rundown of our final day in Tokyo - I know at least one person has been clamoring for it, and the rest of you probably only look at this every once in awhile ;)

We woke up early to check out of our hotel, but they conveniently allowed us to leave our bags there as we weren't actually leaving the city till the late afternoon. In planning for our trip, I had read that there would be an annual New Year's event called "Shobo Dezome-shiki"or, "The New Year's Fire Review". This is something put on by the Tokyo Fire Department, and would feature acrobatic stunts on ladders - what's not to love? The event was taking place in Odaiba, a district of futuristic-looking architecture built on man-made islands in Tokyo Bay. The area has tons of other attractions, so we really wanted to see it.

Well, getting to Odaiba involved taking the monorail out and over the Bay, which made for great sights. The train takes a big loop around Odaiba, and with an all-day pass we could get on and off whenever we wanted. First stop - Tokyo Big Sight, a large convention/exhibition hall, for the event.

Here are two pics we took right after getting off the monorail:
I don't know about you but when I imagine how the future will look, gigantic saws are the first thing that come to me ;)

Anyway, there were lots of people heading to the same place, so we figured it was a really popular event. Firemen were stationed at various points of hallways and courtyards, passing out fire safety and emergency procedures pamphlets. Finally, we walk into a big exhibition room (expecting to see a hushed crowd waiting for the performance to start) - and see fire trucks, safety info booths, kids trying on fire fighting suits, and guys wearing big cartoony Fire Extinguisher costumes. Yeah....

Well, we eventually realized that there was going to be a show outside, and hurried to find seats (not real seats, just kneeling in front of the already full risers). Amazingly enough we found a English program, and saw that the acrobats didn't come on for an hour. So, we waited and tried to look interested as group after group went by - paramedics, firefighters, volunteers, junior leagues, etc. The crowd absolutely loved it, but we were kind of hiding our yawns. Finally, the acrobats appeared, and although the show was pretty short, it was definitely impressive.
After the acrobats finished we made a hasty exit, hopping back on the monorail and getting off at a more attraction-heavy area. We found ourselves at something called Mega Web, basically a big Toyota showroom housing the latest technologies. Chris got to do a virtual test drive (of some kind of future car system that brakes for you) while sitting in this drive simulator:
We also got a shot of this very, very large ferris wheel (unfortunately not in our budget):
We finished the outing by wandering around some interesting shopping areas and checking out views across the Bay.
This is a nice shot of the Rainbow Bridge.

From Odaiba we headed back to the hotel to pick up our things, and made our way to Tokyo Station to wait for our bus to Asou. We had a lovely time in Tokyo - I can't tell you how nice it was to get into a city again. Our town has its own charms, and it's definitely nice to see the stars in the nighttime sky, but city living means there is always something new to do or see. Seattle, we're talking about you, too.

Thanks for reading!

-Tessa

Tokyo Trip Part 3: Maid Cafes? Oh my!

Sorry about the lapse in updates about the Tokyo trip. Here comes part three! We didn't have much planned for this day, other than an evening performance of Kabuki. This gave us a chance to sleep-in (yay beds!) and explore around Akihabara. It's an interesting area, one of the busiest in Tokyo and known as a large shopping area for electronics, anime/manga (Japanese comics), and video/computer games.




It is also a fantastic place to people-watch, as all manner of people traverse its busy streets daily. There are also the Maid Cafes where you can go have a bite to eat while being doted on by a young Japanese girl wearing a maid outfit. These places generally cater to Japanese men who are obsessed with manga, video games, and especially the young girl caricatures which often feature prominently in both. We didn't go into one, but we saw plenty of "maids" walking up and down the streets handing out fliers for their establishment. Think of these places like a Japanese version of a "Hooters" restaurant for nerds. Pictures of some "maids" looking for potential customers, and one of their fliers:




If you're REALLY curious, you can check out the website for one of them: http://candyfruit-strawberry.com/ I think it's mostly work safe, but I can't read any of the Japanese on the page, so visit at your own discretion. Anyways, we didn't go into any of those places, instead settling on a nice normal Western-style (as in European/American, not "Old West") cafe. As we walked around and browsed the shops, we saw a few interesting things:


Yes, that is a mouse pad of an anime girl that has her breasts as the protruding soft jelly-like area where your wrist rests. Classy. They also had pornographic computer games that you'll have to leave to your imagination because we did not take pictures of them.

That last one really creeps me out. After more walking around, I heard a familiar tune cutting through the Tokyo noise. Me: "Is that...Yes...Yes! It's the original Super Mario Bros. theme music!" Like a siren's call, I was drawn to a building by which time the music had changed to the classic Legend of Zelda theme. We entered and followed the signs up to the fifth floor, where there was an arcade of old school video games. It was like a mecca video gamers who grew up in the 80s. Atari, Nintendo, Neo Geo, you name it, if it was old and Japanese, they had it. Tessa played some Tetris while I played some original Super Mario and then Mega Man. Ah, good times:


A throne fit for a king!


Or should I say, Queen?

I even met a celebrity!

It was reeeeally smoky in there, and reminded me what it was like to go to a club or bar before Washington state's smoking ban. Yuck.

We then headed to the Ginza area to get in line to buy tickets for Kabuki at the Kabuki-za theater. While waiting in line, we met some nice Austria who (impressively) spoke perfect English. We chatted with them for a while about life in Japan (she lives in Tokyo with her husband who was there doing research as a physicist) and other general things. The show itself was pretty awesome, though we were way back as far as you could go. We only paid to see one act (about an hour) but it was amazing and well worth it.


A countdown for how many days the historic Kabuki-za theater has left until it is torn down to build a new theater. We were pretty lucky to see it.


That evening, after the show, we went to a bar advertised in the back of our program. It had all drinks and food for 300 yen, not a bad deal, except that each order of food had incredibly small portions. It was still quite fun as it was the first time we had been in a real bar since we've been in Seattle. We got back in a bit late and tired from the long day, but satisfied. Stay tuned for Day Four: The Future is Here, Today! Coming soon, I promise!

Day 2 in Tokyo

Hi All,

Tessa here, Chris' often-absent blogging partner (he intimated that he wouldn't cook us dinner until I posted our Day 2 entry).

So where were we - ah yes, waking up in Tokyo feeling so refreshed (seriously loved sleeping on that mattress, we contemplated stealing it from the hotel, but it's hard to stuff things like that in a shoulder bag).

Ready to take on the city, we hopped on the subway - alas, it was already too late in the morning for me to try out the Ladies Only car, to my utter disappointment ;) - and headed to the world-class Edo-Tokyo Museum. This museum specifically highlights the birth of Edo (what became Tokyo) in the late 16th century through to the present day. It takes you through different ruling shogunates, the arrival of Western traders and goods, devastating fires and earthquakes, and the changing culture. We ended up going through some of the exhibits backwards, but it still made quite an impression. It was especially fascinating (and at times heartbreaking) looking at how the city fared during WWII. A little awkward to be reading the English description of the days surrounding the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, while standing next to an older Japanese couple. How different our perspectives must have been, although hopefully no true animosity remained on their side.

The museum had tons of models, both miniature and life-size.
These two are from the life-size model of a Kabuki theatre:
Here's Chris squeezing into a wooden carrying box, we never found out the name (or found anyone who wanted to lug Chris around).
We also happened to be lucky enough to catch a short museum presentation of Japanese Noh Theatre, an artistic tradition going back to the 14th century. This form of theatre often tells stories through song and dance, and the performers are always masked. Chris and I studied a little bit of Noh in college, as well as some Kabuki, so this was pretty cool. Here are the two performers:

After lunch we changed venues, making our way to the Asakusa district (pronounced A-sak-sa). This area is famous for its Buddhist temple, Senso-ji . Here's the gate to the temple:

However, we didn't get much time in the temple itself because of the crowds; we did squeeze in to toss some coins and say a prayer (being careful not to hit the guards who were standing with big screen box things over their heads to not get pinged in the face!). The real reason for the crowds, we learned, were the countless souvenir stalls. You could barely get around aisles to check anything out, but we did make a few purchases which some of you family members will see when we come home. We also ate freshly okaki, or fried rice crackers, and had a dinner of yakitori (like meat kebabs) and some kind of pancake/noodle dish that we see at festivals but don't know the name of.

We didn't actually get up the nerve to buy any of these octopus (you could choose the one you wanted and hand it to the cook to grill it)
We then went home to rest our feet a bit before hitting the last hotspot (excuse my pun) the Ice Bar! Yep, it sounds just like what you might picture. This is one of those places you will only ever find in a city like Tokyo. You walk into a tiny entryway, pay a fairly steep cover charge (which Chris assured me was worth it to experience a true Tokyo novelty attraction) and then the attendants hand you ridiculous-looking hooded cloak/ponchos with attached gloves. Then you open the door, and whoosh it's cold! You walk into a room literally made of ice - ice bar counter, ice walls, ice tables, ice benches, etc. We even got little glasses made of ice for all of our drinks!

We were there around 7pm, so it wasn't quite hopping yet - but still fun and bizarre. We kept saying to each other, "Are we really here? This is crazy." Anyway, we had a couple of drinks, took pictures, and then after 45 minutes or so, it actually got a little boring. Maybe if it had been busier, with energetic music and a lively atmosphere we would have stayed longer, but in a small room like that with hardly any people, the novelty wears off. However, we enjoyed ourselves and didn't regret it a bit, and we'll always remember doing something so strange.

The day was long and a bit overwhelming (Tokyo is just so huge) but we ended it in a style usually reserved for rich and very eccentric people ;)

Thanks for sticking with me through my ramblings - stay tuned for Day 3: Maid Cafes, old Nintendo collections, and Kabuki theatre!

Tokyo Trip, Part One: A Hotel Bed

We took a four day, three night trip to Tokyo from 01-03 to 01-06. Tessa and I had been to Tokyo a few times already, it's about a 2.5 hour bus ride from where we live, so it's definitely doable as a day trip, but since Tokyo is so huge, we still hadn't seen much of the city. We originally planned on going somewhere else in Japan for our big winter vacation, but high travel costs nixed them. Anyways, we had a great time and will be telling you all about it in 4 parts. This is part one.

We woke up early Sunday morning and caught a bus at 7:40 am, conveniently a two minute walk away from our apartment. To kill time we listened to iPods and did crossword puzzles and the like. About 2.5 hours later we arrived at Tokyo station. Since we couldn't check into our hotel until 2:00 pm, we immediately hopped on the subway and headed to Harajuku to see if we could see some of the famous crazily dressed cosplay partakers. We unfortunately didn't see many, but did get a picture of these two:


The good news though, was that the Meiji Shinto Shrine was also nearby, so we decided to check it out. The place was PACKED, far more people than usual there. We later found out that the number of people was due to a combination of the New Year's holiday, the upcoming Coming of Age Day holiday, and some kind of anniversary of the Shrine. We got to walk amongst the throngs of people, but were not able to go inside the shrine. Still, it was very interesting and beautiful, and we were able to buy a few souvenirs take some pictures:






After we walked around there for a while we decided to go to our hotel and just drop off our bags at the counter so we wouldn't be burdened by them while we explored our next stop. Quick side note, we took the subway everywhere we went. Tokyo is so huge, and their subway system is pretty great, though a bit confusing sometimes. The Tokyo subways are famous for the amount of people that ride it every day, especially during peak times when people are going to or coming from work. It can get so packed that it is not uncommon for women to get groped by a horny Japanese man while they are all packed in there, and the woman can't run or often see who is doing it. To combat this, some subway cars are marked for "women only" in the morning:




Luckily, we never experienced anything like that, had a pleasant time on the subway, and were only packed in like sardines once.

Anyways, when we got to the hotel, they told us that our room was available early (score!) and we could check in immediately. We were thankful for that because we were already a little tired from getting up early and walking around with our bags all morning. Our hotel room was on the tenth floor, and a little on the small side, which was fine because we were not expecting anything huge. What we were really looking forward to was the bed. We sleep on a futon on the floor at home. Now, you can take that mental image of an American futon and throw it out the window, because Japanese futon are quite different. Ours accounts for about 5 inches of padding when we add up all the layers of things covered by our sheets, resting atop the hardwood floor. Traditionally, the Japanese roll them up or fold them after they wake up in the morning. The idea of sleeping on a mattress and box spring up off the floor was something we longed for, and we were not disappointed. A bonus of the room was that it also had a beautiful day and night view of the Imperial palace gardens and the Tokyo skyline:



You can see Tokyo Tower (basically a copy of the Eiffel Tower) lit up on the right side.

After we rested up a bit, we decided to walk around the Imperial Palace (where the emperor and empress live) which was very close to our hotel. The walk around is about the length of walking around Greenlake in Seattle. Honestly, if I had that to walk around on a daily basis, I would probably get a lot more exercise in Japan. The palace (where tourists and the general public are almost never allowed), is surrounded by a moat and some nice gardens:









After that nice long walk, the sun was going down and it started to get cold, so we went back to the hotel where we watched crazy Japanese television programming before going to bed. A long, but adventurous day. And so ends Part One of Chris and Tessa's Big Tokyo Adventure! Stay tuned for Parts Two through Four! If you have any questions just ask us. How, you ask? It's easy. At the bottom of this post you should see something that says "x comments" (x being how many comments that post has). Click that to see what others have said and write your own comment/question. If you have a question, Tessa and I will answer it promptly, and you can check back for our reply. So simple! See you next time for Part Two: The Coldest Bar In Japan.