Akihabara

Yesterday I went to Akihabara, the largest electronics shopping district in Tokyo (and probably the world).  It was an easy train ride and I am getting the hang of using the system.  It was also very crowded and very, very noisy.  In Japan everything talks, ATMs, gas pumps, video games, vending machines.  If it has room to put a speaker on it, it talks.  Top that off with vendors trying to lure in customers and girls trying to get you to come to a "Maid Cafe", plus the chatter of 100,000 people and music blaring from every shop and well you get the idea, it's loud.

I mentioned Maid Cafes, so I guess I should explain this.  It's not quite what it might sound like.  Lots of Japanese people kinda suck at the whole boy/girl human interaction thing, they don't have time for it because they work so much.  Maid Cafes are a way to have that without the pitfalls of actually going on a date.  You go to one of these and a very pretty girl makes you something to eat, it could be as simple as instant ramen noodles, but usually it's a burger or something, then she sits and talks with you while you eat.  She may sing a song, play some silly game with you or what ever.  It's just company for men that are too busy to actually go find a girl to have dinner with.  Come to think of it, it's actually the modern version of the Geisha.  Needless to say I didn't waste money on having some girl make me instant noodles then pretend to be interested in talking to me.

I started my visit by going to what is billed as the biggest electronics store in the world.

Yodabashi Akiba, the foot print is about the size of a small Wal Mart and it is 8 stories tall.  Each floor is dedicated to a different sort of electronic.  Ground floor is all cell phones, imagine a giant walmart sized store with nothing but cell phones and cell phone accessories.  I was going to shoot some pictures inside but couldn't find a vantage that truly gave you an idea of what it was like.  Each floor was like that, and the only thing I bought was the adapter I needed for my tablet keyboard, cost me $6.50.

It's an electronics store but they had bikes, so I browsed around that being very happy.  Mostly it was the typical Japanese bikes, which are very much like my rain bike, the old ladies Fuji with full fenders I ride when it's nasty out.  All of the upright bikes I see are like that, a ladies frame and everyone rides them.  Many bikes here are electric assist, although I rarely see anyone using it.

These are electric assist mommy mobiles complete with kiddie seats front and rear, they run about $1200 which isn't bad at all.

Better shot of the electric assist.

I so wanted to bring this bad boy home with me.  Pretty blue anodized framed mini-velo.

BLEH! YUCK!  Yikes, sorry to interupt but I just tasted the "tea" I ran down and got while I was doing this post.  If you are ever in Japan, do not get this:

It literally taste like burnt seaweed.  I wanted some tea so I ran down to the vending machine, they had green tea and this one, I'm tired of green tea so I picked this.  First thing that I have had so far that I absolutely did not like.   Be warned, this is Bad Tea.

The rest of my trip to Akihabara was wandering around the smaller shops just looking.  The advertisements on the sides of the buildings are amazing and many are as large as the whole building.

I did find some little souvenir shops and picked up a few things.  Then about dark I grabbed my train back to Koto and had dinner at a place I had picked out earlier.  It was one of my Japan bucket list items, eat at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.  I didn't shoot any pictures because I'm self concious about shooting in a restaurant and my assigned seat wasn't in a good spot to do it.

At these places you can either grab stuff off the conveyor, or use a touch screen to order from the kitchen and a trolley will bring you your order.  I did a bit of both.  The nice thing about them is that they are cheap.  I had four plates of sushi, it was as good as any I have had in the states, it cost less than $5.  I could not have gotten one plate for $5 in the states.  The salmon that I had two plates of would have cost me $8 for one plate at Fuji Sushi back home.  Here it was 95 yen or about $1.

I finished the night off with something I hadn't done yet, I went out for a beer.  I first went to an Izakaya, these are the small bars frequented by Japanese business men when they get off of work.  I was a little early and the place was pretty dead.  So I had my beer and headed back to my hotel.  I then checked out the small place directly across the street from my hotel.  I didn't know what it was none of his signs are in english, but I had seen businessmen having lunch there so I figured he would have beer.  Turns out it was a sushi restaurant! but he did have beer, so I sat down and ordered.  The owner didn't have a word of english, but there was a young couple there and the young man had better english than my japanese.  Pretty soon we were chatting and he was translating for the owner, who decided he would have a beer and join us.  We were the only folk in there and I found out he does a great lunch business but it pretty dead at dinner.  The young couple insisted I try some sushi I had not had before, it put what I had for dinner to shame, easily the best I have ever had.

I had a couple of beers and the owner's family sat off to the side and had their own meal, they had two little girls who were curious about the gaijin (foreigner) and I made faces at them and they ended up laughing at me and I had the best evening yet In Tokyo.  The owner kept on bringing me little dishes from the kitchen to try, which is typical in Japan, you don't drink without some nibbles on the side, all of it was excellent and they were amazed that I could actually wield a pair of chopsticks as well as one of them (this was after I picked up a completely round boiled potato that came with some boiled chicken they gave).  I had a good evening and will be going back there for dinner before I leave.

It's sunny and low 50's today and I am off to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.  I'll have lots of pictures I'm sure.

Kiyosumi Garden

Went to Kiyosumi Gardens today, which a small traditional Japanese Garden about 10 minutes walk from my hotel.  I shot some video and took some pictures.  Park looked to be about 3 acres in size, next to it was another park that was similar in size and even at 11:00am was full of dog walkers and folk laying out blankets for picnics in the 45 degree temps.  I'd say Tokyo is also tired of winter and ready for spring.  It was cloudy, and not the best views, but I can see how the park would be fabulous in the springtime.  Speaking of spring, many of the trees here are budding already and there were even some flowers at the park.

I don't know what this is but it was pretty, the only other thing in flower was a small tree.

Lets start with a short video.

Now some pictures.

This bamboo and granite fountain looked very old and had obviously been carved by hand.  The bowl in the top was about a foot deep.

This bridge is made of two giant slabs of stone each about 7 feet long.

Lots of ducks, lots of Koi (Japanese Carp) some of the Koi were close to 3 feet long.

Another short video, I used to keep Bonsai, so I found this interesting, you might not.  It is possible to use bonsai techniques on full size trees to get a nice shape, the Japanese often do this and it was obvious to me that whomever tends this garden is a master.

Here's some random shots around the park.

The hill is the focal point of the park, it is offset by a small house done in the traditional style that sits out into the pond.

Unfortunately I could not go inside the house.  It is rented out for parties and events. I can imagine an awesome family reunion here, it's hard to see but there is a six foot covered porch around three sides and the walls are all sliding screens.

This is a small shrine that was tucked in behind the big hill, I almost missed it.  I always feel weird taking pictures of places of worship, it feels like I am intruding.

Better shot of the little figure in the right of the previous photo.

A closer look at the main part of the shrine.

The people who first built this garden imported and placed stones from all over Japan, I thought these looked quite striking.  Keep in mind none of this is naturally occurring, someone built all of it.  The hill was made, the pond was dug and every rock was placed by hand by the gardeners that created this place.  The Japanese have a long tradition of imitating nature as art, Bonsai, Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) and Japanese gardens, such as this, are all examples of that.  I would call this a Kaiyū-shiki-teien, or promenade garden, it has a small winding path meant to lead you around the garden and present you with views created by the artist.

Here is some info in English about the garden.  More info and pictures not taken on a cold cloudy day can be found here:  http://teien.tokyo-park.or.jp/en/kiyosumi/  

I am off to Akihabra today, which is a place for the Japanese cultures of Manga and cartoons and such.  I'm not planning on shopping there, but everyone says you need to go there and it is an easy train ride so I am.

Cya later.

Tokyo Skytree

I'm gonna start this off by saying it is 4:30am, I still haven't gotten my sleep pattern fixed.  I did manage to stay awake until 8pm last night, went to sleep and woke back up at 2 am.  Did the same thing yesterday but managed to go back to sleep at 4am, today I am going to stay up then take a nap this afternoon and see if that works to trick myself into a decent sleep cycle.  My goal is to go to bed about 11pm tonight.  Nice thing is this gives me some time when there is nothing to do to work on this for you guys.

Well as I said in the video, went to Tokyo Skytree yesterday, the Skytree is the second tallest structure in the world at 2080 feet.  The complex around the base houses shops restaurants and other entertainment venues.  However that is all secondary (and probably how they are paying for the thing), in reality, it's a big broadcast tower that Tokyo had to build because the old one, Tokyo Tower, was becoming blocked by newer taller buildings.  Basically it's a giant TV atenna.

Good thing I predetermined I was not going to bother with going to the top because when I got there my oldest fear kicked right in, there is one thing I fear above all other things and upon reaching the base of the tower I realized this fear had not gone away.  I stood there staring and couldn't believe, my worst fear had come back to haunt me.  It wasn't heights, I'm ok with that, this was much worse, JAPANESE TOUR GROUPS!  Suddenly I felt like I was wearing Lederhosen and all I could smell was chicken, I ran screaming from the platform and went in search of a beer, the only known cure for this.

Of course it got worse, I headed to the World Museum of Beer on the 7th floor.  I really haven't been anyplace to have a good beer since I got there so I was looking forward to a decent brew.  Then I spotted this at the entrance.

Looks kinda familiar

Yup someone had taken the old Bavarian Inn motif and stuck it smack daub in the middle of Tokyo, the girls wore similar dresses and everything.  The good news is there was no fried chicken, but the sausages and lederhosen were in abundance and they had hokey Bavarian videos on the big screen, luckily they were pumping 80's pop music in the background so I could avert my eyes and it was fine. I had a very nice IPA from Pikes brewing out of Seattle Washington, however that one beer cost me the equivalent of $14.00 U.S.  When I saw the prices I almost didn't order, but I had waited in line for 30 minutes for this beer, so I said "what the heck, I'm on frickin vacation anyway."  This takes us to the next part of my visit to Skytree.

EVERYTHING WAS OUTLANDISHLY EXPENSIVE, except for lunch, that was ok.  I walked around the 7 stories of retail and shops in the giant mall and saw lots of neat stuff, but was amazed at some of the pricing.  Up to now things haven't been too bad, but I hadn't really gone shopping for consumer goods.  Found a chopstick store, just what I wanted since I wanted some new ones and promised Emily I would find here a nice set.  I found a set of 2 piece ones for myself I liked, dug out my notebook and managed to mangle "ikura desu ka?" (how much is this?) the young man flipped them over and pointed what I thought was a serial number on the back, 3150 yen, which comes to. . . $30.72 for two pieces of wood, didn't even have a case with them.  After that I looked at some stuff for Phoebe but pretty much decided that I was now looking not shopping.  I'm going to try to hunt down an old style Japanese "shopping street" later in the week and see if I can do better.  Also going to look at the grocery store when I go today.

I mentioned lunch was reasonably priced, also I mentioned tour groups, well these two things made for my first really Japanese meal.  I've been so preoccupied with getting around and the language barrier that I haven't really been eating like I planned, been snacking a lot, ate at McDonalds and in my room from the 7-11.  But I was hungry and there were dozens of Japanese food shops so I decided to grab some Udon, which is thick chewy noodles (I wanted ramen but the line was too long).  Got in line, the place had a picture menu so I could point and grunt.  Got my udon and grabbed some tempura shrimp and a piece of fish that looked interesting.  Now how unbelievably crowded this place was came into play, I was basically in a food court and I walked around for 15 minutes and could not find an open seat, finally propped my tray on a ledge and ate standing up.  Tempura was excellent and the udon was fine, I've had better and worse before.  But I had to eat standing up with people jostling me the whole time.  I ended up not finishing my noodles only because I was full. Cost wise it ran me about $6.50.

Here's a couple more pics from yesterday.

Tokyo from the 7th floor of the mall, not even the tower proper which you can see on the right.

Looking inside the World Beer Museum, aka Bavarian Inn Tokyo

Typical Japanese sign, you see stuff like this all over the place.  They take politeness to a legal level here.

Picture Time

I haven't shot much in the way of pictures yet, but here is the best of what I have.

The above are all from directly behind my hotel.  I'm on the river, which river I don't know since I can't find it on any map where it isn't written in Japanese Kanji.  But it is very pretty and also extremely busy since it empties into Tokyo Bay.  I get two types of traffic past my window. In the morning and afternoon I get tugs, workboats and barges.  In the evening I get dozens of tourist boats, all glass roofed for sight seeing.  They are quite pretty when they are all lit up.

Here's something we don't see in the U.S. anymore.

How do you park cars in a land where the land itself is at a premium?  You stack them up of course.

And of course we have bicycles, lots and lots of bicycles.  As you can see in the second photo they stack those up too.  I've made some observations to myself about bikes and riding in Tokyo and I plan to devote some time next week to a post just about that.  btw the line of bikes in photo 3 is more than 100 yds long.

I really really should have taken my gloves out of my front pockets before I shot this. . . or at least sucked in my gut, geez I look like I weigh 200 lbs.

Not much planned for today, Sunday, gonna go to a grocery store and visit a nearby park and maybe a small museum, don't feel like dealing with the crowds of the weekend in the busier parts of town, or navigating the trains for that matter.  Cya

Hello from Japan

Went out this morning and shot a quick video just to say hi to the family.

Longest Plane Ride Ever!

Well I made it!  What a very hectic day and a half, or two days or whatever is was.  Good news is that the plane got in almost an hour early, the bad news was it was still a 12 hour plane ride.  I tried briefly to figure out how long I was in transit, but it's confusing with the time zones and the date change, so I'm calling it a day and a half and sticking to that.

Flight out from MBS was fine, very narrow cramped plane that was full, but hey, that flight is usually like that and it's short.  Made it to Ohare and rushed a bit to find my gate, I always, always find my gate first, then attend to anything else I need to do in an airport.  Found the gate, grabbed some food, bought a book and charged up the computer and my phone.  I almost completely forgot the most important part, EXCHANGE MONEY,  still calling myself a dumbass for that one.  Luckily the currency exchange was literally 75 yards from my gate.  I already had some yen, but my debit card magnetic strip is being wonky so I decided to get extra and rely more on cash than I planned.

Boarded my flight, this is a BIG! aircraft, I did try to swap to a window seat but couldn't.  Attendant told me I had a pretty good seat so I left it, he was right.  Flight crew and stewardesses were all Japanese, all spoke good English but some of the accents were harder to understand than others.

I'll say one thing, U.S. airlines could learn a thing or two from the Japanese, we got drink service as soon as they could physically get the cart down the isle, immediately after that they brought you a hot towel to wash up with, then right after that meal service started.  I had planned on sleeping first but stayed up for the meal, which was probably the best airline food I have ever had.  After everyone was served they came by with a succession of drinks, green tea, english tea, coffee, orange juice, other juices, seems like they came by every two minutes for a half an hour until everyone had had at least one drink.  After the meal however I wanted to sleep and they took forever to clear my tray, too busy serving drinks.  Finally they did and I crashed for about 3-4 hours.

When I woke up I played with the built in entertainment console on the seat back.  It had movies games, music and documentaries.  However mostly I played with the flight tracking software, this allowed me to see where we were, how long to go, maps and even a camera view from the belly of the aircraft.  I've got some neat screenshots but they are on my phone and I can't upload them right now.

Got in found my train and made it to the hotel about 5pm local time.  The train system is confusing as all heck, even saw locals that were lost.  Luckily I had written down my exact route and transfers, so I had no issues except the usual fear of somehow missing my stop. 

Hotel is nice, it's not new and is more of a cheap weekly apartment, but the heat works and the shower is hot and excellent water pressure.   I checked in, and then walked to the local 7-11 for dinner. . . yes I said 7-11.  Convenience stores in Japan have surprisingly good food, something I knew before I came here.   I was tired and not feeling adventurous so I grabbed a plate of something that looked like spaghetti, it was, it tasted basically like spaghetti with Ragu meat sauce.  To be clear, 7-11 food isn't high cuisine, but it is definitely better than just edible.   I also got a rice cake thing that had seasoned rice and a piece of salami like meat on it, very good.  They make these rice cakes in tons of flavors, I've had a couple for snacks now and I think I will miss them when I go home.

Enough for now, next post is some pictures.

QUICK UPDATE 2/19/14

Just a quick update,  late last night I received a reply to my email to the hotel about arriving late.  Turns out they have a policy and procedure for this.  I now have my room number and will be able to pick up my key upon arrival.   This is quite a relief for me, it means I don't have to try and rush from the airport nor do I need to worry about buying  another room for the night or not finding a room at all.  I had imagined a nightmare of wandering around Tokyo all night with no place to stay.

Here's a ridiculous "selfie" of me in the airport taken while posting this.

Well so much for getting a good start, my flight on the 17th was cancelled due the huge snow storm we just had.  Being an idiot, and not having flown in years I didn't check this before I left.  United had put me down for a flight leaving that evening at 10:21 pm, going to all places, Newark, then sit around until noon the next day before flying to Tokyo.  I immediately nixed that plan and had the gate agent get me booked for my original itinerary for the 19th, Wed.

Now comes part two, seeing I lost two days, I added them on the end of my vacation, but Expedia could not get me rooms at my chosen hotel for the last two days, so I took a swap (at $130 cost to me) for a different hotel.  Turns out this may be for the best.  The new hotel is more of a weekly rental with no daily maid service, but it has a kitchenette, is bigger and I have a view of a river out the window.  Also the reviews for this place is stellar, hard to find on a budget.  Does have some odd lobby hours etc but I will deal with that.  The manager usually leaves by 5:30pm, I know I cannot get there by then and I have emailed him about it but got no reply.  I did locate a cheapish backup hotel for the first night if necessary only a couple of blocks away.

The new place is close to some things I want to do, and all reports say the manager is very helpful with maps and directions to things, so this may work out for the best.  I'll post more once I get there, or if anything else weird happens.  It's almost 10pm and I am getting up at 4am to catch my flight.

Getting ready for Tokyo Japan.

Welcome to my little corner of the internet.  The whole point to this blog is to let my family and friends follow my journey to Tokyo Japan.  This is something I have wanted to do since I was 17.  I grew up with Dad talking about his times in the Navy in Japan, and this greatly influenced my decision to join the Navy.

I spent four years in the USN and saw Singapore, the Philippines and even Kenya, but of course it being the U.S. military, I never got to Japan.  It is now time to correct that oversight on their part.

I haven't used this software in a while, so this post is mostly about me getting used to it before I fly out to Japan tomorrow morning.