Edo Style.
By this point virtually everyone had gone. I was compelled to scratch a couple of things off the Japan bucket list before time ran out. Nothing was more important than seeing people. Two birds with one stone - a couple friends wanted to make another attempt to get out to Hakone. Hakone, by all accounts seemed to be in reality what spas look like in brochures. But - NO. It was another abortive attempt to go to a place which I ultimately would never reach. I blame everyone one and everything involved, which is convenient since I forget the real reason it didn’t work out. I’m sure the labyrinth they call Shinjuku station has its share of the blame. So instead it turned into another day in Shinjuku. I do remember some conveyor belt sushi, that’s about it - no compelling pictures. But by that night almost all of my friends had gone. So I grabbed a Dr. Pepper
(Even THOSE are more awesome there) - and set off to do things so mind-numbingly boring that no one would have accompanied me anyway. (if only the sword museum wasn’t so far off the beaten path) A couple good friends were still there, and one - you know who you are - could have come along for this and the bath house mentioned later but instead flaked out. Enjoy the intense regret of having missed the Tokyo Edo Museum.
Past the Sumo Stadium
To this - the Tokyo Edo Museum. Like everything else in Tokyo, its totally bizarre. If I was trying to make a space effective Museum in dense city an AT-AT imperial walker would NOT be my model.
Note the entrance resembles an equine…
Inside was a large atrium. Upstairs there was an edo period art/fashion exhibit I wasn’t allowed to photograph directly, but I captured a little……..Wait a minute…..is that DAVID BOWIE?
You just wouldn’t be in Tokyo if you didn’t see something jaw-dropingly bizarre every day. It was a high-fashion exhibit that was edo inspired. But, being truly a museum after my own heart, most of the exhibits were recreation via miniatures.
I don’t think these were miniature but its hard to remember.
Yey for printing!
Relevant historical note: while Hiroshima and Nagasaki are remembered in the US, equally, if not more infamous in Japan was the firebombing of Tokyo. Want to know why the Imperial Palace tour was so boring? Not much left. Here is a map of the destruction:
If you ever want to see an excellent movie about it, get really really depressed, and be put off hard candy for life, see the animated film ‘Graveyard of the Fireflies’.
Moving on to sunnier things - That night (or….some….night) I had a chance to attend a gathering at a expatriate’s apartment. I won’t name names, but suffice to say this person has done well for himself. This apartment probably ranks as one of the more desirable on earth. Its in Roppongi (nuff said right) in a brand new building (which probably says Mori somewhere). By North American standards, its only a decently big one bedroom but its huge by Tokyo standards. That’s not the impressive part though - Door man at the lobby, temple in the courtyard, and state of the art touch screens TV’s embedded in the lobby and elevator walls. Remember that touch screen directory at the Nakatomi complex in Die Hard? You were all like - yeah right - no buildings have those. This building did. (Okay fine - it’s a little less impressive NOW). It still puts every other apartment building I’ve even seen to shame. Its hard to describe the feel of it, of the nice new wood and metal, of all the simplistic design magazine leather furniture. The apartment’s 52 inch + LCD TV and wall to wall integrated Apple products (Aero laptop, Apple TV, etc etc) didn’t hurt either. Let me again reiterate that this was in a part of town where a parking space could go for seven figures.
This was the view:
