Part Three, Exploring Tokyo
PART THREE
DAY 2-January 30, Tokyo Okay, thanks for bearing with me during the long update time. The other photos should be up now as well. For some reason, I have to post this without pictures, then go in to edit them with "Rich Text" mode and go through something else, so sorry about that! I woke up at the Hotel Mets feeling much better than the night before. It’s amazing what a shower, fresh clothes, and a nice bed will do for you. Due to the time difference, I ended up waking up around 7:00 in the morning, which was perfect for orienting a new sleep schedule. Here’s the new picture from the morning:
You wouldn’t be able to tell from this picture, but a lot of people were starting to wake up and go to work/school. I decided that the first order of business would be to find an International Phone Card somewhere, since my other one wasn’t working and no one back home had heard from me since Seattle. I went down to the lobby and asked the woman at the front desk if she knew of anyplace nearby that sold them. People here are SO NICE! Instead of just pointing me in a general direction, she took off running out the door in high heels and found a convenience store about a block away. Now that is good service! On my way over there, I got lost in a crowd of high school/junior high students on their way to school. There were probably about three dozen Japanese teenagers on all sides, dressed very neatly in pressed uniforms. Here’s a picture of that street later on in the day, when it wasn’t nearly as crowded. I also noticed a sign in a shop window advertising the latest manga books, so I took a picture of that, too.
As I was milling around with all of the other kids, a bunch of people were lining the street, trying to hand out flyers and pamphlets to passing students. I managed to snag one and promptly lost it somewhere. Oh well. Anyways, so I found the convenience store that she was talking about fairly easily. Since it wasn’t even 8:00 yet, the place was packed with more students trying to buy obento lunches and reading manga before class. I eventually found the phone card, but I was unsure of what to do with it. It didn’t have a price on it, so I asked the woman up front. Turns out that you’re supposed to take one home (like a free sample they put at the front of shops), activate it by dialing a certain number, take it back to the shop, and use a special machine to input the data. Only then do they give you a price to pay. At least, that’s what I think you’re supposed to do. I really hope that I didn’t just walk out with one by mistake.
The hotel gave each of us two free breakfast coupons from 7:00-10:00, so I decided to take advantage of that. The little café attached to the hotel is pretty small and was also packed for the early hour. I kind of misunderstood the meaning of “coupon,” though, because it generally means “discount” in America, right? So I thought that I would just order whatever and then give them the coupon at the end to subtract from the total. I guess those coupons guarantee you a free meal as long as you point to a certain set of items that you like. I gave the girl behind the counter a lot of trouble because she had to ring up a bunch of stuff and deal with my broken English only to undo it all when I showed the coupon. Sorry! Breakfast was really good. I ended up ordering clam chowder, a small salad, two points of toast, and coffee. The only problem was that there weren’t any places to sit. The room was shaped like a circle. The majority of the seats revolved around this plant centerpiece in the middle of the room, and they all had people sitting there. I don’t know what I would have ended up doing, but luckily, someone got up just as I was figuring it out. It was very peaceful sitting there sipping at coffee and soaking in the atmosphere.
About halfway through the meal, I heard, “Nina-san!” and nearly got whiplash trying to figure out who would possibly know my name in an obscure cafe. I was lucky because Andy had just walked in, and a seat had opened up next to me. He ordered something similar and we ended up talking for another half hour or so. He’s a fourth-year from UC Berkeley and is nearly done with his Sociology major. I think I might be the second-youngest person here. Except for one second-year, all the other students are seniors.
Anyways, we finished breakfast and decided to spend the day walking around the neighboring blocks of Tokyo. There is a LOT to see. Musashisakai isn’t even in Tokyo, from what I understand. It’s more like the suburbs. Here are some preliminary snapshots of the area around the hotel:
That orange train is the part of the Chuo-sen line I rode earlier.
Crosswalk
Train tracks
Lots and lots of bicycles. This is seriously the tip of the iceberg.
This made me laugh a lot. Hair dye in Japan.
Some sort of equestrian club next to the train tracks
An elementary school. The kids here are really, really cute. They all run around in little color-coded hardhats to keep them from hurting themselves on the playground. There was some sort of debate at the top of the slide earlier.
These were everywhere. I think they’re for the firemen in place of a hydrant when there’s a fire nearby.
Andy and I eventually made it over to a temple squished in between two apartment buildings. Something like that really takes your breath away. It was incredibly beautiful, and you can tell that it had been there forever while the city grew up around it. Japanese temples also double as graveyards, so all of the stones you see represent peoples’ graves. The strange thing was that absolutely no one was around. We were starting to wonder if we were trespassing on holy ground or something, so we didn’t stay very long, but it really was incredible to see. Here are some awesome pictures that I managed to save:
After checking out the temple and about a dozen convenience stores, we decided to take a break at the hotel for a little while. First off, we had to get lunch, so we grabbed a few things from a store on the way back. Andy picked out a sandwich, but I was feeling a little more adventurous, so I grabbed a random pre-made meal from the frozen food section. The guy working there was very cool, and it took me a while to realize that he was asking if I wanted it warmed up first. I should’ve known that. I’ve only watched a hundred Japanese movies where they do that. So we decided to take the food back to the hotel and eat (because we’ve heard it’s not polite to eat in public here) before heading back out. The food was really, really good. I can’t stress that enough about Japanese food. You know how in America, you generally can’t find good food if it’s not in a restaurant or homemade? Well, in Japan, you see half a dozen gourmet-caliber “samples” on the way to the check-out stand. I have no idea what I ate (it was a mixture of some tempura, sushi, mushrooms, and a lot of things I didn’t recognize), but it was really filling for something so small. While I was in the room, I called my parents, grabbed another jacket, and took a little break. I met Andy again for Part II about half and hour later. This time, we went in the opposite direction and managed to find a shrine.
Japanese shrines are as intimidating as temples. There’s an incredible amount of detail in everything, and you feel as if you’re ruining a piece of artwork just by going inside. I’ll show you what I mean:
I think those little slips of paper are prayers tied to the tree. In Buddhist shrines, people first go over to this pool area and purify their hands with a ladle they have over there. People sometimes drink the water, swish it around, and spit it back out.
Then they go over to the main alter area and pull those cords hanging to each side three times. They’re connected to bells, so they ring each time you touch them. Then they clap twice and bow their heads. After their done with the prayer, they clap twice and bow again. I could have that wrong, but that’s the general idea. The really cool thing was that people just came off the street to ask a favor on their way to work. One woman with a bicycle just came in really quickly, did a short prayer, and took back off again just like people who stop to get coffee each morning.
After the shrine, we just wandered aimlessly through some residential areas. We tried to find a Citibank ATM for Andy and a phone for me, but no luck on both counts. We eventually went back to the hotel for a bit and asked the front desk if anyone else had checked in from our group. Turned out that we were still the only ones. We found out later that Kacey was between our rooms the whole time, but she was sleeping off the jet lag for most of the day.
I decided that was a good idea, too, and accidentally fell asleep for an hour or two. I woke up just before Andy called to say that someone else had made it in. Lisa was over in his room, so we all reconvened there. She’s from Bakersfield and tagged along with us for the rest of the day. We took her out with us at dinnertime to try and find a nice restaurant, and ended up finding a huge district that we somehow missed in our day-long exploring. Just north of the hotel, there’s this long strip of 100 yen shops, restaurants, arcades, and general craziness. Andy was nearly slain by a bicycle a few times. Tokyo is full of people on bicycles, and they’re practically silent to people around them. They can literally pass by you without a whisper. I wonder if there are statistics for people hit by bicycles in Japan?
Anyways, so we went up and down twice before we finally decided on a restaurant. It was hidden to the right up a flight of stairs, but the prices were very cheap and the menu outside had pictures, so we went in. Let me tell you guys this: anyone who says that you don’t need to speak a word of Japanese to function in Japan has obviously never been there. It’s a lie! Which is good, because I had the experience of people speaking English to me all the time in Mexico and never got to practice my Spanish. I’ve been here for a while now, and I can assure you that all Japanese people do not speak English. It’s actually very presumptuous for people to assume that they do. It’s like saying all Texans speak Spanish because they’re on the border-a lot do, but that’s a very broad assertion.
The reason I bring that up is because we needed every ounce of our studying to order in that restaurant. It had excellent food and the service was great, but the waitress had no idea what we were saying. The menu was completely in Japanese, and I accidentally ordered something off the “kid’s menu” the first time. She corrected me and got me to order some udon noodles instead. Lisa and Andy had similar problems. She asked how they wanted their fish cooked and in what size. Whenever that question came up, we all chorused “re-gu-ya” because she didn’t respond to “small” or “large.” My food was pretty good. The udon was just like that ramen shop in San Jose. The little side dish that came with it was a little more suspicious. It had white rice on the bottom, but the top part was this gooey white stuff that looked like porridge, tasted like the okra mixed in with it, and had the consistency of saliva. Eww... But I ate most of it anyway. Lisa nearly choked on a fish bone, and Andy had issues with his tea, but it tasted pretty good. It was hard paying a bill of 750 yen with 10,000 yen ($100), but that's all I had in my wallet.
We explored around a little bit more and saw some of Tokyo's nightlife before heading back. We peeked into an "arcade" and nearly destroyed our eardrums. Apparently, "arcade" means "pachinko parlor" in Japan, and it was incredibly loud and smoky in there. We just stared, looked at each other, and went back out. I didn't notice last night, but there about thirty taxis just sitting there in front of the train station at all times. Very convenient. The drivers all looked pretty bored, though. Here's a little ramen...shop that was parked right outside the hotel.
I thought that the day was over at this point, but Andy called yet again to inform me that most of the other people had shown up and were out in the hallway. I got to meet Preston, Lucia, and Kacey that night, and I think we started a new Japanese tradition of sitting in the hallway and chatting for a few hours. I expect it to catch on soon. We met Natalie, Krista, and Kheng the next day before breakfast, but I'll go into that later. For now, I'll just say that Tokyo has a lot of stuff to look at, and I think we barely scratched the surface after a day of walking. My feet hurt. Next time: Meetings, orientations, driving, and moving in to Tsuru!
DAY 2-January 30, Tokyo Okay, thanks for bearing with me during the long update time. The other photos should be up now as well. For some reason, I have to post this without pictures, then go in to edit them with "Rich Text" mode and go through something else, so sorry about that! I woke up at the Hotel Mets feeling much better than the night before. It’s amazing what a shower, fresh clothes, and a nice bed will do for you. Due to the time difference, I ended up waking up around 7:00 in the morning, which was perfect for orienting a new sleep schedule. Here’s the new picture from the morning:
You wouldn’t be able to tell from this picture, but a lot of people were starting to wake up and go to work/school. I decided that the first order of business would be to find an International Phone Card somewhere, since my other one wasn’t working and no one back home had heard from me since Seattle. I went down to the lobby and asked the woman at the front desk if she knew of anyplace nearby that sold them. People here are SO NICE! Instead of just pointing me in a general direction, she took off running out the door in high heels and found a convenience store about a block away. Now that is good service! On my way over there, I got lost in a crowd of high school/junior high students on their way to school. There were probably about three dozen Japanese teenagers on all sides, dressed very neatly in pressed uniforms. Here’s a picture of that street later on in the day, when it wasn’t nearly as crowded. I also noticed a sign in a shop window advertising the latest manga books, so I took a picture of that, too.
As I was milling around with all of the other kids, a bunch of people were lining the street, trying to hand out flyers and pamphlets to passing students. I managed to snag one and promptly lost it somewhere. Oh well. Anyways, so I found the convenience store that she was talking about fairly easily. Since it wasn’t even 8:00 yet, the place was packed with more students trying to buy obento lunches and reading manga before class. I eventually found the phone card, but I was unsure of what to do with it. It didn’t have a price on it, so I asked the woman up front. Turns out that you’re supposed to take one home (like a free sample they put at the front of shops), activate it by dialing a certain number, take it back to the shop, and use a special machine to input the data. Only then do they give you a price to pay. At least, that’s what I think you’re supposed to do. I really hope that I didn’t just walk out with one by mistake.
The hotel gave each of us two free breakfast coupons from 7:00-10:00, so I decided to take advantage of that. The little café attached to the hotel is pretty small and was also packed for the early hour. I kind of misunderstood the meaning of “coupon,” though, because it generally means “discount” in America, right? So I thought that I would just order whatever and then give them the coupon at the end to subtract from the total. I guess those coupons guarantee you a free meal as long as you point to a certain set of items that you like. I gave the girl behind the counter a lot of trouble because she had to ring up a bunch of stuff and deal with my broken English only to undo it all when I showed the coupon. Sorry! Breakfast was really good. I ended up ordering clam chowder, a small salad, two points of toast, and coffee. The only problem was that there weren’t any places to sit. The room was shaped like a circle. The majority of the seats revolved around this plant centerpiece in the middle of the room, and they all had people sitting there. I don’t know what I would have ended up doing, but luckily, someone got up just as I was figuring it out. It was very peaceful sitting there sipping at coffee and soaking in the atmosphere.
About halfway through the meal, I heard, “Nina-san!” and nearly got whiplash trying to figure out who would possibly know my name in an obscure cafe. I was lucky because Andy had just walked in, and a seat had opened up next to me. He ordered something similar and we ended up talking for another half hour or so. He’s a fourth-year from UC Berkeley and is nearly done with his Sociology major. I think I might be the second-youngest person here. Except for one second-year, all the other students are seniors.
Anyways, we finished breakfast and decided to spend the day walking around the neighboring blocks of Tokyo. There is a LOT to see. Musashisakai isn’t even in Tokyo, from what I understand. It’s more like the suburbs. Here are some preliminary snapshots of the area around the hotel:
That orange train is the part of the Chuo-sen line I rode earlier.
Crosswalk
Train tracks
Lots and lots of bicycles. This is seriously the tip of the iceberg.
This made me laugh a lot. Hair dye in Japan.
Some sort of equestrian club next to the train tracks
An elementary school. The kids here are really, really cute. They all run around in little color-coded hardhats to keep them from hurting themselves on the playground. There was some sort of debate at the top of the slide earlier.
These were everywhere. I think they’re for the firemen in place of a hydrant when there’s a fire nearby.
Andy and I eventually made it over to a temple squished in between two apartment buildings. Something like that really takes your breath away. It was incredibly beautiful, and you can tell that it had been there forever while the city grew up around it. Japanese temples also double as graveyards, so all of the stones you see represent peoples’ graves. The strange thing was that absolutely no one was around. We were starting to wonder if we were trespassing on holy ground or something, so we didn’t stay very long, but it really was incredible to see. Here are some awesome pictures that I managed to save:
After checking out the temple and about a dozen convenience stores, we decided to take a break at the hotel for a little while. First off, we had to get lunch, so we grabbed a few things from a store on the way back. Andy picked out a sandwich, but I was feeling a little more adventurous, so I grabbed a random pre-made meal from the frozen food section. The guy working there was very cool, and it took me a while to realize that he was asking if I wanted it warmed up first. I should’ve known that. I’ve only watched a hundred Japanese movies where they do that. So we decided to take the food back to the hotel and eat (because we’ve heard it’s not polite to eat in public here) before heading back out. The food was really, really good. I can’t stress that enough about Japanese food. You know how in America, you generally can’t find good food if it’s not in a restaurant or homemade? Well, in Japan, you see half a dozen gourmet-caliber “samples” on the way to the check-out stand. I have no idea what I ate (it was a mixture of some tempura, sushi, mushrooms, and a lot of things I didn’t recognize), but it was really filling for something so small. While I was in the room, I called my parents, grabbed another jacket, and took a little break. I met Andy again for Part II about half and hour later. This time, we went in the opposite direction and managed to find a shrine.
Japanese shrines are as intimidating as temples. There’s an incredible amount of detail in everything, and you feel as if you’re ruining a piece of artwork just by going inside. I’ll show you what I mean:
I think those little slips of paper are prayers tied to the tree. In Buddhist shrines, people first go over to this pool area and purify their hands with a ladle they have over there. People sometimes drink the water, swish it around, and spit it back out.
Then they go over to the main alter area and pull those cords hanging to each side three times. They’re connected to bells, so they ring each time you touch them. Then they clap twice and bow their heads. After their done with the prayer, they clap twice and bow again. I could have that wrong, but that’s the general idea. The really cool thing was that people just came off the street to ask a favor on their way to work. One woman with a bicycle just came in really quickly, did a short prayer, and took back off again just like people who stop to get coffee each morning.
After the shrine, we just wandered aimlessly through some residential areas. We tried to find a Citibank ATM for Andy and a phone for me, but no luck on both counts. We eventually went back to the hotel for a bit and asked the front desk if anyone else had checked in from our group. Turned out that we were still the only ones. We found out later that Kacey was between our rooms the whole time, but she was sleeping off the jet lag for most of the day.
I decided that was a good idea, too, and accidentally fell asleep for an hour or two. I woke up just before Andy called to say that someone else had made it in. Lisa was over in his room, so we all reconvened there. She’s from Bakersfield and tagged along with us for the rest of the day. We took her out with us at dinnertime to try and find a nice restaurant, and ended up finding a huge district that we somehow missed in our day-long exploring. Just north of the hotel, there’s this long strip of 100 yen shops, restaurants, arcades, and general craziness. Andy was nearly slain by a bicycle a few times. Tokyo is full of people on bicycles, and they’re practically silent to people around them. They can literally pass by you without a whisper. I wonder if there are statistics for people hit by bicycles in Japan?
Anyways, so we went up and down twice before we finally decided on a restaurant. It was hidden to the right up a flight of stairs, but the prices were very cheap and the menu outside had pictures, so we went in. Let me tell you guys this: anyone who says that you don’t need to speak a word of Japanese to function in Japan has obviously never been there. It’s a lie! Which is good, because I had the experience of people speaking English to me all the time in Mexico and never got to practice my Spanish. I’ve been here for a while now, and I can assure you that all Japanese people do not speak English. It’s actually very presumptuous for people to assume that they do. It’s like saying all Texans speak Spanish because they’re on the border-a lot do, but that’s a very broad assertion.
The reason I bring that up is because we needed every ounce of our studying to order in that restaurant. It had excellent food and the service was great, but the waitress had no idea what we were saying. The menu was completely in Japanese, and I accidentally ordered something off the “kid’s menu” the first time. She corrected me and got me to order some udon noodles instead. Lisa and Andy had similar problems. She asked how they wanted their fish cooked and in what size. Whenever that question came up, we all chorused “re-gu-ya” because she didn’t respond to “small” or “large.” My food was pretty good. The udon was just like that ramen shop in San Jose. The little side dish that came with it was a little more suspicious. It had white rice on the bottom, but the top part was this gooey white stuff that looked like porridge, tasted like the okra mixed in with it, and had the consistency of saliva. Eww... But I ate most of it anyway. Lisa nearly choked on a fish bone, and Andy had issues with his tea, but it tasted pretty good. It was hard paying a bill of 750 yen with 10,000 yen ($100), but that's all I had in my wallet.
We explored around a little bit more and saw some of Tokyo's nightlife before heading back. We peeked into an "arcade" and nearly destroyed our eardrums. Apparently, "arcade" means "pachinko parlor" in Japan, and it was incredibly loud and smoky in there. We just stared, looked at each other, and went back out. I didn't notice last night, but there about thirty taxis just sitting there in front of the train station at all times. Very convenient. The drivers all looked pretty bored, though. Here's a little ramen...shop that was parked right outside the hotel.
I thought that the day was over at this point, but Andy called yet again to inform me that most of the other people had shown up and were out in the hallway. I got to meet Preston, Lucia, and Kacey that night, and I think we started a new Japanese tradition of sitting in the hallway and chatting for a few hours. I expect it to catch on soon. We met Natalie, Krista, and Kheng the next day before breakfast, but I'll go into that later. For now, I'll just say that Tokyo has a lot of stuff to look at, and I think we barely scratched the surface after a day of walking. My feet hurt. Next time: Meetings, orientations, driving, and moving in to Tsuru!