Tokyo Whirlwind

I had an extra day off on Friday to compensate for having to work the previous weekend. So I decided to hop on a train to Tokyo.

My first experience on the Shinkansen ("bullet train") was fantastic. Taking Shinkansen is like flying if flying didn't suck. The trains are crazy-fast, quiet, with lots of leg-room. And I just showed up at the station, bought the ticket from a machine, and hopped on.

Although the train ride took less than two hours, it took me half an hour to navigate my way out of the train station. Most of the train/metro stations in Tokyo were massive labyrinthine structures, full of huge crowds.

I wandered around practically the entire city while I was there. When I first arrived, I wandered around the Ueno district, going to the large park there and to a shrine in the park. After eventually making it to a hostel, I dropped off my stuff and hopped the metro to Shibuya. Shibuya was full of neon lights, crazy fashions and young people. I found some cool music stores there. Afterwards, I went over to Ginza, which has less neon but fancier stores. Not really my scene, but just like visitors to Paris must stroll down Champs-Elysee, visitors to Tokyo need to go to Ginza. However, I did find a Belgian themed bar that had my all-time favorite beer on tap (which I have not seen outside of Belgium). That beer alone, made the trip worthwhile. I also had a nice chat with the guy sitting next to me at the bar--a Japanese who studied French and cooking. Back at the hostel, I chilled with an actual French guy.

On Saturday I got an early start, bought an all-day metro pass, and saw just about everything Tokyo has to offer (or at least it felt that way). I saw the Imperial palace, which has a moat around it. Walked through the Imperial Gardens, hopped the metro to Harajuku where there weekends. There were only a few are supposed to be a bridge with people in crazy costumes onkids in costumes when I went there, and they weren't that good. In Harajuku I saw the Meiji Shrine, which is one of the biggest (or maybe the biggest?) shrines in Japan. The gate to the shrine is the biggest of its kind anywhere. To pray at the shrine, you first wash your hands outside. When you walk in, you toss a coin into a box, bow, clap three times, pray silently, bow and walk out. Afterwards, I went across town to Asakusa where there is another famous shrine. There were also street vendors and other interesting scenery. Asakusa is an older, more traditional part of Tokyo (no neon lights).

Later in the day I met up with Ruriko! It was very good to see someone from IWU. We met up in Shibuya, had some coffee, walked around, ate dinner, and walked over to Harajuku and hung out in the park there. Eventually we parted ways and I decided to go to Roppongi to go salsa dancing. (Hey, if I'm in an international city, I have to do international things that I can't do at home in Miyagi).

On the way there, I decided I like Roppongi because the name is made up of three kanji that I know (literally six-book-tree). This is the hot nightlife part of Tokyo. As it was still early, I wandered around looking for different salsa clubs or possibly an interesting bar to get a drink in. Somebody handed me a drink ticket for a bar and I decided to check it out. I ended up chatting with the guy working the door, who was Israeli, but then I decided not to go to that bar after all. Since I was planning on catching the last train back to my hostel, I went dancing pretty early. Despite it being only 9 o'clock or so, the club was full of people dancing. There were a lot of good dancers there and I had a great time. Eventually I ended up hanging out with a few Chicanos and got to use my Spanish for the first time in quite a while. (Probably haven't spoken Spanish as long as I haven't gone dancing). At one point the DJ played Mana and we rocked out and later there was a mariachi performance. But I had to leave shortly before midnight so that my train didn't turn into a pumpkin. On the metro, I made friends with a random Japanese girl.

On Sunday, I went to Ueno park again. In the park is the Tokyo National Museum. This was a fantastic art museum of a lot of Japanese artwork of all styles. I enjoyed it very much. And I got a discounted ticket with my IWU ID (yay for there not being dates on that thing). After a bit more walking around, I eventually went to the train station and got on the shinkansen to go home.

Now I'm quite satisfied, but my legs are tired and I have to go to elementary school tomorrow.