For fear of forgetting some of the details of our trip to Japan in May, I've decided to try to write out a summary of the trip before my memory loses even more of the highlights of our two week tour of Honshu. I'm dividing this travelogue up into several parts based on the places we stayed. It won't hurt my feelings if you find yourself tired of looking at our travel pictures/musings by the time I get to the Nagoya stuff. Like I said, it's mostly for my own benefit.
In front of the imperial palace's main gate.
We kicked off the trip through Nashville to catch our international flight from Atlanta. Luckily, I was able to score us all seats on the exit row. That more than made up for the long flight and old airplane (complete with malfunctioning theater system and cranky Northwest/Delta stewardesses forced to now work together). I think Matt surmised that he would, in fact, marry me again since I saved him from cramming his lanky legs and broad shoulders into the normal coach-sized seats. I felt bad for the three large men sandwiched on a row together behind us... but not bad enough to offer up my roomy seat!
I loved seeing all of the Japanese school children.
The younger ones were almost always wearing matching hats. Too cute!
When we arrived in Tokyo, I had our route to the hotel all mapped out. All we needed to do was go pick up our Japan Rail (JR) passes and change trains once at Tokyo Station (which I also had a map of). My sisters ran off to pick out their first purchases of Japanese sodas and candy while Mom and I tried to hand gesture enough to get our rail passes. As soon as we got the passes, the helpful JR employee told us that all of the JR trains from Narita Airport were canceled due to "the accident" (suicide by way of high speed train). This meant we had to take a much longer (and fully packed) local train with a different rail company and change stations a couple of times in order to get to our hotel, but we made it.
Bike riding in front of the Tokyo skyline.
We crossed several long bridges with really great views of the city.
We finally made it to the hotel around 8 pm Tokyo time. By then, I was feeling sea sick from all of the train riding and felt like I'd spent the day swimming in the ocean, a feeling that didn't go away for a day or two. We were all starving and grabbed dinner around the corner before showering and hitting the sack. I was so thankful that I picked a hotel less than a block from the train station. Even though the rooms were small by American standards, they were roomy enough for us, clean, and came with breakfast.
The boys (and Manda) in one of the narrow side streets of Tokyo.
We woke up and grabbed breakfast... our first encounter with miso soup, rice balls, pickles, salad, pasta, and corn (I still can't eat corn with chopsticks!) for breakfast.
I loved walking through the middle of this giant, modern city and finding
small remnants of former Edo hidden throughout, like this Shinto shrine.
We completed a bike tour of Tokyo that day. It was an excellent tour, but I hadn't ridden a bike in probably 10 years, and was really shaky and nervous navigating it through the crowded streets. I don't know how I didn't hit someone! Yukiko, our guide, kept the pace very fast, and I was worried I'd get left behind a few times. We saw the old imperial castle wall, a sleepy fishing village, thousand year old shrines and temples in the middle of the bustling city, Tsukiji (the world's largest (and probably cleanest) fish market), sky scrapers, and other Tokyo staples.
Our bike tour guide knew these vendors at Tsukiji, and
they let us try out their giant tuna sword.
On Tuesday, we'd planned to explore Mt. Fuji, but because there is still snow on Fuji until July, only the lower hiking posts are opened up by May. We'd still hoped to go to the national park and Lake Ashi at the foot of Fuji-san, but the side trip turned out to be a bust because it rained all day and we wouldn't have even been able to see Fuji. Instead, we hit up the Edo Tokyo Museum, which was really fascinating. (Edo is the original name for the town that grew into what is now called Tokyo).
We visited this temple atop a hill. Legend has it that a samurai
rode his horse to the top to pick a cherry blossom for the shogun.
So Matt and I decided to pose as the samurai and his horse.
That night, we spent some time walking around the hot spots of Tokyo and doing some people watching. We visited Hachiko, toured the busiest department store I've ever seen in my life (12 stories of consumer bliss, complete with gourmet grocery shopping in the basement, much to Matt and Ryan's amusement), and visited Akihabara ("Electric Town," where you can find the worlds newest electronic must-haves, before they are available anywhere else).
This area used to be a small country fishing town outside of Edo.
It's since been enveloped by the expanding Tokyo city limits.
One of the things I noticed right away included how much taller everyone was than I remembered. I talked about this with several people and have decided it's not just my imagination. Over the past thirteen years, the Japanese have lived in a very successful period and raised a whole new generation with modern nutrition. The older generations, especially those that lived during the post-WWII era, are noticeably shorter than the younger Japanese. I was not nearly as tall over there as I was in high school, which seems backwards! Matt, however, was still above average height.
People watching near Shibuya Station.
I also immediately noticed how much we stood out. Not just by our coloring, but mainly our dress. 99% of the people in Tokyo were wearing suits or dark/muted clothing. We did not blend in well with our brightly colored shirts and blue jeans.
The city is very clean and very safe. I don't think I saw a single homeless person begging for money. The only evidence of the city's homeless population were the cardboard boxes tucked neatly together with shoes placed on top (the Japanese customarily remove their shoes when entering their homes).
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