Photos and observations from my first few days in Japan – walking the Tokyo neighborhoods of Asakusa, Ueno, Ginza, Jindaiji, Shibuya, and Shinjuku.
I’ve always wanted to see and experience Japan, having also never traveled in Asia. As part of my two month sabbatical from my employer, I have carved out this three week sojourn, where I’ll be train traveling between various locales, including a six-day pilgrimage walk along the Nakahechi route of the Kumano Kodo.
I’ve had the immense privilege of being able to travel to some faraway places . I’ve never really been a sightseer. I enjoy museums and local cuisine, but can’t stand the inauthenticity of tourist traps and seek to avoid them. I most enjoy experiencing a place by walking it. Especially if a place has a good transit system, as this opens up more of a place and I can experience it on the level of the people who live and work and play there. Tokyo in this sense is an urbanist Mecca, with multiple transit systems connecting to dozens of unique neighborhoods in a megalopolis of over 35 million people. I couldn’t hope to see but a fraction of this city, so I focused on the Azakusa/Ueno areas, with a sojourn to Jindaiji which ended up being my favorite place – a temple complex in the woods nestled into a suburban neighborhood with no other American/European tourists.
Read below for more observations over these first few days.
A few notes and observations from my journal:
Seattle to Tokyo direct is 11 hours. The longest I’ve ever been in a plane, and this long-legged creature thinks there should be special seat accommodations for anyone taller than six feet 🙂
Just because the alcohol is free doesn’t mean you should drink it. I skipped it, as I get headaches, which just compounds the general in-flight misery. The lady next to me had at least six glasses of red wine. One after another. Strong liver I suppose.
I furiously devoured the remaining nut bars I had packed before clearing customs. The Japanese are strict about bringing in outside food.
Japan prefers paper money and coins. Most places don’t take credit cards. In fact there is a sense of ritual in cash transactions – counting out one’s money, placing it humbly on a tray, receiving humbly the correct amount of change. I hadn’t carried cash at home in five years and this was a big adjustment, but I did adjust.
Spent the first two nights in the Asakusa neighborhood in a ryokan – a traditional Japanese lodging. You receive a yukuta – a robe/pajamas one can wear around the lodging. I like this! Modeling various yukuta is going to become a little game I play on this trip.
Pillows are tiny, thin, and tough! Sometimes they are filled with something like bean bag material. I do not like this.
One takes off their shoes pretty much anytime you enter a home. Slippers are provided. There are separate slippers to change into just for the toilet. Also the toilets are amazing.
Bowing is polite and important. When in doubt, bow.
There are shrines everywhere – from large temple complexes to tiny shrines on a neighborhood side street. I am making an intention to pray at one of the larger shrines each day, and offer a bow to any shrine I walk past. It’s a good reminder to set intentions and offering to one’s higher power, and I wish we had more reminders of this in our communal lives.
Check out the “Mt Rainier” lattes in the photo below. Lol, PNW representing well! I also chuckled at the ”Reign Storm” energy drinks – they were doing a promo handing them out for free at Shinjuku Station. Naming your product after Seattle’s top two women’s pro sports teams? Can’t be a coincidence can it?
The crosswalk at Shibuya is supposed to be the world’s busiest. This is true, mainly due to all the tourists, who use the crosswalk to take selfies of themselves using the world’s busiest crosswalk. If not for them, it would likely be no busier than 3rd and Pine.
There is a 7-eleven on every street, and they are amazing here, fast becoming my primary source of calories, mainly via onigiri, protein bars, and chicken-and-egg sandwiches. The cheap cab was pretty good, too.
Phrases I am trying to learn these first few days: kanpai– cheers!, toire wa doku desu ka – where is the toilet?, okanjo o kudasai – check, please, wakarimasen – I don’t understand (or, nihongo ga wakarimasen – I don’t understand Japanese). The two any traveler should know are sumimasen – excuse me/pardon/sorry, and, arigato gozayimas – thank you. Language is always humbling for me. I’m not adept at learning and my brain hurts, but I always try. Without fail I will observe American tourists walk into a cafe or restaurant and just launch into English. Sometimes they say please and thanks, but it’s always in English. This is true for everywhere I’ve traveled. I get that a lot of people know English, and it is the common tongue of Empire (for now), but learning at a minimum to say please and thank you in the language of the country you are visiting is polite and goes a long way with someone that you care even slightly enough to try.
It has been encouraged that I do some sketching on this trip so I am making a conscious effort to take time to do so. It’s a good mindfulness practice for me. These were done at parks around the Ueno area.
