Davin Reporting!
Today was our first day in Tokyo. We started the day by visiting Mr. Donut, which was across the street from our hotel. Unfortunately, the donuts here pretty much sucked. The chocolate ones were alright, but all of the others had a very weird taste, unlike anything I’ve had before. Also, weirdly enough, you can also buy various soups and noodle dishes at Mr. Donut.
With that crappy meal out of the way, we made our way to Uedo park, and walked through it to reach the Tokyo National Museum. This museum is sort of Japan’s version of the British museum. It has a lot of historical artifacts, and art from Japan’s past, and also some from other countries as well. We made our way through all of the major exhibits, which took some hours, although we did not have time to read all of the information.
One of the highlights was a display of bronze Buddhas from Horyuji temple dating back over a thousand years. They were all quite detailed for being so old. There was also a video showing how bronze statues are created (by making a wax mold and covering it in plaster, then melting the wax so it drains out, and replacing it with molten bronze). Altogether there are too many artifacts to describe them all, you really just have to see some of them for yourself. Even just walking through and seeing a few things is well worth it since the museum is not that expensive.
[Kristin Interjection: I visited the Tokyo National Museum in 2008. I had left with the impression that I hadn’t had enough time to see everything. This time it seemed like a few hours was plenty of time. Davin said this might be because there was a time when we insisted on reading every sign in a museum. Eight years later I may not have the same outlook. It was very interesting to come back again. I got the impression that most of the artifacts were different. I imagine the museum has a huge storehouse of artifacts and that the vast majority are traded out over time on a rotation.
There was one building containing artifacts from parts of the world outside of Japan. Some of the items from China looked like they were in very good condition and they seemed like they had high cultural significance for China. Something about how the wording on the sign was phrased gave us both the distinct impression that it may have been questionable how Japan came into possession of these particular items... I didn't take any pictures of those items though.]
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| Chinese Tri-Glazed Sculpture |
The Tokyo Edo Museum is inside a weird structure, where the upper floors were basically supported on stilts. The museum was located on level 5, with an escalator leading up to it from level 2 which was open to the air (levels 3 and 4 did not exist). It was interesting to see, to say the least.
Unfortunately, we were very hungry at this point, not having had a chance to eat anything since breakfast, so before we went to the museum we visited an Italian restaurant located on the grounds. Under normal circumstances, we probably wouldn’t have picked an Italian restaurant while in Japan, but it was what happened to be there, and we couldn’t really spare any time looking for something else. As it turned out the pizzas we ordered were very good– quite authentic to what we’ve eaten in Europe– so it ended up being a worthy choice.
[Kristin Interjection: I thought the pizza was better than the Margharita we ordered at an Italian restaurant in Sydney, Australia. D thought the one in Sydney, Australia was better. Either way, both places were very authentic to Italian style pizza.]
Having recharged our batteries we made our way down to the ticket counter and bought admission to the museum. Unfortunately, in the intervening period the up escalator to the museum had closed (apparently it was too late), and we were forced to take the elevator, which was a bit of a letdown. The inside of the museum was also huge, almost more like a warehouse, allowing for some life sized recreations of various Edo period buildings. This museum was a lot like the Hong Kong Museum, in that it traced the history of the city from the Edo period up to the present day.
As we arrived at the museum we were lucky enough to see a show with an entertainer who could do all kinds of impressive feats of dexterity featuring balls and umbrellas. That probably sounds totally weird, but I don’t know how to describe it better. Sometimes when you see these acrobats/jugglers/etc. you just can’t believe the feats they are capable of performing, or imagine how much time it must have taken them to develop their skills!
The Tokyo Edo Museum had various information about the Edo period, including a few models of parts of the city at the time. The models were pretty intricate, and if you looked closely you could see people performing all kinds of tasks. That is another thing that I can’t imagine how much time it would take to create. Whoever made it must have really liked creating models.
[Kristin Interjection: The tables supporting the models of the cities had binoculars attached to stations by a cord. Upon seeing these binoculars, my first thought was negative. It seemed really dumb. The models weren’t so big that you needed help seeing anything. However, I picked up a pair to try it out and was surprised at how much it changed your perspective. Only after looking through the binoculars did I notice that each character in the crowd of figurines was unique and engaged in some daily life activity. In the end, it was really neat!]
As part of the history of Edo period, the museum also included information on the Korean diplomatic missions to Japan. That was kind of cool seeing the same history mentioned from multiple perspectives, and something that you could only experience by stopping at so many places! While world trade may be greater now than at any other time, humanity has clearly always been interconnected by the trade of goods and ideas.
I think you could easily spend a whole day at this museum if you had the interest. In any case, we only had a couple hours, so we blew through as much as we could stand, and then the museum closed and we got kicked out. To be honest, we were sort of relieved the museum closed, because we had both already hit information overload, and could barely even stand to learn anything more; but, try as we might, we can never just breeze through a museum without trying to look at almost everything!
[Kristin Interjection: After the first floor, I felt so saturated that I just started taking pictures of the entire museum. Sign after sign after sign. When it is allowed, I often document entire museums and save them in a file that I call ‘Virtual Museums’. That way I can visit the museum again anytime I want! Theoretically, I could also share the museums with people who do not have the opportunity to visit Japan (or elsewhere) themselves. In all my travels, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else take pictures of every sign in a museum in order to take the museum home with them. We live in the digital age, so I say, “Take advantage!”]
It was now after 7 PM (the museum was opened late on this day, luckily for us), and we started making our way back to our hotel. The train took us to Akihabara station, which conveniently was the location of the Akihabara Electronics District. This is an insane place with a bunch of different shops selling electronics equipment. In fact, I’m wondering if the reason it’s so hard to find electronics stores in Japan is because they’re all located together? (If so, it’s pretty idiotic, because it would be more convenient if they were spread around the city, rather than all being in one place!)
Anyway, the battery life for Kristin’s phone has been very bad lately, so we wanted to see if we could find a replacement. Well, here’s where we found out some interesting things about Japan. First of all, when you take out a Samsung phone, the salesmen seem like they want to run away from you, like you’re some sort of leper. Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it seems like nobody in Japan wants anything to do with Samsung. Even the Samsung phones that are sold here, are sold un-branded!
Japanese apparently only want to buy Japanese equipment, so anything made in Korea is out. Strangely, this aversion doesn’t seem to apply to Apple products though, with iPhones still making up 50% of phones sold here. Go figure. In any case, it quickly became apparent that we weren’t going to find a battery for Samsung equipment here.
And that is the second issue: all of the shops here were selling the exact same things! In fact, several of them also had the same name on the building, so I think they might have actually been the same company entirely! These buildings were all within sight of each other! It wasn’t entirely clear, because it could be the building had different stores in it– the setup was kind of odd. But, in any case, what the hell is the point of having a dozen stores in the same area, all selling the same damn thing? It just seems weird to me. (I think that this area was also a tax free zone, which might have been part of its appeal.)
After giving up on this, we went to a SEGA arcade to see what it was like. This place was also insane! The first three levels entirely populated with UFO machines (the ones where you use the stupid claw to try to pick stuff up). The third level also had a place for women to dress up in strange costumes, and I believe there was also a section for men too. Then you could have your picture taken. These areas were segregated so only people of the proper sex could go in to them.
The next levels had tons of arcade machines, including a couple of DDR and Pump It Up! machines. However, it was so loud in here from all the different machines, I didn’t even understand how anyone could even play a dance game in there. You do, to some extent, need to be able to hear the beat! Sadly, judging from the limited floor space reserved for DDR, I’d say it’s mostly died out in Japan as well.
On the top floor there was a part with electronic dart machines, which actually looked like fun. We also came across people playing a weird hybrid collectible card game, where you placed physical cards on the machine, seemingly in order to have access to those characters in the game. I’ve never seen anything quite like that before!
In any case, I’d have to say the arcade scene appears quite a bit more healthy in Japan than in the U.S. The Boardwalk in El Cajon, looks like it’s on the verge of falling apart, and is probably only kept afloat by kids’ birthday parties. Another interesting thing is there were people in the arcade with business suits on, so apparently arcades in Japan attracts more than just geeks. Or maybe it’s just that everyone in Japan is a geek?
[Kristin Interjection: There were many FPS games with handheld guns that looked pretty awesome too! The graphics were excellent and the huge video screens would make it a fun experience.]
Oddly, I think seeing the Akihabara Electronics District was probably one of the highlights of visiting Tokyo, just because of the sheer absurdity of the place. There were so many people there and so many shops. It was unclear to me what all of them doing– mostly shopping?
Our hotel was only a couple blocks from the electronics district, so we headed back, and turned our attention to finding something to eat. Unfortunately, it was now just after 9 PM, and surprisingly, despite it being the weekend, all of the restaurants were now closed! Considering the number of people that live there, I had honestly expected Tokyo to be more like New York in terms of restaurant hours, but apparently not. In fairness, the area near our hotel was kind of dead, but how could it not be when everything is closed?
[Kristin Interjection: We were also taken aback because we had arrived at 10PM last night and the restaurants were still open at that time! That was a Friday night. We figured that Saturday night would be like Friday night. But it turned out that Saturday night was more like a U.S. Sunday night because many places closed in Japan on Sunday!]
Back toward the electronics district we found a conveyor belt sushi place which was still open, which was an interesting experience. Basically, plates with sushi on them travel around, and as they pass by you can pick them up. Different color plates cost different amounts, and at the end your bill is tallied up based on the number and type of plates in front of you. They have these in the U.S. now too, so it’s not really that special, but it was my first time getting the experience.
Unfortunately, we got here when this place was on the verge of closing, so the pickings on the conveyor belt were kind of skimpy. This was also a situation where not being familiar with the language or exactly what the restaurant was serving became something of a problem. Other people who were there made requests from the sushi chef, to make what they wanted, but we didn’t know exactly what they served, and there was no menu. So, we could only take whatever passed by. It didn’t help matters that we ended up sitting behind a large pillar where we couldn’t even see the chef anyway!
All the same it was a fairly satisfying meal, if a bit expensive. Ironically, I think sushi is actually cheaper back in California! It could be that this place was a bit more expensive due to having a conveyor belt, but even so, I think the prices in Japan were higher. And the other side of that coin is that sushi is basically identical in Japan to what you can get elsewhere in the world! Since it turns out that sushi back in California is completely authentic, I resolved to avoid sushi for the rest of our time in Japan and instead sample other types of local cuisine.
[Kristin Interjection: One thing about this restaurant that I found interesting was the self serve hot tea dispenser. There were two jars of powdered green tea spaced around the sushi bar, representing the two types of tea they offered. You then took a tea cup, added your powder, and then used the hot water dispensers located around the sushi bar to fill your cup. So the tea was all you could drink and completely free. It was also very good tea. Unfortunately, taking pictures inside the sushi restaurant was forbidden.]
Unfortunately, I was actually still a bit hungry, so we walked back to the station to try to find some other restaurant there. Although we found a curry place, it was also no longer serving people, even though there were still a significant number of people walking around outside. So, I was forced to make do with a snack from 7/11 back near our hotel. On the way there, I noticed that even though it was nearly 2 hours later, there were still workers in the restaurants we had made enquires in earlier! I’m uncertain why they were so averse to taking our money earlier, when it seemed they were going to be there until the middle of the night anyway? Just weird.
[Kristin Interjection: We also enjoyed two chocolate chocolate ice cream bars from the 7/11. We’ve been looking for chocolate chocolate ice cream bars ever since we started this adventures, and this was the first time we’d managed to find them in the world outside of the U.S.A. Davin did not like the consistency of the chocolate shell because it was “chewy instead of hard and crunchy”. It tasted right though, so I didn’t care what the texture was! Yum, yum!]
Tomorrow’s Adventure: Tokyo Day 2 (March 20, 2016)
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