7-23-19 - Tokyo Summary
/Day 1
National Children’s Choir (NCC) has a arranged a bus trip to Mount Fuji where we go for a boat ride on Lake Ashinoko at the base of the mountain. Sounds great, the only problem? After the hour boat ride, we have unparalleled views of the clouds and fog. The skeptic in me wonders if Mount Fuji even exists or if it is all a creation of the tourism industry like Santa Claus is for retail stores.
Next, NCC has arranged an authentic Japanese lunch of local Hakone cuisine. By now, I know that authentic Japanese equals fish and lots of it. The wait staff looks insulted when I ask if there is a McDonalds within walking distance. I try to explain that I don’t eat fish but I think I’m making it worse.
John and NCC perform at the Organ Hall in the Kawaguchiko Music Forest which is an underground hall that houses the world’s largest dance organ and automated doll orchestra. After the traditional Japanese lunch (or lack thereof for the non-fish eating crew). the collective group is not feeling particularly adventurous on the food front. As luck would have it there is yet again a TGIF next to our hotel. Since we’ve confirmed in Osaka that TGIF doesn’t stand for Thank God It’s Fish Friday, we opt for that one. Dinner is fabulous. We laughed the entire dinner reviewing the highlights and mishaps of the trip so far. The dinner represented one of goals of the trip – family bonding.
Day 2
Today is the last day of the NCC program. It has been a wonderful 2 weeks with NCC planning a lot of sight seeing that we wouldn’t have booked on our own. First stop of the morning is the Meiji Jingu Shrine which is the Shinto Shrine dedicated to spirits of Emperor Meiji. The Japanese recognize 8 million Shinto gods. A Shinto god is one you pray to for a specific cause such as birth of children, marriage, farming, weather, etc. I start thinking of the Americanized version of the Shinto religion. We’d have a Shinto god of every sports team in existence. I’d very likely adopt the Shinto god of the LA Lakers, NY Yankees and NY Giants (lord knows the Giants need all the help they can get). We’d also have the Shinto gods of fantasy football and importantly of no traffic accidents on the 405 at rush hour.
Having gotten our daily dose of Shinto Shrine in, we head over to the Imperial palace. The Emperor of Japan, Naruhito, and the royal family live in the Imperial Palace. And here I thought “The” Royal Family lived in Buckingham Palace. This sounds like an X-box battle royal between The Queen and the new Emperor of Japan.
In the afternoon, NCC performs in the stunning Blue Rose Hall. John was brilliant but the conclusion of the performance is a somewhat bitter sweet moment for me knowing it is the last one on the NCC tour. I was just getting into the groove of being an NCC roadie following them around from concert to concert when all the sudden it’s over.
In the evening, NCC hosts their closing dinner. Luckily, the dinner is in the hotel as the kids are pretty wiped out and can head back to their room after dinner. Leanne and I stay and hang out with our new friends Rob and Milton and some others from the NCC group. Most of the families have a 4am wake-up call to fly back to the states; however we are staying in Tokyo for another four days and can sleep in so we decide to further explore the cultural phenomenon of Sake.
Day 3
With the conclusion of the NCC program, we are back on our own to explore Tokyo. We check into our Air BnB which has 4 stories but each floor having only 2 rooms. It’s kind of like living inside a toothpick. The strange Japanese bathrooms continue as this one has the programable, need a remote control to operate toilet where the toilet seat opens automatically when you enter and scares the heck out of you in the middle of the night. There is also no regular sink so the toilet has a hose that dispenses water into the top of the toilet for you to wash your hands. I never thought understanding cultural differences would lead me so far down the path of the art of bathroom comparison and analysis.
We need to make use of a doctor for the second time on the trip as Corey is not feeling well. Due to the beauty of the Internet, John quickly locates and urgent care that speaks English, takes our health insurance, is open Saturday and doesn’t require you to be in a life threatening condition to be seen. In all of 30 minutes, they had diagnosed Corey, take and gotten back results of his blood test and dispensed an anti-biotic. Japanese health care gets an A+ on this one.
John has taken over planning and as Japan is one of his top countries, is determined that we see as much of this rather large city as humanly possible. We walk an hour to the heart of Tokyo and this is much more what I was picturing for Tokyo (giant buildings, lights everywhere, mega-crowds). We go to Robot Restaurant where for a two-hour show full of lights, robots, and anime actors galore. Its fast paced, lively, upbeat, and incredibly entertaining. They even have Danny from GOT on a dragon saving the planet from the evil robot invaders. Apparently, there are many Japanese GOT fans.
Day 4
We start with a short walk to a Shinto shrine in Shinjuku Chou Park. With 8 million Shinto gods, it can be a daunting task to keep up with which shrine we’ve visited follows which god. This is especially true since John has found the local shrines that have no English translations.
We next take a taxi to Sunshine City. Leanne opts to hail a taxi from the sidewalk while I opt to use Japan Taxi app (Uber equivalent). After 20 mins of waiting and trying to explain on the phone to a driver who doesn’t speak English where I need to be picked up, I give up and hail a taxi from the sidewalk. Sunshine City is a gigantic metropolis inside a 9 story mall that spans multiple city blocks. We go to the aquarium. Yes there is an aquarium the size of the one in Long Beach inside a mall. Yes – Tokyo is that big.
Next, we take a taxi to Kanda Myojin Shrine. Japanese taxis are starting to rank up there with Japanese bathrooms, both of which are necessities in getting around Tokyo. The non-English speaking driver ends up dropping us off at the Akiabara train station instead of the shrine due to the fact that we all have backpacks and he assumes we are getting on the train. The rest of the afternoon is spending browsing stores Bic Camera, Animate, Mandrake and Don Quixote. Stores in Tokyo are a whole different experience. They span 8-9 floors high but with a much smaller footprint
John has arranged for us to stay at a traditional Japanese hotel Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu. The hotel room has an entry way where we take off our shoes and a single room with cushion pads on the floor, a mini table on the floor with cushions (no chairs), green tea and Yukata robes.
We know we’ve found the perfect local place as the line is really long, all signs and menus are all in Japanese with no English and we are the only non-Japanese patrons in the restaurant. We are getting good at the pointing to a picture and holding up the number of fingers for how many we want.
Day 5
We wake up from our ryokan overnight stay having slept on the floor on tatami mats. We do a traditional Onsen (Japanese hot spring bath) in the hotel, don our Yukata robes and eat breakfast before heading out. John the intrepid explorer fearlessly navigates Tokyo’s subway and metro train systems (the largest in the world) like a pro. If I had been leading the way, we probably would have ended up in Thailand even though Japan is an Island.
First stop is the ramen Cup Noodle Museum which is dedicated to the inventor of Cup Noodles. Cup noodles are a huge staple in our diet back home. When all the other food in the house has run out, the kids can always fall back on cup noodles. They have also subsidized many a college and graduate school’s education at 25 cents a pop.
As part of the visit, we each get to make our own personalized cup noodles where you draw on the cup, choose your flavor, add your own customized toppings and they shrink wrap it. The only problem is that is past lunch and we want to eat the Cup Noodles not carry them around the rest of the day but there is not eating allowed in the museum. I get the idea to visit the Starbucks down the street and order a cup of hot water. This strategy is working until the 3rdone of us goes up and orders a cup of hot water. The cashier gets a look of dawning realization and says “you all eat Cup Noodles in my Starbucks? NO!”
We head to Cosmo World which has the 2ndhighest Ferris Wheel in the world. It was cool but moves so slowly you can’t tell your moving. We add a couple roller coaster and log flume rides.
Day 6
Today is a travel day to Cairns, Australia on an overnight flight so we have the day to explore. The big highlight is Shibuya crossing. Imagine a really crowded place, a gym in January 2nd, or opening night of the newest Star Wars movie, now times that by 50 or 100 and you have Shibuya crossing every five minutes. Off course what is a busy intersection without some branded American fast food chains, we watch the “scramble” from Starbucks at an elevated view, it is even more impressive from above.
We visit the Tokyo Metropolitan government building but don’t have time to wait on line for the observatory tower room as we have tickets on the bullet train to get the airport. Praying to the Shinto god of seamless travel appears to be working as we sail through the airport process. Our flight is the largest emptiest international flight I’ve seen, I guess Cairns isn’t Tokyo’s number one vacation spot. We doze off on our ghost flight and wake up in the land Down under.
