Day 5: Great Expectations

Tonight is our first “traditional Japanese” experience at a ryokan – tatami mats, futon, low table with cushions, wall panels….I’m so excited! We booked Tani Guest-house last night as we committed to head to Kyoto today.  Tokyo is cool, but it doesn’t really offer much in the way of cultural feeling.  It’s a big city with a lot to offer, but we want to “feel” Japan. Of course, the first part of that will be right here in Tokyo – running the path around the Imperial Palace grounds where, apparently, Tokyo comes to run!

The Imperial Palace grounds in Tokyo are encircled by a perfectly measured (at every 100m), traffic-free running route, with washrooms, lockers, and even posted etiquette!

I have wanted to run this since I first started looking into a vacation to Japan!

The vibe is incredible – so many runners of all abilities, right in the heart of a massive city! Mindy loved it so much that her 10-15km run turned into 25km.  Myself, I ran about 17km – probably a little long for the week leading up to my marathon in Lake Biwa…but what an experience!  

Having finished with Tokyo for now, we jumped on the Shinkansen (bullet-train) bound for Kyoto. Fast as those things go, it was a bit late when we set out, and so it was getting dark by the time we reached Kyoto.  Mindy and I were both a little worn out from the trip, and hungry, so we stopped at a grocery store to load up on dinner food.  Tani House has a kitchen, and we can eat at the low table in our room, sitting on cushions.  Feeling confident from our subway experiences in Tokyo, and loaded down with food for dinner, we got on a city bus…and then I got a little concerned when the bus driver stared at the directions on my phone for a long time before finally exclaiming the name of the stop we would need. My Japanese is pretty…um…I don’t “have” any Japanese, so he graciously flagged that stop for us as we approached.

A beautiful path into a temple complex met us at the bus stop, and this set up high hopes as we followed the map toward Tani House.  When we felt that we must be nearly there, we stopped and asked a woman who happened to be at her front door.  She struggled to explain directions to us, calling her husband out to help, and then a man who happened to be walking by overheard their conversation and – through gestures – offered to walk us there.  We were not nearly there.  In retrospect, we weren’t that far off. Had we gone back to the main street, we were one street off from where we needed to go.  However, this very kind Japanese man quickly marched us through the dark temple complex, up and down paths and through woods…I was uneasy enough that I didn’t enjoy the scenery barely visible in the darkness, and instead wondered if we were about to be robbed. 

Eventually, the man proudly stopped in front of a crudely made sign for the Tani House, and gestured for us to go the rest of the way.

In my excitement to book this ryokan experience, I neglected to read the reviews on Tani House. Once it was booked and non-refundable, I read mixed reviews.  Some said it was filthy and poorly maintained, and others claimed that a sweet woman opened her house up for the true Japanese experience.  I’m willing to see for myself; how bad can it be? The former reviews were closer to the truth. There we were, trudging through a dirt path in the dark after our generous guide had left us, coming upon a ramshackle hostel with rusted bicycles out front and a messily overgrown garden.

These photos were taken the next day in the daylight, so try to think of these with the added aspect of darkness:

The hostess (who did seem rather sweet, admittedly) led us to our room – the nicest in the place – and showed us how to set up our bed from the pile of futon mattresses and linens in a closet accessible through a window (to the outside). The room was dirty. The kitchen was vile.  The bathroom was worse than the public washrooms in Union Station in Toronto. It was so disheartening.  But it was late and dark in Kyoto, so we were staying there.  At least the sheets were clean (I know from my own backyard the stiffness of sheets that hang to dry, then get rained on, then dry again), and we were only staying one night.  We locked up our luggage and set out for a restaurant for dinner.  We were not eating at Tani House!

Compared to Tokyo, Kyoto is a sleepy city.  We found one street with a few open restaurants, and found our first very pleasant surprise of the evening! Traditional Japanese, and this time it wasn’t code for dirty and run-down.

We ordered every vegetarian dish on the menu, as well as a couple of Japanese hard apple ciders to build confidence for the imminent return to Tani House.  We discovered Kyoto-style pizza (teriyaki sauce, a different crust, and delicious cheese), assorted Kyoto-style tofu dishes, and hot soup. Admittedly, we stayed away from menu items that just don't translate very well...

...and in some cases, it's not the translation:

We chatted (a bit) with one of the servers who had spent a few weeks in Vancouver and had much better English than I would have Japanese after a few weeks here! It was a fantastic experience – the feel of culture we were missing in Tokyo, and exactly what we needed after the dismal shock of Tani House. 

Eventually we had to leave, and we made our way back to the hovel. We used a blanket we had saved from the flight to cover the pillows.  At least our faces wouldn’t be resting on the questionably clean sheets.

I’m all up for adventure, but I really prefer it when my expectations are exceeded. This is a test. I have to hand it to Mindy for taking this in stride.  I have stayed in worse places….or at least one worse place, but my university-age mind-set at midnight on a night of torrential rain was willing to accept a lot.  I would recommend this place to the bums from the Tenderloin in San Francisco, but not to many others. Pretty foul.

I’d say “good night”, but I don’t think that’s true for me…

Day 4: Happenin' at Happo-en

Shameless.  Absolutely shameless.  Happo-en isn't, really, a "happening" place.  It's very tranquil, and I'm just going for assonance with my title. Happo-en is beautiful, and it is home to perhaps the best bonsai collection in all of Japan....but more on that later. Anyway, grab a drink and settle in.  This entry is a long one...

6:30 this morning didn't feel so bad after only 3.5 hours of sleep. (Admittedly, I was able to sleep on the flight yesterday for a few hours.) We got up to squeeze in a quick run before our tour today - they say that nothing cures jet-lag so well as a run.  The front desk clerk recommended we run to Shiba Park and he...sort of...gave us directions.  He didn't speak English, but was trying so hard to please us (he didn't stop bowing until we ran away) that I figured we'd make do.  Thankfully, our experience of friendly and helpful Japanese people continued, and we made it.  Along the way, we saw a few dozen Japanese smokers huddled together in the designated smoking area near a bus-stop; the smoking section was about the size of my kitchen, and I have a galley kitchen!  It was then that I realised that one doesn't see cigarette butts on the ground in Tokyo. Not anywhere!

Anyway, we were out to run, not to gawk at smokers.  Shiba Park is built around a Buddhist temple and is a BEAUTIFUL place for a run!

The stone stairs made for some tricky footwork, but the orange tree with full-sized oranges was so stunning! (We resisted the temptation to pick any oranges to eat.  In retrospect, we should have taken the chance, I think...) Shiba Park also affords views of the Tokyo Tower - similar to the Eiffel Tower in France, though a little bit taller, and a little bit lighter (stronger materials were used to build it).

Like so many places in Tokyo and - reportedly - throughout Japan, there are cherry blossom trees all over Shiba Park.  Unfortunately, just like everywhere else, they are not yet in season. Only the faint buds colour the branches.

Stopping for photos is a good way to extend a run, so 6.5km took an hour.  By the time we got back to the hotel and cleaned up, it was a rush to get to the bus station to meet our tour.  Directions in Tokyo are confusing due to the number of streets, the language barrier, and most of all, the lack of street names!  Most streets in Tokyo do not have names.  As a result, directions from Google maps can read something like:

Go up the street
Cross crosswalk
Cross crosswalk
Turn left
Turn right
Destination is on your right

Not so helpful when you are in a rush!

We were just around the corner from Hamamatsucho bus terminal with three minutes to go. The problem was we didn't know which corner, or how far around it.  We found a cab driver and asked for directions. He started to explain, and as we realised how complex it was getting, we just hopped in the cab.  Keeping in mind that this is the culture of punctuality, we never would have made it in time without the cab ride. We also wouldn't have seen just how clean the interior of a cab can be.  You could have EATEN right off the white fabric seat covers with lace fringes.

The bus was to pick us up at 9am.  We got to the bus station at 9am.  By Japanese standards, that is already late! Thankfully, this tour was running "late" and we didn't miss anything.  While Mindy and I ate a breakfast of almonds, cookies, granola bars, and whatever was in our bags, we set forth - back to the Tokyo Tower.  This time, we learned that it was built as a radio reception tower for Tokyo as a temporary exhibit in 1958, but the city immediately decided it was there to stay.  And we got to go up for the views of the city!

Tokyo is a big city.  Very big. Big enough that when one looks out from Tokyo Tower in any direction, all one sees is major city.  It's everywhere!

Of course,in one particular direction, there was a running track.  Poor Mindy.  She's in Tokyo for the first time, looking out from Tokyo's slightly-better-than-the-one-in-Paris "Eiffel Tower", and she covets the track.

...Or, she did for a moment, anyway.

Back on the bus, our knowledgeable guide, "Ninja", regaled us with facts and figures about Tokyo as we drove to the Happo-en garden for a traditional tea ceremony. Ninja is so called because of her family's long history of ninja training.  It persists today, and so she and her father (Ninja would be in her sixties, I think...) still pursue the craft.

"They're only illegal if you're caught with them." (What if they catch you making them by hand, as Ninja does?)

The tea ceremony at Happo-en wasn't exactly traditional.  A traditional ceremony takes four hours, and ours was complete in about 20 minutes. Nonetheless, it was really interesting to catch this glimpse into the tea culture.  Once complete, we spent time admiring the gardens, and koi ponds;  the bustling of Tokyo seemed remote, indeed!

Note the tatami wraps around some tree trunks?  Black fir trees in Japan suffer from an invasive beetle species that lays eggs in the ground around the trunk.  These wraps confuse the beetles into thinking that these wraps are the ground, and so the eggs can be destroyed. (Either naturally through the cold winter, or through human intervention, I'm not sure.)

Some of the bonsai specimens in the Happo-en collection are over 500 years old!!

A quick note on Japanese gardens, and the focus on rocks and trees over flowers.  Although Buddhism contemplates the impermanence of everything, both Buddhist belief and traditional samurai mindset prefer the persistence of rocks and trees for gardens.  Flowers fade too quickly, and are too strong a reminder of life's brevity. More recently, Tokyo has established some "official" flower gardens, and the Japanese seem to accept that beauty can be transient.

From Happo-en, we went to the Imperial Palace grounds.  Sometime over the past year, I read that Tokyo's Imperial Palace grounds are THE place to run in Tokyo. Since then, I've been excited to see them.  So excited, in fact, that we booked our second night in Tokyo right near the Imperial Palace grounds in order to run there in the morning. Back to this tour, though.  Only the Japanese would create a veritable forest of painstakingly manicured trees.

The recurring theme of water and reflection pools persists in this grand garden:

Visiting the palace grounds really is just that - a visit to the grounds.  The best views one gets of the palace itself are a glimpse from afar.  The Japanese Emperor still lives there, and only opens the palace to the public twice a year: December 23rd and New Years.  (The former is to recognize the Emperor's birthday, and is not related to Christmas.)  According to Ninja, one can also pay a hefty sum of money to meet the Emperor in person, where he will serve you cake and speak to you for about 20 seconds.  Golly.

A traditional Japanese barbecue at Chinzan-so garden was included in the tour.  The vegetarian version was excellent, and this was way more fun than the Mongolian Grill!

The Chinzan-so hotel lobby presented probably the only cherry blossom tree we'll see in full bloom on this trip - a bonsai:

Chinzan-so is right across the street from the largest Catholic Church in Japan.  Given that Christianity didn't really take hold until recently, it's no surprise that only about 1% of Japanese declare themselves as Christians.  (0.4% of the overall population is Catholic.)  Of course, 0.4% of 128 million.....is still a lot of people. The church didn't look very compelling, so we didn't go in.

After lunch, we took a cruise up the Sumida river toward the Asakusa Shrine.  Maybe I was just getting a little tired, but the cruise was.....boring. How many block-style drab buildings does one really want to see? The Asakusa Shrine compensated nicely. Passing through the Thunder Gate, there's a dense row of shops catering to the needs of every tourist and pilgrim (many wear both hats), all leading up to the shrine itself. Our need was for mystery sweets in the Japanese style.

Tokyo has a long and rich history in religion and architecture.  Unfortunately, Tokyo was also bombed to hell in WWII.  As a result, most of the temples and important structures in and around Tokyo are pretty young.  The Senso-ji temple at the Asakusa Shrine was built in 1960.  It is styled on the original one built a thousand years earlier in 942, but it's not quite the same.  Nevertheless, it is pretty fantastic.

To the side of the temple, there is Zeniduka Jizoudou Hall (built in 1964).  The fable behind this building speaks volumes about Japanese culture, The story goes that in the Edo period, a woman found a crock full of coins as she was digging in the yard about her house.  Whereas in any Western European fable (St. Nicholas, for instance), the woman would use the money to marry off her daughters or something like that, this Japanese woman feared that her family fortunes would suffer if they benefited from this money for which they had not worked.  She re-buried the coins, her family continued to work hard, and so her family prospered.

The final stop of the day was Tokyo Central Station, which was extremely convenient, given that we still needed to collect our Japan Rail passes. (The exchange centre was closed when we landed in Tokyo last night.) Tokyo Central Station could be a European train station, except that it is way bigger!

Fortunately, our experience there was straightforward (unlike the warnings I received from a colleague that the warren of tunnels can be overwhelming). We made it back to the hotel to collect our bags from this morning, and ventured forth to the new hotel for the night.  Whereas last night was a gentle introduction to Tokyo's subway (one line and a short walk), this evening was the real test.  Tired, worn out, and craving bed, we managed our way by train, subway, and unlabeled streets to the Diamond Hotel. Brief contemplation of the lobby restaurant turned us off that idea for dinner (shark fin soup, anyone?), and we crawled into bed for a brief nap before food.  It was 8:45pm.  We didn't make it to dinner.

Yawn.....good night.

Day 3: Konnichiwa

It's been a long day of travel, but a short day overall.  I mean,literally.  We boarded a plane a little after 6pm on Saturday in San Francisco, and 10 hours later, we touched down in Tokyo at 10pm Sunday night. You'd think with all the traveling these days, I'd be used to the rules of airports.  Apparently I'm not.  Apparently....neither are the agents working at San Francisco airport.  I found two bottles of water in my carry-on bag that I had totally forgotten about, after I passed through security.  Whoops!

Arriving in Tokyo is so exciting, and yet so routine.  Nobody around us seemed to be ecstatic to be setting foot in Japan for the first time ever! (This did little to dampen our enthusiasm.)  True to stereotype, the Japanese customs officials were extremely kind, friendly and welcoming.  When one saw we were Canadian, he asked (in perfectly fluent English) whether we speak French.  He then spoke to us in French for the rest of our (very brief) exchange.

The office to exchange our JR Rail Pass vouchers to the actual passes was closed, so we had to buy subway tickets for the trek to our hotel.  Then we had to spend some moments trying to figure out the subway system (and did enlist the help of some friendly locals...who laughed at us).

More friendly locals helped us on the walk to the hotel from Mita Station, and now we are here - noon Toronto time, 9am San Francisco time (I think that's the way the time change works, but I am pretty zonked right now) and 2am in Tokyo, the next day. Time to get a few hours of sleep before a tour tomorrow morning.  

I'm ready for bed!