Japan 22: Tokyo, the end of a journey

After a few days of recuperating at home, I am ready to write about the end.

I woke up at 5:30 AM to catch the 6:05 AM train from Onomishi to Fukuyama.  From there, I took the shinkanesen bullet train at 7:05, direct to Tokyo.  The bullet train was about four and a half hours.  One more short local train trip of less than ten minutes, and I was at my hotel in Tokyo, The Park Hotel Tokyo.

The hotel has a few unique aspects to it.  First, and most problematic to me, is that it starts on the 25th floor.  Having a fear of heights, I felt every inch of the ascent to the 25th floor.  Once there, the floor opens up, so you can look straight up to the top of the building.  The rooms are lined up, all facing the outside, in a circle, around the sides.



A benefit of the hotel is that you could go one floor into the basement, which has an underground pathway that leads to convenient stores, a mall, and access to the trains and subway.  This way, you do not need to walk across streets and wait for lights in order to get into town.  The area also had people creating artwork on the pillars, along with activities for kids.



I decided to start my exploration far away, working inward, back to the hotel.  My first stop was Nakano Broadway.  I read that it was known for its collection of anime related stores.  This indoor, mall type building had Five levels.  The basement had a pharmacy, some food, and a bunch of anime and toy shops.  The first floor was a mix of normal shops and a handful of anime stores.  The fourth floor was half empty and half book and comic shops.  The second and third floors were the main attraction.  Shop after shop of anime figures, costume stores, console game stores, and a whole lot of stores dealing with monsters and creatures of all types.



First, I went to the basement and found an ice cream shop.  I just wanted vanilla, but the guy insisted that I pick two different soft serve flavors.  I added strawberry.  What I was given was the biggest cone of ice cream on the whole trip.



I only had this one day to explore Tokyo, so I quickly went into as many shops as I could.  I ended up picking up a Detective Conan figure for Miles.  I am planning to bring him here in November.

Next, I left for Bingoya, a craft shop halfway between Nakano Broadway and the next location.  When I arrived, the store was closed.  Monday strikes again.



Right across the street was the line direct to my next stop, Akihabara.  This area of town, like Nakano Broadway, is known for its appeal to "otaku," according to online guides.  After looking this up, and later discussing it with my guide, I understood it to mean people who enjoy gaming, anime, and other areas of nerddom.  Unlike the mall, this was an open area part of town.  They even close the main street down to cars every Sunday.



I visited a well known store, Don Quixote, which was a seven or eight story building, that is their version of Target, with the addition of anime and other nerd products, with incredibly tight corridors of products.  This is something experienced a bit in Nakano, but in this area of town, the claustrophobic nature of how they organized their shops was starting to overwhelm me.  Navigating through each narrow aisle, filled to the brim with items, while trying to get past people, is not fun.

The Mandarake Complex, as one building is known, is another seven to eight floors of items, with an outdoor staircase in addition to elevators.  The top two floors were dedicated to insanely overpriced toys.  One Jean Luc Picard toy from what looks to be the 80s, was priced at around $350.  Ridiculous.  I do not see the appeal of this building, with its prices.  Yet, apparently, it is a very hot place.



Researching the area, I came upon a phenomena known as maid cafes.  In these, young women are dressed up as maids, that are apparently present in a lot of anime.  I am not familiar with this, even though I have seen a decent amount with Miles, and a handful by myself.  In any case, it is supposed to be popular.

Online, I was directed to a place called the @Home Cafe, which had some English speakers.  I went into an elevator, with the fourth through eighth floor having cafes on them.  They didn't specify a difference.  I went to the fourth.  I took a quick picture, as they are not supposed to be allowed.



No one came over to seat me, so I walked up to the next floor.  This floor had a much more open floor plan and I was seated quickly.  The menu gave various options, all including a picture with a maid.  I was told that there was a one hour allowance to stay with my order.  I chose the dessert, along with hot chocolate.  The ice cream had corn flakes on top.



The dessert was surprisingly good.  The maid spoke barely passable English.  The whole thing was kinda creepy and awkward, to be honest.  The girls seemed to almost put on an extra younger sounding pitch to their voice.  My maid explained that I had to pick a maid to take a picture with.  Premium maids were extra, as were the top two.  After inquiring further, she explained that there were 200 in the organization, with 15 premium, and then a top two.  I didn't really get it.

After ordering, I was instructed to go onto the stage, put on a hairband with cat ears on it(it was either this or a rabbit), and make a ridiculous hand gesture for a picture with the maid.  At first, I was thinking that there was a chance that this was only because I was a foreigner, and they played it up for me.  This was incorrect.  Everyone else followed suit.  I will not be posting the picture.  What I will post, however, was the card they gave me.



Nearby was supposed to be a robot shop, but when I arrived, it was closed down.  Next, I popped into a store called Super Potato.  This is, apparently, a well known video game shop.  It had old arcade games and sold older console games.



Twenty minutes away by foot was the Jimbocho district, known for its used bookstores.  There were about a dozen lined up right on the main street, in the few blocks that I looked.  At Ohya Shobo, a recommended store, were books that were hundreds of years old, along with block prints of similar ages.  They were out of my price range.  Luckily, a nearby shop had slightly older books for $1.  I picked up a Japanese book from around 1937, just to have.



At 7:00, back at the hotel, I was picked up by my guide.  He was a British fellow, living in Japan for a couple of years.  He was fluent in Japanese.  He brought me all over town, from Shibuya to Shinjuku to Ropongi.



In one area, there was a map of 250 bars.  These bars all had room for only a handful of people, and each building was two floors, one bar on top of another.  It was a very unique setup and seemed much more personal than bigger bars.




I asked the guide many questions about Tokyo, the Japanese language, my experiences so far, and questions about his.  He explained that the whole maid cafe business had something to do with men living out the fantasy of thinking about high school crushes and ones that got away.  When asked about how some women shopkeepers use extra long enunciation of their words, he said that it is a ay of almost singing their words and is considered more beautiful.  I inquired about how one would know where to use the polite form "gozaimas" after some words.  He said that in social situations, people passed around business cards in order to figure out everyone's social hierarchy, and to know who to speak more in deference to.  He was a real pleasant guy and I really enjoyed my night walking around town with him.

Back at the hotel, I didn't get everything packed up until about 1.  I had to leave a little before noon the next day, and most areas didn't open until 10:00, so I decided to spend the morning at the hotel.  The flights went smoothly.

After going through customs at Atlanta airport, I waited in line at Qdoba, for a burrito.  The line snaked horizontally, against the counter.  While I was in the second row, the woman starting to set up food was hollering over peoples' heads to the back row, me included.  I thought that this was a bit inconsiderate of everyone int he front row, who were being yelled over, as well as the people in the back, who wouldn't be able to be heard too well, given the distance and noise of the cafeteria.  My food was being pushed ahead of things I wanted put in the burrito, to be rushed forward so they could yell and get the next customer's order.  I didn't understand the rush, since the cashier was slow, and people were being backed up.  When asked about sauce, I said mild cheese sauce.  She put on mild salsa.  I said that this wasn't what I had wanted.  She said I had asked for mild salso.  I explained that if they hadn't been rushing and shouting over peoples' heads, they might have actually heard my order properly.  I said to forget it and walked away.  Coming from a society that values politeness and service, being treated like this wasn't particularly pleasant.  The cost of the food and the $2.50 water wasn't pleasing either.

I landed in Fort Launderdale, and being in the back of the plane, it would take little while until I would be able to walk out.  Meanwhile, a woman took out her phone and proceeded to have a whole conversation, loudly, as if she were the only one there.  No thought about all of the other people that she was imposing upon.  In Japan, people are discouraged from talking on the phone in the trains and subways, and again, it was difficult adjusting to how Americans don't take the same approach of politeness and being aware of the others around them.


After I hand over some gifts from the trip to my parents tomorrow, I will be making a post with pictures of everything that we picked up throughout the six weeks.  Anything that Stephanie bought for her family will obviously not be included in the pictures.

Our next trip will be Dragoncon, starting the Thursday before Labor Day weekend.  Then, Miles and I will be going to Japan, to explore different areas(and more of Tokyo) starting the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Japan 21: How Shimanami Kaido kicked my Part II, Buddha statues, hell, and marble

I decided to skip breakfast, as I have stomach problems, and didn't want to ride on a full stomach.  It started off as an uphill ride, which didn't do much to improve my spirits.  Finally, I arrived at a downhill portion, which led me up to the next bridge.  After another painful uphill climb, I rode across the bridge.  I continued on and the next bridge followed the same pattern.



The next area had more pleasant visuals, including a nicer bridge.



I didn't include any views from the islands themselves because there honestly wasn't much to see, and I was trying to push my muscles to the max, while ignoring the mounting pain in my rear.  I even added my second, larger towel, to the seat.  It did not help much.  After crossing this bridge, I was thrilled to finally be on the final island of my newly determined route.  It was a fairly large island, but luckily stayed mostly flat.  I passed a building with more life sized dolls.



I reached the tourist center almost exactly three hours after I started biking.  I dropped off the bike and put my bags in the coin lockers.  My butt felt immediate relief.  I popped into the Hirayamaikuo Museum.  It only had four rooms, but it was air conditioned and the paintings were pleasant.  They often showed the age that the painter had been when creating each, including some from when he was 11.



Behind the building, was the Kosan-ji Temple complex.  The entrance way was familiar enough to other temples.



Some of the buildings had artwork inside, which was different as far as temples are concerned.



Further up the path, there was a tunnel.  Inside, the walls were lined with Buddha statues.  The tunnel lead to an area with artwork that seemed to depict hell.  I thought it was incredibly cool, and a bit different than anything I've encountered so far.  There were many, many pictures here.



Soon after, the cave opened into a larger area, where hundreds of Buddha statues were attached to all surfaces.



The tunnel began to climb, and you exited through a small temple building.  I explored some temples and gardens, starting to walk back towards the entrance.  Then, I saw people coming from a small section that I had overlooked, and remembered some of what I read about the place.  Walking up the back path led to stairs and an elevator.  It wasn't many steps, so I didn't understand the need.  The walkway was all marble, with random creations of marble.  I hadn't experienced a place quite like it before.  It also gave some great panoramic views of the area.



I grabbed my bags and took the ferry to the town of Onomichi.  I checked into my hotel at 2:30.  They said that check in time was 3:00, and Japan seems to be very strict with these things.  I said no problem.  I took off my socks, laid down on their cushion benches, and began stretching.  Five minutes later, I was told my room was ready.

After a rest, I decided to check out the local "cat alley," which began the climb to a small park on the local mountain.  The alternative was taking the ropeway car.  I preferred the exercise anyway.  The reviews of cat alley were mixed.  It seemed to be forced rather than naturally a cat alley, from reviews.  My expectations were low.

There are small stones with painted cats on them, mostly faded.  There are some signs and decorations along the way.  One "museum" was closed.  I went in the other.  It was overpriced at $3, but I figured that I might as well.  It was two rooms.



A few more feet up the mountain and there was a small, cat themed store.  There wasn't much of interest, but there was a cool drawing.



I asked the guy in the store where the nearest vending machine was.  He drew me a map.



While walking up the path, I came to a blocked off section and couldn't go higher up the mountain.  I started to worry, when I remembered the map!  He had drawn the pagoda I was next to, and showed that you need to go down and around before continuing upward.  Thanks cat store man!

As I continued climbing, I encountered three small kittens.  I took some pictures and watched them play for a little while.



At the top of the mountain, they continued the cat theme.



By this time, I was exhausted.  I relented, and took the ropeway down.  It was terrifying.  I stayed at the back, to avoid the views.  It was windy, and there were many people in the car.  We bounced and swayed in the wind.  I took deep breaths.



I wake up super early tomorrow, in order to take trains to Tokyo.