Trip to Tokyo and First Few Days There
My trip to Tokyo went as well as could be expected. On Monday August 14th, my neighbor gave me a ride to Metro. (Thank you Carol). After taking Metro to Roselyn, I then took the Metro bus to the Dulles Airport. All in all, the trip took just over 2 hours from home to airport.
Everything at the airport went as planned. My flight also boarded on time but was then delayed 30 minutes on the ground before we taxied off. The flight was almost entirely full and I was in Economy class. So it was with trepidation that I walked to my seat and saw the biggest guy on whole airplane sitting in the middle seat beside me! He seem very nice and obviously wanted the middle seat no more than I wanted him to have it. Fortunately, the stewardess was on the ball and noticed him too! So before we took off they found him a better seat. It was still a middle seat but it was on the bulkhead do with plenty of legroom. So not only was he happier but I and the Korean girl on the other end of the row were delighted with the empty seat between us!
The flight was just over 12 hours which is 2 hours shorter than I thought. Fortunately, it was totally uneventful and we make good time arriving 15 minutes early. Everything about the arrival, immigration and Customs seemed very streamlined in Japan. However immigration was a bit hi-tech in that they electronically took everyone's finger prints. My fingerprints are always hard to take but after 5 attempts with two different officials they were finally successful!.
At the airport, I used the ATM to get local currency and bought a 3 day Tokyo subway pass as well as a train ticket from the airport to my hotel which is the Hotel JAL City Tamachi Tokyo. The train/subway took 1 1/2 hours from the Narita airport, which is quite a distance from the city, to my hotel stop. From the subway my hotel is about a 10 minute walk. Uptown checking in at the hotel, I met the tour group guide, May. She had already arranged with the hotel so my independent 3 nights and the group tour 2 nights, were added together into one reservation for 5 nights. This way there was no chance of having to change rooms. May was at the hotel as 7 members of the OAT tour opted to take a 3 night pre tour of Tokyo. I thought the price of this tour was too high so I decided to do "my" pre trip on my own.
On the next morning, Wednesday, I had breakfast at the hotel and met most of the 7 people for had signed up for the official pre tour. The breakfast itself was a nice buffet of both American and Japanese foods. The pre tour group went their way by the time my guide for the day, Tomomi, arrived at 9 AM. Tomomi is a volunteer free guide from the Tokyo Free Guide site that I found on the Internet. She had previously email me and had arranged for a specific tour for me. I told her I wanted to see the shopping and historic parts of the city. I met a Tomomi and discovered her English is very good as she went to college for 2 1/2 years in the states.
The first place we visited was an interesting Buddhist Temple. See Pic.
This does not look like other Buddhist temples in Japan because the architect studyed Indian Buddhist temples since India is the birthplace of Buddhism. Personally, I see similarities between this temple and Hindu temples.
After the temple, we went to Tsukji market. This is the famous market of a Tokyo. The inner market is one of the world's largest wholesale seafood markets. It is not open to the public so we had to be contend to go there right after it closed to see them cleaning up and moving the product about. The outer market is retail and is open to the public. Here you can buy most any seafood you can think of and many you never heard of before! I am not a big seafood buyer but their prices looked high compared to my local Wegmans.
Next sightseeing stop was the Shinjuku Metropoltian Government Building. The south tower there is known for having some of the best views of the city. Problem was the weather as it started off very mild and cloudy in the morning. But then it started to rain. By the time we got to the tower, the views were very much affected. Still Tomomi made the best of it and pointed to where buildings and things would be per the photographs they have posted.
After the tower, we went to Yanaka, the town of temples and slopes! This is one of the top 100 historical places in Japan. After a Japanese lunch (I had the seasoned tuna bowl lunch), we toured the Asakura Museum of Sculpture. This was the former residence of Japanese most famous sculptors, Fumio Asakura. While the bronze sculptures were impressive I was more impressed with the traditional Japanese house. Obviously, this house was a upper class residence and the details proved it from encircling a huge fish pond to its clay covered walls. The clay was finished as to look like high end medium brown cork walls! We also stopped at a former Liquor shop. The Shitamachi Museum was a liquor shop from 1910 to 1986. Now it displays scales, measures and beer and sake containers from past years.
Next up on the tour was Asakusa, the oldest shopping arcade in Tokyo. This is a very nice shopping area all built nearby the Sensoji Temple, the oldest temple in Tokyo. It is said to be built in 628. (It was raining pretty bad at this point so I apologize for the total lack of pictures). There is also a 5 storied pagoda right near the temple. Tomomi says the pagoda is void of any floors inside except the ground floor. Giant beams are what holds up the structure.
Finally the tour ended at Skytree which is the tallest freestanding broadcast tower in the world (634 meters). On the bottom levels are shopping of most every sort, each level has its own specialty. Still, the attraction I found most interesting was a special exhibition on plastic food. Yes, they had a contest and the entries were both realistic and fun. I say fun as they had made up food and combination plants that don't exist like an Aloe Vera plant that grows cucumbers!
Tomomi and me in front of some of the plastic food
For some reason blogger cut off the rest of this blog here. This is a pain but I will try to redo...
Everything at the airport went as planned. My flight also boarded on time but was then delayed 30 minutes on the ground before we taxied off. The flight was almost entirely full and I was in Economy class. So it was with trepidation that I walked to my seat and saw the biggest guy on whole airplane sitting in the middle seat beside me! He seem very nice and obviously wanted the middle seat no more than I wanted him to have it. Fortunately, the stewardess was on the ball and noticed him too! So before we took off they found him a better seat. It was still a middle seat but it was on the bulkhead do with plenty of legroom. So not only was he happier but I and the Korean girl on the other end of the row were delighted with the empty seat between us!
The flight was just over 12 hours which is 2 hours shorter than I thought. Fortunately, it was totally uneventful and we make good time arriving 15 minutes early. Everything about the arrival, immigration and Customs seemed very streamlined in Japan. However immigration was a bit hi-tech in that they electronically took everyone's finger prints. My fingerprints are always hard to take but after 5 attempts with two different officials they were finally successful!.
At the airport, I used the ATM to get local currency and bought a 3 day Tokyo subway pass as well as a train ticket from the airport to my hotel which is the Hotel JAL City Tamachi Tokyo. The train/subway took 1 1/2 hours from the Narita airport, which is quite a distance from the city, to my hotel stop. From the subway my hotel is about a 10 minute walk. Uptown checking in at the hotel, I met the tour group guide, May. She had already arranged with the hotel so my independent 3 nights and the group tour 2 nights, were added together into one reservation for 5 nights. This way there was no chance of having to change rooms. May was at the hotel as 7 members of the OAT tour opted to take a 3 night pre tour of Tokyo. I thought the price of this tour was too high so I decided to do "my" pre trip on my own.
On the next morning, Wednesday, I had breakfast at the hotel and met most of the 7 people for had signed up for the official pre tour. The breakfast itself was a nice buffet of both American and Japanese foods. The pre tour group went their way by the time my guide for the day, Tomomi, arrived at 9 AM. Tomomi is a volunteer free guide from the Tokyo Free Guide site that I found on the Internet. She had previously email me and had arranged for a specific tour for me. I told her I wanted to see the shopping and historic parts of the city. I met a Tomomi and discovered her English is very good as she went to college for 2 1/2 years in the states.
The first place we visited was an interesting Buddhist Temple. See Pic.
This does not look like other Buddhist temples in Japan because the architect studyed Indian Buddhist temples since India is the birthplace of Buddhism. Personally, I see similarities between this temple and Hindu temples.
After the temple, we went to Tsukji market. This is the famous market of a Tokyo. The inner market is one of the world's largest wholesale seafood markets. It is not open to the public so we had to be contend to go there right after it closed to see them cleaning up and moving the product about. The outer market is retail and is open to the public. Here you can buy most any seafood you can think of and many you never heard of before! I am not a big seafood buyer but their prices looked high compared to my local Wegmans.
Next sightseeing stop was the Shinjuku Metropoltian Government Building. The south tower there is known for having some of the best views of the city. Problem was the weather as it started off very mild and cloudy in the morning. But then it started to rain. By the time we got to the tower, the views were very much affected. Still Tomomi made the best of it and pointed to where buildings and things would be per the photographs they have posted.
After the tower, we went to Yanaka, the town of temples and slopes! This is one of the top 100 historical places in Japan. After a Japanese lunch (I had the seasoned tuna bowl lunch), we toured the Asakura Museum of Sculpture. This was the former residence of Japanese most famous sculptors, Fumio Asakura. While the bronze sculptures were impressive I was more impressed with the traditional Japanese house. Obviously, this house was a upper class residence and the details proved it from encircling a huge fish pond to its clay covered walls. The clay was finished as to look like high end medium brown cork walls! We also stopped at a former Liquor shop. The Shitamachi Museum was a liquor shop from 1910 to 1986. Now it displays scales, measures and beer and sake containers from past years.
Next up on the tour was Asakusa, the oldest shopping arcade in Tokyo. This is a very nice shopping area all built nearby the Sensoji Temple, the oldest temple in Tokyo. It is said to be built in 628. (It was raining pretty bad at this point so I apologize for the total lack of pictures). There is also a 5 storied pagoda right near the temple. Tomomi says the pagoda is void of any floors inside except the ground floor. Giant beams are what holds up the structure.
Finally the tour ended at Skytree which is the tallest freestanding broadcast tower in the world (634 meters). On the bottom levels are shopping of most every sort, each level has its own specialty. Still, the attraction I found most interesting was a special exhibition on plastic food. Yes, they had a contest and the entries were both realistic and fun. I say fun as they had made up food and combination plants that don't exist like an Aloe Vera plant that grows cucumbers!
Tomomi and me in front of some of the plastic food
For some reason blogger cut off the rest of this blog here. This is a pain but I will try to redo...
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