Travel: Japan – Tokyo (Day 1)

I left Oklahoma City sometime yesterday with a layover in Dallas and then a 13 1/2-hour flight to Tokyo. I’m not gonna complain about that flight because I got to come to Japan, but I will say… Dang! It’s a long flight. I flew American Airlines and they did pretty good. I fly Japan Airlines on the way home. 

I arrived at my hotel intending to get out and explore the neighborhood. That didn’t happen. I got to the hotel about 5:30 PM and I was out like a light by 7:30 PM. I don’t sleep real well on airplanes, but I slept good last night. I woke up at about 5:30 AM Tokyo time and started the day at 6:30 AM with a nice cup of coffee. Breakfast at seven… Now that was fun. I have no idea what I ate to be perfectly honest with you. I know there were some eggs involved and possibly some toast but after that, I really don’t know. There was some kind of fish there were noodles and some very tasty morsels that I said to myself, you’re here,  you might as well try them.

I was traveling by 7:30 AM and exploring the city. It’s crazy here! There are people everywhere. My first destination and the one place on the list that I wanted to see was the Gotokuji Temple, also known as the cat temple, but it is temporarily closed because of a certain festival that is going on. I don’t think I’m going to get to see it as it will be closed for three days. I’ll keep watching the schedule to see if it opens up. When that didn’t work out, I jumped on another train… Speaking of trains.

The trains go everywhere. They are color-coded. For the most part, the trains are all underground. You spend a lot of time underground in this city. I’m slowly figuring it out, but I will say that I have gotten on the wrong train more than once and gone in the wrong direction several times. It starts to make sense after a while and all I can say is thank goodness for Google Maps. It keeps you going in more or less the right direction.

My next stop was the Shibuya Scramble Crossing which is pictured above. It’s a place where everything comes together. It was fun to see, and I did cross it several times (a couple of those times were because I was going in the wrong direction.) Everyone gathers at the crosswalk waiting for the green go-ahead, and then you just start walking in the direction you want to  go. It’s marked off but basically, folks go wherever they wanna go. It is highly recommended that you not go when you’re not supposed to go. It’s a good way to get run over. After such madness, I decided I needed a little bit of calm and made my way to the Meiji Jingu Shrine, which is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken.

Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan, deeply rooted in its culture and history. It’s a polytheistic religion with no founder, sacred text, or dogma, emphasizing a sense of harmony with nature and veneration of the “kami,” spirits or deities believed to reside in all things. Shinto practices include visiting shrines, offering prayers, and observing festivals, often intertwined with everyday life and traditions.

During the Meiji Era, Emperor Meiji, whose divine soul is enshrined here at Meiji Jingu, led the industrial growth and modernization of Japan by encouraging various industries and supporting technological development.

Due to their grace and virtue, Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken, the beloved mother of our nation whose soul is also enshrined here, are held in the highest esteem by the Japanese people.

These sake barrels are offered every year to the enshrined deities by members of the Meiji Jingu Zenkoku Shuzo Keishinkai (Meiji Jingu Nationwide Sake Brewers Association) including the Kotokai, which has made offerings of sake for generations, as well as other sake brewers around Japan wishing to show their deep respect forthe souls of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.

In addition to stating our humble gratitude to all of the brewers who have so graciously donated their sake, we also pray for the continuous prosperity of the sake brewing industry and all the other industries maintaining Japan’s traditional culture.

Just on the other side of the street are barrels of wine!

The barrels of wine to be consecrated at Meiji Jing have been offered by the celebrated wineries of Bourgogne in France on the initiative of Mr. Yashiko Sata, Representative, House of Burgundy in Tokyo, Honorary Citizen of Bourgogne and owner of the Chateau de Chailly Hotel-Golf. Profound gratitude is due to the winemakers who have so generously contributed to this precious gift to be consecrated here to the spirit of world peace and amity, with the earnest prayer that France and Japan will enjoy many more fruitful years of friendship.

Once you arrive inside the shrine, they ask you to not take pictures. However, just outside of the shrine was a wedding party. The bride was all smiles.

I then made my way across town (after getting lost on the train a little bit) to the big 3-D cat billboard. It’s just one of those things you got to see! Everybody was standing around with their phones pointed up towards it.

This was followed by a stroll around the city. I came to a wildly popular place that was jammed up with people.

This is where I learned an important lesson: Japan is a very clean city. You will very rarely see any garbage on the ground or in the gutters. IF you begin to see garbage on the ground and the place gets a bit smelly, you are in the wrong part of town! You need to turn around and go back. You will be offered all sorts of things as you pass through this area. I don’t feel like it was unsafe, but it was definitely not somewhere you want to linger.

From there, I found a nice little restaurant and enjoyed a bit of lunch. I also reached the point where I was hot and tired after going for about eight hours. I took a couple of trains and actually made the right connection on the first try and arrived back at my hotel, which reminds me… Not nearly as confusing as the train, but still requiring a certain amount of study is the toilet. 

If all goes as planned, I’ll be at church tomorrow at Saint Albans Episcopal – Anglican Church. See you then.