Tag: Tokyo

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Travel: Japan – Tokyo to Hakone (Day 4)

It was a travel day, but I still had the opportunity to see a little bit more of the world.

After breakfast, I left my hotel in Tokyo and took a cab to the station, where I caught Kodama721, a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Odawara.

As we sped along, I saw a mountain in the distance and wondered if it was Mount Fuji, but no. I believe that it was Mount Oyama.

The entire trip took exactly 30 minutes, whereas if I had traveled on a regular train, it would have taken a little over two hours. Go fast! From there, I rode the local train to Hakone.

Hakone is a bit of a resort town, and my hotel meets that requirement. I didn’t plan that; I just happened to get lucky. I’ll take lucky whenever I can get it! There is a beautiful bridge crossing over to the hotel from the train station.

You know what I had for breakfast (and it was tasty), but I did not see lunch coming. I had some time before I could check in and after perusing the menus of the three restaurants that are here, I picked one thing that I was not likely to find anywhere else, except in Japan—shark fin soup. It does not taste like chicken. It’s quite good with a very thick gravy.

Afterward, I went for a walk. I strolled through town, which is just one restaurant after another, and then found my way to a trail I just happened to come across. I walked up for several hundred yards and reached a dead end. I turned around and headed back towards the hotel when I saw a Y in the path, so I decided to go in that direction. I figured I needed to do penance for my shark fin soup.

At this stage, Fat Boy should have turned around when he hit the first switchback, but I kept going—switchback after switchback, climbing, climbing, climbing. I saw that there was a temple at the top and thought that could be fun. I will pay for this walk tomorrow, but it was worth it.

The first thing I saw as I came down the mountain was a Buddhist cemetery. Seems appropriate as I thought a couple of times during the climb I was going to need a cemetery. There is something very humbling about walking among the dead. It’s a good reminder. I’m serious. We only really think about it during the Season of Lent, so the occasional unannounced reminder is good for the soul.

As luck would have it, the temple was closed. However, the grounds are beautiful, and I spent some time just looking around.

It was a 15-minute walk back to the hotel, and it was definitely time to prop my feet up and take a nice cool shower. It seems that this place is famous for its Onsen (public bath.) Can I just say that’s not going to happen. It’s definitely the thing to do while in Japan, but I’m just a little too private for that one. I’ll spare everyone from having to look at this sexy beast. Instead, I’ll see what kind of Japanese whiskey they have in the bar. I still haven’t had the opportunity to say “Kanpai!”

I’m only here for the night. Tomorrow, we’re off to Kyoto. I’ll spend about three days there. It’s a place I really want to see. I suspect that it will be quite different from Tokyo.

I pray you all are doing well. Thanks for traveling along with me. Say a prayer that I’m smart enough to avoid the switchbacks in the very near future. 

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Travel: Japan – Tokyo (Day 3)

I’ve grown accustomed to having my breakfast downstairs at the restaurant here in the hotel. (I think I forgot to mention that I am staying at the Tosei Hotel Cocone. As this is my only experience with a hotel in Japan, I would have to give this one five stars. Very comfortable, very clean, and the people are very kind.) The breakfast is buffet style, and I generally make two trips. Round one is typically breakfast food with a few unusual items, including Ramen noodles with grilled mackerel and onion. Round two… Now that’s something very different.

What we have here is a bowl of rice with three types of sushi: salmon, salmon roll, and fatty tuna. It just makes me happy. Never what I have thought of having sushi for breakfast, but they offer it and I eat it. I get plenty of protein, so I have plenty of energy to see me through the day.

It was only a five-minute walk to the first stop of the day, the Tsukiji Hongan-ji Buddhist Temple.

Tsukiji Hongwanji is a Buddhist temple belonging to the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha denomination, also known as Shin Buddhism, which was founded by the monk Shinran (1173-1263) and whose head temple is Hongwanji (Nishi Hongwanji) in Kyoto.

The temple has been destroyed by fire or earthquake several times, and the current structure was built in 1934.

The interior is rather magnificent and ornate. The photographs are not great as you are not allowed to get very close.

I’m sure some will mark this up as my Christian bias, but I just didn’t “feel” all that much while I was there. I got a sense of the peace and the calm (with the exception of all the construction that was going on) yet it did leave my spirit wanting. Am I really so narrow-minded? No. As I am certain they believe Buddha leads to the path of enlightenment; I believe that Jesus leads to the path of life. That’s an argument for another day, so I shall end this discussion with a nice glass of iced, VERY green tea.

It was really good, but I did get the impression that someone had gone out and mowed the grass and made tea from it. 

It was time for my longer excursion, which took me about an hour. It was only one train ride, but it included 15 minutes of walking on both ends. All this took me to St. Mary’s Cathedral—the cathedral church of the Archdiocese of Tokyo. This is the church I mentioned in yesterday‘s post. I saw pictures of it both on the outside and the inside and wanted to visit.

When I arrived, a service was taking place, so there was time before I could enter. Fortunately, on the church grounds, there is a recreation of the grotto at Lourdes. I made good use of my time and prayed my rosary.

I really like this one…

I don’t know what kind of flower this is, but it was beautiful.

Following the service, I was allowed to enter the church and spend some time. This is where I will make confession and tell you that I am a bad person. There was a sign that said no pictures inside the cathedral, and of course, everyone there was taking pictures… very discreetly.

The building was designed by the famous Japanese architect Kenzo Tange (1913-2005). From an article…

For his Tokyo Cathedral of Saint Mary, he visited several medieval Gothic examples. “After experiencing their heaven-aspiring grandeur and ineffably mystical spaces,” he says, “I began to imagine new spaces, and wanted to create them by means of modern technology.”

I still do not know the architecture type, but I would classify it as brutalist/modern. It provides a very clear message that declares, in no uncertain terms, “The Lord is my rock!”

That is the altar at the top of the red stairs. Maybe that gives you an idea of how large the sanctuary is. If I were given the opportunity to build a church, oh yeah…

The Mary Chapel to the left of the high altar.

Following my time at the cathedral, I headed back to the hotel. Today is my last full day in Tokyo, and I must check out my 10 AM tomorrow. What this means is that today is laundry day. For those of you who remember Portugal, this will not be me doing laundry in the sink and drying it with a hair dryer. There’s a good and proper washing machine/dryer downstairs available to hotel guests. It did take me a while to figure out how to use it, but once I put my glasses on, the instructions made a bit more sense. After that’s all sorted out, I may have to go and find myself a bit more sushi. I may turn into a fish before this is over with, but it’s so darn good!

Tomorrow, we ride the bullet. The bullet train, that is! I hear it goes a little over 200 mph. That oughta be fun! I’ll keep you posted.

This is your man in Tokyo signing off.

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Travel: Japan – Tokyo (Day 2)

How do we begin to describe this day? Well, given that it is the Lord‘s day we went to church. Saint Albans Episcopal Anglican Church in Tokyo. It was about a 30 minute train ride and I made all my connections. Arrived early and was able to pray my rosary before the service began. A very small church in size but it seemed to be a vibrant congregation. I would say that half the members were African.

The service was straight out of the Book of Common Prayer. Very few deviations. I like that in a service. The sermon was good however following the sermon (the priest was a graduate of Nashotah House) the former priest to the church (also a graduate of Nashotah House) gave a small presentation on a gift that he had received and that he was now giving to the diocese. The gift was a FUMIE.

A fumi-e (踏み絵, fumi “stepping-on” + e “picture”) was a likeness of Jesus or Mary to which the religious authorities of Japan required suspected Christians to step, in order to demonstrate that they were not members of the outlawed Christian religion. If they refused, they were put to death and a most horrible way.

The priest who gifted the fumie to the diocese provided us with a detailed description of how they were put to death. I’m not going to go into that here. They were the Martyrs of Japan. It’s worth reading up on.

During the announcements, they invited the visitors to tell who they were and where they were from. Yours truly spoke up and gave a loud shout out for Enid, Oklahoma! Funny thing, that was not my only connection with Oklahoma for the day.

Following the service, the day turned into a bit of a tourist outing. As I turned the corner on the street that leads up to the church I saw the Tokyo Tower.

I said to myself, “Self, you’ve got to get up there!” Both self and I were of the opinion that we would not be climbing the stairs, but we took the elevator. What a ride. It goes up and up and up.

Standing 1,092 feet high in central Tokyo, Tokyo Tower (東京タワー) is the world’s tallest, self-supported steel tower and 10 feet taller than its model, the Eiffel Tower. A symbol of Japan’s post-war rebirth as a major economic power, Tokyo Tower was the country’s tallest structure from its completion in 1958 until 2012 when it was surpassed by the Tokyo Skytree. In addition to being a popular tourist spot, Tokyo Tower serves as a broadcast antenna.

820 feet up is the top observation deck. Yours truly wrote the elevator all the way there. I can honestly say I felt a bit woozy at times, but what a view.



Selfie of the day.

What goes up must come down…

To get my feedback on the ground, I traveled to the Imperial Gardens. Most everything has bloomed except for the azaleas. The variations of green were fantastic though.

At this point, I had been on the go for about eight hours and I had not eaten since breakfast. I was hungry. I took two trains to get back to the general area of my hotel, and then found a sushi bar. I ate my weight in sushi. I also had four very tasty beers. I had the salmon, shrimp, eel, salmon roe, tuna, mackerel, shrimp… and when all that was done, I looked at the guy and said, “I’ve never had sea urchin before. I think I need to try that.” I did. Salty and earthy. I would eat it again, but it’s not on the top of the list. I topped all that off with a salmon skin roll garnished with salmon roe. Dang! Good eats for sure!

Now, when I ordered the sea urchin, I noticed the two girls at the end of this bar about three seats away from me. They were very friendly and we chatted a bit. But they watched me eat that sea urchin, and then we discussed it. Come to find out, they were from Stillwater, Oklahoma. They both work at OSU. We had a really good laugh about that. They have one more day here and then they’re on their way home. How strange is that? There are over 14 million people living in Tokyo and I happen to run into two people from Oklahoma. A very good day.

Tomorrow, I have absolutely no idea what’s on the agenda, but I do believe that I’m going to go and visit some more of the churches that are here. I don’t know what the architectural style is but I have not seen it before. More on that tomorrow.

I pray you all are well. My cat sitter extraordinaire sent a picture of The Queen. She seems to be doing well.

Silly photos…

Of course, Godzilla had to make an appearance!
Too cloudy to see it, but it’s in that general vicinity. 
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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.

OTORITHE GRAND SHRINE -GATE) this is the biggest wooden “Torii” of the Myõjin  style in Japan, rebuilt and dedicated via pious benefactor on December 23, 1915 and model both inform and size exactly after the original built in 1920. The material wood is “Hinoki” (Japan Cypress). 1500 years old from Mount Tandai-san Taiwan.
Sake

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.

Can you see Godzilla?

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.

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