Yokoso!

So we’re on our way. We took off from MSP for O’hare at 7:00am. It was a pretty uneventful flight. Those are the best kind. Got to Chicago and had a few hours to kill. My credit card happens to get us access to the American Airlines Admirals Club, so we spent the rest of the morning there using Wi-Fi and hording free snacks. And somehow 90 minutes into our trip, we noticed this happened.

I guess I won’t be catching up on the “Game of Thrones” series until I get back.

Eventually we made our way to our gate and boarded the 777-200 for Tokyo. First thing I noticed was the flight to Chicago had more legroom, but this plane had Tetris. I was surprised how easy the flight was. I had never been in the air for more than 4-5 hours and wasn’t sure how 13 in a Pringles can at 600mph would go. I liked the flight tracker that showed our route, and was glad to see we were flying back over Minnesota, Canada, and then Alaska, minimizing my chance of ending up on the island from LOST. And besides the nice, tiny Japanese lady next to me accidentally turning on her overhead light at hour 7 and never figuring out how to turn it off, it was again, an uneventful flight. We even got to watch the non Charlton Heston, non Mark Wahlberg, non James Franco Planet of the Apes movie.

After 18 hours of traveling, Sara was thrilled that I may or may not have forgotten to mention that our hostel/all of Tokyo was another 90 minutes away via the Tokyo Metro Transit System. We just had to take the Keise Railways “Limited Express” line, not the “Skyliner” line, to Ueno Station-but not the one towards Haneda Airport. Then get off at Ueno Station and change to the Hibya Subway line and take that to Minami Senju station. Then we just had to follow my hand written notes on how to walk from the station to the hostel. What could go wrong? Well, luckily nothing did.

So we finally arrived to the Hotel New Koyo and checked in. I had no idea what to expect. We had reserved a “Japanese style semi-double room”- because that was all they had left. I had read that Japanese style meant they have a futon mattress and tatami floors (think of a place mat that you would get from IKEA and describe as “this looks Asian”- and then image that over the entire floor). And not like a futon that is a couch that folds into a bed like the one you had in college…we’re talking just the mattress on the ground. That’s exactly what it was. Although it turns out “semi-double” is Japanese for “maaaaybe you could fit two people in here.” But the room was perfect.

Sara and I had once stayed at the Lake Tahoe Ritz Carlton (Oh, good for us). Was rated four or five diamonds or whatever. By far the nicest place we’ve ever been. Different tax bracket nice. Uncomfortably good service. Both these places looked the same when we were sleeping. Plus the gym class style metal locker in the corner really tied the room together.

After getting settled and fighting the urge to fall over where we stood, we stayed up as long as we could and made our way down the street to find some food. We settled on some place down called Kanoya that served up some great udon noodles. Ate those as fast as we could. Tried to remember if you tip in Japan. You don’t. And then went to bed. It was maybe 9:00pm.

Woke up at 2 am wide awake. Woke up at 4 am even more awake. Woke up at 6 completely exhausted. Got up and started planning our day. Unfortunately by the time we showered, got to the station, read 6 different maps, starred at a dozen different signs and finally figured out how to get to where we were going after heading one stop in the wrong direction and getting off at one of the busiest stations in the city, it was 8 am. Just in time for morning rush hour. If you thought the morning commute on (enter the highway of your choice here) was packed, get on a train in the biggest city in the world right in the heart of rush hour. People were literally smashed against the windows. Imagine the most people you could possibly fit into a subway train and then add a few dozen more. Seriously, just google image “Tokyo subway rush hour”.

Our first stop of the day was the Tsukiji Fish Market. This place was much larger than we expected. And it was crazy. Some vendors and wholesalers love it, others as you can image, get tired of tourists like yours truly trying to snap a photo while they’re trying to conduct business. All in all we saw some crazy giant fish and had some awesome fresh Tuna sashimi for breakfast.

Just outside the Fish Market are streets and streets of an outdoor market. Like a farmers market. We met a very nice local vendor, who somehow got his hands on a University of Vermont sweatshirt, that gave us a rundown of the layout of the market and what to see and what to avoid. We wandered around for a while and eventually landed on a spot for some lunch. Judging by the sign the place was called “Number sign – Capital L”.

After the market we made our way to Hama-rikyu Gardens. This is basically like a big park. From there we took a rather touristy boat ride up the river to the Asakusa area. (Tokyo is similar to New York in that there are a number of different boroughs with very distinct personalities.) As touristy as it was, we saw a pretty cool view of the city from the river. Plus this boat...thing

Once off the boat we were quickly funneled to the even more touristy area of Nakomise Shopping District. This is a line of little shops and stands that sell everything you can image, from local treats to samurai sword handled umbrellas. The strip is end capped by Sensoji Temple and Kaminarimon Gate.

While walking through the shops, we were stopped by some high school students who, as part of their English class, were asked to engage in conversation with English speaking tourists. After about 3 seconds of being absolutely positive I was being targeted for some sort of pick pocket scam, we ended up talking to them for a while and learned some good Japanese phrases and got some good advice on where to go in the area.

We did find that if you went just one street in either direction things really died down and you got a much more authentic feel for the area and the neighborhood. Literally just a few hundred feet away was a much older, much quieter, much more ornate Asakura Shrine. This Shrine was founded in 1649 and survived the Tokyo air raids.

We eventually made our way over to see some more sights in the Ueno area. Mostly Ueno Park, Ueno Toshogu Shrine, and a handful of other Shrines and Temples. From there we made our way north to the Yanaka area to check out Tennoji Temple, Yanka Cemetery, and a few other sights.

After a very busy day we made it back to our place around dusk. Which is like 5:00. The idea was to eat our nice meal from 7/11, relax for a bit, maybe take a short nap, and check out some stuff that night. Instead we fell asleep at about 6:00pm and woke up bright and early the next morning.

More to come.

From Tokyo, with love.

Will + Sara.