Tokyo Edo Museum

Twelve hours after I got back from America, I went on a field trip.

Was it a good idea? Could I stay awake the whole time? Where was the nearest vat of coffee? These were the questions I asked myself on the way to here---

Ryogoku Station, which is known mostly for its proximity to sumo. This neighborhood wrecks the BMI average of the entire country. We saw a couple of sumo wrestlers while walking around, which was pretty cool.

We were a group of ten or so, and luckily, eight of us were Japanese and knew what was going on. The other two of us were the former (her) and current (me) teachers of the class trip's students. They go on a field trip once a year and it was a great chance for turnover.

First, lunch at the Dai-Ichi Hotel Ryogoku. It had a great Viking (which is what the Japanese call a buffet). It also had a perfect view of Tokyo Skytree.

Lunch was a great time to eat and chat. Plus, someone made paper cranes for each place setting, and I ended up with all the cranes at my table, so I have a whole family.

The cranes were just a perk, though. The main event was really the Tokyo Edo Museum. I did not give this museum nearly enough time or attention due to jet lag and interest in the first floor gift shop. I'll return at a later date because the museum is beautiful, and really interactive. I mean, look at all the things you can do!

You can sit in a palanquin:

You can pick up a matsui like an old timey Japanese firefighter:

These were used like guidons, basically it's held aloft so a group can identify its rally point. The guidons at Blake's college were a lot more flag-like and less weird-wooden-triangle-thing. And let me tell you, at the Tokyo-Edo Museum, they really let you experience the weight of history. Literally. This stuff is heavy.

I went over to these buckets expecting a lesson in balance. Instead, I got 50 pounds of rocks on my shoulder. This picture shows the highest I was able to lift the buckets due to the weight and my height. I would have made a terrible water schlepper.

Anyone want more examples of manual labor disguised as a museum exhibit?

Rachel was my lucky passenger. It wasn't much a ride, though, since it was bolted to the floor.

See that stone wall behind us? That's inside the museum. In fact, there's a whole bridge inside the museum. It's a replica of Nihonbashi, which was built during the Edo Period. A new version is still in use today in the Nihonbashi district in Tokyo.

My favorite part, however, was definitely the models.

There were huge tables of beautifully detailed models. Little people so life-like that I'm pretty sure they come alive after the museum closes. I mean, if someone built a whole tiny, little city, it can't be purely decorative, right?

Next time I go back, I'll bring these photos along for comparison. I'm pretty sure the people will have moved. Prepare yourselves for scientific breakthrough.

It was a long day, but I'm glad I fought back my jet lag long enough to visit. Between the food, sumo and history, Ryogoku is definitely worth a second look. It's an area of Tokyo I'd never heard of, and can't wait to visit again.

The Breathtaking View

Happy Hanami!

Hanami- cherry blossom viewing time
Sakura- Japanese cherry tree/blossoms

Hanami comes but once a year, and only for one or two weekends a year. All the hype is true. Cherry blossoms in Japan are absolutely, jaw-droppingly, beautiful.

Ueno Park

I hate crowds. I would do almost anything to avoid mobs of people wandering around at their own leisurely pace. I would rather eat a bowl of cereal for dinner than go to a grocery store on a Sunday afternoon.

Hanami is Japan-crowded (which is a special, extra inconvenient form of crowded wherein you are jam packed like pickles in a jar... if every pickle was shoving with both its elbows). Doesn't matter, the blossoms are worth it.

On Saturday, we met up with some friends from the squadron at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. Everyone and everyone that they knew had marked out a spot of the park with a big tarp. The shoes were off, the food was plentiful and the drinking was a bit heavy-handed for noon.

Sea of tarps in Yoyogi Park

We set up camp chairs, a BBQ and commenced to hanging out. That is, until a cop came over and gave us guff about our BBQ... or our camp chairs... no one really understood what his problem was, but it was definitely related to our non-Japanese-ishness because plenty of other people were BBQ-ing or camp chair-ing and he didn't give them any trouble.

Problems with the law aside, Yoyogi was beautiful, and big enough that you could probably find a spot to set up a little area for yourself. Then again, it's so big that the sheer volume of women makes for one hell of a bathroom line. I kid you not, I wanted an hour to go potty.

The next day, Blake and I went to Ueno Park, which you may remember from this post. It was a much different place that Sunday. Dream-like in its huge, white blossoms. Nightmare-like in its crowds.

Ueno had different colors of cherry blossoms. That weekend was definitely peak for the traditional, white blossoms, but there were also bright pink ones out too.

I could not stop marveling at how beautiful it was. I gaped. I gushed. I had a husband who longed for earplugs to block out my chorus of, "I can't believe this. This is so beautiful. Have you ever seen anything this amazing?!"

 

 

These pictures were taken at Ueno Park. We walked under that beautiful canopy of blossoms in the background. On the other side of them is more water, filled with giant paddle boats shaped like swans. Blake and I were content just to wander around and take in the flowers. Plus, it was rush hour for amateur swan paddle boat enthusiasts. It looked dangerous out there.

We were exhausted by the end of the weekend, but it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen (as Blake heard me say many times). That week, a storm came in and the wind and rain blew away a lot of hanami's beauty. But that didn't stop us from venturing out to take in some of its last beautiful views.

Until next year!

Tokyo Motorcycle Show 2012

It is a tale of endless longing, soul-crushing sadness, nail-biting tension, joy, frustration, and thousands of dollars. It is the story of Blake's motorcycle.

As many of you know, Blake and I worked long and hard getting his bike on the road. Then, once he was able to ride it, I was not able to be on it with him. If you want to carry a passenger on the back of your bike here, you have to take the Experienced Riders Course with a passenger on the back of your bike. So, not only is the rider on the bike for six hours, but the passenger is too. And let me tell you, this passenger's ass hurt like crazy after six hours on the seat.

The class is run by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation for personnel with SOFA status (it's a military thing for those living overseas). It's really informative and the teachers are amazing. They have really good tips and stories. The thing about bike people is that they are their hobby's greatest advocates, as well as greatest cautionary tales. It's a twofer every time you talk to a biker.

Unfortunately, at the Tokyo Motorcycle Show, we couldn't talk to many bikers because we don't speak the same language. That isn't the only different thing, though.

At Daytona, the fashion is very in your face. Beards in your face. Leather in your face. Over-tanned women in teeny, tiny clothing in your face.

At TMS, everyone looked very mainstream. All the off-center people were across the hall at the Anime convention. Note: that is not a joke, there was seriously an Anime convention in the other wing and we saw several interesting things that day.

I'm going straight to my favorite bike of the day:

Triumph's Steve McQueen Special Edition. They are only making 1,100 of them, and while I don't think I'd be on board with Blake buying one, it sure is pretty. Steve McQueen loved bikes and cars, and rode a Triumph in The Great Escape, an amazing movie that I cannot watch ever again because it has one of the saddest movie endings ever.

This bike can also be a generator. Very handy for outdoor rec. You can plug in a cook stove or a radio, or something that would make any camping adventure better, a laptop.

Of course it wouldn't be Japan if there weren't some interesting stuff around too.

It was a very cool day. We walked around and saw everything twice. By the end of the day, I'd had my fill of motorcycles. Blake, however, can never get enough.

Tokyo Motor Show

No one on the Tokyo Motor Show trip was very chipper that morning. It was rainy, with dense cloud cover- and maybe, like us, everyone on the bus was nursing pretty bad hangovers. Bad moods made worse by the "hour or hour and a half" drive taking close to three hours.

As Blake said on the MWR bus, the morning was not very good for his Morale or Welfare. It was a very good thing that once we arrived, there were many, many shiny things to distract us all.

To no one's surprise, there wasn't an American manufacturer in sight. Lots of Japanese (obviously) and European. We saw exactly one pickup truck, not many true SUVs and lots of cars that looked like this:

Lest you believe the entire event was like a real car show in miniature, there were some truly amazing, and expensive, cars there. Like a Lexus LFA, base price of $375,000, which is a steal considering that there will only be 500 and they are hand made, one car a day.

I also got to see a W12 engine, which is kind of two V6 engines stuck together. It's massive.

To me, though, the prototypes are where it's at. These things are sometimes very cool, sometimes very weird, but always interesting. Here are a few of our favorites.

Honda

Suzuki

Nissan Esflow

That last one really caught Blake's eye. A sporty-looking electric vehicle.

The prototypes were put on platforms or stages and there were huge crowds around every single one. I blended right in, caught up in the flow of pushing and elbowing. Blake, however, had the real advantage, being taller than almost everyone there. He was truly a man among boys that day.

Though it may sound like an oxymoron, the shoving and elbowing is good-natured. Hopefully I'll recover by spring, when the motorcycle show rolls into town.

Beauty and the Off-Beat

Omotesando means "Holy crap, what a beautiful street! Wow, this place is expensive. Chanel, Dior and Galliano. Are those security guards at the door? With ear pieces and everything? Wow. Is that a Body Shop? What are Body Shop and one of the largest Louis Vuitton stores in the world doing occupying the same block?"

It's only a rough (and completely made up) translation.

This beautiful place is Omotesando:

Every mental image I've ever had of Tokyo was one of energy. Lights, crowds, noise, weird but enticing food smells. This street, I never expected.

It's peaceful. Look at those trees.

Tokyo has amazing and huge parks. In fact, Omotesando ends at one, but the parks contain nature inside their boundaries. The rest of the city is all business (the business of being a city, that is. There are more than enough ways to get yourself into trouble in this place).

It's easy to relax and window shop here. It's shady and surprisingly quiet. It's known as the Champs-Elysees of Tokyo, even the garbage cans say so. Seriously. They do.


I, of course, was there to spend thousands of dollars on shoes.

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That's not true, but I just thought I'd give you a minute to indulge in fantasy with me.

I was there to hunt bargains at one of the most well-known shops in Tokyo (at least for tourists), Oriental Bazaar. It is so reasonable I just walked around double-checking prices for awhile. All the rumors about Japan being expensive are true, and then some. This store however, is three floors of happy low prices. I would love to tell you what I bought. I would love to post pictures. Unfortunately, all information is classified. Gifts for my in-laws. Don't tell them.

Speaking of classified, I had this exchange with Blake tonight on Facebook chat:

Me: So what did you do today?
He: I flew to the carrier to drop some people off. That's about as much as I should probably say.
Me: You're like Jason Bourne.

There is no good transition from that back to my post so I'm just going to limp awkwardly toward how I spent the rest of my day.

Harajuku. I was both impressed and disappointed. Impressed by all the really interesting things I saw. Disappointed that I didn't see Gwen Stefani.

I didn't really see any people dressed in crazy strange fashions. I guess the weird stuff comes out on Sunday. Because on the seventh day, God rested, and then changed out of robes and into a gothic French maid outfit with kitty ears, fishnet stockings and a blue wig.

Harajuku Station

It's filled with little shops selling so many things their tables and racks spill out into the street and block your path to get your attention. Lots of clothes, some of them fairly normal, some of them really out there. I came across a t-shirt stand that had all these weird t-shirts with English and Japanese translations. Like, "I'm a pervert," and "I don't speak Japanese," and "one day I will become a samurai."  Also t-shirts of a bunch of cows sitting at a dinner table looking very, very sadly down at a piece of steak. Then one of pigs looking very, very sadly down at a ham. And a tuna looking very, very sadly down at sushi. I know it sounds funny and ironic, but the artist was actually too good at their job and the pictures made me feel kind of bad.

So I cheered myself up with food. Every post eventually ends up at food.

I had a crepe. There's a joke somewhere about a crepe load of crepe, but I'm not going to force it on you.

Harajuku has a lot of crepe stands. In fact, two of them face each other, on either side of a very narrow street. They just stand there like two old guys giving each other the stink-eye. I bypassed that feud and went for a different option. A picture cannot do my crepe justice because all the goodness was wrapped up inside and I wasn't going to unwrap my perfect crepe just so you all could see its guts.

Instead, here is this:

It's shaved ice. Very big in Japan. Not a surprise since walking anywhere in summer is like wearing a down coat in a sauna. The one on the left is strawberry. The one on the right is harder to pin down. It's green. That white orb thing is ice cream. That thing on top is probably a mystery to you. It's beans. For once, I am not joking. It seriously is a blob of beans.

Bean filling is very, very common here. I cannot tell you the number of times I've bitten into something (savory or sweet) and surprise! I have a mouth full of red bean paste. This is the first time I've ever seen it as a topping on ice. But there it is.

I'm sure my crepe tasted better.

Ueno Park & Tokyo National Museum

Yesterday, I went to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo... sort of.

I found out I need a special stamp on my passport that will make leaving and returning to Japan easier. I can only get the stamp from the embassy. PSD (personnel services dept) gave me directions and off I went.

I got there (all the way to Tokyo mind you) only to discover that they are an appointment only establishment, even for a simple stamp. They don't do same-day appointments, and there are no appointments on Wednesdays. Awesome.

I decided I might as well do a little sight-seeing so my day wasn't a complete waste, after all, I was wearing sneakers. I decided to go to Ueno Park. It's like the Central Park of Tokyo except it has many more museums. I decided to see the zoo, after all, they have pandas there(!). I successfully navigated my way to the park, and surveyed the map. I had no idea how many things there were to do in this park. It's full of museums and historical stuff. My feminine heart longed for the giant panda bears, but my brain was like, "no, you will take in some history in culture!"

As I walked to the Tokyo National Museum, I went by the zoo entrance. Well, that's not entirely true. I didn't actually see the entrance. No one could. You'd have thought they had a live, fire-breathing dragon in there from the crowd lined up to get in on a Wednesday afternoon. Seriously, it looked like Lady Gaga was giving a free concert inside.

My mind was made up. No way was I going to stand in that line, especially when there was a very appealing alternative. A place where I could study the ancient civilization that is Japan, where I could soak in all the history and educate myself on thousands of years of civilization, a place where there would be no line. The Tokyo National Museum.




There are many buildings, but this is the main one



It was a crying shame that the zoo had so many people lined up and the National Museum had zero people waiting in line. It wasn't deserted by any stretch, but it wasn't exactly a happening place. I did have to stand in line, though, to see the Buddha exhibit.

This was really, really cool. In the 70s and 80s a Japanese manga artist,  Osamu Tezuka, drew a manga series about the life of Buddha (who, by the way was born out of his mother's right side. Her right side. This guy was an independent thinker). So the museum exhibit was about Buddha's life as depicted in the manga with historical artifacts and statues to elaborate the highlights of Buddha's life. The illustrations were amazing and the museum did an absolutely outstanding job of integrating the manga comic and history. Also, even though the room was crammed with people, it was dead silent in there. The whole place was almost painfully quiet.

The rest of the museum was interesting, if a little dry at times (thousands of years of pottery displayed at once can be a little daunting). This place houses major, major historical artifacts and works of art. It's the Smithsonian of Japan, except without the pop culture.

 

 Everything was beautiful, absolutely everything. It was the kind of place you walk around slack-jawed in because these things are old. I mean, these people were irrigating rice fields around 300BC.

It was a truly beautiful place and I'm sure if I went back I would see many things I'd missed the first time.

On a more practical note, the museum was great because they have free lockers in every building. It was really nice to be able to lock up my stuff and walk around unencumbered, especially since I had hit the gift shop pretty early in my trip. What a great country.

And yes, I did have soft-serve green tea ice cream. No sightseeing trip would be complete without it.