So my first day in Tokyo started off quite normally, with me having absolutely no idea what I was doing. I decided to go for a stroll, as such I figured the smart thing to do would be to check my phone, find the nearest Park and go check it out. I walked north along the main road in the area. As I was strolling along admiring the sight, disdaining the smells and probably staring way too much at the people I came across a little side alley from the main road heading north, it appeared to be full of shops, I could hardly Not go and check out this little wonder. As it turns out this little alley is called Happy Minowa (Minowa is the area) and it has little food stores, some flower shops, a fish vendor, clothing stores etc. I walked into a store purely by chance to see if they had any gloves, It wasn't a big need but I figured I should have some for when it gets really cold. At this point, I was in compression longs, exercise shorts and a T-shirt. The lovely gentleman looked at me, laughed and goes "gloves dame!" (gloves are no good) and said I needed a jacket, at which point he promptly starts sorting through his stock. I honestly didn't expect him to find anything because most of the things in the shops here are designed for midgets, he did eventually find a windbreaker and got me to try it on. I ended up buying it, which I'm actually quite glad for. (This is taking a lot longer than I figured it would, anywho)
I explained to the gentleman where I was going and he said that the park I was heading towards was not worth seeing. He decided that I was to turn around to go and see Senso-ji in Asakusa. I had no idea what that was but he was quite adamant, though he did eventually mention that it was a temple. I went back the way I had come and started walking towards Senso-Ji. I stumbled into the temple from the Northern side. it seemed like a pretty nice little temple. Little did I realise that I was actually looking at one of the side shrines, this side shrine was of a size that I assumed it was the main article. It was impressive, colourful and well maintained. Akin in size to a small house or a large cottage I figured that this was infact the view that the oji-san had recommended. The building coming off the side of the shrine was a lovely yet humble bit of architecture and the shrine itself was brightly coloured, surrounded by some lovely statues and had people praying at it. after I figured I had seen enough I decided to depart via a different entrance, I followed one of the paths into what appeared to be a parking area. I then looked left. and up. and up. and up. right next to the Shrine that I had been admiring was another building... this was the main temple... it had been hidden behind some trees. I followed the path around the temple and made my way inside. From the front of the temple looking down at the ACTUAL ENTRANCE you see nothing but people and shop stalls. I started exploring the shops finding; katanas, clothes, katanas, food, katanas, trinkets and katanas. It was a truly fascinating area.
Friday I decided that I must go back to the store and thank th gentleman for telling me to go to the temple. I thought this would be a simple task and so set off at about 8.30am. I did not take into account that I had completely forgotten which road I had been wandering down on my way to the park. I just knew that I had gotten no closer than 2kms to the park. I went for a walk down the road I figured I had taken until I was significantly closer to th epark than I had been the previous day, I turned around and tried to retrace my steps. I eventually found the shopping alley at about 9.40am I purchased some flowers for the mans wife and set off down the alley to try and find the shop. I was unaware that the vast majority of stores did not open until 10am.... I explained that I was looking for a shop owner and it was explained to me that he would be there within 10 minutes. When he arrived I sat down and spoken to him and later his wife once again, they asked where I was going (Shinjuku) and he said that the best thing to do would be to catch the minowa train down to Waseda. from Waseda is would take about 30 minutes to walk o Shinjuku. The train he was speaking of would cost 180yen which is about $2. He escorted me out of the shop and started walking down an offshooting alley, after 10 metres we exited this tiny alley and was looking directly at a small train track and tiny 1 carriage train with "Waseda" on the LED. I caught the train at its starting point and stayed on the same train for about 30minutes until its final destination, Waseda. from here I promptly lost myself once again until I stumbled upon the Waseda University. I walked all around the Uni and a walk that should have takne me 30minutes from Waseda to Shinjuku ended up taking me about 2-3 hours. I was perfectly fine with this because to be quite honest the peace and quiet Waseda impressed me significantly more than the bustle and loosely organised chaos that was Shinjuku. I wandered around Shinjuku for a time, checked out the cinema (though I didnt watch a movie. it was about 2pm at this point and I figured if i finished a movie at 5pm when I was supposed to be somewhere at 6pm I would end up not going) I decided to walk around a bit more, pace myself and then walk from Shinjuku to the area near the bar that was the location for a get together (through AirBNB)
After walking a ways from Shinjuku in the direction that I was supposed to be going I realised that to walk the complete distance would infact be the end of me. I went into the Shinjuku visitors information centre and asked one of the ladies there how I would go about getting from my current location to the address of the bar. She did her magic and then wrote down in a rather concise way the exact trains I would need to take and how much the trip would cost me. From there it took me a solid 15-20minutes to figure out how to get a ticket from the stupid ticket machine and I made my way onto the train. I was supposed to get off at shinagawa and transfer to the ginza line to ______. I overshot the Shinagawa stop though luckily realised it when they said we were stopping at Ebisu (one stop past where I was to have changed lines) I got off the train and walked from Ebisu to the desired location. It was 4pm and I was 2 hours early. I killed time around the shops until 5.30 when I decided I was hungry and would sit down and have some dinner at the bar/restaurant before the other people arrived.
I swiftly ate my food because some people had arrived just after I ordered. I sat down scoffed my food and began my first bit of mingling in God knows how long (seriously how often do I go out partying.....) over the course of 4 and a half hours I met all 40 people that had come to the bar for the evening as well as the 2 Hosts. Now..... this is 48 hours later but I simply must try and make a list. Lily and I had a competition to see who could remember the most people... here goes.
Idol AirBNB guests;
- Lily, Taiwan
- Tom Toivonen, Finland
- Michael, USA, Chicago,
- Yuri, Italy
- Eric
- Sia
- Rick, USA
- Nick, USA
- Brent, USA, Chicago
- Jason, USA, Detroit (?)
- Jay, USA (has another name, forgotten it)
- Nathan, Aus, Adelaide
- Chris, Aus, Adelaide
- Jason, Aus, Adelaide
- Misha, Aus, Goldy
- Louis Aus, Goldy
- Chantelle (?), Aus, Melbourne
- Laura (?), Aus, Melbourne
- Mark, Aus, Perth
- Brie, Canada
- Erin, Canada (Awesome Pokeball earing)
- Jessica, Canada
- Corey, Canada
- Florence, New Zealand
- Florences BF, New Zealand
- Gaz, from UK based in HK
- Gregory, France
- Clemens, France
- Julian, Aus, Sydney
- Jaimie, Aus, Sydney
- Oh, Duane, Norfolk Island.
- _____, Taiwan
- Yuri, Southern Japan (Host)
- Victoria, Yep (Host)
- Lauren (?), (?)
And that's all I remember. I know I missed at least 5 people. probably more. Anywho after we left the bar at 10 pm Tom, Lily and I went in search of sustenance. After a swing and a miss at 4 food joints (1 closing, 3 already full) we got lucky with number 5. The meal was fantastic the company a pure Joy (Lily and Tom were alright as well I guess) and the conversational topics both broad and fascinating. I ate 3 foods I would not have had otherwise, a White Radish cake, Liver and Chinese Greens (which were just these stringy greens, not leafy so I have no idea what they were) and some pork and some dumpling. all up it was a thoroughly enjoyable night.
I took the train home with Tom, for he lives close by, it was packed despite the chill in the air and the time and made my way into my sarcophagus of an accommodation at about 1.20am, asleep by 2 am.
My god, this whole recounting thing is more longwinded than anticipated....
Saturday I walked south into Ueno Park continued on my way and hired a push-bike. From there I pedalled until I was lost. It was glorious. The roads are smooth, the drivers considerate and the pedestrians completely lacking any spatial awareness (yes that is annoying) I eventually made my way south to Chiyoda Castle, the Edo era Castle. In there I ran into none other than Tom Toivonen my Finnish Friend, he was out for a jog and had been for what must have been 2 hours. He does endurance jogging and would thoroughly kick my ass in any long distance competition, though admittedly that is not a particularly high benchmark.
I got him to escort me back towards my accommodation simply because it cut the travel time from 3-4 hours to roughly 40-50minutes max, by the time we parted ways he had been on the move for over 3 hours straight. This made it abundantly clear that I need more practice traversing cities and that I should do more cardio.
Today, Sunday, I went for another ride through Ueno park, I went to Akihabara and explored the shops. pedalled back up north and visited the lovely shop owner whose name I have since learned is Saburo Agira, I sat and spoke with him, his wife and two of their friends/regulars for well over an hour (my Japanese improved more in that time than it has in the other 3 days of exploring the city) until I explained that I had to go drop the hired bicycles back. Saburo-San gifted me a chain bracelet that he made (Jewellery has been his business for 46 years now) and despite my many objections, I am overjoyed with yet another display of kindness from Saburo-san and his wife. Anytime in the future that I find myself in Tokyo I look forward to sitting down and having a coffee (Boss coffee from one of the many vending machines around) and hopefully having a full conversation with them both in Japanese. She informed me that given 3 months my Japanese will be acceptable, now how could I not do my very best to improve it after such reassuring words.
I am now going to go find some dinner, Good job if you managed to read all of this. I havent even proof read it so I hope you had fun with that.
Until next time,
Duane
Dear god, Duane. Did you just write all of this rellying on memory only?
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