Splendors of Japan

Day Two – 12 May 2014

Tokyo Part 2

Weather: Partly cloudy, 21

I made the mistake last night of not taking my decongestant. It not only helps my sinuses stay clear in a carpeted room, but it helps me sleep. I went to bed at 10:30 and was wide awake at 3:30 but refused to move until I saw light through the curtains.

Guess what time sunrise is…no, not 3:31.

I managed to stay in bed till just before 6 and thinking that breakfast was at 6 am, I got up only to read my ticket and realized it was 7. So, knowing I will be wiped by the time we get back from dinner tonight, I took my shower early.

I usually check online to find out the temperature outside but I opened the curtains to a partly cloudy sky and a big clock and temperature display on the building below me.

Very convenient.

I managed to get my hair dry by 7:15 and went up to the top floor for breakfast. I was second in line since the place opened at 7, so I essentially had to wait for someone to finish. Tomorrow I’ll try the lower buffet.

A group of Japanese lined up behind me and the gentleman sat down the 3 older women on a couple chairs then looked at his wife and then looked at a baby high chair and then waved her over with a big smile. She started to move, stopped, laughed and got back in line.

I laughed with them. Not sure if he thought I understood what they said. It was the kind of thing that needed no translation.

Then the concierge set out another chair and he sat in it, looked at his wife and slapped his knee.

Yup. No translation necessary.

Some people finished up by 7:30 and I got a table to myself. The buffet has a fair selection and the tea is excellent. The eggs were cold but the French toast was interesting. At least, I think it was French toast.

It wasn’t fishy.

I could see Fuji from the restaurant and it looked very much like it did from the Skytree, so if you don’t get up to the Skytree, you do get a fairly good view from the restaurant. It’s not at high as Skytree but it is 10 km closer.

I was done by 8 and we met Kimiko in the Garden Tower lobby for 9 am. The hotel is huge with two buildings but they’re connected on the main lobby floor by a long, wide hallway so that it feels like one building. The lobby for the Garden Tower is smaller than for the Main Tower. The Main is the one that was in the Bond movie You Only Live Twice where it doubled as the headquarters for the bad guy.

This is always a fun morning because we’re all anxious to see what the bus is like and it’s a full size 40 seater. And the back seats have an exceptional amount of leg room. I sat in the very back seat but found it hard to hear Kimiko when the air conditioning was on so I moved forward a couple of seats. There’s no bathroom and no back door. Our driver is Chino. Or as Kimiko explained, they add “san” to the end of everyone’s name as a way of saying Mr., Mrs, or Miss. So, Kimiko calls us all by our names plus san.

The funny part is that using my whole ten letter name is a mouthful and no one remembers it, so I left the “anne” off the end for this tour, so it worked out cause it rhymes with san…so it still sounds like she’s saying my whole name.

Kimiko pronounced her name for us and told us how others pronounce her name but said that the other pronunciations have different meanings like “mushroom” or “soy bean powder.”

Our first stop today is to the Meiji Shrine. There are two major religions in Japan: the native Shinto and the imported Buddhist. If a site is a shrine, it’s Shinto. If it’s a temple, it’s Buddist. Kimiko told us that the Shinto religion is about the living and believes that everything has a spirit. It also has a form of hero worship in which one can get a shrine if they do something noteworthy. Meiji was the emperor that brought Japan out of the feudal age into the modern industrialized world when he defeated the Shogun. He died in 1912 and the shrine was built in 1920.

On our way in, we passed what we thought was a wall of lanterns but it turned out they were empty sake barrels. Someone had one heck of a party!

The entrance to the shrine can be recognized by the presence of the Torii gate. It’s two vertical poles with two horizontal ones on top and I’ve seen them made of wood and concrete. The Shinto believe that once you pass through it, you will be purified.

For those that indulged in the sake, they have to pass through the gate multiple times to purify themselves.

As we got close to the shrine, Kimiko pointed out the gardeners tools. Very simple brooms and rakes. Next to them was the washing station where you can wash your hands and wash out your mouth.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.

There was no soap and no, we didn’t drink straight from the ladle. The custom is to wash the right then left hand then pour some water into your cupped hand and wash out your mouth. Hopefully, the water we dip into isn’t recycled from below.

Inside the shrine, we were met by a handsome young man in a light blue skirt. Kimiko said their rank is determined by the colour of their skirt and the handsome young thing was part of the #2 level.

Kimiko told us there might be a wedding party coming through and right on cue, the bride and groom appeared. They walked through the shrine then had their pictures taken off to the side by family.

And by every tourist from the four corners of the globe.

The bride was wearing what they call a horn hiding cover which is a symbol of her loyalty to her husband. The bride used to be given a short knife as a wedding gift that she could use if another man other than her husband went after her…but not to defend herself. The knife was meant to be used to kill herself.

Nowadays, the bride has other uses for the knife.

And it’s not to make sushi.

After the wedding party passed, Kimiko showed us the wish making area where for some coin, you can make a wish.

What a way to make a few dollars! All you can hear is the ding of coins hitting the bars where the coins disappear and likely keep on rolling down into a subterranean coin sorter. Kimiko said after you throw the money in, you bow twice, clap your hands twice (90 degree bow, but you can get away with 45 degrees) and then you make your wish.

Above the coin throwing area the wood is scarred by scratches. Kimiko said that at New Year’s, a lot of people can visit the shrine and get impatient in the crowd and just throw their money.

We were able to take our time going back to the bus and it was a 20 minute drive to the Imperial Palace (no traffic jams all day!). The palace is only open 2 days of the year (New Years and the Emperor’s birthday), so we can only walk to the bridges at the entrance. It’s a lovely walk on a warm day and would have been a nice spot for a group photo (which hasn’t been done yet). The walkway is wide and almost covered completely by pebbles which Kimiko said was a primitive security system as one could not approach across a field of pebbles and not make noise.

Why hasn’t ADT thought of that?

There’s also a samurai statue on the grounds. Kimiko told us that the grounds used to be the HQ of the old samurai and when they were defeated in 1868, the buildings were destroyed, but the original 400 year old moat and rock wall around the grounds remain. Before then, the city was called Edo (so, it used to be Edo Castle) but when the Emperor took the city, he renamed it Tokyo – “To” meaning east and “kyo” meaning capital.

She said the Emperor no longer has any political influence and is much like the Queen and serves a ceremonial role. The current Emperor is 80 years old and is the first emperor to marry a commoner. They also broke with tradition and raised their own children (whereas they used to be taken away at the age of 3). Their two sons have also married commoners as has their daughter. But the daughter is no longer considered a member of the royal family now that she has married a commoner.

I wonder if she got a knife at her wedding.

From here, we headed to lunch. Kimiko was asked why everyone was wearing a mask and she said it was allergy related. Apparently, one in four adults in Japan are allergic to cedar – a tree brought in after the war to use as lumber, but when they found they could import it cheaper, they just left the trees.

Lunch is a special treat, especially if you like sushi…….unlike me, the confetti queen.

But that didn’t matter. They were able to substitute other vegetables and meats so that we could all get a sushi making lesson. Usually, it takes up to 10 years working as an apprentice to become a sushi chef. For the first year, the students only wash dishes. For the next three years, they cook the rice. Then they get to watch the chefs but don’t get instructions. They learn by watching. Half the students leave in the first year.

The Japanese are very happy that the rest of the world has grown to love sushi. They’re very proud of it. Actually, they don’t make it at home. They always buy it in restaurants because no one wants to make it at home.

Probably that year of dish washing scares them.

We got to the restaurant and had to remove our shoes and put them in lockers. They have mercy on us poor westerners with bad knees and they let us sit in chairs at the table though we were walking on the straw mats (which is why shoes are removed. They’d ruin the mats). We were all given a short robe to wear (which we thought served nicely as a bib). One of the girls gave us a pictorial history of sushi which apparently started in southeast Asia and moved to China and then to Japan where the 1923 earthquake forced many of the chefs to return to their home villages where they passed on their craft.

So, an earthquake is the reason you have a sushi shop in your neighbourhood.

The handsome young sushi chef proceeded show us how they filet a snapper. He deboned it then cut the thin slices and then he showed us how to make the sushi which means taking a handful of rice, molding it between the left and right hand and adding wasabi and then the fish (or alternative).

I tried the wasabi and my eyes burned!

I made myself a nice plate of alternate-sushi and ate most of it. Then they brought us out some tempura.

Ummm…tempura.

As we finished, Kimoko took the time to give us the microphone so that we could all introduce ourselves. I lost count but it looks like an even divide between Aussies and Yanks with the 4 Canucks and 2 South Africans. Three solos and 10 couples.

After lunch, I dropped by the washroom to learn there was one more feature to Japanese washrooms.

Heated seats.

Yes. For the first few seconds, I thought I was having a hot flash.

Then I remembered that hot flashes usually start a little higher up.

So, yes, Japan is the only country in the world where I go through the trouble of making the seat clean enough to sit on….in absolute bliss.

We went out onto the street and Kimiko gave us thirty minutes to explore the high end shopping street in Ginza. I saw a sign that said Water Massage and thought, “why, yes, I don’t mind if I do.” But it turned out to be a shoe shop.

Darn.

Instead, I followed Kimiko into the department store across the street where she told us they had just renovated their basement to sell food. Now, when you hear that, you think ‘supermarket.’ Nope. Try stall after stall of cooked and cold food of every imaginable description. Fish, candy, mushrooms, fruit etc etc etc. Just amazing.

From here, we headed to Asakusa for the Kannon Buddist Temple. This is the same one I saw yesterday. As we drove, Kimoko asked us what we would call a mother in Japanese. Some replied “mama-san.” Well, if you do, you’ll likely get slapped. It’s their word for a street worker.

Kimiko went on to tell us that 80% of the population is Shinto while 90% is Buddhist. One reason that 170% of the population believe in two religions is that they might be covering their butts. The other is that Japanese view religion differently. To them, it’s not about faith as much as it’s about tradition and each religion has relevance to different parts of their lives.

The Shinto religion is about the living (birthdays, weddings) while the Buddhist is about death (or life after death – funerals). And they even celebrate Christmas. Hey, any excuse for a party!

Kimiko tells us that the temple is the oldest temple in Japan. It was built in the 7^th Century and is located on the Simeda River. The story goes that two fishermen kept catching this little gold statue in their nets on the river and they kept throwing it back only to find it in their nets the next day, so they brought it to the local master and he told them it was a statue of the Goddess of Mercy – Kannon. (Canon cameras is named for her). They enshrined it in the fishermen’s house which is now the temple. However, the statue is nowhere to be seen.

Next to the temple is the five story pagoda. Each level represents land, water, fire, wind and sky. The whole area recently had its roofs replaced from clay tiles to titanium.

Paid for by a lot of wishes, I think.

There is a pot of burning incense in front of the temple. They believe that if you have an ailing part, just expose it to the smoke and it will be healed.

In my case, I’d have to jump in.

Behind the temple is a Shinto shrine dedicated to three heroes. Yup…the two fishermen and the master they went to.

After a short walk around the temple and a lesson on how to pay and make a wish (just throw the coin and bow), Kimiko gave us 45 minutes to look around the shopping streets. Someone wondered why there were so many shops around the temple and Kimiko said that in the time of the Shogun travel was restricted but people could travel to visit the temples.

So, some budding entrepreneur realized there was money to be made by these pilgrims.

Today, the pilgrims are us.

Kimiko took us to her favorite brush shop (which was right next to Mimi-san’s, the TD for the shorter Japan tour, favorite comb shop, but it was closed). I bought a pig hair brush. $63.

Someone asked Kimiko why there didn’t seem to be any trash cans around and she said that they have been gone since the sarin gas attack as a trash can was used in the attack. People simply take their trash home (as the streets are very very clean).

When we were done, we headed back to the hotel and frankly, I could have hit the pillow then and slept, but we had a dinner at 6:45. I managed to stay awake and we took a short walk to the restaurant where we feasted on a string of small items – tempura, soup, meatballs, chicken and more. Delicious.

We were done by 9 pm and we walked out into a light rain. Kimiko had shown us a doll that they make as a good luck charm and sing in order to get their wish.