"Where in the world are the Hergs?" and flashback to TOKYO

First, where in the world are the Hergs? The short answer is Montgomery, Alabama. The long answer would take me hours to write. Our "in a nutshell" answer is that we will be living in Montgomery for about 8 weeks due to Eric being selected for a course. This means that baby Bean will be joining our family in Alabama instead of Misawa. "The plan" is complicated and ever-changing, but we are thankful to be stateside because it means our families have the opportunity to be more a part of this exciting (and challenging) time in our lives! Planning for and adjusting to the changing circumstances of our situation kept me from blogging about our trip...until now...good thing I kept a paper journal during our travels! I've re-read it to help me conjure up the memories in enough detail to share them with you here.

We jumped off the overnight bus we took from Misawa to Tokyo a little before 7 am on November 11th and were met by a representative from our travel agency who escorted us to our hotel. We were unable to check in to our room until 3 pm so we dropped off our bags in the lobby and headed out for our first day in the city. I expected to be immediately overwhelmed by people and tall buildings, but it was a Sunday morning and the streets, subways, etc. were fairly quiet. Our hotel was really close to one of Tokyo's newest attractions, the Tokyo Skytree, so we walked over to check it out. The Skytree is the new "talk of the town" and a major tourist attraction for people from Tokyo, other places in Japan, and international tourists alike. In addition to being the tallest tower in the world, the Skytree is a broadcasting tower with restaurants, shops, and an observation deck. We did not visit the observation deck on this trip, but revisited the area several times during our stay in Tokyo. We enjoyed admiring the building from up close and afar, during the day and at night. Each night the tower was illuminated with different colored lights and the area around it was beautifully decorated for Christmas while we were there.

We were on our own for our first full day in Tokyo so we rolled up our sleeves and dug into the subway map selecting a few stops we knew we wanted to make. Our first destination after the Skytree was the Tokyo National Museum. The museum has a large collection of art and archaeological objects to include paintings, ceramics, calligraphy, sculptures, costumes, arms, and armor. The museum sits on a beautifully landscaped campus with a lake and Japanese gardens. Nestled within the gardens were replicas of old Japanese tea houses that you could walk through and explore. In the picture below, I am standing next to one of them and the small door to my left was a standard sized entrance of the times. We were told the purpose of the small doors was to prevent Samurai from being able to enter the tea house with the large sword on their belt. In order to enter, their large swords would have to be removed; thus, within the tea house, all were equal.

We spent a lot of time exploring the gardens and enjoying the nice day. We then stopped for a snack and a rest by the lake where we made the decision to head to Shibuya station for our next stop of the day.

Shibuya is a ward or neighborhood in Tokyo known for trendy shopping and night life. Shibuya felt every bit like we imagined Tokyo would feel: hustle & bustle, tall buildings, crowds, sounds, bright lights, and best of all, the people watching is incredible! Right outside of Shibuya Station is Shibuya Crossing, one of the busiest intersections in the world.

At Shibuya Crossing, traffic is stopped in all directions and pedestrians are able to cross in all directions simultaneously. The best way to describe what takes place is organized chaos. Somehow, a billion people (I exaggerate a little) cross the intersection without bumping into one another or getting jammed up.  Eric and I crossed the intersection several times ourselves and observed the crossing from a window in a Starbucks that sits above the intersection. We took our own video, but I feel too lazy to mess with uploading it, so click here to see someone else's!

The view as we geared up to cross at Shibuya Crossing.

Just as we were starting to get hungry for lunch, we stumbled upon Tokyo Food Show, which was a "must see" on Eric's list. TFS is part gourmet grocery store, part restaurant, part food theater. Food is displayed like accessories in a retail store or cosmetics in a department store. It is an assault to the senses and an incredible place for any foodie to visit. It is not a place for the indecisive. We circled and stared, calculated and evaluated for what felt like forever before finally selecting various snacks from a Chinese and Vietnamese food stand. We found a random table in the middle of the crowd where we could stand and sample our treats. The food was delicious, but we really could have spent an entire day eating our way through the TFS.

As we made our way back to our hotel for a much deserved rest (especially since we were still trying to recover from our overnight bus trip), we talked about our first impressions of Tokyo. We both agreed that we were already surprisingly enamored with this gigantic city. We felt that it was huge, but amazingly accessible and easy to navigate. We were constantly surrounded by crowds, but never felt panicked or overwhelmed by them. We celebrated our handle of the metro/subway system and the fact that we had already successfully recharged our farecards without help!

The drink on the left is the famous "Denki Bran."

For dinner on the first night, we went to Kamiya Bar, which was the first Western style bar in Tokyo. It is located in Asakusa (another ward- our hotel was also in this ward), an area that, for most of the twentieth century, was considered the major entertainment district of Tokyo. Kamiya Bar is known for a signature drink called, "Denki Bran." It is made from a mix of gin, brandy, and wine. Eric loved it, which came as no surprise, but I tried a sip and really liked it as well. It was very different. After dinner, we took in Asakusa at night and stumbled upon Sensō-ji, which is an ancient (and famous) Buddhist temple. We tried to avoid looking at it too much because we knew it was a stop on our guided tour the next day, but it was simply stunning at night! We hit the hay and slept like rocks in our twin beds (which we learned are typical of Japanese hotels). 

The next morning, before meeting our tour guide for the day, we had our first experience with breakfast in a Japanese hotel...man, was it awful!! I hate to complain, but (generally speaking from an ethnocentric perspective) if there is one thing Japan does not do well, it is breakfast...at least what we consider breakfast. I am sure the Japanese are very happy with their breakfasts. On the other hand, maybe they don't love their breakfasts so much...it could explain the absolute abundance of Denny's restaurants or the fact that people wait for HOURS in long lines to eat at two separate pancake houses...but I digress.

After breakfast, we met our private tour guide in the lobby of our hotel. She was incredible! She was warm yet professional, extremely knowledgeable, and had endless energy (which we learned we were going to need for the long day she had planned for us). Eric asked me to write in the journal that she even asked us to verify her credentials. He thought that was amazing and a perfect example of Japanese professionalism.

Our first stop of the day was the Meiji Jingu Shrine. The shrine was built to commemorate Emperor Meiji who was the highly regarded Emperor of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) and Empress Shoken, who was also well-loved and considered to be a model modern Japanese woman. The shrine was originally completed in 1920, but was lost in the fire bombings of WWII and was reconstructed in 1958. We learned that most shrines, palaces, and buildings in Japan are reconstructions. There are very few original structures to be visited in Japan. Our guide explained that tourists are often disappointed by this fact, but that the Japanese consider rebuilding structures with the care and respect to building techniques of the different times to be a way to honor the past.

While at the shrine, our guide taught us how to pay our respects and make offerings. We saw displays of Sake offerings from Sake breweries and French wine from the French government as well as Chrysanthemum offerings. We were lucky enough to see a wedding procession during our visit and before leaving we purchased a token of good luck for a happy and healthy birth for our baby Bean.

Left: wedding procession; Right: "smooth delivery" good luck charm...that is unfortunately still in Japan...

After the shrine, we went to Harajuku, a shopping district popular among pre-teens and teenagers. Harajuku can best be described as an explosion of pop culture! Crowded along an avenue were stores upon stores upon stores selling accessories, clothes, music, candy, and popular snacks. It seemed like THE hot spot for anyone under the age of 17 and looked like a haven for Katy Perry and Lady Gaga fans. It was truly a fascinating place. After walking through Harajuku, we strolled onto Omotesando, which was originally created to be the frontal approach to the Meiji Shrine and is today an avenue of upscale shops. It is known as Tokyo's Champs-Élysées. We walked through a number of malls and shopping centers and visited a beautiful rooftop garden deck, which had comfortable swings, chairs, tables and benches and boasted amazing views of the surrounding city. When we got hungry, we had a traditional Western Japanese lunch (what that means exactly, we are still trying to figure out), but it was delicious! I had a Japanese take on spaghetti and Eric had a rice omelette topped with shredded beef.

We planned to walk off our lunches in the Hama-rikyu Gardens and had to travel through the business district to get there. We quickly transitioned from a high fashion crowd to a men-in-business suits crowd. It was so interesting how throughout Tokyo the look and feel of the crowds varied noticeably depending on the ward or district. The Hama-rikyu is a typical example of the famous gardens of the Edo period (1603-1867). Within the garden, there were two duck hunting sites, a duck grave that housed the spirits of the killed ducks, a 300 year old black pine tree, bridges, seasonal gardens, and a tea house first built in 1707, which was a relaxation spot for Shoguns and other elites of the imperial court.

300 year old black pine (on left)

Tea house (upper right)

Today the tea house is still a great spot to rest, enjoy the views of the garden, and enjoy a cup of tea and a sweet treat. We visited the tea house and participated in a traditional tea ceremony. We learned how to consume the sweets and the proper etiquette to drink the tea from the cup. We tried Matcha, which is powdered green tea. It is a high quality tea and the preferred blend by Japanese tea masters. It is a little bitter (not sure if this is the right word...), but when paired and served with a sweet, it is perfection. 

After the tea ceremony, we made our way down to a dock where we boarded a boat for a 45 minute tour of the Tokyo Bay and Sumida River. The tide was extremely high during the tour and as we crossed under the numerous bridges, everyone aboard worried the boat would not clear the height of the bridges. There was one in particular that I am pretty sure the boat kissed as it passed beneath. After coming out the other side there was a collective "woohoo!" from the passengers on board. The sites of the boat cruise were really cool. Our guide pointed out places we should consider visiting in the future to include a museum dedicated to the Edo period and a famous sumo wrestling house. 

As the boat neared the end of its journey, we made our way back into Asakusa and the Asahi Beer Headquarters came into view. In the picture above, the Asahi Beer Hall is on the top right. It is famous for the "Asahi Flame," which is said to represent the "burning heart of Asahi Beer" as well as a frothy head. The flame was built to compliment the large golden structure to its left, which is supposed to resemble a beer mug. We were told by our tour guide that reactions to the Asahi Flame upon completion of construction were mixed...at best.  

We jumped off the boat in Asakusa and made our way toward Sensō-ji (the Buddhist temple we'd seen the night before). On our way, we stumbled across a visitors center for Asakusa that had an observation deck on the 8th floor. The sun was just beginning to set so we thought it would be a good time for a detour to take in a bird's eye view. From the observation deck, we could see the Skytree and Asahi Flame as well as the Sensō-ji. In the picture on the right, the approach to Sensō-ji is visible from Kaminarimon or "Thunder Gate" (in the foreground) to the actual temple (in the background). Shops and food stands, housed under the green roofs, lined the approach to the temple. Our tour guide told us that the famous lantern that sits under Kaminarimon would not be there because it had been damaged in the recent Typhoon and had been sent away for repairs. 

When we arrived at Kaminarimon, we realized (much to our surprise and delight) that the lantern had returned home sometime within the last day. We felt very fortunate to be able to see it. 

By this point, Eric and I were sure that our time with our tour guide had come to an end; however, she had other things in mind! She suggested a walk through the old Geisha district of Asakusa, which would lead us to Kappa-Bashi, which is the restaurant wholesale area of Tokyo. It was a long walk and our feet were killing us, but she was determined to show us the store that sells wax food displays. Wax food models are used by many restaurants throughout Japan to advertise the dishes on their menus. It is a pretty unique aspect of Japanese restaurant culture. 

After parting ways with our guide, we limped back to our hotel to rest up before heading back out to find dinner. It took all of our power to put our shoes back on for our walk to dinner, but we will do pretty much anything for pizza and we had spotted a pizza place we wanted to try in Asakusa. The Pizzeria San Gusto was an amazing brick oven style pizza joint. We had almost the entire restaurant to ourselves, which came as a complete surprise to us being that the food was soooo delicious! 

Breakfast on our second morning in Tokyo was a little better than the first in part because there were different options and in part because we were mentally prepared for it. After breakfast, we got on the subway and made our way to the Tsukiji Fish Market. This fish market is the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world in addition to being one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind. Each morning at 5am, the largest fish auction in the world is held at Tsukiji. We, of course, were not there early enough to witness the fish auction, but there was still plenty to look at by the time we arrived. After exploring the market place, we got in line at a sushi restaurant and waited about an hour for a spot at the sushi bar. It was cheat day and sushi time for mama and baby Bean, but I was careful about the selections I made. We had eel, salmon, and shrimp sushi with miso soup. Eric enjoyed a plethora of random sea creatures that literally had come straight out of the ocean....like, right next to us. It was all delicious and ridiculously fresh. Eating sushi at Tsukiji Fish Market: check (sort of...we will have to revisit when I can be a bit more adventurous). 

With bellies full of sushi, we went on to Akihabara, a district known for electronics, manga, video games, and anime. Eric and I were really hoping to see some cosplay folks. We wanted a glimpse of the anime subculture and spent a good amount of time walking around aimlessly looking for landmarks or areas where people into cosplay congregated. We were generally unsuccessful in this mission, but found Akihabara to be interesting nonetheless. It was loud and bustling. Our ears were flooded by electronic music; our eyes blinded by blinky lights, and there were a few people in costume...maybe they come out at night? Google says they come out on Sundays...

By this time, our feet were again screaming at us. In three days in Tokyo, we had walked what felt like 100 miles...and we were both (at this point) still holding onto this crazy idea that we didn't want to look too touristy in our tennis shoes...as if we looked like we belonged otherwise! It seemed like the perfect time to pop into Mister Donut for an afternoon snack and to give our feet a chance to rest. We munched on a munchkin sampler and sipped cafe au laits while we conjured the strength to get back to our hotel for an afternoon nap. 

We debated how to spend our last night in Tokyo and were torn between hopping back on the subway to visit a place with a more active night life or to find something cool to do close to our hotel. We eventually decided to listen to our tired and aching bodies and stick close to "home" for the night. We told ourselves that we would be in Tokyo again one day and that we would probably stay in an entirely different ward, which would give us the opportunity to explore many new areas.

For dinner, we went back to the Skytree area and spent a lot of time looking at the different shops, specialty stores, and restaurants. The entire shopping area is visually stunning, pristine, and amazing. There were a lot of dinner options, but we finally chose to check out this really touristy spot called, The World Beer Museum. The concept was a beer tour around the world with stops at pubs in the Czech Republic, England, Germany, and America. There was a bar decorated in the style of each country and food and beer pairings from each country as well. Since it was getting close to Christmas time, Christmas music from each country took turns being played. When it was America's turn, the soundtrack of choice was American heavy metal Christmas music. It was awesome to watch the Japanese men in business suits sipping beer and talking shop with Iron Maiden screaming "We wish you a merry Christmas" in the background.

We went to bed that night completely exhausted from our whirlwind tour and feeling like there is still so much to explore in Tokyo. We are excited to plan another trip in the future...maybe with some visitors from America?? 

So that was the Tokyo leg of our journey! Holy moly! Blogging about this trip is going to keep me busy for a while...hopefully nothing new, exciting, or noteworthy happens any time soon to distract me from this project...like having a baby, for example...all the more incentive to type quickly! 

Next stop: Kiso Valley the "Japanese Alps"