Day 2 (August 12)
We had decided the previous night to wake up around 8:30 and we almost did it! We woke Dave up (we only have 1 alarm between the three of us), showered up and enjoyed the 315 yen breakfast (it was really just toast and coffee – maybe we’ll just hit up the Family Mart down the road tomorrow morning instead). We chatted with the guys who run the place and they gave us some suggestions of things to do, very nice of them.
Well we started off at the subway, which are pretty similar to those of Seoul in terms of the stations, but maybe they are a little older. The system seems really confusing at first as there are separate companies that run the different lines, although they often share the same station-or stations with the same name but DIFFERENT exit numbers. We ended up just buying a day pass that works for about 60% of all the lines in the city. The man at the info booth was extremely nice and helpful and took us into the operation center to call a translation service to help us figure out our best option. Once we sort of figured out (kind of )how the system works, the trains seem to be a model of efficiency. They come every couple of minutes and the stops are really well labeled within the city.
Anyways, our first stop was the Imperial palace, which is a really beautifully maintained park type place (People aren't allowed to visit the actual Palace) lots of open space , trees, and beautiful stone walls. And! it is surrounded by a moat! We had a good hour and a half walk in the area and we took many pictures. The structures are relatively simple but seem to be very finely crafted, and I especially loved the gates at the entrance. The beams are MASSIVE and each made from a solid piece of wood (and a fragrant variety at that).
We walked across the street afterwards and found a little fountain area with some neat fountain structures, or rather they would have been neat had they been fountaining. It was to windy. If was like standing in a horizontal waterfall before they turned the last one off.
We then went for our first Japanese meal. Since we weren’t really in the mood to hunt down a side-street treasure, we just opted for the first thing we found which happened to be an upscale department store/mall building with a floor filled with nice restaurants. Luckily one of the cheapest ones really piqued our fancy. I particularly loved the pork ribs dish, it fell right off the bone. The bitter cucumber tasted about as good as it sounds though, so unless you have a thing for bitterness (or maybe even resentment, perhaps) I’d stay away from dishes focusing on that. Shannon and Dave had some sort of papaya and chicken dish that was also delightful. Really looking forward to eating here for the next week!
After lunch we found Tokyo station (its under construction so it really held no splendor at all) and bought our tickets in advance for the bullet train to Kyoto, we’ll be heading over there on Saturday. We then took a quick trip to an area called Ginza which has the Sony building. We were a little skeptical at first, as we really aren’t too much in the way of gadget heads, (that's a lie, Jamie LOVES gadgets) but we were all really happy we made the trip! The building houses the Sony showrooms which span a good number of mini floors each showcasing new and upcoming products. You may have heard of recent advances in 3D technology and it appears that Sony is pushing for it big time. They had a whole bunch of neat little 3D TV set-ups that you could play with. Another really neat gadget was a mike for a video camera that zooms in on sound while you zoom in with your lense. A SOUND zoom. Wow. Very neat.
We then tried to check out the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, but unfortunately it is changing exhibits as we speak. We also tried the science museum, but alas, they closed at 5! By now, of course, there's a downpour to go along with the wind.
After a quick dinner at a ramyeon place (think “ramen” noodles, but at a restaurant, served in a super thick broth with green onion and a slice of pork loin – its pretty good! Ramyeon is served often at restaurants in Korea too, but usually it is much spicier), we went to a little joint called the Cavern Club in the hip little neighborhood of Roppongi. The club has a resident Beatles cover band that plays 30 minutes on and then has 30 minutes off (but they only play Beatles in between sets). It was pretty awesome! The group didn’t dress up like the members to a T (although I suspect a couple of them were in character to some degree), each one did take particular member (i.e. that particular person would sing their personas songs (i.e. “Paul” sang “Lullaby”). The drinks at the place were pretty expensive so it seemed economical for us to just buy a bottle of whiskey, which none of us had ever done in a bar before (you can do this in Korea, but the cost is absurd). However, we were overcharged 40 dollars in the end, so who knows if there is some kind of membership fee for ordering a bottle or what – they did bring out this special bottle necklace with Dave’s name on it… Anyways, we drank quite a bit, stayed for 3 sets, and got a couple pictures with the band in the end, so it was well worth it! We managed to catch the 2nd to last subway train back to the hotel and made it back safe and sound!
A note: there are LOTS of photos, most of witch are of green things at the palace (jamie loves
green things.) However, if you stick it out to the end you will see the Beatles Cover band. And
some ridiculous pictures of shannon trying to touch the fish. If you want explanations, you can
visit flickr as each picture has and explanation.
