Tokyo - In the beginning of April I had the accidental pleasure of visiting Tokyo during Sakura - the Cherry Blossom Festival. Well, accidental in that I didn't know it was Cherry Blossom Festival time. Tokyo is only a 4 hour flight from Beijing (plus 1.5 hr on train to my cheap hotel in the suburb). So it seemed ok to go just for the weekend.
They had scanners for both index fingerprints and a photo at immigration. That gave me a taste of what it would be like coming into the US as a foreigner. Only they were nice and efficient.
This was one of the first trips to another country I've made on my own where I wasn't prepared. I didn't have a guidebook, had no clue about the language or etiquette (I had some vague ideas about bowing - glad I didn't try that). But things worked out fine. I guess that city is used to having a few tourists. I got a free map & directions on how to take the train to my hotel from an information booth in the airport. There were a few ATMs in the airport that had English, but I hadn't looked up the conversion rate. On the flight (Northwest) they said a beer/cocktail was $5 or 500 Yen. From that, and using my amazing math skills I figured roughly 100Y to $1. I still had to make two transactions, not knowing how much anything cost except that taxis were exorbitant.
Using my map from the info desk, I pointed my to and froms out to the ticket agent and bought a one-way ticket for 1160 yen ($11.60). [I was told it was really expensive in Tokyo, so I am recording the prices so you can decide for yourself.] Although a friend had warned me that seats on the train were reserved, I watched other people and realized there must be different kinds of trains. I sat down and nobody gave me a hard time. The scenery was bland except for the windmill and tulips. Seriously. I guess it's a Holland-theme park?
I was able to follow the signs (fortunately in English as well as Japanese) in the enormous train station to change to the JR train to Ikebukuro. After the hustle and crowds of Beijing, I was shocked at people waiting in line on the train platform. I was traveling in non-rush hour, so I didn't get to experience being shoved in by attendants like I've seen in movies.
I had a little trouble finding my hotel, but there were a few tourist maps posted along the streets with English. Purely in the interest of cultural research, I stopped at at McDonalds for a teriyaki burger. It was like the McDonalds in China (I only went once to see what the Happy Meals looked like and that was for work purposes), they had a laminated photo menu with English. It was 260 yen (580 for combo meal) (a little help with the math: $2.60 or $5.80). This was a fancy McDonalds - there were internet connections at the seats. The bad news is there was a smoking section on one side.
For those from Atlanta, Ikebukuro is like the Buckhead of Tokyo, but located closer to Dunwoody. It's a big shopping mall (as in 5-10 story malls) district. After looking at my map I realized I had seen a hotel that was nearby mine. I went in the Sunroute Hotel and asked for directions. They gave me a (free) map of the Ikebukuro area. My hotel was just around the corner through alleys with tons of little shops and restaurants and massage parlors and game rooms and lots of SIGNS! There were vending machines everywhere. You can buy water, beer, cigarettes, sodas, juice, milk - pretty cool. I bought a tasty grapefruit soda for 150 yen ($1.50).
I checked into the hotel and took a little nap (I'd gotten up pretty early that morning). My room was pretty small - just enough room for a single bed, desk, and TV, but that's all I needed. Once I got used to the sound of the trains (the hotel was right by the train tracks) I experienced my first earthquake. I thought maybe the grapefruit soda was actually alcoholic, because no alarms went off. I didn't hear people screaming in the hallways. But it was a 5 on the Richter scale: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T331659.htm It was very disorienting. I wonder if I should start to worry - the first tornado in Atlanta happened the last night I was in town.....[and the Sichuan earthquake happened the day I got back to China.]
That evening I managed to order sushi and miso soup and an Asahi beer without speaking Japanese at what felt like a very local restaurant. I ducked through some curtains and then it seemed like all the staff yelled at me. I think it was nice stuff like "thank you for coming our specials tonight are fatty tuna and abalone!" But who knows? They could be saying "FOREIGNER ALERT! I BET SHE SMELLS LIKE MILK AND WILL MIS-PRONOUNCE ALL THE SUSHI NAMES!" I sat at the counter and they brought me the picture menu for dummies. But the chef and waiters spoke some English (and I spoke some food Japanese). I had tuna and bonito and miso soup with big chunks of crabmeat - it was delicious.
After dinner I walked around the Ikebukuro area a bit. The weather was pleasant and there were lots of people about. Very few foreigners. I saw street singers with good sound systems. Many of the girls seemed to be dressed like anime characters: extremely short shorts with over the knee boots; short skirts with black tights and white patent leather heels; leggings and high strappy heels. Others, even the fashionable gals wore surgical masks. I wonder if this is a post-SARS habit or whether it was popular beforehand.
Surprised to see a Cafe Du Monde [Turns out there are tons of them in Japan.], I stopped in for beignets and milk. They had the dummies' menu (with pictures) and the added benefit that one of the counter staff spoke English.
The hotel was pretty loud even thought I am used to living on top of a construction site. I wished that I'd brought my earplugs. I could hear people in the hall, doors closing, and the plumbing from upstairs. My room faced the train tracks but that noise didn't seem to bother me as much as the children running up and down the hall and shrieking.
I was lucky. I happened to plan this trip because I had a Friday off, but I picked the perfect time. It was spring - sunny and about 60 and a true pleasure to see cherry blossoms in their "natural" habitat (before I'd only seen them around the Tidal Basin).
They drive on the wrong side of the street in Tokyo, which surprised me. Another surprise is that while the spoken language sounds quite different from Mandarin Chinese, the written language looks similar. Not that I know much, but the character on the ice machine looked almost exactly like "shui" (water). And there are others I recognize. (Turns out the Japanese borrowed the Chinese characters a thousand or so years ago.)
I snoozed the alarm a few times on Saturday - I wish I could say it was the post-adrenaline rush of surviving an earthquake, but it was really that the Jodi Picoult book I was reading was a page turner and kept me up 'til midnight last night. And the more I read, the more nervous I got that I wouldn't have anything to read for the train and plane trip back!
I tried to stop by the ATM at the hotel convenience store but was intimidated by what looked like a fingerprint reader. Had a banana and Pocari Sweat - yep that's the name. - for breakfast. It's kind of like Gatorade. Only clear.
On the Mt Fuji tour (which I'd arranged in advance through Expedia) we had lots of time on the bus with one of those guides who feels obligated to speak the whole time. So in between naps, I learned a few things like cherry blossoms only last 10 days; people vy for the best spots under the cherry trees with tarps to picnic (where they eat, drink, and sing karaoke). I love karaoke and feel bad that I didn't get a chance to experience it its natural habitat.
In the Mt Fuji visitors' center I bought two postcards (220 Y; $2.20) in the ubiquitous gift shop and had a chance to do a real Asian squat in the toilet. I couldn't get into the thinker pose in the diagram (see photo, which looks like a stick figure peeing on a big slipper). In another visitors center there was a hot food vending machine where you could buy French Fries; right next to it you could buy various kinds of milk.For some reason I was thinking we'd get to do a bit of hiking on Mt Fuji, but it turns out that's only allowed during July and August when the snow is gone. So we drove to the 4th or 5th station, which is 2006 meters above sea level. It's still quite beautiful to see in real life.
After the tour I found my way home on the trains with no problems. I was almost out of cash but didn't see an ATM anywhere. I wanted dinner but was too tired to deal with finding a place that would take a credit card. So I got an Asahi (Japanese beer) and can of peanuts from the hotel vending machine. Sad but pretty cool.
I'd finished my book, dangit! I couldn't afford the pay per view (you had to use cash to buy a card that you stuck in the TV) and couldn't understand the TV shows, so I bored myself to sleep.
Another beautiful day Sunday. Tried another ATM. It fed all three cards back to me. Very nicely. Starbucks was my last resort because they take credit cards. I didn't need much cash - just enough to get a train ticket to the park, lunch, and train to airport. I found a Crowne Plaza and the concierge directed me to a 7-11. They have international ATMs. Who knew? The minimum withdrawal was 10000 yen ($100) plus about 2 dollar charge.
At the train station, I couldn't find a ticket office, so was forced to figure out how to use the machine. Like the metro in DC, they charged by distance, and you need to have the ticket to get in and leave. 160 Y to Ueno Park, which was a very nice station like Grand Central. There were flowers, chocolate, and a bookstore with English books! I bought one on Japan FAQs and another trashy novel for the plane. The books were pretty expensive -about 24 dollars.
Ueno Park was right next to the station and full of people picnicking. It was a festival atmosphere with performers and a guy dressed in green. I wandered through the zoo, an art gallery, the national museum, the garden behind the museum. The zoo had a ticket machine (600 Y; $6) and at the museum I saved 3 dollars (600 vs 900 yen) by using the ticket machine. In the zoo I used the hot & cold vending machine to get a grapefruit soda with ice - I could have gotten a cappucino from the same machine. I had lunch at the museum restaurant which is only interesting because there was a waiting list and they really called me "Davis-san").
I wish I'd been able to stay longer.
