Tag Archive: Tokyo

Prayers, wishes, and thanksgiving

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Sun. June 28, 2009

Just another lazy Sunday today. Back on Thursday, at the end of the work day I emailed a document I was working on to myself in hopes that I’d work on it some point between Friday and today. Well…at least I had good intentions. Thing is, I know very well that I was unlikely to spend time at home working on it. It would have been a different story if I was far from being finished, but no, the document has decent progress on it. There are also some open questions against the project that need to be answered before I write about them, so I would have been stalled anyway

Funny how I seem to be attempting to justify it.

meiji prayer boards Anyway, since I’ve got nothing much I figure I’d pick a picture that showed up in the “Random from Viewport” widget on the right and give a few words on it. I ended up choosing a picture from my trip to Japan in June 2006. On one of my first days in Tokyo, me and a couple of travel companions headed over to the beautiful Meiji Shrine complex on the west side of the city. If I recall, it’s pretty much adjacent to Harajuku station and a short walk to Takeshita-dōri which is that fashion forward place that Gwen was going on about in her pop albums. It’s accessible from the JR Yamanote line via Harajuku station, or the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda line from Meiji-Jingūmae station, which can be translated as “in front of Meiji Shrine.” How descriptive.

Anyway, Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine. This is where you would go to pay respects to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken. What’s pictured here is a part of the complex where there are a huge number of these wooden plaques. These are called ema. You would buy these ema prayer boards and then write a prayer or a wish or some form of thanks on them. You then hang these boards on a designated rack. Now, what’s pictured here is just one rack, but at the Shrine there are many more racks right next to this one. These are meant to communicate with the spirits. Now, when you consider the fact that these boards hold what amount to the hopes, dreams, and wishes of thousands of people, it’s an extremely powerful symbol.

I’m not planning on heading back to Tokyo anytime soon. However, if I somehow found myself there again at the big Meiji Shrine I would buy an ema. What would I write on it? I would pray for peace. I would wish for someone to come into my life to change my life for the better. Most of all, I would give thanks for all of the blessings I have in my life: family, a place of my own, a job, and nice things. I wonder if that’d all fit. Guess I’d just have to write smaller.

Hey, so what would you write on an ema prayer board?

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Ninja secrets

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Mon. June 23, 2008

On that second last day in Japan, I headed back to the apartment with all of my purchases and chilled out for a bit before being convinced to head out for a long walk to Akasaka, near Roppongi. He wanted to go to a ninja restaurant in the area. If you recall, I made an attempt to wander around the city from Roppongi back to the apartment back before the rail tour. That walk took 4 hours. Of course, I wasn’t taking a direct route, but still. Knowing that, I was skeptical about the walk. He promised a 2-2.5 hour walk. I balked at first but he retorted: “what are you going to do on your second to last night here, just sit around the apartment?” True. As such, I just decided to go along. God, that was a rough walk. I mean, after walking around the city all morning, I really just wanted some rest. Instead, I was hiking cross-city again. Sure, he took me around to see some interesting sights: Kanda Myōjin, the Imperial Palace, Hikawa Jinja in Akasaka. Of course, it was all in the dark, but still. We eventually made it to where we needed to go after 2.5 hours. I was hot and sweaty and rather unamused.

As it turned out, the ninja restaurant was called…Ninja Akasaka. Figures, doesn’t it? We waited around for a third person to join us. When we arrived, we headed in. Oh man, what a trip that place was. The reception area looked all boxed off and dark. There was a single greeter there taking names. After taking our names the greeter went from smiley to secretive and spooky all at once. She announced that a ninja was going to come in and guide us to our table so we had to pay attention. All of a sudden one of the walls opened up and in came the seater, dressed up ninja garb guiding us to follow her. She took us through some tight passages with low ceilings. The whole time she was bending her knees and looking around because, after all, we were in a ninja hideout and someone might attack at any time. We had to go up some uneven stairs and such. At one point the pathway looked destroyed–the path was broken and there was flowing water below. The guide put on a good show in decent English. “Oh no! The bridge is destroyed! What should we do?” I think we were all just in a state of WTF is going on @__@ to respond. She said, “wait…NINJA MAGIC!” She then yelled out and did a chant “rin pyou tou sha kai jin retsu zai zen….” All of a sudden, a drawbridge came down allowing us to cross. God, that was awesome. When we crossed, we finally got to the dining area. There were different rooms with tatami mats full of people enjoying themselves. When we got to our own room, we took of our shoes and sat down at the low tables.

The waitress, naturally in ninja garb, came by and greeted us. She started prefacing things saying that she wasn’t too great with English but that she will try her best. My friend then spoke up that it’s OK to speak Japanese if she has to because he’ll translate. The waitress was shocked and let out a very happy “arigatou gozaimasu!!!.” So funny!

After we ordered drinks, ehe pulled out what looked like a tube, and with great dramatic flair, she yanked on it and revealed that it was actually a scroll with the menu on it. She said that a few of the courses involved “ninja surprises.” Naturally that was a draw. Two of us ordered the “Surprise Course.” My friend ordered a steak course. Well the first course that came for us was a bunch of ninja star crackers with some foie gras. No kidding. The juxtaposition between an oddball theme the sophistication of foie gras was amusing. When the waitress came in with the second course, she announced: “first appetizer…now…dessert! Ninja surprise!” She set down two chocolate truffles in front of the two of us that ordered the surprise course. All I could think was, “umm..OK…” After a pause, she told us though that the chocolates were actually a potato type appetizer and a meat ball of sorts. Well that was neat. Heh. At some point we got this escargot type course. She came with a plate with shells on it. She did a chant and…well…probably better if you see this:

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Awesome! For another course, she brought out these veggies and started cutting them up in a small wooden bucket. She poured in a “secret soup” which was a mixture of soy milk, shellfish soup, and vegetable soup. She then took this rock and told me to say “nin nin.” I did, and then she stuffed the stone into the bucket. The contents started sizzling. Turns out the rock was 400 degrees. That heated up the whole thing. Quite awesome. She added pork, and that completed the soup. See the following vid:

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The soup itself was pretty nice. It had a very Thai feel to it. At some point someone (also in ninja garb, of course) came in to perform a funny magic show for us. He was also able to speak in broken but understandable English which makes me think they must get a lot of foreigners around the restaurant. By the end of the meal, the waitress brought in what looked like a bonsai tree. Turns out the bonsai was made of a fried wonton-like wrapper. The soil was made of chocolate cake. The green moss was dusted matcha powder. Underneath is all was ice cream and fruit. That was damn awesome.

As our guide was taking us to the front, I was expecting another crazy trip so I had my camera ready to capture it all. Unfortunately, the way out was a little for straightforward. She opened a door and there we were back at the reception area. God, that was amazing. As we headed out, someone called out to us. It was the guide. She jumped out, pulled out a scroll with a big smile: “Please come again.” Hahah. So cute! Well yes, if I find myself back in Tokyo that will be a place I’ll want to visit again. I was totally happy to have eaten in such a place. I had so much fun! It was a memorable way to slowly close out my vacation there. Of course, I still had one day to do stuff, but wow, how do you top something like that?

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Geek secrets

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Sun. June 22, 2008

On my second last day in Japan I headed back to Akihabara to check out what I considered to be a super-geek store. Now, the area is already known for having a lot of the geek shops–video games, manga (adult and otherwise), anime, hobby figures, etc. This one particular store though seems to consolidate it all into one shop. Back in 2006, we’d gone to a branch of the store out in the far west of the city. Being that they opened a store closer to where I was located, I thought I’d check it out.

I wandered around looking for the building being unsure what to expect, but when I saw a tall black tower I knew that I’d found it. I was a little unsure about walking in. Why? Hmm…maybe I was suddenly hit by a little bit of self-consciousness. Did I want to be seen walking into such the place? Then it occurred to me that no one would ever see me again. Point! So, I started wandering around. Eight floors of geek-wares. Second floor had costumes and anime cels. The third floor had all sorts of manga and artbooks. I made a feeble attempt to look for a particular title, but I got lost amid all the kanji. I found two artbooks that I wanted though so I purchased them. In the other location, they put the contents in these heavy black bags which were designed to hide the contents. Now, that’s dead useful if you purchased something pervy, or mildly embarrassing. Thing is, in carrying a black bag, you’re sort of giving away the fact that you’re carrying something that you don’t want broadcast. This time, they put my purchase in a paper bag and taped it shut with three pieces of tape. Still opaque, but branded with the company’s name. I think such a bag still induces curiosity if you recognize the company, right?

So, again, why is an opaque bag important? Well, the fourth floor of the building was purely hentai. There were so many illustrated boobies and flying fluids. It was fascinating. This floor was actually the most popular floor in the building from what I remembered. There were a lot of guys perusing thing, pawing at the good, collecting piles and piles of…whatever. It all caught me off guard. As I walked up to the fifth floor, I saw a sign describing floor contents. I couldn’t make out all of the details, but I noticed that the fourth floor (the floor I was just at) had kanji for “men” on it. The fifth floor had kanji for “women” on it. Well, I wasn’t in the mood to face a full floor of men loving men, so I headed for floor 6. I don’t recall exactly what was on the floor. I think it was a full floor of doujinshi. Floors 7 and 8 had video games and hobby figures. Once again though, they didn’t have much in the way of figures from [that one show] that I would have been interested in. Feh.

Well, walking around with a bag from that store was interesting. I could have sworn that people were looking at the bag wondering what was in it. Or furthermore they were wondering what the foreigner was doing carrying something from the store. Maybe it was all imagined. Actually, I don’t think it was. I did some more general shopping before heading to Sensōji and the Nakamise shopping street. The street is full of souvenir type stuff all leading up to the big Buddhist temple. I’d been there in 2006, so I knew that it was a great place to get stuff. I went into one store to shop for a yukata for myself. I set my bags down as I was trying things on. One of the store clerks had to set them aside to access a storage drawer. As she picked up my bags, the paper bag sort of popped open a little bit possibly exposing the contents. The clerk started apologizing–genuinely sounding like she was sorry that I was possibly ‘exposed’. Oh, she knew. Of course, its not like I was carrying illustrated porn, so I didn’t care too much. In any case, I thought that sort of reaction was interesting.

That store, by the way, forgot to give me a free belt for my yukata. Boo!

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Traffic signal: Trouble

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Mon. June 9, 2008

Today, as we were travelling around before and after dinner we experienced a lot of delays all along several of the train lines. The trains had layovers of several minutes at each stop and each time we waited the trains became more and more packed. When we looked up at the screens on the train, it gave a list of delays. There were four delays on four different lines. Each one listed “信号トラブル Accident.” That seems innocuous enough. However, “accident” is sort of a euphemism. It’s well known that “accident” generally means that someone jumped in front of a train. So, people committed suicide in front of four trains slowing down the systems, delaying thousands of commuters.

It’s kind of odd when I think about it. I don’t think anyone really pays attention to the individual in the sense that anyone really feels sorry for them. More of the focus is on how that person was rather inconsiderate in delaying others from getting home. Is that a bad thing? I dunno, it’s just what’s done around here, I guess. It’s kind of sad to know that these events are sort of regular occurrences. With 8 million people here, I guess it can’t be helped. Just part of life in the big city.

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Unease in Akihabara

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Mon. June 9, 2008

I’m sure a good deal of you have heard of that stabbing that happened in Akihabara yesterday. My friend noticed the news scrolling on the marquee signs from inside the Shinkansen but wasn’t sure just exactly what was going on. It was only when we got back to the apartment that we found out the details.

Today, I decided to go for a stroll there to check out the electronics and various other geekware. I didn’t feel like I was in danger or anything. I mean, what are the chances of a second deranged lunatic repeating the same thing the day after, know what I mean?

TV signal trucks in Akihabara

As I walked around, I noticed that so many Japanese news agencies were in the area interviewing people and filing reports. One part of the street was just lined with signal trucks, sending feeds back to their home bases. All of that in itself was a little unnerving. I mean, I suppose you don’t get a feel for the scale of what happened just by reading it on a website. Being there, I could feel that there was a tiny bit of uneasiness in the air. Sure, people were going about doing their own business, but knowing what had happened…could anyone really feel truly safe?

My friend said that if it wasn’t for the weeklong trip he probably would have been in Akihabara like he usually is on Sundays. Wow man. Imagine just going about your business down Queen St. then having some guy just plough down the sidewalk with a pickup truck with the intent of injuring and killing as many people as possible. It’s kind of scary.

Well, just know that I’m doing alright. Life will go on.

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Restoring my faith in the city

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Sun. June 1, 2008

After my last post or two, it may seem like I’ve lost a bit of faith in Tokyo. Fair enough, you know? I mean, it almost seems like this whole experience is just one insult to foreigners after another, right? It almost seems like all you can do is to just go along with it and not pay too much mind. Well, I have to be fair and say that Japanese people are really friendly. I think any misgivings that arise are really as a result of a few things. First, there’s a great deal of shyness that the locals have when communicating with someone that speaks English. As much they’ve been trained, there’s not much practical time when it comes to putting the language to good use. So, the result is that a lot of people are just plain afraid to try for fear of making a mistake. Frankly, I’m pretty much the same way when I try out my Japanese–I’m painfully shy! I can make the effort, but I’m also hung up on whether I was using polite language, or maybe whether I was using the correct inflections or vocabulary, etc etc. Lately I’ve been getting better at making the effort, but it’s still a struggle.

Anyway, despite all of this it’s easy to fall into a state of dislike for the place if you’re caught off guard. Today I did a few things that really helped me restore my faith in the city. First, thing I did was to find a RC church with and English mass and attend. I found one in Roppongi which makes sense due to it being considered a foreigner hangout. Due to an error in time adjustment instead of arriving half an hour early like I’d wanted, I actually arrived half an hour late. Anyway, despite that I felt quite at home in there. I mean, wow, I’ve never seen so many foreigners gathered in one place in Tokyo–not even in the airport. Seriously, I felt like I was back in Canada. So many of them were Filipinos too. It was mind boggling. I don’t know what happened, but for that mass in particular I was really moved. At the end, they asked people new and visiting to introduce themselves to the congregation. After each introduction there was a round of applause. I got to do my introduction, and wow, that was a good feeling. At the end, the announcer said something to the effect that they were happy to be people’s “spiritual home away from home,” I seriously nearly lost it. I was so deeply affected by it that I needed to take a few moments to regather my thoughts just to not start bawling. It’s so easy to feel isolated and lonely here: that’s why the warm welcome really got to me. After the mass, a parishioner came up to me and asked if I was Filipino in Tagalog. I replied that I was. We had a nice mini-chat after which she wished me a nice stay. I felt so good coming out of that place.

Well, after mass, I had a few hours to kill before my friend became available, so I decided on his suggestion to wander around the city and take in the people and the sites. So that’s what I did. I started wandering around Roppongi. I had intentions of going west over to the Meiji shrine and Harajuku on foot, but I got side-tracked and saw a familiar hospital that I passed by in the 2006 tour. Since it was familiar, I decided to see if I could somehow end up seeing any other familiar places. Somehow made it over to Azabu-Jūban. I think only one reader out there knows the significance of this place :P . Anyway, I bought a Pocari Sweat and drank it on Patio Jūban. Everyone in that district looks so posh! I continued to wander and ended up at Daimon and the area around Shiba Park–both places that I’d seen before. I decided to just keep going and I ended up at district after district. Shinbashi, Ginza, Nihonbashi, Akihabara, Ueno… I was surprised when I got to Ginza. The main artery through the shopping district was closed to cars and only allowed pedestrian traffic. Apparently this only happens on Sundays. Holy crap, why can’t we do that more often in Toronto? Seriously, if Tokyo can do that on what seems to be a major road, why can’t we? It was a popular area–so many people crowded the place. After four hours of straight walking I got tired and ended up stopping at Ueno park. I hit that fatigue point where I just needed to drink something sugary to get my glycogen levels back to normal.

From there, my friend called me to say that he was done with his business and asked me to meet him at Nihonbashi station on the subway. As I was on the subway, I was thinking that on the subway it took only a few minutes to get someplace it took me an hour or two to get from. Crazy. We went over to Yoyogi park and took in a random rave party. Don’t ask me. There was a lot of drunk naked people stumbling openly in daylight. There were kids running around with incense sticks. It’s not normally my scene, but damn, it was interesting to watch the general debauchery. I got a good laugh out of it.

From there, my friend, his friend and I walked all the way back through Roppongi to Azabu-Jūban. That was basically another 45 minute walk–honestly it felt like an eternity. We went there for some really great thin pizza at a place called Savoy. It’s a small place, but damn the food was awesome. The three of us finished off 4 small pizzas–well worth it. From there, we walked from Azabu to Roppongi to get some frozen yogurt.

That’s been my day. I can honestly say that the long walk helped me absorb more of the character of the city. I’m feeling a bit better about being here. It’s like…the city really only reveals its true nuances to those that are willing to explore a bit. All of the walking has wiped me out. I’m going to get a good night’s sleep. I have to be up early tomorrow to start the 7 day tour all over the country. It’s going to be fantastic!

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Sweaty train ride

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Wed. August 8, 2007

Whoo. This past afternoon seemed more brutal than usual. It may not have been the hottest one out there, but the heat in the station seemed more stifling than I’ve noticed over the past weeks. As I waited for the train, I noticed people on both platforms wiping sweat off their brows, fanning themselves with folded sheets of paper or newspapers, and looking mildly dishevelled from the heat. I thought I’d get some relief when I got on the subway car, but I had the misfortune of ending up on one that wasn’t air conditioned. At least, it seemed like it wasn’t–I sure didn’t feel any relief. That, coupled with the fact that the train was more packed than usual made for a rather miserable ride. I had my eyes closed for most of the ride as I usually do, but I couldn’t full-on nap because every minute I was wiping dripping sweat from my face. At one point, this woman sat next to me and started fanning herself. Some of the breeze was hitting me, and I was thankful. When she stopped, I was sort of mentally willing her to just continue fanning herself so I could benefit.

When I got to my station, I stepped off the train expecting the humidity to be rotten, but seeing as how Warden is open air, the temperature there was so much cooler. I looked around and saw the relief on people’s faces when they got off that thing. Seriously, it’s no wonder there have been a number of heat-related incidents on the TTC as of late.

It made me think of my short time in Tokyo. Out on the streets around Akihabara, there are always lots of people giving away advertising freebies. Some of them gave away these plastic fans that were covered in advertisements for electronics. Despite becoming a walking advertisement, the fans were just so damn useful in keeping cool that I really didn’t care if I used them. Here in Toronto, I kind of wish there were some free fans given away on hot days like this. Maybe I should walk around Chinatown a little bit one of these days, buy a small manly fan and stuff it in my bag. That way I could just whip it out when I get all sweaty on a hot car. Though…you don’t really see that on the trains, do you? Trendsetter?

Uh…maybe I’d rather just sweat it out.

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“You look poor!”

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Thu. July 6, 2006

After a tough day in Kamakura, I was happy to just remain in my hotel room and get some rest. I got undressed and just napped for an hour or two. A little while later though, I got an email from a friend asking whether I was free to hang out. If so, I was to give him a call since he was going out for a walk. I thought I might as well take advantage of the chance, so I called him up. Turned out, when I called him he was right in front of my hotel. So, I hurried and put on my least stinky shirt (which were in abundance) and went down to meet him.

It was really interesting walking around town with him. He had been reading a famous Japanese novel about the area we were at, so he decided that we should walk around and follow the same path that the guy in the novel did. So, we walked around going stop to stop. One of those stops was at Sensō-ji, which I’d already been to twice. In front of the temple, we were stopped by on old Japanese guy. At first, it looked like another one of those guys that wanted to practice their English. However, it soon became clear that there were other intentions afoot. You see, my friend is clearly Jewish (or at least Mid-Eastern looking). That played a role in the questions that this guy was asking. He asked us (him) to look up at the temple and asked what we thought. I don’t think we were too clear on exactly what he had us look at. He clarified it for us by asking what we (he) thought of the swastika on the big lantern at the front of the temple. Just for clarification, the swastika is a symbol used is Asia and in particular Buddhist temples long before the symbol picked up a different connotation. Anyway, my friend replied that he thought nothing of it. However, the old guy seemed to persist and say “Oh…so you know everything, yes?” “Yes, I do know everything,” is what he replied. We decided to walk away because the guy was obviously a nutcase. As we walking away, he exclaimed “You look poor!”

Oh the hilarity. See what I mean about fashion? Bah. My friend has been in Japan for so long that we really doesn’t give a shit about it anymore. Anywho, from the temple, we went through the Nakamise and out to the main road. We hiked to the Sumida river, which he explained was the lifeblood of old Edo. It’s a beautiful place to be. He led me around town. Soon enough, we were in Akihabara. Now, in my mind I was so used to Akihabara being only accessible by train. To be honest, I was shocked to see Yodobashi-Akiba. We ended up eating at a curry place around the place. It was pretty awesome–at least, in comparison to the crappy curry I ate at Kamakura that same day.

From there, we had to decide what to do next. Originally, we had a movie in mind. He kind of wanted to see the movie Cars, but he came up with another idea. I think he wanted to make sure I did mostly quintessentially Japanese stuff. So, he suggested heading to an Ōedo Onsen Monogatari. For the unfamiliar, onsens are Japanese public baths. I dunno. People back here were suggesting I go as well. I wouldn’t get any other chance, really. However, a public bath…involves getting naked…in public. I was so conflicted. Part of me wanted to, but I had so many physical issues that wasn’t sure I was ready to deal with, for example, pudginess, scars, etc. It was a tough tough call, but in the end, we ended up going. The place was in Odaiba, so we had to take a train, then a monorail to get there. Well, the place is like an amusement park. Inside, they tried to maintain the feel of old Edo Tokyo. It’s very cool looking. They give you yukatas to wear inside the resort. When you walk in, you kind of feel like you just went into a time warp of sorts. I mean, everyone is dressed in their yukatas and the scenery is very old. When you get to the change rooms, your inhibitions kind of have to drop or else you’re going to go batty. I mean, the moment you walk in it’s like, BAM! Everyone’s fucking naked (Err…I mean, “fucking” in the purely expletive sense–it’s not a big orgy). So, despite some pudginess, battle scars and all, I joined in. They give you two towels: a big one and a small one. You can use the small one to kind of cover up, but really, once you’re there you almost don’t care. Besides, it’s not like I can wrap that shit around my waist comfortably. There were eight or nine different spring you could try out. Each had its own feature. Like, there were hot ones, colder ones, mineralized ones, outdoor ones, etc. Going outside, it was such an odd thing to be sitting naked in the cool breeze–it felt good though. Hahah. I think, the best part of the experience was just hanging out (ha!) with my friend. I was glad that he recommended going to the onsen. It’s a life experience that I can be proud of.

Interestingly, after feeling refreshed, we had to change back into our smelly clothes in order to go home. Boo!

Anyway, that was Tuesday. Thinking about it makes me feel exhausted. Even so, it was all fully worth it.

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