A Birthday in Tokyo - 13 September

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The morning started with some leisurely time in the miniscule bathroom contorting myself this way and that to get everything washed. I love being 5'10", but in Japan my height isn’t exactly a convenient thing. After breakfast in the hotel restaurant, I got directions to a nearby post office to give the ATM one more try and had success – but only because in a flash of genius several years ago I had written down my password (in code of course) and had it in my wallet. Thank God! (The photo is the view of Tokyo from my hotel room)

Several thousand yen richer, I went back to the hotel and checked out and then got a taxi to the Imperial Palace. I had absolutely no desire to get on the metro this morning so I granted myself the birthday present of a taxi ride. It was great! We zoomed through the streets of Tokyo in a pristine clean taxi with lace covers on the seats. It was very impressive. I arrived at the Palace at 9:40 (I was supposed to meet Lara and Alexis at 10:00) and discovered that I had been dropped at the wrong entrance. So I quickly walked over to the Otemon gate of the palace by 10:00 and discovered that Lara and Alexis weren’t there….and didn’t show up for the 30 minutes that I stood there. Oh Crap! I didn’t have the slightest idea where they might be and had no way of contacting them. So I figured that I would be spending the day in Tokyo by myself. From the moment we arrived on the ship, we’ve been told that we need to be flexible so I that’s what I was going to do!

I went into the East Garden of the Imperial Palace and it was absolutely beautiful. The grounds are immaculately kept and there are signs everywhere describing what all the buildings are and their purpose. I spent over an hour walking around and enjoying the sights. It was an incredibly beautiful place just to sit and enjoy.

When I walked out of Otemon Gate, I got a great surprise when Alexis ran up to me and gave me a big hug. She and Lara had just arrived at the gate after wandering around the perimeter of the palace trying to locate Otemon Gate. It was wonderful to see them and after going back into the garden with them for a quick tour, we continued our tour of Tokyo.

We found a metro station close to the palace and made our way to the Harajuka District. The main boulevard is the center for fashion in Tokyo. It reminded me a great deal of the Champs Elysees in Paris with the long tree-lined street and high-end designer stores. We walked along the avenue for a while and then found our way down some back alleys that is the place where the teenagers get their fashion. It was fascinating! Japanese teenagers are eager to express their individuality and they put a lot of time and money into their clothes. We saw a lot of teenagers wearing clothes that had a definite American influence – t-shirts with slogans in English, Timberland hiking boots and cowboy boots, and ripped blue jeans. But all of the looks had a definite Japanese flair with their accessories. I didn’t take any photos of the kids but I really wish that I had but I did take a picture of one of the displays outside a store.

At this point it was about 1:30 and we were starving so we wandered around the alleys until we found a restaurant that served noodles…which turned out to be spaghetti prepared many different ways. But the food was excellent and I had the opportunity to hone my chopstick skills again (it was pathetic). For dessert I ordered a piece of chocolate cake with banana ice cream on top. It was so good!

After lunch, we walked and walked and walked and walked. My poor tootsies were being sorely abused! It was about 6:00 so we decided to head back to Shebuya station where Lara and Alexis had stored their luggage – I had been carrying my backpack of clothes around all day and had grooves in my shoulders to prove it. At Shebuya we decided it was time to figure out how to get back to Yokohama and the ship. It was confusing! With so many train lines it was impossible to figure it out by ourselves so we asked a young Japanese businesswoman standing near us and she was so kind to us! She figured out which train we would need and then walked us to the track where it was located. During our stay in Tokyo we had found that the Japanese were incredibly helpful in guiding us around to various locations. I don’t know how we would have managed without their help.

We decided to get dinner before getting on the train to Yokohama so after taking careful notes about landmarks so that we could find the train again, we went out to the streets to find a restaurant. We walked around in a big circle for about 30 minutes and didn’t find anything except for sketchy little places or American-style food. Finally, we stumbled upon a Raman noodle dining place. It was a little hole in the wall with not more than 18 seats at a counter. We stepped into the place and since it was obvious that we didn’t know what we were doing, one of the cooks came out and helped us. It was quite comical and Lara did a great job in trying to communicate with him. We finally figured out that we needed to select our food from an electronic board on the wall where we insert the money and select the food. Big problem though, everything was written in Japanese and there were no pictures. The best information we got was that the three selections on the top line were small, medium and large. So we inserted our money and made our selections and then waited for seats to vacate since this was a very popular place. Eventually, the three of us were able to sit down and the chef gave us paper napkins which turned out to be bibs. No one else was wearing a bib but since we were obviously Westerners with no clue as to what we were doing, he gave us one. We dutifully put them on and looked like absolute idiots. We were having a great time! When the noodles arrived, we dunked them into the broth (which turned out to be pork and seaweed) and tried to slurp them like all the other customers were doing. It turns out that not only am I a pathetic failure at chopsticks, but also a pathetic failure at slurping. Who knew that this was a practiced skill?! Alexis took my picture during this debacle! The picture above is me, Lara (in the center) and Alexis.

We finished our meal and thanked the chefs who had helped us with our order and happily went to the train station to get back to Yokohama. After a few false turns, we got on the right train and spent the next ½ hour in peaceful (and cramped since it was still rush hour) contemplation of our day.

We got to Yokohama around 7:30 and made our way back to the ship. We immediately headed for our rooms to take a shower since we felt all gritty and sweaty from our day in the city. It felt wonderful! At 9:00 we gathered in the faculty lounge for some well-deserved margaritas! A few other faculty members were there too and we shared our stories of our time in Japan while they bought me birthday drinks. Have I mentioned that this was a great birthday? It totally rocked.

The faculty lounge closed down at 11:00 so we went outside to the bow of the ship and sat and talked until we pulled away from the dock at midnight. Tokyo was absolutely amazing and I can’t wait until we reach Kobe day after tomorrow. In the meantime, it’s time to catch up on sleep!