SATURDAY 6TH MAY - TOKYO

The Blog is back. This time from Japan.

After all arrangements working perfectly, we are now comfortably settled in our hotel room at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo, as distinct from the nearby Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa. How confusing. We are here for four nights and join our conducted JTB tour on Monday morning.
 

We spent most of our 44^th wedding anniversary yesterday flying from Singapore to here. The food and service on Japan Airlines was very impressive – best we have had.

 

Today was a spectacular introduction to the Japanese way of life. We were booked on a Tokyo day tour and we learnt an awful lot, including how to navigate the Tokyo railway system, particularly the ticketing vending machine which fortunately has a button entitled “English”. Even then, it was a bit confusing but we worked it out. Can somebody, perhaps Kim, please tell us what the above sign says?

We started the day with a visit to a Shinto Temple, followed up with a visit to a Buddhist Temple. For those who are sufficiently interested, we can explain the difference between the two religions. Japanese people get married in a Shinto temple but have their funerals in a Buddhist Temple. The Buddhists believe in an afterlife but the Shintos don't!

One common denominator is the number of people visiting both but, in a city of 30 million in a country of 127 million, why wouldn't everywhere be crowded?

Before lunch we visited the East Garden of the Imperial Palace. I asked out tour guide whether there was a north, south or west garden but apparently, there isn't. The palace itself is not visible from any public vantage point but it seems that it isn't a particularly impressive structure in any event.

Apparently we are too late for the cherry blossoms in this part of Japan but they provided some artificial ones.

After lunch at an interesting Japanese buffet restaurant in basement two of a building somewhere in Ginza, we went for a cruise on Tokyo Bay. It gave a really interesting perspective on the city. A number of comments were made about earthquakes but nothing was said about tidal waves, even though we did pass a number of structures which seemed to me to be structures you would put in place if you were trying to hold back a rogue set of waves. We are safely on the fifth floor of our hotel, up a long hill from the lower country, so should be OK.

We finished our day trip at the Tourist Information centre in Ginza where we were treated to a seven minute dance routine by a professional dancer presented as a Geisha Girl, presumably intended as an introduction to historic Japanese life but very contrived.

 

Who knew that Tokyo has its own Statue of Liberty, apparently constructed with the permission of the French, being a copy of one constructed in Paris, not a copy of the one constructed in America?

 

Who also knew that the only beach in Tokyo is one constructed using sand imported from China? The water in Tokyo Bay does not look in the least bit inviting for swimming.

Having had too much food for lunch (where the instructions on the hot water and coffee machines were in Japanese only so that was a lucky dip exercise), we were not in the mood for a substantial dinner so, as we exited the Shinagawa station, we purchased some chicken salads from one of the many stores located in the very substantial station complex. Of course, there is no cutlery in our room which we hadn't thought about until the kind gentleman who served us asked if we wanted some chop sticks to eat with. After purchasing the food, we then went into a the nearby convenience store where we bought a very nice bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. As she was serving us, the girl on the checkout was prattling away in Japanese but, after I said thank you, she responded with “you're welcome” but we don't know what the rest of the prattle was about. Language is great fun and, of course, we don't have a clue.

On the subject of wine, we had a very nice Margaret River chardonnay with our snack last night. We didn't need much dinner after the Japan Airlines food.

We have nothing organized for tomorrow so the plan is to get on the subway system and see how much trouble we can get into.