Day 6: Tokyo, Monday, regrouping, counting cash, making movies, going across town for another massage

We had arrived on Tuesday night, been busy every day, now Monday, time to do some planning for days before departure Thursday evening... also catch breath and ride the subway back to Koenji to get another shiatsu massage. Also a quick trip to Kappabashidori for some minor purchases.

Also needing calculate money needs. Japan is not a place where a credit card can be used everywhere. Foreign cards cannot be used to draw money from ATMs other than at post offices and Seven-11 stores.

We had brought with us ¥150,000, at that time about $US1,500. Cash obtained from Australia Post, ordered online ten days before departure, available to collect at local post office several days later.

We calculated on Monday that we would make it to Thursday night. We did, leaving the country with ¥138 ($1.50) and two Suica cards drained to not much, which we passed on to Emi and David back in Australia. We are known for our generosity.. ;-)

In terms of total holiday cost, add the approx $AU1300 for the apartment, $1070 each for Japan Air return tickets booked earlier when on sale, $300x2 for the seven day Japan Rail Pass, $220 for a room in a hotel in Kyoto for a night, about $200 on a card in Kappabashidori and $50 for our ride to the airport, to a total cost from Australia of a bit more than $5000.

Photos:

• Today's train portrait, something serene about the Chuo Rapid at lunchtime Monday
• The beautiful lady with the beautiful koala-adorned clothes-and-more shop in Koenji

and

• Evening view from our veranda

We will never know how much is intellectual discourse on the phone, how much is killing ninjas...
Is Hollister saying: "I wish I had their friends", or "I wish they's stop killing ninjas"... or "Did I turn off the stove?"

click to enlarge
This is a panoramic view (the road is straight, the camera moves) from our veranda, at night, to the east.
The first, small building, on the left, is the elevator entrance to the Asakusa (Tsukuba) subway station.
The laneway straight ahead leads to nightlife Asakusa, relatively genteel.
The figure silhouetted against bright entrance of ROX department store
(tell a taxi driver "LOOKS" not "ROX")  mostly likely at this hour coming from the 24 hour supermarket.
The first street to right of ROX leads straight to the Asakusa Tubo Station, 600 metres or so.
Second side street after ROX leads to the closest onsen, we never got to use it,
too much amenity including big bath at home,
 but we found it early one morning when closed. Head down that lane and MacDonalds is on the left...
slip into the first tiny lane on the right and there you have the onsen looking as shown at link.
Down the main road 300m on the right is the Tawaramachi Station of the Ginza subway line, for Ueno and the world.
To the west (behind the camera) nice quiet streets to Kappabashidori, then much longer walk to Ueno Station.
Taxi to Ueno Keisei station ¥1050 from down below our veranda.
There is railing along each side of the street below.
Taxis wait at the end of railing sections, by the pedestrian crossings.
Minimum taxi fare first two km ¥710. Generally speaking train is faster and easier than taxi.
Take a taxi with baggage.

Day 8, Tokyo: Hammamatsucho's Hama-Rikyu Garden, Korean lunch, Harajuku

Here's a map:

H top right = home. South to a beautiful park in Hammamatsucho, on further clockwise on the Yamanote Line to Shinokubo for a Korean lunch, three stops back for a brief stop in Harajuku, then run away quickly home.

In the middle of Tokyo business, this beautiful garden dates from the 1650s when it was initially a seaside duck hunting preserve for the Shogun's family, later a palace built there.

The imperial family gave the garden with most of its palace and other buildings destroyed, to the city of Tokyo in late 1945. More information here. More lively account here.

And my movie here

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We went on to lunch in Shinokubo, known as Korea Town. Well worthwhile. 

In a street parallel to the Yamanote Line, we found a musical focus...

and ate well, here

opposite this

Then we all jumped on the train to drop in to Harajuku

...where we spent a moment in crowded commercial Takeshitadori

the appeal of which seems to be spending money, mainly by the young

 and then ran away exhausted

Day 5, Tokyo Sunday, part 2: subway, Sendagi, Yanaka

After the wild and crowded life thrust upon us exiting Harajuku Station and around Yoyogi Park, during which my Fuji XF-1 camera decided to lose control of exposure (hereinafter photos mainly from iPad mini, fortunately on hand), we set off down Omotesando, imagining it to have the serenity and charm it had when I walked there in 1980. It doesn't.

We slipped into the first subway entrance, Meiji-Jingumae, of the Chiyoda Line.

Helen caught this stunning image of modern Japan going out or going home...

The sweet lolita subset of kawaii of Harajuku Sunday World above was wafting in...

I could see from the subway map (it really does help to try to understand it in advance) that we could take this chanced-upon Chiyoda Line to a station near Nippori, from where swiftly on the Yamanote Line to Ueno, then the Ginza Line to Tawaramachi, then 300 metres walk home past our preferred sushi shop. This screenshot below is the middle bit of a standard map. To orient yourself, remember that the Yamanote Line of Japan Rail (this is a fantastic introduction to the villages/cities of the Yamanote Line) runs around the centre of the city, and while the carriages are pleasantly light green on the outside and lightv green in railway station signs, on the map it's the grey and white dotted line. So... in the moment I discover we are at the ticket gate of the Chiyoda Line at C03, Meiji-jingumae, south from Shinkuku, the world's biggest train station, we are down in the lower left of the map. Follow the green line with the C numbers and you are following the Chiyoda Line. I decided we should walk to Nippori JR station from Sendagi because that seemed likely to lead through Yanaka, an area with a 'traditional' shopping street of which I had read. Sendagi is C15. See Nippori north east from it, Ueno two stops away on the Yamanote, Tawaramachi G18 on the Ginza Line from Ueno, orange line. Top right. It was nice taking this ride on Sunday afternoon, Wikipedia reports that on the north side of Nishi-Nippori at peak hours passengers may be at 180% of capacity.

Soon enough we joined the Sunday afternoon crowd on Chiyoda Line, doing what respectable people do on the subway in the afternoon.

Helen woke me just before we arrived at Sendagi!

Arriving at the surface from a subway station on an overcast day can be tricky in any city, you take multiple flights of stairs or escalators, turning a number of times, you hit the street, blindfold comes off so to speak and where's north you say to yourself. It was where I thought. We were in a very suburban, residential environment. I confirmed from a passing cyclist that from the gate we should go left then right for Nippori.

As seen from Google Earth, Sendagi Station lower left, Nippori Station top right.

Proceeding left, we looked up a lane in the wrong direction and had to go there. This was a perfect quiet counter to the crowded parks and streets at better known destinations. Sudo Park, green spot left side of map above, bliss for young person with mother and soft serve below.

Shhh... tiptoe away....

This photo also makes the point that after cherry blossoms come azaleas, after azaleas wisteria.

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We proceeded through minor streets for what I understood to be Yanaka, a traditional merchant street leading to Ueno.

This is what we found.

the pot plant is on the back rack of the motor scooter

in narrow streets glass windows add dimension

There are children in strollers, below, but dogs very commonly get to avoid exercise this comfy way, even biggish dogs

Not much leg, but I walk

looking back where we have just come from: the Yanaka ginza

The shrines that are not tourist tramped, where people go for spiritual purpose, are so much more interesting to pass...

and then two stops to Ueno

The signs say reserved for people with babies, pregnant people, old geezers and walking wounded
... and don't use your phone near such people.
The frequent supporting public address announcements say please too.  :-)
But the train was not full and on most rides many people
would leap to their feet anywhere in the carriage for those needing a seat.
Women with babies refused to take my seat, insisted I take theirs. I must look decrepit!
It's great to be in a smiling courtesy contest.

then we hurried down below from JR Ueno to Ginza Line G16, where we queued properly for Car 5.
Footpaths and stations have lots of yellow pimpled pavers, much support for vision impaired.
There would be longitudinal grooves if one were to walk along a yellow line.
These yellow pavers calls halt.

Day 4, part 5, Kyoto Station

We never imagined it would be so extraordinary.

Kyoto Station, opened in 1997, was built to celebrate the 1200th anniversary of the founding of the city. I learned that in this guide after leaving Kyoto. That guide rightly observes that it is a "perfect contrast to many foreign tourist's image of Kyoto." 

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We had, on arrival in Kyoto from Tokyo, scurried underground to catch a subway train and indeed when leaving Kyoto, we arrived at the Kyoto Station the same way. But we were early at departure, early for our Tokyo train and decided to have a look outside. We had some difficulty initially discovering the outside. Helen summed up the situation, as we passed from one major shopping corridor to the next, full of gloss and beautiful refined people: "Perhaps there is no outside, there seems no need."

But we did get out and again it was Helen, seeing an escalator of extreme size through a glass wall, who said: "We have to go on that!" She also noted on the building diagram outside that there was a museum on the eighth or ninth floor. I noted as we moved to enter that there was another escalator. No, mine if bigger, she said. Indeed, from the bottom, when we stood there, her escalator was bigger. Moreover, there was a cunning visual trick. From the bottom one could not see that there was another escalator after the first escalator. And ditto. Perhaps Everest is like that.

The escalators go almost to the top. Stairs necessary to finish the trek. Not too many. A few courageous or foolish appear in my escalator-shot movie to be running up the stairs all the way.

At the top, there is a small sign, the name of the place. You will at least have to ride my movie to know it. 

Helen having whipped me up the hill, so to speak, at the top said: "I wonder if I can get down, my vertigo will probably cut in." I pointed out that while no elevator, there seemed a large crane higher to one side and a heliport. In fact, I think the journey up and down cured her vertigo. But we were pleased to have more time as we took another quarter hour at the bottom to find the Shinkansen. The word bottom was relevant. We had gone down too far, we needed to ride up escalators again to find the Shinkansen station. Not as many escalators as we tried, we had to ride one down a floor when we overshot going back up.

These observations:
1: do get to the station early in Kyoto to ride to the top on escalators. But there seems no alternative to steps at the top, and without taking those steps, you miss out.
2: this is good stuff when you are planning to sit on the train for two or three hours.
3: whether this will cure you as it apparently cured me of the desire constantly to feel semi-undressed and grasping for my seat belt as I did on coming to Kyoto on the Shinkansen Kyoto at 200km an hour, passing other trains at combined 400+km/hour I don't know. The evidence is that sitting in my aircraft type seat on the train back to Tokyo I did not miss my seat belt. Perhaps just tired.
4: whether you will be cured of vertigo we cannot say. Whether you will develop vertigo we can't promise.
5: leave time to find the train when you come back down. It's a big station with many distractions.
6: We found some excellent crusty bread in the station such as we haven't found in Tokyo, but we honestly can't tell you where we found it. It had a French name, of course. And the transaction required all our resources of polite terms of trade, the sumimasen, the arigato, the domo arigato goziemasu. But no matter how strenuous our efforts to be polite, the lady beind the counter stood by the tradition evident everywhere in Japan that not only is the customer always right but the salesperson must always be able to respond to any statement of appreciation, any minor or greater bow, with more profound appreciation. It was not a 7-Eleven shop, where the language matter has been advanced to a further level.

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This adventure into modern architectural genius and mind altering cheekiness was a wonderful end to our visit to Kyoto, I recommend it, from the above it seems to have given my brain a flip. This building offers the same kind of frisson as the beautiful modern house lurking among cherry and other trees in the middle of the Philosopher's Walk, hint hint, see my video of that. 

We did not go to the museum...

But on the way to the station we had passed these steps. 

Day 4, part 4: Kyoto, Kawabata Dori and Sanjo Dori

Kawabata Dori (Kawabata Street) runs alongside the east bank of the Kamo River. Here we walk from Shirakawa-Minami Dori north to and across the Sanjo Bridge. The street is named for the Nobel Prize winning novelist Yasunari Kawabata.

The Sanjo Bridge today, below Hiroshige's 1830s painting, from the opposite direction

View from the Sanjo Bridge

Elegant people on the Sanjo bridge... elegance and graciousness in abundance here

These rocks are iwasaka

and here is the view from that bridge today