What I Did On My Summer Vacation

My Trip To Tokyo

Wednesday august 14th

I pretty much got up with the sun at about 5:30. Perhaps Japan should be called the land of the early rising sun. Or perhaps it only seems early because at the moment the U.S. is on daylight savings time (which is not recognized in Japan). I may have been up just before, I'm not sure. There was a lot of activity in the insect and bird life outside. I pulled out my mini cassette recorder and caught what I could. As of this writing I haven't checked it out, yet. Interesting sounds.

Bathing was another issue I was concerned about. Communal bathing. I did read that in general bathing was for soaking, not cleaning. The cleaning was done before one steps into a bath, with a hand held shower like device which is used outside the tub. The water runs into a gutter or drain somewhere. Afterwards you just step into the tub, hot spring or whatever and just chill. This has something to do with Shinto-ism, I think. While public bathing is still apparently practiced in Japan, it wasn't something I had to do, and it wasn't something I was eager to seek out. Hiro's house was equipped with very modern bath facilities. Computerized temperature control, tub with cover so soap and dirty water doesn't contaminate the water within (again used to follow the shower or rinsing). Eager to get the day under way I took a shower, but skipped out on the bath. I'd probably just sit in the tub for an hour.

We set out to my first hotel, the Ryokan Kangetsu. A traditional Japanese inn located in Chidori-Cho. A small town like district in Tokyo. Very nice. Lots of little trees and rock garden stuff. Very elegant entrance, a nice room. Shower and bath are not part of the room, but can only be accessed by one person at a time, which is a great relief to me. There's also an outdoor bath, accessible I think, from 7:30am-11:00pm.

Off to Shinjuku. Hiro shows me how the train ticket vending machines work. I THINK I get it. You don't just pay a flat rate like you do here in the U.S. Each stop has a separate fare. You look at the chart (which may or may not have Romanji in addition to Japanese), determine your fare, get your ticket and go. The Shinjuku station is like a little mall, with quite a few vendors selling their wares. Nearby, there is an actual mall run by Keio, which not coincidently is the train line that connects to it. Our first stop is Books Kinokuniya (they also have a store in Rockefeller Center, NYC) to pick up a couple of useful maps/books on the Tokyo area. The Fodor's book I brought with me contains some maps, and I picked up a couple of freebees at the hotel, but we don't feel these are quite useful enough. Actually, I did find one of the freebees very useful; the Japan Travel-Phone brochure put out by Japan National Tourist Organization. Some of the maps contained within were quite helpful. They also provided a phone number for English language assistance, which I probably should've used on a couple of instances, but I'm a bit stubborn that way. I don't like to ask for directions if I think there's a chance I can figure it out myself. In addition to one of those big fold out maps, I got this book, The Tokyo BiLingual Pocket Atlas. I used it more for the subway and rail maps on the inside covers. This store is pretty huge. English language and other foreign language books were the sixth floor. We went downstairs to check out the manga selection. I chose not to get anything as manga is readily available in the U.S. either through this store's U.S. branch for Japanese language books (as well as some English) or the many English translations available at most U.S. retailers nowadays. Actually, I did pick up a couple of manga weeklies from a street vendor. They were over a week old and cost a dollar apiece. Souvenirs for a friend who specifcally requested these phone book sized comics.

Next we toured many of Shinjuku's underground record shops, located in out of the way side streets, or in some cases office and apartment buildings, where they operate next door to porno shops and Chinese massage parlors. The record stores often catered to a specific niche. One of the Apt. building stores sold mostly noise bands, Japanese and otherwise. I almost bought a CD-R there as it was pretty cheap, compared to the other stuff. Hiro suggested that they play the record first. Good Idea. The CD was unplayable. Should interject for a moment to say that CD prices in Japan are quite expensive, ranging for the most part from approximately $25-$40. Ditto for DVDs. I didn't plan on buying CDs, but I figured it was worth a look-see. Prices at the stores we checked out today were relatively cheaper in some cases. Other stores carried mostly bootlegs by U.S. artists like Prince, while others catered to European prog rock bands (mostly from, but not limited to the '70s) or the Japanese "Visual" scene, which is not unlike the Goth's in America. Heavy on the make-up, the music is apparently less interesting than it's American/European counterpart.

Hiro had a business trip to attend to that evening, and it was way too early for me to head back to the hotel, so he gave me instructions on how to return, even writing down the phrase I could use to get a ticket to Chidori-Cho should I get into any trouble. We split up back at the entrance to Shinjuku station. Using the map on the travel phone brochure, Hiro pointed out a building with a free observatory which offered a view of the city, so off I went.
The Shinjuku Center Building is one of a few skyscrapers in this area. I headed up to the 53rd floor after first asking the security guard if I was in the right place. I used a combination of Japanese (Sumimasen, Ma da s'koshi sh'ka hana se ma sen*/excuse me, I still don't speak much Japanese) and finger pointing (towards the map). He happily pointed me towards the elevators, confirming in English (if I remember correctly) where I wanted to go, and I thanked him in Japanese.

Reaching the 53rd floor and the observatory, I was kinda stunned by the view. The skyscrapers don't measure up to New York's, but it appeared as though I were looking at a larger city that seemed to go on almost forever save for a large patch of green in it's center. I took a few pictures and made my way downstairs.

Not far from here was the Togo Seiji art museum located in yet another tall building. I mentioned before I left that art museums were not a priority on this trip (not my thing, really). Since I was here, though, I figured why not. This was pretty much all western art except for a single painting I spotted by Mr. Togo. On exhibition was the Nakamura collection; Pleiades Barbizon School. Now, I had previously believed the Barbizon School to be a cheesy institution dedicated to teaching the fine art of hair dressing and make-up application. I'm not even sure they're around anymore. They used to advertise on daytime television a lot. I didn't get any information on THAT Barbizon school, but this work seems to date from the mid 1800's to very early 1900's. The artists included Jean-Baptist-Camille Corot and John Francois Millet whose "Portrait Of A Man Holding A Cigar" could be updated as a self portrait by Jock Anderson, a co-worker of mine. Also Constant Troyon, Jules-Achille Noel, Henri-Joseph Harpignies, Jules Adolphe Bretoni and Julian Dupre. There were others, but these were the ones that made the most impression on me. On the whole, I didn't really care for this exhibit, much. There was one work that I particularly liked, probably by one of the above artists, called "Captives Of Love". I thought it was pretty funny. Should've looked to see if a print or postcard was available in the souvenir shop. Photographs were not allowed, except from the view from it's 43rd floor window. I was gonna take a few but I forgot.

I also viewed a couple of works from the museums permanent collection; Paul Cézannes "Pommes Et Serviette", which is basically a still life of fruit, Paul Gauguin's "L'Allee Des Alyscamps Anles" (spelling might be off) and the highlight (for me, anyway), Van Gogh's "Sunflowers". The current owner caused a bit of a ruckus by commenting that he'd like it cremated with him when he dies or so I've read. He did pay a lot for the mofo.

I planned to tour Shinjuku a little more by wandering about as I normally might anywhere else. I walk a few blocks in this direction, make a turn here, walk for a bit, turn there and eventually end up where I started or fairly close. MMM. Not quite. I ended up in Sendagoya, which didn't seem to be close to where I wanted to be, so I retraced my steps as much as possible and returned to Shinjuku eventually. Hiro compared Shinjuku to Times Square before Giuliani. I would say it's more like post-Giuliani at least by appearances, though it's my understanding that much of the crime and vices one finds in Tokyo, will be found here. That sort of thing doesn't worry me, of course, but I've done a lot of walking, and I've decided to head back. It's dark, now, and I'm looking for the specific entrance to the station that I left. I don't know if it makes that much of a difference, but I wanted to catch the train exactly where Hiro showed me as to avoid further confusion. I decide to buy my train ticket right away. I stare at the map, determine my fare, and buy the transfer ticket. Then I look for gates 12 and 13 which aren't visible through this entrance, so I exit the building trying to circle around, got lost again, and found my way back. Not the entrance I was looking for, but I'm like, f**k it. Just go in and find the train. I do. They're on two tracks and they loop in opposite directions, so I just pick one and go.

I reach my transfer point (Gotanda), and I'm pretty confident I know where I'm going, however, the machine at the transfer point rejects my ticket, and I'm forced to ask security for help. First I use the phrase indicating how little Japanese I speak, then I clumsily recite the line Hiro prepared while showing my ticket. The guard prints a new ticket, tells me it's okay, and points me to the platform where my train is. There are two trains, so I just pick one. Turns out it's the right one. I'm fairly relived, but anxious to get to my room. I get off a stop early because some of the signs give three names, indicating not only the current station, but also the ones preceding and following. I knew I was making a mistake almost the moment I made it. But I figured; Hey, it's just one stop. So I walked it. The wrong way. To which I remarked; Hey, it's only two stops. So I walked back to Chidori-Cho, dropped off my stuff and grabbed a bite to eat at a convenience store called a.m. p.m. Kinda like 7-11, which they have here as well. Got this long sushi roll type thing. It comes packaged with the seaweed, which has to be applied to the roll. Got a beverage with it. I bought many gallons of beverages that week. Hot as a mutha. And vending machines everywhere you look. Mostly tea, but also soda and cold coffee.

*I've spelled out the phrase phonetically, so it's not quite the correct spelling using Romanji