What I Did On My Summer Vacation

My Trip To Tokyo

Thursday august 15th

It's only my second full day here, so it doesn't feel like a Thursday, and yet it is. Today I head out to the Imperial Palace Grounds in Central Tokyo. Of course I've got to take the train there, and in order to take the train I've got to buy a ticket from the vending machine. The fare chart in Chidori-cho is in Japanese. I pull out my Bilingual Tokyo Atlas, look at the one of the maps, and am able to match the Kanji characters for Tokyo. That done, I should be able to put the fare in and get my ticket, but some of the buttons (in Japanese) on the machine confuse me. So I continue to stare for a couple of minutes. A nice girl comes to my rescue, in English! Turns out I don't need to pay attention to all that. Just put the money in, select the correct fare, and off I go. There might have been a transfer button to push, but I forget.

Like Shinjuku, the Tokyo train station also hosts a shopping mall. I would wait until my return trip to give it a once over. There was also a Pokemon display. Some sort of promotional event for a new movie, I guess.

The Palace was within walking distance of the train station. Once I was able to discern what direction to take, I moved on. Certain parts of the grounds aren't accessible to the general public, so I had to find the Otemon gate after wandering towards one of the wrong entrances. Once in (entry is free) I turned into a shutterbug. I took a lot of pictures there. About one hundred and ninety! I'm gonna have to learn to be more selective in the pictures I take or buy more memory cards. Another option would be to lower the quality setting on my camera, but I didn't want to do that. I figured I still had enough pictures left and I can compress any pictures that need to be posted online once I get home, such as those on this site.

There was a museum on the grounds, which I of course attended. No European art here. These were craft pieces from various times, mostly the last hundred years or so, with some from the Meiji period. Called Ornamental Artifacts -Nature And Its Imitations-, the exibit, which showed off items as diverse as illustrations depicted in bark, a vase made from whale bone, a photo album made from tortoise shell, and birds and plants made from silver and ivory, among other things, seemed to call into question western aesthetics in defining art in Japan. Or at least, that's what I was able to figure out, in reading the English language forward to the souvenir book.

While sitting down to give my legs a rest, I had a short conversation with an Indian monk, who was having a little trouble with the heat. I should've taken a picture, but I didn't. Oh, well.

I don't know how many hours I spent in this place, but it seemed that around each corner offered a new revelation. Luckily there were plenty of rest houses with necessary facilities and beverage vending machines. The Souvenir shop also sold various ice cream bars. I regret not trying the "All Black" bar (made by Hershey or some American company), but the bar I had shaped and colored like a slice of watermelon was pretty good.

I don't know which gate I exited from, Hirakawamon or Kitahanebashimon, but after leaving I crossed the street via an overpass and found myself in another similar location. That is to say there were yet more gates, huge walls, and a body of water not unlike the ones surrounding parts of the palace area.

I continued my wandering and found myself in a public park. I started to head back to the train station. Hiro was supposed to be returning from his trip and it was getting close to the time I was suppose to call him (5-ish) which I did at Tokyo station. He was going to meet me there in an hour. Since I had the time, I went and checked out the mall. Lots of the normal places you'd find in a mall. Bookstores, CD shops, luggage, toys, kimonos. Lot's of merchandising for a anime and manga called "One Piece". I wasn't really familiar with it, but seeing how it was all over the place, it seemed like it was really popular. Stopped and played a video game. It was one of those shooters where you point a gun at characters on the screen. I don't remember the name of the game, though.

Hooked up with Hiro, went to McDonalds, and had something called Chicken tatsami (I think). Chicken patty on a bun with shredded lettuce and mayo. Pretty good, actually. I think we stopped at his office as he had some last minute stuff to take care of. Went back to Tokyo station where we split up. I bought a ticket to Gotanda, where instead of transferring, I would simply exit and buy a separate ticket to Chidori-cho. That seemed simple enough, however, once there, I once again found myself staring at the fare chart. This time, though, I had no excuse as two fellows who spoke English were able to point out my destination on the chart which had in fact been rendered in Roman letters in addition to Japanese. My bad. The complexity of the rail system in Japan is apparently a common problem for foreigners, so it's not just me. Then again, I don't recall seeing any other obviously lost gaijin on my travels. One of the dudes accompanied me on the train and we talked music (American & Japanese). He lived in the U.S. for a short spell (L.A., I think he said). I thanked him for his help and got off at my stop.