Last Saturday, on February 13th, I woke up at 6:30 in the morning, after having only gotten a few hours of sleep, ready to start on my journey to Tokyo Japan. I only got a few hours due to mere excitement about this trip. I had spent the entire week before planning and preparing what I wanted to do there. Before I get into the actual details of the trip, the way this trip happened was actually quite interesting.
Last year, at this same time, during the Chinese Lunar New Year (설날), I went to Kyoto Japan. It was simply amazing. I put up a blog post last year if you want to see it. This year, I really wanted to go to Japan, but I wanted to go somewhere different this time. See a different side of Japan. I thought that Tokyo might be as different as I could get. I talked about it with some friends, and they also wanted to go to Japan, but they wanted to go to Osaka. That seemed fine with me as well, so I decided to go with them. I told my friend from church that I was going to Japan, and she said, "I want to go to Japan too! Can I come with you?" That sounded fine to me. Then she asked some other people, and they all wanted to go to Japan as well. Suddenly, now there were about 5 people who wanted to go. Except they wanted to go to Tokyo. This turned out to be a problem. I didn't want to abandon the people I originally planned on going with, but my heart was set on Tokyo. So after much thought and prayer, I decided to go with my church friends to Tokyo. It turned out well, because my other friends ended up not going anyway.
So now 7 of us were on our way to Tokyo. We decided to stay there for 3 days and 2 nights. Tickets weren't cheap due to the holiday season, but it was worth it! There were 5 girls going and 2 guys. My friend Zack, who has gone on many adventure with me through out Korea was my other guy traveling friend. The other girls were all people from church and Dunamis, (Zack is from Dunamis too.) they're names are Hannah, Jade, Susie, Cathy, and Helen.
Zack and I rode an airport bus to Incheon at 8 in the morning to get there at 9 for our 11:30 flight to Tokyo. One of our friends Jade was lived in Japan for 6 months, so she had some host families that she was staying with, and she left for Japan the day before we did. Another friend Cathy also left a day earlier too.
So 5 of us left Incheon together for Tokyo. I brought the most money along, because I remembered how expensive Japan was the last time I went, and I didn't want to be strapped for cash while I was there. I officially named the "Bank of Sanders" while I was there; a title I reluctantly accepted (don't worry, all debts have been settled:)). We arrived at Tokyo, and proceeded with haste to find the fastest way into downtown Tokyo. There were two trains that went into Tokyo. One was half the price of the other, with only a 20 minute difference, so we went with the half-priced one. It was basically like a subway train, with very very hot heated seating that had everyone sweating once we arrived in Tokyo.
When we got into Tokyo, we went straight for our first lodging, since we had all of our luggage with us. We had to take the subway from the train station to get to our first "hotel." I had heard from people that the Tokyo subway was a nightmare to navigate, and I was a little nervous about that. But after living in Seoul for so long, it was not that different or difficult. The worst part about the Tokyo Subway is the prices. It's about double the cost of Seoul's subway. The other problem is that different subway lines are operated by different companies, so sometimes when you transfer, you have to pay a whole new fee to go on a different line. One time went about 4 stops, and we ended up paying almost 6 dollars. Where as in Korea that would have been 90 cents. But anyway, the subway was kind of fun, and not to difficult to get a handle on.
We got to a place called Asakusa, which the traditional section of Tokyo. It was where our first hotel was. But we all wanted to have the most "Japanese" experience as possible, so we decided to stay our first night in a place called a "Ryokan." This is like a traditional Japanese hotel. You slept on mats on something called Tatami floors. There were the traditional sliding, paper doors, and you even were able to drink tea in your room. It was so cool. The hallways even played traditional Japanese music. I also got to where a cool robe (just like in Kyoto).
As soon as I put my bags down at the Ryokan, I was ready to go exploring. My list of things to do was about 30 items long, and I knew that was physically impossible, but I wanted to check off as many as possible, so there was no time to waste. Thankfully other people were willing to join me on my quest to experience as much as Tokyo in the time we had. I was really so incredibly grateful to the people who went. Many people were very willing and gracious to follow the plan I had set, and I really feel so humbled by there example of patience and willingness for adventure, even when we weren't sure where we were going. People didn't argue too much over what we wanted to do, people just went with the flow, and that was so cool.
Out of the 6 of us who were at the Ryokan at that time, 4 of us (Me, Zack, Susie, and Cathy) decided to leave right away to start exploring.
We left Asakusa for Akihabara. I did a lot of research on places to go, and Akihabara was definitely high on my list of places to go to. As many of you know, back in high school and some of college, I was very interested in Anime. I watched a lot of Anime, and I always wondered what the Anime culture was like in Tokyo. Akihabara was my chance to find out. It is the electronic, anime, video game central hub of Tokyo. All the people interested in any of that stuff go there. And when I got there, I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume and magnitude of everything. Each store had at least 8 floors, all filled to the brim with products. Any possible DVD or CD you could think of, they had. Every video game known to man was here. It was sensory overload being there.
The first stop we had was to a place called the "Tokyo Anime Center." I read many things about this place, so I wanted to check it out. It was ok, but smaller than I expected. They had some cool little things there, and a nice gift shop with some interesting items for sale, but overall, I would be much more overwhelmed by other places later. Still, it was worth going to. Then we went to a place called "Club Sega." I read online that this place was most popular arcade in Japan for the best gamers to come to. It was about 6 or 7 stories of all arcade games. Then we made our way to a gift shop that sold many little cute items called "Kotobukiya." I bought many little items at this shop. After exploring a few other shops, it was time for dinner.
We headed to a place called Ginza, which was the more wealthy shopping district of Tokyo. It was surprisingly empty there when we went. We looked around for some restaurants for about 30 minutes, and then finally settled on a nice little noodle(라맨)place. The noodles were sooooo good. It doesn't get much better than that place for me. We met Hannah and Helen at the noodle restaurant, and then we headed off to Tokyo Tower to end our night.
It's like the Eifel Tower of Japan, and it was worth seeing in my opinion. Unfortunately, it was closed when we got there, so we couldn't go to the top. But it was still cool to say that I went there.
While we were there, we spotted Tommy Lee Jones on the front of vending machine. Earlier in the week, I had noticed that Tommy Lee Jones had done a series of commercials for some beverage in Japan, so that's why he was there. I was trying to mimic his face the best I could.
At this time, it was about 11 at night, and after a quick stop at a convenience store, it was time to go home. (Side note: at that store, I found the energy bar that would keep me going for the rest of the trip. It was called Soy Joy, and I ate probably almost 10 total during my trip to keep up my strength.)
When we came back to Akihabara, we went back to the Ryokan. We spent a nice quiet night in the traditional hotel, and woke up very early (7:15 being early) to get a head-start on the next day.
We first went to a temple called Sensoji Temple. It was literally a 30 second walk from our hotel. It was very nice to walk around, and it definitely reminded me a lot of Kyoto, and all the beautiful places I had been to there. It also reminded me how much Japan is in need of Christ.
Then we ate a quick breakfast at a very popular Japanese chain called "Yoshinoya." Japanese people love to put things on top of rice bowls. So this one was pork on top of rice. Very delicious.
Then we checked out of the Ryokan, and took our bags to our second hotel. "The Park Hotel" near Ginza. This place was NICE!!!!!! Probably the nicest hotel I ever have, and maybe ever will stay in. The lobby is on the 25th floor of the building. That tells you how nice it is. You can see so much of Tokyo, just from the lobby.
We dropped off our bags quickly, and proceeded to go to church. We went to a church called "Tokyo Baptist Church" in a place called Shibuya. When we got to Shibuya, we couldn't find the bus we needed to take, so we just got taxis. We got to the church a bit late, but we got there in time to hear most of the sermon. It was a very multi-cultural church, even more so than my church in Korea. It was very nice to go to church there, and see Christians in the midst of a country that has a very low population of Christians.
After church, we headed back to Shibuya station for lunch. Now Shibuya is one of the most famous places in Tokyo, and you've probably seen it before in movies. It's the place where they have big TV screens on the sides of the buildings, and an intersection that when everyone crosses, from a top view everyone just looks like ants, there are so many people. Shibuya is a very trendy shopping, hang out, fashion, restaurant place for youth to come. We ate lunch there, and then proceeded to look around. There were many interesting things there, and many interesting people to see.
From Shibuya, we walked to a place called Harajuku. Harajuku is known for it's worldwide fashion statement. Basically, Harajuku is the place for the youth to come and express themselves however they want, in sometimes very shocking fashion statements. This is the place where you will see many people dressed up either as Anime characters (also Akihabara) or in goth style clothes. Gwen Stefani even made a song called "Harajuku girls" because the place is so unique.
Right at Harajuku is the famous Meiji Shrine. We went to the Meiji Shrine and were fortunate enough to witness a traditional Japanese wedding party walking through the courtyards. After coming out of the Meiji Shrine, we saw a girl dressed up in a pink dress and blond hair, and many people were crowding around her in Harajuku. When we went to see what was going on, it turned out to be a middle-aged man dressed up in the costume. It was quite shocking, and not what wanted to witness.
From Harajuku, we took the subway to perhaps the most well-known section of Tokyo, "Shinjuku." First, we went to see where all the Skyscrapers were. There were some very very cool buildings there, including the famous Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. Then we went to part of Shinjuku where all the bright lights are. If you've seen "Lost in Translation," the majority of the film was made in Shinjuku. The building were very impressive, and once again, the store were massive and would take a lifetime to go through thoroughly. At this point everyone in our party was quite exhausted. We shopped around for a bit and saw all the bright lights of Shinjuku, then took a 30 minute break to have some coffee and scones. In the cafe, four Korean women were sitting behind us. It was funny being there because only Jade could speak Japanese, and Susie could speak a bit, but the rest of us only knew a few words. So when I heard those Korean women speaking, I felt so comfortable because I could understand so much of what they were saying (in comparison to what I was understanding from the Japanese language.)
After Shinjuku, we went back to Shibuya for sushi. Then I saught out the Karaoke place that they went to in Lost in Translation. And I found it! We weren't in the same cool room as they were in, but still, we went to the same place, and I can say that I've been there!
When we were done Karaoke, it was about 12, but thankfully, the JR train line was still open, so we took the train back to our hotel. Here's the view from our hotel room at night!
The next morning, I wanted to wake up to go the sea port for Sushi at 6 in the morning (that's right, in Japan, they eat Sushi at 6 in the morning), but I was too exhausted. Two girls still managed to go, but I was in desperate need of sleep. I woke up around 9, and we had a meeting about what we would do that day before we left.
Some of us decided to go back to Shibuya for some more shopping. We ate lunch there, then Zack and I went to two cool shops. When was called Mandarake, and it had the biggest selection of Anime and comic books I had seen yet. I was quite overwhelmed. Then we went to the Tower Records store where I bought a CD for 3000 Yen, which equals almost 35 dollars. But everything in Japan was that expensive. I don't know how anyone survives there with those prices.
Afterwards we went back to the hotel to check out, and then people wanted to do some more shopping, but I wanted to do more sight-seeing. So I went by myself to a place called Odaiba. It's like a man-made island which has many futuristic kinds of buildings. I went to the Fuji TV headquarters there, it was a really cool looking building. Then we all met up at the hotel again, and it was time to go to the airport.
That was the basic rundown of my trip. I'm so happy that I've been to the two major cities that I wanted to see in Japan, Kyoto and Tokyo. Did you noticed that the names of the two cities have the same letter, and can be re-arranged to spell either one:)
That's it for now! Praise God for a safe, fun, and exciting trip!
I want to write more about all of the insights I found about the culture, but this is already way too long, and I'm tired, so I'm gonna stop now.
