– After a three hour bullet train ride from Kyoto, Vanessa and I arrived in Tokyo on Thursday, August 20th and were about to try to brave the subway system right before rush hour with our large bags. We debated about a cab or the subway and the subway seemed to be easy with two connections and the cabs in Japan, and especially Tokyo were so expensive, I was hoping for the subway. In the end, we made it to the hotel in about 30 minutes, with only one wrong train, but we were able to easily correct it and made it to our stop.
– The final hotel we stayed in was the 5 star Intercontinental. Right when we walked into the lobby…my breath was taken away as it was beautiful. It was also quite a welcome as we walked towards the front desk and Vanessa was greeted by the manager there as he recognized Vanessa and took care of us. I will say, we had a beautiful room, with an amazing view of Tokyo…such a treat at the end of my trip. Plus they upgraded us to Club Lounge access, so wonderful cooked breakfast and amazing happy hour with French Champagne and snacks was something we got to look forward to each day. All this from 50 stories above Tokyo, so the view was amazing as well!
– Friday was a full day of sightseeing in Tokyo and it was another treat as Vanessa has been a couple times and was able to lead me around a little as something looks familiar to her which was helpful. Our first stop was the Sony Building, It was fun as there was a giant aquarium out front, and I love to watch the fishies!
– The rest of the day was spent wandering in and out of Hibiya Park. Then off to see the big sight of the Imperial Palace. Since this is still the Emperor’s home, we were not allowed in. Tourists (or locals) are only allowed in on Christmas Day and the Emperor’s birthday so we just enjoyed if from a far and walked the gardens around.
– At this point in my trip, I was tired…and Vanessa said we should check out Bic Camera (as I was looking for a new camera as well). Bic Camera was a mega store of everything Japanese and about nine stories high. If I lived there, I could have furnished my home with everything I needed in one stop. I ended up not getting a camera as they were more expensive than in the USA and all the features were in Japanese, so hard to know what I would have bought. So we headed up to the floor with massage chairs and took about an hour to relax and try out a few different massage chairs. It was so nice!
– Tokyo is known to have some great shopping, so we wandered the Ginza shopping area and window shopped a lot of the high end stores. Maybe I’ll return one day to shop when I have lots of money, as the price tags were so high, even window shopping was taxing!
– Vanessa really wanted to take me to one of her favorite Yakatori places in Tokyo, but she warned me it’s a tiny place, always crowded and we would have to go early if we wanted to eat. So we had every intention of going early, but the happy hour at the club lounge of the Intercontinental just was too good to leave, so we left around 8pm. To our surprise, when we got to the Yakatori place, we were the first on the waiting list and were told we could have a drink “in the window”. Yes, we were standing outside on the street, using the window sill as our eating area/table. So we ordered a beer through the window sill (think two large shutters that open out to the street). We could see everyone inside eating and I felt like a poor little kid standing at the window watching the rich people in a fancy restaurant…but it was really fun and we knew we would get in within an hour, so standing at the window was part of the process. The dinner was quite a process as one chef makes all the food over a tiny grill and it was delicious!
– We even experienced Tokyo nightlife and hit on of the most popular bar, but I think it was more popular with expats that were trying to hit on local women. We grabbed a great table outside and enjoyed people watching as it was quite a scene.
Hakone
– While I was preparing for my trip to Japan, I really was interested in seeing Mt. Fuji, which is the tallest mountain in Japan. I knew it was near Tokyo, but would be a day trip. After further reading, I heard it was really hard to see in the summer (which seemed strange to me as I thought that would be the clearest time of the year, but it wasn’t). So Vanessa and I decided to take a day trip to the town of Hakone. The first step was to figure out how to get there, and we learned there was a special train which was called “The Romance Car”. We started to laugh as we pictured some tunnel of love car like in Disneyland…but Hakone was about 2 hours or more away.
– Once we boarded “The Romance Car”, it was just another fancy train with reserved seats. All seemed well and we were settling in for a couple hour ride. About 20 minutes into the ride, a loud disagreement started right behind us. Of course, we turned to see what was happening and it was a tall snotty Japanese woman that somehow did something to the couple behind her, and then started to yell, stand up and puff out her chest, and we thought there was going to be a fight. There was a wimpy man in the couple that was trying to separate the two women, but the snotty woman was taller, stronger and he wasn’t doing a good job. It was at this moment that Vanessa and I wished we could understand Japanese as the looks on the other passengers faces were priceless and I wanted to know what was being yelled. Soon after, the tall woman hit the woman in the couple with a magazine and then pushed her. It was seriously what I could call a cat fight. In the end, the train conductors tried to move the snotty woman to another car but she wouldn’t leave. It ended up at the next stop, five big police officers came on to the car (and were standing right next to me) and were asking her to get off and she was fighting. It was crazy…but they eventually got her off the train. The conductor came by to everyone in our car to apologize (we think), but since he didn’t speak English…he just looked at us, bowed a little and smiled and we understood he was trying. So no romance in the romance car, but it was a nice ride.
– I had high hopes of seeing Mt. Fiji, but unfortunately, we didn’t get a glimpse as it was very foggy. Regardless, we knew that half the fun at going to Hakone was being out in the wilderness, taking the different modes of transport (romance car, ricky old trolley, cable car, and ropeway) through the valley and making a day of it. Hakone is known for gorgeous scenery, many natural hot springs and Lake Ashi. It really was quite a journey, but a beautiful one at that. If I could do it again….I would either have left earlier in the day (as we left at noon) or I would have planned to spend the night to really make the most of it and enjoy the trip on the lake.
– The final highlight for Hakone was going to a traditional Onsen. An onsen is a natural hot spring/bath house. Essentially the hot spring is built and there are separate springs for men and woman. We really didn’t know what to expect, and no one spoke any English to after we paid, we were pointed in the direction of the woman’s locker room and didn’t know what or do or where to go. Do we bring a towel with us? Do we bath first? Where do we start? We really didn’t know and just undressed slowly and watched what the locals were doing. As everyone was naked…no photos of the Onsen. I really would have liked to take some photos outside, as it was beautiful. There were about nine separate pools, all surrounded by natural rocks. We saw girls that were barely a year old up to grandma that were close to 90 years old as it doesn’t matter your age. We quickly learned some pools are hot, some hotter and some so hot, I think I burned my skin. Then we found the cold one and quickly reduced our body temperature and maybe even shocked our system a little too much.
A few tips for future trips to Onsens….
1. Bring a towel
2. Bring shower stuff as you will want to shower and wash up afterwards
3. Be comfortable strutting around totally naked (as you try hard not to slip on the slippery rocks)
4. Go with a friend, as it’s much more fun to laugh about it afterwards and enjoy the experience as it feels so weird. Well maybe it was weird as Vanessa and I were the only non Japanese in this traditional Onsen, but I would much rather that vs one filled with tourists.
– My final day in Japan was just a lazy day exploring. Vanessa had a few fun things in mind including starting at the Shibuya crossing. This is a crazy busy intersection where more than 1 million people cross each day. I don’t think I have ever seen more people waiting at all the crossings and unlike New York, the Japanese people really wait until the light changes and walking is allowed. We went to the Starbucks above the intersection to really get a great view of the chaos and it was fun to watch.
– The highlight to the day was heading over to Yoyogi Park. Vanessa said this was one of the best parks to walk around on a Sunday as all the punks and rebels come out to express themselves and rebel against the strict Japanese norms. I saw more colored Mohawks, chains, teens dressed in original attire and really kids just trying for a shock value.
– The other highlight to Yoyogi Park was seeing all the dancing Elvis’s. there are guys that dress up like Elvis and come out with massive stereo systems to dance and generate a large crowd. Many of these people are professional business men during the day, and then let look dancing.
I even got a little video of one which you can view below – Dancing Elvis Video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YexFgT4zdwc
– So my time in Japan is over. Three weeks wasn’t even enough to scratch the surface, but I was able to get a really great feel for it and see more than the average tourist. I’m so thankful that I was able to spend a week with Vanessa and Chris in Okinawa and then travel the rest of my time with Vanessa as it made some of the more challenging parts of Japan more manageable.
-Now it’s time to take a two hour train to the airport and then a few flights to get back to New York. What’s fun is after 15 hours of flight time, I will arrive in New York only an hour after I left Tokyo (due to the international date line).