Quik Thinking

Japan Airlines rocks!

I was supposed to show up at Narita airport an hour before my flight's scheduled departure on the 18th but didn't make it there until about 55 minutes prior. When I tried to check-in, I discovered that I could no longer do so. A JAL staffperson informed me that I had arrived too late and would have to catch the next flight. She then discovered that all flights for the next 2 days were fully booked. Moved by my wild-eyed desperation, she called the gate and tried to see if she could get me on the flight anyway. By the time she explained things to the gate, there were only 20 minutes left before boarding was to commence and I it was unlikely that I'd make it through security in time. That's when they pulled a rabbit out of their hat. After sticking a red aeroplane-shaped sticker on me, one of the JAL staff lead me to the crew security area, where there was no line-up, and got me through.

So far, so good. But I still needed to return my $200 rental keitei (cell phone) and there was no way for me to do that. That's when JAL really came through for me. They contacted the phone rental company and arranged to get the phone back to them on my behalf. Best airline service I've ever had :-)

Kyoto and Osaka

Early Saturday morning I took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto,
where I was rescued by my friend Jer and taken on a quick tour of his
favourite places in the city. We were in a bit of a rush because we
wanted to watch the O-ban closing ceremony in the evening so we rented
bikes and rode around the city. First we visited a temple but I'd seen
enough temples in Kamakura so I wasn't blown away by it. After that,
however, we went to the "Silver" Pavilion, where I was quite impressed
by the sand art. I'd been feeling rather illiterate all week so being
able to ask Jer what all the signs meant was a pleasant change. On our
way to Jer's place we went through the Philosopher's Walk, where we
philosophized as we walked. We made it to his place just before it
began raining. Watching the rain pour down, we wondered how it would
affect the giant bonfires scheduled for the evening but the rain
stopped after a couple of hours. We returned the bikes and took up a
spot in a park where we had a decent view of the of the 5 bonfires
that were to be lit in a large arc on the outskirts of Kyoto. After
watching the fires for a while, we headed back to Jer's place and
chatted over some unfiltered rice wine before turning in.

The next morning I took the Shinkansen to Osaka and explored the city
for a while, getting lunch and a haircut before visiting Osaka Castle.
The castle grounds are now a park, in which I wandered around for a
while, admiring the outer and inner moats. The inner one is a dry
moat, as it always has been. Although almost everything is free to
access, there's a small fee (slightly under $6) for the castle museum,
which is housed in a very tall building that resembles a pagoda. I
took the elevator up and, after taking in the lovely view from the
gallery at the top, proceeded to make my way down through each floor,
learning all about the castle's history as I did so. By the time I
made it out, it was about time for me to head back so I took one last
stroll through the grounds and then caught the Shinkansen back to
Tokyo.

Kamakura (temples everywhere) and Yokohama (big city, bright lights)

Wanting to get some use out of my JapanRail pass, I took a day-trip yesterday to a nearby city called Kamakura. The name apparently refers to the resting place of a dagger that once guaranteed victory to its owner. Although there's a popular beach in Kamakura, it is largely known for its temples. I visited four of these and, based on my observations, Japanese temples follow a similar pattern. At the front entrance is a large gateway and immediately within that is a booth where visitors must pay a small fee (generally a couple of hundred yen). Beyond the booth lies the temple grounds, filled with lush foliage and a network of paths. Some of these paths just lead to the homes of the monks but one main path will lead to the bottom of a series of stairs. The temple itself lies at the top of these stairs and is not accessible to the public, although visitors may leave token offerings outside it and ring the large bell that hangs there. Over to the side, accessible through another path, is the graveyard of the monks who have tended to the temple in years bygone. These graves are nearly always very ornate, although a few of them are merely holes in the side of a cliff with earthenware artifacts within them.

On my way back from Kamakura I stopped in Yokohama for dinner. After eating, I walked through the Chinatown and was very impressed by its size. I used to think San Francisco had a fairly large Chinatown but this one goes on for much longer. I noted that there seems to be perfect competition in effect amongst the street vendors, as all snacks were priced identically. I was even able to satisfy my craving for bubble-tea, although they call it "tapioca drink" here. On the far side of the Chinatown is Yamashita park, a popular hangout for the locals. I walked through it along the waterfront and then across the city to the train station. Along the way were the most beautiful sidewalks I've ever seen: wider than the streets they sandwiched, with hand-inscribed tiles inlaid at frequent intervals and a strip of saplings running down the centre.

Kabuki

Animals!

Today's daytime excursions were in Ueno, the most museum-happy of Tokyo. First was the National Science Museum, where I got one of those headphone guide devices because all the text on the exhibits was in Japanese. I spent the bulk of my time checking out the sections on animal life, both prehistoric and current. I was impressed by the depth and quality of their exhibits, which include some unique specimens like the Columbian Mammoth of which I took a photograph. I ended my visit to that museum by checking out the technology section, which highlights the scientific interactions between Japan and other countries throughout history. While the museum is proud of the significant technological contributions of Japan to the world, I noticed that it does not shy away from giving other countries credit either.

Having spent a few hours learning about zoology, it was only appropriate that my next stop was the Tokyo Zoo, where I was pleased to see that the elephants were very affectionate with each other. The tiger, however, seems to have turned vegetarian as he's the skinniest tiger I've ever seen. More distressing still were the cramped quarters in which the poor hippo and giraffe are housed. I don't understand why some animals are treated to expansive and well-designed living areas while others languish in cramped cages.

The Imperial Gardens and TMOMA

I love museums so when I discovered this morning that for ¥2,000 I could get access to dozens of museums in Tokyo, I immediately knew how I was going to spend my next few days. But before hitting the museum circuit I explored the Imperial Gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace at the heart of Tokyo. [The Japanese imperial family has the longest unbroken lineage of any monarchy in history, having ruled the country since 660 BC.] The gardens are surrounded by a moat and the walls within them are made of 35-ton granite blocks.

Upon leaving the gardens I went to the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, where they had some pretty interesting stuff, including looping animated pictures housed within frames to appear like regular paintings. They even gave me special permission to photograph a sculpture - Eve looking dejected after eating the apple - that caught my fancy. After lunch I visited the Bridgestone museum, where my favourite piece was a cubist (I presume) interpretation of Rodin's famous sculpture, The Kiss, in which the figures looked like blockheads.

Ninja restaurant

On Sunday afternoon Chris took me to Yoyogi park, which is supposed to be like Dolores park (in hipsterness not size) but it was overrun by tourists. That small defeat was dwarfed, however, by a mind-blowing chance encounter with a pair of good friends from Montreal whom I hadn't seen in a couple of years. Unbeknowest to me, they just happened to be visiting Tokyo at the same and we wound up in the same part of the park. Originally, Chris and I had planned to check out a ninja restaurant for dinner but after the initial shock had worn off, Chris called the ninjas and expanded our reservation so we could all have dinner together.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, we were shown to our seats by a waiter decked out in ninja garb and after we'd ordered from the set-course menus, ninjas proceeded to bring us courses at intervals so rapid I couldn't keep up. While the food was all very good, my favourite dish was the tempura, which handily beat out any tempura I'd ever had before. By special request from Steph, I took photos of the food. Just before we had our desserts, a ninja came over to our table and performed some magic tricks. At a mere two feet from us, it was impressive that we barely noticed how he did any of them.

Hot-springs and capsule hotel

After the bus tour, we rode the amazing Tokyo subway to a a place that offered onsen (hot-springs) and a capsule hotel. I'd long wondered what it would be like to sleep in a capsule hotel and the Tokyo subway stops running at midnight so we needed a place to crash anyway. The hot-springs were almost entirely filled with Koreans! I had to stick a band-aid over my tattoo to avoid being mistaken for a member of the Yakuza (Japan's organized crime rings). But I got to wear a yakata (traditional Japanese bathrobe), which was pretty neat.

We had some trouble gaining access to the capsule hotels because none of the staff spoke any English. Eventually one of them resorted to using a Web translator, which did the trick. The capsule hotels did not quite match my expectations of a tempofoam coffin in a drawer, being more like bunk beds in a hostel.

Hato Bus tour: bonsai, courtesans & boat-cruise

On Saturday, after picking up an SD card for my camera, Chris and I met up with his neighbour and coworker Dennis to go on a bus tour of Tokyo along with a couple of other tourists who were visiting from Perth. Our first stop was a bonsai garden run by a man who has been collecting the little trees for the past three decades and now teaches foreigners the art of growing bonsai. He showed us some of his prized specimen and answered our many questions about the art form, after which we partook in a green tea ceremony.

The next stop was a special event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Kyoto's only geisha house. We were treated to a lovely performance by a troupe of dancers keeping alive the ancient art of the Japanese courtesans (who weren't geisha). The tradition of the courtesan dance is that every year these women would parade through the street and then select a suitor to join them for a tea ceremony. First the suitor would drink from the tea bowl and then, if she chose to do so, the courtesan would signify her acceptance of his love by finishing the bowl.

Our tour concluded with a dinner of tempura and sushi aboard a little boat where we were watched the sunset amongst the skyscrapers of Tokyo and learnt a great deal about Japanese history.

Impressed by the Tokyo fish market

Exploiting my jetlag, we beat the tourists to the Tokyo fish market in Tsukiji. Everywhere we walked there were men on motorized carts trying to run us over. Bathed in the scent of raw fish, this was a market my grandparents would have loved. Having stoked our appetite, we proceeded across the street for the best sushi I've ever had. Never having been frozen, this fish made all prior sushi experiences seem like warmed-up leftovers.

Because it was still very early, we decided to explore the inside of a skyscraper and a mall. Although the buildings were open, there was nobody around and none of the stores were open yet. It felt like being inside a William Gibson novel!