Betsy's Day Out in Tokyo

Today after sleeping in, I headed into Tokyo proper (my hotel is towards the southern edge of the city). For some reason, I was feeling particularly intimidated by going on my own, not helped by the fact that my first task was to figure out how to get there on the trains. It's possible to take taxis, but they're not cheap, and even the little tourist information I had says consistently that train is the best way to get around the city. The train network in and around Tokyo is incredible. There have got to be about 150 stations, tying together various lines of the monorail, Japan Rail trains, and subway system. But here's the challenge: it's a distance-based fare system, so you don't just buy a standard ticket. You actually need to know where you're going, and to figure out how much it costs to reach it. At each station, there's a bank of automatic ticket machines, and above it a giant map of the train system showing each station and the cost to get there. So you find your target station, see the price, punch it into the machine, put in your money, and voila -- a ticket. Only problem is that the whole map is in Japanese, and it's stretched way out on a horizontal grid which is nothing like the shape of the map in my little tourist guide from the hotel, plus the colors don't match the ones on my map either, so I had pretty much no hope of figuring out which station was the one I wanted... the only way I knew which station I was AT on the map is that it was marked in red. Thank goodness there was also a ticket window at my station. The guy at the window didn't speak any English, but I gave him my little English map of the system and pointed to where I wanted to go, and he proceeded to puzzle over the map for about 5 minutes, holding it upside down the whole time, with me trying diplomatically (and unsuccessfully) to indicate that he should turn it around... not that it would have helped, probably. It took about 10 minutes and a little sign language, but he was a very good sport and finally figured out what I wanted and helped me to buy a ticket.

I made it successfully to Harajuku Station, which is west of the harbor. Just outside the train station is the entrance to a huge park (Yoyogi Park) and also Meiji Shrine. Meiji Shrine (Meiji Jingu) is dedicated to Emperor Meiji (who was instrumental in modernizing Japan) and his wife, Empress Shoken. (According the web site I just checked, in Shinto, it is not uncommon to enshrine the deified spirits of important personalities.) The shrine was built originally in the 1920's, destroyed in WWII, and rebuilt. It's very traditional architecture in the middle of some really peaceful gardens and feels very timeless, despite the fact that it's really not very old. Before entering the shrine, you are supposed to do a ritual washing of your hands and rinsing your mouth, and there is a little building with a small pool and a bunch of bamboo ladles for this purpose.
There are a few courtyards leading up to the main temple, which also has a small courtyard of its own. You enter the temple on the far side of the courtyard from the main shrine, and that's the closest you get. You throw a coin into a large coffer, bow twice, clap twice, make any prayers you wish, bow again, and that's the ceremony. You can also leave a prayer written on a wooden tablet -- they are hung on hooks all around a tree in the biggest courtyard, gathered up each night and offered to the deities the following morning.
You can also buy charms that have been pre-blessed for certain purposes -- good health, happy marriage, good luck passing entrance exams (no kidding), traffic safety... I also saw a couple wedding processions. Being a Japanese bride is very impressive but doesn't look terribly comfortable. It was really neat to see the elaborate traditional kimonos, but I have to say I was more fascinated by the hair and the shoes. I think the stereotypical shuffling walk of a traditional Japanese woman isn't just tradition, I think it's the only way to walk in the sandals without falling over. They're narrow, for starters, with heels which are not terribly high, but the back of the sandal isn't designed to go all the way to the back of your heel, it ends just past where your arch meets the front of your heel, so if you pick your foot up more than about an inch off the ground, the shoe will slide right off. The bride's hair was super elaborate, I can't even describe it properly, you just have to look at the picture.

After the shrine, I headed to Takeshita Dori. As my mini-guide from the hotel describes it: "Stores containing miscellaneous character and idol goods popular among teens are lined up along the street." The street is about 5 blocks long, with cheesy stores lining both sides, and is PACKED with people. It was really fun window shopping. I am a total sucker for kitsch, and the Japanese have it in spades. They have better collections of Coke, Snoopy, and Nightmare Before Christmas stuff than I have ever seen, even in the U.S., not to mention all the Japanese characters like Hello Kitty. It was also excellent people-watching. There seem to be three main fashion trends among Japanese teenagers: goth, retro-Madonna (including a lot of fingerless gloves and over the knee stockings with pink lace), and something that's a cross between a nursery rhyme character and a five-year old girl dressed for church on Easter. The last was definitely the weirdest -- from the frilly bonnet thing, including the little Bo-Peep type dress with apron, down to fold-over ankle socks with lace around the edges, and white patent leather shoes. Actually, I take it back -- the weirdest were the couple girls I saw who were mixed Bo-Peep and goth. The teenage guys were mostly just goth, not nearly so interesting.

After the teen haven, I walked along the Omotesando. It's a big boulevard modeled after the Champs Elysees, apparently, but feels a lot different. The main similarity is that they both have really fancy shops... and they're both really crowded. Also very good people watching, but most of the stores were out of my range, so the shopping wasn't quite as entertaining. It was a funny mix of shops, though, and extremely international. There were big fashion names (Chanel, etc.), lots of high-end jewelry and watches, but also lots of American fast-food places and a See's candy shop, for example. It's definitely the only place I've ever seen a Chanel boutique next door to a Shakey's Pizza.

It gets dark much earlier here than in Paris, and people also eat dinner much earlier -- restaurants even in Tokyo seem to stop serving dinner by 9:00 or so, which in Paris is still during the first seating in a night. So I grabbed an early dinner at a small Thai/Indonesian place on one of the side streets. It's a shame, because there were some really good looking Japanese places, but it's a tough thing to tackle if there's no English or no pictures on the menu -- it's not like I can take a stab at pronouncing the name of the dish because I can't deciper a single written Japanese character. My dinner was really pretty good, though. It seems a little silly to eat Thai food instead of Japanese, but there you have it.

On the way back, I made the happy discovery that the ticket machines in the train stations have an "English" option for the touch screen -- doesn't solve the problem of the Japanese map, but at least if I can guess at the amount, I can figure out how to buy a ticket on my own. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can buy a weekly pass so I can avoid these complications altogether...

Miss you all,
Bets

p.s. And for today's random afterthough regarding Tokyo... they are very strict about smoking here, but more outside than inside. Public buildings and train stations don't allow smoking, but most restaurants do. But you are not supposed to smoke while walking in the street, or outside building entrances. There are designated smoking zones -- they will have a place marked off along the sidewalk, or a little enclosure, and basically you can only smoke inside the lines. People seem to observe the rules, more or less, at least on the main streets. Who knows, maybe if a policeman catches you smoking, you're forced to stand on the street corner for a week, bowing and apologizing to all the passers-by... I took some pictures of the signs at the smokers' station along the shopping boulevard, they were pretty interesting.