Japan Day 11- Tokyo Drift!

 Here we are. The lone full day in Tokyo and the last full day in Japan. 

I find it so interesting keeping a journal and writing blogposts. Almost without exception I'll sit down and write something in a single draft without any edits or changes. I am hoping to come back later and insert some additional pictures I've located in some of our shared picture albums but the likelihood if I'm being honest with myself is low. The part I find particularly fascinating is my draft is what I'm thinking about now and likely reflective of my mood and what's on my mind at the time of the writing. Had I drafted this yesterday or tomorrow it would come out completely different. Fun to think about. 

We had hired a private driver for the day. Since we only had the one day we thought it would be optimal to have an all-day taxi reserved who could drop us off and pick us up at our various locations as we tried to cram in Tokyo in a single day. Our guides name was Oriol. He was actually from Spain but had migrated to Japan 13+ years ago and was married to a Japanese woman. He was awesome in particular because he clearly knew the insider view of Japan and the culture but also could relate to us the outsider view of why they do certain things, etc. Great all around experience. 

We first went to the Senso-Ji Temple. This is one of the most famous temples in Tokyo. There is the opening gate (the big ball hanging in the middle), then a long row of shops, then the second gate into the temple proper. The temple itself was beautiful and there was a large 5 story pagoda next to it as well. This to me was definitely what I imagined when I thought of Japanese Buddhist temples. I had probably seen a picture or something before. 

The shops were of course pure tourist driven shops. Still plenty of Japanese people of course but plenty of visitors from around the world walking down this corridor. I saw a shop selling yukata's and thought "that's probably what we were looking for and they would've been happy to help us". On the bright side we checked the pricing and it was exactly the same as the ones we bought yesterday. And we were happy with how they looked so I think overall it worked out good. 

Inside the temple you of course pitch your coin in and say your prayer. Off to the side there was a place to purchase fortunes and/or plaques to write your good luck fortune on. It was on these stairs as I looked back out to the main courtyard and down the long row of shops I had an interesting thought come to mind. Many of these temples we visited, including this one, were setup very similar to how an Old Testament Temple was setup. (Gate, courtyard, second gate to the actual temple, holy of holies where only the monks/priests can go). I also admittedly had the thought come to me "So I can see now how Jesus would've overthrown all the money changers at the temple. . . this place is pure commerce". I bring that up as a relation point I was recognizing between Christianity and Buddhism. Go back far enough and there are likely similarities in all of this stuff! 

I really enjoyed the shops we didn't really buy tons of stuff but I found some stickers and some big-toe socks for the kids. I felt like I was an actual tourist visiting a tourist-destination shopping area for the first time on this entire trip. 

We left from the Senso-Ji Temple over to our appointment at the Tokyo Sky Tree. This is a monster tower that handles many of the broadcast communications for the entire area. It is the tallest tower in the world (taller than Eiffel Tower and others) and to my understanding the 2nd tallest building in the world after the Burj Kalifa. I had no idea about these things until we were up in the tower but we were definitively UP IN THE AIR. 

I certainly did not comprehend the grandiosity that is Tokyo. We didn't have super clear day unfortunately. It had at least stopped raining and was clearing up a bit but you couldn't see all the way out to Mount Fuji. What you could see; however, was concrete jungle/skyscrapers as far as the eye could see in every direction. A friend of mine before I left said it felt a bit like the Inception wall of buildings bending a bit because of the angle and I can say I agree. Truly crazy how far spread this massive city goes and how it is just continuous sky scrapers! I was totally in awe and laughing at myself for thinking our little bus tour the day before had taken us around Tokyo. 

Oriol had informed us on our drive that Tokyo doesn't really have a "downtown". It has "districts". Basically the entire area is all busy and similar to a "downtown" but typically by big train stations are "district" hubs that carry identities. I mentioned in the previous post our hotel was by Tokyo Station and called the "Ginza" district which was the high-end area with expensive shops, etc. He took us through all types of other areas and "districts" unfortunately I can't recall all the names. 

Back to the tower. There is an upper level then a top level. The first high level is the "tembo deck" and the highest level is the "tembo galleria". Both levels are spectacular and again it's just city as far as the eye could see. 

There is a glass floor area on the first deck where you can stand on the glass floor and look all the way down. Quite trippy although I'll admit there was a second layer below you of glass/steel frame so it wasn't quite as scary as the glass floor off the side of the Willis Tower in Chicago. 

Oriol picked us up and took us over to the Tsukiji Outer Market which is now known as the "old fish market". Apparently there is a "new fish market" in another area of town. This area as he drove us through had all types of restaurant supply stores just stacked on each other. The intent was to drop us of for us to have lunch (sushi) in a traditional sushi bar and with sushi about as fresh as humanly possible. 

The guys went for the sushi, the girls decided they'd had their fill of sushi and wanted something cooked. They ended up finding a little cafe that at the front had some signs that claimed it was John Lennon's favorite coffee shop. I didn't know any better so figured that is the case. But I have now googled it and see that many coffee shops claim to be John Lennon's favorite :). 

As far as the sushi goes- I didn't get a pic but we also ordered a piece of fatty tuna and that was probably the best piece of fatty tuna I have ever had or will ever have. Truly transcendent. 

After lunch Oriol took us to the Shibuya District to visit the Meiji Shrine. This felt like we were suddenly in a forest on a trail in the middle of the concrete jungle of Tokyo! There was a massive Torii Gate (my memory is that it's the tallest Torii Gate in Tokyo. You are supposed to bow before entering the Torii Gate and only pass through the center if you are deity). 

This Temple is a Shinto Temple. Beautiful temple with a massive courtyard. In the courtyard there was the "Marriage Trees". Two giant trees that had grown together and had a rope connecting them. They were supposed to bring you good luck in love. (Good thing I already have that locked down with Rachetrain but we did pitch our coin and say our prayer for added insurance!)

Have you ever been on the other side of the world and ran into someone you know? Well at this temple we kind of did. We saw our national geographic photographer who we had said goodbye to two days earlier! He was hosting a friend from the US and showing him the temple. Just a funny coincidence but in a sea of literally millions of people in the mass of Tokyo we found it amusing we ran into one of our friends from the tour. 

This temple was one of my favorites of the entire trip. Very majestic and peaceful. 

                                                                                

Next stop the Anakuma Cafe. This was random but it's a quirky little coffee shop that has a bear's hand sticking out of the wall to serve you and give you high-fives. I think Jake was more annoyed than anything by the end but I think our guide thought it was a funny, unique little coffee stop. The rest of us stayed in the car and laughed. 

We next visited Takeshita Street in the Harakaju District. This street is a famous street for it's youth/young adult fashion (think all the Hello Kitty/Pokemon, etc. type stuff and much more). Pics don't do this justice it had all types of shops that I apparently didn't do a good job photographing but unique area. If you look close on the screen below Takeshita Street on this first picture you can see a fat dude in a blue jacket (me). 

Last but not least of our tour-guided stops was Shibuya Crossing. This is famously known as the busiest pedestrian intersection crossing in the world. I'm actually surprised they even attempt to let vehicles pass but since Japanese are so respectful of following the light signals it seems to work. There is a cross-intersection crosswalk as well so when it's pedestrians turn the entire intersection shuts down and you can cross any way you need to. We crossed back and forth a couple times nothing different than a normal busy road crossing other than the amount of people. This area felt like a Times Square style area I was sad we didn't have sufficient time to spend here and walk around more. 

We had made an appointment to visit an experience museum called TeamLabs in the early evening. Oriol drove us out there to finish our day with him. 

TeamLab Planets: We had heard before the trip from various people to visit this place. It's essentially an experience museum, meaning each room is setup differently as a piece of art for you to walk in and experience/enjoy and of course photograph and video for your social feeds ;). At Blue Diamond we are invested in one here in the US called Color Factory which I haven't been able to visit yet so I was very curious to see how these work. 

The answer is they are pretty fun! Not every room is a home run but certainly felt like a worthwhile activity and a couple of the rooms were indeed home runs in my opinion. 

The mirror room (my name for it I don't know what it's called. . . pics 3-5 below) was the coolest. Long strands of glass/lights hanging from the ceiling and then bouncing off each other and the mirrored walls was really cool. There were little pathways through the room to big sitting areas I imagine this room had the longest average visit time. 

There was a room where you were about shin deep in water and it looked like koy fish were darting all around. There was another room that was like a planetarium where you laid on the ground and looked up into the ceiling. One of my other favorite rooms was a flower room. It was outside and you crawled into the middle of a giant field of flowers hanging upside down and they would drop down around you. I hope my little video link works I'm not a pro on posting the videos. 

We took a taxi back to the Ginza District near our hotel and found a Japanese BBQ close by. They would bring you strips of meat and vegetables and you would cook it yourself over the grill in the middle of the table. It was pretty late by the time we finished dinner and walked back. A super action packed day kind of crazy to re-visit and think of how many places we fit in. I really think you could spend several days in Tokyo and find new places to visit each day. 

The next morning we went back quick to the Senso-Ji Temple to grab some final souvenirs and then I knew I wanted to hit that ramen one more time! We were much more confident the second time around knowing what the process was to buy a ticket and get seated. We went back to the exact same one. I noticed a cool mural that I hadn't noticed the day before. A bit of a fitting "last supper" for our final meal. Jake and Jody got themselves some stuffed pancakes at a different spot that also looked delicious. Between the ramen and BBQ I started feeling like so long as I was determining my meals I could function pretty well on Japanese cuisine despite some tougher experiences earlier in the trip. 

Flying home felt like entering a time portal. We left on a Tuesday afternoon roughly 5 pm and arrived back in Salt Lake City (first stopped in LAX) at roughly 5 pm on a Tuesday. Funny to go back in time like that. I had a rough transition back to SLC time it took me like a week. 

Ends of trips are always rough for me. You spend all this time with people and then it's like "welp, see ya later!" I really anticipated going in for this to be a lifetime highlight trip and it delivered on all fronts. Thanks to Jake for the idea and coordination, Mike Heather and Jodi and Jake again for the great times, Rachel of course for the wonderful amount of patience with me (she continues to endure going on 21 years!), and our family and friends back home that helped our kids stay alive and reasonably safe. Very grateful to be alive and truly lucky in life to have some of these opportunities.