The past few weeks have been wrought with stress and maybe even a few shed tears over grades. But enough of that drama! I’m on summer vacation! Needing a break from the pressure of school and being in a tiny program (forty people!), Julia, Kimbia, and I headed off to Tokyo. Just a few Little City girls in the Big City with arching sky scrapers and more train lines than freckles on my very spotted face.
We arrived in Tokyo at around 11, just I time to drop Kimbia’s bags off at her hostel and grab a very Japanese lunch of sandwiches, coffee, pancakes, and pink lemonade at the Tokyo branch of Denny’s. What can I say? Even with only a scant two-week left until our return to the states we were craving a little taste of home! (Admittedly I’ve never had the pleasure of eating at Denny’s before but I can say it was quite satisfactory fast food). Refreshed after our somewhat grueling morning of losing our rather expensive omiyage (gift) of Kyoto tea and missing the first three trains we had hoped to be on, we began a leisurely stroll in the direction of the famed Akihabara. Of course, in such a place—at least in Japan—one finds a plethora of maids beckoning clients into their cafes and stores that cause hapless tourists to either stray their eyes or stare in a combination of disbelief and concern. At the pace of the crowd commanded, we peered down darkened alleyways and enjoyed the general energy of the city, a buzz only found in the shopping hubs of Kyoto. Eventually Kimbia decided to hop-to and begin passing out the surveys for her senior thesis, a study of Akihabara and its lure. This is, of course, easier said than done when researching a group of people that mostly consists of otaku—literally “in the house”—who would rather talk to the Technicolor girls on their gameboys and television screens than a real flesh and blood woman. The first two kids we approached scurried away, one before Kimbia had even opened her mouth to speak! Feeling a big off-put by these kinds of reactions, Kimbia hiked up her pants and got five surveys filled out by the friendlier otaku milling around, one excited to show his friends (and then us!) an action figure he found that he’d been looking for a long while.
Eventually Julia and I had to go meet our gracious hosts in Funabashi, about forty minutes from Akihabara on the train. Thus we yakked our way there and were met by Fumiko-san a wonderful chatty Japanese woman who has lived in Tokyo her whole life. She works at Disney Land and lives with her husband Makoto-san, who retired and has been running a little candy shop out of his home for the past ten years. The shop is somewhat off the beaten path, tucked into the alley of a side street, but business seemed busy enough when we arrived at around 5:15 in the afternoon. An absolutely wonderful loving and caring couple, they also host a foreign student every year. They have the pictures of their past students proudly up on the wall in their kitchen and made sure to introduce us to each one, supplying a funny anecdote for each. In this they reminded me very much of my lovely host mother, who does much the same every week, remembering fondly her past students.
After stowing our bags in the guest room, a small tatami room usually allotted to their students, Fumiko led us to the kitchen where she fed us tea and asked us an assortment of delicious snacks, including a crunchy banana-chocolate-whipped-cream-pancake snack that would’ve sent my nutritionist mother packing. Then, while we snacked yet some more and enjoyed the end of an episode The Clone Wars in Japanese, she cooked a lovely dinner of gyoza, shumai, miso soup, and rice. After dinner we went through a Tokyo guidebook and picked out what we’d be doing for the next few days. We went to sleep happy with the knowledge that we’d be going to Tokyo Disney Land, courtesy of our hosts.
We woke refreshed after sleeping in a little (we’re on summer vacation after all!). After eating a tasty breakfast of eggs, ham, and deliciously warm rolls with butter and blueberry jam, we set off to meet Kimbia once more and shop in Shibuya and cross the giant street there. Whenever you see a movie set even briefly in Tokyo, there is inevitably a shot of this crossing, roaringly busy even at night. Cheerfully skipping across, we ran into some cosplayers of vocaloids and paused to take pictures before continuing into 109, a rather famous Shibuya department store. It reaches upwards for floors, each store boasting its own style and blasting music. The shoppers are a crush of somewhat awed foreigners, the usual Sunday shoppers, and people who seem to simply be out for a stroll, dressed to the nines. After shopping (and getting me a ridiculous hot pink fighter pilot hat with big blue stars) we spotted out beloved Krispie Kreme and scurried over for a doughnut. To our delight, they had the machine running and were handing out glazed doughnuts hot off the press, free of charge! They were absolutely delicious. After enjoying a bit more of the general splendor, we got back on the train and went to Harakjuku, a famous Sunday fashion hub. Before heading into the crowd, however, we headed into the rather austere Meiji shrine, where its namesake Emperor of Japan has been enshrined as a kami (Japanese Shinto god). After the nonstop high energy of Tokyo, the lush forest path felt a great deal more like Kyoto. This gave us the strength to then toss ourselves into the sea of lolitas, goths, gangurous, free hugs, yankees, and somewhat non-plussed foreigners. We ended up ascending to the upper levels of the street, as the most interesting shops are often found there, and into Body Line—a cheap “off-brand” Lolita style clothing store.
We finally made our exit, fleeing back to the comparatively tame Tokyo Station for quick sandwiches before heading back to Fubabashi. There we met back up with Makoto-san, who packed us into his cute little blue car and whisked us off with his wife Fumiko-san for a night tour of Tokyo. On the way he played the TV built into the car for our entertainment. Just another day in Japan, really. The first stop was the Rainbow Bridge, which took us past two brilliantly lit Ferris wheels. We then stopped at a roadside convenience store and used their picnic tables, setting out a dinner of assorted onigiri—rice balls—and other small items. It was not only absolutely delicious but great fun to have such an unconventional picnic! Sated on dinner and cookies, we headed out once more to get up close and personal with Tokyo Tower, which is absolutely stunning at night. When we arrived, it was covered in little purple lights but as we photographed it, it turned its usual all orange and white, brilliant against the clear night sky. Twenty minutes later and again we were off to tour the Kabuki Theater and Ginza, the 5th Avenue of Japan. Tiffany’s, Channel, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, all nestled into one huge shopping street where I suspect people do more looking than buying. We then headed home to crash.
The next day we slumbering bears awoke to a breakfast of blueberry yogurt, more tasty warm rolls, and coffee as well as a small snack of dough filled with red bean paste, black beans, and covered in kinako—a sweet, very dry, cakey powder. Then Julia, Fumiko-san, and I headed off to Studio Ghibli’s museum in Mitaka. To get there from Funabashi, one must take the express to Tokyo Station for thirty-five minutes before transferring to yet another rapid train for roughly the same amount of time. Though it takes a while, this would be impossible without Tokyo’s comprehensive subway system. Arriving in Mitaka, one feels as though they are back in Kyoto. The town is quiet and the buildings sit low along the train tracks and small river, which is lined with cherry trees, all leading up to the museum. A little bus picks up museum goers every ten minutes or so, but if it's a nice day, a walk is much more enjoyable. The museum is, of course distinctive to Ghibli’s style in every way. From the gentle curves to the tan walls, round windows, and spinning iron cast outdoor staircases, one feels instantly in another world. The entrance leads the visitor past stained glass windows, each inlaid with different iconic Miyazaki and Ghibli film characters. The main building is almost entirely open on the inside, the floors ringing around a central open space. The iron cast encased glass elevator gives a view of the whole central area and is in itself a work of art with beautiful wood paneling inside. The second floor has a bridge across the middle and up the other wall is another iron cast circular staircase, just big enough for Julia and me at 5’ 2” and spacious for children. There are many other delights to be found at the museum, but I fear I’ve spoiled too much already. The museum’s motto is “lets lose our way together”, as is often the case with Miyazaki’s films, and so the museum is designed to get the visitor just a little lost. They also play short films, which can only be viewed at the museum. They played a movie about a girl who leaves the big city to go for a hike in the country, leaving small offerings of apples to kami along the way. She gets stuck in a rainstorm and takes shelter in an abandoned shack in the forest, making friends with the local bugs along the way. The entire soundtrack was done in Japanese onomatopoeias, which was the most charming part about it! After grabbing a bite of pasta lunch at in Italian restaurant nearby, we hopped back on the train to Tokyo Station so that we could get on the train to Tokyo Disney Land!
I am twenty-one and before this vacation I have never been to Disney Land. Not even in the states. I cannot express how full of joy, wonder and happiness I was! Our first stop was to take shots in front of Cinderella’s castle. We then wandered around, taking a brief trip to Endor on the Star Tours ride and then watched one of the shows, which included a fantastic number with Maleficent, the Queen from Snow White, and the bad guy from The Hunchback of Notre Dam. Afterwards I rode on my second roller coaster ever, Space Mountain. I LOVE SPACE MOUNTAIN! Just as we exited the coaster, the electric light show was beginning, so we hurried over and took a seat to watch the floats go past. Somehow the cheesy pie music really got to me and I had a blast waving back at Alice, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, Cinderella, and other assorted Disney characters atop their electric thrones. Once the parade ended the crowd dispersed and we ended up in the Old West town, which really was like a ghost town! Eating delicious maple churros, we spotted Pirates of the Caribbean and so dragged poor Fumiko-san, who has been on it countless times, onto one of the boats so that we could sing “Yo-Ho A Pirate’s Life For Me” over and over and over!
After meeting with Fumiko-san’s son, who also works at Disney Land and getting Happy Birthday stickers from him—which included singing “Happy Birthday To You” three times in a row, once for each sticker—we were picked up in the car by Makoto-san who took us to a buffet style restaurant for dinner.
We woke up to sunnyside eggs before heading out with Makoto-san and Fumiko-san to Asakusa where tons of small stores with odds and ends lead up to a large temple with giant sandals hanging on the walls. Afterwards they treated us to a lunch of tenzaru soba—cold soba noodles dipped in soy sauce with wasabi and green onions with assorted tempura on the side—and then took us to another outdoor market near Ueno Park. Afterwards we got on a rather interesting train to the Panasonic Center. The train isn’t on tracks but on large wheels and the whole line appears to be self-operated. It goes to around to all the scientific museums and companies in the city, winding through and above the buildings. The front car has a fully open window and so Julia and I got a wonderful view of the city, including a close up of one of the Ferris wheels and an idea of just how far the sprawling buildings really go. At the Panasonic center they have a number of demonstrations as well as a Nintendo station where you can play Wii, N64, and DSi. They had a large wall called a Life Wall. It is essentially projected on to the wall and by hovering ones hand near the wall, one can select a number of options including simple things such as the time, background setting, “outside view”—as there is a large window projecting any desired image, but also can be used for communicating across great distances similarly to Skype, but in life size with a more clear picture and sound. We also got to try out the home 3D TV system, which was incredibly clear and exciting!
Unfortunately we got there with only an hour before closing and so got back on the train to Funabashi. We had delicious ramen in the station before going back to the house to watch Hook and go to bed.
The next day they took us to a fish market and their local shrine before Julia and I got underway, making a quick stop at the Square Enix store in Shinjuku. We got back on the shinkansen to Kyoto and were home before dinner!
(PS Parents came to visit, it was awesome! But as this blog is mostly for them, I'm leaving it out :3 )
