Cherry Blossoms in Bloom

Ray and Traci, accompanied by Ray’s mother, decided to trade the gray gloomy skies of Seattle frequently encountered in March for identical weather 5,000 miles away in Tokyo, Japan. Since all have made multiple visits to the land of the rising sun, they planned a combination of day trips away from and exploration of some lesser known areas of Tokyo. Their Friday morning journey started with a short flight from Seattle to Vancouver BC, followed by a pleasant Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo. After the 10 hour flight arrived 30 minutes early, the travelers managed to catch an airport bus to their hotel without delay. Due to Saturday evening traffic, the bus ride took 2 hours and dropped the tired passengers off at the Grand Prince Takanawa in the Shinagawa area.

Ray had booked the Grand Prince hotel based on its location very close to the Shinagawa train station which is one of the two giant terminals giving direct access to Japan’s high speed trains, the Shinkansen. He and Traci also stayed at the nearby Shinagawa Prince hotel during their 2008 visit to Tokyo and enjoyed the location. The Grand Prince is the oldest of the four Prince hotels clustered together in Shinagawa, and has recently been renovated. The travelers found their rooms on the club floor quite spacious and modern, plus access to the club lounge was a great bonus with its combination of buffet breakfast and all day snacks and drinks.

On their first day (Sunday), the trio met up with a former classmate of Traci’s and his wife at Sarabeth’s, a restaurant in the Atre building adjacent to the Shinagawa train station. The brunch menu was mainly American, and all of the diners enjoyed their dishes – french toast, pancakes, spinach omelet, macaroni and cheese, and salad. From Shinagawa, the travelers went to Harajuku, a neighborhood known for young people and their fashions. Retail stores both big and small line the area – a retail alley on Takeshita Street attracted crowds looking for everything imaginable. After leaving Harajuku, Japan’s exclusive shopping district Ginza was next. Ray and Traci marveled at the size and elegance of department stores like Mitsukoshi. Not all retail catered to the ultra-rich though as a visit to Uniqlo’s 12 story flagship store revealed much more reasonable pricing. Amazon.com may be killing retail stores in the US, but the industry appears to be thriving in Japan. It is truly amazing how small stores often selling very similar items remain in business. Service has always been a top priority in many Japanese industries, and the cost of personal service may be headed in a collision course with cheaper pricing in web based stores. Still battling jet lag, the travelers returned to the Grand Prince. For dinner, Ray and Traci visited an alley of ramen shops near the Shinagawa train station. Ramen shops, like many casual restaurants are a marvel of efficiency serving lots of patrons in very small spaces. Diners begin by ordering and paying at an electronic kiosk then sitting down with meals rapidly delivered. One nice amenity at most restaurants (even the low end ramen shops) are bins that sit under chairs for handbags (and presumably coats). Ray and Traci retired for the evening after enjoying their ramen.

Monday started with Ray running from the Prince hotel along the Sumida River. He noted that Tokyo seems to be a relatively late starting society as streets were devoid of much traffic. Few joggers were encountered although in parks, more than one father was attempting to teach his child the fundamentals of baseball in the early morning hours. Running in the streets of Tokyo is somewhat challenging as the streets are not set up in a grid pattern, and the huge train stations serve as obstructions. Fortunately, Google Maps serves Tokyo well and proved invaluable during the trip. Many of the large US cell phone carriers now offer “unlimited daily plans” for travel abroad with a flat $10 daily fee for talk/text/data and Ray thought it was worth every penny!

After a fulfilling breakfast at the hotel, the trio decided to take a river boat down the Sumida river from Hinode pier to Asakusa. The boats serve as a somewhat scenic tour for visitors although the limitation of narration to the Japanese language limited the ability to appreciate the terrestrial highlights. Given the crowds usually encountered on the main trains in Tokyo, the 40 minute cruise on a mostly empty boat was a refreshing change. Besides the endless buildings lining the river, a collection of tents (presumably belonging to homeless residents) showed Seattle is not the only city having a housing crisis.

The cruise boat dropped passengers off at Asakusa which is near the Tokyo Skytree – a tower standing 2,080 feet, making it the second tallest structure in the world as of 2018. Asakusa is also the home to Tokyo’s oldest temple, Senso-ji.

The beautiful Buddhist temple is one of Tokyo’s busiest sites and has been surrounded by an encampment of shops and food booths making tourists feel right at home. In the Temple, Ray’s mother and Traci purchased a random stick which signified that they were to receive the “Best Fortune” prognosticating the fulfillment of wishes, recovery from illness, and several other things. Some people apparently receive bad sticks as a nearby rack offers a place for people who don’t like their fortunes to hang them and presumably be released from a bleak future. Inside the temple, golden furnishings and beautiful flowers contrast with the traditional wooden framing.

From Senso-ji, the trio went to Kappabashi street which is the world’s mecca for kitchen enthusiasts. While American cooks (professional and otherwise) have few options for their kitchenware, Japanese have a neighborhood full of shops selling any conceivable tool for cooking and operating a restaurant. One of the most quirky items is plastic food which eateries all over the world use to model their dishes to prospective diners. At least half a dozen different stores sell plastic food models of every conceivable dish – one actually sells kits for customized models and teaches classes on how to create them!

Another popular store category are ones carrying knives. Carbon steel kitchen knives of typical sizes cost several hundred dollars each – in storefront workshops, skilled technicians sharpen these costly tools using water and sharpening stones fascinating observers. Sadly, the relentless focus on quality and durability can be lost in America’s internet retail revolution. Before returning back to the hotel, the travelers stopped at Ameya-yokocho market near the Ueno train station. A permanent multistreet market, shops small and large hawk fashion, food, and just about anything else imaginable. Traci thought it reminded her of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. After arriving back at the Grand Prince, Ray decided to go to the nearby Aqua Park to see the small sea life park. This urban aquarium located at the Prince Hotel, consists of rides (a merry go round and rocking pirate ship) for young kids, penguin pen, aquariums of various sea animals and a large stadium aquarium for a dolphin show. A room of large tubes holding different jellyfish provided a unique living lava lamp show.

The highlight of the visit was the Dolphin show performed periodically throughout the day. In the covered dome stadium, music & lighting effects highlighted the acrobatic abilities of the dolphins with their trainers and provided a very entertaining 12 minute show.

While Ray wondered if the large stadium pool was big enough for the 8 or so dolphins to happily live in, having an urban aquarium allowed many children living in one of the world’s most densely populated cities to appreciate the animals in the sea. Ray rejoined Traci and his mother and they mostly snacked on food in the Prince lounge for dinner.

Tuesday brought rain and colder weather. The group decided to venture to Yokohama, a nearby city 20 minutes away from Tokyo on a train. After arriving, the first stop was at Landmark Tower, the second tallest building in Japan. Located near the harbor, the waterfront office tower/hotel/shoppingcomplex offered some incredible views from its 69^th floor observation deck despite the cloudy weather. Unfortunately, Mount Fuji was obscured by the clouds. Across the street, a small amusement park stood open although very few patrons were present (due to the rainy cold weather and the fact that it was a school day.) Incredibly, a few hearty souls rode a river water slide despite the cold water soaking at the end. Ray’s group settled for a ride in a giant Ferris Wheel. The next stop was the Cup Noodle museum. Momofuku Ando founded the ubiquitous food company Nissin, by preparing ramen noodles for dry storage using hot oil – a trick which opened the way for his products Top Ramen and Cup Noodles.

The museum celebrated both the product as well as the journey of its founder. Inside, there was a replica of Ando’s home workshop where the process was invented as well as an informative video and various activities. In one room, visitors created a Cup Noodle by decorating a Cup Noodle container, choosing a soup flavor and dried toppings, and having it vacuum packed for a customized Cup Noodle to enjoy at home.

The final Yokohama stop was at Chinatown – one of the largest in Asia outside of China. Several square blocks were filled with merchants hawking various retail products, clothing, and foods.

The group shared pork humbows. After returning to Shinagawa station take out food was purchased at the train station for dinner back at the hotel.

Wednesday brought even colder and wetter climate to Tokyo – temperatures fell in the mid 30s later in the day resulting in mixed rain and snow precipitation! The travelers decided to spend much of the day at Miraikan, Japan’s National Museum of Emerging Science – a showcase of technology especially focusing on research endeavors into particle physics, space exploration, robotics and medicine. A surprisingly long ticket line already formed at Miraikan, taking 30 minutes to navigate before getting admission tickets – which were never checked or scanned on entry. Japan seems to operate more on the honor system than other places. On this day Japan had a national holiday, Vernal Equinox Day, which brought many more families than usual to the museum. One of the most popular attractions at Miraikan was the Honda robot Asimo who entertained the crowd with dancing and even singing. 

Honda also displayed its answer to the Segway, the UniCub – a self-balancing two wheel scooter. Ray actually got to try one out in the lobby and found it quite functional.

Near the exit, the Miraikan has an area where Nobel Prize Winners who visit the museum are asked to create a question for the future – a particularly prominent American accepted the challenge:

The ride to and from Miraikan was on the Yurikamome train line. Besides its location serving the Tokyo Bay Waterfront, the train is also notable for being autonomously driven – no transit personnel are on board. Ray and Traci actually sat in the seating area usually occupied by the driver. The travelers finished the day by exploring the self proclaimed Tokyo Station City – with the extensive development around the station including retail and eating establishments, the seemingly endless variety of foods and products was quite amazing. Another very impressive department store, Daimaru, towers over the station. Over 3,000 trains travel to Tokyo Station daily making it the busiest in Japan. The seemingly endless corridors of shops certainly must wear out residents – Traci spotted one child who just decided to take a nap in the middle of the floor. A unique feature of Japan is the lack of parental supervision – while walking around various neighborhoods, shopping areas and even train stations, children could be seen making their way unescorted by adults. Certainly, you don’t see many 8 year olds walking alone thru downtown Seattle! Japan, blessed with extremely low crime statistics, promotes independence at an early age. The contrast with the US does raise the issue of how much more dangerous America really is for children or is it an attitude perpetuated by serial killer movies, and the constant storylines from TV shows such as Law and Order SVU. Tired and cold from the weather, the evening ended with the travelers hoping for better conditions tomorrow. Ray was hungry for pizza so he stopped at Pizzaman in the Atre building connected to the Shinagawa train station. His sausage and broccoli pizza proved there is no such thing as bad pizza….

Thursday brought the end of the rain and better temperatures, allowing outside tourism again. After breakfast, the visitors took the train to the Tokyo Station again, and walked to the Imperial Palace – home of Japan’s Emperor Akihito. Unfortunately, only limited tours of the grounds are available so photographs have a very limited view of the palace. 

The Imperial Palace site has a very popular running path of about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) although few were seen in the middle of a workday. After returning to Tokyo station, the group headed to Akihabara. Formerly known as electric town, famous for technology stores, it is now the center of anime, a Japanese style of media characterized by colorful graphics, vibrant characters and fantastical themes. A popular series, Girls und Panzer, follows a group of high school girls practicing tank warfare as sport. From Akihabara, trains took everyone to Oshiage, the home of the second tallest structure in the world, the Tokyo Sky Tree.

At 2,080 feet, it is the world’s tallest freestanding tower with glass walled observation platforms at 1,150 and 1,500 feet with impressive views of Tokyo giving a new definition to urban sprawl. Unfortunately, distant clouds prevented viewing Mount Fuji. Before returning to the hotel, the travelers picked up food near their Shinagawa train station. All of the train stations have extensive retail outlets, many having giant department stores. Shinagawa had many places to find food from large food courts like Ecute to convenience stores to restaurants. Adjacent buildings like Wing and Atre housed many additional choices. Later in the evening, Ray decided to venture out for dessert – he ended up having an Oreo McFlurry at the McDonalds across the street from the station. He also stopped at Hollywood, a large pachinko palace next to Shinagawa station. Walking in, one first notices an explosion of lights and sounds of metal balls clanging. Ray’s family actually had a Pachinko machine long ago – it was Japanese pinball with smaller balls and on a vertical playing field. One aimed the balls being fired and tried to hit targets. It seems current Pachinko parlors are mainly a gambling establishment – they are given exceptions to the prohibition on casinos in Japan, and the play focuses on a video screen rather than the balls. Players hold down an electric trigger that repeatedly fires the balls without aiming but they only care about the video screen which often looks like the reels of a Las Vegas slot machine.

Friday’s plans called for a day trip to Kyoto, about 280 miles away from Tokyo. As with past trips to Japan, JR Passes (Japan Rail) were purchased from on-line agents prior to the trip, then vouchers were mailed to the travelers in Seattle and exchanged in Japan for the actual pass. The price of a 7 day pass was less than  the trip to Kyoto, and it allows free access to JR trains including the high speed Shinkansen. Not all of the trains taken during the visit were JR trains, so sometimes Suica cards, the Japanese version of Seattle’s Orca transportation cards were required. Fortunately Google maps was quite useful at identifying the best trains and connections. The trio left on the 8:40 AM Shinkansen to Kyoto – travelers should note the Shinkansen are always on time, so don’t be late! Ray’s iPhone app showed a rather impressive speed (in miles per hour!) during the trip.

After arriving at Kyoto station, the travelers boarded a local JR train for a short ride to Fushimi Inari Shrine, an important Shinto house of worship. According to the internet guide Trip Advisor, it is the most popular tourist site in Japan.

The beautiful orange temple is known for the mountain trails behind the shrine which are lined by thousands of torii gates donated by individuals and companies. The movie Memoirs of Geisha highlighted this shrine.

While at the temple, Ray asked for a Shinto blessing by writing on a wooden stick his wish for the Mariners to win an American League Pennant and then depositing it in the shrine. Previous requests at major house of worships around the world (including the Vatican, Jerusalem and Istanbul) have been unsuccessful, so he limited his budget to 200 yen ($1.91) and purchased the small blessing stick.

From Fushimi Inari, Arashiyama Monkey Park was the next stop. Over 170 Japanese macaque monkeys live in the wild life preserve. After a 20 minute hike up to the top of the mountain, visitors are treated to some amazing views of Kyoto and large numbers of monkeys. The creatures are very docile and for the most part, behave as if the humans were not there. Visitors are allowed to purchase peanuts, apples and bananas to feed the monkeys – they readily pick the food right out of human hands. Bamboo forests surround the mountain top so the monkeys have ample natural habitat to enjoy.

From the Monkey Park, the travelers took a taxi to Kinkaku-ji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. This UNESCO World Heritage Site dates back to 1397 although has been rebuilt in 1955 with gold leaf trim giving a distinctive appearance to the beautiful temple.

To conclude their day in Kyoto, the trio took a taxi to the Gion district famous for geishas (female hostesses clad in colorful kimonos). After doing some exploring of the many shops, the group returned to the Kyoto Shinkansen station and was back at the Prince hotel 12 hours after leaving it. Fortunately, the weather was perfect for the Kyoto excursion and the tired travelers enjoyed their day of exploration.

Their visit rapidly drawing to a close, Saturday brought out great weather and blooming of sakura, Japanese Cherry Blossoms. Sakura play an important role in Japanese culture, and many festivals mark the blossoming which for Tokyo, usually takes place in late March. The beautiful flowers bring out huge crowds and make parks highly congested.

Ray, his mother, and Traci met Ray’s cousin Scott and his family for lunch in Shinjuku at a highly regarded Tempura restaurant, Tsunahachi Tsunohazuan. Deep fried battered seafood and vegetables are well known in America, but Japanese chefs have turned it into an art form. After lunch, Ray dragged his mother and Traci to a show called the Robot Restaurant. Popularized by CNN travel personality Anthony Bourdain, Ray had wanted to visit the attraction for years. Entering the theater, the three travelers realized there were very few Asians in the audience. Ray thought the show was more of an indoor parade along the lines of Disney’s Electrical Parade rather than a theatrical production. The theater with perhaps 300 seats was cramped and the costumed dancers and motorized robot floats took up every bit of the stage which sat between two stands of seating.

Ray thought about 1/3 of the audience thoroughly enjoyed the craziness and pageantry of the show (probably the ones that drank the most), 1/3 were overcome with sensory overload but thought it offered a window into the zany Japanese culture and 1/3 thought it was loud and obnoxious. Ray is sure 100% of the audience would agree there is no show anywhere in the world like it! For dinner, Ray’s mother and Traci picked up food from the train station while Ray was dying for some American fast food and went to McDonald’s for a Teriyaki Burger and fries.

Sunday brought a conclusion to their Japan experience. Brilliant sunshine highlighted the blooming Sakura and the temperatures hovered in the 50s. Ray found an excellent running path following what appeared to be a single lane alley called Ryu Tokaido to a covered outdoor mall area Tachiaigawa. In the alley, many unlocked bicycles were parked along the road – although it didn’t look like any were expensive road bikes.

Before heading to the airport, Ray and Traci took the train to the Ebisu station and joined thousands of sakura viewers along the Meguro river.

Many of the major parks in Japan were packed with people enjoying the annual cherry blossom blooming which unfortunately lasts a short period of time. The Meguro river was lined with beautiful sakura trees as well as many pop up refreshment vendors serving the large crowds. Fortunately, the weather cooperated allowing Ray and Traci a final sunny day in Japan. With the conclusion of their trip, Ray and Traci returned to the hotel and joined Ray’s mother on the airport bus ride followed by a long but peaceful flight back to Seattle.