TOKYO Day 1

For months, Jacob has been planning to compete in the Jeju International Brass Competition in Jeju, an island off the south coast of South Korea. And since it was going to be over a 2-day holiday, I decided to go with. We were planning on spending some time in Seoul beforehand. But then we waited way too long to buy tickets, hoping prices would go down. They doubled. Lesson learned. So since we already knew tickets were going to be expensive, we got creative with our itinerary and created this whirlwind trip to Asia Proper (as opposed to southeast asia) which included two days in Tokyo, two days in Seoul, and (for me) three days in Jeju, with Jacob staying on for the rest of the competition. We accomplished through the aggressive use of one-way tickets, including 7 separate flights and 8 airports!

I am currently in Jeju with a bit of time to reflect on our jam-packed days in Tokyo and Seoul - this will be the first of a few blogs because I can't possibly fit all we did into just one blog! And I promise lots of pictures :)

Saturday (August 3rd)
This day was spent almost completely in transit - train to Changi airport, flight to KL, several hour layover, then a 7 hour flight to Tokyo. On the long flight, Jacob and I poured over the city information we'd printed out, planning our days and preparing for a mad dash once we arrived at Haneda Airport. We landed at 11pm and needed to clear immigration, get our luggage, go through customs, buy tickets for the right train and get on one before they stopped running, so that we could get to another station, walked a quarter mile to a different train line and catch the very last train of the night. At stake? $100+ dollar taxi ride if we fail.
We made it with 2 minutes to spare, thanks to the help of Kenj, a stranger we asked for help who both spoke English and was going our way! Travel luck was with us. After congratulating our sweaty selves for making the train, we then got off at Noborito, following the instructions of the couch surfer at whose house we would be staying. We managed to locate his condo and - as per instructions - used the house key in the milk box to enter his house. He said that sometimes he would be gone or asleep, so just to let ourselves in...ok, it was a little weird, but it worked! We enjoyed some hastily bought convenience store sandwiches and sushi, got ready for bed - and then our host woke up and we ended up chatting with him until 3 in the morning!

Sunday

I awoke at 4:55am with the certainty that I was about to be run over by a train. Turns out the little balcony we were sleeping next to, with the door open, is about 1 floor above and 5 feet away from the train tracks, right where there is a track switch. Those came by every 4-6 minutes or so for the rest of the morning, assisting us in giving up sleep and getting ready for day 1 in Tokyo. We started on the right foot, going to Freshness Burger, an amusingly American-styled restaurant by the train station, where we got burgers and coffee for breakfast. They even has Tabasco. Solid.

Tokyo's Subway Map

Singapore's Subway Map. No contest!

We jumped an express train to Shinjuku (we were actually staying about 20 minutes west of the main city - doesn't show up on this map) and then transferred to Chuo line to get to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Holy moly - Tokyo's train system is INSANE. Seriously, check that out. Singapore just has 4 measly subway lines. Tokyo has more than 20, operated by various different companies. Sometimes 'transfers' may look like they in the same spot, when really it is half a mile to the other line. And so. many. people. But after we got the hang of it a bit - and with a heavy dependency on the map thoughtfully provided by our host, Gee - we became very impressed with the whole system. You can get anywhere!!
So we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which explores the development of the Tokyo from a small(ish) village based on a hierarchy of nobles and their bannermen/samurai. Lots of dioramas and many impressive statistics - or so we assume, since a majority of it was in Japanese. But there was some English text, and plenty to look at. 

Jacob has bulked up a bit since you saw him last.

Obviously I was the cameraman that morning!






After the museum we grabbed some lunch at Nakau's r - I had Beef Udon and Jacob has some sort of beef rice stuff. Both delicious and washed down with ice cold green tea. A reasonably priced too - we were worried that Tokyo would cost an arm and a leg, but we spent a lot less than we feared we might!

We then went to Tokyo Station, an old building nestled among the gleaming new ones, and walked over to the grounds of the Imperial Palace. We saw fountains and gardens, and walked...and walked. When we realized we were still 2km from the train station we wanted to get to, we took that as a sign to get ice cream. (I can't believe how many signs we received telling us to get ice cream on this trip!!) After all, it was quite hot in Tokyo - actually, everywhere.

We had to laugh when we actually passed a big karate
convention/competition - it had to happen in Tokyo, right?

 

We took the train to Harujuku, famous for the Meiji Shrine and for outrageous fashion. We didn't see too many crazy outfits, though everywhere we went I was learning how deficient my sense of style is!

Water dippers for washing.

The shrine was beautiful - a bit of a hike too. I liked the part where you were supposed to wash your hands, and then rinse your mouth and spit before entering the shrine area.

 After looking around, we took a different path out and ended up in Yoyogi park, which was full of people playing, picnicking, a dance team performing, and others playing instruments or just relaxing. From there, we cross the street (past some robot babes) and found a festival/concert in full swing - we think it had to do with saving the ocean/beach? Anyways, we got a beer and meat on a stick and walked around, taking it all in. It was really fun to just stumble across something like this, without planning it. Those are often some of my favorite parts of trips!



We then returned to Harujuku and walked down the cutest street in the world - Takeshita! Literally, this is where you can get all things Kawaii ("cute!"). Cute is definitely in in Tokyo - hair bows, ruffled knee-socks, school uniforms, tutus, adorable phone cases and stuffed animal purses - we saw it all. But there is also a bit of a punk vibe too. Altogether, really interesting - makes for fantastic people watching!

Toe socks!

We walked to Shibuya (if you're sensing a walking theme, you're right - I bet we walked at least 10 miles that day!) and saw the largest pedestrian crossing in the world. It was stunning. Instead of letting cars cross one way while pedestrians cross the other, cars and pedestrians just trade off and when it is time to walk, everyone goes at once. Pandemonium for about 90 seconds, and then the street is clear again and the cars have their turn while the curbs fill up with people again. That's when you realize you're in a city of 13 million+ people! We took a jaunt up a pedestrian side street where the shopping chaos continued. I wanted to buy a puppy, but we couldn't think of a way to get it through customs.

Feeling hungry, we hopped a train for Shinjuku, one of the hopping nightlife areas of Tokyo. Following some advice from the VERY handy Trip Advisor Tokyo app we'd downloaded (stores all the info ahead of time so you don't need cell service to access it), we found a tiny alley lined with tiny restaurants selling yakitori - basically Japanese kebabs. We stuck mostly to meats with which we were familiar, gambling a bit on pork liver, but passing up other offerings such as pork cartilage and pork womb. Some sake for me and Yebisu (?) beer for Jacob rounded out the meal. Really delightful, if a bit cramped.


We then wandered the bustling streets of Shinjuku, trying to take it all in. We went into one of the many arcades which offered tons of 'claw' games, as well as instant picture studios where you can take glam shots and edit them. Which we did, at one called Beauty Addict. We definitely look better than normal, right? KAWAII!!!! (I especially love the 'We are best friend' and the lipstick all over Jacob's mouth in the bottom right photo.)

One of the main drags in Shinjuku.

Wouldn't you rather just go BUY a can of
Ritz crackers?

There were other arcades with tons of video games and gamers, as well as one huge complex packed with people playing some sort of game involving tons of small silver balls. I swear, every seat was occupied and the noise of all the games and falling silver balls was deafening. And players were mesmerized. I felt like I had walked into some sort of modern day opium den, because you definitely got the feeling that people spent hours - maybe even whole days or nights here playing the same game. It was both fascinating and strange. 

This arcade is also where I had one of the greatest toilet experiences of my life, finally getting to use a famous Japanese toilet seat. The seat was warmed, and so was the water sprayer that operated at the touch of a button - with options for ladies or men (I believe that had to do with the sprayer target...) In addition, there was a button with a music note which, when pressed, created the sound of a toilet running loudly in order to cover any other, er, noises. Stunning. Delightful.

These are actually plastic, but so life-like-
or rather, food-like!

We finished off our night (fairly early) with crepes filled with ice cream and fruit! (Ok, Jacob's had fruit...mine just had ice cream and whipped cream). We felt like pros navigating back to our couch surfing house, where Jacob practiced trumpet for a while before we went to bed, knowing that morning - and the trains - would come all to early. 

Our cozy couch-surfing setup. Gee was a great host,
and we felt so lucky to be able to stay with him. Thanks dude!

If you're still with me - way to go! I'm going to leave it there for now - more to follow!