Japan: Tokyo. The land of the Rising Sun
I always wanted to visit Japan, and during the last 10 days of March 2019, I finally made it.
Cathay Pacific was supposed to land at Narida Airport, but actually landed hours later at Haneda Airport due to the weather. From there, I took the train to Shinjuku.
My bed had been booked at Shinjuku, so I got down there. After an hour of walking and searching, I found out the booking had been cancelled because the hostel tried charging my credit card which denied the international transaction. I booked one more hostel in Ueno, and went there late at night.
This was the Ueno Station Hostel where I stayed for 6 nights.
This was my sleeping pod (the upper berth). There were 7 floors, and each floor had around 80 sleeping pods, with common toilets and shaving/powder rooms except for the fourth floor. On the fourth floor was a massive lounge, public sauna, and an onsen, a huge public bath. Technically the onsen was a sento because it did not use mineral water from a hot spring. There was also a massive jacuzzi with hot water and a pool.
The fourth floor also had computers, a TV lounge filled with couches and private TV's, a gym, an eating area, and an area for shaving, mirrors, sterilized combs.
The hostel also gave every guest a fresh change of pajamas every day, slippers, razors for shaving, shaving foam and toiletries, including hair spray.
They charged me around Rs.2,000 a day which I thought was a steal!
I visited Japan in late March because it would be the season when the Cherry Blossoms would be flowering. I was not disappointed at Ueno Park.
Cherry Blossoms at Ueno Park.
The vending machines also offered free WiFi. You can see two waste baskets at the sides.
Waste disposal in Japan is an intricate process. Through my ten days, I struggled to find even a single plastic, bottle or paper thrown away. Every public area is spotlessly clean, even in the interiors of the country. The Japanese seem to be morbid about cleanliness, carrying their trash with them for half a kilometer at times.
When you do find waste baskets, you find them in profusion, with markings for glass bottles, cans, plastic, paper, and other waste. These two are an understatement for Japan! As a result, Japan has a reasonably good recycling rate of 20.8% in Waste Atlas.
There are coin lockers present in some parks and subways.
Shrine in Ueno Park.
White cherry blossoms
Pink Cherry Blossoms
Tokyo National Museum
Inside Tokyo National Museum
Bird and Cherry Blossoms - a painting
Shopping for small eats in Japan is a pleasure. Food is reasonably cheap and costs about two to three times what it does in India. The smallest denomination note is a 1000 Yen (around Rs.620 at the time of writing) with coins used extensively.
An innovative tour group with the Mario cart service wearing Spiderman and other costumes! The Mari-mobility company paid 10 million yen to Nintendo in damages last year, because they were using Mario costumes, and since then, have switched to other costumes, including a "Spiderman-like" costume.
Walking across a bridge near Sumida Park. You can see Tokyo Skytree tower at the back.
A couple at Sumida Park framed against the Cherry Blossoms.
A shrine at Sumida Park.
At Sumida Park.
Tokyo cityscape at Sunset from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. The Tokyo Metropolitan area is the most populous in the world, with 38 million people. Bombay and Delhi are next with 26 million each.
Tokyo cityscape at Sunset from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Tokyo ranks first in the Global Economic Power Index, was ranked first in Safe Cities Index in 2017, and has consistently been ranked as the cleanest city. I can personally attest to the cleanliness of every public place that I went to.
Tokyo Nightscape from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
Tokyo Nightscape from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Tokyo hosts 51 of the Fortune 500 companies, and is an alpha city.
Tokyo Nightscape from the pedestrian bridge at Shinjuku
Tokyo Nightscape from the pedestrian bridge at Shinjuku
Subway station at Shinjuku
Tokyo has an excellent subway system with 13 different lines, 287 stations, and carrying over 8.7 million passengers every day. All the stations are clearly labeled, with directions for information, platforms, lines, toilets and exits. I didn't have any problems traveling around, as I bought a Pasmo card. Pasmo is an electronic card that can be filled with money and swiped on trains, buses (and even retail outlets), instead of counting out coins and buying tickets every time.
An adult convenience store, with a not-very-pretty Marilyn Munroe doll in front, in Ueno.
Sake is a Japanese rice wine made by fermenting milled rice, with typically 15% alcohol.
The Kurand Sake Market offered actually over a hundred different kinds of Sake, and had an all-you-can-drink offer for a 1000 yen for half-an-hour. You could pay higher for more time.
I bought a half-an-hour.
I tried sweet sake, dry sake, and a sake called Innovation for my first three tastes.
I tried all in all, some 12 different kinds of sake in the time limit of 30 minutes. Each cup would have about 45 ml. At the end, I even had a cherry blossom flavored Sake.
The cashier at the Kurand Sake Market
The Receptionist at my Ueno Station Hostel-1
Harajuku street - where you can eat and shop if you so choose to. I went there to see how populated and busy these streets can be, and I was reasonably impressed! True, nothing can compare to Hyderabad's "numaish" (industrial exhibition) on Ladies Day, but the crowds were quite impressive.
Subway Station
Yodobashi Akiba Camera store at Akhibara - seven floors of electronics and electrical retail!
Yodobashi Akiba Camera store at Akhibara - seven floors of electronics and electrical retail!
Yebisu is a decent beer brewed in Japan. Asahi Dry was the other beer I tried, in addition to various other brands. Beer is around 4 times as expensive as India.
There are game parlors all over in Tokyo and anime seems to have taken over.
I really liked these glow in the dark t-shirts with cats on them. As a rule, I don't buy anything on my travels that I can't stuff into my 7 kg backpack with no check-in baggage, so I had to wistfully satisfy myself with a photograph. It is a rule that serves me well - I buy no souvenirs and waste no time shopping or standing at airports for baggage.
The shopping streets of Tokyo are quite busy.
The Edo Tokyo Museum is dedicated to the Edo era, when Tokyo was called Edo from 1603 to 1868 under the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Edo Tokyo Museum
Edo Tokyo Museum: A model of how Tokyo looked before 1868.
A samurai's armor.
Characters in a play @ Edo Tokyo Museum.
An intricate model of a theater with stages that can be changed @ Edo Tokyo Museum.
At the Meiji shrine in Shibuya. All these are casks of wine given in honor.
Entrance to the Meiji shrine.
At most entrances of shrines,there is washing water with cups. You aren't supposed to drink it directly though. You just wash your hands, transfer some water from the cup to your hand to your mouth, rinse and spit it out. Emperor Meiji may not forgive you if you go in with your smelly mouth.
At the Meiji shrine.
You can pay some money to write a wish and hang it up. There are thousands of wishes hung up there. I found this one from a mother for her daughter particularly interesting. Roni seems to be her good-for-nothing, divorced or dead son-in-law.
Meiji Shrine
Stalls along the way to Sensoji temple
Sensoji Temple
Five storey pagoda near Sensoji Temple
At Sensoji Temple
Asakusa area
Asakusa area
I started my travels with Tokyo, which means "Eastern Capital". Tokyo formally became the capital of Japan since Emperor Meiji moved his seat from Kyoto to Tokyo in 1868.
The fourth floor also had computers, a TV lounge filled with couches and private TV's, a gym, an eating area, and an area for shaving, mirrors, sterilized combs.
The hostel also gave every guest a fresh change of pajamas every day, slippers, razors for shaving, shaving foam and toiletries, including hair spray.
They charged me around Rs.2,000 a day which I thought was a steal!
Waste disposal in Japan is an intricate process. Through my ten days, I struggled to find even a single plastic, bottle or paper thrown away. Every public area is spotlessly clean, even in the interiors of the country. The Japanese seem to be morbid about cleanliness, carrying their trash with them for half a kilometer at times.
When you do find waste baskets, you find them in profusion, with markings for glass bottles, cans, plastic, paper, and other waste. These two are an understatement for Japan! As a result, Japan has a reasonably good recycling rate of 20.8% in Waste Atlas.
Tokyo cityscape at Sunset from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Tokyo ranks first in the Global Economic Power Index, was ranked first in Safe Cities Index in 2017, and has consistently been ranked as the cleanest city. I can personally attest to the cleanliness of every public place that I went to.
Tokyo Nightscape from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
Tokyo Nightscape from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Tokyo hosts 51 of the Fortune 500 companies, and is an alpha city.
Tokyo Nightscape from the pedestrian bridge at Shinjuku
Sake is a Japanese rice wine made by fermenting milled rice, with typically 15% alcohol.
The Kurand Sake Market offered actually over a hundred different kinds of Sake, and had an all-you-can-drink offer for a 1000 yen for half-an-hour. You could pay higher for more time.
I bought a half-an-hour.
It's considered decent to sleep in the subway, while I never could sleep for fear of missing my station. It is even considered appropriate to sleep at work - "Inemuri" (present while sleeping) is an art.
Trying crepes at Harajuku
Cycle Parking at the subway
Moon in Edo. If memory serves me right, the painter was Hasui Kawase
Entrance to the Meiji shrine.
You can pay some money to write a wish and hang it up. There are thousands of wishes hung up there. I found this one from a mother for her daughter particularly interesting. Roni seems to be her good-for-nothing, divorced or dead son-in-law.
A pet shop selling dogs and cats. This dog cost around 120,000 Yen and had a soulful look. It is tough to believe that humanity could disfigure the glorious wolf by breeding within 20 millenia into this sorry looking canine. You can also stay and play with or feed the dogs (or cats) for 750 Yen. You can buy whatever food you want to feed them at an additional cost.
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