This morning, Wen and I had our jet lag kick in and were out of the hotel room by 7:00 am. Given that it was so early, we decided to go wing it, and follow the Kanda River around Tokyo.
The river loops from the west, up to the north, and then runs east over towards Ueno. It turns out that there's a walking path that runs most of the way along it, passing through many different local neighbourhoods. It's a great way to see how people in Tokyo live, plus it's one of the few places where you'll actually see Japanese people jog!
The path is great - when you can follow it. Occasionally you have to detour off of it and sometimes it randomly stops for a period of time. There are maps along it, but you quickly realize that the top of map is not necessarily north. It takes a while to get used to.
One point where it stops is near Takadanobaba Station. We sat in a coffee shop and sipped some iced lattes and ate croissants as we watched waves of people go to work:
Check out this wall of characters near the actual station:
Further down the river are the gardens of Chinzan-so. Prince Aritomo Yamagata built a mansion and garden there during the Meiji Era; now it's attached to the Four Seasons. However, it's open to the public, so Wen and I went to check it out.
This tree is over 500 years old and 20 feet in circumference:
This little guy is Jurogin, a god that invites good fortune, keeps away calamities and helps you live longer. He's also supposed to help you realize a healthy and lively life plus grow old healthily.
There's also a three storey, 900-1,000 year old pagoda; not a single nail was used in its construction
On the way from there to Ueno Park, we passed the world's smallest detached building...
...and the strangest subway station (Lidabashi) ever:
Around the corner from there are the Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens. They're a well-preserved set of Japanese gardens that the emperor used to visit. Many of the sites are reproductions of famous scenes in China. This is the "Seiko embankment" which reproduces Seiko Lake:
The Full Moon Bridge forms a perfect circle in its reflection (alas, it doesn't photograph well).
As we kept going towards Ueno Park, we came across one of the elusive wooden houses that use to exist before the bombing raids of 1945:
Some of the spaces left behind from the old houses have been replaced by some sort of dystopian futuristic architecture. I feel like these inspired Blade Runner:
When we finally made it to Ueno Park and its lanterns, we found the pond full of lotus flowers:
The park itself is full of shrines:
Inside one of the shrines is a flame that has been burning since the atomic bombs went off. Just after the explosion, a man went to Hiroshima to find his brother. Unable to find him, he took a flame that was burning in his brother's house and tended it for years. It's now been joined by a flame created by roof tiles from Nagasaki and is a permanent monument:
Further in Ueno Park is the Tokyo National Museum (the subject of a future post). To get there, we needed to pass a mass gathering of homeless men (many live in the park) who were being lectured in return for a free meal. Note the orderly way in which they listen - and that each has a tatami mat:
After the park we walked down to the Ameyoko arcade where everything under the sun is for sale. I particularly like the fish vendors:
We took the subway home (it wasn't rush hour so it wasn't too busy). We couldn't help but notice that every square inch of it has been turned into an ad:
We were also amazed by the service in the subway. We bought a ticked and tried to use it at the attached station. The tickets wouldn't work and an employee of the subway came over and told us that we'd bought tickets for "the other company that runs the Tokyo Metro".
I thought this was a great scam, but then she grabbed our tickets, refunded them and took us over to a ticket booth and showed us exactly which ones to buy. Then, she told us which platform to stand on for our train. Unreal! I could never imagine anyone being that friendly at the MTA.
When we popped out of the subway, we found this guy canvassing in our neighbourhood. Seems that the way that Japanese politic is by standing in the streets with megaphones. Quite entertaining.
Now it's late and the jet lag is back. Calling it another day.