Back to Tokyo

Saturday, Brad arrived in Japan for a visit. I went early so that I could make the most of the trip. I visited the Tokyo Temple and wandered around a few of the districts. Here are some highlights (I also must say that I was there with my friend Jon).

Suddenly Santa! You could say that I am a great ambassador for western culture to these kids. I took a minorly creepy photo of me dressed as Santa...they didn't appear to be as excited as I thought they should have been. I guess they are desensitized to big white guys now.  

 Best part of the Tokyo Temple? A&W Root Beer vending machine.

 I also visited the World's Smallest (I assume) LDS bookstore! It is roughly the size of my bedroom. 

I felt like Godzilla walking around. I knocked at least 7 things over. 

 We ate some wings from a little shack. They were delicious and relatively expensive. Those are two good words to describe Tokyo.

We found ourselves in the middle of a big shopping district in Ueno. I was in the mood to buy some useless garbage.

 Having only visited Asian markets and Asian parts of cities before coming to Japan, I felt like this was a good depiction of "real Asia."

 I think this is a Pachinko parlor. I just liked it because it had pirates on the top!

 Ah...the useless crap I bought. See that around my neck? That is bling. Bling is super cool jewlery that sets you apart from the general population by the sheer gawdyness and weight. It was a tossup between a rhinestone microphone and a rhinestone giant U.S. quarter. I went with the mic for Karaoke purposes in the future. You better believe I wore it around Tokyo.

On to the better item. You may notice that I look pretty awesome and fearsome in this picture. That is because I have what looks like a samurai sword on my back. Yeah. I bought what looks like a samurai sword. However, it is not a samurai sword. It is a SAMURAI UMBRELLA! I had seen these on the internet, but this was fairly cheap. I bought it as soon as I saw it. It has a holder that makes it sling over your shoulder so it looks like you are a samurai warrior. The nice man who sold it to me also showed me that when the top gets wet (as it would when it rains), all of the symbols of the samurai clans become visible. So impossibly cool. 

 After that, we went to Akihabara, which is a district known for technology and electronics. 

The buildings are tall and interesting.  

... 

 I'm a rebel who takes pictures while crossing the street. 

 This is the largest electronics store in the world.

After that, I went to pick up Brad from the airport. It was a long day for us both, but we made it back. The next afternoon we went up to the Paul Rusch place to see the surroundings and get some ice cream. Here you can see the mountains and Fuji in the background. 

 You can't really tell, but it was cold. 

We stuck our feet in the foot onsen (hot spring). It was really, really hot. I guess I don't know what I expected... All of the Japanese folks thought it was quite entertaining to see two giant white dudes chillin' in the footbath.

Do you know the muffin man?

I know the muffin man. He doesn't live in Drury Lane either. He lives in Tokyo. Before you get your hopes up for a wacky story involving a kindly Japanese fellow who thinks of himself as the muffin man and my alleged encounters with him, let me say that that is not the case. You will have to read on (in news we call that a buried lead). 

Today I had an occasion to wake up (on a Saturday) at 5:15 in the morning, drive an hour to get in another car to drive for another 2.5 hours! Tokyo times! I went with some ward members to the temple in Tokyo, but I didn't go to the temple. I have a friend who has been having some health issues and is in a hospital in Tokyo...it was only 2 subway stops and a 20 minute walk from the temple as well. First though, here is a picture of Fuji-san early in the morning.  

 If you can't spot it, we aren't friends.

 So I left to go visit this friend. I decided to use Google Maps because Tokyo is a very confusing place. I was led (by the maps) to this crazy park pathway that ran in a nearly straight line to where I wanted to go. 

 I took some pictures so that you get an idea of what the Tokyo people live in is like. 

 Tokyo is interesting, the houses are so small and packed in that it feels like the shanty towns that I visited in Mexico, but they aren't. 

 Here is the Yellow Brick Road that leads to the hospital. It was quite nice. 

 Suddenly...Christians!

 And a playground!

 I felt like this part was like the Lord of the Rings for some reason. 

 I wanted to see a grizzled old (Japanese) prospector spitting out wacky tabaccy in front of this place. 

 A look up the street

 Here is what I love about Google Maps. Not only does it take you to the wrong place often, but it leads you to wonders such as this. Seriously Google Maps? How did it know that this was here? It wasn't wide enough for me to get through without turning sideways, but Google has it stored, and was able to use my GPS to tell me to walk through it. Granted, they then led me around the back of the hospital where there were ominous black cabs waiting...but that is neither here nor there. 

 The grand entrance to the hospital. I don't know why, but this place creeped me right out. Remind me to never get sick while I am here. 

 This is the waiting area...And this picture makes it look more light than it actually was. I thought I was in the wrong part when I walked in. 

 Classy eh? This table and chair arrangement is the entire waiting room. I didn't take any pictures during the actual visit, but she is next to the geriatric part of the hospital which was neat/sad. I have never spent time around really old people. To be perfectly honest, they freak me right out. I think this is related to the fact that my only memories of my grandmother were in a nursing home, and I only really remember the smell of the place and the buzzer that would sound when you walked in.

Anyway, this friend is very friendly, and got to know (because she speaks Japanese) a lady who is 91 years old. She was being discharged today, so she volunteered me to sing for her...yeah. They put 4 people in a room and the other old folks were just chillin/sleeping, and she was urging me to sing. We ended up settling on Disney. I don't like singing on command unless it is a performance, I get nervous and awkward in my insides. I could not think of a song to sing, and the only Disney-esque song that came to mind was "Under the Sea." So I sang that song. You bet I sang it in the Sebastian voice...don't you think I have self respect? I realized that that might be the most bizarre thing I have ever done. Singing to a random 91 year old Japanese woman in Tokyo as a Caribbean sea creature from a cartoon nearly as old as I am. 

 I got back with the members at the temple. Where else would you find a University of Utah sticker in Japan? 

 COSTCO! COSTCO COSTCO COSTCO COSTCO COSTCO COSTCO COSTCO!!!!!!!! We went to Costco. Amazing. You have no idea how lucky you are. I think I was more excited at this than I was about going to Tokyo Disneyland. They have escalators that you take your carts on!

 It's like magic!

 That is us going down with a load of carts! This place is more magical than Hogwarts and Rivendell combined (nerd alert). 

 Ah...home. 

 Looks the same right? Yes it does. 

 I have no caption for this.

 Same food! Check it out! Pizza and hot dogs and smoothies oh my!

 Fountain Coke...how I have missed ye. 

 Myself and the two Elders from the area got ourselves a full 45 cm pizza. 

 Unbridled joy at the cheesy, smooth, saucy, greasy joy that was awaiting me. I can't explain just how it feels to eat a pizza after having nothing but garbage pizza for 3+ months. At first it felt a lot like burning because I ate it too soon. My tongue definitely was damaged with the first bite of joy/agony, but it got better. We downed this puppy in about 10 minutes. All the Japanese people around us were most impressed. 

 Elder Malcom. Dapper yeah?

 I found mini Pan au Chocolat there as well! First, I didn't know this existed, second, they are so small! I didn't buy them, I got muffins instead (I mentioned muffins again...read on!).

 The Kirkland Nativity. 

 I thought the word shark cartilage was funny.

 They will deliver stuff to you, but it seems that they limit it to furniture. I wanted to ask how much it would be to deliver a block of cheese, jerky and muffins every two weeks, but we had no time. Because we ate the pizza, we were a little strapped on time to go shopping. I felt like I was alternately preparing for the zombie apocalypse and on a shopping spree with a time limit while I was there. I was aware that I couldn't bring everything, and I had to get the bare essentials. I felt very frantic, but joyful as I dashed up the aisles looking at familiar foods in 4 pound portions. Ah...I would live in Costco if I could. 

 Now we are going up the magical stairs!

 No hands. Amazing right? These things were at quite an angle...how did they do it? 

 Japanese ingenuity for you. They have a little stopper on the wheel that doesn't let it roll backwards if you are on an incline that matches the escalators. I was blown away that they would bother to engineer that. 

As you can see, I only got the essentials. Mind is the pepper grinder (because my father taught me the importance of good pepper), block of cheese, bags of jerky, 4 pound jar of peanut butter, 2.5 pounds of chocolate chips, 1 pound of cooked (yes cooked!) American Hormel Bacon, Pace Picante Salsa, and of course the muffins.

You may be wondering why I need 4 banana nut, 4 chocolate chocolate chip, and 4 blueberry muffins. The answer is, I don't need them. They are muffins, I am a man. I want muffins, I take the muffins. If you don't like it, get out of my way. For I am the muffin man. 

Happy Sports and Health Day

Monday was Sports and Health day. We got a day off of work for the Tokyo Olympics coming once upon a time a long time ago. Whatever right? I will totally take the time off. Fair warning: this is a long post.

 This is a big giant lake filled with lotus flowers. Unfortunately they aren't blooming, so it looks like a big pumpkin patch. It really is a lake under there. 

 It is in the middle of city, and there is a zoo next to it with PANDAS! I didn't see them yet, but I will. I. Will. 

 They have these stalls set up with food.

 An old shrine.

 Big duck rafts out on the lake. Many boats and things. We were going to go, but it the lake was small, and I don't trust swans.

 Suspicious looking aren't they. 

Extra picture with no catchy caption. 

 I heard the sound of a war beat and naturally followed it until I found the source. This here is a Taiko/flute performance group on the street.

Video proof so you can see.

This hallway leads to a bookstore. I thought it looked pretty snazzy. 

This is the busiest intersection in the entire world. All the signs stop and 1,000s of people cross all at once during the peak hours. Quite interesting to watch. 

 Shibuya! Very busy, and full of young people. 

 In Japan, they build their signs up high in the sky, which makes it all very confusing. 

 Japan knows where the cool comics are...Marvel baby. 

 I found a Shakey's Pizza... I am pretty sure they have these in America. This is a legitimate pizza buffet...awesome right? 

 I didn't actually eat here, I just looked around and bolted...suckers!

Another angle of the intersection. 

It is a very odd shaped intersection. 

I don't think I am selling this intersection for as cool as it is.  

 This is a statue called Hachiko. It is a statue of a dog who would wait for its owner at the train station everyday and they would walk home together. One day, his owner had a brain hemorrhage and died. Hachiko would still come everyday at the same time for 9 years and wait for him. He became well known, and they made a statue for him. This story really tugs at my heartstrings and reminds me that I want to get a dog. This is also a very popular meeting place for foreigners.

 Takeshita is a popular shopping district in Harajuku. Harajuku is known for a bridge where young 'uns will get together in all goth and stuff and hang out on the bridge...somehow this is interesting. I believe Gwen Stefani travelled around with some Harajuku girls for a while, but don't quote me on that. 

 A picture of the bridge where the Harajuku kids hang out. 

 A big giant torii leading into the Meiji Jingu. Emperor Meiji was the emperor that opened Japan to the west and ruled until 1925. This area has 100,000 trees that were dedicated to him and the empress. The shrine is dedicated to his god-spirit. 

 A very refreshing walk in contrast to the rest of the city which is so crowded. 

 The purification part outside the shrine. Here you wash your left hand, then right, then put water in your hand and wash your mouth, then was the left and wash the dipper. I met some other Mormons here, I could tell because a kid was wearing a Jimmer shirt. Dead giveaway. 

 Inside the front shrine entryway.

Cool looking...entryway...thing. 

They have weddings here. Here you can see the traditional wedding party following behind the bride and groom. 

The party. 

Failed attempt at an artsy pick... 

Looking across the inner square. 

Other view 

This is a wishing tree type thing. You can write wishes and good lucky things and hang them on the racks, or put the wishes on a paper and put it in the box...I am not sure how the wishes come true, but they do.  

I bought this in lieu of getting any of you anything for Christmas this year. So...you are welcome.  

Cool yeah?  

I put it in the super wish granting spot.  

 Those papery squiggles are wishes. I couldn't take pictures of the shrine itself, but you throw money into the money catcher, bow twice, clap twice, wish for something and then bow again. 

Contrast between old style Japan and new Japan.  

 Going up to the treasure building.

Koi 

 One lonely tree. Doesn't it look picturesque? They had a sign that said that going up to it was prohibited...don't know what you got, 'til it's gone.

 A nice lawn outside the treasure building. 

 Really cool construction in the treasure building courtyard

 Main building

 This was the entrance. The treasures weren't actually that cool. they had pictures of emperors going back for 1000's of years and some artifacts that the Emperor used himself...in the broad spectrum of how old Japan is, his 80 year old artifacts don't seem that important. 

I think those ladies in the distance were practicing the Hula...I can't be sure, but it looked pretty hippy. 

Ok. Now, in honor of Halloween, something absolutely terrifying: 

Seriously...what is going on here?