Tokyo 2/26/25

I am writing this on 3/5 as traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto at 180mph on the Shinkansen 🚄 train ! I doubt we will have a good view of Mt Fuji as it is cloudy and drizzly today but here are some Google images.

Alex and I left JFK in NYC at midnight on Monday night and arrived in Tokyo at 5am Wednesday (14+ hour flight and 14 hour time difference). So I guess we lost Tuesday but on the way home we leave at noon Monday and arrive at noon Monday so it balances out.

The flight on JAL was very nice. The food was great and I got to start using my Japanese! I had been using both Pimsleur and DuoLingo for 2 months. I was complimented on my pronunciation by the flight attendant!

I had some noodles at around 2 am and then slept for 4 hours. I then watched a movie before the bigger meal and slept 4 more hours so I was fully ready for the day and had zero jet lag.

I read my history of Japan book on my kindle and was listening to the audiobook of the most recent “Fourth Wing” novel.

I had some green tea and yogurt for breakfast.

My friend Kyoko (whom I swim with) had traded me a 10,000 Yen note for $62 US so I would have some cash on arrival. We actually got some more Yen at the airport and the cab took credit cards but it was nice to not have to worry.

In addition to reading about Japanese history, I had watched Shogun (in Japanese with English subtitles, I caught about every 10th word). I got to the actual part of the real history of 1600 in my book on the flight.

I had read Shogun when it made it to paperback and I was ? 12, and watched the Richard Chamberlin mini-series but this new one (it won a ton of Emmys in 2024) is much darker and more serious.

In addition to nice flight tracking software, the JAL plane had access to viewing the nose and tail cameras. It was night when we left Long Island and on arrival but the nose camera must be awesome during day landings.

OK. Annoyingly the Jetpack for WordPress app keeps failing to load random photos. I am using the train’s free WiFi but maybe it has limits on data. The ATT connection was not great (I assume because at such high speeds it has trouble switching between cell towers). Ooh! We stopped at a station and with WIFi off I am able to upload photos. But train only stops for a few minutes …. I got stuff uploaded but now it is only 30” to Kyoto. I think I’ll just relax and edit some photos and finish this up tonight. It is 12:30 AM now in NY so no rush 🙁

We r now Settled into our very nice Kyoto hotel and having explored the executive lounge, fitness center and POOL; I unpacked and can now write a little before dinner. I am not sure I’ll get all done though as after dinner I need to read the 60 pages about Kyoto in the Fodor’s guide. Other than a reserved tour of the Imperial Palace and wanting to see Osaka Castle (where much of Shogun took place) I haven’t planned out our 4 days in Kyoto/Osaka.

Our plane landed a little early and the entire deplaning, customs (used my Japanese), baggage pickup process was very quick and efficient at 5am. We were in a taxi within 40 minutes of the plane landing.

Haneda Airport is closer to downtown than the other Tokyo Airport and without traffic it was less than 30 minutes to our hotel in Ginza.

I had picked a hotel in Ginza as that is where the Marathon would end (near the Imperial Palace grounds). The race would start near the Tokyo “city hall” in Shinjuko but it would be much easier for Alex and I if I just took a subway to the start on race day.

The hotel’s lobby was on the 4th floor of a building right on top of the Ginza metro station.

Our room wasn’t ready at 6 am but we had a nice breakfast at the restaurant and then relaxed until our guide arrived at 9am for our 6 hour tour.

The lobby was very tranquil and QUIET. THAT was the thing that surprised me most about Tokyo. In all my years of seeing it in movies and television it always seemed SO hectic and crowded that I imagined it was noisy. But it is totally quiet. Even on the most crowded subway car, totally quiet. The streets are so quiet. Not a single car honk or voice, even the cars and trucks are quieter. It makes it VERY relaxing compared to the noise pollution of NYC, London, Paris, etc.

Our guide was exactly on time. I had texted him earlier to let him know our flight got in ok.

We had texted back and forth a few times after I booked the tour through the Viator/Trip Advisor apps. Because we had a 14 hour flight and a morning arrival I thought it would be nice to have someone to lead us on the subways and walking. It worked out great.

He showed Alex how to buy a reloadable rail pass (I had loaded a “transit card” into my Apple wallet and could just tap my phone or watch to enter the subways).

He guided tours as a post-retirement gig. He had worked as an engineer and had lived in both the U.S. and Amsterdam for a few years.

The subway system was of course very complicated, and at rush hours it was so crowded that people packed very close together. No one with claustrophobia could handle it.

In the central Tokyo stations there were automatic safety barriers to prevent falling onto tracks but in the outer city they didn’t have them.

The trains signs and announcements were in Japanese AND English.

We started with the Meiji Jingo Shrine which was a huge forested park in the middle of Tokyo.

Meiji was the first Emperor to have power rather than just be a figurehead in many centuries after the Edo Shogunate period ended. This was precipitated by the arrival of Admiral Perry in 1853 and in the following decade, the gunboat diplomacy that it forced Japan to accept.

Our guide explained the differences between Shrines (Shinto) and Temples (Buddhist) and the appropriate ways to pray and behave at each.

I had read a lot already and knew that we should walk to the side of the paths as the center was for the gods.

The Sake companies donate barrels to the Shrine. The Burgundy region of France also donated wine casks.

We washed our hands and mouths before entering and bowed when passing under Toris. The raised wood piece at the gate symbolizes entering the spiritual world and leaving the secular one.

I loved the image of the modern skyscraper through the Tori as leaving the shrine forest and walking right into modern bustling Tokyo.

On NY’s Day the Japanese visit shrines to pay respects to ancestors and make prayers and wishes for good luck in the year to come. 3M people visit the Meiji Shrine that day! It was pleasantly uncrowded on a weekday morning.

The way the tour was set up was that I just had to provide 3 or 4 things we wanted to see during the day and the guide would make an itinerary and add in things in the areas. I had asked him to focus on Shinjuko which is the central “downtown” with the City Hall, the busiest train station in the world (3 M people per day) and lots of commercial activities but also shrines and temples and parks. The race would start here so I knew I would see it but wanted Alex to get a chance. I had actually told him that we didn’t need to see Meiji Shingo as it would be a stop on our half day bus tour on Saturday. But he said that would be too brief a stop to experience it properly. Alex and I were glad to see it with him and approach it via a long walk through the forest with time to see everything in detail.

Photos of the large altar room were not permitted but it was very beautiful. At a Shinto shrine the altar is empty (in Buddhist temples it has statues). You bow twice , clap twice to get the gods’ attention and then bow once. (No clapping at Buddhist temples but guide said even Japanese mess up sometimes).

Well, best intentions, blah, blah, blah it is now 9:30 am on Friday and I am still working on this same post!

We are on a train for one hour traveling from Kyoto to Osaka. Alex (they navigate, I plan itinerary) has us on an express train. On the platform I saw a machine to upgrade to reserved seats in premium car. For $3 it seemed worth it.

…. Back to Wednesday…

After leaving the Meiji shrine/park we walked 10” and then got on a train to Shinjuko Station.

Ah, the vending machines! They are everywhere in Japan. Not only on train platforms and busy city areas. We saw them in parks and temples and on residential streets. They offered both hot and cold drinks. It was nice to get a can of hot coffee or latte or “milk tea” on cold days. In the train stations they also had food ones with snacks, ice cream, cakes, etc. And all were very cheap … less than $1.50 for coffee, sodas, etc.

As it was a sunny day we went to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building (City hall for the 10M residents of city, 30M in greater metro area). Of course it was totally quiet, organized, relaxing.

Helpful tourist tips by the elevator.

No tipping made the already cheap meals even better!

The 50th floor observation deck was free!

We were happy to have a view of Mt Fuji from 100 miles away. You can only climb it in Mid summer when the snow melts off.

The Metropolitan Bldg complex was very nice. The grassy area was used by people to sit before the marathon.

Even though midtown Shinjuko is full of corporate skyscrapers and luxury shopping and hotels, there are still a few older tiny streets with very small bars and restaurants. After 5pm they are all crammed with businessmen.

Shinjuko has a lot of touristy bars, attractions and the red light district. Prostitution is semi-legal (there is a “Bill Clinton” legal loophole). But Geisha are NOT prostitutes!

I had read about the cool 3D cat signs there and our guide took us to a spot where we (and many others) had a good view of the cute cat who appeared on 2 different screens every few minutes between the ads. It was hard to get good video of the screens for some reason but the 3D was impressive.

I got some good Godzilla photos and video (at night his eyes shoot laser beams). The hotel he looks at is VERY Godzilla themed and popular for families with kids.

I had told our guide that I wanted a traditional, non-touristy lunch and he led us down some stairs into a basement a block from Godzilla.

There was a 10 minute wait on a weekday for lunch but he said at night it is often an hour. It is a very special flavored ramen. 🍜 The recipe is from a specific city on one of the smaller islands.

You order and pay on a kiosk (in the old days you wrote your order on a slip with a pencil) and then wait in line until the seat board shows an open spot and the host leads u to it.

The individual booths are so that one can concentrate on the ramen experience fully. No talking to other people. There is a water spigot too.

After lunch we walked through Shinjuku for 20 minutes.

We went down a few stone steps and instead of commercial/touristy we were in a peaceful shrine.

It was an Inari shrine so it features adorable foxes!🦊 Farmers like foxes in Japan because they eat the mice that steal the harvest.

I love how almost how all the ads in Japan feature a cute cartoon shape or animal.

We walked a short distance to the National Botanical Garden. I told our guide we only needed to see the Traditional Japanese section as the park was huge. There were plum trees and some early varieties of cherry trees blooming even though the real cherry blossom season starts in April. The trees only bloom for 2 weeks.

There were cute yellow birds flicking around the blossoms and I saw a heron in a stream.

The yellow birds had “googly” eyes….👀

There were several cute tea houses and a large pavilion donated by Taiwan at a time when Japan was helping them out.

I was excited to see so many blooming flowers, there were also camellias in blossom everywhere.

The tea plant is a variety of camellia!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia?wprov=sfti1

There were a lot of large gray carp in one of the ponds.

Next We were walking to the Emperor’s residence. It is a very large compound where the whole family lives in different palaces, one for the current emperor and his wife and daughter, another for the emperor emeritus and one for the emperor’s brother who is next in line since only men can be emperor … 🙁

But on the way I saw a sign for the Noh theatre (like Kabuki but older and a little different). I had read about its founding and wanted to get a photo.

Our guide said he had never been inside and even though there was a closed sign on the door he showed his ID to the guard and we were given visitor tags. There was an amazing collection of centuries old masks, calligraphy and costumes. No photos allowed but these are from the website.

I enjoyed learning about the Royal Family (the empress is the first commoner in that role) but we only got a distant view of the palace as the grounds were closed on Wednesdays. The walk around the whole compound was verrrrrrry long.

Is the sign really needed in front of the 20 foot wall ?

There were a bunch of sports fields and the Stadium they built for the 2020 Olympics nearby. I love all the greenery on the stadium!

Our last stop was the:

It has a Shrine and Temple on a shared spot.

One entrance was a Shinto Tori and the other a Buddhist gate.

I said goodbye to my guide at a nearby subway station as he headed home to the suburbs and I headed to Ginza.

The subway was super easy to figure out, google maps told u which track even. Paying was great with the Suica card set up in my Apple wallet. I just needed to tap the phone (while off even) to get through the gates. Each time a display showed how much money was left on the card. And the Suica could also be used at many vending machines and even at convenience stores (there are 20K 7-11s in Japan and they have much better food than in America).

I got a Starbucks (seasonal special Cherry Blossom cups) in the subway below our hotel and later went back to get some amazing noodles for our dinner in the room.

There was an endless amount of nice places to shop and eat on the floors between the subway station and our hotel.

Our room was VERY nice. Huge for Tokyo and great view of busy Ginza.

And of course… The Toilet! Heated seat, multiple bidet options, opens and closes and flushes automatically ! It did not have a drying blower like the one in the lobby area though … 🙁

Alex went to sleep early after our long day and I went up to the lounge on the top floor for some Diet Coke and nuts and enjoyed the view, the ambience and the jazz. If you haven’t seen “Lost in Translation”, please do, that was filmed at the Hyatt downtown by the marathon start.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335266/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

Wow. Hard to believe that movie is 22 years old! I wonder if it has aged well or is creepy like Woody’s “Manhattan”.

The lobby was also gorgeous at night.

And there was a library to relax in as well. It had some interesting books including one with the Japanese prints Van Gogh had collected and information about how they influenced his work.

It had been a long flight and day …. So early bedtime for me too!

Thanks for reading. Please comment, like, ask me questions! Share with friends!

Alex and I fly back to NY in 3 days. I’ll be luck to write up even a few more days by then. I’ll have to do most of it after I’m back home.