Japan Diaries - Day 7 - More Kyoto

We woke up at 6:30 am and started the day with in-room coffee. After getting ready and packing, we checked-out at 9:30 am and left the suitcase with the luggage storage of our hotel. Since we're coming towards the last couple of days of our trip, we decided to splurge and have a fancy breakfast at our hotel. Everything was amazing - we shared a salmon topped baguette with salad, an omelette, half portion of french toast with fresh watermelon juice and a smoothie. We left the hotel at 11 am and took a detour to the closest ATM to withdraw cash and then got lost in the inner streets before finally reaching our first stop of the day Senjusengendo Temple at 11:40 am.

The Senjusengendo Temple is famous for its hall that has 1001 statues of Buddha. 1000 of them are identical and flank the 1001th giant Buddha on both sides. In front of the row of these 1000 statues, there are 28 statues of deities. The most interesting thing about them was that most of these are Hindu gods like Vishnu, Brahma and Sarasvati that have been incorporated into Buddhism in Japan. This hall of statutes is very impressive and the building is a wooden structure that is over 750 years old.

When we came out of the temple, it was raining so we took a cab to our next stop of the day, the Kiyomizu-dera. The cab dropped us off in the Higashiyama area and we walked on cobblestone streets up the hill while window-shopping at various souvenir shops of both sides of the road. After ten minutes of walking, we entered the Kiyomizu-dera complex. It is perhaps the most famous temple complex of Kyoto and has numerous temples, pagodas and a waterfall. Unfortunately, the giant pagoda was under renovation so we couldn't see it. Then we went to an underground tunnel which was pitch dark and we were holding a side rail for directions. When I say pitch dark, it was completely black and you couldn't see anything at all. We followed the trail to a sacred stone and legend says that you can put your right hand on it and make one wish and it will come true. Samia's wish was generic about health and happiness whereas mine was very specific and very worldly. Of course, if I have $10 million one day, you will know that my wish came true! When we came out of the tunnel, some local Japanese school kids asked us if they could ask us a few questions for their school project and we gladly obliged. We could see that it was an opportunity for the kids to interact with tourists and find out what brought them to Japan and also practice their English. At the end of it, they took a picture with us too (perhaps to be submitted as proof that they interviewed real people and didn't make stuff up for their project). It had started raining again. We walked through another giant temple and passed through it to walk on a long walkway only to come down again in front of a waterfall that is supposed to bring good luck for those who wash their hands and make a wish. We were done making wishes for the day so it was a quick photo stop after which we started making our way to the exit which was another peaceful walk with lots of greenery all around.

It was still raining so we took another cab to our next stop of the day, the Heain Shrine or the Heain-jingu. It is a Shinto shrine and just before the shrine, on the main road, is a huge orange Pi-shaped gate. When we entered the white gravel strewn main courtyard, we were surprised to find out that they were setting up chairs and sound system in the courtyard for what looked like a concert! We couldn't find out the reason for the concert-like setup since we entered what we had come to see, the gardens that lie behind the shrine. Like all other gardens we have seen in Japan so far, this was extremely green and walking through it was a calming experience. We had the opportunity to walk through a pond by stepping on stones that were laid out close enough to each other to enable one to cross the entire length of the pond. There were water lily flowers growing in the pond so we took some very nice pictures. We kept walking through the gardens for another half an hour or so before making our way out.

It had finally stopped raining so we put away our umbrellas and waited for the bus. The bus took us to our next stop of the day, the Ginkaku-ji or the Silver Pavilion. After getting off the bus, we had a short 5 minute walk up another cobblestone path hill, lined by souvenir shops on both sides. This temple was built by the the grandson of the Shogun who had ordered the construction of the Golden pavilion that was our highlight for yesterday. Ginkaku-ji is different in a couple of ways from its golden cousin. There are no pagoda style overlaid roofs over a single building, rather only the top layer of the roofs of the multiple interconnected buildings are colored silver and you have to walk through a long green path before you are high enough to see the silver roofs. The second difference is that this temple has a Zen rock garden. The walk was again very peaceful and green and it's easy to visualize that monk or not, how anyone doing this walk day in and day out could be at peace in this world. As we were making our way out, it started raining again but by the time we got to the end of the cobblestone path and reached the bus stop, it had stopped. We enjoyed the long bus ride back to the bus stop right next to our hotel.

After a quick freshening up break at the hotel (that included Samia changing her shoes since her shoes had become completely wet by all the walking in the rain on another hot and humid day), we took a cab to our last stop of the day, the Fushimi Inari temple that is famous for its thousand gates that are lined one next to the other, making a long pathway of orange gates that look quite stunning. They're probably the most famous highlight of Kyoto for many tourists because in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha", there is a scene in which the main character is shown running through these orange gates. We got there when the light was starting to fade but we were still able to get some nice pictures.

After that, we first took a train to Kyoto station and then took a cab back to our hotel. We had dinner at our hotel's Italian restaurant and it was another delicious meal - fresh fried calamari, seafood pizza and then lamb shank. Everything tasted divine although Samia had to look away while I removed the heads and tails of the shrimps that were on our pizza!

Kyoto has lived up to its reputation of being the heart of ancient Japan. The temples, the shrines, the castles and the gardens all transport you back in time to the past of this glorious and magical nation and we're very fortunate to have had a chance to witness and experience a slice of that part of Japanese history.

After dinner, we collected our suitcase from the concierge desk and then took a cab to the Kyoto station to catch our 8:40 pm Shinkansen train to the Shinagawa station in Tokyo. After reaching Shinagawa at 11 pm, we walked to the same hotel where we stayed during our first three nights in Japan and that's where we will be ending our trip. The hotel staff had already sent our suitcase up to our new room. The service quality throughout Japan keeps impressing us.

We have a few things left for Tokyo that we will explore tomorrow. After that, we have to reach the airport at 10 pm for the 9 hour direct flight to Seattle that will take off at just after midnight local time. Till then, take care and good night!

Japan Diaries - Day 6 - Kyoto

Our first day in Kyoto started early-ish - we were up at 6:30 am but didn't rush and left around 9:45 am after having in-room coffee. We walked 10 minutes to the closest subway station and spotted a McDonald's at the entrance of the subway station so decided to stop for a quick bite. We had the good old egg and cheese McMuffin with orange juice and also tried a tuna fish sandwich that exceeded our expectations and was very refreshing and yummy.

Then we took the subway to our first stop of the day, the Nijo Castle. Interestingly, Kyoto has private subway companies so to get to Nijo Castle, we took two trains and both of them were operated by different companies. Nijo Castle is the former home of the Shogun. It was commissioned to be built as the official Kyoto residence by the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu in 1603 and was completed in 1626 by the third Tokugawa Shogun, Iemitsu. It was at the Nijo Castle that the fifteenth and the last Shogun returned sovereignty to the Emperor in 1867. We rented the audio guide which was very advanced and worked by tapping a pen-like device on a piece of thick paper that had chips embedded in it. The Nijo Castle is a walled compound with two castles and two gardens. The main castle is the Ninomaru Goten which looks majestic from the outside but was surprisingly simple from the inside, specially given that it was the official residence of the political administrator of the nation. It has about a dozen rooms but all of them had floor seating on tatami mats and no furniture, let alone any thrones. All walls have simple yet elegant paintings on them depicting various seasons and animals of Japan. The castle is primarily made of wood and its floor makes a nightingale's sound when someone walks on it. This was achieved by using a special technique that involved using metal clippers beneath the wooden floorboard and was meant to act as a built-in burglar alarm. The second castle is not open to public so we continued our tour to the gardens. Both the gardens are lush green and have a wide variety of flowers, most of which were not in bloom today.

I completely forgot to mention that the weather in Japan is extremely humid and hot these days and for the past few days, humidity has been above 95 percent with a feels-like temperature in the late 30s Celsius. The days sap out all energy and to keep up our fluid levels, we've been making full use of the vending machines that seem to be on every road corner to buy water. Today was another hot day and having walked over 50 km in the past few days, we decided to relax a little and take cabs for getting to the various sightseeing places for today. So we took a cab from the Nijo Castle to our next stop, Kyoto Imperial Palace.

We had to fill out a permission form for entry into the Palace so we reached there around 1 pm for the 2 pm tour. We sat and waited in the air conditioned information center and left only when the tour was about to start. The one hour long tour started at the south end of the 27 acres palace compound and ended at the west end. We were shown the various gates that were used by different people to enter the palace. For instance, the emperor had his own gate whereas the Empress had her own. Dignitaries used another gate and ministers used a separate one. In total, there were six gates. The tour did not include a visit to the Northern residential area. We saw the building with rooms for visitors, the building that was used for ceremonies, the Emperor's residence and various gardens and other buildings. In contrast to the Nijo Castle, the whole compound seems much more elite and luxurious. This is despite the fact that even this elite and luxurious version is also way more simple than any royal residence one will find in any other country of the world that has had royal families. For instance, seating was still mostly on floor and the buildings still primarily use wood as the main construction material. Kyoto Imperial Palace is no longer used as a royal residence for the current Emperor who lives in Tokyo now. After the tour ended at 3 pm, we took a cab to our next stop that was the highlight of the day.

Kinkaku-ji is also known as the Golden Pavilion and it was initially designed to be the retirement home of a Shogun but according to his will, it was turned into a temple after his demise. This temple has two roofs that are gold plated and thus yellow in colour. The temple is on the edge of an artificial lake surrounded by trees. As soon as you enter the area, the spell-binding scene greets you. The majestic yellow roofs shine against the green backdrop of trees and their reflection in water enhances the whole effect. Itsukushima Shrine that we saw in Miyajima yesterday has stiff competition for our favorite ancient Japanese attraction. The setting is so perfect that words can't do justice to the beauty of this magnificent structure. After taking pictures of this unforgettable scene, we walked through the rest of the temple grounds admiring the greenery and then made our way out.

The next cab ride took us to the Ryoan-ji which is another temple but its claim to fame is not the temple building but instead the Zen rock garden in it. In Buddhism, the number 15 signifies completeness and this rock garden has 15 large rocks spread in a few clusters in a rectangular 25 meters by 10 meters "garden" that has white gravel only interrupted by the 15 rocks. The interesting thing about this Zen rock garden is that if you look at the garden from any vantage point, you can only see 14 stones and so figuratively speaking, you can never achieve completeness. It's a very unique concept. We sat at the edge of this garden for about 20 minutes and relaxed.

Our last cab ride of the day then took us to the Gion area. We stopped at a theater that had a 6 pm crash-course performance about various customs of the ancient Japanese culture. Gion is the geisha quarter of Kyoto and the performance's main draw was a dance by two maikos. A maiko is a young in-training geisha who hasn't yet graduated to being a full geisha. A geisha has always been misunderstood as a glorious Japanese euphemism for a prostitute and although it is true that some geishas did dabble in that profession, the original concept was not meant to include that. A geisha is meant to be a performer who presents a world of fantasy and perfection for her audience as an escape from reality. Apart from the rather serious dance by the two maikos, other items of the performance included a demonstration of the tea ceremony that we had already experienced at the Hama Rikyu garden in Tokyo, a Japanese harp performance, a flower arrangement demonstration, a court music performance, a small skit-like ancient comic play and a puppet show where a life-sized very realistic puppet danced to a song and was controlled by three men wearing black head covers and black clothes. Great quick introduction to some of the ancient Japanese customs in just an hour - we felt it was excellent value for money.

After that, we dined at a nearby restaurant in traditional style by sitting on tatami mats with a 6-inches high table in front of us. We ordered Shabu-Shabu which is a Japanese culinary experience where you cook food in front of you on your table in boiling water. We tried vegetables and supplemented the Shabu-Shabu with tempura and Japanese omelet. It was an interesting experience but we weren't quite full after the meal so we decided that we would have something else before going to bed. We walked around the Gion area for half an hour and then took the subway back to the station closest to our hotel. As we got out of the subway station, we stopped at McDonald's to have filet-o-fish and then walked back to our hotel to call end to a busy day where despite taking cabs, we still ended up walking over 10 kilometers!

Tomorrow is going to be another full day since we have quite a few things planned. Till tomorrow, take care and good night! :)

Japan Diaries - Day 5 - Hiroshima and Miyajima

We woke up at our hotel in Hiroshima at 8:30 am after a peaceful night's sleep. Considering that we had been sleeping 6 hours for the past few days, it was a refreshing change and probably has something to do with the North American comfort of the Sheraton. Since we had to check out of the hotel today, we took our time getting ready after having in-room coffee made using an ingenious drip coffee sachet. We checked out around 10:40 am and stored our bag with the hotel luggage storage.

We walked to the adjacent train station (Hiroshima station) and tried omelette with rice at a restaurant. It had a base of tomato fried rice covered by a plain omelette drizzled lightly with ketchup. We were a little wary in giving it a try but it actually tasted quite amazing. The serving size wasn't enormous and we knew that because of a packed day we won't have time for lunch so we decided to supplement our breakfast with some comfort food. We had McDonald's chicken burger and as always, it didn't disappoint.

We boarded the Hiroshima tourist bus  outside the train station at 12 noon and were dropped off at our first stop of the day, the Atomic Bomb Dome or the A-Bomb Dome. It is the ruins of a building that is still in the same shape as it was after the atomic bomb explosion in this city. It is the only building that retains its post-atomic-bomb state since the rest of the entire city that was also destroyed has been rebuilt and were it not for the A-Bomb Dome, you wouldn't be able to tell that this city was once destroyed in an instant.

As you must already know, Hiroshima has the unfortunate distinction of being the first city ever to have an atomic bomb dropped on it. The bomb was dropped by an American B-29 bomber plane (called Enola Gay) at 8:15 am on August 6, 1945. Next year will be the 70th anniversary of this horrendous incident. The actual target was the bridge that is a few meters away from the A-Bomb Dome but it missed its target and instead detonated about 160 meters away from its intended target. The bomb detonated in the air 600 meters above the Shima Hospital building and in less than a second, most buildings within a 2 kilometer radius were turned into rubble and ashes and within that instant, over 80,000 people were killed. About 6500 of them were children, most of whom were working in the area around the A-Bomb Dome to make fire lanes in case aerial bombardment hit the city. About a dozen buildings had their structures remain intact because of the use of concrete in their construction. This isn't to say that anyone inside the buildings survived. The smoke and ash from the explosion went into the atmosphere and within 15-20 minutes of the blast, the so-called black rain started coming down that affected the remaining survivors of the initial blast by drenching them in this radiation poisoned rain. The effects of the radiation from the initial blast and the following rain were so strong that by the end of 1945, a mere 5 months after the bomb explosion, the total death toll in Hiroshima had reached 140,000. It is estimated that about 350,000 people lost their lives because of that one instant that should rank as the worst moment of human history. The horrific thing is that it wasn't a spur of the moment attack but a lot of planning went into it. There were six cities on the short list and along with Hiroshima and Nagasaki (that became the second city to have been destroyed by an Atomic Bomb a mere 3 days after the destruction of Hiroshima), Kyoto was also on the list. In a chilling display of cold-hearted murderous intentions, all six cities that were on the short list for "receiving" the atomic bomb had not been raided in the war till then so that the Americans could accurately measure the destruction caused by the Atomic Bomb - unbelievable! Tokyo and Osaka had been regularly bombed in aerial raids but these unfortunate 6 remain untouched.

The area around the A-Bomb Dome has been converted into the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and while the A-Bomb Dome is a hair raising reminder of the cruelty that the human species is capable of, the park and the memorials in the park extend an optimistic message of peace rather than dwelling on assigning blame. Walking through the park and stopping at different memorials - one for the 6500 children, one for the 20,000 Korean nationals living in Hiroshima at that time who died in this incident and a mound that has the cremated ashes of 70,000 people - was a very moving experience. We sat at a bench in the park and talked about how it would've had been a day very similar to this one and that none of those hundreds of thousands of people must've had any idea of what was about to strike them. Just goes to show the ephemeral nature of life and even more than that, it shows us the capability of the human species to self-destruct.

We then passed by a flame that the people of Hiroshima plan to extinguish the day the world gets rid of all nuclear arms. Then we went to a memorial hall within the park that hits home the scale of destruction. The hall is circular and on its walls is a 360 degrees view of what you could see if you stood at the location of Shima Hospital after the bomb had been dropped. The view is constructed using tiles and 140,000 of them, in remembrance of the 140,000 who died in the immediate aftermath of the Atomic Bomb explosion. Just before exiting the hall building, we decided to sit through a movie that presents some excerpts of the book "Children of Hiroshima". We had already been extremely moved but listening to the version of events that 4 children experienced first hand completely rendered us speechless, with dry throats and teary eyed. Witnessing the painful reminders of this massive scale ethical crime is too much to take in a few hours.

Our last stop of the Peace Memorial Park was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It further humanized the experience by highlighting the trauma and the horrors of the unforgivable incident.

After exiting the park, we took a cab back to our hotel/train station and then took the train to Miyajima station which was a 25 minutes ride. After getting off the train, we walked for 5 minutes to the ferry station and took the next ferry to the Miyajima island. This island is famous for two things - the Itsukushima Shrine and it's "floating" torii gate. We could see the gate from our ferry and like gates of all Shinto shrines, this one is also shaped like the symbol for the mathematical constant π.

After getting off on the island, we walked through the souvenir market towards the shrine. Another interesting thing about the island is that deer roam the island freely and not just one or two but a whole bunch of them!

The Itsukushima Shrine is breathtakingly beautiful. When the tide is high, the whole shrine that's made of wood and supported by wooden underwater pillars, seems to be floating on water. Painted bright orange on the inside with a red pagoda style single roof, the shrine is picture perfect. The shrine was rebuilt several times since it's original construction in the 6th century. The current structure dates back to the 16th century and follows models from the 12th century.

We took quite a few pictures of the shrine and the floating gate that's visible from the main dock of the shrine. The gate is made of decay-resistant camphor wood and is 16 meters high. Similar to the shrine, the gate seems to be floating on water in high tide but when the tide is low, worshippers can walk around its base. We were relatively fortunate to encounter a fairly high tide for the gate to appear majestically standing in the sea. In terms of evoking ancient Japan, this shrine and its gate have so far definitely done the job most convincingly. Although that might change after we visit Kyoto, let's see.

Then we took the ferry back to the mainland and from there we took the train to Hiroshima station. We got our bag from our hotel, got a McDonald's dinner packed and boarded the Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka. The ride took 1.5 hours during which we had dinner and I started writing this update. After reaching Shin-Osaka, we had to wait about 20 minutes for our next train to Kyoto station. We got a cab from the Kyoto station to our hotel Hyatt that was a short 10 minute ride. We were in our room by 10 pm and now about to go to bed. We are in Kyoto for the next two days after which we will go back to Tokyo.

We'll be back tomorrow when we have some tales of Kyoto - Japan's ancient capital - to share with you. Till then, take care and good night!

Japan Diaries - Day 4 - Osaka

Monday was another day that started early as we were up a little after at 5:30 am. We had in-room coffee and repacked our suitcases because we wanted to store one suitcase here at the hotel since we will be coming back on Thursday evening. After getting ready and finishing packing, we checked out just before 9 am and then walked to the JR Ticket Reservation Center at the adjoining Shinagawa station. We booked our Shinkansen ride to Hiroshima. With the Japan Rail pass, we didn't really need to make advance reservations and could've boarded any train but to reduce any chances of close misses, we felt it was better to make the reservation. The first train was from the Shinagawa station in Tokyo to the Shin-Osaka station in Osaka with a total ride time of 2 hours and 46 minutes with a start time of 9:40 am.

Since we had a good half an hour to go before boarding the train, we decided to have breakfast. The Shinagawa station has numerous options but we decided to go with a safe bet and chose the French bakery chain Paul. As you might remember, we dined at this chain in various cities of Europe earlier this year. We had a chocolate croissant, chicken croissant sandwich, apple jam pie slice and a mushroom and cheese croque-Monsieur with coffee. As always, everything was great. In fact, the quality might have been a tad bit higher than the quality in Europe!

We boarded the train at 9:35 and it left even before 9:40 am! That's when we realized that we had boarded the wrong train. We were waiting at the correct platform in the correct line for the car where we had gotten reserved seats but the confusion arose because the trains come and leave so quickly that we didn't realize that our train was the one supposed to arrive next. Anyway, no harm was done since we were told by the conductor to get off at the next station and wait a few minutes to catch our original train which was coming right after this one. We got on the right train at the Shin-Yokohama station and then bought some cookies and orange juice from the train's trolley service. We researched Osaka during the train ride using the guide book that we had purchased from Calgary and after reading about it a little, we decided to change our plan and stop in Osaka for sightseeing. The bullet train ride was so comfortable that we fell asleep for 20 minutes towards the end of the ride.

We reached Shin-Osaka station at 12:26 pm and stored our suitcase in a coin locker. Then we reached the Osaka station after a short train ride and explored the huge station complex that has a 20 floor mall connected to it. We window shopped at different stores on various floors before coming down to the basement floor that has food shops. As impressive as the mall was with all kinds of international brand stores, the food shops were even better - desserts and sushi of all kinds was on display. We munched on a few items that we liked, got a couple of things packed and then took the Osaka Loop train to get to our first stop, Osaka-jo or the Osaka Castle. As the name suggests, the Osaka Loop train goes around different areas of Osaka in a circular route, much like the JR Yamanote train of Tokyo.

After getting off the train, we had to walk 15 minutes to get to the castle building. The building is surrounded by a moat (a deep trench filled with water, built with the intention of keeping out enemies). Osaka used to be the capital of Japan before Kyoto and Tokyo and this castle was used by the royals of the time. The castle is built in the pagoda style with 4 roofs but the actual castle was destroyed by bombing of the allied forces in the Second World War so what we saw was a concrete and steel reconstruction of the original building. It was still very impressive and gave us a fair idea of how advanced Japanese architecture was, even back in the 7th and 8th centuries.

Then we walked another 20 minutes to reach a different train station and took two trains one after the other to reach the Namba station in the South area of Osaka. Within the station, there was a pretty long underground walk in a shopping area that had hundreds of shops. Saving space and time seem to be a common theme of Japanese life and by building shopping options at all major train stations, they achieve both.

Osaka has two major touristy areas - Kita (North) and Minami (South). Kita is new whereas Minami has some older streets mixed with modern buildings. In Minami, we explored the Namba city complex which comprises several buildings - the rail station, shopping mall, parks building and a cinema. Then we started walking to the Dotombori street which is the icon of Osaka and flanks both sides of the Dotombori river. On our way, we stopped at Burger King and had the whopper which had a higher quality than what we are used to in North America. Samia suspects that all these chains have better tasting food in Japan because of the country's emphasis on quality control which is a trademark feature of the Japanese way of doing business. No wonder the Japanese are pioneers in the manufacturing of all kinds of electronics in the world. Unfortunately for us, the famous Glico man neon sign was under renovation so we couldn't see it. It is a huge neon advertising board which depicts a man running with both his hands up in the air as if he is just about to finish a race. Over the years, it has become a symbol of Osaka's status as the leading commerce and industrial center of Japan, a status that Osaka has held since many centuries ago when this port city became the trade hub of the country. Legend says that back in the day, Osakans used to greet each other with the phrase, "Are you making money?"

After taking pictures with Glico man's replacement billboard that features some famous Japanese actress while the renovation is going on, we started heading back to the Shin-Osaka station after taking three different trains.

After reaching the Shin-Osaka station, we got our suitcase from the coin locker storage and sat in the waiting area for our Shinkansen train to Hiroshima. The train started at 8:20 pm and we were so tired after walking 13 km today (and 11 km yesterday) that we fell asleep shortly after that. We reached Hiroshima after exactly two hours at 10:20 pm and after getting out of the station, we walked one minute to reach our hotel and checked-in. In our room, we ate the tomato bread and chocolate bread that we had gotten packed from Osaka and are now going to bed. I had thought about commenting on our general observations of Japan and the people of Tokyo but after changing our plan today, there wasn't enough time for it plus after seeing the people of Osaka today, I feel that it'll probably be a better idea to pen such observations at the end of the trip.

Till tomorrow's update, take care and good night!

Japan Diaries - Day 3 - Tokyo and Kamakura

We woke up just before 7 am on Sunday but relaxed and stayed in bed. We also decided to change our plan for today a little and do a day trip of Kamakura. We figured out how to use the water boiling machine in our room and had in-room coffee. Then we got ready and left for the day around 10 am.

We stopped at a bakery near our hotel for breakfast. We had a croissant, a lemon cake and a couple of chicken buns and latte. Then we took the JR Yamanote line train to the Tokyo station. This station is the oldest train station of the city and was one of the first ones that was built using red bricks and that gives its exterior a grand look. We took a couple of pictures and then took the next train to the station closest to our first stop of the day, the Edo-Tokyo museum.

The Edo-Tokyo museum chronicles the history of the city of Tokyo starting from 1590 all the way to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The museum uses small scale models to depict how the city used to be at various times. It also features a life size replica of the Nihombashi bridge which is quite imposing.

The current Imperial family of Japan came to power around 700 but didn't have any real political power till the Meiji Restoration of 1868 (more on that later). The political power was held by various local warrior lords, each with his own Samurai force. When Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power around 1600 and formed his "bakufu" (feudal government), he chose the city of Edo (the old name of Tokyo) as the new capital. His title was Shogun and his Shogunate (referred to as the Tokugawa period) was an era of peace in Japan during which all contact with the rest of the world was cut off. It's important to note that the Imperial Emperor still held a ceremonial role during all this time and the imperial line continues pretty much uninterrupted to the present day.

The bakufu of Shogun Tokugawa was a state that distributed resources to its people based on their income and collected taxes. They had split citizens into different castes and assigned them specific roles. This sounds socialistic but at the same time, the state was very functional economically with concepts of gold/silver/bronze currency, currency exchanges, highly specialized skilled jobs and welfare protection provided to the citizens.

The Edo period ended with the Meiji Restoration of 1868 when the real political power was returned to Emperor Meiji who opened up Japan to the rest of the world, upon pressure from the US. Edo was renamed as Tokyo. However, this democracy was problematic, specially in the 1920s and 1930s since the military was very powerful and kept challenging China, leading to all out war in 1937. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, US in 1941, it led to a war with the US and its allies that culminated in the horrific nuclear atomic bombings of 1945 that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After 1945, with the help of the US and its allies, Japan started modernizing and westernizing and the people eagerly adopted Western values of commerce and advancement - so much so that today they undoubtedly lead the world in technology. The 1964 Olympics were instrumental in the reconstruction and facelift of Tokyo and since then, the urban growth of this giant city has been happening exponentially.

The museum gave us a detailed insight into the agriculture of Tokyo and trade of crops. It also highlighted the woodwork skills, printing, dying and fashion choices of the city's inhabitants. There was a section on Kabuki as well. Kabuki is the Japanese form of theater in which only male actors perform, even the female roles. Elaborate makeup and dresses are a distinct feature of Kabuki.

After exiting the museum, we spotted a Sumo wrestler standing outside dressed in a kimono and talking on the phone. We discreetly took a picture of him. The area of Ryogoku that has the Edo-Tokyo Museum is also home to Sumo Wrestling. Unfortunately, we won't have time to see a Sumo Wrestling match during this trip.

Then we took the JR train to Kamakura, a town about 40 km from the Tokyo station. The train ride was about 70 minutes after which we boarded a local train. After that, we started walking to the temple. On our way, we had a halal chicken pita from a Turkish Doner shop. Then we continued walking and reached Kotoku-in, the temple famous for the statue of the Great Buddha. The bronze statue is 37 feet long and one of the most recognizable symbols of Japan. We took pictures and then left to head back to Tokyo. It was worth the one and a half hours of getting there to see this magnificent statue.

We got off at the Shibuya station. This is another of Tokyo's major stations and like the other major stations of Tokyo and Shinagawa, not only does it have scores of platforms and thousands of commuters but also many shops, restaurants and cafés adjoining the station. We exited the station into Shibuya's Scramble Crossing area, the so-called Times Square of Tokyo and definitely on par with its American counterpart in terms of the activity, the glitter, the neon signs, high glass buildings and high-end brand stores. The Shibuya Scramble Crossing is the largest in the world and when the pedestrian signal is green, you can see hundreds of pedestrians crossing the road from all 4 sides. Then we stopped at a Ramen noodles place and shared a noodle soup. After that, we walked to McDonald's and had fish fillet for dinner. Then we walked around some more and bought Tylenol and Samia bought some Japanese beauty products.

After that, we headed back to our hotel and reached our room a little after 10 pm and have decided to call it a night. We are checking out tomorrow morning to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima which is going to be a 5 hour ride. Since there will be 5 hours of traveling tomorrow, I'll write about our impressions of the people of Tokyo and the country of Japan. We have another day in Tokyo on Friday so we will explore the remaining things on our list that day.

Till the next update, take care and good night! :)

Japan Diaries - Day 2 - Tokyo

Owing to a bit of jet lag, we went to bed around 9 pm on Friday night and were up at 3:30 am on Saturday. We couldn't go back to sleep so just decided to start our day. After showering and getting ready, we started the day super early at around 6 am. It was a rainy day so we kept our umbrellas with us.

Our first stop of the day was Tsukiji Fish Market. First we took the JR Yamanote train to the closest station to the market. JR Yamanote is a circular track that runs within the city of Tokyo and connects the major stations with high speed train. After getting off, we asked for the subway train directions from someone. It was quite funny since he called two other people who we guessed to be his subordinates. All three of them were dressed in suites and probably going to work. They were all nice enough to check the directions on their phones and then point us in the right direction. We also visited a grocery store within the subway network and got a packaged waffle and a small pack of chocolate milk that we had during the subway ride. After getting off at the fish market station, we strolled around the market and saw fresh seafood of all kinds being sold for really low prices. We had missed the tuna wholesale auction that happens every morning at 5 am at this market. It's the largest fish market in the world. We had sushi at a restaurant at the market and it definitely was the freshest sushi that we've ever tasted.

Then we walked to our second stop of the day, the Hama Rikyu Gardens. Our day had started so early that when we reached the park entrance, we found out that the park hadn't opened yet as there were still a few minutes to go till 9 am. When the park opened, we bought tickets and got a free audio guide with it. The audio guide was GPS-enabled so when we reached the location of the next commentary item, it started playing automatically - another small example of Japanese electronic advancement. The park is primarily man-made and has ponds, flower gardens, small hills, tea houses and small islands connected by wooden bridges. Other features include gates to control the water level in the ponds inside the garden by controlling the flow of water from the Sumida river and even the Pacific Ocean. The main attraction in the park is a tea house on a small island where the shoguns and the royal family used to come to have tea, relax and have official ceremonies. It's called the Nakajima tea house. We stopped to have traditional Japanese green tea called Matcha tea in the traditional way - sitting on a tatami mat on the floor after taking off our shoes at the entrance and having a confectionery item before the tea and then picking up the cup with the right hand, placing it on the left palm, turning it clockwise twice and then finishing the tea in 3-4 sips. The whole affair was quite relaxing. After having the tea, we continued walking around the park and then reached the water bus dock. Our water bus journey started at 10:30 am and we were doing a cruise on Tokyo's famous Sumida river. The cruise lasted about 45 minutes and we disembarked in the Asakusa area.

A rickshaw guide tried to sell us a tour on the rickshaw to our next stop, the Sensoji temple. Initially we were a little hesitant so we told her that we would come back after lunch and went to the KFC across the road for lunch. Samia had a chicken burger whereas I tried a slight variant of the same burger with Japanese sauce on the patty. It was delicious.

We had decided to do the 30 minute rickshaw ride with the same guide since she spoke excellent English. Her name was Yuka and we later found out that she learnt perfect English from her American mother despite never leaving Tokyo in her 19 year life! It was a great decision to do the rickshaw ride since she took some very nice pictures of both of us together with some very interesting backgrounds. Whenever she stopped at a traffic light, she would tell us about the history of the Asakusa area. We saw a traditional Japanese comedy house, a geisha training center, a street lined with statues of raccoons (believed to have morphing powers in Japanese culture), shops that sell sweet potato ice cream and dessert, the location of the oldest theme park in Japan and other inner streets of Asakusa that we would've never explored otherwise. She also suggested us to try the tempura of the area since it's a speciality. We also found out about her background and that she is a university student studying languages and translation. She answered all our questions about Japanese religion, demographics of Tokyo and some phrases of the Japanese language. After the ride, she also gave us a small souvenir sticker and a postcard. She dropped us off at the oldest gate of the Sensoji temple after taking a very nice picture that included the 400 years old gate and a five storey pagoda, the second largest in Japan.

We entered the Sensoji temple. In Japan, when the word temple is used for a place of worship, it signifies a Buddhist temple whereas a shrine always refers to a Shinto shrine. Shinto is the folk Japanese religion which is more like a code of conduct for everyday life mannerisms than an elaborate spiritual philosophy. Back to the Sensoji temple complex. The complex of course has the Buddhist Sensoji temple but it also has a small Shinto shrine, a pagoda (a tall vertical structure with multiple roofs, each one smaller than the one below it) and a street Nakamise Dori with colorful souvenir shops lining the sides. The most recognizable image of the Sensoji temple are the large red lanterns that have black Japanese characters written on them. These were built to light the streets close to the temples so that the gods could see and thus their large sizes. We also saw gigantic straw slippers hanging from the walls, also for the gods. We witnessed some of the religious rituals of the worshippers - fanning smoke of burning incense over themselves, washing themselves and drinking the water of a fountain with the statue of a warrior in the center, burning incense sticks while bowing to the temple and praying after dropping coins in the offertory boxes in front of the temple (and even the Shinto shrine). After taking some pictures at the temple, we walked along Nakamise Dori and shopped for souvenirs.

We walked back to the subway station and bought fried shrimp tempura on our way. It tasted great and the shrimp seemed to be larger than the one we're used to in North America.

Our next stop was the Tokyo National Museum. We saw a nice collection of Japanese artwork and paintings from all eras dating back to the Heain period. However, the best collection was the temporary exhibition of Buddha statues from the Kamakura era that look very lifelike because of a technique used that make the eyes of the statues glitter like humans.

After the museum, we had ice cream cones from a roadside truck and then walked to the train station to catch the JR Yamanote to our next stop. After getting off the train, I had coffee and Samia had lemonade. Then we walked to the area that we had come to see, the Akihabara Electronic Market. Apart from being a heaven for gadget lovers and video games lovers, we also saw some other strange characteristics that have come to be identified with this growing subculture of Japanese new generation. We saw some disturbing 18 plus arcade games and maid cafés and the sad thing is that the clientele is not only young Japanese males but also older male adults. Apart from that, we saw manga and anime shops - definitely a unique experience.

After Akihabara, we took the train back to our hotel and freshened up for dinner. We asked our hotel concierge for recommendations at a walking distance and she gave us a long list of places within 5 minutes of walk from our extremely centrally located hotel. We had trouble finding our first choice (a Thai restaurant) and by the time we found it, they had just closed. So we dined at a Spanish tapas restaurant. The food was really good and we had patata bravas, fried mushrooms, a small personal sized pizza and a baked cheesecake for dessert. Then we walked back to our hotel. After a very long day with 15.5 km of walking, we are really tired now. Samia has already fallen asleep and I fell asleep a few times while writing this. Looks like I'll barely manage to finish this before sleeping. Hope you liked the detailed update. Tomorrow will be another day of exploring this ginormous city.

Till then, take care and good night!

Japan Diaries - Day 1 - Calgary to Tokyo

It's that time again - we're on vacation and sharing our trip details with you. We woke up in Calgary at 4 am on Thursday, August 28, 2014 after a two hour nap after we had finished our packing for the 8 day trip of Japan.

Sarim had offered to give us a ride to the airport so after quick showers, we were on our way to the airport at 4:30 am. It was just a 20 minute ride in the wee hours of the morning since there was virtually no traffic on the roads. After checking in with Delta airlines, we passed through US pre-clearance immigration and since I now have a NEXUS card, the usual mandatory secondary inspection because of my Pakistani passport was waived and we were at our gate well ahead of takeoff time. We shared a Tim Horton's bagel and coffee while waiting at the gate. Our first flight was to Minneapolis and it took off on time around 7 am. After a comfortable 2.5 hours of flying time during which we caught up on sleep, we landed in Minneapolis. We had a 4 hour layover before our next flight.

Coming to the US always reminds us of the most significant difference between the US and Canada - the super size effect. Everything in the US is bigger, more spacious and cheaper. We were at the terminal one of the airport which is the hub for Delta airlines. The terminal has a mall and a wide variety of restaurants and food court options. We had Chinese food at Wok n Roll and then walked around the airport. I checked my office email and had to reply to a few emails so did that and then we walked some more. Then we had a spicy chicken burger at Chick Fil-A which used to be our favorite chicken sandwich in California so it brought back some memories.

Then we made our way to the gate where all tables had iPads on them for free use. They were placed there by the adjoining bar/restaurant and you could even order something using the iPad and pay for it too. We browsed the internet till boarding at 2:20 pm and then boarded the plane.

It was a spacious Airbus 330 aircraft and our seats were close to the back of the plane. After settling down, we checked the options on the seat entertainment screens and saw a varied offering that looked promising to keep us occupied during the 12 hour long flight.

The flight took off on time around 2:50 pm. We decided to not sleep too much during the flight since it was night time in Japan and we wanted to avoid jet lag. We were served two meals, one snack and a couple of beverages spaced over the 12 hours and the food was decent. It wasn't as great as the food served on European or Middle Eastern airlines but was more bland like the food served on longer North American flights. We saw 3 complete movies and half of the 4th movie between the meal breaks. The first movie that we saw was "Million Dollar Arm" that is based on the true story of two indian boys' journey of traveling to the US and joining Major League Baseball. The second movie was the acclaimed Bollywood movie "The Lunchbox" that was also thoroughly enjoyable. Then we decided to watch "Memoirs of a Geisha" which is a chronicle of the life of a Japanese Geisha living in Kyoto around the time of the Second World War. It was quite instructive about how these misunderstood artists of an old way of life struggled in a complicated society conflicted between traditions and modern pulls. We'll share more about the Geisha when we visit the ancient Imperial Capital city of Kyoto later in our trip.

It was a relief to touch down in Japan at the Narita International Airport as the long flight took its toll, specially on our legs despite several stretching/walking breaks. The local time was 4:45 pm on Friday. Our disembarkation experience was very smooth and we were quite impressed by all the specially designed electronic machines used for different purposes by the officials. Everything is streamlined and organized. The most striking feature is the cleanliness followed by a close second - politeness/helpfulness of the people. Then we exchanged our pre-paid vouchers that we had purchased in Canada for Japan Rail passes. These unlimited ride passes for a week work on all Japan Rail (JR) high-speed trains throughout Japan and are much cheaper than buying individual train rides. We took the JR Narita Express at 6:15 pm and reached Tokyo at 7:26 pm. Narita Airport is actually on the outskirts of the Tokyo metropolitan area and is technically a different city. We got off at the Shinagawa Station and then walked to our hotel that's connected to the station through overhead walkways. The entire station and the nearby buildings are interconnected and have scores of shops and stores. Since it was a Friday evening, we saw hundreds of people dressed in suits briskly walking to catch their trains home.

Our hotel is very modern and we were lucky to get a high-floor room on the 31st floor that has the view of the tall buildings of Tokyo. The skyline comprising tall lit-up buildings looks very impressive against the dark sky. In size, the room is on the smaller side, specially compared to North American standards but it's very comfortable. There are several electronic features that we haven't seen anywhere else. For instance, the washroom mirror is heated in an oval section in the center so that the steam from a hot shower won't cloud the mirror.

Japan is an interesting country with a rich history and a unique culture. It's the 10th largest nation in the world with about 130 million people. It's the second largest island nation after Indonesia and most people live on the 4 main islands. We'll only visit 3 cities on the most populated island of Honshu during our trip. A 100 million people live on the Honshu island and most of them are located in the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas. With a population of around 38 million, Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world and has around 10 different downtown areas. If Tokyo was a country of the world, it would have a larger population than about 170 countries of the world! We are really excited and look forward to exploring it.

We went to sleep early since we were really tired after the long journey. Till the next update, take care and good night!