As I said in my last post, I was in a hurry Saturday to get back to Osaka. I was super excited to see the Japanese branch of the Shumway family, and I got to zip up there on the bullet train! It was an evening train, so I watched the countryside fly by as the sun set behind the hills in the distance. It only took 2 and a half hours to make it there (by contrast, a nighttime highway bus would have taken 9 hours). And Tokyo being Tokyo, as soon as I cleared the ticket counters, I got lost.
But not for long, mind you; I just went out the East exit rather than the West exit and couldn't find Uncle Doug's car waiting for me. Eventually I ran into cousin Alex, and he brought me to the right place. I went to bed fairly soon after arriving at their apartment (which is AWESOME, by the way, whatever they might try to say to the contrary).
The next morning we woke up early so Alex could make it to church on time; even though he is a pre-missionary, he was on the speaking circuit with the high counselor in another branch and had to be there early. The whole family came (minus Alicia, of course; it'd be hard for her to come from Montana or wherever her internship is), and Alex did an excellent job.
In a purely ancillary note, I found out that that particular branch also happened to be where Amy Takabori, one of the Yokohama interns, goes with her family. Talk about an unexpected coincidence running into her at church! That means that despite our disparate locations, I've actually been able to talk to all the interns while I'm here.
Anyway, after church on the way home I caught a glimpse of the Tokyo Temple. It kind of sneaks up on you, as it is sitting right on the street corner (I imagine the Manhattan Temple to be somewhat similar in that regard). After returning to the apartment, we hardly had time to eat before we headed out again. Time was short, and I wanted to see some of Tokyo, so we went first to the Edo Museum.
It is a museum that covers Tokyo's history, from the time Tokugawa took it for his seat of power in the early 1600's to its current, modern sprawl. It was fascinating to see how Tokyo had grown from a backwater farm village to an Asian supercity. I even got to ride in a palanquin (if only for a photo).
Even in ancient times, the Japanese were economical with their space.
I was particularly moved by the various depictions of Edo and Tokyo as they rebuilt their city after disasters. And they had many disasters; fires, floods, earthquakes have been ever-present in Japanese history. Yet, the people stand together and rebuild with an admirable doggedness and stubborn spirit of survival.
Of course, not all of Japan's tragedies were nature-made. There was a whole exhibit dedicated to the ravages of war that destroyed most of Tokyo over 60 years ago. Here is a picture of a dud from the carpet fire bombing of Tokyo.
It's sobering to see the artifacts of World War II up close like that. I shudder to think of what it must have been like, living in that time of uncertainty, when at any given moment fire would rain down from humming wings overhead.
But enough of the scary, sad stuff. That wasn't how the trip was. It was pure awesomeness, and that's what I felt at our next destination, the Tokyo Tower!
It was the tallest structure in Japan until the recent Tokyo Sky Tree's outer construction was finished. It functions as a broadcasting tower, but they've installed observation decks that give incredible views of the Tokyo area.
You can even see Mt. Fuji in the distance. My inferior camera couldn't quite get it right, but I got a hazy picture of it.
As the night wore on, we decided we wanted to stick around and go up to the higher observation deck so we could see more of Tokyo at night. It was quite a sight.
This picture hardly does it justice. It was breathtaking.
As we drove home to a delicious dinner of sukiyaki, I took a look back at the tower, and found it also had some great nighttime duds.
The next day was jam packed with places to see and things to experience. Our first stop was in Asakusa, at a famous temple called Senso-ji, the oldest temple in Tokyo. The gateway to the temple approach is called Kaminarimon, which means Thunder Gate. The gargantuan lantern hanging from it was the biggest I had ever seen.
We passed through the gate and onto the main thoroughfare, where there was a sea of people going about the shops and restaurants. My first thought was, "now this is Tokyo!"
We battled the crowds up to the temple and went in, completing various rituals like washing our hands and mouths with water outside the temple, tossing coins into huge coffers and such. It was fun going with Doug, Chikako, Alex, and Allen. Particularly Allen. He always had such interesting questions about what we were doing.
See? I'm not just making stuff up; I was actually there.
Our next stop was Akihabara, an area of Tokyo famous for its electronics. There were electronic stores of every conceivable kind in every direction. It was like if Radio Shack fused with Home Depot, then exploded into a thousand little stores.
What's that white guy doing in my picture?
On a whim I walked into a video game store, and I found this.
Japanese FFVII for 15 bucks. Curse you, stupid region coding! You've stolen my chance for enjoying my favorite game of all time in a language I hardly understand!!!!
We didn't stay that long in Akibahara, though, as we were raring for some lunch by this point. Luckily, there was a Kaiten-zushi place nearby. Kaiten-zushi is a sushi restaurant where the sushi is put on color coded plates and sent around the restaurant on a revolving conveyor belt of sorts. You simply take what looks good, taking into consideration the color of each plate (as that indicates the price). You can also simply ask the sushi chefs for whatever you want. It was utter heaven eating there! I doubt sushi will ever be the same again.
They also serve desserts like jelly and oranges (yes, oranges are dessert).
After stuffing ourselves to the limit, we went to another famous part of town called Harajuku, which is known for being the hang out place for young people. As such, it is (normally) a haven for people to dress up in all the crazy Tokyo fashions and spend time together. I was expecting quite a showing of the bizarre get-ups I had heard about, but hardly anybody was dressed up that day. I got one picture of an outfit that I am told is the "lolita" fashion.
There were other oddities to be spotted, though, as we we made our way down the main street there. Some of them would have made great souvenirs had I the money (and space in my suitcase) to acquire them.
And here I thought superhero mix-ups were simply a Chinese thing.
Two words: "nightmare fodder." Donnie Darko, eat your heart out.
Eventually we came to the end of the road, which conveniently led to the entrance of the Meiji Shrine, where the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken, are honored. It was a complete 180 from where we had just been. We went from the crazy hustle of metropolitan life to the silent stillness of the shrine in a matter of a few dozen feet. Though that might be jarring to some, the juxtaposition to me was fascinating. Two opposite facets of Japanese life coexisting in the same locale with no conflict whatsoever.
The broad gravel avenues stretched beneath the trees filled with the shrill voices of cicadas. Pathways extended off the main trail to various smaller buildings. Again I was struck by the Japanese concept of the spiritual essence of nature. It is so....well, fascinating.
One of many poems written by the Emperor and Empress. These signs are scattered throughout the shrine.
It began to drizzle, so we headed back to the car. We ate dinner at a fancy restaurant called Gonpachi, which is famous for grilled skewers and soba (and also for being the set for a huge fight scene in Kill Bill), and then I had to reluctantly go back to the apartment to pack my things for the trip back to Osaka.
I can't believe this time in Japan is almost up. Despite all that I look forward to when I return (not the least of which is actually being able to kiss my wife goodnight), I feel so...connected to Japan. This experience has been nothing like my mission, but I feel the same sense of kinship to the people here as I do to the Korean people. I can clearly see the wisdom in the Lord reserving my experience in Japan to a post-mission internship. Not only have I had opportunity to indelibly link myself to Korea through the peerless experience of a mission, but I have been given the opportunity to bond myself to Japan through a completely different lens.
There's no doubt about it. The rest of my life will revolve around this small corner of the world.
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