BootsnAll Travel Network



Tokyo, Japan continued

So this was officially Day 3 in Tokyo, Japan.  This was my scheduled sightseeing day, Josh style, which meant, lots to see and do in a short amount of time.  Now if I had more time I would have done each of these areas and things in a day themselves, but being here for only 5 nights that is not the case.

So I got up at like 815am and was out the door by 830am.  My first stop before the Sensoji temple was this small temple across the street.  Adam was right it was nothing, and I quickly moved on to Sensoji.  Now Adam had told me how to get to Sensoji “Just walk 20 minutes straight down the road and you’ll see it.”  I wish he was right.  After walking for about 10 minutes rocking out on the mp4 player, I noticed a sign that said “Sensoji temple to the right,” I was like “thanks adam,” and turned and luckily there were signs directing me to the temple the whole way.  The walk was about 20 minutes but was not straight.  I was fine.  The temple was huge, and really nice.  The grounds were peaceful even with the amount of tourists around on a Sunday morning.  After Sensoji, I looked for some breakfast which meant noodles.  I found a nice little shop that was cheap like 300 yen and enjoyed them a lot.  The best thing about eating in Tokyo and Japan is that slurping of noodles is accepted, and it is probably considered rude to not slurp, because then the noodles aren’t that good!  It is great for messy eaters like myself.  So this is where my day got tricky.   Today was the opening day of the sumo tournament!  I knew it was going to be going on long before I arrived in Tokyo and had planned on going to see it.  I mean who doesn’t want to see really fat men manhandled each other in outfits that are basically g-string thongs?  I certainly do.  The box office opened at 10 and it was my goal to get to the box office as close to 10am as possible just so I wouldn’t risk not getting tickets.  I mean after the baseball game fiasco I wasn’t taking chances.  I knew tickets were available because the english version of the website said so, but you never know and the site hadn’t been updated in 2 days.  After asking some lady who spoke english at the Asakusa train station, she gave me some crazy connecting plan to get to the right stop.  Basically she was just trying to get me to use their company’s rail line and now JR which is the 5 day pass I forked up like 170 bucks for.

Ok so I think it is time to tell you all about the train system in Japan.  It is not run by the government or local governments like in America.  They are all owned by private companies (maybe the subway is owned by the city, but not even sure there).  You have several companies that own the railways, which means that if you want to go on to another subway line you have to get a separate ticket.  The only exception is if you fork up 1000 yen for an all day ticket good on all subway lines in Tokyo.  This ticket though does not include the JR lines which are another set of lines.  So my first try at the all day pass i bought one on the cheap and didnt go for the 1000 yen one and ended up having to pay extra because we used another companies trains.  It is really annoying, confusing at times, but by today (day 3 in tokyo) I was all about the train system and doing everything I could to use my JR Rail pass.  I figured that if I used it all day today, as well as taking my planned day trips to Nagano and Nikko that the ticket would pay for itself 2 fold and save me like 150 bucks it in itself, so I was determined to get my monies worth like the good jew I am (hey we can joke, you goy can’t!)

So I decided to buy the big all day subway pass, and coupled with my JR rail pass I would be golden for maximum travel and efficiency in the sightseeing.  I arrived at the subway station near the sumo stadium, actually found an english speaking conductor who gave me an english/japanese map.  I eventually found my way to the stadium and tried to buy tickets.  At first I bought the real “cheap seats” at 3600 yen, which was for the second to last row in the stadium.  I walked away and was not happy with the purchase, I noticed it said ‘non refundable or exchangable,” but ran back and argued with them, and forked up another 4600 yen for an 8200 yen ticket which was a lot closer.  I ended up getting 2nd row in the front of the second floor, dead center of the Dohjo.  So anyway after I argued successfully with the ticket dude, got my ticket for the sumo, I was off to see some other things.

After sumo I decided to go to a district called Shinjuku.  It is known as the skyscraper district.  The best way to explore Tokyo is to just walk and get lost, so that is what I did and came across the really cute standing sushi bar.  I had not had sushi yet in my three days and was craving it.  I got in and was greeted profusely, too my spot standing and the waitress lady helped me order sushi.  It was 75 yen a piece, which is cheap for Tokyo for basic sushi.  I was in heaven.  Everyone was really friendly, the sushi maker dude was really funny, like making noises while he was making the sushi.  The type of sushi they made was like a roll of rice with sashimi on top (a piece of raw fish on top of a bed of rice).  I had like salmon, yellow tail, tuna all excellent.  After enjoying like 10 pieces I said that was enough paid and was on my way through Shinjuku.  Shinjuku also has a lot of electronic stores.  The electronics they have are so far advanced from America is disgusting like all the asian countries.  Anyway I perused the stores looking around, seeing what was out there and maybe what I could possibly buy in Hong Kong (I am seriously considering buying a PDA with wireless internet in Hong Kong with Raymond, since he can speak Chinese).  After walking around the stores, playing some video games and just taking in the culture it was on to Harajuku.

Harajuku is famous on the weekends for these girls and ladyboys who dress up in crazy outfits and walk around on this bridge and surrounding area.  I mean it is world famous.  I got there kind of early like 1230 in the afternoon so I didn’t see all of the people dressed up, but definitely saw a bunch of really cool outfits and a crazy human statute (see pictures later on).  After the bridge I walked on to the famous Meiji Shrine.  It was right next to where the girls were all dressed up, so easy to find.  I didn’t have much time before I needed to be back for sumo, so I walked rather briskly (more than usual).  I got to the shrine snapped some photos, walked around, saw the other mini temples and left and had to get back for the SUMO tournament.  I read in the booklet they gave us that you can often see the sumo wrestlers arrive around 2PM heading in to the south gate before their matches.  The Maruuchi wrestlers (top division) are the ones that arrive starting at 2pm, so those were the ones I was looking at for.  When I got there, there were crowds lining the entrance.  The fans were going crazy for this fat men in dresses.  I had no idea who the sumo’s where and since the people around me were Japanese and did not speak english, I just took photos and admired how fat they really are.

After standing for about 20 minutes, I decided to get find my seat.  I wasn’t really sure where they were, but as I said before I had a great seat.  I sat next to this Japanese kid maybe 20 and his father.  Both didn’t really speak English, but we had a great time laughing at the matches, interacting the best we could.  At the end of the 30 bouts I watched, the kid wanted a picture with me which was nice, and thanked me for you know interacting with him or trying.

Overall the sumo experience was crazy.  Some of the matches lasted literally .5 seconds, or 10-15 seconds were the longer lasting ones.  I got to see the great Yokozuna (the grand champion).  There have only been 60 sixty Yokozuna’s in sumo history.  To become a yokozuna you must work your way up the 800 levels of rankings till you get to Ozeki.  From Ozeki you then must win two grand tournaments in a row.  There are 6 tournaments a year.  Currently there is one Yokozuna, and once you become one, you are one for life.  If you have poor showings in several tournaments in a row (records of 7-8 or worse overall during each tournament), you are forced to retire.  You don’t want to be a bad Yokozuna.  There is so much pride involved in being one and since you cannot lose the ranking, if you start to do poorly you are supposed to retire.  Currently there is one wrestler Hakuho who is an Ozeki and has won the last tournament.  If he wins this one, he will become a grand champion, and the first Yokozuna in four years!

After Sumo, I was tired, it was about 6pm, I headed back to the hostel.  I chilled out till about 930, it was sunday night and I was tired.  After chilling out for a few hours I went out looking for food.  I decided to go to Ueno to walk around, because I had heard from Adam that there was some good sushi places around there.  Eventually after circling around Ueno station and the surrounding area, I found a sushi train type bar place.  They were extremely friendly.  I started chatting with one of the waiters.  His name was Joel, he didn’t really speak English, but we each understood enough of what we were saying.

He helped me order sushi and after like 12 plates of sushi, trying each kind with the exceptions of the shellfish.  It was amazing sushi, way better than America.  When I got to the checkout counter they told me it was 1300 yen, which was about half of what I should have paid.  Joel hooked it up for me which was nice, he was really nice.  I headed back to the hostel and was real tired.  What a long day.  When I got home, I met a few more people from the hostel, and ended up watching Blood Diamond with Helen and Adam.  After like 20 minutes or less, I had to go to sleep it was 1230 and I was getting up early yet again.  After pumping up the movie for Adam and Helen I left them after 15 minutes, haha.

Ok, well I’m getting tired, I have a head cold and don’t feel so good.  I think I am run down from constantly getting woken up early from these guys in the room.  They have been getting up at like 5am because of jet lag and whatnot, so I am really run down.

Basically the blog is one day behind, today I went to Nagano to check some things out.  I took the super express famous Japanese Bullet Train.  It was fast.

Check out my blog tomorrow for my final days in Japan.

Thanks,

Josh



Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *