BootsnAll Travel Network



Tokyo, Japan Continued – Hong Kong to come

Today I was off to Nagano rather early. I tried to get a real early train but the bullet train was all booked. So I got the 954 which would arrive at only 1125. That is damn fast considering Nagano is pretty far away. The bullet train was really nice. You can barely feel it moving. I got the super express with only 8 cars so there was not as much weight as the others to pull. I arrived at Nagano after a nice train trip, got my maps in english as to how to get around and what to see. My first and most important stop was the famous Zenkoji temple. It is really old and a must see of the area. The second place I wanted to see was the Olympic Park. Nagano hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics. I really enjoy seeing the Olympic parts of the past, how the countries develop and use them after the Olympics. Think about it, they spend billions of dollars to host an Olympics, very few even make money, most in fact break even or often lose money, and then you have these stadiums and facilities (assuming you built new ones, but there is cost to renovate old existing buildings). So Japan turned them in to public facilities, at least the ones near the old Olympic stadium.

My first stop was the Zenkoji temple. I had this thought to rent a car and drive around nagano and the surrounding area, but that was quickly squashed after realizing that the lack of english would make it virtually impossible. That didn’t prevent me from trying though. I went to one place, where the guy told me that they had one car left. I went to the office, but they said that they were full and out of cars, only taking reservations. Then I went to another place up the street with this crazy little japanese woman who was screaming at me in excitment that i was there to rent a car. But after these other two japanese guys translated for me in broken english to japanese, the lady ended up saying they didn’t have cars. The last place I went to just flat out shot me down. Now either it is because you need a Japan drivers license (which I don’t think is the case), or I was victim of a little prejudice of being white, non japanese speaking and short.

So after my 45 minute excursion of trying to rent a car, I said screw it, lets take the bus. They had this really good bus system, probably created before the olympics, that would take people around this small city for a flat rate of 100 yen. So I took the bus all the way up to the stop, then walked the rest of the way. The town was really quaint and cute. Lots of shops, restaurants and authentic japanese culture. Part of the temple was being renovated which was a bummer, but the main part of it was fine, so I took a bunch of pictures, walked around the grounds, absorbed all of that templeness and then it was time for food.

I basically was looking for a nice place to eat that accepted my visa card. I was running low on cashola and wanted to use plastic. Eventually I found this really nice, and really proper Japanese restaurant. The service in Japan at nice places is first class all the way. From when you arrive to when you walk out the door, you are treated really well.

They spoke english (a little), but most importantly the menu had english translation (again probably influence from Olympics), so I was able to order. This time it was tempura I was after as I had not had it in my previous two days in Japan. I ordered veggie tempura, which came with miso soup, rice and some other side dishes which I couldn’t eat because it was squid and something else.

After a great, filling lunch, I decided it was time to move on. I took a local JR train down to Shininoi station where the Olympic stadium was located. I should have asked for the Olympic park, but I think it was really far away up in the mountains near where they had the village. Anyway, after a 35 minute train ride down a few stops, I had no choice but to take a taxi. The walk would have been like 45 minutes, but it was hot, I was lazy, and not 100 percent sure how to even get there.

Man was this the most expensive taxi I have ever taken. The ride in total was probably under 2 miles and going there I paid 1400 yen (10-11 dollars!). That is astronomical and way more than even in NYC! So I got there, walked around the grounds, saw some of the facilities they had built after the Olympics, buildings they had converted to make it more public friendly, saw the stadium, took photos and went back. The taxi ride back was only 1100 yen, as we caught more lights and they guy didn’t drive at the tourist pace (the speed where they rack up the most yen, bastards).

I then took the train back to Nagano station, hit the bullet train home, and was back in Tokyo before 7. When I arrived back I was tired and not feeling so good. I decided I would lay low tongiht, hang out at the hostel, maybe watch a movie and get up early the next day to go to the fish market.

I ended up watching blood diamond with Adam and Helen, but fell asleep like 20 minutes in. I was passed out by 1230, but was getting up at 515 am.

Day 5 in Japan
Today’s schedule had me going to the Tsujiki Fish market, the largest fish market in the world, then off to Nikko a small village that is famous for its extremely old temples and shrines. I had been looking forward to go there, because I was interested to see life outside of the main cities in Japan.

I woke up at like 515, not feeling great still and real tired. I had been up yet again before 6 am! I gathered up my stuff and headed for Minowa station. When I got to the stop for the fish market, I basically just took the advice of fellow travelers and looked for anyone wearing big boots used for walking around the market. Luckily I found one guy, who I basically tailed the entire walk to the market. At one point the dude turned around, gave me a little look and then kept walking. I think he had noticed me following him to the market. Once I arrived at the main gate of the market it was pandimonium. Little trucks driving around all over the place transporting the fish and boxes. There were hundreds of them, and there were even signs basically saying that these trucks will run you over if you are in there way.

Since most people are tourists who visit, the locals are smart enough to know how to navigate through, they really don’t care, which is fine, because this isn’t a show, this is a way of life and people making their living, which I would not want to interfere with.

So basically I just walked up and down the aisles of the vendors seeing the different types of fish and shellfish, the smells were great and my feet were getting raunchy since I was wearing flip flops and the ground was covered in fish guts, mixed with really dirty water, hmmm, dirty water and fish guts. I took a few laps, snapped away, admired the 700 pound fish, saw the expensive tuna steaks, and then headed back.

Feeling a little disappointed that I didn’t see the live fish or the tuna auctions, I knew that there was something else I was missing. Luckily before leaving the market I noticed that they had a map in english with a layout of the markets. I noticed that I had in fact missed the live fresh fish section and the location of the tuna auctions. Unfortunately, my prior notions that the auctions are banned to the public were true, but regardless I figured out how to get to the live fish section and saw where the tuna auctions were taking place. The live fish section was cool because it was huge tanks of live fresh fish, all different types. Since I enjoy fishing and marine life it was pretty cool to see all those types of fish.

I thought a lot about walking closer to the tuna auctions, but instead observed them from a short distance. My teacher in 11th grade marine biology said that fish in this market can run up to $250,000 per fish. The fish was the blue fin tuna, meat used in the most expensive sushi in Japan, supposedly. They are monster fish, really fast, and extremely hard to catch due to their massive size and weight (probably from 500-900 pounds per fish). The fish are probably sold by weight and not by entire fish, so I bet the sellers make some good money.

Anyway after observing the auctions with people screaming left and right, it was like 730am and I was hungry. Now since it was only 730 or 8, I first tried to find some breakfast type food, but my experience in Japan and Asia is that there really isn’t breakfast type foods, with the exception of Hong Kong which has really adopted a western style culture and way of life. Granted they still preserve traditional chinese culture, with all the western businesses and stuff, they are been sideswiped over time with western culture, which is basically impossible to ignore.

So I started walking towards the subway station when I came across a really cheap and fresh sushi restaurant. After looking at all the pictures I decided that I would splurge and good, fresh sushi. Unfortunately when I went to look for my money it was gone! I must have misplaced the 10000 yen from the day before. I was really pissed, that was about $90! Fuck, I kept repeating to myself. My last hope was that it was mixed in with my stuff back at the hostel, so I hurried back, looked through my stuff in a bit of a panic, but it was to no avail. Feeling really pissed and telling anyone who would listen, I decided to just suck it up and get to Nikko asap.

I had to take several trains, local and bullet to get there using my JR pass. My mind must have been clouded by the fact I had just lost two days worth of budget, but I got on the wrong first train. Instead of taking the bullet to the transfer station, I took the local. It took one hour and 45 minues to get there! Bullet train would have gotten me there in only 45 minutes! After realizing that I had to take like 18 stops, I just sat in misery on the train, tried to take a nap, but my blood pressure was so high. Not only did I lose money, but I got on the wrong train and now I was completely strapped for time in Nikko. I finally arrived in Utsunomiya and transfered to the appropriate local train which took another 45 minutes. So it took me well over 2 hours when it should have only take 100 minutes, oh well.

When I arrived in Nikko I had to move real fast. I figured out what I needed to get around, got my unlimited bus ticket for 500 yen, got maps and was off. These shrines and temples were basically all in this square radius, so I would be able to walk to all of them. In total there were five famous temples and shrines, with a lot of little shrines and things to see.

The ticket to get in to them all was only 1000 yen (roughly $8). I forked out another 1000 and was off. Before I got on the bus though, I took out money for the next 1.5 days left with my time in Japan, and was ready to buy some chatchkas. I went to this shop with this little old lady, who suprisingly had really good prices (even for japan). When it was all said and done 2800 yen later, I bought a really nice sake set with some cups, a set of chopsticks again, some presents for the family, and a really cool small mask that had this really long pinnachio type nose. It was some symbol, I don’t know, I thought it was cool.

Then after the shopping I had all the crap to schlep around, but got the bus up to the shrines and temples. On the bus ride I met these photographers who worked for univision (spanish netowork) out of Denver, CO, who were in Japan for 7 days making a documentary of the country. They were cool to talk about the TV industry and stuff. They told me life is not that glamorous as they don’t really get to spend time with their families and whatnot. When we disembarked off the bus, they took a quick picture of me infront of a temple and we parted ways. Since the area closed at 5pm and it was about 245, now I really had to move. My plan was to take as many photos as possible and just remember how great it was by looking at the pictures when I returned home. I took about 550 pictures in the 2.5 hours, which might be a new record for me.

The places were so incredibly nice. The craftsmanship that had survived hundreds of years was remarkable. I took plenty of pictures and will post them when I get home.

I finished the last temple at approximately 425, just in time. My last stop in Nikko before I headed home was this famous red brigde called the Shinkyo sacred bridge. Underneath this bridge which you cannot walk on was some big river. The cool thing, which was also great for photos was that just in this section was all rushing water, with rocks. The way the light was hitting the bridge and water, coming off the mountains was spectacular and I hopped I captured it in my photos. Unfortunately, it will give it the justice this view deserved. The main reason why I went to it was because at the end the photographers I had met from Mexico, working in Denver on the bus, had told me not to miss it and that it had been shot in many magazines, including National Geographic. That was enough convincing for me.

After shooting away at the bridge, getting a photo in front of it, it was time to head back to the JR Station and home.

On the bus I met this girl from Toronto. We chatted for a little while, and she had mentioned she was going to Seoul soon. She asked me what I had done, but explained to her that the only touristy things I did was the Seoul Tower and a few temples/palaces. Plum and Julia had really exposed me to the local life of Seoul, so I was not that helpful. She listened to me spout off various things, after I whipped out my travel journal that I was updating on the trains during the day, and after we said adios, and that maybe I would run in to her in Bangkok in a few days (doubtful).

I caught the train home which comes every half hour by 30 seconds. Lucky again (haha jenny), and then was able to change my train home to get the bullet train this time, and not the stupid local train.

I arrived back almost 8PM and was beat. But this time I was not going home. I was going to experience the nightlife or at least the nightlights of Japan. I went to Akihabara (famous electronics district) and Ginza (lost in translation and most photos of night) Ginza was disappointing as it was mostly all really expensive shops and not much going on, but something I had to tell people I saw at the very least. In Akihabara I played some video games in this place called Club Sega. This place had all new and old school Sega Genesis games. It was heaven. I played this new tennis game called Power Smash 3, walked around, played some driving games, and just watched these kids go. I mean this was like the electronics and video game mecca, I had to experience it for myself. I love video games, especially Sega Genesis. That was my gaming console growing up, so it was a bit of nostaglia coupled with being in the moment that really got too me.

After visiting various districts at night it was time to head home one more time. Taking the subways in Tokyo is insane. The goal to to cram as many people as possible in to each car. Throw the max capacity fire regulations right out the window. They even have professional people to push us in to the car like sardines in a can! That was amusing to watch. It was so tight, and impossible to describe without you experiencing it for yourself.

When I got home, the kids in my room were sleeping and it was like 1030PM, jesus christ! They wake up at the crack of dawn and are asleep by 1030. I had to pack, but decided to be nice and bring my stuff back downstairs and repack there. As I was repacking I met some exchange students studying in Singapore from London and Finland. They were cool kids, I wish I had a few more days to hang out with them, but we had a really good chat about various topics, including life in Finland, why it is so damn expensive, a little bit of politics (I have definitely learned more about politics between countries and perception on this trip, probably more than any other which I am starting to enjoy). A lot of hot bed topics came up, including Iraq, Bush, and just other things not only about America.

It was about 2am and I had to wake up at 5am to walk to the bus station and get the 630 am train on the Keisei Skyliner to the airport. This train was like 1100 cheaper than the Narita express and it was quickier. I’m glad I found out about this one and didn’t fork up the 3000 for the Narita express on the JR line.

When I got to the airport I waited a little while to check in, once I did, I found free internet (score), got a drink and was off to Hong kong (guess who’s back, back again).

Look out for my time in Hong Kong, the first two days was absolutely crazy. Lots of money being spent, things being bought and crazy stuff happened.

Tune in

Thanks folks

Josh



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