Daniel Young Travels

TOKYO

MAY 2 - MAY 8

Tokyo made this New Yorker feel like a country bumpkin. It's a city which never ends. Shinjuku, the section in which we stayed, felt like a metropolis of the future, unending modern buildings interconnected by underpasses, overpasses, promenades, escalators and elevators - and crowds everywhere.

This excerpt from the Wikipedia article on the Shinjuku train station (right next to our hotel) gives you an idea of the gargantuan scale of the area:

The station was used by an average of 3.59 million people per day in 2018, making it the world's busiest transport hub by far (and registered as such with Guinness World Records).^[1] The main East Japan Railway Company (JR East) station and the directly adjacent private railways have a total of 35 platforms, an underground arcade, above-ground arcade and numerous hallways with another 17 platforms (53 total) that can be accessed through hallways to 5 directly connected stations without surfacing outside. The entire above/underground complex has well over 200 exits.

Although the train system is touted as the most efficient way to get around Tokyo, one descent into Shinjuku station was enough to convince me to use taxis to get around Tokyo. Below is my one photo reaction to the station. People who enter the section seen below are never seen again. But people keep going in.

I preferred the safer underground basement food hall of Takashimaya department store. There we could enjoy endless food displays and watch a master craftsman make mochi buns filled with sweet bean paste.

One variety of bun is associated with a holiday celebrating boys on May 5th (now transformed into a general children's holiday). These are wrapped in oak leaves. Since oak trees supposedly don’t shed old leaves until new leaves grow, Japanese consider oak trees as a symbol of the prosperity of one’s descendants.

After settling in our hotel room the first stop was the Shinjuku Gyoen National Park, the large park you can see in the distance,

Shinjuku Gyoen National Park is entirely fenced with a few entrances where an admission fee is paid. After a frustrating attempt to follow the fence and find an entrance we finally gave up and took a taxi. Park admission was 500 Yen for adults, half that for Seniors (65 and over) (about US$3.20 or $1.60)

Worth it.

Well-organized residential garbage outside the park fence.

On the next morning we started with a walk to the relatively close Meiji shrine, a Shinto shrine dedicated to the spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. We missed the traditional archery demonstration (part of an annual festival) but the sights were worthwhile.

Shinto impresses me as a tolerant belief system focused on harmony with nature and respect for ancestors. I didn't feel any authoritarian vibes.

Baby-centered events apparently take place at the shrine.

In Meiji Shrine Park, another example of Japanese cleanliness.

Visitors hang wishes at the shrine.

Impressive sake donations are nicely displayed.

From the Meiji shrine we took a taxi to the Hokusai museum, a proper tribute to one of the greatest artists in history. See, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai

Very nice recreation of Hokusai at work.

Manhole cover displays one of his most famous works.

Tokyo has a section full of stores devoted to cooking and cleaning. Emma picked up a special chopping cleaver at one of them. She admired the variety of brushes and the plastic sashimi but did not buy any.

A highlight of the Tokyo National Art Museum was the small garden in the back where I spotted another model of cleanliness - a workman cleaning the bird droppings from the walkway.

In the museum I spotted this lovely screen section showing a meditating sage tolerating the play of children. But the best art in the neighborhood was being practiced near the museum by a man wielding a wet rag at the end of a stick to create lovely calligraphic symbols on the sidewalk - or maybe they are animal sketches - you decide.

A tourist takes a break.

Hunting for a lunch place.

A walk in the Shinjuku neighborhood of our hotel.

The only unsatisfactory meal of the trip. They totally failed to deliver Emma's order.

A peek at the dreaded ticket machines in one of the scores of train station entrances.

A mystery - a building lit to resemble the Parthenon, we think - spotted by Emma from our hotel room

A small festival float seen on a visit to the Asakusa section.

The long shopping arcade leading to the temple in Asakusa.

The temple

Rickshaw men hanging around waiting for clients.

Back to Takashimaya Food Hall, our sort of temple.

Admirable packing is everywhere in Japan.

This is the way a good restaurant presents an asparagus spear from Hokaido. I removed the string and ate the whole thing.

Gold leaf applied to food is excessive in my opinion.

The pre-Nazi ancient sun symbol is still used.

This fruit is known as the or goldenberry. Physalis tastes sweet and sour and has soft, small edible seeds inside. The most eye-catching feature of physalis is the paper-like husk of the fruit: green to light brown, like a lantern around the fruit.