Day 1: Tokyo – Pixeled Passport

| 07-May-2014 | Travelling west is a completely different “adjustment” than travelling east. Went to bed about 10pm last night and slept through to 6am this morning. A nice change from the midnight jolt to wide awake that is common on day 1 in Reykjavik.

Headed out around 7am this morning with a loose agenda: Palace Gardens and a baseball game. About 13.5 miles (that’s 43,000 steps for those of you counting), 13 hours and one subway ride later we returned to the apartment from the day’s adventures.

Our route took us initially to the site of the Tokyo Dome, then on to the Imperial Palace Grounds to check out the gardens. From there we continued on to Kasumigaokamachi, the site of Jingu Stadium, home of the Yakult Swallows. After securing infield seats to the evening’s game we contuinued on to some lunch. Refueled we checked out the ginormous Aoyama Cemetary (think city blocks in size!). Very interesting. On to Harajuku – walked Omote-sando, “The Champs-Elysees of Tokyo”, home to every international, high-end fashion label. Also checked out Takeshita-dori, famous for the “Harajuku girls” of crazy, over-the-top fashion, but it was mid-day on a school day so it was mostly Western tourists.

Here’s a photo recap of the day:

The grounds of the Imperial Palace is a huge whack of green space in the middle Tokyo. The site is home to the Imperial Palace, as well as some museums and government buildings. Only a portion of the area is open to the public.

We arrived as the gates opened for the day and had much of it to ourselves. Even caught some practice rounds by the guards and cavalry.

Aoyama Cemetary – think blocks and blocks crammed together like this and you get the idea.

These vending machines are everywhere. EVERYWHERE, as in every block. They dispense a variety of waters, sodas, coffee drinks (including hot!) and energy drinks. We’ve learned to look for these when in need of a garbage can – it’s about the only place you’ll find them in the city.

About every 10 feet in some parts of town is a little restaurant that seats 8 – 10 people. Out front they’ll have an impressive array of plastic entrees to entice you to try their selection of the standard fare – noodles, noodles with meat, rice with meat, mystery vegetables – rather than the next guy’s. Apparently there’s a street in town where every storefront makes this crazy plastic stuff!

Meiji-jingu, Tokyo’s grandest Shinto shrine. Originally built in 1928 and reconstructed 1in 1958 after being destroyed in WWII. Just inside the main gate of the park grounds is an impressive and colorful display of sake barrels wrapped in straw and cotton. Inside the doors of the shrine inself is a large collection of prayer tiles – wood tiles where vistors can write prayers or messages and leave them hanging for blessing. There are only a few buildings on the park grounds – another sprawling expanse of greenery smack in the middle of the cityscape.

For your daily dose of irony – you cannot smoke on the sidewalks in Tokyo. There are “smoking stations” though where people can congregate and smoke. What kills me is that it is true, people do run around with surgical masks – and to see them with their masks pulled down to their chins so they can smoke is hilarious.

So you’ll rock your smoke break at the “smoking station” but you can’t handle the Tokyo pollution?

The Yakult Swallows play in Jingu Stadium, a mid-size outdoor field; much smaller than the nearby Tokyo Dome which is home to the Giants. The people watching here was excellent – organized cheering, draft beer available in the stands from young women wearing “beer backpacks” and you can get an impressive bento box at the concession stand. We stayed for six innings (6-0 for the home team) before the evening chill sent us to the subway. Totally worth it though – check Japanese baseball game off the bucket list.

We figured 8pm on a Wednesday night was as good a time as any to try out the Tokyo Metro. The Ginza line runs directly between the stadium station and Ueno which is across the park from the apartment. One line, 13 stops, ￥200 (about $2) – not walking another 4 miles to get back to the apartment … priceless!