Tag: Tokyo

Rain Day

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Rain was predicted for today.  In fact it was raining when I went down from my room to breakfast.  I debated if I should bring the umbrella and rain jacket or just the rain jacket.  The umbrella is just another thing to carry and the rain was light.  I chose just the rain jacket.  I should have taken both.

Today, I had scheduled a tour through the streets of Tokyo on go-karts.  I was quite excited.  I hoped the rain didn’t ruin the activity.  I headed over to the kart shop.  There were four others signed up to go with me.

It was no longer raining, but the cart guy said it was expected to start back up in the middle of the 2 hour tour.  I could get a refund or if I decided to go, they would lend me a rain coat, rain pants, gloves, goggles AND a rain poncho.  Under all that, how would I even know if it was raining.  I should have taken the refund. 

The group of 4 came in after me and didn’t know you needed to have an international driver’s license to go on the tour.  So they couldn’t go.  It was just me.  I expected it would be me and a guide in karts zipping around.  That didn’t sound as fun as a big group, but it sounded fun enough so I suited up in all the anti rain stuff and watched the safety video. 

There would be a lead car and a follow car so I just had to follow the lead car and not run any red lights.  After a hands-on tutorial of the kart, I was ready to go.  Wait, there was no guide in a kart going with me.  This suddenly went down on the fun scale to fun adjacent.  

It started off ok.  I was a little slow at first.  I didn’t want to gun it and run into the lead car.  I would start up slow and then speed up just in time to have to break at a stop light.  Apparently I was driving around with my hazards on because the guy in the follow car ran up to me at a stop light and asked if I was ok and then turned them off.  Ooops. 

The turn signal was trying to get the better of me.  I couldn’t see the toggle switch under the wheel.  I missed it quite a few times and I bet I was driving around with it on when I wasn’t turning from time to time.  I don’t even know why I cared.  The follow car had a clear view of the lead car over my head and knew when we were turning.

It rained a little harder.  The break and gas pedals were slippery.  My goggles were streaked with rain.  The rain jacket hood slowly slipped farther back exposing more of my face and allowing water to drip into the jacket.  I couldn’t tell if I was mildly wet or completely soaked.

I basically was flying slowly (felt fast to me, but probably was annoyingly slow to everyone else) in a bubble between the lead and follow cars so I felt safe-ish.  But I was sitting on the ground by myself completely exposed to the elements in a vehicle that is squirrely.  Water was everywhere.  It rained harder and harder and became more difficult to see or push the pedals.  I had dropped solidly into the category of pure un-fun – no fun anywhere to be found.

I raised my hand at the next light which was the signal to abort. Someone from the lead car ran out and asked if I wanted to abort.  Yes, very much so.  The lead car found a safe place to pull over and I was shuttled into the lead car.  I have no idea what became of the kart.  We drove around a bit.  Then we stopped for a photo at Tokyo Station, then went back.

I have a coupon for another time.  I still think it would be a lot of fun not by myself.  

I asked if there was anything they recommended I could do that was fun and not in the rain.  My plan was to go to a park after, but  that was solidly in the non-fun category now.  My feet and pants were dry, but my top was not.  Both TeamLabs and the Harry Potter Tour were recommended.  Everyone kept asking if I was cold – not in the slightest.  I had my rain jacket, but they gave me a poncho to add to the mix. 

I looked up TeamLabs – no tickets available.  I looked up the HP tour.  There were tickets, but it seemed far away.  To HP or not to HP?  I didn’t have the energy to come up with another idea.  I ordered a cab to the HP tour which cost the same as the HP tickets. 

They gave me a plastic bag to put my wet poncho in.  That was nice.  The tour covered a lot about how the movies were made.  It also had a bunch of sets that looked like the movie sets so you could walk through them.  Most of the instructions by staff were in Japanese, but it wasn’t hard to get the gist.  There were places where you could act out scenes or get your picture taken.  I tried them all, but, wow, I’m horrible.  Not that anyone around me was great, but each time I watched the video I just made, I cringed.  It wasn’t even funny bad acting.

The best part of the whole thing was that about 90% of the people, including the adults went into the gift shop ahead of the tour and bought a cape, scarf and wand.  The place was completely covered in giddy, excited people running around pretending they were wizards.  They were posing for pictures, waving their wands to do spells, and having the best time ever.

Halfway through the tour was a cafe and a bar where you could get butter beer.  I was quite ready to try butter beer.  I love everything butter.  I got the butter beer and popcorn combo.  The butter beer smelled like butterscotch, but didn’t quite taste like it.  It just tasted sweet.  It was fun to sit at the pub and have a butter beer.  It also came in a souvenir cup.  My poor husband is going to get a bunch of souvenir cups when I get home and not a single cat hat.

After taking way too many pictures it was time to figure out how to get back to the hotel.  The trains would take over an hour and would involve walking in the pouring rain.  I was in a zone Go Taxis were not allowed because there was a formal taxi stand nearby.  Go is like Uber.  There was no taxi stand anywhere in sight.  There was nothing.  I thought if I headed out to the street, I might get out of the no Go zone.  I got out of the zone, but no Go’s were available in the area.  I was  completely soaked now anyway despite the gift poncho.  I ask maps to find the train station.  I hoped my phone continued to work even though it was also soaked.  Wandering through train stations and riding trains for an hour and my clothes were dry again. Yay for quick drying clothes. 

This was going to be a good night to eat at the hotel.  No, it was closed for a private party just like every other night.  Back out into the rain.  I went back to the place I went the first night for more meat on a stick.

Call and Response

On By rrainefioreIn TravelLeave a comment

There are a lot of small restaurants in Tokyo.  These are often found in alleys.  They usually hold 10 to 20 customers.  You sit at a counter facing the kitchen which I like as well.  It’s fun to watch the cooks.  

When you enter the restaurant, the cook, waitress and any other staff call out to you.  It’s like they are giving a cheer that you have arrived at their establishment.  I have no idea what they are saying, but I imagine it is “Yay!  You are here! Welcome!”. When you order, the waitress calls out and the cook answers.  In my head they said “She would like a steak”.  “Great choice, foreign lady”.  When you leave everyone cheerfully yells out in unison.  Again, I made up the words “Have a great day!”. 

I think I will.

Planets and Towers

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The last time I was in Tokyo, I went to a light exhibit by TeamLabs.  I don’t even know how to describe it, but it blew my mind.  Digital light effects, computer generated, interactive, magical,…..  Since then I have gone to everything like it including one in Singapore by TeamLabs.  None came close to comparing.  So first order of business for the day was to go to their second installation in Tokyo, Planets.

Planets did not disappoint.  There were three exhibits that included water.  One was wading in a koi pond.  The water was up to my mid calf.  The koi were digital light images on the water.  They interacted with you as you walked through the pond.  Some swam around you, others skittered off when you approached.  When they ran into each other, they turned into flowers that floated off.  Pure magic.

I could explain more of the exhibits, but I couldn’t do them justice.  The pictures and videos below are just an approximation also, but enjoy.

After, I went to the small cafe outside.  They had a “bar” where you could sit with the orchids from one of the exhibits and get a sake or a tea.  I got a tea.  I sat in a dark room with a couple while the vases the orchids were in lit up on a slow neon fade. My tea cup also lit up. It was an odd, not quite satisfying experience.  It also came with a free orchid (no flower, just the plant).  More odd.  Now I’m toting a rather large green thing around that I can’t take home with me.  I hope my friend that I will see later in the trip or the retreat center I am going to will like it.

After stashing my orchid in my hotel room, I decided to head off to a park near the Tokyo tower. I walked from the train station toward the tower and saw a shrine along the way. I stopped in a cafe for lunch. The tower was close so I decided to take some pictures around there before heading to the park. I went in and saw that tickets to the observation deck were not very expensive. I bought a ticket for entry to the top observation deck. I had an hour to kill before my ticket entry time. So, I went up to the mid observation deck and walked around about ten times. I got a coffee, snapped some pictures and watched a movie about the war and the building of the tower. The park I was aiming to go to didn’t look too impressive from way up high. In every direction I looked, there was just city as far as the eye could see. No end to Tokyo in any direction. Then I went up to the top deck in a very crowded elevator. The views from the top deck looked a lot like the views from the mid deck so I did a couple laps around and headed back down.

All of this took the better part of a day. It was so nice to have a planned activity followed by wandering. I decided to wander to a different part of the city in search of ramen for dinner.

Ramen

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

I decided to go to Shinjuku for dinner.  I looked for ramen restaurants on Google maps and picked one nearby the station that had good reviews.  Maps led me down a busy street and then turned me down an alley.  The alley was quiet and dark except for a place that was lit up and had a line of people in front of it. 

I had to wait in line for ramen?  Normally, I would not be up for waiting in line for dinner, but a line down the alley had to be a good sign.  So I got in line.

A lady came out of the restaurant and took tickets from a couple a few people ahead of me.  Huh.  How did they get tickets?  Was I in line for take out?  I hoped not.  I wouldn’t know where to take it.  The guy behind me hadn’t done anything so I just stood there, waiting. 

Two people came out of the restaurant and got in line up ahead of me. No one seemed bothered by this.  Oh…..something was going on that I didn’t understand.  After about 5 minutes the guy in front of me went in and came back out with a ticket.  I think I got it – kind of. 

The lady came out, asked him some questions, wrote on his ticket and took his ticket.  She then motioned for me to go inside to get a ticket.

I went inside.  It was a tiny restaurant that only sat 12 people.  I’d only been in one ramen restaurant before and it was tiny too, but without the line and ticket system.  There was a machine and it appeared to have menu items on it.  There was shrimp and miso, shrimp and tomato, and shrimp and dipping sauce.  I pressed the button for shrimp and dipping sauce, but nothing happened.  I pressed another button below it.  Nothing happened.  I stared at the machine for a minute, trying to figure out what to do next.  Finally, I see the lady who was outside and motioned for help.  She showed me where to put money in the machine.  Duh.  It was obvious after she showed me.  The machine lit up and I pressed a button.  A ticket popped out and then my change. 

I think I might have ordered ramen with shrimp, dipping sauce and egg?  I went back out and stood where I was in line.  The lady came to get my ticket and asked what size I wanted.  I said small.  Small apparently came with another topping, pork or something.  I understood “pork” so I picked that.  She wrote on my ticket and took it. 

I watched the system continue with the people behind me as I waited to go in to eat.  Now I was excited.  It was like dinner with a guessing game. Guess what happens next….. This is one the things I love so much about travelling – feeling kind of clueless or lost because something is so different than I am used to. 

When I got closer to the door, I noticed the sign for the restaurant.  It had a huge shrimp on it.  Aha, that must be their speciality and it explained the choices.

When it was time to go in, the lady told me “two” and motioned to a bar stool with a 2 on it.  As I sat down the guy in seat 1 got up and went to a counter behind the bar stools where there was a stack of cups and a water dispenser.  Suddenly I was so thirsty.  I got up, got some water, a packaged wet cloth for cleaning my hands and what I thought was a napkin.  It was the least absorbent napkin I had ever felt.  Wait, it wasn’t a napkin.  It was a bib.  I hadn’t noticed before, but everyone was wearing bibs.  I don’t think I’d worn a bib since I was a kid.  This was oddly super fun.

Proudly, I put my bib on, grabbed my chop sticks and waited for my food to arrive.  They gave me two bowls, one with noodles, lettuce and pork in it and one with the sauce and “shrimp”.  Watching others, I see that you take a little of everything and put it in the sauce to soak for a few seconds, then eat, then repeat.  The shrimp had the consistency of shrimp, but didn’t resemble shrimp in any other way.  The pork was excellent. 

Still not used to the time change coupled with a belly full of carbs I was exhausted. I decided that going back to the hotel and going to bed by 9:00 was the best plan.

Offensive Snowflake

On By rrainefioreIn TravelLeave a comment

I’ve been planning this trip to Japan for about a month now. I’ve been to Japan twice before so this should be easy. I feel like the world is getting more crowded and reservations for things are more necessary than they use to be. Gone are the days where you just show up, find a hotel, wander, find dinner and then decide last minute to do that tour or see that thing. In some places, it could still work out that way, but I might be too old to just show up and find a hotel when I arrive, especially when travelling alone. I booked all my hotels ahead of time for this trip. That was pretty easy. I booked some activities that I was pretty excited about. Then I started to book all the high speed trains (and one normal speed bus) I would need. I had it all mapped out only to find out you couldn’t order tickets more than a month in advance. It was quite a bit of work to figure out times and routes to get where I wanted to go as there were so many options. Which options would involve the least amount of walking with my suitcase? I found out that you could ship your suitcase in most situations, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I could check in at each hotel. So, I had to assume worst case, I would be dragging a suitcase with me. It took me the better part of a day to figure out which trains I wanted tickets for so I recorded the various websites to buy tickets from later and the times and routes I wanted. I just wanted to buy the tickets then and be done with this part of the planning, but I would have to wait.

After I bought the first tickets, I expected a ticket I could print or a QR code I could download. Instead, I found pages of information on how to “receive” my tickets in Japan. I looked up a large list of stations where I could receive tickets and the one I would be departing from was not on that list. I looked it up twice – not sure why I thought it would change – it didn’t. So I switched gears and looked at the pages of instructions on how to receive tickets from a machine. It felt like the worst easter egg hunt ever – find a machine (somewhere in Tokyo?) that had this symbol or this symbol and then go through these 10 steps to receive your ticket. You will need the credit card you bought the ticket with and a four digit pin you chose. At this point I started to regret deciding to do this trip and seriously wondered if I was getting too old to travel, too old to learn new things. My house and life in Colorado were starting to feel all too comfortable. In small print I saw that tickets could be received at select ticket counters in Tokyo. It didn’t say which ticket counters, but at least I could formulate a plan now. I would try to find a ticket counter at the airport when I landed. I remember getting train tickets there in the past. If that didn’t work, I would go to the main train station in Tokyo one day and find a ticket counter.

Over time I bought four more train tickets and a bus ticket. Four of the five train tickets had the same “receive” instructions. The other and the bus ticket came with QR codes. One train ticket required that I set up a membership before I could purchase. I have no idea what I am a member of. Of course, this is the one that my credit card company denied. I had to enter my membership information at least fifteen times due to the website timing out, the website verifying my membership, the website going under maintenance, and the transaction not going through because of the credit card denial. I spent over a half hour on the phone with the credit card company trying to resolve the issue. Again, I almost threw in the towel on the whole trip. I will still have to pay as I go for all the local trains and one bus ride that are not reservable.

By the time it was time to leave, I felt beat up and incapable. Add that to some health issues and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to go. I checked in for my flight the day before and got to the page where it asked if I wanted to change my seats. There were plenty of first class seats still available and I was feeling sorry for myself so I clicked on a first class seat and put my credit card in. I felt a mix of better and worse at the same time. It felt like this would be my last trip ever so I might as well have a lie down seat for it. Who am I right now and where are these doomsday thoughts coming from? Is this just because the train scheduling got the better of me or because I’m not as healthy as I used to be or do I just need a snack?

I woke up early for travel day – earlier than I would normally so that put me in a bad mood. I immediately regretted buying the first class seat. I was going to really miss my husband. I was hoping I would say healthy. I had a weird thought that I was afraid my government wouldn’t let me back in the country when I came home – some crazy things are happening in our government right now. As with a lot of things lately, I blame menopause. After I checked in and went through security I found some breakfast and immediately started crying. I hadn’t told my husband that I upgraded my seat. Ultimately, he was the person working and paying for it. It felt like a huge weight. It felt like I was lying to him even though I was technically withholding information, information he probably would never know. I called him sobbing and apologizing. He was fine with it. I realized that part of why I feel so horrible is that I’m leaving him behind. Even though he chose not to come, it still feels weird to not take my partner in crime with me.

The flight was ok. I had trouble sleeping partly because there were two women that talked the whole flight and partly because there was an infant babbling most of the flight. First class does not buy quiet. I did get two blankets, two pillows, slippers and a kit with ear plugs, eye mask, tooth brush, etc. I watched a few movies and got a little sleep. I woke up mid flight, hungry and was able to get a grilled cheese and some tomato soup. That was the best timed grilled cheese ever. I guess I’m off the keto now.

After landing, I was able to find a JR East ticket counter. Even though all my tickets were on JR West, the lady at the counter knew exactly what I needed and easily printed all my tickets for me. It took less time to print all my tickets than it took to read about how to receive them. All that stress for nothing. She also helped me with a local train card that I could reload with money later if I needed. Then I took a taxi to my hotel. I should have taken a couple of trains instead. More money down the drain and no grilled cheese to go with it.

My hotel had check in agents with an automated check in screen in front of them. You were supposed to enter all your information and it would spit out your breakfast coupons and room key. So basically, the lady behind the desk pushed all the buttons for me when I got confused on how to do the automated check in steps by myself. Again, am I too old to be travelling? My room is tiny. The window looks out at the side of another building. The bathroom is slightly bigger than the bathroom in our camper van. But the TV is giant. The hotel reminds me that some people in the world live in spaces this size. I am filled with gratitude for all that I have.

I picked a hotel with a restaurant so that if I was too tired to go out on the first night I wouldn’t have to. The restaurant was closed for a private party. So, out I will go. Google maps found a few restaurants with in a ten minute walk. I picked one with a medium price. I was in an area that seemed to be more business offices so it was very quiet out. Maps took me down some quiet streets to a closed restaurant. The second restaurant I chose was also closed. I should have clicked the “open now” filter. The third one was open and not at all crowded. They specialized in yakitori and I happen to like meat on a stick so it was a win. They brought me a small dish that looked like a salad before my chicken trio. Aw, how nice. I looked in the bowl and saw something silvery under the beautiful micro greens. I don’t eat fish and I’m sure that is raw fish hiding under the microgreens. I felt bad for not eating my free treat. But the chicken was excellent. The walk back to the hotel was cool and peaceful. It took this long, but I finally felt my nervous system start to relax. Maybe I wasn’t too old to travel after all.

The tv in my room told me that this hotel has a public bath. The tv comes on automatically every time I come in the room. It comes on to a hotel information page with lots of helpful and not so helpful little videos that tell me about Japan and the hotel. There is a little sign that tells you if the public bath is busy or not. Tonight, it wasn’t. The tv told me the correct way to put on my bathrobe (yukata) and that I could wear it from my room to the public bath. That seems like a simple bit of information, but I was happy to know it. It also told me that tattoos are not allowed in the public bath, but the hotel has stickers you can use to cover them. That was good to know too since I wasn’t sure which baths allow them and which do not. I will need to cover that very offensive snowflake on my foot, the terrifying bird on my shoulder, the rude turtle on my chest, and the kuma (bear in Japanese, my old dog’s name) on my leg and the dirty frog on my back. To be fair, the frog is a blue poisonous tree frog so it could be dangerous, but the rest are not. I asked for stickers at the front desk and the guy gave me two. I felt funny asking for three more. All stickered up, I looked like I had gotten in a knife fight and was all bandaged up from it. The baths and lack of good sleep put me very ready for bed by about 9:30. Finally I was looking forward to the rest of my trip.

My Tiny Room
Quiet Streets
Hidden Fish
Yay! Meat on a Stick
Temple?
Road Block for Nobody?
Free to Borrow
View from my Hotel Window

Light Museum

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Uncategorized1 Comment

I don’t know where I saw this advertised, but I saw an advertisement for the teamLabs Borderless exhibit in Tokyo before I left Colorado.  It is art created through light coordinated with sound and movement.  It looked interesting so we got tickets to go see it.  It ended up being more than interesting and was nothing short of pure magic.  I can’t say enough about it.  I’m not even sure I can come close to explaining how wonderful it was.  If you ever have the chance to see an exhibit by teamLabs, go!

It was a very popular art installation as the line to see it was out the door and around the corner.  It took a long time to get in, but it was so worth the wait. You are lost the second you enter the exhibit.  We were given a map so I knew what some of the areas were, but you couldn’t possibly follow the map once you are inside.  There were flowers made of lights spinning and moving along the walls ceiling and floor to the point that you really couldn’t tell where the walls ceiling and floor were.  There were elephants, giraffes and other creatures made of flowers walking through the hallways.  There were many little rooms with other things in them, but the flowers and animals still wandered in and out of these rooms.

A quote from their website:  “People understand and recognize the world through their bodies, moving freely and forming connections and relationships with others. As a consequence, the body has its own sense of time. In the mind, the boundaries between different thoughts are ambiguous, causing them to influence and sometimes intermingle with each other.  teamLab Borderless is a group of artworks that form one borderless world. Artworks move out of the rooms freely, form connections and relationships with people, communicate with other works, influence and sometimes intermingle with each other, and have the same concept of time as the human body.  People lose themselves in the artwork world. The borderless works transform according to the presence of people, and as we immerse and meld ourselves into this unified world, we explore a continuity among people, as well as a new relationship that transcends the boundaries between people and the world”.

There was one room where if you stood still, butterflies were created on you.  They started on your chest and back and moved to your feet and then flew out into the room and then fluttered out into the hallway and continued on to cover all reaches of the exhibit.  As long as people stood in this room, butterflies were created.  I had read that they continue to fly until someone touches them and then they cease to exist.

There was a room with a floor that raised up, covered in rocks made of light up to a beautiful waterfall in the corner.  You could walk up the rocks and sit on top of them with water made of light falling all around you and flowing out to the other corner of the room.

Another room was filled with lanterns that when you stood next to one, it lit brightly of a specific color.  Then the next closest two lights would light up with the same color and the next closest two to those until the pattern worked it’s way back to the original lamp.  The lamps were arranged in such a way that the line of light would always come back to the original lamp.  With a room full of people and different colors, mirrors on the floor, ceiling and walls it was impossible to follow the wave of lights you created, but it was mesmerizing.

There was a room that was called nest where you were supposed to lay on your back suspended in a nest while lights swirled around you.  We never made it to this one because of the long line to get in the room, but it sounded magical.

My favorite room was one where we entered the back of the room.  There were a bunch of vertical bars with round discs on them.  The discs were above our heads and light was being projected on them, but you couldn’t quite tell what the light was doing.  As we walked farther in the room, we walked upward and watched as the discs came more in line with our shoulders and then our hips.  At this point, it was a sea of color moving and swirling on the discs.  It went from walking through a field of waving reeds or plants to cascading colors and rivers of movement all around you as if you were standing in the field or the surf or the galaxy of color.  You slowly walked through, making your own path through the discs on poles until you were at the other side of the room where the exit was.  It was so unexpected that I loved it.  The room was called memory of topography.  That alone would have been worth the price of admission.

There was a room with led light strips hanging from floor to ceiling.  It looked like there was no rhyme or reason to it and that the whole room was full of these light strips.  They danced and moved to music, changing colors.  After a little bit, you could see pathways through the lights.  You walked through the pathways into other rooms.  Patterns would appear in the lights, they would light up like lightning and then go dark.  It was difficult to tell which way was up, where lights started and ended and they seemed to go on forever.  It was the very definition of magic.  This room was called Crystal World.

Ok wait, the tea house was my favorite room in the exhibit.  This was the only thing you had to pay for in the exhibit.  The description sounded interesting so we went in and bought tea.  We were taken to a very dimly lit waiting room until it was our turn.  After about 3 or 4 minutes we were taken to a very dark bar.  The bar was big and wide and could hold about 12 – 18 people.  Our waiter came out and brought us tea.  As the tea sat on the bar, a flower started to form in the tea.  The flower grew as long as the tea cup sat still on the bar.  Then when you picked it up to sip it, it broke into many flowers and scattered across the top of the bar.  Once freed from the cup, the flowers flowed out across the bar and floated up the wall when they reached it or continued on to the bar next to ours.  As long as there was tea in the cup, flowers formed and grew and broke apart to float around the room.  A guy sat next to us.  He had ordered ice cream.  As long as there was ice cream in his cup, vines grew out of his cup and wandered around the bar.  I wish I had paid more attention to the menu as I might have ordered more than one thing.  I didn’t want to ever leave, but as slow as I drank my tea, it was eventually gone and the bar turned dark again.

Here are a couple of photos and a lot of videos:

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