Some Top Notch Times
As promised, another blog - I've got a bit of time between lessons and intend to use it to churn out as many blogs as possible.
I've been incredibly lucky to have had several friends and family come visit me already in the almost year that I've been here - some people I know go their entire time without any of that, so I consider myself very fortunate. This month however I had one visit I was very much looking forward to, which was that of my friends Chris and Kerryn. They had 6 days in Tokyo (not nearly enough in my opinion, but hey, I like a challenge), and so I took it upon myself to curate them a Tokyo experience that would give them as wide a look at this place as possible.
Very fortunately I had just moved into my new dormitory, which so happened to be on the same island in Tokyo Bay as their hotel, meaning I was a very easy walk away, just over five minutes.
They arrived in the evening at their hotel, where I was waiting to give them some things to deal with the heat (I've gotten quite used to it by now, but for them it was a bit of a shock), train passes, and then bundled them into a train to go get dinner in Shibuya, my old haunt.
Dinner was a relatively quick (and late) affair, by the time we got into Shibuya and so on, with a well deserved litre of beer on tap for consumption, and then it was an early night in preparation for some very busy days (and my actual move in at 7 the next morning)
First on the cards was Shibuya and Harajuku - quintessentially Tokyo, very safe for tourists, and easy to get to; a good starter for Tokyo.
When showing them around Meiji Jingu I was telling stories about the number of weddings I had seen here, and how expensive they must be - and then lo behold we had not one,but two wedding parties walking through the main square of the shrine, as if the universe was trying to prove that indeed weddings do happen here!
It was also the first proper outing for my newly acquired crystal photography ball, which can be used (and has been heavily used) for some fun photoplay
Next day was a Yamanote experience, basically taking the Tokyo loop train to a lot of the big sights in the city, but before all that we started in New York, by which I mean the I-don't-know-why-it's-there Statue of Liberty in Odaiba, with the Rainbow Bridge in the background, because it's so bizarre and why not?
Then it was off to the Tokyo Station, an exhibition of curiosities (unfortunately no photos allowed there), and then onto the Imperial Palace.
Harajuku was as techy, loud and nerdy as it always is, with a brief (but felt endless) venture into an anime shop (Kerryn and I shared a moment as we experienced our personal hells), and there was some seriously decked out streetcars on display. Oh Japan....
After experiencing Japan's interpretation of Italian food (not what you'd normally rate as Japanese holiday fare), it was off the Yamanote line briefly so we could visit Sensoji and Asakusa.
As the sun began to set, we made our way to Shinjuku, to navigate Kabukicho (redlight and nightlife district) to get to the samurai musuem. But first we needed to take a seat at the entrance to the Robot Restaurant - and the robots we were seated in did have levers that operated the mechanisms - very cool!
The samurai museum was as always a good time, with a really well done English language tour, showcasing almost a thousand years of samurai history. And of course there were the dressups!
Our next day was at the TeamLab Borderless Digital Art Museum in Odaiba, which has been blowing up on social media as a huge multimedia light, sound and art experience. For this of course I brought the crystal photography ball, and I admit most of my photos were taken through that, having been before to take photos sans crystal ball....
A real highlight though was one of the last rooms, where you can colour in pictures of sea life. These are then scanned by a special Epson scanner, and your creation is projected onto the wall and brought to life! They exist for 24 hours and you can interact with them, feed them and so on. In the other room there is a similar concept, but with amphibians and insect life - but if you are a butterfly, watch out for frogs, they'll eat ya!
With the morning filled with digital spectacles, I thought about what kind of visual extravaganza would make a good follow up. Kerryn had mentioned wanting to see the skyline, and so we went to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (a good, and free way to see the skyline). Unfortunately when we were there it was quite smoggy, so the likes of Mt Fuji were not visible, but still it gave a good idea of the scale of Tokyo.
From the government building in Shinjuku, it was a quick jaunt on the Yamanote to Ikebukuro, where the Sunshine City Aquarium is based. I'd been a couple times before, but never with my crystal ball, so of course that was once again heavily utilised (my professional photographer father will be rolling his eyes at all this)
The next day I had to go in to university in Kashiwa for the morning to sign for my monthly stipend, and so I met with Chris and Kerryn for an afternoon of typhoon dodging. Their trip coincided with the arrival of super typhoon Jebi, which thankfully decided to give Tokyo a miss, instead absolutely nailing western Japan - though we still had some massive downpours and strong winds. My Japanese friends were saying I should stay home, but damnit my friends were here for only a few days and it was going to take more than a super typhoon to stop them having a good time! So off we went to an art gallery for an exhibition on bento (Japanese lunchboxes)
The exhibition itself is a bit of fun, if not slightly preachy on the themes it presents, but also it gave Chris an opportunity to dress up as the 'Spirit of Bento', so that's a laugh if nothing else.
We had been eating a variety of foods during their time here, some more traditional than others, and so in my quest to give them as varied a food experience as possible, we went to make okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes). This is a highly interactive cooking experience, with a variety of flavours and ingredients, so a good bit of culinary fun.
For the last full day of their time in Japan, we decided to go for a day trip out of Tokyo. I'd given them a variety of options, but the general consensus was more traditional Japan, given how much hyper modernity is found in Tokyo. With that in mind, we ventured to Kanagawa, the prefecture I spent my AFS exchange in 2011-2012, to go to Kamakura. This is where I went to see the Yabusame festival earlier in the year, and Claire and I went here during Golden Week as well. It is a good place to go for a day trip that is out of Tokyo, but caters well to tourists, and shows off a bit more traditional Japan, outside of the city - but is no less accessible for it!
We had three temples on the cards; Meigetsu-in, famous for its moon shaped window and home to some apparently weird Buddhist sect that was outlawed in the Meiji era; Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, the big temple complex that steals the show at Kamakura; and Hokokuji, which is famous for its bamboo grove. This was the hottest day of the lot, and very sunny, which unfortunately also coincided with the most walking of their trip, but we fought through the heat admirably. Chris in particular had a novel method, which was to buy two 750ml cans of beer to go from a roadside bar, which kept him 'hydrated' (until it didn't...)
It was then back to Shibuya for sushi train dinner with Claire, followed by the classic 'stand-in-the-middle-of-Shibuya-scramble' photo and one last addition to my 'Friends with Hachiko' photo collection, and then we headed back to Odaiba for the last night. The next morning was fairly chill, with check out and so on, and then meandering around the various malls of Odaiba. Before long it came time for Chris and Kerryn to board their airport bus, and the whirlwind six day adventure was over!
Tokyo seems like a daunting place to visit, like you cannot hope to fit it in during any length of stay (true), but don't let that scare you - you can have an absolute ball of a time in less than a week, and by this stage I am getting quite good at playing tour guide! So come stay at the Grand Nikko Daiba, a stone throw from my dormitory, and you can make like Chris and Kerryn and challenge yourself to fit in as much as possible!
This is far from the last of the blog potential I have up my sleeve at the moment, so check back shortly for some more!
Bye bye now!
I've been incredibly lucky to have had several friends and family come visit me already in the almost year that I've been here - some people I know go their entire time without any of that, so I consider myself very fortunate. This month however I had one visit I was very much looking forward to, which was that of my friends Chris and Kerryn. They had 6 days in Tokyo (not nearly enough in my opinion, but hey, I like a challenge), and so I took it upon myself to curate them a Tokyo experience that would give them as wide a look at this place as possible.
Very fortunately I had just moved into my new dormitory, which so happened to be on the same island in Tokyo Bay as their hotel, meaning I was a very easy walk away, just over five minutes.
They arrived in the evening at their hotel, where I was waiting to give them some things to deal with the heat (I've gotten quite used to it by now, but for them it was a bit of a shock), train passes, and then bundled them into a train to go get dinner in Shibuya, my old haunt.
 |
| Another friend + Hachiko photo for my collection |
Dinner was a relatively quick (and late) affair, by the time we got into Shibuya and so on, with a well deserved litre of beer on tap for consumption, and then it was an early night in preparation for some very busy days (and my actual move in at 7 the next morning)
First on the cards was Shibuya and Harajuku - quintessentially Tokyo, very safe for tourists, and easy to get to; a good starter for Tokyo.
 |
| There was the Disney Store... |
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| ...which featured a very cute miniature garden outside |
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| Crepes and milkshakes from Harajuku |
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| The trippy mirror escalator in Omotesando |
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| And Meiji Jingu Shrine |
It was also the first proper outing for my newly acquired crystal photography ball, which can be used (and has been heavily used) for some fun photoplay
 |
| As the self proclaimed Chris and Kerryn do Tokyo 2018 photographer, I made sure to get photos in all the tourist spots, including the wall of sake from across Japan within the Shrine |
Next day was a Yamanote experience, basically taking the Tokyo loop train to a lot of the big sights in the city, but before all that we started in New York, by which I mean the I-don't-know-why-it's-there Statue of Liberty in Odaiba, with the Rainbow Bridge in the background, because it's so bizarre and why not?
Then it was off to the Tokyo Station, an exhibition of curiosities (unfortunately no photos allowed there), and then onto the Imperial Palace.
Harajuku was as techy, loud and nerdy as it always is, with a brief (but felt endless) venture into an anime shop (Kerryn and I shared a moment as we experienced our personal hells), and there was some seriously decked out streetcars on display. Oh Japan....
After experiencing Japan's interpretation of Italian food (not what you'd normally rate as Japanese holiday fare), it was off the Yamanote line briefly so we could visit Sensoji and Asakusa.
 |
| Gave Chris another chance to show how much of the ritual ablutions he had remembered from our time at Meiji Jingu |
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| One of several classic touristy photo spots |
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| And another |
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| And another! |
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| At the Kanon Gate to the Sensoji temple |
The samurai museum was as always a good time, with a really well done English language tour, showcasing almost a thousand years of samurai history. And of course there were the dressups!
 | ||
 |
| Being Tokyo there is naturally a King Kong in US Flag boxing shorts |
Our next day was at the TeamLab Borderless Digital Art Museum in Odaiba, which has been blowing up on social media as a huge multimedia light, sound and art experience. For this of course I brought the crystal photography ball, and I admit most of my photos were taken through that, having been before to take photos sans crystal ball....
A real highlight though was one of the last rooms, where you can colour in pictures of sea life. These are then scanned by a special Epson scanner, and your creation is projected onto the wall and brought to life! They exist for 24 hours and you can interact with them, feed them and so on. In the other room there is a similar concept, but with amphibians and insect life - but if you are a butterfly, watch out for frogs, they'll eat ya!
 |
| I may have made my butterfly into a fighter jet...still got eaten by frogs |
 |
| My 'jet' fluttering its wings, probably away from a frog |
With the morning filled with digital spectacles, I thought about what kind of visual extravaganza would make a good follow up. Kerryn had mentioned wanting to see the skyline, and so we went to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (a good, and free way to see the skyline). Unfortunately when we were there it was quite smoggy, so the likes of Mt Fuji were not visible, but still it gave a good idea of the scale of Tokyo.
From the government building in Shinjuku, it was a quick jaunt on the Yamanote to Ikebukuro, where the Sunshine City Aquarium is based. I'd been a couple times before, but never with my crystal ball, so of course that was once again heavily utilised (my professional photographer father will be rolling his eyes at all this)
 |
| Whatever this movie is, I want to see it |
The next day I had to go in to university in Kashiwa for the morning to sign for my monthly stipend, and so I met with Chris and Kerryn for an afternoon of typhoon dodging. Their trip coincided with the arrival of super typhoon Jebi, which thankfully decided to give Tokyo a miss, instead absolutely nailing western Japan - though we still had some massive downpours and strong winds. My Japanese friends were saying I should stay home, but damnit my friends were here for only a few days and it was going to take more than a super typhoon to stop them having a good time! So off we went to an art gallery for an exhibition on bento (Japanese lunchboxes)
The exhibition itself is a bit of fun, if not slightly preachy on the themes it presents, but also it gave Chris an opportunity to dress up as the 'Spirit of Bento', so that's a laugh if nothing else.
We had been eating a variety of foods during their time here, some more traditional than others, and so in my quest to give them as varied a food experience as possible, we went to make okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes). This is a highly interactive cooking experience, with a variety of flavours and ingredients, so a good bit of culinary fun.
For the last full day of their time in Japan, we decided to go for a day trip out of Tokyo. I'd given them a variety of options, but the general consensus was more traditional Japan, given how much hyper modernity is found in Tokyo. With that in mind, we ventured to Kanagawa, the prefecture I spent my AFS exchange in 2011-2012, to go to Kamakura. This is where I went to see the Yabusame festival earlier in the year, and Claire and I went here during Golden Week as well. It is a good place to go for a day trip that is out of Tokyo, but caters well to tourists, and shows off a bit more traditional Japan, outside of the city - but is no less accessible for it!
We had three temples on the cards; Meigetsu-in, famous for its moon shaped window and home to some apparently weird Buddhist sect that was outlawed in the Meiji era; Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, the big temple complex that steals the show at Kamakura; and Hokokuji, which is famous for its bamboo grove. This was the hottest day of the lot, and very sunny, which unfortunately also coincided with the most walking of their trip, but we fought through the heat admirably. Chris in particular had a novel method, which was to buy two 750ml cans of beer to go from a roadside bar, which kept him 'hydrated' (until it didn't...)
 |
'Hydration'    |
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| Both of us rocking the Yoda tees |
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| Featuring a turtle whisperer |
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| One inquisitive turtle |
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| European style hot chocolate from Dandelion - delicious! |
It was then back to Shibuya for sushi train dinner with Claire, followed by the classic 'stand-in-the-middle-of-Shibuya-scramble' photo and one last addition to my 'Friends with Hachiko' photo collection, and then we headed back to Odaiba for the last night. The next morning was fairly chill, with check out and so on, and then meandering around the various malls of Odaiba. Before long it came time for Chris and Kerryn to board their airport bus, and the whirlwind six day adventure was over!
Tokyo seems like a daunting place to visit, like you cannot hope to fit it in during any length of stay (true), but don't let that scare you - you can have an absolute ball of a time in less than a week, and by this stage I am getting quite good at playing tour guide! So come stay at the Grand Nikko Daiba, a stone throw from my dormitory, and you can make like Chris and Kerryn and challenge yourself to fit in as much as possible!
This is far from the last of the blog potential I have up my sleeve at the moment, so check back shortly for some more!
Bye bye now!
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