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 Japan for Dummies (Part 3 - Tokyo Roundup & Hakone)
by brooksie
My last day of sightseeing in Tokyo was spent primarily in Ginza for the Emperor's Palace, with a brief trip back to Harajuku to experience the weekend cosplay crowd that wasn't there on Friday.
The highlight of Ginza was an incredibly good, incredibly cheap sushi place that I wandered into after the double disappointments of the Emperor's Palace (nothing to do, not much to see) and the Sony Building (too small, no cool case for my tiny laptop, and no Playstation 3s anywhere in the building). The one cool thing about the Emperor's Palace was this nifty fountain park, but overall, I'm sad that Akihabara wound up on the chopping block in favor of the Emperor's Palace. Meiji-jingo was MUCH better than the Emperor's Palace, though admittedly I didn't make it to the Palace Garden, because the palace itself was a discouragingly huge expanse of NOTHING. Seriously, the grounds are a giant area of dead grass (it's that time of year) pretty neat pine trees, and gravel. Friggin acres and acres of gravel. I wish that I had bypassed Culture in favor of Otaku-dom.
Quick rundown of sunday afternoon at Harajuku: The cosplay folks were as strange as I expected, though not as plentiful as I'd hoped. I'm glad I went back to see them, and dinner in the McDonalds in the grungy, over-crowded Harajuku alley was AWESOME. I was surrounded by an endless sea of girls in plaid-skirted (non-sailor) school uniforms. I don't know why they were wearing them on sunday, and I don't care. Ahhh, ecchi-licious. Seriously, though, what's the deal with the socks? Brian tells me Patrick coined the incredibly accurate descriptor "clydsedales". I don't get it.
My departure from Tokyo was as sad as I feared it would be. I woke up too early for the noodle stand, so I spent some time writing more post cards in the lobby. I gave the really cute concierge girl (who sold me the pre-paid internet cards) the 1,000=Y= reward card I got from spending so much at HMV. Then, after lunch, I almost cried when I said goodbye to the ramen folks, my surrogate Tokyo family. However messed up my Japanse thank you and goodbye was, they certainly seemed to appreciate the effort. I gave the (only semi-cute, but more like family) ramen girl the 2,000=Y= reward card from Tower Records. Both girls tried to reject the parting gifts, but accepted when I explained (in english) that I already bought all of the japanese music I knew, and I wasn't going to have time to go back to a record store before I left the city.
Then it was on to Hakone by shinkansen. Which, if the name "bullet train" isn't a good enough indication, is FRIGGIN FAST. It's like 60 miles or so to Odawara station from Shinagawa, and the shinkansen puts it away in 30 minutes flat. Try to imagine if Victor was allowed to drive a train, because that description is the only way I can do a shinkansen justice.
It takes another half hour on local train to Hakone-yumoto station, which is in a cute little village in a valley, that must be where FannYu was talking about walking around. Many little stores, all behind a REALLY imposing language barrier.
From Hakone-yumoto, it's a half hour by bus to my hotel. A half hour by bus. Up a scary winding mountain road. In a speeding bus! If you've ever seen Initial D (a japanese racing game that made it to US arcades a few years ago), it's far worse than the hardest level of that game anyone could have ever imagined.
The Hotel Hakone Kowakien was very nice, well worth the 25,000=Y= for one night. Before dinner, I wandered around the vicinity a little, found a neat little shrine in the woods, wandered into a cool neighborhood from the back, through everyone's gardens. Photographed a couple of daikon in their natural habitat. Found an AMAZING beer machine. Got to the Hakone Open Air Museum after it closed. Then I headed back uphill to the hotel, and had an amazing sushi dinner, for a surprisingly cheap price. Then I checked out the onsen (which was the entire reason I went to Hakone), and chickened out. Too shy to get naked with a dozen naked japanese guys. So I went back to my room and promptly passed out.
I woke up at like 3am wearing all of my clothes, on top of the covers, and didn't even remember going to sleep. But I wasn't tired, so I played some warcraft, and steeled my nerves. I decided I wasn't going to go home without going in natural hot spring, and boy was it worth it. Now, on my little hike, I saw a waterfall of steaming water, and steam rising out of all of the storm drains, and everywhere you look, water is steaming. It bubbles right out of the ground at around 40 degrees C, and flows right into the bath complex of the hotel. So I sat outdoors in 10 degree C air, in steaming hot 40 degree C water. It was awesome. But it still wasn't the best part of Hakone. That happened at the interesting Western(ish)-style breakfast buffet.
I'm scooping myself a bit of scrambled eggs, when I feel a tug on my pant leg. I look down to see a tiny japanese toddler balancing a little plate in one hand, and holding my jeans with her other. Our conversation (thus far my only one completely in Japanese) follows. Keep in mind, she's about 4, and has a tiny little sing-song voice.
Her: "Ohayo gozaimasu, gaijin-san!"
---Good morning, Mister Foriegner!
Me: "Ohayo gozaimasu."
---Good morning.
Her: "Tamago, onegaishimasu?"
---May I please have some eggs?
Me: (scooping her a tiny little portion of eggs) "Dozo, kawaii-chan."
---Here you go, cutie.
Her: "Arigato gozaimasu, gaijin-san."
---Thank you, Mister Foriegner.
Me: "Do itashimashte."
---You're welcome.
Then she toddled back to her (incredibly proud-looking) parents. It was the cutest thing ever.
And then it was back to Hakone-Yumoto, and back to Odawara, and on a brand new shinkansen to Kyoto. Coming soon: Kyoto and Nara!
Photos:
Ginza
Hakone
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