Japan on my mind

Tuesday, October 15, 1:13 am

Things I forgot:

tooth brush—I thought I was bringing it. Only brought an empty package.

Computer cable for hard wired network. Not sure I need this.

A tiny flashlight I carry on my key ring. This was given to me years ago as part of a Christmas gift from Tekserve. It’s a wonderful light, and has remained functional for at least five years. I left the keys with Robin and unfortunately, the flashlight with them.

My flight seemed easier than other long ones I’ve been on. Mostly it was boring. I sort of slept part of the time. I read the guidebook part of the time. The plane was more spacious than anything else I’ve been on recently. I had room to move my legs. Each seat had a personal TV monitor; the programs are the same trash we get at home, minus commercials. The most interesting thing was watching this diagram of where the plane was traveling.

There were several slides from different viewpoints and amounts of detail: one showing the continents and the entire route, down to the supposed actual place we were flying above. There were also several slides with statistics: altitude, ground speed, temperature outside plane, time and distance remaining, time in Chicago, Tokyo and wherever we were. All of this was in English, Japanese, miles, kilometers, Fahrenheit and Celsius. Sad to say, I found this more interesting than the TV or movies they were showing. On my return trip, if they don’t reprogram, there is supposed to be a Chinese film I might like to see.

It is now 2:13 am and I’m beginning to think I ought to go back to bed. I arrived at the Ginza Capital Hotel Main at 6:30 pm, without incident, very tired since my body and brain thought it was 4:30 am, and went to bed, sleeping, not soundly, until about midnight. I’ve been trying to regroup, but it’s happening slowly. I had questions I wanted to ask at the tourist office in the airport, but failed to do so. Now I have even more questions, hopefully to be answered by the tourist office here in town.

I had some concerns about the hotel, having paid for four nights in advance, but it seems to be fine. It’s a business hotel. My room is very tiny, as expected. I was pleasantly surprised to find breakfast included. I don’t think that was what I arranged on the internet. They give you a robe and slippers to use in the room. When I was here 20 some years ago, the Imperial Hotel gave us those robes (yukatas) to take home. I had mine for almost 20 years and used it as a summer robe. I’ve never been able to replace it. Maybe I’ll buy one of these before I return home.

I slept, mostly until 6:30 am, when I got up, made a cup of tea, showered and organized, finding things and moving things from my suitcase to my carry on. The hotel does not have internet access, so that’s another problem to be solved. Feeling human again, I went down to breakfast. The choice was western: ham or bacon, eggs, salad, toast, juice—the usual, or Japanese: rice, fish, seaweed salad, miso soup, something that tasted like candied walnuts, 1 small grapefruit section, some pickles I couldn’t identify. There was also a tiny bottle of something they told me was drinkable yogurt and a tiny package of seaweed.

I have already deviated from my itinerary and I’m sure it will get worse as I go along. I suspect I’ll never get to the Tsukiji fish market. Somehow getting up at 3 am and going out doesn’t appeal to me. This morning I will start with the tourist office to arrange some of my travel and then get to a museum.

My hotel has a bus service to Tokyo Station, near where I wanted to go. The bus wasn’t due for another 20 minutes and I needed exercise, so I decided to walk. The weather is cool, threatening rain, but only coming down with a few drops. I decided to walk. The desk clerk said 30 minutes. That was OK with me. He gave me some vague directions and I started off. I’m still trying to figure out where I went wrong, but when I saw the highway going off in the wrong direction, I knew I was in trouble.

I stopped several times and asked for directions. No one spoke much English, but everyone was very nice. At one point I had three middle-age salarymen standing with me on a corner arguing about how I should walk. One of them spoke some English and gave me directions. I had trouble reorienting myself. I just couldn’t believe I had walked so far out of the way.

I passed an interesting park ringed with trees, all of which had tripod-like supports around them. I’d love to know whether that was just decoration or would the trees grow sideways or fall over. There was also an interesting small building at one end; I discovered it was a public toilet. In fact, I passed many public toilets.

Ringed by some ugly, concrete buildings was a Shinto shrine. No one seemed to be there. I walked around and took pictures but wasn’t sure I ought to enter. It looked interesting, but it’s probably one of the smaller ones. I can’t find it on the map.

Many people, businessmen, middle aged women, younger men and women, ride bicycles, usually on the sidewalk. And I would like to have shares in a hair color company. I’m one of the few, men or women, I saw with gray hair.

I finally got to the tourist information center. Very nice. Not as helpful as I had hoped. By the time I left them it was after 12. I needed a place to sit and something to drink if not eat. I walked through a couple of food courts, which were much too busy. I made my way over to the Tokyo International Forum courtyard. There were tables, chairs, a coke machine and several food vendors in trucks. After I sat for awhile and drank half a can of soda I was ready to eat. I looked at most of the food vendors. One of them had falafel. I watched the sandwich being made and said to the vendor: Just like in Israel. He replied that his family was in the business there. He lived in Tokyo because he has a Japanese wife.

The Idemitsu Museum was just down the street from where I was sitting. That was my next stop. They had an interesting exhibit of the work of Sengai, a Zen monk painter. I would have liked more English translations. There were just enough to keep me interested, but obviously there was much more to be learned. The museum was filled with people. The show was beautifully presented. After I studied the exhibit I found a place where you could sit and have tea and look into the Imperial Palace area, not the palace itself. I sat for quite a while. Finally I went down into the subway and easily got back to the hotel.

October 17, 1:01 am

Wide awake again in the middle of the night. I’m also hungry; I’m not going to eat. I’m sure I’ve had enough calories. I tried to stay in bed, but it seemed easier to get up. My brain wouldn’t shut off. I’ve decided to take the computer with me today and see if Starbucks, or someone else has wi-fi. The sister hotel to this one has a vending machine computer, 5 minutes for 100 yen. The price is OK but it occurred to me that I probably won’t be able to transfer what I’ve written; the machine won’t have the ability to open my document. I’ve also decided to put my pictures into this document so I can write about them, then transfer the whole thing.

This is what my hotel room looks like: This part of it is almost square, the size of that bed. About another third of the space is hallway with enough space for 3 hangers full of clothes. I’ve got my suitcase tucked in there but it protrudes out and keeps the door from opening fully. The plumbing fascinates me: it is both economical and fully featured. Water for the basin and the tub comes through the same taps. You can adjust the water in the basin, close a valve and it goes into the shower. The bathroom floor is raised about 6” above the room floor with another 3” of sill. If you spill water on the floor it won’t come out into the room and damage the carpet.

The toilet fascinates me. When you sit down water flows into the bowl. If you sit for any length of time (not very long) more water comes into the bowl. While this is happening a light is flashing from somewhere. When you flush the water and everything disappears, the bowl is left almost empty, but some mechanism keeps working for a few seconds. This toilet can also be used as a bidet. I haven’t tried it yet. I won’t like it if the water is cold. Several other places I went to yesterday had equally full featured toilets.

5:30 pm, back in the hotel and exhausted. All of the walking I did yesterday caught up with me today, and I still did a lot of walking. After my Japanese breakfast, which probably has much too much salt, I took the subway to Yurakucho and then walked to Tokyo Station, where I exchanged my voucher for the Railpass. I will use the pass for my last 21 days here. I couldn’t make it work out any other way. Then I bought a Nozomi (the fastest bullet train) ticket for Friday when I leave Tokyo and go to Nagoya and Ise.

I had to get back to Yurakucho to take another subway. Instead of walking I took still another subway. Transportation here is amazing, if you can figure out which train and which way to go. I got on the wrong train and had to go back to Tokyo Station, where I got some help from an attendant. The correct subway took me to Roppongi to a fabulous exhibit of folding screens at the Suntory Museum. This is what I came to see. I really enjoyed the afternoon.

Shalmit met me at the museum. She reads the Japanese labels and was able to point our things I might otherwise have missed. I finished the exhibit before she did and went to find some lunch. Unfortunately, we did not connect again. I’m sure she’ll call me tomorrow. I had an easy trip back to the hotel where I’ve been having tea and trying to recuperate.

I went to the other hotel this morning to send a quick email message to Robin. Charna was on line and I-M’ed me. That was great, but the Japanese keyboard was giving me so much grief, I couldn’t stay on very long. I’ll try it again later or tomorrow. The setup is a kind of mini business center and has Microsoft programs and a place to connect my USB drive.