Josh Levinger

John arrived from Kyoto last night, and we went out around Ikebukuro to celebrate the beginning of our shared trip. We ordered great sashimi from entirely Japanese menus, sipped whiskey from both Scotland and Japan, and played some Gundam robot fighting game terribly. We are off to an auspicious start.

Everyone is still a little jet lagged, so we woke up fairly early and decided to go to the fish market. The tuna auction starts at 5:30, which we knew we would miss, but we expected there would still be sights to see at 7:30. We arrived and weaved our way through the whizzing electric trucks, trying to avoid being run over and remembering to look left instead of right. As we entered the wholesalers market, we were stopped by a gruff police officer, who told us that it is closed until 9 for visitors, and that we should go eat some sushi to wait. Fine by us, we can take a hint.

We wandered the rows of stalls looking for a good sushi joint, and settled on one without a line (the guidebook’s recommendation on how to pick) but with a picture of Jeff Bezos and the crew from the new spider-man reboot (good enough endorsement for us). It was divine.

We entered the market at the stroke of 9, but needn’t have worried, as there was plenty of action left for the tourists. We passed rows upon rows of tuna, crab, shrimp, oysters, and other delicious looking wonders of the sea. Workers cut the morning’s tuna on bandsaws, straight down the spine, then into quarters and smaller. I’m sure whatever fell on the floor ends up in a can somewhere.

Then we saw whale meat, which was helpfully labeled “not for tourists” and is hunted “for research,” but the baleen steaks didn’t look that scientific to me. A little queasy from the sight and the settling sushi, we left the market and strolled to the Hamarikyu gardens.

A refuge and hunting ground for the shogun tokogawa in the 17th century, we experienced the well manicured gardens in the most Japanese way possible, with the technological intermediation of the “ubiquitous audioguide”. It was GPS enabled, so we could get a live map, and panoramic photos of the scenes where we were currently standing. Very helpful. The tea house was excellent, and we aided our digestion with a mobile wifi hotspot and directions to lunch.

We walked west to Tokyo Tower, which looks strikingly similar to the Eiffel Tower, but they are proud of noting is 60% lighter and has faster elevators. We ascended 150m in about 3 min with almost no sense of motion; very impressive. The views of the city are seemingly endless, but the highlight was the Christmas photoshoot. I agreed only on the stipulation that I be a reindeer, and must say I played my part well.

We had some hotwine back at the base, and then off to a four course tempura meal and a very busy shopping mall. Ruth found a jacket she rather liked, but they kicked us out of the store for taking photos before she could try on the matching shoes. I know what she’s getting for Christmas…

Got to Tokyo at about 5:30 local time, and took an hour train ride into the city. Ruth likes taking local trains to get a sense of the place, so it’s not just a downtown with destinations. But I could’ve been happy taking an express train.

Found our airbnb apartment with the help of a nice young man who had the same brand of backpack I do, and wanted to practice some English. He asked us where we were from, and we said California. We asked him, and he said Hiroshima prefecture, “have you heard of it”. Unfortunately, that’s one of the Japanese cities most Americans have heard of…

Our apartment is in an entertainment district, so there’s lots to do at night, but we are super tired from the flight and are taking it easy. Had dinner at a stand up barbecue bar; quick and delicious.

In the morning, we awoke and headed to the Imperial Palace for one of the only days each year it is open to the public, on the occasion of his birthday. We stood in line in the relative cold for about an hour, with the calmest large crowd I have ever experienced. Through a few rounds of security, and then across a moat and the palace gates. The place was rebuilt in the 1960s after being destroyed in the war, an unfortunately common feature.

There were some nationalists in the crowd, who waved flags of Taiwan for reasons that weren’t clear to me. Maybe something to do with the recent election, where the Democratic party lost in a landslide to the former ruling (and more conservative) Liberal Democratic Party. In any case, the emperor’s speech was short, and probably didn’t touch on any of that. The crowd still loved it.

Entrance Grounds

The Imperial Family