Tuesdays in Tokyo!

Tuesday - June 11, 2013

June through mid-July is rainy season for most of Japan.  We've been lucky so far.  We've had wonderful weather.  Today the rains came and the umbrellas were on display while we toured through Tokyo.  And back with us to lead us in the adventure was our wonderful tour guide, Sho. 

We spent the first part of our day in the Asakusa area of Tokyo which is home to a famous Buddhist temple called Senso-ji.  It's Tokyo's oldest temple site and many consider it the most important in Tokyo. During World War II, the Asakusa area of Tokyo was firebombed very heavily by the US.  Much of the temple burned down but it was rebuilt.  The site has been utilized for temples since 645A.D.

It's an impressive area.  There are other significant in this particular square including a Shinto shrine and a five-story pagoda.  There are also numerous vendors selling various wares.  People want to see this place and there is definitely money to be made here.  Apparently vendors have sold wares here since the 18th century.

The main gate to the area.

The walkway up to the main temple.  Over 90 vendors in less than 250 meters.

Getting closer to the temple.

Another beautiful building on the grounds.

Inside the main temple.

 After we visited the area we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch.  Now I believe the story was that the restaurant we ate is the oldest tempura restaurant in Tokyo.  Needless to say, after my positive tempura experiences thus far, I enjoyed the meal very much. 

Underneath that blue lid is all sorts of good food!

Next up on our adventure was a trip to a glass-blower.  I really like the fact that someone at Technos thinks that a bunch of adult faculty will enjoy doing these arts and crafts sessions... because we LOVE IT!  This glassblower guy was amazing.  He guided us all as we blew our own glass ball to use as a wind chime.  First though, he had me try to blow a glass ball without his help.  I failed over and over.  He was using me as a demo to show how hard it is.  He said it takes years to master just the blowing aspect of glassblowing.  Then, just for fun, in about 45 seconds he made a beautiful glass swan, which he then shattered in front of us!  hahaha

After we blew our glass balls we went upstairs and painted them and turned them into wind chimes

Loved this guy!  One of my absolute favorite people that I met on the trip.

Temples, food, wind chimes... it was a great day so far.  Next stop... the Edo Tokyo Museum.  The main feature of this museum is its displays on the Edo period in Tokyo.  I suppose we got a taste of this at Edo Wonderland but now here was a bit of a more...ehhh...scholarly experience with the Edo period.  The main floor is really impressive with some huge recreations of structures and some wonderful displays.  The Edo period lasts from 1603-1868 but the museum also had displays on more modern Japanese history.  There was material concerning theatre which certainly sparked my interest but the thing that most struck me were the displays on World War II. 

Many of us know about the nuclear bombs that were dropped on Japan during WWII but I didn't really know about the firebombing of Tokyo.  It was very intense.  And to stand there in the museum looking at these displays next to citizens of Japan was a strange and, truthfully, uncomfortable experience.  I suppose that when you are in your own country, things are most often delivered in such a way as to make you appear like the "good guy."  Here, in this section of the museum, I was getting a very different experience.

There was plenty of fun to be had at this museum too.  Sho, Yuji, and I got some good pictures together.  This gem is worth posting again...

These two are awesome.

Yuji makes me earn my tempura!

There was also a special art exhibit on the lower floor that I kind of stumbled onto.  It was a collect of Edo period paintings from the Robert Feinberg collection.  Feinberg started collecting Edo period paintings in the 1970's and has amassed a beautiful collection.  It was the first time this collection had been shared in the Japan.

I kind of assumed we were heading home after this but we had one more stop... the Tokyo Skytree!  The Skytree opened in 2012 and is the world's tallest free-standing tower and the second tallest structure in the world.  This thing is huge.  I just keep looking at it thinking it was a building out of a Star Wars movie.  It's 2080 feet tall.  That's just a touch under four tenths of a mile!  We didn't take the elevators up the tower but we took a few pictures and grabbed a snack at one of the many shops there.  I had a very interesting crepe with a red bean paste that was wonderful.

That tower is BIG!!!!!

We seem to always head back to the hotel during Tokyo rush hour and our trip home took a long while.  When I got to the hotel, I had to rush right out because I was meeting a friend of a friend in Shinjuku for dinner.  A friend of mine recently spent a month in Tokyo performing in a show and the production had their own translator.  My friend and the translator remained friends so when my friend heard I'd be in Tokyo, she said I needed to meet the translator.

So I was on the train heading back to Shinjuku where I would try to meet someone I had never seen before in the world's busiest subway station.  Ummm yeah....   Through the magic of cellphones we managed to find each other rather easily.  Her name was Rie and she had already scouted out a place for us to have dinner.  It was really nice getting to spend a couple of hours talking with Rie.  I was able to ask her a lot of questions and she was able to clarify a few things for me about Japan.  Plus, I keep saying this but, my favorite part about the trip isn't the temples or the food or the museums... it's the people.  So dinner with Rie was definitely a highlight of the trip so far.

Facebook + Cellphones = Dinner with a friend of a friend in Tokyo!

After dinner it was back to the hotel.  My day of seeing the sights in Tokyo was amazing... Temples, tempura, shopping, glassblowing, museums, Skytree, and dinner... all in one day.  One thing that is great about this trip is that, were I to try to plan all that myself, it would probably take me three days to do it all.  But, because we have such great people navigating the trip for us, we can see so many things in such a relatively short time.  It's really wonderful.  I'm really blessed to get to do this.

And I get to do it again tomorrow.

T.G.I.... Monday? Happy Birthday Alex!

Monday - June  10, 2013.

Today starts the real on-campus programming at Technos.  This week will involve the faculty teaching in classrooms at Technos, students experiencing different classes, and a whole lot of half-day and full day field trips.  I'm also beginning to realize that the faculty time with the students is now going to be very limited.  It already was over the weekend but now, formally, we are scheduled with very different itineraries than the students.

Yesterday, many of the students went to Disneyland Tokyo.  It may seem silly at first that you'd be in Tokyo and go to Disney, but you have to understand, we've got American students mostly from Northern states and students from England, New Zealand and Taiwan.  Many students have never been this close to a Disney theme park.  Plus, they got to all go together... which was a huge part of the fun.  So this morning it was entertaining to hear stories of Space Mountain, etc., during breakfast.

This afternoon some of the faculty were scheduled to teach their class.  I don't teach until Thursday so I had the afternoon free.  This morning we had a field trip to a near by temple called Jindai-Ji Temple.  Built in 733, the temple is the second oldest in the Tokyo area.  It's located in the Chofu area of Tokyo which has a bit of a suburb feel to it, even more so than Fuchu. 

The entrance to the temple area.

A place for offerings.

I thought these huge metal flowers were beautiful.

The turtle was a nice touch.  It probably looks awesome when there is a little bit of water in it.

A beautiful bonsai tree.

This flower had frogs.  Again, nice touch!

Inside the main temple.  It's really hard to get a good shot.  It's a small room and there is a lot of decor. It's much better in person.

This is a fun picture of a very old buddha statue.  The statue is thought to be about 1300 years old.  It is behind glass and you can see the glare of the light hitting the glass.  There is a huge circular structure to cut down on some of the glare which creates this effect of a circular halo around the center of the shot.  If you look closely, you can see the reflection of me taking the picture in the shot. 

Apparently it is tradition to eat soba noodles when visiting this area so we did that for lunch.  Again, the tempura that was served with the noodles was my favorite part of the meal.  While we were here we also painted some pottery which was fun.  I picked a little sake pitcher to paint.  I had an idea but it turned out pretty bad.  Yuji made fun of me.  hahaha  I also purchased a nice little piece of pottery for HWS student, Alex.  Today was his birthday and I wanted to make sure I got him a little something.

After our half-day trip we went back to Technos.  Some of the faculty prepped their lectures for today.  The rest of us were free for the day.  I went back to Fuchu and did a little shopping and this is a fitting time to talk about the dollar stores in Japan.  The dollar stores are a great place to buy souvenirs.  (Actually the stores are called the 100 yen stores but the exchange rate was such that it was just about a dollar.)  These stores are loaded with great little Japanese items... sake bowls and pourers, chopsticks, fun candies, cheap fans for kids, a good array of Hello Kitty merchandise, etc.   I highly recommend that, if you need to bring back a lot of little souvenirs you check out one of the 100 yen stores. 

As soon as I returned to the hotel, I ran into Yuji who had big plans for Alex's birthday.  He wanted to get a group together and go to Shibuya and go to a TGIFridays.  While I was surprised he mentioned TGIFridays, I was happy that he was doing something for Alex so I told him that I was definitely "in."  Yuji first wanted to go to the dollar store and buy some part favors.  HAHAHA  So I immediately went back with Yuji and with Oxford Mike to the dollar store where we bought some ridiculous stuff.  Along the way we also split an order of Takoyaki.  Takoyaki are little balls of batter traditionally filled with octopus.  We ordered a little boat of about 10 pieces.  Each piece is about the size of a hushpuppie.  

Not my favorite Japanese food but I find myself craving them already.

Back at the hotel we rendezvoused with Alex and a huge group of students and we were back to Shibuya.  I was excited to see it at night.

Alex sports some of his dollar store gear!  Yuji picked out most of this stuff.

Shibuya on a Monday night.

TGIFridays adventure!

Alex is served his birthday sundae.

HWS looking good on Alex's birthday!

After we left "Fridays" we strolled around Shibuya a bit and then most of us headed back to the hotel.  It was nice to spend some time with the students and it's always nice to spend some time with Yuji when he doesn't have to work so hard in his tour leader position.  Looking forward to tomorrow which involves a full-day tour of the Tokyo area!

The Weekend! - Baseball and Theatre

Saturday and Sunday - June 8 & 9, 2013

One of the really nice things about this program is that the coordinators have found a very nice balance between creating an exciting schedule and allowing people free time.  This weekend, many of the students are doing home-stays with students from Technos.  The remainder of the students and the faculty are free to do as they wish.

It's been fun to talk to other people about their own personal agendas on this trip.  Some people came to Japan with a rather long list of things they were going to try to see and do while in Tokyo.  Others have really dug into their guidebooks while they've been there and seem to be off on another book-inspired excursion every time there's some free time.  Truthfully, that's how I usually travel.  I usually am either traveling by myself or I am the  unofficial leader/guide of the couple/group/etc.  Now that I think about it, of the 21 countries I've been to, I was alone or the "leader" in 18 of those 21 countries.  I haven't been the non-leader since I was 23 years old.  So this time around I've allowed myself to be the follower.  It's been a nice change for once.  I came on this trip ready to experience anything and everything and I have had fun seeing where I end up. 

Before the trip, all students and faculty were asked to fill out a little questionnaire.  As part of the questionnaire, we were asked if there was anything specific we'd like to do.  I listed that I would like to see Kabuki and I'd like to see a Japanese baseball game.  About 10 days before the trip, we received an e-mail saying that there would be two optional excursions for the weekend.  On Saturday we'd have the chance to see a baseball game and on Sunday we could go to the National Theatre to see a Kabuki program.

WHAT??????????  Baseball and Kabuki for my weekend?????????????  YES PLEASE.

First was baseball.  Mercifully, Yuji had the day off today.  Two Technos students, Yusuke and Ryota, led the trip to the Tokyodome, where we'd see the home team, the Yomiuri Giants, take on the visiting Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

Ryota and Yusuke - Our baseball leaders!

Fist bumping with a statue of the manager outside of the stadium!  Check out this crew!

We had a group of eleven head off to the game and I have to say, if you have the opportunity to see Japanese baseball, do it!  I've maybe been to 75 or 100 major league games in the USA and this game was awesome.  It was strange being in a situation where I seemed to understand everything and nothing at the same time.

Baseball is baseball.  So, if you know the sport, it's easy enough to follow along with what's going on.  At the same time though, the atmosphere is much different.  It kind of has the feel of a college football game.  There are flags and banners and all sorts of songs that fans sing that we really don't find too much of in American baseball.  The energy in the stadium is very different too.  Imagine a scale of 1 - 10 that measures excitement.  At an American game, let's say the base level of excitement is at about a 4.  In Japan it's at about a 7.  Non-stop singing and cheering.  It's even organized.  For the most part, you only cheer when your team is up to bat.  When your team is pitching you quiet down so the other team's fans can cheer!  haha  Can you imagine Yankees fans quieting down so Red Sox fans can cheer?

Back to the excitement scale...  the crazy thing is that when something really exciting happens, a home run or an amazing defensive play, in the United States we'd go from that level 4 energy and jump up to a 10.  We'd be standing up and high-fiving and yelling like crazy, etc.  In Japan, even though they are already at a 7, they really don't get all that extra excited when something big happens.  Maybe they move up to an 8.  So, after the first home run, I jumped up and started cheering and yelling.  I looked around and most people around me were still sitting.  Hahaha

Speaking of which... we somehow, magically, were sitting in row seven.  Yup... row seven along the third base line.  We had amazing seats.

Another big difference was how beer was sold.  In the States often beer is sold by rather large men who can lug all those cans and bottles up and down stadium stairs.  Japan does it differently.  They have young women wearing backpacks full of beer.  They run down the stairs to a section, bow to the section and then start to make their way up the stairs.  If you buy a beer, she pours you one as if it's coming out of a small keg.

Good seats and a different take on how to serve stadium beer.

Definitely wasn't having any fun at all... not... at... all.

Some of us quickly realized we needed to buy some Giants gear so we could show our support for the home team!  We were off to buy some gear!

These two helped me find the perfect Giants shirt!

Oxford Mike went for the black jersey.  Once again... not having any fun at all.  

Teams have cheerleaders just like many American sports.

The Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame was housed in the Tokyodome.  This was extra fun for me because, 8 days earlier, I presented a paper at a conference at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

One final shot of the Tokyodome.

The game was great.  There was some real excitement in the 9th inning but the Giants were able to hold on for the win.  Also fun was the fact that the clean-up hitter for the Eagles was Andruw Jones.  Jones, at one point, was a major player on my favorite American team, the Atlanta Braves.  There are a couple of former MLB players that extend their careers in Japan.  It was fun seeing Andruw.

So baseball was a huge success.  I think everyone had a great time, even people who weren't necessarily huge baseball fans.  Once again, if you are in Japan, I highly recommend this.  It's very accessible yet, at the same time, you get to seem some wonderful cultural differences.  And truthfully, there's something fun about being with tens of thousands of people all cheering for the same thing.  You don't need to speak the same language to celebrate a home run... just don't stand up too long.  haha

Sunday was Kabuki... the other optional trip.  Kabuki started in the early 1600's as an all-female form of theatre.  It developed a rather scandalous reputation and within a few decades the form was taken over by men.  To this day it is still mostly men although occasionally a women performer will play a female role in the show.  Kabuki performances can be very long...  sometimes 5 hours or more.  The National Theatre of Japan does an abbreviated Kabuki program and we went to that today.

Before the show began, we had a chance to look at a few displays of puppets.   Japan has a very rich tradition of puppet theatre so this was a fun bonus.

This puppet is particularly remarkable.  It's a puppet of two guys underneath a dragon costume.  So, the puppet can be controlled as the dragon, or, the two men can be revealed and we can watch them interact.  Impressive!

Once in the main lobby, we encountered the mascot for the National Theatre.  Maybe this is what American theatre is missing... mascots!!!

Alex and I meet the National Theatre mascot!

Now, we were at a live theatre event so, as is often the case, I couldn't take pictures during the show.  The performance was in two parts.  First we watched a short and very funny introduction to the art of Kabuki and to the National Theatre.  This was my favorite part of the show actually because they really showed off what the theatre could do in terms of technical capacities.  Kabuki theatre was the first theatre form to utilize a revolving stage and the "revolve" at the National was unbelievably huge.  It even had lifts built into the revolve that could raise an actor 30 feet in the air while it was spinning!  That was awesome.

After our "lesson" was over, we had a break before the show started.  Now look, I am a theatre guy, I teach theatre, I do theatre... but I have to be honest...  Kabuki is SLOW.  I was kind of shocked at just how slow it was.  It's wonderfully beautiful and the movement is amazing but the pace is very slow.  It was kind of funny how many people were falling asleep.  It kind of has a lulling effect.  It's gorgeous... but it's slow.

At first I questioned whether I should go to this program with the group or to a full Kabuki performance by myself.  I am very glad I did this.  I feel like I got a nice sample of what Kabuki is, which, for a trip this length, seemed just about right.

In order to get to the theatre from the hotel, we had to switch trains at Shibuya.  Shibuya is another section of Tokyo.  This single section of Tokyo is home to over 200,000 people.  From what I can tell, Tokyo has two "Times Square" type places.  Shinjuku and Shibuya.  Apparently Shibuya can get packed with people.  We were there early Sunday so it wasn't too crazy.

Shibuya during the day.

Shibuya at night. (I wasn't there at night.  Might have to come back!)

When I got back to the hotel it was still fairly early in the day.  I used the time to explore Fuchu.  It's fun to see "major" attractions but I also really like to just walk around (or run around) smaller neighborhoods.  So I walked into clothing shops and toy stores and even a sake store which was interesting. It was a great weekend.  I feel rested and recharged for week two!