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Day 2

N.B. This was written shortly after I returned and will be rewritten as and when I get time.

It was now raining significantly outside which meant my original plan to go to Akihabara was on hold. Instead I decided on the Tokyo International Museum which was all indoors. Unfortunately it was also through Ueno park which meant I had to invest in an umbrella, let me tell you, best 600 yen I spent all trip.

The museum itself was awesome, but photos not allowed in most places which I adhered to. Exhibits ranged from swords (so purty, even saw an original Murasame sword) to poetry, to woodblock prints to Ainu pottery and all sorts.

After leaving and with the rain abated, I did a bit of people watching in Ueno park. Don’t stay still in Tokyo too long, someone will come and speak to you; an older gentleman just came and sat down next to me and started eulogising to me in damn fine English. He talked at me for about 40 minutes about everything from the student population in Harajuku to how the government should be culling the crows. After a while, I decided it was time to make my apologies and head off somewhere else. Nice guy, bit crazy though.

The art museum nearby cost to get in, but the sculpture outside reminded me of the gate in Full Metal Alchemist so I snapped a photo of that.

Heading on the subway to Akihabara, it was uniquely underwhelming, and the guide of “the shops are around the station” didn’t help. I spent a bit of time in a random electronics store before heading out from all the noise and bright lights.

With the rest of the afternoon left I headed out to the Imperial Palace and gardens for a little look around.

I managed to get some really nice fountain photos (slow shutter FTW) but the grounds were under construction in places so access was even more limited than usual. The grounds were huge, evidently to hold all the people on the two days of the year when it’s open, but otherwise it was a big open space in the middle of an otherwise busy city.

Heading back, I phoned the tour leader to see whether there was a meal going on that evening which there was, so I got to meet the entire group. The meal was fantastic and was a selection of dishes chosen by the tour leader and a set of beers as everyone got to know each other. In all there were 9 of us, 10 including the tour leader.

Lisa was mid forties and had left her husband and two children at home to come to Japan. Larry and Joel were the only Americans in the party and Larry was the father while Joel was in Japan for his 21st birthday. Sam(antha) and Andy were two Brits who basically had travelled the world (glacier climbing in Chile, Tibettan mountain climbing). Pat and Tony were mid 60’s but ran marathons so were more fit than most of the group members. Gemma, another 21 year old who had been to Japan earlier in the year on another tour with her mum but had had a shitty time so came back on her own for this tour. And myself. Quite the eclectic group really.

Gemma, Joel and Larry had only just got into Japan so left early (weaklings) while the rest of us got boozed and eventually adjourned at about 11pm.

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14 September 2006