Day Eight: Ueno, Asakusa, Akihabara

Hello! You found the compass!

      Early this morning, Tess and I woke up because our bed was shaking. I thought that Tess was viciously scratching an itch and Tess thought that I was viciously rolling around in my sleep (we're vicious people I guess). Once we established that neither one of us were causing it, we realized it was a small earthquake. Welcome to Tokyo!

      Tess and I actually got up fairly early to shower and grab breakfast at a little café a few blocks from our hotel. We were told to meet Dr. Huang in the hotel lobby at 8:50 to leave for the Tokyo Imperial Palace.  Seeing as it is the emperor’s current home, the security and structure at the Tokyo Imperial Palace was much more rigid than that of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. We had to walk in four lines around the premises. Also, unlike the tour of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, this one was in Japanese. They had little headsets with an audio tour for English speakers. We briefly saw who we believed to be royalty (relatives of the emperor) because they were dressed very well and abruptly turned around and walked in the other direction when they saw a large tour coming.  Many things in the palace were closed for events, so we didn’t get the full tour that we otherwise would have. The events they were closed for weren’t specified. I don’t remember any specific names of places, but here are the few pictures that I managed to take and some facts about them (if I remember):

Just some horsemen patrolling. Pretty nifty.

This keep burned down in WWII.

The main building where events are held.

      We headed to Ueno next, where we were set loose and able to grab lunch. Tess, Becky, Eric, and I found a little hole-in-the-wall type of place where I got hot curry and rice with a pork cutlet. As usual, it was very good!

Here were some other interesting sights in Ueno:

Sun Friend?

A "prison bar".

Love me! Love me! Say that you love me!

       While in Ueno, Dr. Huang showed us an interesting statue and memorial and explained the story behind them to us. (Dad, you will like this!) It turns out that the movie The Last Samurai is roughly based on the life of a man named Saigo Takamori. (Ken Watanabe’s character is supposed to be him.) During the Meiji Restoration, there were a group of warriors who supported Tokugawa (old government) ways and resisted the Meiji changes.  These soldiers (called Shogi-tai) fought against the new government’s army and were defeated in what is now called the Ueno War.  Saigo Takamori had supported the winning soldiers and defended the Meiji government. However, in 1877, after retiring from all governmental positions, he became the leader of a rebellion against the very government that he had helped establish. The rebel army lost. Saigo was wounded on the battlefield and committed seppuku to keep is samurai status. Due to carrying out that tradition and giving himself the honor of a good death, he is regarded as the last true samurai. Now he is a hero of the people. The statue that we saw was his, and the memorial is a graveyard for the Shogi-tai soldiers. 

Drawing of the Ueno War by a survivor.

Shoga-tai memorial.

Saigo and his dog.

       After our lunch break, we walked to the Tokyo National Museum. On our walk we went through streets lined with cherry blossom trees, but of course we are here too early to see them in their magnificence.  Only one tree was blooming, and the birds loved it! We also passed a statue with a plaque that said it was a depiction of Imperial Prince Akihito, the first president of the Japanese Red Cross Society.

They liked hanging upside-down.

The prince.

Though we were allowed to take pictures of many pieces in the museum, I chose not to. They didn’t come out great anyway, and I felt weird taking pictures. The museum had old books on beauty for men and women, a large collection of swords, an exhibit on the works of Kuroda Saiki (wonderful painter), old ceramics, and much more. 

Tokyo National Museum.

A sign for the MFA in Boston was there!

I thought this sign was funny.

      We took a quick train ride to our final stop as a group: Asakusa Temple.  It is one of the most well-known temples in Tokyo. Leading up to the temple is a small road lined with food vendors and other shops, and that happens to be one of the most famous shopping areas around! There were more tourists there than anywhere else we had been to.  After taking a group photo in front of the temple gate, Dr. Huang set us loose in Tokyo. We were officially on our own! The temple itself was beautiful and the shops had a lot of cool, cheap things that that tourists like us are drawn to. Tess, Becky, Kristen, and Bridgette got kimonos, and I got a simple yukata. I also got Sweet Potato soft serve ice cream, because why not? Yes, it really did taste like a sweet potato.

The main gate to the temple.

The shops on the other side of the gate.

Asakusa Temple.

A painting on the ceiling.

Another beautiful painting.

An Obama mask that a vendor was selling.

  

      With our newfound freedom we got ourselves to Akihabara, which is supposed to be the electronic and anime capital of Tokyo. We found the electric district easily enough, but I didn’t find a whole lot that I wanted. Maybe I was looking in the wrong spots. Anyway, the group split apart in Akihabara and Tess and I decided that we wanted to see what a maid café was like. All we knew was that the waitresses dressed like maids and joked around with customers. We thought we were going into something innocent. Well, we were wrong. (Oh Japan, you outdo yourself.) We took an elevator up to the third floor of a building (red flag number one) which had windows that were difficult to see into (red flag number two). When the elevator doors opened, my mood fell into complete discomfort (red flag number three? Trust my instincts? It counts.) The room was lit by soft pink and red lighting; much like how I imagine a strip club would be (number four). Also, every customer was male (number five). A maid gestured for us to sit down. We saw a sign by our table indicating that no photography was allowed (number six). A maid that spoke some English came over and said that there was a 1,000 yen seating charge (number seven), that we had to buy at least one meal (number eight), and that we were allowed to stay for an hour (number nine). It was around then that I faked an emergency phone call and we apologized to the girl and left. We ran out of the building and immediately got onto the train and left Akihabara, returning to Ikebukuro where things are safer. It was easily the most uncomfortable social situations that I had ever put myself in. I felt tense and sort of nervous and scared for many minutes after leaving that place. Tess felt the same. We will speak no further of our encounter with the maid café.

I drowned my fear in this: Cheesecake Haagen-Dazs. It is delicious and NEEDS to come to America.

       Tess and I fled to the hotel café for dinner before returning to the room where I am writing this. What a strange day this was (but fun, besides the end). Tomorrow is our first full free day to take to the streets of Tokyo on our own. My plan is to do some serious shopping in Shibuya (home to Hachiko’s Statue and the famous 109 building) and Sunshine City (Tokyo’s only “city within a city”; it’s in Ikebukuro).  We’ll see if things change. 

      For now, I am in need of sleep. America, I will be home soon and have plenty of stories! Oyasuminasai!