Tokyo Part 2

Hello once again,

Everything here at the summer camp in Karuizawa is going quite well, but it is still very tiring. But first, I have to finish part two of my time in Tokyo, and then my next couple of entries will be about Karuizawa (hopefully coming soon).

But before I give a play-by-play of Tokyo, a quick mention of how the weather has been. Well, actually that is pretty simple: hot and humid and generally unpleasant. Just about as bad as the East Coast in the summer, although a bit cooler, and a bit more humid, and a bit warmer at night. Here in Karuizawa, the weather is pretty similar, but almost gets 5-10 degrees (F) cooler at night, which makes a huge difference. Rooms can actually be aired out!

So my last day in Tokyo, I went to the national museum (pictured below), which specialized in Japanese art across the centuries. It was a great museum, and it was really great to see the different art. In particular, it was interesting to see that the museum set aside a couple of galleries for art of the 'native tribes' like the Ainu, even though they are basically not represented in current day Japanese demographics.

After the museum, I then walked around the park it is located in: Ueno Park. It is a very beautiful and picturesque park with a zoo and a bunch of museums and shrines. The next picture is of the edge of Ueno Park with a shrine in the middle of the lily filled lakes, and all around the lake had craft stands located around it.

After my day out, it was time to get back to the hostel before grabbing my bags and meeting at 6 pm for the train to Karuizawa. I got back to the hostel a bit early, so I relaxed at the hostel until 5, as I figured an hour would plenty suffice for the Tokyo metro, even though I was not in the center of the city. However, when I went down just before 5 pm, the receptionist was not around, and I had to wait until 5:15 to get my bags. After changing into fresh clothes (since it was so hot) and a 10-minute walk to the metro station, it was already 5:30! Unfortunately, the line I had to take, the Hibiya Line, basically avoids the Tokyo station, and I would have had to change after basically going all the way around the station. However, I decided I wanted my timing in my own hands, and I ran about 10 minutes to the Tokyo train station, and arrived 5 minutes early. But, it was the wrong side of the huge station. After buying a metro ticket just to go through the station (there was almost no other way!) I arrived only about 5 minutes late, and they were still waiting. Whew.

But now, I will say just a couple of other notes about Tokyo and Japan more generally. As I have done with my previous countries, I will state that the roads follow along similar perfectionism that can be found many places in Japanese societies. Also, since Tokyo is such a dense city, the system of freeways is almost all elevated, and in one particular spot, the only place the engineers could put the freeway was over a river, which they did. This picture is from one of the many road overpasses in Japan near the hostel where I stayed. If you look really closely, you might be able to see yellow lines on the sidewalks, which are everywhere to help the blind be able to navigate by themselves.

Of course, Tokyo is so dense that a great road system will not suffice for the population. For most people, the Tokyo Metro system is incredibly timely and efficient. But, what particularly struck me about the metro system (along with other trains) is how clean and convenient the whole system is. Any country should be happy to have its high speed rail trains be as clean as the Tokyo Metro is. It is absolutely incredible. When I actually got on the train for Karuizawa, I was even more surprised. Not only did they have a quick efficient cleaning team go through the train while we waited to get on (not as if it was needed), the train had a food and beverage service. Furthermore, when either the beverage service lady or the conductor came into the train car, they bowed deeply as soon as they entered. (To be honest, I have made up for the lack of my Japanese through lots of bowing. It works pretty well.) Here is a picture of a bunch of train tracks, and even during the Saturday afternoon I was there, at least about 5-6 trains passed within a span of about a minute.

As Tokyo is so cramped, the areas right below the train tracks are perfect for shopping areas, which are very heavily used. This photo is of train tracks near Ueno station, and I also ducked into a sushi restaurant for some food here as well.
Finally, one of the most interesting things to see was many of the women walking around taking sun umbrellas with them. Apparently, it is attractive to have very pale skin, so people do what they can to avoid going outside, and if they do, taking a sun umbrella with them. This picture was taken in Ueno park.

Ok, that is it for now. Hopefully I will be able to do another update soon about the camp here, and then, before I know it, I will be back on a plane to the United States in four days time.

-Andrew