So – Where Have I Been At?

Well, mostly just around, in winter hibernation. Unusually for Wilf and I we stayed put this winter. And we picked a good one – mild temperatures, little rain – no snow! In fact spring came very early this year – the cherry trees were out in February, and we had our first daffodil blooms right at the end of the month. The early rhodos are out now and the garden looks good – lots to look at already.

We did take a quick trip to Seattle at the beginning of February – thought we’d get over and back before all the Olympic hoohah started. We shopped and ate and walked and had a nice few days. The bus tunnel that services downtown Seattle is back in service, which makes for some speedy moving about.

One discovery we made is that The Elliott Bay Book Company is moving. Okay, we may have been the last people to find out, but I’m glad we didn’t just show up there one day and find them gone. The actual move begins tomorrow –they’re promising a great location in another building with squeaky fir floors – and parking – so there’s that!

Well, now that spring has sprung and hibernation is over I’ll aim to update more frequently. And I’ll leave you with a picture that we took on our Seattle trip:

Yep those are four full grown Newfoundland dogs in the back of a pickup. We stopped for coffee at Sehome Village, Bellingham, as we usually do. Sitting in my chair by the window I had the sense of being watched. When I turned around I was eye to eye with a very large black dog. Being a Newf he had a ‘Wassup? Wanna play?’ look about him. His owner went out and tried to send him back to the truck, but no way, he wanted to be where the action was. It wasn’t until owner guy walked the dog back to the pickup and put him in the cab that we realized that there were four more in the back of the truck! That led to quite a buzz around the coffee shop - ‘Imagine the food for those guys! Food, shmood – imagine the poop situation!’ I wasn’t the only one out in the parking lot taking pictures of these beauties. (And yes, since we were in Bellingham in the winter it was drizzling, so those were five huge wet dogs….)

Brrr….

I was going to write about how cold it had gotten here, cold enough to open extra beds at the homeless shelters. Then I looked at what is happening in Calgary. So – never mind.

There is an upside to these arctic outflows  – sun, beautiful sun. Just cover up your tender bits!

Still here!

I’m not done with the Japan trip quite yet, I’m just trying to get my bearings now that we’re back on this side of the world.

We left Tokyo on Tuesday, November 10 at 5:30 p.m. and arrived in Vancouver on Tuesday, November 10 at 9:30 a.m. Argh – I’m just not going to think too much about that date line thing.

Thursday morning we were on an 8:00 a.m. flight out of Victoria and we’re now in Winnipeg. So, sleep comes when it does, which is usually not when the world around us is in sleep mode – we’re falling asleep all day, wide awake at night. I’m sure we’ll just get sorted in time to go back to Victoria on Wednesday.

We find things here in Winnipeg in good shape. Wilf’s mom is settled into her new home and is happy to have a room of her own.

I’ll be back soon with more pictures and stories of our adventures. I’ve really appreciated hearing from you all about these postings. I sort of feel like I’m talking to myself – it’s good to know you are out there!

Badger hunting in Tokyo

When we first arrived in Japan we stayed in Asakusa, the district that contains the great Sensoji Temple. While wandering around the grounds we came across a small shrine called Chingo-do, which is dedicated to the Tanuki, also known as the raccoon dog or badger. Here’s a rascally looking three some:

As well as being the deity for protection against fire and theft, Sir Raccoon Dog is also a symbol of flourishing business. Bars and noodle shops, in particular, usually have a statue of a tanuki out front. We figure its a sort of ‘good time  here’ symbol.

Wilf decided that he needed a tanuki for a souvenir. The area around the temple in Asakusa is thick with souvenir shops so we returned there today. I managed to find the Japanese name for the critter – trying to explain to someone who doesn’t speak English that I wanted a small statue of a badger just seemed like a recipe for failure.

Good luck cats, Hello Kitty in all incarnations, owls – no problem. Tanuki – not so easy. Asakusa is also the part of town where the restaurant supply stores are – the guidebooks send tourists there to see where all the fake food on display in front of Japanese restaurants comes from. Figuring that restaurants have to get their tanuki from somewhere we set off. Finding one with just the right facial expression was a challenge – goofy, but not too comic like. With teeth…… There were some big ones that were great and would have made a great water feature in the garden. But how to get it home? Eventually we found a little one that is actually a sake container – Sir Raccoon Dog’s hat comes off for use as a sake cup. I’ll have to show you a picture later, as he’s currently packed up for transport.

After achieving success in the badger department we decided to walk down to the river. And lo and behold – a big water taxi to take us to places unknown. We hopped on and away we went. It is easy to forget that Tokyo is on the ocean, has a big port and also has a whole river network running through it. We passed under 14 bridges, and saw many more on side channels. That explains why so many subway stations end with ‘bashi, which means bridge.

While waiting for the water taxi I bought another charm from a vending machine. This caused much excitement amongst the groups of ladies standing behind me, especially when I couldn’t get the plastic bubble it came in open. They couldn’t stand it, took it away and passed it around until they got it. I was balancing camera, purse, knapsack, packages, and when I was fumbling getting the charm onto my camera I thought the mama-san’s were going to take that over too! They were a hoot!

Once back to shore we made our way to Shibuya. If you’ve seen the movie ‘Lost in Translation’ you’ve seen this intersection. It is a scramble – the cars go in one direction, then the other. Then the cars wait and people cross however they need to . It is a sea of humanity surrounded by oceans of neon – all set to the latest J-pop blasting from the speakers!

Tonight – a quickie….

Tired tonight after roaming the city all day. The plan today was to visit the Harajuku district. On Sundays this is were the kids go in their crazy clothes – the more outlandish, the better. We arrived via JR train a bit on the early side and wandered through some of the lanes. Definitely where the young ‘uns shop. We made a loop back up to where the action was to be. From a distance we could hear a hectoring female voice over a loudspeaker. This is surprisingly common, in a country that so values discretion and politeness. Trucks drive by advertising via loudspeakers, vendors on the street are using loudspeakers to entice shoppers. Since we can’t understand what they’re on about its just a lot of noise.

Back to the bridge by train station – no crazy clothes. But hundreds of people streaming out of the train station with banners. At this point it was just on to 11:00 a.m. We followed down the street for a bit – the hectoring voice was coming from a van by the side of the road with a group of what could only be local politicians bowing and smiling while this woman went on and on and on. On one side of the road is a huge park that people are heading towards in large groups. On the other side of the road is a huge arena, where there appears to be a rhythmic gymnastics competition going on, given the number of very young  girls in sparkly eye makeup and carrying fancy hoops.

I managed to find a young policeman who could manage enough English to confirm that there was a political demonstration about to happen in the park. We decided to walk back down through the shopping area and let things settle for a bit.

The fancy shopping area was packed with people out for a day of strolling and shopping. Once clear of the Harajuko street area proper we were into designer land – huge Ralph Lauren stand alone store, Louis Vuitton store, Harry Winston, you name it. Back in Harajuko we got a local snack – crepes, rolled up in a cone like an ice cream cone, filled with yummy stuff.

By now it was about 1:15, and only a few people on the bridge looking kind of purple and gothy. And then there was this guy:

 

Dude – aren’t you a little old for this?

We found a cafe near the entrance to the Meji park shrine. Lots of parents bringing their kids to the shrine for blessings as part of the 7-5-3 festival. Lots of tourists. And then, about 1:15, the singing started. And the chanting. The folks we saw at 11:00 heading for their demonstration were now, at 1:15 returning up the street. For 45 minutes they kept coming and coming. Chanting, singing. A sea of people. Carrying lots of signs and banners. Lots of police keeping an eye on things.

Passing the train station – at first I thought they might be heading from rally to the train to go home, but no – they just kept on going….

Like I’ve said – it is a real nuisance, being illiterate.

We scooted over to Roppongi to see the Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midcity  developments – they’re like cities within the city. Amazing architecture:

and these two cuties and their Dad – playing in one of the sculptures.

We have covered a ton of ground, and are thoroughly the city. So much to see – we never know what we’re going to find when we come up from the subway- will we step into the 21st century, or go back in time down some tiny little alley of little bars and eateries?

Going to Shinjuku Station

According to Wikipedia Shinjuku Station in West Tokyo is the busiest train station in the world. I have no reason to doubt that. Apparently on about 3.5 million people per day pass through the station complex.

3.5 million. Per day.

We decided to pay our respects on a weekend, hoping to find the crowds somewhat diminished. This seems like a good time to talk about the amazing Tokyo transit system. Here’s a map:

I don’t know if that will be readable – here’s the link to the system’s website: Tokyo transit. There are some 35 lines that serve the greater Tokyo system. They loop and criss-cross back and forth. Within the city there are often many ways to get to a location. We really don’t know the where’s and why’s of one route over another, so we just pick what looks to us to be straightforward. We have rechargeable cards that allow us to access all the lines – and since there are two subway companies and one train company that simplifies things. We pass the card over the turnstile on the way in and again on the way out and it figures out what we owe. That part is simple.

A trip or two ago to Seattle Wilf found a little Tokyo subway book at Elliot Bay bookstore  and it has been our lifesaver. It gives details of each line, how the lines connect and information about the major stations. For instance – there are 60 access points to the Shinjuku station complex. It matters that you get the right one – get it wrong and you can be blocks and blocks from where you want to be in a chaotic street scene with no street signs.

The good news is that there is a rationalized signage/numbering system. Each line has a letter associated with it – and a colour. Each station has a number. The signage looks like this:

We are at Station E 07.  E is the Oedo line, the big loop around the city. Station E07 is Kasuga. Next stop is E06 – Lidabashi. In theory you could find your way by just knowing that you needed to get from station E07 to E25.There is a subway station entrance directly across from our hotel. It is for another line, but by walking underground for some time we wind up at good old E07 – we seem to use the Oedo line a lot. Usually we find our way in and out without trouble, but one night after we has passed out of the turnstiles of one line we must have zigged when we should have zagged, ‘cause when we got to our friend exit number 8 we were behind a different set of turnstiles, and our card was not happy – no ingress, so how could it calculate egress? Fortunately the two guys in booth were used to dealing with confused tourists and sorted out our cards and let us out.

So, knowing the scale of Shinjuku station we did our homework. Worked our where the store we wanted should be, what exit would be required and this morning we set out. By paying close attention we wound up exactly where we wanted to be. And at 9:30 on a Saturday morning it was pretty quiet. In fact when we found the yarn store we wanted it wasn’t open yet. Off to Starbuck’s we went – it was up on the second floor of one of the shopping complexes attached to the station. At 10:00 we looked out and saw this:

 

This is the manager and employees of an eyeglass store. The manager has made a speech and they all bowed to each other. Now they are bowing to the street. They then turned in unison and:

bowed in one direction, then turned and bowed the other way. People are whizzing by, totally indifferent. More talking by the boss, another round or two of bowing and then everyone set off into the store at a run. One guy came out with a broom and pail and swept not the sidewalk but the street in front of the store. Others brought out display racks, signs, a red carpet. Quite a production……

The level of service everywhere is amazing. Huge number of staff in the huge department stores. Often there is a young woman running the elevator in the department store. In full, fashionable uniform. And seeming so totally delighted to see everyone, to explain what was on each floor, to make sure that no one gets caught in the door. Customers are greeted with huge enthusiasm upon entering an establishment and sent off with much thanks upon departure.

I’ve added a new phrase to my limited repertoire. Gochisosama deshita, which means (literally) ‘Thanks to you it was delicious’. This is said to the cook/wait staff/anyone involved at the end of a meal. I find it a real tongue twister to say but I think I’ve finally got it. I sure get a reaction when I try it out. Mostly surprise, but lot’s of ‘Very Good!’ and the occasional clapping of hands. I definitely breaks their reserve!

By time we finished our day around Shinjuku station it was falling dark and the lights were coming up. The streets were crowded, the noise was great – this was what I was expecting from Tokyo!

Even McDonald’s isn’t immune…

Not quite right signage picture for today:

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Although, actually, cuppuccinno isn’t a bad name for a coffee!

Oh – and on Monday all the Starbuck’s switched to Christmas mode – decorations, music, Christmas treats, you name it. Whew – not a minute too soon!