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Tag: Tokyo (page 2 of 2)

Shrine on, you crazy diamond…

Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine, in a large park, in the middle of Tokyo.

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Not that Tokyo really has a “middle” but the effect is the same – one minute you’re walking past Harajuku Station where all the freaky fashion kids hang out, and the next minute you’re standing in front of a giant wooden gate in a forest. Like this guy…

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The gate is called a torii, which means birdhouse. It’s a passageway from the mundane to the sacred. Coming straight from Tokyo’s teen fashion hub, the effect is stunning. Time to leave it all behind and get your zen on.

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A wide pebbled path leads through a lush forest filled with Japanese maples. There’s a guy who rakes the rocks, and another guy who sweeps the leaves off the path. Constantly. I don’t know what they call him in Japanese but I call him “Leafman” and he has mad skills.

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On one side of the path is a huge collection of sake barrels. Sake is called wine but it’s actually brewed like beer. Go figure.

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You keep going down the path and come to a place where you wash your hands and mouth, cleansing yourself and focusing. Then you walk on to the shrine. The outside has huge wooden doors…

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Through the doorway you see the shrine itself…

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It’s actually a collection of buildings…

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And a prayer wall, to which you can add your prayer…

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Pictures are forbidden at the main shrine itself. There’s a giant taiko drum on the right, and a place to stand near the middle. You drop some coins into the collection crate (today it was for the Kyushu earthquake victims). Then you bow twice, clap your hands twice, and bow once more. If you close your eyes you can feel the world turning. At least, that’s what happened to me. There’s a lot of mojo in Meiji. And even the occasional Japanese wedding…

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Walking out, I was struck with just how hard it has been for Tokyo to keep this part of its culture. The shrine was destroyed in World War II and they rebuilt it. Since then, Tokyo has become a fast-paced city, a crazy mix of cultures from all over the world. Many aspects of the West have been embraced, and in many ways the Western style is overtaking their culture. Signs of American and European cultural adoption and imitation are everywhere. But authentic places like Meiji Jingu survive as a testament to the old ways of this proud island people.

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Heading back out of the forest, you can see tall buildings framed in the gateway. Back into the world of the mundane…

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First night in Tokyo…

So we dropped off our stuff at the Cerulean Tower hotel and hit the streets. This is the famous Shibuya Crossing…

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You’ve probably seen it in every movie that ever had a Tokyo scene. Shibuya was hopping. We walked all over that mama-san, checking out all the wackness, crazy stores and bars everywhere…

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Eventually we stopped at a tiny ramen bar called Afuri. You order on a vending machine inside the front door…

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How it works is, you pick the ramen you want, then put your money in and press the button. The machine spits out a ticket and you take that to the counter and hand it to one of the cooks. They made me a vegan ramen and it was oishii!

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Tokyo exists on many levels. Roadways over roadways, tall buildings with rooftop bars and basement shops too. And there are cranes everywhere, construction everywhere. It’s overwhelming. Especially at the end of a long day of travel. We made it back to the hotel bar before our feet melted, for some Suntory times…

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So… after a 15 hours of travel and another 7 hours bopping around Shibuya, I fell into bed at 10PM. Which was still yesterday back home. Good times!

Sha-BOO-YA!!!

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I’m 36,000 feet above the Pacific, crossing the dateline into the future. Tokyo, baby!

Looooong non-stop flight to Narita, Japan (10 hours!) but I had the whole row to myself so I got to lay down like a jet-set hobo. This is a business trip with two colleagues. We’re going to do businessy things. You know, cos I’m all business.

Getting off the plane, I was mobbed by Japanese teenagers. I’m big in Japan! Alas, they weren’t looking for me, they were chasing some Japanese TV star who looked like an Asian Harry Potter.

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My first trip to Asia, I’m stoked! The three of us took different flights so we met up in the airport bar for Suntory time…

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I think those are flight attendants behind me but it might be some weird fetish. They’re into kinky stuff over here. So we got out of there before they started their preversions and hopped a train to Tokyo.

It’s about a 40 minute ride through the cuts to Tokyo. Rice paddies and power plants and run-down houses by the tracks. Just like the train out of New York City. Except for the rice paddies. And the houses are Japanese. And Godzilla, of course…

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After barely escaping in our bullet train, we finally we get into Tokyo…

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We check into the hotel, the Cerulean Tower Hotel in Shibuya. Sha-BOO-YAH! I get a suite with two twin beds (one for each of my split personalities)…

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And the wackiest hotel bathroom I’ve ever had, with a deluxe shower and a toilet that pees back at me and a jacuzzi tub with a spectacular view of Tokyo…

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I unpack my stuff and head out. Are the things I’ve heard about Tokyo true? Will the ramen bring me back to my college days? Do they really have vending machines that sell used panties? Will I figure out how to use the computerized toilet?

Tune in for the next episode to find out…

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