Zojoji Temple

Zojoji Temple was also located near our hotel. Literally five minutes away, we walked over to visit and pick up some omomori or good luck amulets to take home before we left Japan. Originally built in 1393 and then moved to it's present location in 1598, Zojoji Temple is the main temple of the Buddhist Jodo sect in the Kanto area of Japan. When Tokugawa Ieyasu moved to Edo (Tokyo) in 1590, Zojoji Temple became the family temple of the Tokugawa family. The Sangedatsumon or main gate that you see in the above picture was originally constructed in 1622. It is the only structure that remains of the original temple compound as all other buildings were destroyed in the air raids of 1945.

The main hall seen behind us is called Daiden (Hondo) and was rebuilt in 1974. This picture really doesn't do the temple justice as we are standing quite far from it in this pose. Enshrined in the main hall is a large Amida Buddha. You can see part of Tokyo Tower in the background to the right.

What was first beautiful to behold ended up making me a little melancholy. Spanning almost the entire length of one side of the temple grounds were hundreds of these little Jizo statues all dressed festively with bonnets and windmills. After inquiring about their significance I found that they represent children who were stillborn or passed away of other causes. Jizo is the Buddhist protector of children, travellers and the dead.

The quiet stroll around the peaceful temple grounds seemed a fitting way to spend our last day in Tokyo. The weather had started to turn a little cooler and the city seemed to have slowed down for the weekend. After a final walk around Zojoji Temple we all headed back to the hotel to begin the arduous task of packing for our return trip to Hawaii.

Tokyo Tower

It's Sunday, our last day in Japan. Before leaving we decided to check out Tokyo Tower and Zoyoji Temple. Both of these places were a short walk away from our hotel. Here's a picture of us on a pedestrian overpass as we made our way up to Tokyo Tower first. During out trip we had always used Tokyo Tower as a landmark when returning home to our hotel.

Tokyo Tower is a well known Japanese landmark located in the Shiba area of Tokyo. Standing 333 meters tall, it's claim to fame is that it's the tallest self supporting steel tower in the world. It's even taller than the Eiffel Tower in France, which is what this structure was modelled after. It's painted orange and white to meet aviation safety standards I am told and hosts a bevy of television and radio broadcast antennas. First opened in 1958, there is an observation deck that can be reached by elevator for a terrific panoramic view of Tokyo. I understand that on a clear day you can actually see Mount Fuji from here. I took this picture from a different angle that I thought helped to better convey the size of this monster.

As expected, Tokyo Tower had a "healthy" amount of omiyage for purchase including the ever present Hello Kitty! Where ever we went in Japan, including places outside of Tokyo like Hakone, there would always been some type of Hello Kitty item for sale. At Tokyo Tower we came across this giant one towering down on us as we shopped for gifts to take home. I ended up purchasing quite a bit of stuff to take home from here. With less than a day left to our Tokyo trip, this would be one of our last chances to buy gifts for home.

Party in Ginza - Mr Ikki

After shopping all Saturday in Ameyoko and Akihabara, it was time for a spectacular dinner in Ginza. What's that you ask? Did we really have dinner in Ginza, the most exclusive and expensive shopping and restaurant district in all of Japan? Yes we did my friends, oh yes we did! As usual, Dean and his Mom did a great job in finding us an awesome restaurant that could seat all fourteen of us in a private room. It was a Japanese food fest that night with some no holds bar sake drinking as well.

Tonight we feasted like Kings and Queens! Sashimi, King Crab, Monksfish Liver, you name it, we ate it. We were halfway through this sashimi boat before I remembered to take a picture of it for posterity. We started the night with a few beers and then switched to sake. Not the small sake bottles mind you, but the 1.8 liter bottles! It wasn't long before we had "drunk" the place dry of this particular brand of sake so we switched brands. A few bottles later and they were out of this sake as well. Something about the beer and sake in Japan that make it taste better than anything you'll ever have in the States.

My buddy Kurt decided that tonight in Ginza was the night that he was going to put to use what Taisho from Naruyama had taught us a few days ago. If you recall from an earlier posting, while having chankonabe at Naruyama, Taisho taught us "Ikki" which means to down a drink in one chug or take it as a shot. Well Kurt, or Mr. Ikki as he became known that night, decided to test everyone's tolerance for sake by toasting ikki after ikki until we couldn't ikki no more. (I'm sorry that I don't have a picture of Kurt doing his ikki, but I was too busy holding up my own glass and trying to keep up!) Kurt was a man on a mission, who did not know the meaning of the word failure. Mission accomplished my friend, good job!

So how does one end the perfect meal in Ginza? Why, with more beer of course! After leaving the restaurant we walked down the street a bit to some kind of European style beer hall. Dean knows the name of the place and my memory becomes a little foggy at this point in the game. I do remember that this place happened to serve Yebisu Dark, which is one of Dean's favorite beers, hence the reason for stopping by in the first place. Huge steins of dark beer appeared suddenly as I started to catch my second wind of the evening. As stuffed as I was from our awesome Ginza dinner, I just couldn't help but order some deep fried oysters from the menu here. About an our later as we were all ready to explode from our second meal of the evening, we decided to call it a night. The cool night air and brisk walk to the train station woke everyone up and we all got back to our hotel, safe and content.

Ameyoko - The Land of Dried Scallops

Saturday morning and it was off to the Ameyoko shopping district in Ueno. This was the first rainy day of our trip. Up until this point we had been blessed with truly outstanding weather so we really couldn't complain about one day of rain. Here's a picture of Timmy and Rae standing to the right of the Ameyoko sign. We caught the train here again and proceeded to do some shopping for omiyage or gifts to bring home to friend and families. While Ameyoko offered a variety of items for sale, we were here to look for cuttlefish and dried scallops.

One of the things that Ameyoko is known for are the stalls that sell dried seafood products such as cuttlefish and scallops. If it came out of the ocean and could be salted and dried, there was a good chance you would find it here for sale. You can see Dean in the above picture haggling with the stall owner's wife for a better price on our purchases. In hindsight we should have bought a lot more than we did. Given as omiyage when we returned to Hawaii, all of us have shared stories of how our friends and families devoured these tasty gifts and immediately demanded more. Unfortunately we underestimated how much everyone who enjoy these treats, especially the dried scallops and clams. When we go back to Japan in October 2007, Ameyoko is definitely on the agenda.

I call this picture "Ameyoko in the Springtime". Actually I really call it "My Friend Richard Standing out in the Rain"! Richard tells me that he does not like umbrellas and prefers to wear a jacket to keep out the rain. The funny thing is the jacket he wore that day in Ameyoko wasn't waterproof, but instead seemed to be made of a sponge-like fabric that could absorb and retain twice it's original mass in rain water. On this dark and rainy day, my soggy friend also chose to wear his ultra bright cornea burning white shoes, which didn't stay white for long. But did any of this get my friend Richard down? Not on your life! On this day Richard refused to be beaten by the bad weather, and instead chose to defy it head on by standing out in the rain by himself, with no umbrella and wearing a sponge-like jacket . . . Bravo Rich Dogg, you go boy!

Akihabara

A trip to Tokyo Japan just wouldn't be complete without visiting Akihabara, the electronics capital of Japan. We got back Thursday night from our overnight trip to Hakone. Nadine and I were really pooped out and decided to call it an early night. Friday was a free day with an optional trip to Nikko for anyone who wanted to go. Dean, his Mom, Mark and Ryan opted for the Nikko excursion. The rest of us split up with Matt, Mary and Brad going off on their own and the rest of us heading over to Akihabara for some shopping. We would be "Dean-less" today for the first time on our trip. But by this point we had all become pretty comfortable with using the train system, and we were confident that we would make it to our destination and back. Besides, Akihabara was only a few stops away from Hamamatsucho using the Yamanote line.

After a short ride to Akihabara Station we exited the train to the surprising sight of a middle age gentlemen dressed up in a blue maids outfit dancing and singing in the middle of the street. "Maid Boy" really seemed to be enjoying himself and was oblivious to all until "Grandpa" showed up. Seen here in the fluorescent green jacket and maroon pants, Grandpa suddenly jumps in from nowhere and proceeds to get his boogie on with Maid Boy. The two guys didn't seem to know each other and Maid Boy even seemed a little perturbed that Grandpa was stealing the show with his "motorcycle dance". Now I'm sure this type of thing is quite common in Akihabara but it was a first for me. I tried to get Richard and Timmy to join in but they declined for some strange reason.

No one was more surprised than I was when we happened upon Timmy's long lost twin brother in Akihabara. Apparently they were separated at birth with Timmy moving to Hawaii and his twin brother Jimmy being sent to Japan to live with relatives. It's eerie how identical they look standing next to each other. Jimmy works in security and is married with two lovely children. His oldest son Zaboga is fifteen and is into motorcycle racing and his youngest son Robocon is seven and enjoys playing soccer. Timmy and Jimmy exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch.

No trip to Akihabara would be complete without a stop at Yodobashi-Akiba. If you can read Japanese, here's a link to their website. http://www.yodobashi-akiba.com/ Yodobashi-Akiba is an Electronics Superstore with "Super" being the key word. The building is made up of eight humongous floors filled with every electronic device known to man. Located to the East of Akihabara Station, Yodobashi dominates the skyline as the districts only real skyscraper. So with miles and miles of every conceivable electronic gadget available for purchase, what cutting edge piece of technology do you think my buddy Richard bought at this mega store? Answer = a camera case.

Owakudani Hot Springs

We took the above picture at Owakudani Hot Springs. We stopped here on our way back to Tokyo from Hakone to do some sightseeing. This is bar none my favorite picture of the entire trip. Usually Dean would take our group pictures which meant he was often left out of them. In this instance we were able to get a passerby to take it, which means all fourteen of us are in it, and I must say that we LOOK GOOD! The weather gods were even smiling on us that day, blessing us with clear blue skies and not a cloud in sight! All this meant for picture perfect views of Mount Fuji in the distance. I'm told that there are people in Japan who have never seen Mount Fuji this clearly because of the normally cloudy weather. Being able to see snow on the top of Mount Fuji is also a rarity that we were lucky to experience as well.

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Time to backtrack a little. In order to get to Owakudani to take that awesome picture above, we needed to first ride the Ropeway. These cable cars were awesome, and seemed to be made almost entirely of clear glass. This allowed for a spectacular 360 degree view of the surrounding area as we quickly ascended the mountainside. The thing I remember most about the ride up was how quiet it was. Because the cable cars were literally pulled up by cable as opposed to a gas motor, there was virtually no sound but the wind as we rose higher and higher. It was actually kind of scary now that I think about it.

After reaching the top you exit the Ropeway and walk down a flight of stairs to a lower area. As you can see from the above picture, the Ropeway is not the only way to reach Owakudani. Tour buses and a few private cars can be seen in the background as we stopped to take this picture. Nadine and I decided not to venture any further than this and stayed near the Ropeway station since Nadine was still feeling a little under the weather. The rest of the travelers pressed onward to see all of what Owakudani Hot Springs had to offer.

Now because Nadine and I stayed back at the Ropeway station, I technically did not see much of Owkudani Hot Springs. As far as I could tell, Owakudani Hot Spings is basically a lot of white toxic smoke wisping out from the hillside and filling the air with the the smell of rotten eggs. Oh, and there was also the pool of white chalky water that had white toxic smoke wisping out and filling the air with the smell of rotten eggs. But all that didn't matter, because the views of Mount Fuji and and the surrounding area made the visit entirely worthwhile. Here's a picture of Brad and Mary with the aforementioned white smoke wisping in the background.