Tokyo @>+-+--
2002.12.18
Pictures
In the morning it was great to take a bath. The hotel had a whole restaurant devoted to three amazing buffet breakfasts. There was a complete spread each for Japanese, American, and British selections. I met a young man who was actually from Liverpool, but after overlaying that with a year in Sydney he sounded Scottish.
It turned out the bus to the train station didn't run at very good times. I met a Canadian girl named Kerry, freezing at the bus stop, and talked her into coming downtown with me. We left as soon as we could, 9:15, and didn't get to downtown Tokyo til three hours later, so of course we had to come right back to catch our planes. We did get a good view of Tokyo from the train.
We saw about a half dozen westerners while we were in Tokyo, and all the westerners were so glad to see another westerner. We were all very confused. But we did get to get off the train for twenty minutes! Downtown Tokyo was very Blade Runnner. I loved it. The freezing temperature made it more cool and exotic. Snow would have been perfect. But this girl was from Vancouver and she was kind of creeped out by Tokyo's intensity. I was thinking, though, that if we could actually get to the shrine we were headed for we would see the peaceful Tokyo that makes the hectic one possible, and the whole thing would make sense. But we had to catch the train.
So we did, and we had a few minutes so I showed Kerry the two discoveries I had made the night before in Narita Village. The streets are lined with mysterious cement posts in the shape of animals; and there were some other cool carvings outside a restaurant of two men pouring water on a frog.
Kerry went back to catch the bus and I went to Naritasan Temple. It was amazing. It was so amazing. There was not just one temple. The way the grounds were laid out, you would see one thing and head for it and find there was lots more just around the corner. The buildings were all different and looked very old. There were many statues and carvings everywhere. The thing that was so great for me was there was a FOREST, right on the temple grounds, that was art and nature together, with a stream you cold easily rockhop over, and a waterfall, and a quiet place to get inside and look up at the trees and sky.
I hurried back to catch the bus but I missed it so I took a cab back, which was tricky. Hardly anyone I met spoke English. I met resident Anglophones at a greater rate in the mountains of Peru than in the capital of Japan.
The flight back was completely full, and my seatmates were extremely polite. They told me anytime I wanted to get up, just let them know. Anytime, they emphasized. Of course, I actually waited until they got up and did it all at once. The travelers were a father and daughter, and the daughter had some problem with small motor skills and was very large. I felt bad for her. Her father was very kind to her.
I saw The Good Girl, Road to Perdition, Beauty and the Beast, Lilo and Stitch, Spy Kids 2 and XXX, in order of how much of the movie I paid attention to. We had personal TVs in Economy.
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