Japan
February 28th, 2009Tokyo
Its cold here! Not as bad as Paris was, but still colder than I would have liked, cold enough that I needed to break out the gloves and scarf. The way in starts at Narita Airport, where I got electronically finger printed and had my picture taken at immigration. From there it is about an hour train ride to Tokyo station. After getting my bags and making it past customs, I found my way to the train station at the airport and was a little confused by the fact there is more than one rail company selling tickets! I wasn’t sure which one was the best, but thankfully the ticket person at what was the wrong company for me, told me to use the other company, since they had a direct route to Tokyo station.
After I got my ticket for the next train, I remembered reading about some special tourist discount you can get, but I couldn’t remember exactly what it was, so I took out my laptop and looked it up online. Its a deal where you get their version of a metro smart card, called the Suica card, plus a one way ticket to Tokyo station for about 1500-2500 yen less than buying them separate, which is about $15-20. So I tried to go back to the ticket counter and get the ticket I just bought exchanged, but I had already gone through the gate using my ticket, and my train leaves in just a few minutes… haha, you know how this goes… But one of the security staff was nice enough to let me back through the gate and take me to the customer service counter where I got the discounted Suica card! And made it back to the train with a few minutes to spare.
OK, So I get to Tokyo station, and supposedly you are supposed to be able to take a connecting JR line train from the Narita Express (the line I was coming from) without paying for another fare, but I couldn’t find the line that would take me to Ikebukuro where my hostel was. Tokyo has by far the biggest and most confusing metro system of any of the cities I have been to, and for those who don’t know, there are lines operated by three companies, JR, Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway, and if you change trains to one that is run by different company, you have to pay them both! So if you are trying to make it from A to B you usually have about 5 different routes you can take and each one has a different time, cost, and number of transfers associated with it. Anyway back to my story, I didn’t know how all of this worked at first, having only an hour on the train to do some reading about Tokyo, and saw a line that went direct from Tokyo station to Ikebukuro and decided this presented the least chance of getting lost and so I ended up not getting my free transfer because, guess what! that line was not run by JR, who owns the Narita Express line.
Anyway,.. so I’m on this train for a while, lots of stops go by, I sort of zone out a bit… I come out of it and I pass like 2 or 3 stations that are not on my map… and I’m afraid that I missed my stop, which is strange because the line doesn’t look like it goes past Ikebukuro, although there is another line, very similar in color to the red line I am on, coming out of Ikebukuro. The train stops at another station that I don’t recognize on my map, or at least I can’t sound it out right, and I decide to get off and try to take the train back the other way. Right after I get off, I realized that I made a mistake and I see the station I am at on my map, so I try to jump back on the train but the doors are closing, and there is no way I will make it and my bags too, so not thinking, I put my leg out to stop the doors. The doors close on my leg, and there is another gate on the platform which also closed on my leg a little higher up. A few seconds go by, and the gates don’t open back up, and I’m starting to realize what a dumb, dumb thing I just did. My leg is stuck by the way, I can’t pull it out… After a few seconds of “Oh sh*t what did I just do,” the doors open back up and I jump inside with my bags and try to hide from the strange looks coming at me from just about everyone else in the car, thankfully it wasn’t the same car I just got out of… that would have just been too much.
Phew, made it to the station, both legs in-tact. I confidently get off the train armed with some good directions to my hostel, making use of landmarks like McDonald’s, a Taxi line, IOIO department store, Denny’s, a Post Office, and…. then you’re supposed to be standing in front of the hostel thinking how great and easy these directions were to follow. Unfortunately for me, I exited the train station on the wrong side; there were taxis but no McDonald’s.. I figured I was probably not in the right place and decided to go back through the station to the other side, which mind you, is no small task, these are big freaking train stations, this particular one had not one, but two, mega department stores, Seibu and Tobu, with five or six floors each. So in addition to the usual large volume of foot traffic with tons of people trying to get to some place in a hurry, there are also shoppers wandering around with giant bags full of clothes and whatever else these stores can fit on six floors; and I am trying to make it through this mess carrying my suitcase, a fully stuffed day pack, and a fully stuffed computer bag. It was worth it though because upon exiting the other side, I was standing in front of the McDonald’s, just like the directions said. I made it to the Denny’s before getting lost again and had to ask for directions by saying the name of the place I was looking for. Finally arrived at the hostel, checked in, room was a bit bigger than Hong Kong, but still smaller than just about everywhere else, still not bad, free internet always makes me happy, got a good recommendation for dinner, had some Japanese beer, and went to bed.
One thing I noticed walking around that first night, was an eerie quietness of the streets around where I was staying, which was just about 4 or 5 blocks from Ikebukuro station. Compared to how busy the two train stations I had been to so far had been, there was a distinct lack people and cars on the street. Just thought I would mention that.
It’s Saturday, my first full day in Japan, and it’s time to do some sight seeing. I check the location of some of the nearby Temples and other sights and planned out my day. I got to the Meiji Shrine and I couldn’t believe how crowded it was! I soon realized that, being the first weekend after New Years, this was probably to be expected. Everyone here was waiting their turn and trying to get through the crowd to the front of the shrine, where they would throw some coins, donating to the shrine and for good luck and karma for the coming year. I tossed a few dozen yen for the hell of it, after all I was starting to feel like I could use a little good luck. Got some lunch/breakfast here (was quite expensive for vendors cooking in tent buildings) and walked around a bit in the surrounding park before heading off to my next stop.
I was planning to go to a New Years party this Saturday night, at a club in another part of the city, only problem is there is a decent sized cover charge, and I am out of cash. Oh did I mention that almost no one will accept foreign credit cards? Supposedly its not so bad if you have a Japanese card, but .. why would I have one of those? Oh well no big deal right? Just go find an ATM. Did I mention that almost no ATMs will accept foreign credit or debit cards? Did I also mention that most ATMs close at night and on weekends? And the ones that do accept foreign cards still don’t accept Mastercard or American Express! Not even Citibank ATMs would accept any one of my four cards. At this point I’m starting to worry if I will have enough money to eat, so I had to pass on the new years party… I was not happy.
Alright, its the next day and I still am low on cash, not a big deal, I didn’t have anything lined up today that was going to need a lot of money and I saw a sign at the Denny’s saying they accepted American Express, so I hopped in for some breakfast and much needed fuel. Later I found out that the Post Office does banking too, and they are the only place which will take my Mastercard or American Express. OK, no problem, I know where the one is near by my hostel, I will go check it out later. It says I don’t have enough money in the account to make a withdrawal on my ATM card, which is true, but I have an overdraft protection set up.. I should still be able to get some money out, nope Denied. Oh well tomorrow is pay day and I should have some money to withdraw then.
Monday rolls around and I check my account, still no money, oh wait its Sunday in the U.S. I guess I need to wait another day. It gets to be night time and I realize that payday is in fact not on the 5th, but the 10th of the month. I can’t wait that long, I need to find another solution. I tried using my credit card to get money out again, denied again, at this point I have about 20-30 rejection slips from various ATMs over the past two or three days in my wallet, telling me my card is not accepted or my PIN is wrong. #%^$!@#! I need some f-ing money! This is just getting ridiculous, and I decided I need to call my bank, this is the sort of thing that I bought an international cell phone and SIM card for. Oops! I got the cheap phone which doesn’t support the 1900MHz frequency they use in Japan. Oh well I can use a pay phone then… Oops! Can’t dial international without a calling card. Oh well they sell those at a vending machine in the hostel lobby. Oops its 1000 yen and I only have 970 cash! And it wont take my credit card! LOL. I am seriously so sad at this point, I don’t know what to do, and to top if off, the ATM is going to close in about 15 minutes. Wait.. I have a computer, and an internet connection, I remember Kyle and Cassidy who I met in Madrid saying they used Skype to call friends and family back home, and I had created a Skype account a few weeks before I left; I just have to run upstairs and sign up for the phone service, hopefully they accept my credit card, and I can call the bank to ask them WTF my PIN is for my credit card so that I can get some money from an ATM.
I sign in to skype, and I have a message saying I have one free phone call! Awesome, only I just remembered, the sound doesn’t work on my computer, I try out the test call (also free) to confirm, yep, no sound. Ten minutes until the ATM closes, and this PC usually takes 3-4 hours to troubleshoot any issue. I am so screwed. Whatever there is only one thing to do and that is to get started trying to fix it. I google, I read, I fix! Five minutes, and I confirm audio is working on the test call! Call up the card number, and the voice recording answers telling me to press 1 for English, blah blah, I don’t have time for this!! 00000, “Hello, thank you for calling, what can I do for you!?” “Well, you see, I am in Japan, trying to use my credit card to get some cash, but I don’t know the PIN, and the ATM closes in about 4 minutes.” “OK, let me just confirm your identity, can I have your member number.. and you father’s name… and your mother’s maiden name… and” “Come on! Is this really necessary? I need to get this done, like, NOW!” “Alright, just one more, …” “OK, the reason it didn’t work is there was no PIN set up for this card, blah blah, What would you like your PIN to be, blah blah, OK here are the fees and the terms and the rate and I am required to read this to you blah blah blah blah blah….” “So its done and will work right now?” “Yes” “Thank you! Bye!” *click* Run to the elevator… run to the ATM, pray it’s still open, YES! And the card works!..
Kyoto
I had heard good things about Kyoto, which was the capital of Japan for over 1000 years, and didn’t want to spend all my time in Tokyo, so in the morning I took a ride on the Shinkansen to Kyoto. The train ride was so cool, I highly recommend it, it is ridiculous how fast that thing goes and how quickly everything seems to fly right by you. The trip takes a little over two hours and the train goes as fast as 300kph (186mph).
After getting settled at the Sandal Wood hostel, I headed out to the downtown area and wandered around looking for a place to eat. I went through this area called the Lantern Market that is sort of a traditional Japanese food market, and I guess this one has been in this same spot for hundreds of years. Not really a place for restaurants, although I was able to get a little snack from a shop that had a grill.
I basically spent the rest of the night looking for a place to eat. I walked around so much, and I just couldn’t find anything that looked like a good combination of good, price, and friendly to tourists. A few places that I tried, basically told me to go away, getting no service at the bar for maybe ten minutes and at another being told it was ‘full’ with no offer to wait for someone to leave. Finally I found a quiet and friendly looking place called “Kuishinbo,” where I was able to eat some real food. It was a really small place and I was the only one there and I got to talking to Kenzo, the owner, and his family for a bit. He had lived in the city his whole life and gave me some info on which were some of the best temples to visit and a really good photo he took of one of the temples in the fall. Also he gave me some complementary soup, rice, and pickled plum. So it was a mix of rude and over the top generosity, all-in-all not bad.
The next day I went to visit some of the sites in the area north of downtown, including Sento Imperial Palace and Kyoto Imperial Palace, before going west and walking around Kyoto University, which was neat but smaller than I expected. After that I went south to an area called Gion, and then back to downtown for food again. Walked around a bit, realized I needed to get some cash again… found a post office (!!), that was still open (!!), and got some more money (!!).
And as I was out looking for a place to stop and eat, I was walking past a girl handing out fliers for the restaurant she worked at, and she was about to hand one to me, when she assumed (correctly) that I couldn’t read Japanese and took it back. We both smiled and laughed a little bit, and as I was walking away she said “What? Aren’t you hungry?” I was, and she was the first person to speak any English to me almost all day, so I talked to her for a little bit and she ended up showing me a Sushi place, which was not her restaurant, where I got dinner.
The night before I kept seeing signs for this place called Bar Moonwalk advertising 100 yen drinks as opposed to everywhere else which had 400-500 yen beers, so I had looked it up before going out today, and marked about where it should be on my map. It was a little ways away from downtown and where I had dinner, and even farther from my hostel, but I didn’t have anything else to do so I decided to try to find it. I got on 203 bus, which shows the route passing right by the street, except the line stops half way through the route at a bus barn. So I walk the rest of the way, and I get to where it should be, but … its not here… I walked up and down the street a few more times before running out of time, since the last buses were running soon. I found a stop for the 205 bus route that would go right to my hostel. I wait for the bus. It comes. I get on it, going in the wrong direction… It takes me to Kyoto station where it stops for the night. And no more buses are running this line from the station tonight. “uh oh..” Then I spot a few people standing in line like they are waiting for a bus! I investigate. They are waiting for the 206 bus, which is just pulling up, and it looks like that is about the closest line I am going to get tonight, so I get on, and exit at the nearest stop to my hostel. It is still a 20 minute walk from the bus stop, in the freezing cold, but it could have been much worse so I’m not complaining, that much.
The next day, I went to see an Imperial garden, called Katsura Imperial Villa, which you have to apply ahead of time to get permission to get in. It is a little bit to the west of the city, but within a short walk of one of the train stations. It was very cool, probably the best Japanese garden I saw, with a couple of small buildings and a guided tour, and it was free.
After that I went back to the city and spent most of the afternoon walking around Nijo Castle. I finished seeing everything I wanted to, in time to meet up with Moe, the girl I met the night before, outside the castle at 3:00. She also had lived here her whole life but she hadn’t been to see hardly any of the sights! So we decided to try to check out a couple of nearby temples, and she was able to talk to people working there to get a little more info. Although I don’t think she was telling me everything because after what was at least a 30-45 second conversation, she says ‘Oh he says its closed,’ haha.
It was getting darker and both of us were getting a little hungry, so she took me to a place for some Japanese Pizza, where they grill the food on your table. It was really good, but when I went to go use the restroom, I had to come back to ask her ‘which is symbol for the men’s room..’ Also I guess they do service a little differently, because we had a buzzer on the table that you press to call the waiter, which I think is a great idea, no hassling when you don’t need anything, and no waiting forever if you do.
We ended the night by going to a Karaoke place, as a friend from work said I needed to try while in Japan. It was a lot of fun…, but I ended up missing the last bus again! (203 line this time). But I was able to take the 13 to Kyoto Station, where I could take the 205, that I missed the night before, back to my place. Only I get there and find out that instead of being a few minutes early before the last bus left, I was actually an hour late. And the 206 was done for the night as well! So my only hope of not walking several miles in the cold was a train. I checked the train schedule, it looked like there was one more train going tonight, and it was leaving in a few minutes! Got my ticket, and made it on the train just in time, and I ended up with only about a 10 minute walk back..
Now it’s my last full day, and I decided to do some walking tours and see the temples on the east side of the city. Tons of walking, probably walked 4-5 miles of temples and other sights and it took all day. Started at Ginkakuji temple and got to see lots of very cool traditional buildings and their classic architecture. After a nice stretch along a canal called the “Philosopher’s Path,” I found the temple and the spot where Kenzo took the photo he gave me! I tried to take the same shot, but I didn’t have the picture on me so I couldn’t find the exact spot he took his from. Its alright, I could tell his photo was a lot better than mine anyway. Something else I had never seen before was something called a sand sculpture, which I didn’t even realize was sand until reading a sign saying not to touch it, because it looked so crisp, more like concrete. At another temple, I got a picture of a giant Buddha from the entrance gate and avoided having to pay the 350 yen they wanted to get a little closer, I had to hurry anyway, it was getting late and the famous Kiyomizu-dera was at the end of my walk and I wanted to get there before it closed. I had to walk through a pretty touristy market area to get to it, but it was worth it. Definitely a unique and beautiful place.
That was about it for my adventures in Japan, other than the great people who run the hostel I was staying at, they gave me lots of free snacks, got to do my laundry for free, unfortunately I burnt a pair of socks trying to dry them on the heater, but I got a very cool souvenir which more than made up for it; Jumi, one of the two staff at the hostel, is very good at writing, and painted me some characters on a piece of paper, which says “Kyoto,” “Journey,” and my name in Japanese “Sukoto.”
