Konichiwa means hello in Japanese and is a form of greeting. I learnt it during my trip to Japan about four years ago in August 2018. Part 1 of that trip can be found here. This article picks up right after that, starting with the day after the visit to Odawara.
The day began with a boat ride from Hinode Pier to Asakusa. The ferry ride was enjoyable with warm weather, winds blowing and beautiful views of Tokyo. Our main attraction was Senso-ji which is an ancient Buddhist temple. The path to the temple is lined with shops providing snacks and souvenirs for tourists. After getting some fridge magnets for myself, we took the metro to go to Ueno Zoo. Having travelled by metro a few times now, I had learnt that people don’t talk on the phone in public areas to be respectful of other people around them. If it was urgent, they would speak very softly. I was excited to go to the zoo as I would get to see a panda for the first time. My photos reflect how happy I was to see them roll around and be all lazy and do nothing. I am a fan of Kung Fu Panda movies, so it was no surprise that the zoo visit was a highlight of my vacation.
The day ended with meeting my brother at a sushi place. The place had a conveyer belt which went around the restaurant and people would just pick up the dishes they had ordered. I hadn’t seen that before, so it seemed cool to me. I had decided to try sushi, ramen, and other non-vegetarian food before I left for Tokyo. Being a vegetarian my entire life, I wanted to at least try and see what the fuss was all about and decide for myself. I thought what better place than Japan to do it? We ordered a couple of different things – sushi rolls, fried shrimp and octopus balls (Takoyaki) and I tried it all. I remember trying to eat the octopus ball and tasting the octopus and thinking it was all going to come out and my brother telling me to just swallow. The sushi rolls were okay, and the fried shrimp tasted like pakoras (an Indian appetizer). I was glad to have tried it all and experience what it is like.
After the jam-packed schedule of the past two days, Wednesday was a day for fun and relaxation. It was also August 15 2018, which is India’s Independence Day. All of us went to get lunch at an Indian restaurant in Shibuya and without intending to, ended up looking like the Indian flag. After that, my sister-in-law and I went to a mall nearby to do some shopping. I was in for another surprise when I saw a vending machine for slippers. It was so unexpected that when I discussed it with my sister-in-law, she told me that it was pretty common in Tokyo and there were vending machines for socks and even underwear at the metro stations. That blew my mind away. I remember us laughing about how does one forget to wear underwear and the need to buy it from the vending machine. Sadly, I didn’t come across the underwear one to get a picture. After our shopping spree ended, I crossed the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world – the Shibuya crossing. I managed to record a video that shows just how busy it is.
Our last stop for the day was a one-of-a-kind experience visiting the teamLab Planets Tokyo. It’s a museum with four different exhibits, each one involving an immersive artwork that is fascinating and left me in awe of the creativity. They expanded to have exhibitions around the world, and I’d recommend checking it out if it is happening in the city you live. Words can’t do justice to the exhibits but here are some videos from my visit.
Over the next two days, we visited the two Disney Parks in Tokyo. A friend of mine had visited them and had highly recommended it as a must-do. She said that it was better than the Disney Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida which I had visited. Getting swept up in her enthusiasm I made sure to have it in my itinerary but the part she probably forgot, and I didn’t realize myself, was that everything would be in Japanese. While the park visits were fun, all the waiting rooms for the rides had the setup in Japanese so it was difficult to understand what was going on. If I had known this information earlier, I probably would have skipped the Disney Parks. They did have the princess castle in one of the parks where I got a photo of myself leaving my shoe on the staircase to make a meme with that which can be seen below.
The last excursion day in Tokyo had finally arrived. All three of us hopped on a train to go to Yokohama and visit the Shin-Yokohama ramen museum. The museum included the history of ramen but much more exciting were the seven different shops which offered ramen. I tried ramen with pork broth and loved it. I also learnt that it’s considered not rude but encouraged to slurp while eating ramen here. It shows the chef that you enjoyed it. I finally understood when people complained about how vegetarian ramen has no flavour and the taste lies in the broth. To date, the only kind of ramen I eat is the one with pork broth.
The last stop for the day was a visit to the Onsen. Onsens are hot springs and bathing facilities around it. They can either be indoors or outdoors and co-ed or gender separated. The one I went to was indoors and gender separated. The unexpected aspect for me was the amount of comfort people had with being completely naked around family or friends they had come with, in a room full of strangers. It was in stark contrast with the conservative side I’d seen of the country and one of the most surreal experiences of my life so far.
As my vacation neared the end, it was time to take a flight back to Seattle and go back to my daily life. I took a bus to the airport and was talking to my mom on the phone. As I didn’t see a poster saying one couldn’t talk on cell phones, I assumed it was okay. But a few minutes later when the bus stopped at a red light, the bus driver made his way to my seat, told me in Japanese to stop talking on the phone and then had to explain via actions what he meant. As I got scolded by a bus driver for talking on the phone, I realized the conclusion of my trip was as eventful as the start.
I left Tokyo taking memories of a holiday filled with surprise and shock at the culture of this beautiful country.
Leave a Reply