More reflections

 

December 5 2024

Haneda Airport, Tokyo

Boy ! I was in a foul mood yesterday. What set me off was the hotel check-in here at the airport.

There is a ritual, a rhythm to checking in. You wait in line and then the desk clerk acknowledges you and you step up to the counter to a smile and you had over your documents, passport, drivers license, concealed pistol permit, whatever. Make a couple sentences of small talk as the clerk types mysterious information into a keyboard. Then they hand you back your identification and the key to your room and thank you.

I was waiting in line to check in and the woman at the desk insisted I use the automated check-in machine. For fuck sakes! Can’t we even check-in with some human interaction? It was as impersonal as an online purchase. Hell, they might as well just taken my reservation online and emailed me a QR code to scan at my room’s door.

It has been since leaving the ship 10 days ago that I have had any communication with another human for more than 3 sentences and those were mostly five words maximum. you go to the 7-11 to buy a bottle of water. The clerk scans the item then points to a gizmo at the side, where you dump coins and insert bills. Then you have to press that yes that the cash you put in was right and the machine spits out a receipt and your change. It could be even less if you put your magic bus app watch to the IC glass. This is the way it is in almost all transactions. I mentioned in that restaurant a day or two ago, that the restaurant wanted me to use their app to order the meal. At the end of the meal, when paying for the meal, it was 7-11 check out again. Then there was the ubiquitous meal ordering, where you press a button next to the food you want and are given a receipt with a number on it. The number comes up, you pick up your food from a counter.

Two things come of at me from this rant. 

1) I am more of a Luddite than I thought I was. 

2) I am less of a loner than I thought I was.

Some reflection

 

December 4 2024

Haneda Airport

Tokyo

I am in a real hotel room. It even has carpeting on the floor!

The guy next door must have thought he was Fred Astaire last night. Instead of dancing with a mop, he was dancing most of the night with a chair. I mentioned that there was no carpeting in the rooms and every movement of the chair rumbled through the adjoining rooms. I’d just get to sleep and then ‘Gronk!’. Sigh, I am very happy to have that hotel behind me.

Checkout was easy. They needed to refund the entire 3 day payment, and then charge for the 2 days that I actually stayed there. I’ll have to keep an eye on that card when the bill comes. I don’t anticipate and problems, but the potential is there.

I thought about taking public transportation to the airport, but in reviewing what Apple Maps said it was a subway ride and then a subway route change to get to the airport. I wouldn’t have given it a second thought except for that large red bag of mine. Can I lift it? Yes. Do I really want to lift it? No. Except for the most major of the subway entrances, there are no escalators. The thought of humping Big Red down several flights of stairs to get on a train, and then possibly needing to hump them up a flight or to to get to the next rain. Really did not sound like fun in the least.

I App’ed a taxi and it picked me up in about a minute. I was in no hurry to get to the airport. Check-in isn’t until 2pm, so I ‘No, do not take the toll road’. She was insistent and I gave up and said ok “Highway”. She must have driven Japan’s version of NASCAR before, because there were some lane changes the made me very happy I was wearing my seat harness. We did get to the airport very quickly, and for fewer Yen than the app estimated.

Check-in is several hours away. The hotel does have a salon, but not a spa. I’ll settle for what I can get. I’d love have a massage, but a blowout is good enough, for who it’s for.

Some wandering the terminal, some reading and some watching people and check-in time arrived. I hate myself when I get tired and cranky. I just want to check in to a room but handing my passport and credit card to a human. Instead I get told to use the automated kiosk and check-in that way. Of course there is a staff member there to help me push buttons, so I don’t know what they are gaining by forcing guests to check-in via touch screen.

So now all there is to do is wait until tomorrow. There are several eating choices here. I am leaning hard, to a hamburger, made with Waygu beef.

The Japanese food is supposed to be healthy. Lots of fish, and vegetables With the main carbohydrate being rice. When I look at the meals offered in restaurant windows, all I see are bad and worse choices. Everything seems to be battered n Panko and then either fried, or deep fried. Chicken, pork, fish all battered and fried. I wonder if eating out at home looks the same to visitors to my country.

A friend asked me why I wanted to visit Japan in the first place, because she has absolutely no no interest in visiting here. Well I like the food, that it is famous for. Sushi, Rice balls, good Ramen (Not cup o noodles), Bento boxes. What I found this trip was yes I like Japanese food, just not every night.

The culture is totally alien to any other in the world. They are a very polite society. It seemed something different to experience. They had basically No contact with the outside world until the 1850’s and were never colonized by any others country, so there are no influences from France, Spain or England. This carries over in so any ways that for a non Japanese it is difficult to get around the teeny everyday things. Lots and lots of Don’ts. Shoes? On? Off? Money in hand or in tray? Lines everywhere. Restaurants have lines beginning an hour before some restaurants open. Standing at a 20 foot wide alley, with 100 others, waiting for the walk icon appear so we can cross the alley, even what there hasn’t been a car through it for the past 5 minutes. Interesting to read about, difficult to experience.

The sights were what drew me. I had a list of maybe 5 big ones, and saw them all. They were all completely overrun with myself and the rest of the tourists. Not just western tourists either, more Asian than western. I expected crowds, but thought since it was late November and early December that the crowds would dissipate. Maybe they did but I didn’t feel it. If this was low season, how bad could it be at the peak of the summer?

In the end. I am glad I came. Right now I am ready to get home as soon as possible. Will I reflect of the trip differently in a month? Possible. Right now, I doubt that I will return to Japan. I think I have seen what I came to see and experience and once is enough for that.

Knowing what I know now, I would have been better served with a small group tour (think Rick Steves)for two weeks, instead of me winging it solo. I made too many mistakes that could have been avoided, with someone else making the arrangements. I am having a hard time saying that, because I loathe the thought of following a teddy bear on a stick or yellow head through the sights, but in this case it would have increased the pleasure several fold.

Burgers are calling my name. I’ll send this to close friends, but may not post it

Hotel blues

 

December 3 2024

Tokyo

The drummer next door did finally finish his solo before too long. This room and the rest do not have carpeting and so any sliding or movement of furniture is heard across the whole floor.

I slept very poorly, the worst of the trip and then got a slow start for the day.

First stop of the day was intended to be a Buddhist temple. A huge Buddhist temple. So I relied on Apple Maps to get me there. Go out the door walk a block and go down the hole in the ground there. Then go further down, and then just a little more down. Go stand under #2 and get on the next thing that stops there. Count 8 stops and get off, and escalator up to sunshine. Walk a couple blocks and praise the lord you are at the temple.

I needed coffee and real food would be nice. A small cafe offered American Breakfast, egg and toast and coffee. That is exactly what I got, coffee, a hard boiled egg and toast. Not exactly what I was expecting. The coffee was hot, the toast was the fluffy bread you get here and the egg? What can you say about a hard boiled egg?

Refueled and caffeined up I headed to the temple. It was indeed a temple, with incense and statues and fancy buildings for holding all this stuff for people to bow before and toss money in boxes. I don’t understand the symbolism of the things, by now one is kind of melding into a previous one in my mind. Let me get my Goshuin and I’ll be on my way.

On my list was kitchen implements street. Not too far to walk, so down streets where many of the shops were just starting to open at 11am. The aisles in the shops are narrow, and the customers are crowded with a mix of locals and tourists, with predominantly locals.

I found a garlic, ginger grater that I liked. It was small and would not take up and room at all in my luggage. I could have spent the most of my day in the shops are narrow, but luggage is full and doesn’t need more.

My purse is a vest. A Scott-e Vest. It has a zillion zippered pockets. It is designed for travelers to just remove it for TSA at airport inspections. For me it is a purse. One pocket has passport, another US currency. Another Foreign currency, a pocket for higher value coins, and .. on and on.

Over the course it has been easier to pay with large coins and bills and because of this I have accumulated a pocket full of 1 Yen coins. I have a handful of them. I went to pay for my grater and was trying to sort out the single digit Yen so I didn’t get any more 1 Yen coins. The shopkeeper saw my handful of coins and just dumped my hand over the coin funnel and the Harry Potter, magic machine, rang up the sale and gave me change in more realistic values.

I don’t have a grater pocket in my vest, so I had to improvise.

Then to the knife store. Japanese chefs are knife snobs. This one is only for fruit, never hard vegetables. This one, is for slicing fish on the diagonal only. Those are only two of the at least 7 different knife styles, I might have missed the knife that you only use to cut BLT sandwiches corner to corner.

I spoke to a salesman at one shop and told him the I generally used my big chef’s knife for everything and what would he add as a second knife. He handed me a knife that was longer than a paring knife and substantially shorter and narrower than my Chef’s knife. I felt really nice in my hand, and then I looked at the tag for the price. It was almost a car payment, and I am not talking about a cheap car, more like a Lincoln. I used two hands to put it back on the shelf as I walked away. I did buy a similar size and shaped knife for a price that it thought more reflected my culinary skills.

Next stop a Shinto shrine. Back the way I came. Past houses and hotels with folded umbrellas in stands just sitting there. I kind of get the idea, that if you need an umbrella, grab one and bring it back, or leave it at the next stop and eventually another will come and replace the one you took.

Back to the subway, I am becoming a mole person. Now a new challenge. Get on the train, get off the train and find a different train and get on that one. Miracles it worked.. in fresh air and a short walk to the shrine. Shinto shrines are even less of a known to me, and much more spare in decoration than Buddhist temples.

The interest in this one, is because it is a temple for warriors. I think I heard the Japanese general Tojo’s ashes were interred here. I won’t say he didn’t deserve what he got by the allies at the end of the war, but he did do the right thing for his country. He took complete Responsibility for Japan’s entry into the war in the 1940’s. He said it was all his doing and the Emperor was just a figurehead. In doing that he saved the Monarchy and probably made the post war easier for the general populace to accept, because they still had the Emperor. I have to respect him for that.

Got my shrine autograph. I have to admit, I really am just collecting Goshuin at the moment.

Back under the earth and another shrine. Through a beautiful forest. This shrine was built in 1920 after the death of the Emperor and his wife. They were big into nature and conserving it. In their honor plants from all over Japan were brought to this area and planted. Now 100 years later, it has become an actual forest with it’s own eco system. Plus it had a place to get my book autographed.

The last place on my list for the day was Shibuya scramble. Anytime you see anything on Tokyo there is always a shot of this area from above as people cross the streets in any which way like insects. It was a reasonable amble from the shrine, so I walked.

I got there and tried to see it. It is supposed the busiest intersection in the world. Well I couldn’t see it, because there were too many people in the way.

Apple Maps said find a hole in the ground and ride back to your starting point. Only problem, here there are about 4 different holes in the ground, for a dozen different train lines. I had to hunt around and follow signs painted on posts to get to the correct hole in the ground. After that, it was just a magic watch beep and some crickets clacking and I was home to my don’t wanna be home.

Okay, Tokyo and mostly Japan you win. You beat me. You taught me I am not the wild tourist adventurer I once was. I quit. I just want to have a spa day and go home.

So I go to the desk and ask if I can leave a day early - here is how that went.

Me - I want to check out a day early.

Hotel - Why?

M - because the room is noisy and not what I expected

H - That is not possible, because you used booking.com

M - Just silently looking at her

H - Is there a problem ?

M - I am just counting to 10 before I make a scene.

H - You must give us 14 day prior notification before you can cancel

M - How do I know it is just a fancy hostel, before seeing the place.

H - You should have read the reviews.

I turned and walked away at that point before I did go full ‘Karen’ on her ass.

Back in the room, I wrote Booking.com, their auto-bot said they would bet back in 24 hours.

I wrote to the hotel/Hostel

I was writing a scathing review on TripAdvisor.com and had a tap at my door, maybe. Then again and it was for sure a tap. It is one of the women from the front desk saying that it was possible to cancel the last day, they needed to do some refunding and recharging, but it could be done. So that is all fixed.

Tomorrow I’ll find a hotel at the airport and a salon or a spa and get pampered, or at least a shampoo and a blow out.

Boorish tourists an sushi

 

December 2 2024

Tokyo

Well it’s starting to wind down. Now in the killing time mode, because I can’t get an earlier flight. Today is around day 20 since I have been home and as I found out on previous trips, I am good for about 3 week maximum for travel. Then I start to get bitchier than usual.

Tokyo was never on my plans for this trip and I’ll have a good time, I just wish I was going home tomorrow, instead of another tall building and a temple.

I got up kind of late, around 730. There really wasn’t a reason to get up any earlier. The train to Tokyo would only be a couple hours and once in Tokyo the hotels have a policy of no check in before 2pm. I can always leave my luggage in the hotel, and go wandering, but I feel homeless then for some reason.

I caught the 930 to Tokyo after a cup of Starbucks and a scone. I was assigned a seat on the left hand side of the train. The coveted left side when going into Tokyo, because on a clear day you can see Mt. Fiji best from that side of the train. My luggage situation is the same as always. Two small packs. One for electronics and the other for essentials, then the main suitcase that carries the bulk of my belongings. Over this trip my belongings have increased in weight. One thing that really increased it’s weight noticeably is the used kimono. I forget how dense silk can be.

On the train, there is an open area behind the last seat that is perfect for dropping the big luggage, and it worked fine the first two times I rode the train. The third time someone had reserved it and I was in their way, but they let me snuggle in with their luggage. This time I asked a friendly man what was I to do with it, and he told me it goes in the rack over your seat. Ya, like that’s going to happen. When I go up a flight of stairs it is two hands lift and then do the same on the next step. I was lucky as there were two children in the seats in front of my and their father helped me put the luggage up on the rack. I am not cure if it was chivalry or the welfare of his children he was worried about.

We got rolling on time and half an hour into the trip the couple across the aisle began exemplifying why Japanese are not so hot on tourists in general. Yes, Japan is xenophobic, and has mega amounts of rules, but the rules are in place so that people who are this crowded together constantly, don’t go postal. The male of the couple starts by placing his dirty shoes on the socks only part of the footrest. Then he makes a phone call, wondering if a particular restaurant serves vegetarian (wouldn’t you know?). Then they get into a very lively conversation of “Why do you say that about me?”. Even the two children know that conversations and phone calls are made from the area between cars. Then he sticks his day pack in the flipping aisle.

We do get to Tokyo and no one strangles the couple. You need your ticket to feed the machine to get on the train, and you need it to feed a different machine to exit the train. If Mr. Couple hadn’t helped me with my luggage I would have kept quiet about seeing his ticket on the floor of there area, but I didn’t.

I caught a short taxi ride to my hotel. The clerk said I was early, I said I’d be happy to leave my luggage. She said if I entered my email into their marketing I could check in now. Fine, I’ll block you later.

The room is teeny, and furnished like a dorm room, with cutsie sayings about. I think this is one step above a hostel. If I hadn’t prepaid I’d be outta here. I still may be out of here, and dispute the charges later.

Luggage dropped and out to the streets of Tokyo. The streets are triple wide boulevards lined with stores, you would recognize in any major city in the world. It reminds me of New York City, except they are driving on the wrong side of the road.

I did some shopping for friends back home and then came back to the room to surf for dinner. I hadn’t had sushi in Japan yet, so tonight was the night. I found a well reviewed one about 1/2 a mile from the hotel, so I walked there.

The city is all decked out in it’s finest Christmas decorations. Lights, and reindeer and modernist Christmas trees. I found the restaurant on the 6th floor of a non descript building. They had two options for meals. One that had too much food, for a lot, and the other that had too much more food for a lot more. I could have paid the more, price. But it really did look like way too much food. I like sushi quite a bit. I’ve had some good sushi in Seattle, never ever have I had sushi this good. Even things I knew I wouldn’t like, were great. It was the best meal I have had in 2 years, and the service close to the best ever. I’ll eat Cup-o-Noodles when I get home, it was worth it.

Now time to call it quits for the day. I hope the tabletop drummer next door stops soon.

Second breakfast

 

December 1st 2024

Kyoto

Woke at my now usual 5am and just made a Sunday morning of it. Wish I had a newspaper and the Sunday funny pages. Yesterday really soured me on my fellow tourists. The actual pushing and shoving and then the bodies pressing on bodies with no thought to anyone else made me want to go home on the next Shinkansen to Seattle.

I hope today s different.

Morning things and then down to see what they have for breakfast. the room didn’t come with breakfast included and I Feel I may be the first person to ever pay for it. The clerk had a difficult time understanding that I was willing to pay for it.

In Japanese money value it was outrageous, when I balance it against what I pay at home it was a total steal. Big buffet, salads, eggs, meats, pastries and much more. Of course coffee. I was sad to see that they didn’t have pancakes or waffles, if they had it would have been a perfect Sunday breakfast.

Heidi, my hairstylist said she liked the Philosophers Path when she was in Kyoto. I could use some philosophical thought as long as it doesn’t include pushing.

In my room I plugged Philosophers Path in to Maps and it said to get on the subway right outside the hotel’s door and then get off and get on a bus.

I erased that in error and when I stepped outside, next to the subway entrance Apple Maps now told me to bus it, and then do another bus. What happened to the subway A Maps?

The bus came in a while, enough to philosophize on things. Maps did get me to the location of the first bus change as it counted down the stops. Get off the bus, walk a block and cross the street and wait for the bus. And wait. And wait. I kind of wished I had a cigarette to smoke, knowing that as soon as you light a cigarette, and especially if it is your last one, the bus will arrive before you can get a second puff in. Unfortunately I didn’t have one, so I waited. I could have walked to the location in the time I waited, but as things are with cigarettes so they are as soon as you walk away, the bus also comes. The bus did come, or else I’d probably still be there waiting.

The Philosophers Path is much like it sounds a serene walk along a quiet quiet tree lined canal. It is perhaps a mile long, and just what I needed. It was barely 1030 and the path was still quiet. No crowds and I only heard the clatter of suitcase wheels once. The rest of the time it was the crunch of gravel under my shoes and the rustling of leaves. Murmuring of quiet voices when there were voices and no pushing or crowding. I really was glad Heidi thought to mention it, because it was the exact thing I and my soul needed.

Then a small cafe that a sign out front , Pancakes and Coffee set. Pancakes?!? One day recently my diet for the day, consisted of two cookies, an ice cream cone and a salmon rice ball. I figured in the caloric count for the week I was in enough of a deficit to be able to have a Second Breakfast.

Quite a cute cafe. Had the feel of someone’s den or library. Matchbox cars, cameras on a shelf. An old sewing machine resting on dark wood. Not the sort of place you want to talk at anything louder that a whisper. The pancakes came with coffee and maple syrup. I know the Japanese can do tall soufflé’ type pancakes, there were not those. More a very light sweet butter milk.

Back on the path, there is a sign for a temple off to the side. Might as well go take a look. Okay did that. Next down the path is a shrine; This is an interesting shrine, I think dedicated to three or four of the “Year of the …”. One of them was the Rat, which is my year sign. I snapped a picture of the rat shrine. The rats were stone, and not live like that temple in India.

As I was leaving, I noticed there was a woman doing Goshoins (those temple autographs). I typed RAT into Google translate and held it up to her and she beamed and pointed to one Goshoin that had rats on it. She was pleased as punch do to an actual request that might mean something to someone. She did a great job.

Back to the path and another temple, that was kind of high priced and then an additional price to see the exhibit. Pass.

Now the path was beginning to get more tourist faces than local faces, a great time to call it quits.

I had seen the next stop on the bus as we passed and it wasn’t too far away, and it was generally down hill. I was on the wrong side of the street and the path on the roadside, vanished at a metal guardrail, A couple was trying to decide if it was worth the risk to walk into oncoming traffic. I looked at her, shrugged and said ‘I guess we press on’, which was mostly UFO language to her. I stepped into the roadway, the traffic was at a crawl so it seemed relatively safe. The couple followed me.

Across a bridge and then sidewalk again. The rest of the walk was a mere stroll, past the baseball game and then the open area where the classic car show was going on. I took a picture and sent it to a car friends and she said it looked just like any Sunday car show in the states. The cars were all parked side by side according to make, US cars were a make of their own, MG, Lotus, Porsche, all the big names I was used to. What I expected more of were Japanese classics. There were several one, but only about 50% of the cars ware Japanese.

Next stop Kyoto Castle. The surprise of all surprises is that this one was free entry. We do have to go through a security check and had a number hung around our necks. The castle was presented wonderfully. A nice 10 minute slide show with English sub titles really explained what we were going to see, and why it is special. I tried to keep my iPhone in my pocket and not miss the sights looking for that perfect photo.

Next another castle. As I am walking to it, I start to recognize that I had already walked o this street, and that one, and that one. That is the nice thing about walking a city, is you get to know it where you might not if viewing it from a car or a bus window,

This castle was a $$ castle. Frankly, they should have charged for the previous one and let this one be free. Lots of rules. No shoes. No photos. No nuffin’! The high light to me was the squeaking floor boards, that they called the Singing Sparrows. It really gave a nice background to your steps. Why there was no photography is past me. The art was all reproduction, with the originals held in the museum. Just big empty rooms where one looked like the next and new paint on the walls. I tried to keep the historical significance in mind and totally failed.

Back to the bus. My feet are killing me, 8.3 miles, but my challenge is to not use a taxi, only public transport. This bus came pretty quickly and dropped us off the main train station. My mouth wants a burger, and McDonald’s seems a cop out. One floor down is a street of restaurants. There must be a burger joint down there. I couldn’t find one. I did notice one place that had a wooden crate sectioned into 12 squares, each with a different something in it. A bowl of rice and Miso soup.

I walk up to the cashier’s station and stand there waiting to be seated. A couple comes behind me and writes something on a sheet by the door. Ahh.. instant reservations. I would have been second in line if they hadn’t stepped in before me. Now I was 3rd. As we waited the list got longer and longer, at least ten at my last informal count.

The wait was tolerable, but would have been quicker at Denny’s. The hostess seated me at the bar. The man sitting next to me had the same Zen dish I wanted. The hostess tried to get me to use the QR code to order, but my phone and the Japanese cell providers, have never really meshed well. She got the idea, took my order and ran it through her phone using the QR code.

I wish I had brought a book or iPad, so instead watched the Sous Chef prepare some sort of long vegetable stalk. The the meal came, it looked ravishing. I had no idea what 8 of the twelve items were, and still don’t what I will say is that there wasn’t a looser in the lot. Some were better than others but none I’d kick off of the plate.

Then back to the hotel for a drink and this. Tomorrow Tokyo.