And I am back! After a couple of crazy weeks, I think my head finally stopped spinning and I can catch up on my blogging. I will let Robert tell you later about why we are a bit distracted.
Do you like the title of my post? haha…Any guesses what other seats are heated in Tokyo?
On Ukrainian Christmas Day evening, my mom, Katya and I drove to our Misawa train station, parked our car across the street in our church parking lot, and…got on a night bus to Tokyo. It was my first bus ride in Japan, so I was not really sure what to expect. The kind of bus that I booked had three seats in each row, each seat reclined more than a regular airplane seat does, and even has a footrest. Granted, it’s definitely built for shorter people, so I was not as comfortable as Katya was.
You cannot beat the price around $60-95 each way—yes, that is inexpensive compared to other options.
The worst part of the ten hour ride was the fact that the bus stopped every two hours, not matter what…the lights would come on, and the driver would announce that it was another bathroom stop for 20 minutes or something. Although I had my earplugs in my ears AND had taken a sleeping pill, I couldn’t sleep through all those stops. Exhausting… Katya and my mom did great.
As we arrived early in the morning to Tokyo, we couldn’t check into the New Sanno, but we were able to leave our luggage there before venturing out into the city. Since this was not our first time to Tokyo, I really wanted to see a different side of Tokyo than before. I searched online for ideas of where to go. One places stood out—Nippori-Nezu area, sort of by Ueno Zoo. This beautiful area is where you can get a feel for the old Tokyo. It’s quiet, not very touristy and historic.
Our first stop was Nezu-jingu (shrine). It is famous for its azalea flowers blooming in April. It’s a very colorful shrine, built in gongen style—basically the main hall and the worship hall share one roof and are connected via a passageway
These are the gates to the shrine.
This particular shrine had about a hundred torii-gates. Beautiful colors in the sun.
The gates separate the shrine ground (holy ground) and our secular world.
People say prayers after they bow, clap twice, bow again and ring this special bell.
After Nizu-jingu, we decided that we just wanted to walk around the neighborhood some more. We saw some very cozy streets, secret passageways, tiny restaurants and shops…only guessing what all the signs mean.
A shrine built between the houses.
This area, also known as Yanaka, is famous for its cats. We saw many cats, many figurines of cats and even shops with a cat theme-like this one.
We were hoping to visit the clock museum, that sounded very interesting. But when we finally found it (after going through some really crazy windy streets), it turned out to be closed, not because it was too late in the day, but, we are thinking, because many museums are closed in January in Tokyo. We had no other theories, because we couldn’t read the sign on the door-haha.
Instead, we bought some street snacks (strange tasting fish crackers that my kids love for some reason)…
….and headed to Yanaka Ginza!
Wait, I have to post this picture for my friend Em, who was looking for one of these statues to buy and put by her door before she left Japan. Here we go—Tanuki-- Japanese symbol of generosity and prosperity. The whole time living here I thought this guy is a badger, turns out that Tanuki is actually the name of the animal.
I found some really interesting information on him here.
All right, so we walked and walked and walked.
Finally, we arrived at Yanaka Ginza—a shopping area with a small downtown feel.
We saw a lot of curious shops with souvenirs/clothes/toys and various shrines similar to the shops at Asakusa.
We also found some delicious crab filled…don’t know what you call them! They are not gioza, not wontons…if you know, let me know.
This is a picture taken from the famous Yuyake Dandan—"Sunset staircase” is a great place to view the sunset (as you can tell by its name:)). In the background, you can see what the street looks like.
After Yanaka Ginza, we walked around the area some more and then decided to stop by the Yanaka Cemetery where many famous people were buried. Of course, since we cannot read Japanese, it was not a very educational experience. But, we did get a picture with the new Tokyo Sky Tree that will be opening in May. That’s it in the background.
By then, we were feeling quite tired, as you can see from our picture above. We headed home to the New Sanno for a refreshing Western dinner at their restaurant. It’s a good thing we had a nice comfortable room reserved, otherwise, we would have to figure out how to take a nap on the bench at a bus stop.
Japanese sleep on the go a lot—I know it sounds funny, but there are so many people sleeping on the subway!
Oh, I almost forgot…now that I mentioned Tokyo subway…if you are riding the subway or train during winter, you will feel your bottom get really warm because their seats have built-in heaters. Now that is quite cool. It was hard NOT to fall asleep sitting on a warm cushion for twenty minutes. Gotta love Japan!
Well, I’ll need to write a couple more posts about this quick Tokyo trip, so stay tuned:)
Good night,
Lyana
Yeah, taking the bus to Tokyo is an experience but not one I will gladly take again, I prefer something a bit faster. 10 hours was a killer and yes, the constant bus stopping got annoying. I understand why but after hours on the bus, you just want to get there! Looks like you found a beautiful place to explore!
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