Subways, Temples, Shrines, and Dan Dan

d20 monument near Starbucks

Day one of a trip to a time zone 16 hours ahead of your own usually begins with jet lag horror stories.  Mine will not.  I awoke at my body’s usual time in the 5am range (Japan time, not California) and thoughts of what to do for the day swam through my head.  The hotel concierge would not be at the desk until 10am.  First order of business: breakfast.  I am not paying ¥4,200 for a breakfast buffet in the hotel.  I head out instead into the streets of Tokyo.  I know of a Starbucks and another coffee shop nearby.  I peek into the Starbucks and feel guilty for not getting something after the warm greeting I am given.  It’s breakfast, and it’s not ¥4,200, it’s a little less than ¥700.

Path to the shrine from the hotel

I start heading back around 9am as I don’t want to hang out in Starbucks and I decide to detour through the alleys and head to the Hie that is next to the hotel.  It keeps the same hours as the concierge so I will have to come back.  I wander and find an incredible little green bamboo forest and garden right next to the hotel that I explore the pathways and find it connects to the Hie Shrine.  I will be using this path later when the shrine opens.

The concierge gives me excellent advice on how to get the closest station (B2 level of the hotel, 50m walk and you’re there) and how to get to Asakusa to visit the Sensouji Temple and adjacent shopping/tourist trap.  Armed with a sense of adventure, I head to the vending machine to purchase my Pasmo subway card.  The touch screen could be selling anything… The “English” button revels that I can buy a new Pasmo card or check my current balance.  I’m off and heading to the right, color-coded platform.  Down past green and teal to orange, get on and head to the end of the line.

Kaminarimon Gate

I have to say that I am, at this point, very impressed with the subway and its operation in Tokyo. I get to Asakusa station and head upstairs to the street.  I was told to follow the crowd once I get up there.  However the crowd is everywhere and it is going everywhere.  OK, orientation time.  I get out my map, put the river behind me, walk 30 seconds to the Kaminarimon Gate.  Wow!  Well worth the flight, the stress, the long day yesterday, the ¥500 deposit for the Pasmo card, all of it.

Humbly impressed, I wend my way through shoppers of all nationalities and note some items that may be   I deposit my ¥100, shake the can until a stick with a number (三十) and I come out with a medium fortune

nice and eventually get to a fortune prayer shrine.

I wander out of the large gate and into city streets to see what life is like away from the focus of the temples and slowly make my way to the other side into the Temple grounds.

As I make my way through shrines, I find a grill with a girl cooking up delicious looking food on sticks.  Far be it from me to deny my inner-Ang ibn Shikar.

Lunch done, I decide to dive into shopping on my way back to the hotel and I pick up some souvenirs.  The subway back, again no problems.  This is a piece of cake!  I get back to my room only to find it is being cleaned.  Not meaning to interrupt, I hastily apologize and leave.  Well, I can kill time at the Hie Shrine next door.

What a very peaceful place.  I sat in the shade and watch as people would come up and pray and conduct their rituals: drop a coin, shake the large red rope with a white end connected to a clattering bell of sorts, bow deeply twice, clap twice, pray (some skipped this and went straight on with their final bow), then bow deeply one more time.

I decided to head back through the mini-forest/garden paths I found earlier and found the biggest spider I had seen in a very long time.  I may have to be diligent if I take these forested narrow paths in the future. A better shot of this beautiful spider can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephila_clavata.  Keep in mind that from tip to tip, she is about four to five inches long.  Her body is about an inch long by itself.

Back in the room, I relax for a little bit and decide to head to the Shibuya Station crossing, one of the busiest in the world, just before dinner. I get to the station via subway with no issue.  I am not disappointed with my initial view nor my experience in the throngs.  If you’re ever in Tokyo and Shibuya is close by, it is something to be a part of at least once.

Well crossing the street a couple of times to be part of the madness has made me hungry so I'm off to Tokyo Station and its lauded Tokyo Ramen Street (arigatou gozaimashita Kevin-san).  I get directions after a little bit of a wander once I'm at Tokyo Station and decide on going into the Bentora Deli and order up some of their “deluxe dan dan soup noodled” with black sesame.  I will be dreaming of this many times.  There were a couple other places I was torn with trying or put off by the long lines (that means it’s good so I’ll have to be patient).  I have many more nights to figure that out.

The problem with the subway is entirely due to my inexperience with the system.  First, that little wander around Tokyo Station before I found Tokyo Ramen Street caused me to not know exactly where to walk back to M17 (Tokyo Station).  I did see a sign for the M line so I started walking that way until I eventually saw one of the direction signs say that it was another 540m away.  Ugh, well I do need to walk off some of this dan dan!  Unfortunately I also had to traverse many sections of the tunnels that weren’t too well ventilated so the muggy Tokyo air made for an uncomfortable and long walk.  I finally made it to platform M18 and needed to hop on for M14 where it shares a stop with the N line and that is where my hotel entrance is.  I hop of at M15, head to N where I’m instructed that it too is 500m away.  You’re killing me, Smalls…

One tired traveler later, I head up to my room.  I skip the thought of stopping at the Seven Eleven in the hotel subway level in favor of AC and kicking my shoes off.

I pop open a can of Kirin I bought last night and I can’t even put that on Untappd.  Bryon, wanna help me find this beer?

I realize now that the title of this post almost sounds like a Carcassonne expansion up until the dan dan…

Signing off for the evening and will update with my sojourn to Tokyo Disneyland tomorrow.