Japan - Day 3: Tokyo

Day 3 was our first day on our own.  And, since Tokyo is tourist friendly, we managed to get around.  We started our day with a list of several things we wanted to see and a lunch appointment to look forward to.

Perfect stranger, but I loved seeing traditional ukatas mixed in among the modern attire.

The Ueno station is was full of panda decorations, including this giant exhibit, in honor of the visiting Panda from China to the zoo near the station.  Even all the food there was panda themed - breads, crackers, cakes, chocolates, lunch boxes, you -name-it in Panda.

 For lunch we met up with my friend Roy (Ryo), who I originally met while he was on assignment in my office from the Tokyo PwC office.  We met him at the PwC office. 

We arrived a few minutes early so I we sat in the lobby watching the business class coming and going.  I watched three men walk from the elevators to the lobby, stand to exchange goodbyes and held a long bow.  Then one of the men walked to the revolving exit doors.  The remaining two employees (I assume they were hosting) stood very straight watching the exiting man.  Every time the exiting man looked back, the two bowed in unison.  Finally, when the exiting man was out of sight, they resumed their casual stance and walked back to the elevator chatting.  It was small cultural differences like this that entranced me this whole trip!

We didn't wait long before Roy and his colleague Ann joined us and we set off for lunch.  Roy took us to a fancy, yet, traditional restaurant at the top of a nearby building.  We had to take off our shoes and got to sit at a lowered table with space underneath for our feet.

Janet, Ann & Roy

The food was AMAZING, of course.  And it was great catching up with Roy.  We also got to talk a lot about my observations of the culture in Japan versus the US.  Ann and Roy told us about experiencing the recent earthquake that knocked out Tokyo's power and mass transit for a while.  I was impressed how orderly and disaster prepared the population was as a whole.  The US has a lot to learn.  We also talked about the excitement of navigating through train stations and received tips on what to expect on the next section of our trip to visit my family up north.  Thanks, Roy, for a wonderful lunch!

When we got back to the PwC office, Roy took me on a quiet tour of the IAS floor (my tax division).  Blake and I were dressed in shorts, camera hanging around our neck and backpack laden, yet the partner invited us to his office, closed the door and had us sit down for a few minutes to welcome us and send his greetings back to the partners in my office.  The cubes in the Tokyo IAS office were much smaller than the office in San Jose, but these were the negotiated bigger spaces for the IAS team.  Roy took us to another tax floor to show us what normal office cubes look like.  In this other floor there was barely walking space (for a skinny person, definitely not a wheelchair) between cubes.  I'm pretty sure you can't stand up at the same time as the person behind you without bumping chairs.  (Yet in every space was a hard hat and emergency kit in case of disaster - prepared!)  It makes sense that in a city where homes and streets are so tight that cubicles would be, too.  It's a small island with a large population.  I'm glad for the space I have in California. ;)

 After lunch we continued our self-guided tour of the city we saw a street fair just outside the station gate at one stop so we ventured out.  There was a large stage and there were booths, mostly food, but retail, too.

Healthy fair food - these were all over the city.  We often saw little kids walking around with a picked cucumber on a stick.  That's so much healthier than American carnival food on a stick (corn dog, cotton candy, lollipops...).

One thing that the Enomoto family from the day before told us we HAD to see in Tokyo was the newly opened Sky Tree.  So we went.  The initial crowds weren't bad, but the line was so long I think we waited over two hours before we really got "in".  The building was full of artwork and employees ushering people to move appropriately in line.  The elevator was state of the art.  It was beautiful to be in, but the real impressive part was the ride.  The screen above the doors showed our ascent from the 4th floor to "Floor 340" at 340m in the sky (1,115.5 feet) by showing the altitude ticking up along with the speed we were traveling.

And this was the view from the top.  Mind you, it might look like a familiar sight from an airplane but this was from a building.  Yikes!

Blake's feet are on the right.  He video recorded walking over the glass floor that looks straight down.  I started to walk across and didn't get further than putting my toes on the glass.  Too scary for me!

Looking up from the 4th or 5th floor to the observation deck that scared me.

 After the SkyTree we had smaller sights to see.

Harajuku, apparently famous for crazy fashion.  In reality, I saw more tourists than anything else.

The Omotesando, just a few streets over from Harajuku but several $$$ over for normal luxury shopping.

 By this time we were sight-seeing-ed out and realized we hadn't eaten dinner.  (That's one thing kids are good for - their internal clocks that demand a schedule.)  We also realized we'd been in Japan for a few days and had not eaten any sushi.  We found a sushi shop at the bottom of a department store.

The sushi at this unassuming sushi place tated better than anything we had eaten in the US (and not just because we were hungry).

Aren't these beautiful?!

This miso soup was delicious - we didn't realize until we got to the bottom of the bowl that it was because of the clams inside.  It was probably the best miso soup I've ever had.

 Next stop:  Shibuya Crossing.  My guide book said that it's estimated that 100,000 people pass through the intersection every hour.

Watch Blake's take on the spectacle:

Right at the Shibuya station are the famous Hachiko statues.  Hachiko is the true story of a faithful dog who waited at this station for his owner day after day, even for years after the owner died.  This famous story has been turned into books and movies, even in the US.  I remember hearing the story when I was young as well.

And we didn't get lost on the way back to the hotel that night.  Successful day!