Tyler Reporting:
This is Part 2 of me transcribing my Morning Pages entries detailing the Trip that the kids and I took to Tokyo back at the end of July and beginning of August. Though, I'm realizing that calling them "kids" probably isn't accurate, since they were 14 and 16 at the time of our trip. "Two Teens and Tokyo" would have been more alliterative. Oh well, old habits, and all that.
Anyhow, on with the entries:
#1781
When I walked to the minimart this morning, I had wanted to take a picture of Mt. Fuji, but it was all socked in with clouds. Hopefully, it will burn off in a bit (it's only, like, 5:30), but at least I saw it yesterday, though I didn't take any pictures, since we are headed to a view spot today.
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We actually got chased to our rental apartment by a thunderstorm yesterday. After arriving in Fujiyoshida, we ate in a food court before hiking a half kilometer to our rental. But the whole time we could see a thunderstorm rolling down the valley toward us. It was a pretty dramatic and exciting end to our journey form Asakusa to here.
The trip here was four trains. First the Ginza line to the Kanto Station. Then the Chou line to Shinjuku. Then (confusingly) the Chou Limited Express to Otsuki. Finally, the Fuji Express Ltd. to Fujiyoshida. The whole trip was 4ish, counting some sitting around in stations. Notably an hour in Shinjuku and 30 minutes in Otsuki (which seems to be pronounced "oot-ski").
Yesterday, after arriving at our new rental, was a bit of a down day. The kids seemed pretty spend, so I let them hang at the rental, and I took a walk to Book Off, which seems to be the Japanese version of Half Price Books. The books were obviously almost entirely in Japanese, but they did have a small selection of albums, so I was able to pick up a Japanese copy of "The Commodores Live" for 500¥ (about $3.50), a vinyl single of "Live and Let Die" (for 500¥) and a Lee Oskar single (300¥) that I'm planning on giving Travis as a gift, since Oskars "Before the Rain" is sort of a cult favorite for him and I.
Dinner was at what could sort of be described as a Japanese TGIFridays. Fun in that there were some traditional aspects to it, like having to take off your shoes and leave them in wooden lockers at the entrance, and the seats were set up to feel like sitting on the floor (your legs went into a recessed area in the ground). But it also had those giant chain restaurant style menus with large color photos and an overwhelming array of dishes. Most of the food was a set menu situation where you got a main dish and a dizzying array of sides. I went with sukiyaki, while Otto (not surprisingly) chose sushi and Stella got soba noodles. Was their better food in town? Likely. But this place was hoping with customers, near our rental and up being a good fit for us last night.
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So, this morning, I'll need to make sure Stella is up by 8am. She wants to go running. Might not be a comparatively bad day for it since it's overcast, though it'll be humid as all get out. I'm still a little concerned about her just taking off running around Japan, but I do feel like part of this trip and her age is about giving her the space and trust to do stuff like that.
We have to be out of here by 10am. I figure we'll head to the train station take the train one stop down and then hike up to a view of a pagoda and Mt. Fuji. Hopefully, we can thread the needle where the clouds have lifted but the thunderstorms won't have rolled in. A tiny bit of crackerjack timing there. But that makes it an adventure, right?
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#1782
So, basically, we woke up yesterday morning, and Otto and I went to a convenience store to get breakfast, while Stella went for a run. I think that was a good experience for her, though she sort of made us all suffer for it later. (But I can get into that later.) Then we packed up and left right at 10am (our check out time). We hiked back to the train station, where we took the train up two just two stops to where Chureito Pagoda is located.
Since it's one of the bigger tourist destinations in the area, it's one of those deals where you get off the train and theirs basically a vendor-lined path going up to the shrine. The main event is then hiking up 300+ steps to a 5 story pagoda. Its maybe the most quintessential view in Japan, with the pagoda in the foreground and Fuji in the background. If you come during the Spring, you get cherry blossoms, too.
Fuji was *basically* visible that morning. The top of it was covered in clouds, but the base half was there, and you knew what you were looking at. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest you learn that mountains are fickle creatures, and you can't expect them to be on full display every day. You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit.
Back in Asakusa, it was nearly 3pm and we hadn't eaten yet. No one had acted or felt hungry until that point, so we decided to grab light eats with the idea that we'd do an early dinner at 4:30 or 5pm (or as Otto was convinced, I said "4:35pm"). But, of course, once I got the kids back to the hotel, they were reluctant to leave again. And once I did chase them out of the hotel, it was obvious that Stella was flat spinning. She has this tendency to go long enough without eating that she gets a headache, and once she has a headache, it feels nigh impossible to get her to eat. She just asks despondent and picks at her food.
Anyhow, after suffering through decision-tree paralysis, we decided to go to another ramen place. This was a fun counter restaurant where you order at a vending machine, hand your ticket to the guy at the counter and he brings your ramen post-haste. Otto and I scarfed ours down, and Stella... picked at her and largely left it uneaten.
A little frustrated, I let Otto head back to the hotel and took Stella to a pharmacy to get some ibuprofen, then took her by 7-11 to get *something* to eat. Then I dropped her off at the hotel and -not wanting to spend the whole evening in the hotel room- decided to go wander the streets around our hotel a bit. I know this doesn't paint me in the most sympathetic light, but y'know, it is a challenge to manage two other people in a foreign land. Especially when those two people sometimes seem like they'd be just as happy spending the entire trip in their hotel room.
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I did realize this morning, that I might be trying to give the kids too much control over food choices, etc. I've been trying to make it "their trip," with the idea that if they were happy, I'd be happy. But, last night, Stella made a comment to the effect of "I'm getting tired of trying to figure out where and what to eat." They are probably just suffering from decision fatigue. That's understandable and today I'll try to just run the schedule and let them coast along.
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#1783
Woke up at 5:30 today. I'll be on local time just in time for our return home tomorrow. I'm drinking "Platinum Black" Georgia Coffee currently, and it'll not just wake me up, it'll put hair on my chest. Quite a change from my usual "Cafe au Lait" Coffee Boss which feels more like drinking chocolate milk.
Anyhow, today is our last full day in Tokyo, but let's run down yesterday, which Stella described as "our most successful day yet!"
The first thing we did when we headed out yesterday was catch a pair of trains way down "south" to a tiny, cute shop called "Souffle &" which just sold souffle pancakes. Souffle pancakes are something that Sarah and Stella really enjoy, and Stella has been asking to get some this trip. Souffle & sold them slightly different than the previous versions we'd had, and I honestly liked them better. The pancakes were used sort of like the bread on a sandwich with different fillings. We had an orange chocolate one, a cherry one and a cream filled one. They were pretty excellent. It's an uphill battle for breakfast food to win me over, but these did.
Then we hiked about 15 minutes to the Teamlab Borderless location. This was a way different neighborhood than we've been in. It felt very upscale and somehow cleaner than Tokyo's already spotless streets. We also walked past several embassies, including Russia's heavily fortified embassy (you can tell they aren't in great standing). So, maybe we were in the "diplomatic district"? We could also see Tokyo Tower a short distance off, so another Tokyo site "seen."
Teamlabs itself was in an upscale shopping mall, which we wandered for 30 minutes until our reserved time to go in. Honestly, as we first entered, I was like "is this it?" But, then we entered the first *real* room and honestly it was pretty amazing. That room had hanging lights and mirrored floor creating this sort of infinite -but defined- space. Like variations of walking through rain or shooting stars. Most other rooms were variations of this idea: Floating orbs, a world of conveyor belts, giant cubes with eerie shifting lights. Unfortunately, most rooms also had mirrored floors, which made it a bit trick for Stella, who was wearing a dress. But, that hiccup aside, it was all very cool in an Instagram-photo-able way.
I probably could make an entire photo entry about Teamlabs, but here's just a couple photos to give you a feel.
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After that, we did lunch at a Katsu place. Katsu is one of those dishes that I find to be solid, without being impressive. But this place was probably the best katsu I've ever had. Good pork, well-cooked, lightly breaded. It played to all of Katsu's strengths and had a good brown sauce and spicy mustard to punch up the flavor.
After lunch, we caught the subway to the Akihabara neighborhood. Also known as Electric Town, the neighborhood is now known for both its electronics and video game shops, as well as all things manga and anime. (As well as a kabillion Maid Cafes.) I thought the kids would find it exciting and cool, but Otto seemed to see it as something to get through, and Stella was just sort of overwhelmed by all of it. First, we went to Super Potato, a 3-storey store specializing in retro video games. But the kids were like "meh." At this point, Otto was like "I thought this would be games like Pokemon and Magic cards." With that, we hiked a couple blocks to where there was a large Magic store.
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Trying to avoid the cramped elevator, we hiked up 8 floors of sketchy metal stairs, only to find a sign at the top that read "to entrance the store, please use the elevator on the ground floor." I feel like we've run into this more than once in Japan, where the useful sign or instructions are posted *after* the point where they'd be useful. (For example, on the train to Mt. Fuji, they had brochures explaining how to take the train to Mt. Fuji... it would have been nice to have the brochure *before* boarding the train.) Anyhow, it was back down the 8 flights of stairs and back up in the elevator.
Like many things in Tokyo, one of the largest Magic the Gathering stores in Japan was in a really cramped space. As a fan of the game, it was fun to look at the cards, but the kids grew listless, so I bought a "brick" of cards, and we headed on to our next locale: A neighboring Pokemon store where Otto did some similar browsing.
Then we headed to a massive electronic store next, where Stella was able to buy a lens cap for her camera, and I looked at expensive James Bond watches.
After that, we headed back to Asakusa. At first, we tried to stop for shaved ice, but they had us queue up in a weird spot around the corner from their entrance and were about to close. So, we threw in the towel and headed back to our hotel.
After hanging at the hotel for a bit, I wanted to get some dinner, but the kids were still full and tired from a full day. So, I went out to the sausage and beer place I'd discovered a couple days back, called The Day. It was a good spot for a night like this, because they were going for a Western-style gastro-pub feel, but with a Japanese twist. They had Japanese microbrews on tap (a rare find) and the sausages were made in house and had a fun Asian spin to them: I had a Chinese 5-spice one and a spicy kimchi one. It was also apparent that most of the people there were from the neighborhood and knew each other, so it was fun to listen to people laugh and talk, even it I could understand what they were saying.
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