Tokyo, Japan
Day 2 in Tokyo. We decided that today we wanted to experience more of the present day culture by doing a walking tour of downtown. There is so much yet to see in Tokyo but we just aren’t going to have the time to do it all.
The population of Tokyo is about 37 million. I know from talking with Janet and Brian that this is larger than the population of Canada. The population of Japan is over 120 million. About one third of the United States.
We started today’s adventure by taking a shuttle bus from the port to a bus parking area about 1.5 miles from the ship. This at least took us out of the busy port area that can be too busy to walk through. We use an app called GpsMyCity and decided we wanted to try the Ginza Shopping Tour. Often compared with New York’s Fifth Avenue, Ginza is the most luxurious shopping district in Tokyo.
The shopping district was about a five mile walk. Since my acupuncture visits with Dr. Kim, I am now able to walk again. It feels great. We started out toward our goal and reached a river we needed to cross. The map I used lead us to a ferry but we were unsure where the ferry would take us and the schedule wasn’t clear.
We usually aren’t afraid of exploring but time was an issue and the city is big. I’ll let you look up why the Statue of Liberty is here. Lot’s of cherry blossoms in the area. Reminds me of Washington DC where Japan gifted these to the US.
We knew we needed to get onto the bridge but it didn’t look pedestrian friendly so we grabbed a cab. First stop was the toy store! Hakuhinkan Toy Park. Many businesses in Tokyo open at 11 am out timing was perfect. 5 levels of toys with about 200,000 items. According to Guinness Book of Records, the largest toy store in Japan. It reminded us of what FAO Schwartz was like in Chicago. We had some shopping in mind for the grandkids but it was still fun to go in to just experience it.
Granted, this is the high end shopping district but when comparing it to Chicago’s Miracle Mile there is no comparison. No street people with paper cups and a hand out. No guys beating on home depot buckets. No people sleeping on the streets. No tents, strips of cardboard, shopping carts. No stray needles, or people trying to survive living on the sidewalk. Nobody in a trench coat lined with wristwatches, or gold necklaces offered to sell me anything. Tokyo is New York, or Chicago like they were many decades ago. People were dressed nicely and were very polite. I really miss this back home.
Non Japanese could be spotted a block away. Usually they were the size of two people or a head taller than everyone around.
The Ginza Six Shopping Center was next. Nothing we needed. Just fun to look around. It was after noon and we decided to look for a place to have lunch. Terri was looking on her phone for a place with a nice Japanese name. I told her a place called Bill’s was right down the street. When in Tokyo, eat at Bill’s. It was actually a very nice Japanese restaurant that was on the 12th floor of a building so we had a nice view of the city.
We split a buckwheet and kinoa salad. Absolutely delicious. I had a local draft beer and Terri some red wine. The ordering process was all online but we struggled with that so the waitress took the order by hand on a scrap piece of paper.
Terri snapped some photos that reminded us of shops we have seen in Paris or Rome. Next stop was Itoya. This is Japan’s renowned stationery specialty store established in 1904. It has 12 themed floors. The first floor has greeting cards and post cards. The second floor is the “Letter” floor where one can find everything need for writing a letter. Does anyone even write anymore? Yes. The store was packed with people. When I saw men looking through stationery I knew that this was a culture we have lost.
A floor with pens, a floor with paints, a floor with colored pencils, frames, etc, etc. It was amazing. I don’t even write anymore. I found the cartridge ink pen that I used in college to write music by hand. No more of that.
I bought some origami paper to impress the grandkids with some fancy folding. The woman at the checkout made me think of when I was a kid. A professional at the sales counter. Dressed appropriately and treated customers with respect. I was handed my receipt on a tray. Where has our country gone?
The Japanese government was run by Americans for 7 years after the war while they wrote a constitution for the people. Some refer to it as the MacArthur Constitution. Japan is a solid country while a great economy and very advanced society. We talked about spending a month here next year.
We finished out tour and decided that 5 miles back to the bus was doable. We kept talking about how clean and modern everything was.
I forgot about the Olympics. They were delayed for almost a year because of the pandemic.
We saw many school groups with kids wearing the same color caps. During the day the groups appeared to be in a daycare but around 3:30 all of the kids were running home from school in colored caps. Lots of kids on the streets. Very young ones walking home. Remember those days? I do. Now parents don’t even trust having a child next to them unless they are on a leash and I don’t blame them. There are all kinds of people running around our country and we have no idea who they are.
The walk back was nice. We made it back to the bus at about 4:30 and took the 1.5 mile ride back to the ship. 11 miles for the day and it felt …