Japanese Subway Expert

The first full day in Tokyo and we spent it touring various parts of the city and historical areas. What an amazing and exhausting day! Spent the entire day in the mist, packing the Croc slip on dress shoes was a great plan! Too bad my jeans were soaked to my knees though, ah well it was still a great day.

We started out with breakfast which featured quite the selection of a salad bar, rice, hamburgers (mini patties) and then a variety of breakfast foods that we normally see in our world...but good luck finding syrup, that doesn't exist. Don't worry though, the french toast is definitely sweet enough!

Spent quite a bit of time on the subway to and from and back and forth around the city. The map is in one of the first posts I did...and believe it or not, it's all making sense now! Some interesting information that we've been getting used to is that when on the escalator you stay to the left, if you go to the right you better be walking up the escalator! Everyone is so patient though waiting to get onto the left side. The place that you insert your ticket to come through is one of the most efficient operations I have ever seen! You insert it on one side and keep moving because within your two steps you will be able to grab the ticket and exit out the other side and keep going. One of the scariest things is being the last one in the group to the gate and you realize your ticket is no longer where you had it. I searched my bag and wallet and after a couple of minutes found the ticket in a pocket in my jacket. Luckily the security guy let me through to get out and then I found it. In order to get into the trains you have to scan your ticket but the kicker is getting out...you have to scan your ticket again. Talk about feeling helpless!! I wasn't the only one of the day that this happened to...just the first one.
 



In the subway, you wait behind the yellow line and at times have to walk on the yellow line to get around a wall and yes...the trains are pretty close to you! We only saw gates on one route.

Also in the subway stations there is this chirping sound like there is some random bird that got in there. After several stations and several levels down I realized that's definitely not  a real bird...it was a generated bird sound! It's about the only sound you hear though...everyone is very quiet in the subway, especially on the trains. If you think that in the US people are attached to their phones it is even more so here! No one looks up from their phones while on the subway and no one talks on their phones while on the train (talking on the phone is considered rude).

My personal favorite is the symbol for medical issues....a cast and a gigantic needle

Cell phones are definitely interesting as well. I haven't seen so many flip phones since flip phones first came out. Just amazing and even better when you see someone taking multiple pictures of themselves with a flip phone and not getting the right picture. Sunglasses on or off? Smile or serious? See man on the right below....hehe.

Our tour day started with a tour of the Yushukan War Museum in the Yasukini Shrine which is a Shinto Shrine. This is a rather controversial museum in Japan. It displays and memorializes many that are considered war heroes but at the same time some are war criminals. This museum covers all of the wars and skirmishes that Japan had been a part of. So interesting taking us back to the samurai times and bringing us forward. The World War 2 section was very sobering reading the history more in depth from this side of the world's perspective. One item that is extremely hard to even put into words was seeing a kamikaze plane/torpedo. Unfortunately we weren't able to take pictures inside the museum but seeing this plane that looks a bit like a glider and reading it had an engine that ran for 9 seconds after being dropped from another plane so the pilot could adjust on its target was a moment that is even hard to put into words. Many letters to the families from these pilots were displayed as well, hard to even think of writing letters that you absolutely know for certain your family will receive prior to your mission. 

 Mom and me outside of the Yasukini Shrine

 After lunch and the fun of using chopsticks to basically fondue thin slices of meat and various veggies we headed to the Imperial Palace, home of the Emperor and the Imperial family. The grounds started out as a castle and eventually converted to a Palace. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to go tour the museum but it was beautiful from the side of the moat we were on!

Outside of the Imperial Palace grounds

 

Our final stop for the rainy day was to Asasuka, home of one of the oldest temples in the world. On this location is a Buddhist pagoda and a Shinto Shrine which is very interesting because the Japanese have a belief that while alive Shintoism is to be followed and when they pass they believe that the beliefs of Buddhism will take care of them. Asasuka is also the oldest part of Tokyo and many shops still exist from the time of the samurai. Towards the temple there is the opportunity to buy a fortune for 100 yen (basically the equivalent of $1 right now)...you can get a normal fortune, the best fortune or a bad fortune. Mom got a normal fortune and I, of course, got the bad fortune. When you get a bad fortune you tie the fortune to a rack in an effort to have the exact opposite occur.

 

Me pouting at my poor fortune and luck!

 Mom on the inside of the Thunder Gate. On either side of the gate is the God of Thunder and the God of Wind

On our way out of Asakusa there is a little police house/hut. Outside of this they have posted the number of deaths and accidents involving pedestrians in Tokyo for the day before. The red number below indicates the number of people that died as a result of being hit and the number in black is the number of pedestrians injured by vehicles. For the largest city in the world 99 isn't the worst number for a day but I'll be interested to see what it says tomorrow!



 



Jet lag hasn't seemed to be an issue for me as of yet...hopefully it's not going to bother me in the next few days! Working a crazy schedule has me adjusting pretty quickly :) And a couple of random draft beers are just enough to relax me before it's time for sleeping! The current time in Japan is midnight...the current time at home is 11am. Time for me to call it a night...hope everyone enjoys their Monday...I know I did!