After the Golden Week tour I planned to stay in Tokyo for a while, but had no real plans on where to stay.

I put in a few last minute requests for couchsurfing and Byard from New Zealand, who has been living in Japan for the last 10 years, answered to say yes. We set it up to stay Thursday and Friday nights, but in the end I also stayed Saturday night too.

He has a small (maybe even decent sized by Tokyo standards) but nice apartment. It was simple and clean like I like to keep my own place. We had interesting conversations together about living in Japan, relationships and work; and how those things differ from western culture… which they seem to a lot.

I went out walking Saturday morning to see Meiji Temple and Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.

Meiji Temple

Meiji Temple is a heavily wooded area with the Temple in the middle. There are museums and some gardens to view, but they all cost an entrance fee and I wasn’t in the mood to spend money while not really knowing what I would see. So I went to the proper temple itself. It is very well taken care of and looks brand new. The courtyard is wide and has a very peaceful feeling. One strange thing that happened is that I had an energy experience (won’t even try to describe it) while I was there, and later someone mentioned that it is a ‘power spot’. I might just go back and see what happens the next time.

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Shinjuku Gyoen costs 200 Yen to get in, but as it was slightly raining that morning there were very few people wandering the grounds. I had the place mostly to myself. It is a beautiful Japanese style garden with ponds, bridges, bonzai trees, flowering bushes, Koi fish, many flowers and more.

As I wandered through the garden I found a quiet shelter from the rain and took a short snooze listening to the patter of raindrops in the pond and on the roof. A very relaxing place.

Rippongi

That evening Byard was having a few friends over for drinks, so I met some new people and both practiced some Japanese and helped with some English. Near the end of the party, two of Byards friends were heading down to the Rippongi area for a morning of dancing. I say morning because we didn’t get down to the Rippongi area until about midnight which is when the last trains run. No more trains until 5 in the morning, so it is drinking and dancing until then. You have to really commit to going out and partying in Tokyo!!

We hopped from club to club for a while which weren’t very crowded, then went to a larger and packed club from 2:30am until 5am. The dancing never stopped. When 5am rolled around, we emerged out into the sunlight of Tokyo! A short train ride later and home for a few hours of sleep.

Asakusa Area

To stay for the next few nights, I headed to the Asakusa area which is where most of the hostels are in Tokyo and found a place to stay for a few days. I did some wandering around in the Asakusa area to see the Sensoji Temple, went on a short trip to Akihabara (electric and manga town), bought a bag full of souvenirs and shipped them home from the post office, and relaxed a bit.

Tsukiji Market

One evening at the hostel, I met an American girl from Seattle and after chatting for a bit we decided to head down to the Tsukiji market and some museums the following day. So we headed out the next morning to the Tsukiji fish market about 8am. We decided not to get up extra early (5am) to see the tuna auction, but rather just wander around the open market where local restaurants buy much of their fish. It was interesting to see the huge variety of sea life for sale. Octopii, shellfish, seaweed, crustaceans, and all varieties of fish.

Museums

On to the museums. We first went to the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (as she is an artist and really wanted to see the contemporary art) and Tokyo National Museum in Ueno park. I really enjoyed seeing the history of art in Japan and saw plenty of beautiful pieces and artifacts. The National Museum has artifacts and art from many periods including the fuedal periods which are the most interesting to me.

Shibuya

Shibuya is a shopping and business area of Tokyo, and while there wasn’t anything I wanted to do there… it is a place to go to see the busiest crossing in Japan! There is a great vantage point from Starbucks to see out over this mass of people going about their daily business. I sat there for maybe 45 minutes and the constant flow of people never ended.

One thing that is different in Japan is that I don’t feel so confined in crowds as other places. This is both because I am much taller on average and have lots of breathing room, and that the Japanese people are always polite and usually aware of others around themselves. So there isn’t much josteling and bumping even in huge crowds.

One interesting observation or phenomina I have noticed is that I am given plenty of room in crowds here. I don’t know what it is, but even in a crowded subway I was given more than my proper share of space. I know I don’t smell. I attribute it to the ‘Gaijin Smash’ theory that they have this fear of upsetting the big foreigner and that I might go crazy and start smashing things like Godzilla. haha.

Mt. Takao

One day I went on a hike with Anna, who I met on the Golden Week tour, up Mt. Takao. The hike was fun and not very long (only 3.3 km), but the temple on the way down had some incredible carvings out of the wood beams that were amazing. The weather was nice and as we climbed I got pretty hot and went down to just a tank-top. This drew a lot of stares from the Japanese. I wasn’t sure if it was the crazy Gaijin in just a tank-top as they were often wearing jackets, or my tattoo, or my larger size… probably a combination of them all.

Yoyogi Park

For my final day in Tokyo I headed back to Byards to couchsurf again and go to a Thai festival in Yoyogi park. On the way we saw the Harajuku girls (and sometimes guys), and the dancing Elvis’. The Thai festival was packed, and I do mean packed, even for Tokyo. We got some Thai food, which was very bland by what I’m used to as I guess most Japanese don’t like really spicy, and sat with some friends of one of the group. A bit later we went to a Raggae club to listen to a friend of Byards sing. The bar was maybe the size of a normal American bedroom and had about 30 people in it!

End

This was the end of my Tokyo stay for now. I’m off to explore other parts of Japan.ch

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Related posts:

1. Tokyo Plans
2. Tokyo Day 1
3. Leaving for Japan!
4. Sumo
5. Golden Week Tour