Ah, bliss. A full day on our own without any bus rides or people who aren’t paying attention or asking stupid questions. Those people are taking an optional tour to Mt. Fuji, and since we were just there, well, we truly don’t feel the need! So we are staying local and exploring some gardens and the NHK Broadcasting museum. Perfect day for us.
We’re up early, as usual, have our coffee, take our showers and try to go to breakfast. Honestly – that place is a zoo. We even do the QR code pre-booking thing and still have to wait 20 minutes! At least we’re in our room waiting and not downstairs with the masses. When we arrive there is a little confusion – but we end up showing the host the email on our phone and he escorts us right in. The place is still a zoo. Honestly, the only negative about this hotel – the breakfast is so crazy you just can’t get a good meal – or a cup of coffee! The line for the coffee machines is always 4 or 5 deep. Oh well – we just need some quick nourishment to get us started on our day – so we grab some toast, apples and eggs for Ed and we are outta there toot sweet.
Off we go, down the same main street we took with Osamu yesterday – only today we are fish swimming upstream! It is a little before 9am and all the business people are coming from the train station to their office jobs. We’re the only casually dressed people about! Totally different atmosphere this morning. We weave and dodge, and then see a Tully’s coffee shop, stopping there for our caffeine infusion we didn’t get at breakfast. They actually have drip coffee too – so we get real, honest-to-goodness coffee and go sit outside to watch all the now late business people do their Japanese-running up the street.
Fully caffeinated, we head for the Kyu-Shiba-rikyu Gardens, which I had stumbled upon in Google Maps. It is right on the way to the bigger Hama-rikyu Gardens and we figured why not? There is an entrance fee though, so we thought about skipping it – but then see the sign for a joint ticket to both gardens – and a senior discount! Ok – let’s do it. We both pass (well, I do anyway) for Senior, although the ticket guy gives me a dubious look, and head into the beautiful gardens that are one of the oldest surviving gardens of the feudal lords. The lands became the official Edo residence of the top rank Tokugawa Shogunate in in 1678. It remained the residence of the shogunate and Imperial households until its destruction in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Gifted to Tokyo City the next year, the city restored the gardens to their former glories and reopened them to the public.
The Kyu-Shiba-rikyu gardens are the perfect place to wander and enjoy nature on this gorgeous sunny day. Surrounded by the city, its skyscrapers and never-ending construction, it is nonetheless beautiful and serene.
We manage to spend about 45 minutes here, just wandering the manicured paths, reading the informational signs – and wondering in awe at the fact that in1875, the Meiji Emperor could stand here on one of the raised mounds and see the ocean and fisherman trying for the day’s catch. Incredible!
We find the last flowering cherry blossoms, some old stone pillars that are Chinese in origin, representing the mountain of eternal youth and immortality, then climb to the highest point of the garden for photos, before continuing on around past traditional Japanese stone carvings and then out onto the street heading for Hama-rikyu gardens.
A quick and easy 15-minute walk puts us at the entrance gate, where we flash our joint tickets and are ushered into the gardens. This was the actual family garden of the Tokugawa Shogun and also functioned as an outer fort for Edo castle. And it is probably 10 times larger than the Kyu-Shiba gardens. There are all sorts of different areas – open areas where you can picnic, thick pine forests and a beautiful series of ponds – all surrounded by moat-like canals!
We circle the largest part of the pond, taking in views from the highest point and crossing the bridge that leads to the tea room. There are incredible flowers here on the trellis and an amazing twisted old pine tree.
More cherry blossoms here – and duck hunting blinds! Ducks were lured into the trenches with bait and the hunters watched from a konozoki – the small opening in the wooden doors built into the blind-mounds. There was also a wooden plank hung in the konozoki that the hunters would hit with a wooden mallet. The domestic ducks were trained to respond to the noise and were lured into the trench where the hunters then caught them in a net.
More pond views, and way more excellent cherry blossoms. These are the best we’ve seen yet!
Then onto to the Peony field where the blooms are almost done, and onto the exit near the 300 year old pine, Sambyakunen-no-matsu. The pine is said to have been lanted to commemorate the great renovations made to the garden by the 6th shogun Ienobu. It is massive and spread out over a large track of land, but its branches are so low and close to the ground that they need to supported with thick wooden posts. Still an amazing sight!
Done with our garden wandering, it is getting close to lunch time. We head over to the Tsukiji Outer market, once the wholesale fish market, which has now become a complex of shops and seafood restaurants. I had read in one of the books that a lot of the shops were closed on Wednesday, but we figured we’d give it a try. Oh no – it is worse than yesterday in Asakusa! Massive amounts of people, lines everywhere, people sitting on steps eating. Oh no. No way – not a chance! We make a u-turn after about 250 feet, and beeline our way out of there. We’ll find some little place on the way to the NHK Broadcasting museum.
And find we do! An adorable little restaurant called Nakua that serves excellent rice and egg dishes – all ordered through a vending machine. Of course. We are getting very used this method by now. At any rate, we share an excellent egg and rice dish with Tonkatsu (breaded, fried pork) and cheese on top as well as a serving of excellent fried chicken, Kaarage. Both excellent and filling and we are happy and on our way in no time.
The walk to the museum takes about 30 minutes, and on the way we pass the Ad Museum, where we had wanted to visit, but there were no tickets available for today. Since we were right there, we figured we’d go check to see if anything was available. The museum is located in this shopping complex (one of the many ubiquitous and monstrous shopping complexes everywhere in this city) and we manage to navigate our way down to the entrance – only to find the reason why there are no tickets is that the museum is closed today and tomorrow to set up a new exhibition. Aha. Well that all makes sense now.
But now, we have to navigate our way back out of this place. That takes some doing and about 10 minutes to weave our way past the subway station and up onto street level somewhere off the track of where we were heading! Oh well, we like to walk! Following the apt-to-be-wrong Google directions, we eventually make our way out onto some broad avenues, passing, of all things, a shoeshine bar? No way – only in Japan! And an adorable Jamaica theme painted little van.
Some 20 minutes later, after climbing a very steep and long hill, we arrive at the NHK Broadcasting museum, which is free, and is really, really interesting. (Especially because Ed and I are both radio and tv aficionados!) They have everything here, from the history of JOAK, the first radio station here in Japan (5 years after KDKA went on the air – and they even have a photo of the KDKA studios!) to the first TV broadcasts to old equipment and displays. Plus, interactive exhibits where we can be on television! And displays of all the old Japanese shows – plus some obviously very famous ones with dolls and figurines. That are all very cute – even if we have no clue who or what they are! Very fun and informative, even in Japanese! There is enough English to help us along – and we end up spending almost 2 hours exploring the 2 floors of the museum.
And then it is the trek down the hill – well, down the stairs – to find a 7-11 for an ATM and then to the Lawson’s for supplies to take with us tomorrow to Kyoto and back to the room for computer work!
Later, watching the rain, which thankfully subsides quickly, we walk back to Tokyo Tower, figuring this will be the best option to stay out of the rain. But again, nothing really rings our bell. Ed wants something different than Japanese – but not pizza or a burger. I can make anything work. So off we go, back to the business district to wander about and find something that appeals to us. We circle the block looking for one of the places with a wide assortment of Japanese food – sushi, tempura, something other than noodles – but can’t find one right away. We had seen and read about a Vietnamese restaurant, which we decide to try to find, because one review said they had Bun Cha. You know that’s a seller for us!
Google maps gets us there, but we still can’t really find it. Until we see an advertising sign – look up! It’s on the 4th floor! Taking the circular staircase, we arrive to a completely empty restaurant and are seated at this great little table where we have the best Vietnamese meal! Excellent shrimp spring rolls and a fabulous version of Bun Cha! And Saigon beer and a reasonably priced glass of wine! Plus the whole atmosphere and the setting (on the 4th floor) really makes us feel like we are in Vietnam! I’m teleported right back to Hanoi!
In addition to the great food, we also have entertainment watching the smoking area outside on the street. You are only allowed to smoke in designated areas – outside – and they are capacity controlled to boot. So there is this huge line waiting to get into smoke! It is crazy. At first you think it is a bus stop – because it looks just like one – but no, it is a smoking area. Japan! Full of interesting little quirks.
On the way back to the hotel, we take more pictures of the Tokyo tower, lit up differently this evening.
Then it is back for an early evening of packing and early to bed for our 7:20am departure to Kyoto.
Andiamo 