These Boots Were Made For Walking...

Saturday, November 4th was no ordinary weekend day. The alarm clock beeped loudly at 6:30am and the shower, typically traveling between steaming hot and freezing cold, turned on shortly thereafter. Fumbling in the semi-dark for my favorite jeans, shirt and light-weight sweater, I could hardly believe I was up this early. But, I kept reminding myself, it was for a good reason--Tokyo. Ever since Matt and I had accompanied our friends Courtney and Thilmin to the Tokyo International Film Festival, we had wanted to return for a more "touristy" weekend, and this just happened to be the one. So, as I hastily dressed, I wondered what time I should wake up Matt and our friend Jason, who had made camp in our living room. Finally mustering up the courage to awaken Jason (Matt soon arose after my constant rummaging and closing of doors), I told him it was 7am and that we should think about heading down to the train station soon. So, after a quick breakfast (it was so quick, I don't even remember what it was I stuffed into my mouth), we packed up our backpacks and locked the front door before starting our ten minute walk to Ryuo-eki. As we walked down our street, taking care not to walk into the open water gutters and feeling the crisp autumn air stinging our cheeks, I felt so excited to be on my way back to Tokyo.

Entering the train station, we crossed the tracks and boarded the Kaiji Limited Express bound for Shinjuku Station. Finding some open seats, Matt, Jason and I turned one pair of seats around, so we could face each other, and settled in for the hour and 40 minute ride into the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. The morning sun felt warm and inviting as we waited for the conductor to start the train on its way. After showing our tickets (a special "weekend pass") to one of the train attendants, I tried to read a little in my book, A Child In Time by Ian McEwan, but the constant funneling through tunnels and pressure changes made me a little nauseous, so I decided trying to nap might be a more fruitful and easier task. I sat there with my eyes closed, feeling the slight swaying of the train as it zipped by small stations and made its occasional stop at larger towns to pick up other Tokyo-bound passengers. And before I knew it, streets densely packed with buildings and skyscrapers in the now-misty distance signaled our rapid approach into Shinjuku Station. When the conductor's voice softly cooed that Shinjuku was our next stop, we got out of our seats, grabbed our backpacks from overhead, and made our way to the nearest door. Tokyo was only a few seconds away and we were ready to embrace it the minute we exited the train.

We stepped onto the platform at Shinjuku Station and were immediately engulfed in a sea of people making their way to the tiny, descending escalator. Giving way to the pushing around us, we glided down the escalator and into a large lobby-esque area, where, gaining our bearings, we found our way to the Yamanote Green Line (which makes a huge loop around Tokyo). First on our list of hundreds of things to do was to see the Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park. We needed to take the train to the Harajuku Station and then make our way into the park. However, the trains were packed, the platforms teeming with people trying to cram into the train cars, and in all the mayhem, Jason and I lost Matt--who had jumped into one car just as the doors were closing. So, Jason and I patiently waited for the next train to arrive and hoped that Matt would still get off at Harajuku Station. In five minutes, we took our turn packing into the train and heading toward Harajuku. Luckily, Matt was waiting on the platform for us when we arrived, and we three began our small trek to Yoyogi Park, taking care to note the Harajuku "punks" getting their "costumes" ready for a day of craziness.

Yoyogi Park was beautiful in the late morning's hazy sunlight, and approaching Meiji Shrine, the sun broke out in full force, casting a brilliant light on the wooden gate beckoning visitors into the shrine. At Meiji, we were fortunate enough to see a few weddings. We saw, inside the main shrine, a wedding service unfold and heard the monks ringing the huge bell inside. Then, as we were turning to leave the shrine, a wedding recessional began in front of us, and joining the crowd of family, friends, and curious spectators, we watched as the bride and groom ceremoniously strutted through the maid courtyard and away into the dense forest outside the wooden gate. Feeling as though we were just a part of something extremely "Japanese," we happily left the shrine and headed back into the noisy and chaotic streets of Harajuku.

Next stop: the Imperial Palace, the residence of the royal family. Yet, I should probably mention one important issue casting a dark and somewhat ominous cloud over me and Matt: we did not, as of 11:30am, have a place to stay for the night. We had been unable to book a hotel online before we went to Tokyo and, wanting to take the full advantage of our weekend pass, had debated about just staying up all night in a club, or finding a manga cafe, renting a room and trying to sleep for a few hours, taking the latest train home to Kofu that night, or attempting to find someone to help us book a hotel. Well, as we exited the Tokyo station (on our way to the Imperial Palace) we found a JR Travel Services office, went inside, and in a matter of 20 minutes or so, we had a place to stay in Ikebukuro and no longer had to silently stress about accommodations for the night. Thus, wild and carefree (well, maybe not "wild" but certainly more carefree than earlier in the day), we headed toward the palace. However, our stomachs got the best of us, and we stopped for a brief and tasty lunch at a little French restaurant---which, I would like to add, we were WAY under dressed to be in. Well, after lunch, we finally made it to the palace grounds--a beautiful, quiet garden in the middle of one of the world's largest cities. Of course, you cannot actually get close enough to see the palace, but we did see the wall and gate leading into it and were fortunate enough to see the changing of the guards as well. I think it must be a very boring job, but as Jason mentioned, it is most likely considered an extremely high honor to be protecting the emperor of Japan (never mind the fact that he has no real power so to speak). But, he's still "important" so I'm sure it is a position of honor.

Well, there is only so much one can take of a bridge, gate and stone wall, so after snapping a few nice photos, we continued on to see the Parliment (Deit) Building and then tried to make it to Tokyo Tower (which, sadly, we never did get that close to). Winding our way through the surprisingly quite streets, passing the different Ministry buildings with guards at each entrance, we stumbled upon a cute little park, with a bronze crane water fountain and beautiful fall colors. We strolled through the park (as most people in parks do) and what did we come upon but a small little wine festival (snugged tightly in the center of the park). We entered the festival grounds, bought our wine glasses for 700 yen a piece and began to sample the various wines. A little while into the tasting, we realized that this was specifically a Yamanashi Wine Festival--how ironic! We found a few wines that were more to our drier tastes (Japanese wines tend to be very sweet--a little too much so for my liking) and, filling up our glasses, we found a shaded area to rest, eat some raisins, and savor our drinks. We sat in our little grassy spot for a few minutes and then decided that we should head to Ikebukuro, to check into our hotel, drop off our bags, take a shower, and prepare for the rest of our evening. So, snaking through the festival once again, we made it to the exit, turned left down a small shopping street, stopped into the International Building (shaped much like a huge boat), and even happened to find Godzilla. Stepping onto the train once again, I began to feel the slight, persistent aching in my legs. I hadn't thought much of it before, but thinking now, we had walked a fair distance in just the four hours we were in Tokyo and Matt and I had walked a lot the day before at Shosenkyo. So sitting on the train became quite a luxurious event!

Laying down on a real bed has never felt so good as it did upon entering our hotel room! While Matt and Jason took showers, I stretched out on the bed, a huge can of Coke in my left hand, and channel surfed through crazy Japanese game shows, melodramatic soap operas and the one station in English: CNN International. So, resting for a little over an hour, we made our way back to the train station, now bathed in the glow from the numerous neon lights of the surrounding buildings, and, hopping on to the nearest train, made our way back to Harajuku, where a delicious western dinner awaited us at the restaurant, Fujimamas. Our legs, growing more and more sore with each block, were allowed an hour and a half's rest as we partook of bean chili, fancy drinks, and delectable appetizers in the little restaurant on a busy side street of Harajuku. Leaving Fujimamas with full bellies and huge grins, we briefly stopped by The Gap. Jason and I did some shopping while Matt digested his food outside on the stoop. Soon, we were off again, this time heading back to Shinjuku to view all the lights and to try to find both the red light and gay districts. We were successful in seeing more lights then our eyes could possibly take in and found the red light district (which, though there were no prostitutes hanging around lamp posts and such, was sleezy nonetheless with gangs of voracious men standing in the middle of intersections and Yakuza-looking business men gaily roaming the sidewalks). However, as the minutes ticked away and the street blocks became less and less crowded with hoards of people, our legs began their complaint and caused us excruciating pain with each bend of the knee and each touch of the pavement below. So, having walked for almost 12 hours, we unanimously called it a night, trudged back to the train station, swayed on the train back to Ikebukuro, painfully shuffled back to our hotel, and collapsed into an exhausted stooper. Tomorrow would be a new day, we thought. We will be refreshed and rejuvinated, we hoped. We will be able to at least walk to the train station, we worried.

Waking on Sunday morning, I knew right away, limping to the shower only 10 feet away, that I would not be able to do any more "touring" and would probably need to think about grabbing an earlier train home. Once we were all dressed and somewhat awake, we discussed our various options and decided that if we could grab an earlier train, we would like to take advantage of that and get back to Yamanashi while it was still light outside. So, after a hearty hotel breakfast, we checked out and, backpacks in tow, began the now-familiar walk to the Ikebukuro train station. Passing the buildings that, just hours ago had been a flame with various neon colors, the vastness and greatness of Tokyo began to set in. People would continue to pass these buildings all day and then at night, they would pass them again, in all their neon glory. It really is amazing to think how many people walk Tokyo's streets in one day, in one hour, in one second. This is what I was thinking as we entered the station.

Having a few hours to kill before the next Kaiji Limited Express left for Kofu, we meandered on over to the Tokyo Municipal Government Buildings in the heart of Shinjuku. Approaching the huge steel and glass towers, I became dizzy even looking up at the glistening structures (but that might have also been partly due to the exhaustion I was still feeling from the previous day). Anyway, we took some pictures and then decided to ascend the northern tower, in hopes of seeing the city laid out for us like a huge toy grid of buildings and more buildings. At the top (some 40 stories up), we had our pick of views--windows surrounded the small cafe island in the middle of the floor. Taking pictures and ooing and awwing, we then made our way down the 40 some flights, left the building and walked back to the station. By this time, my legs were killing me and I couldn't wait to be on the train and back in my little, ugly town. So we made the trip back (after taking a quick picture with a huge Monkey at the station) and had the rest of the afternoon to recuperate. So, while we would have liked to explore even more parts of Tokyo, we did accomplish a lot in the small amount of time we were there. And now we have even more reasons to go back and experience Tokyo all over again!