Day 4- We took the metro to what became one of the
highlights of our tour and perhaps the best museum we visited, the Edo Tokyo
Museum. This structure stands off the
ground like a Japanese granary, but looking at it I was reminded of one of
those walker things from Star Wars. It
stands on four pillars with the main structure high off the ground, and to get
into it we had to go up a long escalator.
(This is a head-on look at the museum. At the bottom is a dry fountain. Supposedly there's a sumo hall behind the museum which gets use).
You feel like you’re being devoured, ingested by the escalator into the stomach of this beast. Inside
were models of early Tokyo life, artifacts and other things when the city was
known as Edo. The exhibits here were
marvelous ranging from the castle of Edo to firefighters, to kabuki and a live
flute performance. The models are
perhaps the most intricately detailed things I have ever seen in my life. I saw a replica of the famous Nihonbashi Bridge, once the main entrance at one time to Tokyo.
Looking at the model you can see the tiniest details of the faces and clothes
of people. There’s a remarkable
attention to these things, to the point that one can almost forget it is a
model.
(An exact scale model of a part of the Nihonbashi Bridge which was once the main entryway to Tokyo when it was known as Edo)
Best of all, the displays were
distinctly detailed. Things moved, music
played. You could TOUCH things, interact
with things. There was even an English
audio tour that we sadly didn’t get, but I would gladly get next time. THIS is a museum. This is what museums should
be, and it was well worth every penny.
On another note, while we were waiting to enter, we watched the bullet
trains whiz by on the nearby rail line.
(I had to dangle my camera down to get this, amazing detail for figurines that are barely over an inch or two tall)
After this went Senkakuji Temple. On the way, we
stopped at the Tokyo Station and dropped by a particular
department store I never got the name of.
The first floor was entirely dedicated to pastries of every sort. There were people crowded all around getting
cakes and cookies and such remarkable sweets that I have never seen before. We had
delicious teppanyaki on the thirtieth floor then went down to the pastries. We walked past the famous kitchen street of
Tokyo Station which is lined on both sides with places devoted to food on the
go. Bento boxes, travel food, great and
small are for sale in these wonderful stalls.
(Senkakuji approach)
Arriving at Senkakuji, we found it
a tiny temple in a small quiet neighborhood removed from everything else. This place is famous for holding the bodies
of the 47 Ronin who avenged their master’s death and then took their own lives
since murdering their lord’s murderer was illegal.
In this act of loyalty and sacrifice, they are one of the most famous
tales of Japan. The temple itself was
quiet with little shops and proud owners selling their wares.
(Some of the 47 tombs)
The ronins' tombs are tended with love, and
it was amazing to see all of them there with people honoring each shrine in
turn. It felt surreal to be there, to
see such honors, peaceful and respectful.
It was a place of green in the heart of Tokyo. While
my parents sat and tried to relax, I stood in awe of where I was. This was a place that I had dreamed of seeing
since I was a child. I knew the story
of the 47 Ronin. It was one of the earliest stories I ever knew about
Japan. Now I was at the place where they
rested, where their spirits dwell and where much of the story took place.
(A statue, I believe, of Asano Naganori the Lord of the 47 Ronin)
Many temples in Japan have an
austere aura to them, and this one was no exception. It felt ancient, surrounded by the new. There was a strange, sad quality though. I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s a
forlorn feeling in the empty windows and quiet neighborhood surrounding
it. There were people there, but it felt
like the place had been forgotten by a greater number.
(Senkakuji Courtyard)
We retired to the hotel to prepare
for the next leg of our journey after this.
Tomorrow would bring our first trip on a bullet train to the distant
town of Nikko, Japan.
Tokyo Conclusions
Tokyo is a place of energy. In the skyscrapers and subways, in the
people and the places, there is a constant hum of electricity. Even in quiet secluded places, it exists,
only different and more serene. I can
see why the people of Tokyo love living there, yet also pine for the simpler
lifestyle away from throngs. I don’t
think I could ever get used to the crowds in subways or the quickness of daily
life.
Looking at the Tokyo map on our
last night there, we made a disquieting discovery that we’d only scratched a
tiny area of a smaller surface of the greater Tokyo Metropolitan area. Tokyo is massive. Most people can live there an entire lifetime and never see most of what it has
to offer.
On the whole, I found Tokyo to be
a beautiful city and liked it far better than I ever thought I would. It is remarkably clean, the people extremely
friendly and conscientious of foreigners.
It is a place of contrasts, of old and new and would serve as the foundation
to everything else we would see.
