Tokyo

After finishing the conference on Friday, I took the bullet train from Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, to Tokyo. The bullet train was amazing. It travels at 270 km/hour, and only makes 3 stops on the 2.5 hour trip between Kyoto and Tokyo. Before boarding, I bought a bento box to take with me on the trip. The bento had four little compartments with a variety of very finely displayed foods in each, including a bit of octopus. I wanted to take a photo of it before I ate it, but unfortunately, in my haste to find the train, I turned it upside-down. After that, it didn't look quite so neat, but it still tasted great.

I arrived in Tokyo around 4 in the afternoon, and spent my first afternoon and evening wondering around Shibuya, a major shopping area and nightlife neighborhood. It was quite a bit of fun. There are literally thousands of people on the streets of Tokyo. I thought that New York City and London were crowded until I arrived here. Somehow the density of pedestrian traffic in this city is able to dwarf the megalopolis of both the US and England. However, the locals embrace the foot traffic. Many of the roads are pedestrian only, and the others have pedestrian bridges, frequent road crossings, and pedestrian-aware drivers that make walking really easy and fun.

After getting my first nights sleep, I woke up bright and early and headed to the Tokyo National Museum. I really enjoy museums, and this one was no exception. Some of my favorite items on display were the Samurai swords, the painted room-dividers, and kimonos from the Edo period. The museum has so many works of art that they cannot display them all at one time and instead rotate exhibits. In anticipation of cherry blossom season, many of the current galleries have exhibits that are themed with the Japanese national pass-time of cherry viewing. Apparently, cherry blossom viewing has been a great pastime of aristocrats and the common folk for centuries in Japan. For example, the red kimono in the picture is an 18th century dress worn by an aristocratic Japanese woman during cherry viewing parties.

Speaking of cherry viewing, I am sad to say that I am a few weeks early for the blossoms this year. Most of the trees here in Tokyo have yet to bud. However, when they do, I am sure it will be awesome. I have always heard that Japan is known for its cherry trees, but in my imagination, I really underestimated the number of trees they have here. There are literally thousands and thousands in Tokyo alone. Every park is teeming with really old, gnarly cherry trees. Luckily one of the big trees behind the museum has started to bloom, so I snapped a quick picture.
Tokyo isn't really known for temples and shrines, as is Kyoto. I believe this is due to the fact that many of the ancient buildings of Tokyo were destroyed in fires, earthquakes, and WWII bombing raids. However, one shrine that the Japanese people decided to rebuild after WWII was the shrine dedicated to the Meiji Emperor. In 1868, after 265 years of military rule under the Tokugawa Shogunate, the last Shogun transferred rule of Japan back to the emperor. The Tokugawa Shogunate enforced isolationism so strict that only a few ports were open to trade with only several countries (China and Denmark only, I believe). Therefore, when the Meiji Emperor came to rule, Japan immediately made a great leap forward in industry and education due to the fact that they began catching up with the progress the rest of the world had made. The pictures below show a display of sake casks that is dedicated each year by the distilleries in Japan to the memory of the Meiji Emperor.


I'm heading into bed early tonight in hopes of getting up at 5 tomorrow to arrive at Tsukiji market, the main seafood wholesale market in Japan, by 6 AM. I hope to post pictures of flash-frozen giant tuna being inspected by the fishmongers soon!