The overnight bus was an interesting experience. The seats were comfortable (if not as nice as the deluxe buses in Korea) and reclined a fair amount. Each seat had a privacy curtain as well. Despite that, I got maybe 5 hours of sleep, waking up with tingling elbows several times throughout the night.
The gray sky was lit by an invisible sun as the bus navigated the quiet streets of Tokyo. We were deposited at the Shinjuku Express Bus Terminal and I followed the signs to the subway to beat the morning rush. The subway system is confusing but not unreasonably so. I arrived at the hostel before their reception was open, but managed to slip in as the laundry guys were picking up a couple bags of linens.
The first floor cafe had a handful of business people working away at their laptops and I got an ominous feeling about the residence. I made myself at home, changing from shorts into jeans (because the highs are almost 10 degrees lower in Tokyo than Nara) and no sunlight was on the forecast for the next week. As there was no access to water (hot or otherwise), I popped next door to a Lawsons and had a simple breakfast on a stoop.
Not wanting to waste the day, I headed back over to the hostel, which was unlocked by this time, and asked about baggage keeping. I took my stuff up to the 6th floor, locked it up, and headed out.
I walked about 30 minutes aiming for a scenic walk passing by a few landmarks, such as the Nihombashi (Japan Bridge) and the Tokyo Train Station, on my way to the Imperial Palace. I lined up to join a tour and would have enjoyed the wait if it didn’t keep drizzling. As they process about 300 people per tour–split into English, French, Chinese, and Japanese groups–the amount of time spent queuing and going through security was more than that on the actual tour, but whatever, it was free.
After the tour, I cut through the Imperial East Gardens (also free to the public and the grounds of the Edo castle ruins) to make a visit to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. I took the plunge on the 2,200 yen “Grutto Pass” which provides free or reduced admission to 95 museums (parks, zoos, and aquariums) across town (and as far flung as Yokohama). It’s going to take a bit of work to get my money’s worth, especially as I have only a week, but I mostly wanted to emphasize museums anyways.
The MOMAT was located in park containing a cluster of museums, so I prioritized all of them for day one. The Crafts Gallery was closed, unfortunately, during installation of a new exhibit, so I went directly to the Science Museum. I would have skipped it, but being *free*, I figured it was worth popping in. Science Museums tend to range between being too kiddy or too grungy (worn down from too many kids). I had a lot of fun, watching a planetarium show, a liquid nitrogen experiment, and an experiment on electromagnetism (all in Japanese, but whatever, science is universal). I saw quite a few other foreigners wandering around, and I really wondered what they were doing there. You gotta attend the scheduled shows to make it worthwhile.
I headed out the north exit of the park, through some fancy old gate to visit to Showa-kan in a modern office building. Showa was the imperial reign name from the 1930s to the 1980s, and the museum/library/archives is dedicated to recording the hardships faced by common people during and immediately after the war. I’m glad I took a quick pass through to look at old photos and household items, but it made me want to rewatch “Grave of the Fireflies.”
For my last tour stop of the day, I headed over to the Yasukuni Shrine. That’s the one where all the souls of the war dead including some war criminals are kept. It’s a quite impressive Shinto shrine with some massive tori gates and basically nothing on it to indicate the potentially controversial status (other than one small sign telling foreign media not to record or interview anyone without prior clearance), so I could understand how an ambassador or foreign delegation could get taken there on a sightseeing trip and not realize the diplomatic damage they were doing by the photo-ops.
There was an impressive looking museum on the grounds (not covered by the Grutto pass), but I dodged the question of whether to shell out money for it by the fact that it closed just as I walked up.
I decided to walk all the way back to the hostel (about 3 km) and passed through a district that seemed to be all bookstores and another that was all outdoor sports equipment.
Back in the hostel, I formally checked in and hung out a bit letting my nearly dead phone charge up, but I was hungry and thirsty. I asked the front desk for a food recommendation and rushed over to a restaurant before it closed at 7pm. This tonkatsu place is one of those small Japanese restaurants completely run by the old couple that own it and a three item menu. It was perfect. A juicy breaded pork cutlet fried in front of me as I sipped on some miso clam soup and matcha tea at the counter full of salary men in their business suits.
The dinner filled me up, but I couldn’t deny my sweet tooth and took a stroll through a small grocery store on the way back to the hostel, picking up some Japanese snacks (red bean paste sandwiched between two mini pancakes).
I was pretty beat by the long day, and as the hostel didn’t seem particularly sociable (the downstairs cafe/bar running its business discourages guests from hanging out there), I went upstairs to get some early rest.
| Tokyo Metro | 220 |
| Lawsons breakfast | |
| Grutto Museum Pass | 2200 |
| Mint Chocolate chip ice cream | 140 |
| Tonkatsu | 800 |
| Snacks | 313 |
| Obi Hostel (7 nights) | 1005.73 RMB |
| Total: | 1240.8 RMB (USD 180.46) |
Running Total: 33893 RMB (USD 4929.23)
Daily Average: 316.75 RMB (USD 46.06)
So the Lawson’s breakfast (one pastry, one coffee, one 2L bottle of water) was free because I finally remembered to use this thing someone handed me while I was a henro. I’ve apparently been carrying around a 1000 yen gift card valid at all major chain stores (convenience stores, drug stores, book stores, etc).