OUR FIRST FULL DAY:
Akasaka-Mitsuke, Tokyo, Japan.
October 10th, 2013, 9:31pm.
Wow. I feel like I've been taken out of the real world and plopped into a dream. Everything here seems so surreal! I keep squinting and rubbing my eyes, thinking something about my surroundings will change.
Today, Real and I woke up at around 6:00am. I wrote all about our breakfast experience in my most recent blog. But after breakfast, we decided to go on a little adventure and explore our surroundings. We went south from our Hotel, which landed us in Tokyo Midtown. It's a sort of shopping mall, with an art gallery and such. The walk there was interesting. In select places on the sidewalk, everything smells like poop and fart. You can hear the subways from the vents on the ground. Even the pavement under our feet is different. The tiles are so much more beautiful then the boring grey in Canada... And they even have a textured side of the walk for people who are blind or partially sighted. It's funny- Every time I see something, and wonder what it is or what to do with it, someone always demonstrates the answer. Like at breakfast this morning, I observed people placing their hands and dishes in certain ways. As I was wondering what the heck these huge yellow bumps in the ground were for, someone wearing sunglasses and a pole was tapping on them and following along them.
As my uncle and I walked along, we stopped at a few gardens. Some of which were soooo beautiful, but were so simple, and sort of uncared for. We knew the residents probably thought it was nothing special. They were probably laughing at us as we took a million pictures of this tiny little garden.
I felt like a tourist all day, actually. Marlise was right. I do feel like a slob. And Uncle Real was right, too- I better get used to it. I wondered where I could find clothes like what these women were wearing.
At 2:00pm, we met a woman named Michiko. I hope that's how you spell it. Her husband, Saburo, is my Grandma's cousin. So that makes him my mom and uncle's second cousin. Michiko took us to Shibuya (that's what the picture is) and to dinner. We walked all throughout these shopping places, and I soon found out where all these nice clothes were coming from. It was amazing. It felt a lot like New York mixed with Toronto mixed with a whole hell of a lot of Asian... My Kokolowali count was at 45 by the time we got here. Right outside the station, I saw Hatchiko. If you don't know his story, please take the time to search it. It's a beautiful, touching story of a dog's loyalty to his owner. The sign on the statue read, "Faithful dog, Hatchiko" in Kanji. We took a picture with him, and were on our way.
During our outing with Michiko, I learned so much about Japan and it's culture. And it's only been one day! She taught me all about Kanji, etiquette, shopping, and so much more! One thing that I thought was particularly interesting was that at meal, when someone sticks a pair of chopsticks right in the middle of a bowl of rice, it means that they are offering that food to someone who may have passed away. They are offering it to a spirit or a soul. Isn't that cool? Man, I love this place already.
I also learned a few things about Michiko herself, actually. I learned that she had a single mastectomy about 13 years ago. She did not undergo chemotherapy, but apparently it took a large toll on her and her family. She says she still isn't the same after her experience. I thought this was all too weird, since my mom is going through that whole thing right now. And to make things even more weird, we walked past a Breast Cancer Centre on our walk towards dinner. It had a pink sign with the pink ribbon and everything! Michiko didn't even know what it was! If that's not a sign, then I don't know what is. Hope you're feeling okay, Mama! I love you and miss you!
Anyways, after seeing the absolute craziness of Shibuya, we walked FOREVER to get to dinner. Oh, that reminds me. In the picture, there's a place that says "FOEEVER 21." That's supposed to be Forever 21." Hahaha I thought that was cute that they misspelled it.
So we met up with Saburo, Michiko's husband, and had a really long conversation about our trip. Real and him sorted things out while Michiko and I talked a little more about interesting things in Japan. With each moment, I get more and more excited for this trip.
I did a lot better at dinner than I did at breakfast, thankfully. I ate Tempura, deep fried chicken (I think) and rice. Oh and chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. Best vanilla ice cream I've ever had!
So we walked back to our Hotel, said our goobyes, and now I'm back in my bed. Apparently we're going to the fish market tomorrow. Aaaaand apparently we have to be there at 4:00am to even get in. So I better get going! Until tomorrow!
Love always,
Lindsay Lehr