First order of business was getting to Kinkakuji.  Now, a more seasoned traveller might try and navigate the Kyoto City Bus system in a suitably skillful matter and avoid what we did, but I think it worked out simpler, if maybe a bit longer.

We took the JR Sagano line back to Kyoto station, bought two days worth of all-day bus passes, and got on the bus here for Kinkakuji.  It’s unfortunate that Kyoto isn’t as easy to navigate by rail as Tokyo.  The buses were usually crowded, took a long time to get to their destination, and you had to really, really, know what you were doing or you’d be headed in the wrong direction on the wrong bus.  The bus route map will tell you all you need to know, but it can be confusing if you don’t study it.

Anyway, the bus stop at Kinkakuji from Kyoto Station really doesn’t drop you off directly at the Temple.  You have to navigate a bit off the main street to get there.  Not far, but do your homework. (more on this later!)  Just follow the crowd, really.

Kinkakuji, or “The Golden Pavilion” is really a sight to see.  It is a bit underwhelming if you buy into the hype, though.  I mean, its just a gold covered building on the edge of a pond.  But its one of the “Yes, I have been there!” things you must do.  And it is pretty.

Aside: One thing that struck me about Kyoto was the obvious “touristy”-ness of pretty much everything.  Unlike some of the sites in Tokyo, everything here is just covered with fellow sightsee-ers.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  In/around Tokyo, it didn’t seem to be quite as crowded, or quite as, I dunno, blatant.  The parks, temples, etc., just aren’t as crowded, or have more people just doing what they do every day, going for their daily constitutional, hanging out for lunch, etc….  Anyway.

You enter the main “complex” and follow the hordes around a corner and bang, there it is.  There’s a little section to the left where you can get the best pictures across the pond, then you walk around the pond, and wind up behind the temple in a garden of sorts.  At the “end” there’s a (almost more interesting, architecture wise) area of shops and shrines.  I picked up a box of incense here, and my daughter got hooked on sakura-flavor mochi!  The whole thing really doesn’t take very long to go through, and we took our time!

Once back out at the entrance, it was on to Ryoanji, home of the famous Zen rock garden.  Now, I had read (in numerous sources) that if you just walk down the street from here you will wind up at Ryoanji, just stick to “the wall” and you can’t miss it.

Wrong.

We wound up back in a residential area, in a little “nook” in the hills by a university instead.  We could see that we were on the back side of the Kinkakuji complex.  And that wasn’t right.  There weren’t any regular bus stops here, either.  Eventually we gave up trying to get our bearings (there was nobody around to ask either) and retraced our steps to the last major bus stop we found.

Success! On the bus to Ryoanji! On the way, we passed by an absolutely huge and ancient looking temple gate.  Unfortunately the name escapes me right now.  I get the feeling that you’d have to spend a month here to really get a good and proper look at everything.

Ryoanji, like Kinkakuji, is also somewhat underwhelming.  I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just not what you expect.  I think the crowds of people literally hanging out on the edge of the famous rock garden was a downer.  There were at least three or four rows of people just sitting there, taking it in, I suppose.  But it kind of ruins the effect, if you know what I mean.  The remainder of the building is quite nice, and also the moss garden and pond.  This one would have been really impressive in a couple more weeks, as it was almost exclusively bordered in cherry trees.

Mission accomplished, it turned out to be much later than we would have liked, so it was on back to Kyoto station.  And this is where it really got fun.

At the bus stop we hopped the bus marked “Kyoto Station.”  Ah, but not so, really.  Turns out this one went all the way to the other end of the route, where you had to get off at the depot, and board another bus for Kyoto Station.  That entire trip probably took a good hour at least, but we got to see some of the city from the bus window…..

Back at Kyoto Station, we decided we’d head up the massive stairs (taking the escalator of course) of the Isetan wing, to the food floors for dinner.  Yum!

We opted for a a pseudo-Teppanyaki place, where we enjoyed some Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki and yakisoba….  then it was a quick train ride home.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rippc/sets/72157626168000515/

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Man, I’m ashamed I left this sit for so long.  Aaaanyywaaay.

Got up that morning bright and early wanting to take in the sights of the Saga-Arashiyama area.  We planned to stick around the immediate area, just to get our bearings and not get ourselves overwhelmed our first day here.  Good idea it turns out!

The sun was shining, a bit cloudy, but otherwise decent.  Great! We headed west towards the “main street” near Tenryuji (I forget what its called and I’m too lazy to look it up ATM!)….  We did a cursory look at a few shops on the north end of this street, and bookmarked this in our minds to come back here later and check out the rest.  Right now, we were headed for the Sagano bamboo groves.

It’s a pretty impressive sight, if you’ve never seen a “bamboo forest” before.  It started getting a bit colder, and cloudier.  And then it started snowing.  Apparently the weather comes over the mountains in western Kyoto without warning.  Awesome.  We hightailed it through to the back of the forest, and entered Tenryuji through the back gate.

Tenryuji is…

the head temple of the Tenryū branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism, located in Susukinobaba-chō, Ukyō Ward, Kyoto, Japan. The temple was founded by Ashikaga Takauji in 1339, primarily to venerate Gautama Buddha, and its first chief priest was Musō Soseki. Construction was completed in 1345. As a temple related to both the Ashikaga family and Emperor Go-Daigo, the temple is held in high esteem, and is ranked number one among Kyoto’s so-called Five Mountains. In 1994, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the “Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto“.

(source… Wikipedia)

And it really is an impressive garden.  The plums were just coming into bloom, and you could barely see the buds starting on the Sakura.  The snow started switching back and forth to a light rain, but we toughed it out for a while.

You can opt to go inside and look around, but all of the doors were open and you could see pretty much everything from the grounds below.  The only thing we missed was the dragon painting inside….

The weather cleared up a bit again, so we started back down the main “drag” again.  Then bam.  Snow. Lots of thick, heavy, wet snow.  Ducked inside a couple of shops hoping it would quickly pass, but no luck.

A quick run back to the house and we were done for the day.  It was about noon, and the snow kept coming.  The initial plan was to head over the river to the Iwatayama Monkey Park in the afternoon, but we decided that would probably not be a good idea with the weather, the trails would likely be mud, and none of us felt like slipping and sliding our way to the top….

So we chilled out (quite literally) for the rest of the day, until the snow stopped later that afternoon.  By that time we figured we’d just call it a day and get some more rest for tomorrow, which would be Kinkakuji and Ryoanji, and then we’d see what we felt like.

Of course that evening we headed back over the to grocery for some more glorious ‘off the shelf’ food, and were not disappointed!

Here’s some more photos from Sagano and Tenryuji.

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1. Bound for Kyoto

Our last morning in Tokyo.  We decided last night that we’d take an alternate route to find breakfast this morning, so we headed south, underneath the expressway to (wait for it) Denny’s.  Yes, that bastion of grand slams, cops n coffee, and truckers back home exists here.  And you know what?  It was actually pretty good.  Of course I was the only one who opted for the Japanese-style breakfast while the rest (hmph) chose french toast and eggs and crap (/sarcasm.)  Grilled salmon, rice, and thankfully the kind waitress let me substitute a tofu salad for the natto that was in the picture on the menu.  (“Natto desuka?” “Hai.” “*laughing* N!  Natto wa tabetakunai!” “*she laughed knowingly*”)

That accomplished, there was nothing left to do but go back “home”, take in the view one last time, make sure we got everything, check that everything was switched off, and with a certain amount of dread in our hearts, head back to the train station.  We would have to take the Yamanote again, this time to Shinagawa.  And we had the smaller bags in tow.  We let that big steel door clang shut one last time and headed back up the hill to Shibuya station.

Thankfully, the schedule was approaching normality, and it wasn’t nearly as packed as it was two days ago.  It was still busy, but man, we let out a big sigh when we got on that train and could actually breathe.

At Shinagawa, we found the Shinkansen platform and camped out there with the rest of the crowd until the train arrived.  We took turns going upstairs to pick up some munchies for the ride, and I grabbed a tonkatsu bento, some green tea kitkats and a Kirin. Got to love a country where you can grab a beer to take on the train.

Now, from everything I’d read and researched prior, for a weekday, in the middle of the day, it seemed really crowded.  There were a lot of moms with small children donning masks, all toting smaller luggage.  When the train arrived and we got on, it was clear that we weren’t the only ones leaving town.  The thing was packed.  I guess there was at least some truth to the stories that people were “fleeing” Tokyo in a panicked horde!!  Well, maybe not a panicked horde, and maybe the masks were for the usual allergy symptoms this time of year, but it was a departure from what I’d consider the norm.

We were on one of the Hikari railstar trains.  Think a 5-across airplane, only with wider seats and (much) more legroom, and you’d be right on the money.  The train doesn’t stop for very long, so when it pulls up at the platform, you’d better have your s–t in order.  Get on, stow your gear on the rack above (or in front of you) and sit down, because in a couple of minutes you’re moving again.

When that train quietly pulled away we all took a big sigh.  It was time to start over, as it were.  Try and forget that we’d just been (at least in a small way) part of a historic disaster, if we could.  It didn’t take long to realize that we were going fast (MAMA I’M GOING FAST!), really fast.  About 150mph fast.  Not bad.

I was surprised though at the number and length of the tunnels that we passed through.  I suppose I should have expected it, given the terrain we were traversing.  We’d go through deep valleys with tiny towns splashed on the hillside (how you could get a car around in some of them I’ll never know) into a tunnel, and repeat.

When we emerged from one somewhere in the middle of Kanagawa, though, there was Mt. Fuji in its snow covered glory.  The closest I’d ever been (previously was at Hakone) and it was a clear day.  Taking pictures of anything moving at 150mph is a tricky proposition.  For every one photo I kept I probably deleted two because a pole or building popped up in the way, blurring things unrecognizably.

When we got closer to Kyoto, it had started to rain, and the clouds were balling up over the tops of the mountains.  More rain, and then suddenly.  We were at Kyoto station.

This is probably not the last time I will say this, but Kyoto station is a massive, massive complex.  I perceived it to be bigger, at least physically, than any station I’d seen in Tokyo, including Tokyo station and even Shinjuku.  It also has a decidely different feel to the place than any station in Tokyo, which, at least to me, all have a similar aura to them. I have better pics of Kyoto Station for a later post.

The worst part, was that the line we wanted to get to (the Sagano) wasn’t really clearly marked.  So we wound up having to ask if we were heading in the right direction.  Yeah, we were.  Walk walk walk.  I’d even put Kyoto station up against some airports I’ve been in.

Then we got to the platform we wanted.  Again, full of people! No! Fortunately the Sagano terminates at Kyoto, so the train empties, and you’re able to jump right on and grab a seat.  UNfortunately, it was right about rush hour, and everyone else was heading out of town back to their homes.  Ah well.

I will say that having the rail pass here (and for the remainder of the trip) was a big help.  The alternative was to purchase the Kansai Surutto card or some other equivalent, or get separate tickets every single day.  All you have to do with your rail pass is show them to a person at the ticket gate and on you go.

When we finally arrived at Saga Arashiyama station it was nearing dark, and still slightly raining.  So we hightailed it to our home-away-from-home here in Kyoto, found it, and got acquainted with the place.

The Arashiyama Hanare is where we called home for this leg.  It’s basically a 3-room (5 if you count the toilet and bath area) home behind the owner’s main home.  Shoji doors, Tatami floors in two rooms, and the kitchen is a very old school stone floor, with an equally stone sink.  In typical anachronistic Japanese fashion, though, also outfitted with one of those new magnetic conduction cooktops and a microwave.  If you’re a party of 3 people (or 2 with 2 small kids) definitely look into booking this one.  If it has a fault its that its almost too quiet, you’re afraid to make too much noise and disturb the neighbors.  I’ll see about doing a separate post on the place, with photos….

The grocery store down the street and around the corner was our next stop, since we had to eat.  This place was great, lots of pre-made sushi and other awesome foods, along with the usual grocery fare, and a big carton of sake (which I never finished!)  I wish I’d taken photos but I didn’t want to, you know, be that guy.  When in Rome and all.

Then it was time to peruse the maps, and figure out what we would do tomorrow.  Oh, tomorrow.

Oh, and it got plenty cold!  Paper and wood do not insulate very well!  Just so you know!  Not that I was complaining, nestled up in my futon on that tatami….

Next: First Day in Kyoto! Tenryuji, Sagano, and SNOW!

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So.

Our last full day in Tokyo.  The train situation towards Kamakura/Enoshima is still FUBAR.  Can’t get there, can’t get around if we did get there.  Getting back is not a constant….  I guess that is right out.  CRAP.  Not only that, but the non-zero probability of another major earthquake followed by a tsunami loomed over us like, well, a giant monster.  The last thing I want to do is be on the coast should something like that happen again.  It sounds foolish now, but there were still “advisories” for the area up until the day before.  Even if we could get there, would it be worth the chance?

I’d so wanted to go back to Enoshima and have a proper look around the place.  On our last trip we’d gotten there, went to Kamakura, went back a bit late, and then everything closed up on us.  It was 95 degrees and we were miserable and our feet were killing us.  This time was supposed to be different.  I guess its that “last day” curse that our spring break trips seem to be developing.  Last year on our way back from Arizona we almost got stuck in a blizzard in Colorado and were then stranded two days in the Oklahoma panhandle before we could get home.  Now we’re basically stranded here.  (I really need to update that site!)

So what else can we do?  After yesterday we are extremely gunshy about trying to just jump on the local trains and see what we can find.  That was the alternate plan.  None of us felt like being squished like yesterday again.  Ever.

We never made it back to Ueno, either.  The museum and zoo were still closed.  They were closed on Monday, just because they’re closed every Monday, but they were still picking up the pieces there and inspecting everything.  Yeah we could go just for the park, but the trains, THE TRAINS.

Shinjuku?  What’s the point, really?  None of the things to see are going to be really see-able at this point.  And I definitely didn’t want to be stuck on the top floor of the TMG building (also on the list) should another major quake hit.  Let alone try and deal with Shinjuku station, if yesterday’s experience on the platform was any indication.

In hindsight, we should have just sucked it up and went back to Harajuku and Meiji shrine.  But for some reason it didn’t even cross our radar screen, and having the rest of our plans dashed we just didn’t feel like it.  One of those “DUH!” moments after the fact.  We almost could have walked there.

The first order of business, though, was to get back to Shibuya station and get our rail passes and shinkansen tickets.  Here’s a tip that would have helped us out.  There are basically TWO JR stations at Shibuya.  There is the famous Hachiko entrance, which is where we were trying to find stuff last night.  Then there is the larger, “central” entrance.  Which, of course, is where we needed to be.  Once we figured that out, and where it was…  the rail pass exchange counter (right there in the middle of the place) hadn’t yet opened.  Another big sigh.  There were at least three different times listed for when it opened, depending on where you read, so I picked the earliest one.  Wait around, finally get that accomplished, and then its off to another place entirely (figures) to get tickets.  Why they couldn’t all be in the same place is a mystery.

I’d written down the exact train number, times, start and end point, and how many tickets so that if needed I could just show the guy at the counter and grunt like the filthy gaijin I am.  Luckily, I was actually able to communicate well enough to get the tickets.  Judging by the big red X’s on the screen for today’s trains in the ticket office, though, it looked like everyone else had the same idea:  Get out of Tokyo.  I’m not sure if it was normally that way or not.  It just was the first thing that came to mind.

Tickets in hand, we decided that, dammit, we were going to get some sushi before we left Tokyo.  The original plan (ha!) was to go to Himawari in Shinjuku while we just happened to be there.  Nope.  Ah well, Mark City didn’t fail us again and we got some fair sushi, in canned (not literally of course) “sets”….  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the same as sitting around that counter getting all the really odd (and good) stuff.  We did pass a couple of shops on our way over, but they didn’t seem particularly appealing….

That accomplished, we had to line up to get our bags sent on to Kyoto.  Now, from everything you read, this is a really, really simple thing, right?  Find a place with the black cat on a yellow field flag, and get them sent off?  Not quite so simple.

After finding one of these places (we’d actually found it the day before) I went in to try and take care of things.  What happened next was the strangest conversation of half-english, half-japanese, miscommunications I’d been in yet.  Fortunately, we finally got to the point where we understood that they’d actually come around to collect the bags, and she called the driver, who happened to walk in the door almost immediately.  Whew. BUT they couldn’t guarantee that they’d make it there the next day, due to all this earthquake fiasco.  GASP.  (Just kidding)  Fair enough, but it was still a big shock, since Kuroneko and other services like it are renowned for having your junk there when its supposed to be there.

They’d be there in an hour to pick them up.  Crap!  We hadn’t packed yet!!   I’d been operating under the assumption that we’d take the bags *there* and that would be that!  So back to the apartment to quickly pack up the big bags, keep what we needed in our “carryons” (for TWO days, mind you, just in case) and not mess anything up.

Bags picked up, the only thing left to do was wait out the evening.  Dinner was a quick run to the grocery store and finish off what remaining food we hadn’t eaten yet….

The only two photos from that day worth publishing you see linked in this post.  Our shinkansen tickets, and an odd building that was being constructed around that was visible from inside Mark City.  It struck me really odd that this architectural relic still remained amongst all the steel, concrete, and neon.  I don’t know for sure, but it looked like it may have dated to pre-war days, which I suppose merits its saving in some respect.

Tomorrow we would leave Tokyo for Kyoto, and hopefully bring a much needed “do over” to this trip.  As much as I love this city, I was glad we were leaving.  There was just too much uncertainty and too much hassle at this point.  Yes, I will be back here someday.  Probably not very soon, though.  At least not until things return to normal.  If that’s even possible after what’s happened.

Oh, and no map today.

Next: Bound for Kyoto

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Yeah, the Shonan Shinjuku line to Kamakura and/or Ofuna isn’t running again today. AND the Enoden wasn’t running. Return trip to Enoshima was ruled out for today. There’s always tomorrow, right?

It was time to get on the Yamanote line for Hamamatsucho station.  I read it was running, mostly.  The amount of people outside the station and around the intersection seemed fairly normal for a weekday about 10am.  No problem, right? Right?

We get to the platform.  If my jaw hitting the floor could make a sound, it would have made it.  There was barely room to squeeze by all the people waiting on the green-striped trains.  One pulled up to the platform, packed, and I mean packed.  All those pictures you see of the platform workers pushing people into the doors?  Yeah, they were doing it.

A quick conversation went something like this.  “Are we sure we want to do this?” “Well, we’re here, and the trains are at least running…. so… yeah, I guess.”

Usually walking to the end of the platform away from the stairs proves to get you into a car with slightly less people on it, but not today.  The line to get on wasn’t nearly as bad, but once we got on, it was sardine-central.  I really felt bad for the kids at this point, since all they could see was the back of the person directly (and I mean directly) in front of them.  We all turned into theoretical particles, as new people would get on, people would get off, and eventually we got more-or-less shoved into a seat.  I guess that’s something.

Watching the normal crowd deal with this was interesting.  You could tell most of them were more than slightly annoyed by this, but they knew there was nothing at all they could do about it.  Most of them were dressed for work, and were obviously late, and annoyed by that as well.  All we could do was hang on to the kids and shrug and smile… at least we don’t have to deal with this on a daily basis.  But they can say they got to experience rush hour on the Yamanote!  I would have gotten photos of this ordeal, but it was a challenge just to not run into people, let alone try and fish the camera out of its bag and shoot over the top of everyone.

For some reason the stops along the way were much longer than usual as well.  I guess since there weren’t as many trains running they could take their time and try to shove more people in.  But thankfully, we arrived at Hamamatsucho in one piece, if a little thinner, and maybe a little more claustrophobic.

First stop, Shibarikyu park.  Since we really didn’t get a chance to take in Hamarikyu the other day, we figured we’d take a leisurely stroll around this park.  If nothing else it’d be nice contrast to the last fifteen minutes on that train.  And we were not disappointed.

The plums here were in bloom as well, and we were basically the only ones there.  Another foreign family arrived shortly after we did, but took the alternate route around the park.  There were a couple of (probably) regulars there feeding the birds and such.

It’s a smallish park, even by Tokyo standards.  Hamarikyu and for sure Yoyogi and Shinjuku’s are much larger, but it works out well.  You could see the now-bent top of Tokyo Tower just over the buildings.  The shinkansen (I think) was running on the tracks adjacent, which was a very good sight to see.

Once we made the rounds there, it was time to cross the street to, where else, Pokemon Center Tokyo. For whatever reason, the kids are Pokemon junkies, so this was an absolute requirement on this trip.  We’d visited the last time, but we had to do it again.  They’d moved some stuff around inside, but it was essentially the same.  I was actually surprised that the kids didn’t try to come out of there with more.  We’d brought more stuff home last time!  But, we sort of mentioned that, yeah, the trains would probably be the same going home and you probably didn’t want to be carrying tons of stuff… and it all has to make it back home somehow…. I guess it sunk in.

So once complete, we took a deep breath, said “let’s do this” and headed back to the station.  Yeah, it was the same.  Maybe a little worse this time.  For being close to 3pm especially.  But what are you going to do, right?

Lunch/Dinner was at a Tonkatsu place in the Mark City mall.  There were still a lot of places that just weren’t open, and frankly we didn’t feel like futzing around trying to find something.  So there it is.  It wasn’t bad, really pretty good considering what passes for tonkatsu back home.

From there we took a walk around an alternate route home.  I’d hoped to catch a glimpse of one of the new “no glasses” 3D televisions from Toshiba, but guess what?  The electronics store had all of the TV’s, and pretty much everything else switched off to conserve electricity.  It was like, “hey! electronics store! lets go… check it… out…. (pause)  what? (pause, think) Oh, yeah.”  Kind of a letdown, but one of those things I hadn’t considered.

Later that evening, we trekked back to the station to try and find the counter to exchange our orders for our rail passes.  The only counter we found was closed, when it shouldn’t have been.  Of course if we’d been looking in the right place (big eyeroll) we would have found it.  But that’s a tale for tomorrow.

Next:  The Day of Nothing.

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First thing we did upon waking up on Sunday was to check the Keio rail company’s site for outages.  Thankfully, the lines we would need to get to Mt. Takao were running!

We’d been to Mt. Takao on our first trip, in the middle of July, and while it was one of the highlights of the trip, it was a hot, miserable day, made only slightly more bearable by the shade afforded by the trees along the path.

This time, it was the middle of March, and from the forecast the weather would be in our favor, both for the trek up the hill, and for dropping in on the Hiwatari Festival going on that same day.

A short trek up the road to Shinsen station, tickets bought, and we were on our way.  We had to transfer at Meidaimae station, which should be a no-brainer, but tourists be warned….  The Keio line isn’t as English-friendly as the JR line.  Most of the signs, route maps, and “next train” signs don’t display English at all, and quite frankly aren’t as straightforward as the JR signage.  So after we finally deciphered what train we needed.  It threw us for a bit of a loop as we discovered we needed to transfer one last time for the last leg.  Or did we? No.  We got off with everyone else and watched as the LED destination signs on the side of the train changed.  Sigh.  Luckily the next one was a few minutes along and it was back on the road so to speak.

Not surprisingly, the crowd I would have expected on what would have been a normal festival day was absent.  They either stayed home due to the uncertainty surrounding the earthquake or couldn’t make it due to line closures.  We walked down the main street of the tiny town of Takaosanguchi to where the festival would be.  They were just setting up, and it was roughly 11am, and it wasn’t set to start until 1pm.  Decisions, decisions.  Do we wait here for it to start or go ahead and go on up, probably missing most of the ceremony.

We opted to go ahead and go on up, since we weren’t sure what might happen if we hung around too late.  I’d brought a significant amount of cash with us, in case for some reason the trains quit running again, and we had to either get an expensive taxi or find a place to crash for the night…..

Predictably my wife and daughter opted to take the cable car up the hill, while Daniel and I walked up the (very very steep!) stairs to the chair lift.  We got a nice (but expensive) souvenir photo of us riding the chair, which I’ll have to scan and put up here.  At the bottom the Keio people were having some sort of promotion between them and the Suica people.  I bought a bottle of cold green tea with the Suica, and magically won a Keio branded washcloth.  Yay!

Even on the hill, there weren’t very many people, considering the events of the day.  Or maybe it was considering the events of two days ago, who knows.  Up here there was still snow on the ground in spots, reminding us of our Grand Canyon trip last year.

Of course, a visit to the Monkey Park was in order.  My daughter is a monkey freak and this was part of the bargain.  It gave me a chance to sit and take in the view at least while they watched the monkeys play in their large enclosure for a while.  They got to throw some food at them, aiming for the littlest one and hoping the bigger ones didn’t take it away from it.

Then it was on up the trail to the Buddhist temple complex.  Despite the uphill climb, and the couple of instances of (again) very steep stairs, it was a pleasant cakewalk compared to last time.  The foliage this time of year is very different.  The hydrangeas hadn’t even started leafing out yet, so there were a lot of “sticks” where last time there weren’t.  But there were plenty of other surprises, like the camelias and plums which were in bloom.  I was hoping that one day the camelia I planted would turn into one of these trees, instead of the small 1′ high bush it was now.

The temple was just as I’d remembered it.  Although the ornate painting on the outside of the higher-up building looked to be weathered considerably since last time.  Of course that’s part of the deal, knowing that it doesn’t last forever.  Transient and all that Buddhist stuff….

Time was getting on, and we didn’t feel like going up all the way to the top.  I had done that last time (quite accidentally), and quite frankly it was sort of a let down, with nothing but a couple of shops and a hazy viewpoint up there.

We also had our first run in with the kids vs. a proper Japanese old-style toilet.  Not to go into details but lets just say I was hoping the next time would go better.  I won’t go into details, but just the whole “I don’t really want to do this” thing could have been avoided.

We went back down near the cable car station, and decided we’d go up yet another narrow, steep set of stairs to the observatory restaurant.  A wonderful view, and the food wasn’t bad at all, even if the menu is quite limited.  We had some huge bowls of ramen (and a hot dog, sigh) while we rested up a bit.  Outside, the smoke from the fire at the ceremony below was starting to waft up the hill, and we could see it from the observatory, so we knew we’d missed at least that much.

Arriving at the bottom, the smell of the smoke was much stronger.  We found our way back to the clearing, just in time to watch as the lines of people removed their shoes and walked through the raked over ashes.  Judging from the video I saw of last years festival, the crowd was decidedly smaller.  Probably a third of last year.  We stood back and observed as things wound down.  I’ll have to get the (short) videos up here soon.

The objective of the festival and ceremony, as I understand it, (and please feel free to correct me, I may be full of it) is this:  Peace.  The monks build a giant pile of straw and grass, and attack it with various weapons (a sword, arrow, and axe if I recall), thus releasing the violence of this world upon or into it.  They then burn it, destroying it, and then spread the ashes around and tread upon it to complete their “victory” over it….

But how could we possibly come to a festival and NOT get some of the food.  We took home for dinner a container each of yakisoba, takoyaki, and okonomiyaki.  We’d missed most of the festival, but I think we came away with what we were after.  Not the food (so much) but a little slice of the experience anyway.  It was nice to see Takao in its springtime clothing as well.  Maybe next time we’ll hit closer to fall when the leaves are turning….

Back at the apartment it was time to relax after the amount of walking we did.  More importantly we had to figure out what we were going to do tomorrow.  The *plan* was to either get back to Enoshima, or do some train hopping around Tokyo itself….  If only it were that simple.  Tomorrow was Monday, you see….  well, I guess you’ll just have to keep reading….

Next: Sardines, Shibarikyu, and Pokemon!

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We slept in the next morning.  The jet lag was still affecting us, and combined with the excitement of last night….  it was required.  We woke up, and started gathering more information.  Trains not running, sights not open.  We were reading news reports and watching the TV coverage via the internet.

The wife and kids decided to go out and about and see what they could see.  I opted to stay behind, take a shower, and gather as much information as I could.  The situation wasn’t improving.  So, basically we futzed around the apt. for most of the day, surfing the internet for more information and watching the TV feed.

We decided to head over to the Mark City Mall adjacent to Shibuya station for dinner, since we’d previously recon’d some of the places therein.  The west pedestrian entrance is a pretty impressive display of chrome and bright blue transparent plastic….  Our choice for the evening:  Ginza Lion.  Since we really weren’t in the mood for trying to search for anything else, let alone anything that was open.

We arrived around 5pm.  Normally things would be busy at this time, but not today.  We were also warned that they would be closing early, since rumor had it that there would be a blackout tonight at 6pm.  WHAT?  This was news to us.  Great.  Awesome.  We’d made it just before “last order” time.  Our server was a student from someplace besides Japan, and spoke English with what sounded like a French accent.

We ordered up some of the grub.  Some grilled squid, mussels, fried octopus, some western-ish fare for the kids (of course), and a big mug of beer.  The service was surprisingly quick.  Maybe they were trying to get us in and out fast, I don’t know.  The food was pretty good, but we ate quickly so we could get back, make a stop at the store, and prepare ourselves for the blackout….

…which never came.  That figured.  By this point everyone had started closing up shop, and the trains still weren’t running, so the load on the grid was low enough that the blackout wasn’t required.

So, we washed some clothes, did some more information searching, and retired early, since we were (hopefully) headed out to Mt. Takao for a little hike up the hill and to see at least part of the Hiwatari (Fire Walking) Festival that was to be held.

Next: Day 4: Mt. Takao and the Hiwatari Festival.

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We decided at this point we needed to get to the nearest, and largest, station, which from here was Shinbashi.  A quick glance at the map near the exit of Hamarikyu Park sort of pointed the way.  So we headed out.

Along the way we found ourselves in front of a convenience store, and noticed the huge number of taxis amongst the gridlock.  And we noticed that we had a wifi signal we could use from our Wi2 300 subscription.

At this point, we weren’t really that concerned about getting “home.”  So I did a brief news check.  Hm.  Tsunamis.  Not good.  Not here.  Good.  Magnitude HOW BIG?!  Oh, *&%(%.  Yeah, this wasn’t going to be good.

Google maps on the iphone to the rescue.  We got ourselves oriented to the buildings around us, and started off towards the station.  We were headed in more or less the right direction, but the people were getting thicker on the streets.  Considerably.

Luckily for us, a pair of salarymen noticed us playing with our phones, getting our bearings and asked us where we were going.  They were also headed for Shinbashi, so we followed them.  They spoke fair English, and filled us in a little more with what they knew, which wasn’t much more than us.  We parted ways at the main outside of the station.

Nothing was running.  The trains were shut down.  Period.  The plaza full of people were gazing up at the giant screen, watching news of the fuel fire at Odaiba.  So I guess that’s where the smoke was from.   Then it started switching to the first video out of the Sendai area.  Wow.

The mood there in the plaza was almost tangible.  You could feel the uneasyness and uncertainty in the air.  If I had to relate it to anything, it would be this:  During the whole 9/11 affair, even in my small workplace there was a certain amount of disbelief and shock as we watched things unfold.  It felt kind of like that, only multiplied due to the number of people there.  They would stop, stare up at the screen for a few minutes, whip out their cell phones, make a short call, then rush off, presumably trying to figure out how they would get home.

The station PA was making announcements, and I could make out some of it.  It was all related to train lines not running.  We waited here until just after dark, and nothing changed.  The decision was made that we need to go find some dinner, so we did.

Wandering away from the station up the streets, the chaos became even more evident.  Lines of people probably a hundred yards long bordered the streets.  They were waiting at the taxi stops and bus stops along the way.  Even if we could get a bus or taxi, we’d have to endure that.  So we kept walking, and sat down in front of a shuttered shop to eat some of the snacks we’d acquired earlier.  Yeah, we got a few stares, but I really didn’t care now.  We weren’t finding anyplace to eat, and we finally decided we may as well keep going.

Finally we found an izakaya (魚八＆串八珍日比谷店) on up the way.  It wasn’t bad, and we stayed there for a while until they started ignoring us.  Which we took as our cue to go.  Not sure why, really, they weren’t that busy, and we weren’t there that long….  Didn’t matter.  At least we got some fish, pig and chicken parts in us.  It was fair, nothing to write home about (yet here I am) to be sure.  No English menu, but between my sketchy Japanese skills and our server’s sketchy english, we managed.

We headed back to Shinbashi station.  It was probably 7pm or so.  The crowd had thinned out considerably by this time.  Most everyone had given up on the trains and were either waiting on other transport or had started walking.  We briefly considered walking, but realized that it would take us hours even *if* we knew exactly how to get back.  Scrap that idea.  We would wait it out in the station.

So, we camped out near the Metro/Ginza line platform for a while.  Sitting on the steps leading down, we finally caught another signal for the Wi2, and were able to update everyone back home on our status, while we had the chance.  Our landlord Bruce had even sent us an e-mail to make sure we were fine.  (Thanks, Bruce!)

Waiting, waiting, and more waiting.  At least the station people were decent enough to let people back and forth through the ticket gates to use the bathrooms.  I think by now everyone recognized that we were all in the same boat.  Even though we did get several odd looks from people as they passed by the kids laying down on their coats, we definitely weren’t the only ones.

Then finally, some activity at the gates.  When the guy with the bullhorn shows up you know something is going to happen.  A few of the uniforms had several conversations, and then one of them waved his hand towards the trains.

There was no mad stampede.  Everyone was hurrying, yes, but there was no pushing, shoving, shouting, “I was before you” that I would expect to see if this had happened back home.  We got on the Ginza line car, and breathed a huge sigh of relief.  If we had made it this far, then we would be getting back tonight.

At least I wasn’t going to get back off of this train, I remember saying, at least not willingly.  It took probably another 30 minutes or so of waiting, but we finally started moving, and it even made a few stops before the line ended at Shibuya.

And the crossing at Shibuya….  What a difference 24 hours and a crisis like this makes.  Instead of blaring advertisements, the big screens there had the same fiery devastation as they had at Shinbashi.  There were almost no people outside at this point, and the ones that were out, were waiting on the lines of taxis and buses that were stacked up all the way back from the main bus station…..

We made it back home.  The gas was out, so no hot water tonight.  We didn’t care.  It was probably close to 10pm.  A stop at the grocery to get what food they had left (which wasn’t much, but not unusual) for the morning.  Everyone else crashed.  I stayed up and sent off a few more e-mails, tried to get more information on what just happened, and had an IM conversation with my sister in Indiana, while I finished off that $8 bottle of sake and what beer I had left.  I played the aftershock drinking game, before finally giving up about midnight.

And that, is how this foreigner survived the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011.  No real drama, no real story of great interest.  Just a lot of worry and waiting.

Next: The Day After

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(First off, this one is pretty long, so apologies in advance.  It’s a day none of us will likely forget!)

We were in the small clearing just off the docks at Hamarikyu Park, and just to the east of the plum trees.  An old tree that hadn’t yet leafed out was in the center of the clearing.  I think I was looking at the map of the park at this point, maybe walking around the clearing a bit.

Then it happened.

I should mention that we’d never felt an earthquake before.  Ever.  There was a strange feeling at my feet, like I was standing in small rowboat, and someone was pushing it slightly back and forth.  I can remember looking at the family and smiling, “earthquake!”  It started rocking more and more, and then stopped.  Wow! We’d just felt our first quake!  I regrouped with the family and we smiled and laughed a bit.  Another guy sitting on a nearby bench smiled and said, “jishin!”

Then it happened again.  This time it was different.  Instead of someone pushing the boat just a little it felt like they were pushing it back and forth about a foot at a time.  Not really fast, but probably about 1-2 times a second or so.  It was almost so bad you could barely stand up.  In fact, the kids sat down on the ground.

It was obvious that this one was much, much stronger.  The locals seemed to be getting a bit nervous, which was understandable.  It lasted probably a good minute or two, which seems much longer when you’re actually standing there.

Much like the previous smaller one, I remember marvelling at the silence.  Forget what you see on TV and in the movies.  There was no big rumble, nothing at all except the sound of the tree branches rustling.  (And after watching the video we took, the birds squawking. I will post it here later….)

It passed, and I happened to glance across the river, and caught sight of a black cloud of smoke billowing up.  (See pics)  Still having no yardstick to measure my experience by, I chalked it up to just a random quake-related accident, and it would be no big deal.

We made our way through the plum trees, and started to notice helicopters in the air.  Quite a few of them.  I assumed at that point that they were maybe medical birds or news helicopters heading towards the fire, or just back from.  Then I noticed they were circling around the skyscrapers just to the west of the park.  Maybe there was a hospital there, and they were landing on the roof, I had no idea.  Some sirens went off somewhere closer to the river.  Some sort of warning?

The field of yellow flowers was amazing to behold, and the huge plant at the center was certainly interesting.  It looked like a huge ancient aloe monster that would make Lovecraft proud.  Then it hit again.

Aftershock!  Not nearly as strong, or as long, as the big one, but the construction cranes atop a nearby building were definitely getting after it.

Closer to the west exit of the park, there was another.  At this point we noticed a news crew out and about.  I think they were the same people we’d seen earlier at Asakusa, what a coincidence.  Then we noticed the people pouring into the park from the adjacent buildings.  Quite a few of them were wearing helmets, and it was obvious that they were grouping and taking roll call.

One of the people manning the entrance to the park here spoke English, and asked us where we were from, and if we’d ever felt an earthquake before.  She remarked that even for here, this was quite strong, and that there was a tsunami warning out.  Sirens explained.

The helicopters were increasing in number now, and just circling around.  I did at one point see a military helicopter fly over (it was obvious) but I couldn’t tell who’s it was….

The plan was for us to spend time here at Hamarikyu, then make our way around to Hamamatsucho station and head “home” on the Yamanote.  We could see out the exit we were at that traffic on the freeways was at a stand still.  We made a decision to stop here and wait, and see if we could find out anymore information, or if nothing else, just see what happened.

We waited around for probably an hour or so to see what everyone else was doing.  I figured they had experience in this sort of thing, we didn’t.  So observation was best at this point.  But nobody was going back to work.  In fact, it looked like nobody was going anywhere.  A quick glance out of the exit showed that the traffic on the freeway hadn’t moved an inch.  Now I was starting to get worried.  We heard that the trains would likely be stopped now.  Uh oh.  That’s understandable really.  They’d have to inspect things to make sure no rails or power lines were damaged….  I figured, given that marvelous efficiency that things would be back up in no time.

Even so, it was time to find a station.  From where we were, the map showed that we needed to get to Shinbashi station.  No problem, right?

Wrong.

Next: Stranded in Tokyo.

PBS’s NOVA program had a special edition on the Earthquake.  You can view it online here…  NOVA | Japan’s Killer Quake

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The last time we were here, we’d planned on just jumping on one of the Suijobus river cruise boats out to Odaiba to end the day.  What we hadn’t counted on was everyone else having the same idea on a Saturday evening, in addition to the grand unveiling of the life-size Gundam statue that was also happening that same evening.  The result was that ALL of the boats down river had been sold out for the next few hours.  Rather than waiting it out, we retired for the day.

This time, though, we were able to do just that.  Although we didn’t go straight on to Odaiba (which in retrospect was a wise, wise choice) we opted to get off at Hamarikyu park instead, and take in some of the scenery there.  We bought our tickets, and waited at the dock.  Doh.  Wrong choice.

When they opened the gates to board, we discovered that we were on the wrong side of the fence, and had to go back through the building to actually get on the boat.  Oops.  At least we got to take a rest and enjoy the view of the Asahi building (yes I explained what the locals called it, the kids enjoyed that) and the Tokyo Sky Tree looming over everything.  It is a truly magnificent sight to see in person.  Photos don’t really do it justice, and we were still at least a half-mile away (I think)….  Next time it should be finished and we’ll have to go up to the observation deck…..

Since we weren’t going to Odaiba, we didn’t get to ride the famous Himiko “spaceship” boat.  Which is just as well, since you don’t get to be outside on that one.  The clouds were rolling in, and it was sprinkling on-and-off by the time we headed down river.  Not enough to keep us below decks, though.

The cruise down river is really a nice change of view.  There’s a recorded voice that describes each of the bridges you cross under, and the various skyscrapers are truly impressive to see from down on the water.

We approached the docks at Hamarikyu, and the rain had started to clear.  We could see the plum trees in bloom just above the docks, and were looking forward to spending the rest of the afternoon taking our time here….  At least that was the plan.  As we got off the boat, they handed us our tickets to the garden (included in the fare downriver.)

It was about 2:30pm local time.

Next: The Great East Japan Earthquake….

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