There and Back Again: District Hopping On My 3-Day Weekend

Wow, I am wiped out from this weekend's exploration adventures. Seriously, I am exhausted to the point where I feel it every fiber of my feet and legs. I may have outdone myself finally (wouldn't that be a surprise). Anyway, let me stop complaining and elaborating on my current condition and instead discuss how I ended up collapsed on my bed alternating between watching Battlestar Galactica on my mac and the Japanese version of Disney's Aladdin on my T.V.

Saturday, I woke up and decided I wanted to spend the day park hopping as well as exploring the district where all the government building are located. Thus, my first stop was to be Koshikawa Korakuen Garden, located near the Korakuen stop on the subway. Korakuen is where the city hall is for my district, so it's a hub of activity and fun.

It is also where the Tokyo Dome City is located. The Tokyo Dome is like the Staples Center; lots of concerts and events are held there. And the surrounding mall is fun to browse. There are tons of restaurants and shops to choose from. Before heading to the gardens, I spent a fair amount of time just walking around the mall area, getting acquainted with the layout and the types of shops and restaurants it has to offer. Since it's not far from my apartment, I plan to come back more, especially since Wednesday night is "Ladies Night", meaning restaurants have special discounts for women and even some shops have different prices on Wednesday nights on their goods. There's also an outdoor portion to the mall area, which is nice considering the weather is nice enough sometimes where you just want to sit outside rather than be inside. Anyway, it will definitely be a place I will return to in the future.

After walking around the Tokyo Dome City Area, I headed down the major street towards the garden.

I had heard a lot about Koshikawa Korakuen Garden, so I expected that the admission fee of 300 yen would be worth my while. I'm happy to report that it was. This garden is absolutely beautiful and very large. I spent a good hour just wandering the grounds. It's amazing how these Gardens sit in the middle of such urban areas. I swear, you go in and it's like you've been transported to another world. Save for the occasional skyscraper you'll view on the skyline over the trees, it really feels like you're out in the country-side. That is something I've definitely noticed over and over again with Japanese gardens and parks; the care and maintenance that is put into them is illustrative of the desire to escape the mundane, urban existence and briefly transport their minds somewhere else. Anyway, the garden was fabulous and I would recommend it for a visit by all, travelers and natives alike.

During my stroll through the garden, my camera indicated it was only at 25% power. I had forgotten to charge it after my adventure in Kamakura. As a result, I didn't want to go anywhere too scenic for fear my camera would give out at the beginning and then I would not be able to visually record my journey. So, with my camera dying combined with the intense heat, I decided I would actually head home for a bit, charge my camera, and then come back out in the later afternoon. I decided though not to walk home the same way I had arrived (I had walked to the Korakuen area from my apartment). Instead, I consulted one of the large tourist map directories in the area and discovered that the stop I head to for work was just down the road. Therefore, I could follow the subway stops from there and head home in that direction. And I would learn how to walk home from my job. And I didn't think it would be that far considering it was only two stops down the subway line from my apartment.

Well...I was wrong. I ended up getting lost. Lost tragically. Essentially, I had been walking parallel to the major highway and somehow, after reading one of the tourist maps, I convinced myself I needed to walk in the back alleys and residential parts of the district I was currently passing through. This was actually all due to my fear that I had originally read the map wrong and was walking away from my destination. Of course, that was incorrect. I was correct originally, the distance was just longer than I had imagined. So I came back from the random residential area alleys, walked back onto the main road, and ended up running into the one stop away from mine. After a bit more walking, I eventually made it back to my apartment, tired, sweaty, and happy that I would have a little bit of a break.

At about 2:30 (an hour and a half later), I headed back out, deciding to walk from my apartment to Ueno Park (two districts over). In the heat of the afternoon, I set of down the main street my apartment is located on, as it is a straight shot to the Park. On the way though, I stumbled on Rikugi-en Garden.

I enjoyed walking around this garden as well. It was a nice distraction from being in the hot blazing sun for a while. It was also a pretty setting for an afternoon stroll. Another place I would definitely recommend to visit, as it has its own lakes and canopied areas. I didn't stay to long though, knowing I had a far ways to go on my journey to Ueno Park. How far I walked, I do not know. I just kept on a straight path down Shinobazi-dori, figuring I would get there eventually. And I did. I rolled in to Ueno Park, a side entrance (I tend to do that when I'm exploring, always coming from the side, never the front) at around 5:00, just when all the museums were closing. Now, Ueno Park isn't exactly a park per say. It's more like an area with lots of greenery but with museums and other types of attractions scattered throughout the area. My main purpose today was just to get a feel for the layout rather than to go Museum Hopping. I also didn't know what museums were there, so I wanted to scope out and see if there were any museums I did want to visit.

I did go to visit one of the temples in the Ueno Park grounds, but was sorely disappointed when I arrived. If you look closely at the picture, you can see that the picture of the Temple is actually a backdrop behind the gate. Apparently, it is under renovation. However, there's no sign anywhere saying that (at least no sign I could see, even in Japanese, but maybe I just missed it). There is also a five story Pagoda on the grounds, but I couldn't find a way to get close to it at all; I ended up taking a mediocre picture of it as there were many trees blocking the fenced off structure. To exhausted from the walk to Ueno, I decided to take the train back to Ikebukuro and then walk home from there. I was so relieved by the time I got home, as it meant the end of journeying for the day. All in all though, I believe it was a rather productive day.

Sunday was rather low key. I ended up staying in most of the day and working on my translation (as I had put that off for a bit). I felt like I could make massive strides considering the fortunate timing of the three day weekend. And to some extent I did. But around 5pm, I was slated to meet with the Director of the SCTI program to discuss the translation a little bit and just to see how I was doing. I enjoyed the conversation but by the time I got home, I was exhausted again, still recovering from the day before.

Today was an intense day of exploring as well. I wasn't entirely sure of where to go when I woke this morning as there were tons of things to see, but not to many concentrated in one place only. Before I set out, I charted a path for me to follow, and made a list of things that I wanted to see in each district. I felt that having some direction would be beneficial, but not to much so that I could be flexible and allow for time to just wander or see things that just caught my eye. So, I got on the subway around 10:15 and headed for the Ginza district.

The Ginza district is known for the amount of high end, department stores that line its streets. You'll see Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Chanel, Armani, and Wado to name a few. There will also be names that are more common like Forever 21 and H&M. There's even an Abercrombie & Fitch (it was funny, as I was walking up one of the main streets, my nose was suddenly accosted by a wave of cologne -- I assume it was Axe -- and only moments later I walked by the store and its two male models standing at the doorways, ushering in potential customers and flirting with cute girls that walked by, in English I might add). However, while most of the goods here are too expensive for the stipend of a college student interning in a country whose economy is still in recession (which begs the question...how are all of these high end stores surviving? WHO is buying expensive watches from Rolex and designer bags from Louis Vuitton?), the area is actually gorgeous. I strolled the district with Matcha Frappucdino in hand (I stopped at Starbucks since I hadn't had breakfast), unable to take my eyes off of the glistening window displays and the sleek architecture. I did stop at the Sony building, which was premiering an aquarium exhibit only on display for the next few months. I also stopped at the movie theater to see what was playing, avoiding the lines to see Inception and the new Pokemon film (number 10? I've lost count...it's kind of like the number of sequels in the Land Before Time series).

Anyway, after an hour and half of strolling, I decided to head to my next destination, which was Roppongi, via Hibiya and whatever other districts lay between me and my destination. Along the way I encountered Hibiya Park, the Old Ministry of Justice Building, and Central Government Building 3 (architecturally terribly uninteresting...).

After about an hour or hour and a half (give or take, I wasn't really keeping an eye on the time just yet), I arrived in the Roppongi area. There wasn't exactly much more to see from Roppongi Hills. There was a small garden nearby, the TV Asahi building (which I went into and couldn't figure out if it was actually a broadcasting station or a gift shop), and Ark Hills (another ritzy cafe area with apartments, shops, and the Intercontinental Hotel in Tokyo). Ark Hills was fun to wander, as they had some rooftop gardens with great views.

After Roppongi, I had decided I wanted to head to Ebisu to see the Yebisu Garden Place, and...well let's not lie, to mainly check out the Yebisu Beer Museum. That stretch of walking was rather long, and a tad tedious as it took me through a quieter, residential area, that soon exploded into a more urban, lively patch of city when I reached the JR Ebisu station. After a bit of navigation and map reading, I pinpointed where the Museum was. The Museum is located within the Yebisu Garden Place, which is like inside/outside mall next to the Tokyo Dome. Beautifully constructed; the majority of the complex is made out of red brick, which gives it a Western feeling. However, I won't go into specifics about the design of the Garden Place. There are quite a few restaurants, shops (designer and non), a movie theater, the Museum of Photography, and most importantly (!) the Yebisu Beer Museum. That was my main objective in traveling to Ebisu today (BTW Ebisu and Yebisu are interchangable; but the JR station is Ebisu if you ever need to look it up on a map). So I arrived at the Museum, ready to go through the exhibit, when my ears were confounded by...jazz? Today apparently, the Museum was hosting a New Orleans Jazz Festival type event. So the gallery/museum part was closed off, but the tasting was still open (to my relief). Maneuvering through the crowds of older folks, I made my way to the counter and ordered the lighter of the two beers, sat, and enjoyed the jazz with my drink. It was a nice diversion for 30 minutes, but then I was on my way again, this time heading towards Shinjuku. However, I forgot to go to the Museum gift shop...so inevitably I must go again to pick up souvenirs!

The path to Shinjuku was far and long, as it took me through the backside of Shibuya and Harajuku. Both were super crowded today on the holiday, so I opted to just pass through instead of do my inclined wandering (it's not as though I'm leaving tomorrow--plenty of other chances). So after about an hour or so I reached Shinjuku. Here, my main purpose was to go to the sketchy part, the Kabukicho area of Shinjuku. It is the "red light district". Now, I would never venture down to this part of the city during the evening hours, as I just don't think that's safe, so I figured the only time I would be able to see the famed region that possibly crosses illegality, would be during the day time. I have to say, it must be more exciting in the nighttime as it ended up being rather boring and repetitive. There are only so many bars, and hostess clubs, girls bars, love hotels, and whatever these other establishments were (I don't try to guess at them) before your attention wanders. I'm sure in the evening with sparkling lights, everything looks so much more appealing. But it couldn't hold my attention for too long, so I headed back to the major streets and headed towards home, which ended up being an hour and a half away. By the time I made it back to my apartment, I did collapse. But it was a sight filled day and I got to see so many parts of the city!

It just makes me wish I could spend every day exploring instead of working... ;)