Day 20

We were up and out by 6. Late. We needed to be there at 6. It only takes 15 minutes to walk though. So we walked to Sensoji temple.

As we got closer we saw more and more men walking around wearing what looked like a short yukata that stopped at the thigh. Then a few women too. The men wore a headband and the women a kind of material tiara. It's a little strange seeing people walking around a city without trousers on in the morning. But at 6am everything seems a little strange to me.

We arrived at the outskirts of the temple grounds and large fences had been erected around which stood spectators looking upon the start of the Sanja Matsuri. The Sanja Matsuri is a festival where various groups of people collaboratively, and competitively, dance portable shrines (mikoshi) around town. Through the gaps I could see one of the mikoshi being carried and bounced along. We relocated to another spot and waited for a long time until the shrines finally marched past. It was a bit of mayhem very early in the morning and I couldn't really appreciate it.

This weekend is trouserless weekend!

Afer a few hours we gave up. We went looking for some breakfast and tried a few izakayas that were serving breakfast to Sanja Matsuri participants, but we were denied entry being told that they were 'closed' or 'had no english menu'. I'm extremely skeptical about their excuses.

So we got some breakfast at a ramen shop, though I had Japanese curry rice, and then crashed back at the hostel to recover some lost sleep. A few hours later we went souvenir shopping around okamachi, but the details of that trip are top secret! mochiron desu ne!

A little later we rejoined the celebrations. The mikoshis were being marched down the main roads and Japanese traditional music was audible from far away. Some kid's mikoshis were also being carried.

The mikoshi a little closer

Food stands lined the sides of the roads. I love fesitval food! takoyaki, yakitori, fresh fruit, bananas coated in flavoured sugary crusts, even a special festival version of okonomiyaki. Of course I sampled as much of these as I could manage. There was also a really nice bread, a bit like naan or roti canai, but with honey inside. Wonderful!

Sugar coated bananas

Just outside one of the main festival areas I was looking for a dustbin to rid myself of watermelon skin. As I walked I saw ahead a woman striding purposefully away from a man dressed in mikoshi-carrying gear. As she walked he kept obstructing her and she would find a new route, or try to shove him out of the way. It seemed to be a rather public lovers spat, that passers-by kept their distance from. They turned down a side aisle when I found a dustbin. I discarded the melon but stayed put, staring at the two. I wanted to be nearby if the shoving and yelling escalated, and the couple were too wrapped up in their own business to notice a tourist watching them from the sidelines. I looked around for someone in a uniform. Nothing. Passers by continued to actively ignore the couple, as they do in every city I've visited. It occured to me that calling a policeman over might not actually be helpful depending on the nature of the fight. After a while they seemed to be a little calmer so I moved on, content that the situation would resolve itself.

Inside the main Sensoji temple grounds there were all sorts of foods being offered. Like ice cream in almost any possible flavour

I chose plum!

A bit later we got shattered again and decided to head back to the hostel. On the way back I stopped to get out some money. Even more than in England, signs and voices constantly nanny you in an effort to make sure that you fall in line. When using an ATM to withdraw some money you are told exactly what to do at all times, in English if you like. I wasn't really paying attention but when I was nearly done I was vaguely aware of hearing "...you have completed your transaction. Please take care not to leave anything behind." So I took the money from the machine before removing my card. The voice immediately retorted "you have left something behind!!!!".

After another short break we decided to go check out the Tokyo Tower! We got off the train at Tokyo station (obviously!) and headed west. The more I look at large objects in the distance the more i realise how pathetic the human visual processing system is. Besides the various ways you can trick it with flashing lights and simple colour illusions, I found looking at the Tokyo Tower from about a mile away rather misleading.

Looking at the 333m tall Tokyo tower (a full twelve metres taller than the Eiffel tower, Take that frenchies!) from this distance I realise how blatantly the brain fails to appreciate relative scale and distance of a large object. I simply have no conception of how big it is going to be when I stand next to it. Will it be enormous like the Petronas towers, or will it be kind of big like the tower that holds our Big Ben?

We walk past a large temple, almost as big as sensoji, and are gifted with a hint of incense once more. It always smells better in the evenings. By now I can see that the Tokyo Tower is no Big Ben. An enormous metal rigging like an offshore platform, the red and white spike looks like an industrial facility and seems to clash with the otherwise glass and concrete landscape of commerce which surrounds it. At the foot of the building, I cannot say that it seems bigger than the Umeda Sky Building, although it ought to since it stands at almost twice the height, but this building seems insubstantial compared to a rectangular skyscraper so its probably another optical illusion caused by tapering of the structure.

The glowing spike of DOOOOM (aka the Tokyo Tower)

The observatory has two decks, the standard (at 150m) and the special (at 250m) but you can only buy a ticket to the special level from the standard. We take a lift up, but little of the walls are glass and the ride feels nowhere near as special as the Umeda Sky Building where we took a glass lift up and then an escalator through a glass tube. The standard observatory was noisy but not loud and, as it is a completely sealed capsule, my first reaction was to note with disappointment that the air is still. No breeze ruffles my hair, and I feel a total and complete isolation from the scene outside the window. It is as if looking at a computer monitor and noting that the graphics are rather impressive. This place does not move me. It's too dark by now to see Fujisan (assuming it was clear enough in the day), but the urban cityscape blinks on, indifferent. In the near distance cars parade the square around us, but trying to look farther is futile as another tall building impedes the view. In fact at a height of 150m there was little sense of elevation above the rest of the city, at all. I almost felt as though I might just be on the top floor of a mall in Shinjuku.

Looking northeast the Tokyo Skytree blinks and flashes in the distance, with white rings travelling around the plane parallel to the ground. The Tokyo Skytree has been a constant presence in the background of the city during our time in Tokyo. Scheduled to open may 22 it serves as a visual metaphor of things left undone. Southeast, a suspension bridge shimmers along the length of its curve, and circular patterns whirl and change colour on a ferris wheel. Downtown the main streets light up like runways, but the steady drift of traffic seems oddly static and irrelevant. Southwest is less colourful. Only a horizon line of red dots break up the grey-black concrete and littering of yellow apartment lights. Vertical stripes seem to stick out from the pack, like the bars of an equalizer.

On the observatory floor people chatter, take photos, buy junk from the gift store, and queue up for tickets to the special observatory. There is a slight note of excitement in the chatter, but no romance or serenity and I am too tired to get excited over a picture of concrete and steel. An intermittent jingle breaks through the chatter to inform the next guests that they may ascend to the special observatory, and consequently the place feels rather like a busy waiting room.

When our number was called we handed our tickets in at the entrance and were directed to an escalator. Ascending through a dark corridor out of the noise of the school children was bliss and felt a little like entering the VIP section of a club. The sensation was quickly dispelled when escalators turned into stairs at the top of which was a queue for an elevator.

When the elevator arrived it featured much more glass and the ride up seemed a bit more interesting. An announcement was made in a posh American English voice but Ed and I were chatting and not really listening until our attention was piqued by something unexpected: "... if you hear a cracking noise, that is the sound of a safety device operating normally and is nothing to worry about". I immediately worried. What if it we don't hear it, will we fall to our death? We heard a cracking noise. The elevator shuddered. Bloody Hell! now I was worried. This doesn't feel safe at all.

As it often is, however, the limbic system of my brain was wrong and we arrived safely (evidenced by your reading this blog). The doors opened and the chatter returned, though less excited, almost more sophisticated somehow, definitely less childlike. The special observatory was very small, perhaps only 20 metres in diameter, and around 40 people were in this space. The view was better, it's true, but going to high places just for the view makes no sense to me. The view should be a positive part of the overall experience. I also care about the smell, the sound, and the feel of the place.

It's a shame. I don't know if it was worth the visit here or not. If I lived in Osaka though, the odds that you'd be able to find me on the rooftop of the Umeda Sky Building on any given night are pretty good. Pretty good indeed.

Tomorrow morning there will be a solar eclipse visible from Tokyo! Unfortunately we have been unable to obtain any solar eclipse glasses. We'll probably still get up though and go to Ueno park. Then we'll be browsing Kappabashi for a bit before checking out Shibuya with Tatsuya! The last full day. It's very sad indeed.

If you're still reading, thank you for getting this far and putting up with all my opinionated nonsense. I hope it has been educational! As a reward, you may have some bonus photos. Also a bonus 'typical experience in Japan'. Douitashimashite!

Take care!


Photos:

Now that's the right attitude

The tagline says "A wonderful ring cake was ready. It is more delicious when eating in the family. Please spend wonderful time." Sage words indeed; we should all learn to spend a little more wonderful time.

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Typically Japanese Experience:
I sit down next to a stranger.
stranger:  "Hello", he smiles, "where are you from?".
me:  "England".
stranger:  "where?".
me: "U.K., England".
stranger: "Ah! England. Ahah, you are English Gentleman!".
me: "Yeah, I get that a lot... (in Tokyo)".