Family Visit: Downtown Tokyo

Tuesday was our last full day in Tokyo before our mini-holiday within a holiday to Kyoto. This was the day when we wanted to see the bright lights and big city that Japan has to offer.

During the day we visited my Gaba school in Omotesando, and because there weren't any lessons going on my family could come in and see the booth where I normally teach and meet some of my colleagues. I was a bit worried in case they couldn't come in but we got more than I expected!

After that, we walked up the road (it was lovely sunny day) to Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park and saw the largest wooden torii in Japan (and I guess the world).

Then we walked into Harajuku for lunch, and weirdness. We saw a few Harajuku Girls wandering round through the crowded backstreets. The one road which I think is the best is called Takeshita Doori, which goes from Harajuku Station back towards Omotesando. I took videos last time I visited.

Then we took the train to Shibuya to see the world's busiest pedestrian crossing. It was just before rush hour so it wasn't as impressive as I would have liked.



Shibuya station was very busy but we found our train and took the Yamanote line back past Harajuku and into Shinjuku, for rush hour!

Shinjuku is the world's busiest station (not the largest, that's in Sendai, north of Tokyo) and it has over 60 exits. It's ridiculous trying to find which exit you want but our destination, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (much easier to say in Japanese - 東京都庁 - Tokyotochou), is clearly signed.

We walked through the impressive Skyscraper District after taking a 'Moving Walk' down a looong dark passageway under the city. My family had fun "following the Yellow Brick Road", which was in fact the strips of studded pavement designed to help blind people navigate!

There was a huge queue for the lift up to the 45th floor Observation Deck, and I was really worried that it would be so crowded we wouldn't be able to get to any windows. The queue moved very quickly and when we actually got to the top it wasn't crowded at all! I'm sure the other lift must have taken the passengers to some sub-basement.

You can see pictures from my previous daytime visit here, but the following are twilight and night shots.

This time I could actually see Mt Fuji! Yay!
Shinjuku park in full sakura bloom.

The blue you can see dotted between the trees are the mats people use for hanami (blossom-viewing) parties. The Tokyo Park Hyatt.

Sorry about the glare on some of these shots, glass reflects!
Sprrrawwwll...


The Skyscraper District.

As the sun faded, artificial lights flickered and burst to life across the city.


Such bad reflection!
The Empire State Building and Tokyo Tower in the background.
Beautiful, beautiful city...

This video goes on for a bit but it gives a good impression of what it's like to be there.

We bought some souvenirs (surprisingly cheap for a touristy place), and my mum got a miniature sign of my local subway station for her mobile phone.

We were all quite tired after everything we'd done that day, and we had an early start to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto in the morning.

Kyoto baby!

Update of my Last Few Weeks

I realise that I've been a bit rubbish with my postings recently. This is because I've been so busy and tired with work. Today is my first day off since I started teaching a month ago - so tired!

So this post is just to catch you all up with what I've been up to, and things I've noticed.

First, let's have some pretty photos! This is the building where I work at twilight.

This was in Omotesando towards the end of February. I had to fight through the hordes of couples after Valentine's Day to take this photo.

Now for some of the random things I've seen around the place.

Some vending machines around bus stations and train stations accept Pasmo cards as payment for the drinks or food! Brilliant!

One day on the way home from work I passed a girl in Omotesando station who was staring at me (more than usual I mean) and I glanced at her. Then I realised that I recognised her! She'd been sitting opposite me a few days before on the subway!! A city of 12 million people odd and it's still not impossible to see someone twice!

After that, I went up onto the platform and there were two Americans shouting at the top of their voices. Absolutely everyone was staring at them and I wondered if they were drunk, but they seemed perfectly sober. Just very loud. You're giving gaijin a bad name! Shut up! They got on the same train carriage as me and continued their conversation, or shouting match. Grgh.

Bratz dolls are available here. Enough said.

I was waiting for a student at Gaba one day and I started rumaging through the bookcase they have in the waiting area, and I came across a book all about the best places to drink tea in Britain! It was written in Mr Scruff's trademark handwriting so I'm sure he must have had something to do with it. It was an amazing experience. Mr Scruff is a British DJ who plays up and down the country, and pretty much every year at the Big Chill festival, at the beginning of August. If you can go, I really recommend it. It's a great, relaxed weekend.

Last one now. I saw the most random thing in Omotesando last week. Driving along the road was a huge bus with a giant picture of the Pink Panther painted on the side. The windows were screens showing animations of the Pink Panther. And, the best bit, it was playing the theme tune! As embarrassed as I am to admit it, I did find my feet moving to the beat of the music, and I had to bury my face in my coat because I started laughing. Only in Japan.

National Foundation Day

Today is National Foundation Day, a public holiday, so I worked a weekend shift at Gaba. On the way, I passed a film crew filming something at my local subway station which seemed interesting. Then I got on the emptiest train I have seen in Japan yet. Several cars were literally empty, and it was a very weird sight.

Then I emerged blinking into the sunlight in Omotesando to find a parade in progress. I didn't have my camera with me so there are no photos but it was a colourful event, with a full band and dancers. People were lining the streets watching the procession. It made me laugh when I heard them playing the Indiana Jones theme tune.

Then I taught two lessons, which went fine. I was a bit worried because I'd heard that one of my students always complained about his teachers but he suggested that he might like to book me again! I checked online last night, and I have had one evaluation so far, which gave me 5/5.

On the way to Subway for lunch (I had a lovely Toasted Cream Cheese Chicken sub) I saw a photo-shoot on the road with a model posing by the roadside. Next time I see her it'll be on a billboard in Shibuya!

Then I taught another three lessons, two of which were with a student I taught on Saturday, and he booked me again.

While I ate dinner at home (a traditional meal of pizza and chips) I listened to my housemate's stories of Osaka and Kyoto, which he visited over the weekend (I really want to go!) and watched Heroes in Japanese. It was beautifully badly dubbed and I couldn't help laughing out loud when the characters referred to the dog as 'Misutaa Magaruzu'. Sum0 said that when he saw Heroes subtitled, Hiro and Ando's Japanese was subtitled too, and they were dubbed in this too.

Tomorrow I have a demo lesson with a private student and I might have a proper private lesson too. I got a job offer earlier that I think I'll probably have to turn down because I don't have the time!

First Day at Gaba

Yes, it happened!

I had my first proper day teaching at Gaba today. I had put myself down to work for 6 lessons, but only 4 of them got booked, so I left earlier than I expected.

It actually went okay, and wasn't too tiring. The students I had were all very nice and I taught my first male students (all the private students are female)! I think I prefer teaching women because they're slightly less intimidating than men, especially as they're all older than me!

It was quite enjoyable, a lot of the lessons were basically just chatting and not a lot of textbook work, which was good.

My very first lesson was Business English, and I was the third lesson in a row for the student, so I had absolutely no idea where she would be in the book! But it turned out she wanted to chat and get to know me a bit for the first half of the lesson, then we did a bit of light book work.

I put myself down for the same hours for tomorrow, but only 2 of them have been booked, at the beginning and the end of the day! So I might close the ones in the middle and go for a wander through Harajuku again, as it's only just down the road.

There is a 24-hour McDonalds basically next door so I might be tempted!! No!!

Omotesando & Harajuku

After the demo lesson, I wandered into Omotesando, which is a lovely area, especially in the sun. It's the posh, expensive part of Tokyo, actually I should say "one of the posh, expensive parts". It has Louis Vuitton and Benetton and shops like that. The price of coffee doubles by walking down the road.

I found this random shrine off a major road, which was empty and very peaceful. It was surrounded by apartment buildings, and several balconies overlooked it, how great would that be?!
The shrine doubled up as a graveyard.
Is it wrong that I often think the red gates are more impressive than the duller temples? Although they are still very nice.
An incense burner in the centre of the courtyard.
A very big graveyard.

I felt like I could be in Morocco or somewhere with this view.

The shrine was just randomly off this busy intersection! I love that about Tokyo, one minute you're being carried along by a crowd, the next you can't hear any traffic and you're all alone.
A stylish building, which I happen to work in.
The exterior of the Omotesando Hills shopping complex.

Looking back over the street.
If you know the Birmingham Bull Ring, then you will know what I mean when I said it reminded me of it.

This is one of the many many shops there.
Oooh, disorientating.

A typical example of Japan's blend of traditional and modern, a shrine covered with a white metal and glass structure.
JR Harajuku Station! I recognised it immediately.

'Your name write Japanese. Price you decide'. Sounds good!

There were lots of people selling things on the street. I was cornered by one selling paintings, and I spent several minutes trying to think of a way to escape, but then liked one and ended up buying it for Y1,000!
One of Tange Kenzo's Olympic-sized stadiums in nearby Yoyogi Park (Central Park if you read my earlier post).
And there's the other one. They were built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and are now used for sporting events. Tokyo is an applicant city for the 1016 Olympics by the way, the signs are everywhere.

I thought this was a nice sight. That's the wall surrounding the stadiums.

The torii (Shinto gate) heralding the approach to Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park.
Big, huh?

It was really weird to be in the middle of this woodland, the sounds and rush of Tokyo were completely masked by the forest and streams.

This is the largest torii in Japan, at the main entrance to the shrine. It was built using wood from Taiwan in 1975 (the original was destroyed, either in the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake or World War II).

There's still some snow left from Sunday in places where the sun rarely hits (quite common in Tokyo with all the buildings. My guesthouse sees sun for about half an hour in late afternoon before it sets behind some apartment buildings on the opposite side of the road, the rest of the time we live in the shade!).

Similar to Suitengu Shrine, worshippers drink and wash their hands in the water from this 'trough'.
Beautifully clear day today after yesterday's rain, snow and mist. The weather is really changeable here.
This is the actual Meiji Shrine complex.

It cost Y500 to get into the Shrine's gardens but I thought I had to.

A Japanese heron!

Loads and loads of fish. Apparently the Emperor Meiji and the Empress would fish here.
Being alone in such a quiet place gave me a chance to think about how I should start the first chapter of the next book in the series my younger brother Dominic and I have been writing. I'm still no closer to figuring it out!
This is Kiyomasa's well.

"Famous for the superiority of water's quality. NO DRINKING!" How funny.
Nice to see a bird. All the pigeons I've seen are completely fearless. In Asakusa on Sunday I was actually treading carefully between them as they bobbed around in case I stepped on one!
Rows and rows of lanterns in the Shrine approach.
Opposite them were barrels of wine (not full) from France to signify Japan and France's friendship since the Meiji Era.

You might have guessed by now, I have to take photos of little cute snowmen, it's a compulsion.
Then I headed into Harajuku proper, and saw the weird and wonderful.
This is Takeshita Street. It seemed to be epicentre of fashionable and kooky.
A shop catering for Harajuku Girls, as made famous by Gwen Stefani.
Although there were plenty around, this is the best photo opportunity I got.

I wandered up and down that road several times, each time coming across something new. Here they play music I actually recognise!

The following videos were taken at random intervals along the road, I don't know how interesting you will find them, but you can see what it was like!

I headed back to Omotesando station, encountering crowds bustling around the shops.
Tomorrow, I have my first paid lesson with a student in Shinagawa (I'll get the right Starbucks this time!) and I start at Gaba on Saturday. Busy busy busy!!