Imperial Palace and Akihabara

Drizzling rain and gray skies greeted me this morning. It was ok, because it seemed to match my mood for the first half of the day. Several days of family drama and being in the middle of it without any reprieve had taken it's toll on me. I felt melancholy as the day began. I didn't want to miss any of the sights of this trip, so I decided to stay quiet and keep to myself to regain my center. (This is where having Bill there would have been really nice. He always helps me keep that centered mind set in the middle of a storm.) We all got a late start on this day. We planned on staying together in the big group, and that meant keeping a much different pace than we had been. It required much patience. The plan was to hit the Imperial Palace and sight see until it was time to pick up Nana at the train station that evening. The Imperial Palace was surrounded by an immense moat. It was also guarded by some serious looking Japanese guards. Both of those factors kept us from viewing it up close and personal. We viewed it from across the moat, and from behind the metal guard rails, meant to keep the riff-raf (IE: tourists) out. Still the area surrounding the palace grounds was stunning. We walked through the gardens that run along side the palace. Immaculately manicured Bonsai trees lined the outer grounds. The contrast of the Bonsai against the modern Tokyo skyline served as a poignant reminder of the contrasts within the Japanese culture itself. In this country, century-old traditions seem to crashingly collide into the new, modern ways of life and all the technology that goes along with it. Technology is such an integral part of both the Japanese people and their economy that no Tokyo visit would be complete without a visit to Akihabara (arguably the epicenter of all things electronic). People on the trains and on the streets retreat into a virtual world of music on ipods, games on their Nintendo DS, or surfing the net on their mobile phones. When I say people, I mean everyone! No one was seen with out some kind of electronic device attached to their person. (Except me, whose old iphone's technology was entirely too archaic to work on Japan's advanced cellular systems.) After our voyage to Japan's past at the Imperial Palace, we took off to Akihabara for a look at our electronic future. Neon lights and giant signs greeted us straight out of the train station. Beckoning us to spend our money on any variety of gadgets and gizmos that only Bill would know how to work. The presentation of their wares was overwhelming and struck me as bit "junky" looking. It was just a hodgepodge of colorful shiny metal all displayed together with large price tags marking their spots. Being technologically challenged (that is what I have Bill for), I made a B-line for the store displaying t-shirts and stuffed animals and miniature figurines. William had given me a lengthy shopping list and up until this point, I had only found the Pokemon items he requested. However, I (actually really William and Romney) hit the jackpot at this store. They had an entire Domo section as well as an entire My Neighbor Totoro section. BINGO! I finished off the shopping for the boys (or so I thought until I hit the Pokemon center the next day.) and had fun looking around the store with Lisa and my mom. Dinner that night was, again, in a train station on the way home. This time, though, in the spirit of Akihabara, we added a new technological component to our Noodle Shop dinning-- the vending machine. The way this shop worked was, you had the menu displayed on the vending machine. You would make your selection, pay and then receive a tiny ticket that you took to your table that was retrieved by a server, who then brought the selection to the table. Since Lisa and I wanted our sans meat, we had to talk to the server (by us, I mean David, who at this point was our only Japanese speaker in the group) anyway to get the order correct, since that had not been a choice on the machine. The whole system seemed to make what I thought was a pretty easy thing to do (order basic noodles) and turned it into an unnecessarily complicated proposition. But what do I know? Technology makes all things easier, right? After a whole 30 minutes in Akihabara, we had to run back to meet Nana at the train station. It was fun to see Nana again. It had been a year since we last saw her in person. Her English was much improved (which thrilled her to hear). She is still kind, adorable and sweet. A wonderful choice made by David. Since it was time consuming and expensive to go back into town from the apartment, we spent the rest of the night in Tada-Koen. We headed to the Uchita's home and hung out for about an hour watching the family go about their lives. It was fun to watch the little 9 year old, who had been our origami instructor on Sunday, do her homework. She was working on practicing her handwriting. She would draw her Kanji characters over and over into a notebook, careful to get them just perfect. Since we had skipped Karaoke the night before, we decided this would be a good night to try it out. Reiko Uchida drove us and helped us get in to the "members only" Karaoke club. The price included food and drinks and all the Karaoke you can pack into 2 hours. I have never done Karaoke (and would have kept my Karaoke virginity had I not been in Japan.) We removed our shoes and were led to a private room that fit all 10 of us. We were given several books the size of our local yellow pages to pick our songs from. We ordered food from a separate TV with a remote and started picking out our tunes. Everyone had to participate, it was mandatory, so there was no escaping for me. I picked out a song that seemed fitting for the occasion: Alpahville's "Big in Japan" (circa 1984! Freak, I am old!) We had a two hour sing along session, before realizing we were really done with the whole Karaoke gig. Karaoke was also my first (and last) encounter with Japanese bathroom slippers. They provide special slippers to be worn in the restrooms (remember we left our shoes at the front door and that is just gross in a restroom!) Speaking of something else that is gross-- I posted the video of my Karaoke deflowering below. (Only because I know that there are only like 4 people other than myself who read this blog and all of them have seen me make a fool of myself before. So, this will be nothing new.)