Edo-Tokyo Museum, still p121 of your LP
Well, today I went to the Edo-Tokyo museum in Ryogoku, even though I don't like museums. Luckily there isn't that much to talk about. It was all about the Edo period (1603-1857) moving into the Tokyo period. Edo's a major city in Japan, better known nowadays as Tokyo :P. Anyway, there was talk about fires, bakufu, daimyo, shogun, Commander Perry (the US dude who came to Japan in 1853 and opened up Japan to Western relations), and the war (WWII) waged on Tokyo. A really surprising fact: before the war, there were 7 million people in Tokyo. After the war ravaged the entire city, there were 2.4 million left. Anyway, have a look at some photos; there were lots of impressive small-scale models, of which the photos don't really do justice to unfortunately. Blame the lighting.
As I left the museum, kinda exhausted I was thinking: this is crazy. All I've seen is concrete jungle. Ryogoku is very much concrete except for a few excellent parks. These kinda saved the day for me; I think I really like nature stuff, much more than concrete buildings... Anyway, one of the parks, Yasuda park was probably one of the quietest and most secluded areas I've ever been to. In Japan, that's a notable thing. Oh and I also 'accidentally' snuck into a highschool I think, Yasuda highschool, which was right outside this other park, Tokyo Metropolitan Yokoamicho Park. Photos.
Koishikawa Koraku-en, p121 of the Lonely Planet
Today is one of the first times I actually planned to go somewhere. I have a really bad habit of not planning anything, and basically doing nothing. So today was different, and quite fun. I went to this place called Koishikawa Koraku-en (not too far out from central Tokyo), where there was a giant "stroll" park, with some Chinese influence. Quite a large park, and some spots were very beautiful, maybe they'd be more beautiful if I took better photos too. On the flipside, some of the park felt like a jungle; there were giant insects and mosquitos flying around everywhere and I felt sticky all over. One little annoyance was that I couldn't really take photos with the sky showing, because it usually had buildings in the view. The park is basically dumped right in the middle of the city. But its the other way round actually; city development has reduced 3/4 of the park to what it is now. Another weird thing: there is a Korakuen Amusement Park right near the park, so you can hear occassional screams from the people riding rollercoasters...you kinda lose that zen-ish atmosphere, I guess also when you see the huge Tokyo Dome in the distance. Anyway, here are some choice fotos:
I have taken a liking to insects...
Anyways, after the park, I walked around Koraku-en for a while and ran into Tokyo Dome and Tokyo Dome City, which is a large shopping area around the stadium which is the Yomiuri Giants' home stadium. The first part I reached seemed to be some kind of gambling/placing your bets place, because there were all these old men smoking and standing outside a building, and queues inside. It's all built around the stadium so I assumed that's what they must be doing. I mean, what else do old smoky guys in Japan do?
I had a quick peek in an arcade to find highschool kids playing all manner of lottery (win coins and stuff, refund for money) games. Some people were being watched, so I assumed they were pretty good at it! Crazy. I walked around some more, ended up in the open shopping complex which the Korakuen Amusement park is built around; kind of a cool idea, but I noticed the rollercoaster ride only goes for like 5 minutes. I'll let the photos do the talking. SOMEONE LET ME KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING BACK HOME!!!
Repercussions
It seems like after all the hubbub everything has finally settled down. Friends are back from holiday (and honeymoon!) and people are all getting back to work, so I don't need to feel so jealous and lonely, hahahaha. But the days have been kind.
Two things here I've discovered I need to avoid. And almost with opposite effect. One is natto (fermented soy beans), which is pretty disgusting, so you may only see a picture here if I pick up the courage or find the stupidity to buy it just so I can show you all back home what it looks like. But, its supposed to be very healthy. Like I could care...
The other (close to home) is McDonalds vouchers. They run amok and plentiful here. In fact, they give them over the counter when you purchase a meal. There are about 20 vouchers on one piece of advertising, so its becoming increasingly harder to avoid eating Maccas for lunch. Thankfully, the discounts aren't huge so it doesn't entice me too much. I should probably watch Super Size Me again just to remind myself of the hole I am digging myself.
I had an extremely funny moment in the voice room today. AOHR! I just forgot I never wrote about my experience in Kamata, which was the first time I worked in another branch. Oh well, I'll be there again in a couple of weeks. I'll write about it then. Anyway, Voice room. I walked in to meet 3 people, 2 of which I hadn't met before. We did introductions; when I got to the person I knew, I'd forgotten her name (as I always do).
So I said, "Sorry, I've forgotten your name."
She replied, "Yes. I haven't come to Nova...two months." "Ooohh," I say.
"I watch World Cup." "Oh ok," (smile).
"And I...ehhhhhh....kidnap....no..not kidnap...." The first thought I had was that a friend of hers had been kidnapped. But I realised she looked far too happy to be saying something like that. So basically I was clueless.
"Uhh...kidnap? No no no..." Here, the other student jumps in, "You mean...take nap?"
"Ahh yes yes yes!! I take nap!"
And all 4 of us burst out laughing. The student put her head to her knees laughing, and didn't look up for a while because she was so embarrassed. EXTREMElY funny! OH! Not to mention the TV show I watched last night. I taped it, it was gold. That's another story...or actually I'll just bring the tape back when I come back.
