Tokyo

Mona is a german girl who just arrived in Japan on Wednesday and who will be working at JAMSTEC for 5 months on plastic-degrading bacteria in the same group as mine. As she's just as eager to visit stuff as I am, we decided to go to Tokyo, as it was a wonderful day, and that it's much more fun with 2.

So off we went. Her superviser had not bought her a train card, but we managed to get one from the automatic vendor really easily and never even had to ask for help. I then got the wonderful opportunity of showing her how the trains work here: we got on a local bound for Shinagawa. We got off at Kanazawa-bunko to change to a green express train, only to find that the train on the other track was (also) a black local to Shinagawa, but that the one we were on had turned green!

We decided on central Tokyo, where there's the emperor's palace, as well as high tech buildings and stuff.

First off, we visited the emperor's palace. We had actually planned to do it last, but kind of got going the wrong way in the train station. You can't visit the palace itself, but the outside and the park it's in are very nice. They also are very much on the "you are outside, we are inside" line, but done with style, and grace. If you need to have big basalt walls, then you can at least trim the pine trees so they look nice. Although probably not in the original design, the weeping willows and swans make it look a bit like a fairy castle, right in the heart of Tokyo.

Next, we saw the buildings of the japanese government. The main building is "bed brick building N°6" (next best in the "red brick warehouse" naming sheme). The photo is not of that building, however, as we only saw it from the other side of a crowded street, but of a museum.

Next, we immerged ourselves in Ginza, the fashion quartier of Tokyo. It was really quite empty, it being a holiday. There was obviously some sort of parade or something going on, as there were lots of groups of people dressed up in traditional costumes. We never did find it, though, as the groups didn't seem to be going in any specific direction, but just wandering around killing time before whatever they were doing.

From Ginza, you arrive almost dirrectly onto the fish market. Most of the stalls were closed, and it's really just as well. The place was packed full of people, with queues outside every little restaurant place, and tuna and salmon for sale everywhere. At 6am it must be quite a sight! We also visited one of the warehouse complexes, where they were slowly finishing off the day's fish deliveries.

After a quick lunch near the Hama detached palace garden (which is detached as in not being in the same place as the palace), we went off through Shidome. This is a sky-scraper complex with tons of glass. And aslo, for some reason, a bit metallic clock, which I find should be at least mentionned in my guide but isn't.

From there it's just a shortish walk to Tokyo tower. As we had kind of expected, it was packed full of people. So instead of going up it, we simply sat in the park and enjoyed the view of Tokyo tower through the maple leaves. Very enjoyable.

Having done most of central Tokyo, we took the train to Shibuya, to see the shopping district. Now if the rest of Tokyo had been reasonably empty, Shibuya was quite the opposite. It is big, shop-filled from the basement up to the roof, and absolutely packed full of shoppers, people distributing leaflets and stuff, and shop workers standing on chairs shouting into paper cups with the bottom cut out (they were!). But we had been warned of what to expect from the station, as this is the first glimpse you get of Shibuya....

Western Tokyo, once you get out of the relatively small Shibuya district is very nice, especially the Olympic stadium area, where there was a kind of fair going on. There is a nice park near the stadium, packed full of people also, but very quiet and relaxing. Lots of people were dancing or playing games and stuff, and we had a nice time seeing a young man being out break-danced by what must have been his 70 year old granpa. It was extremely amusing. Especially as the gandson had to keep pretending he had a phone call to make while the young sweeties were taking photos of his granpa.

Another dance which seems to be in is break-dancing, while inside a double jumping rope. There were 3 or 4 groups doing this, and some of the guys were great! I am totally impressed... Maybe I will start liking rap?

And of course, the train travel went absolutely flawlessly, with near-instant connecting trains. Mona said last night that she was now quite confident that she would be able to travel around without any problems. So I guess the moral of the story is "Dare, Pierre, dare". Or perhaps "Try it, you'll like it"?

Either way, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.