Ok, finally the last part of the Tokyo series! Sorry for the delay, I was busy catching up the 9hrs of language classes I missed. My fingers hurt from all the writing practice.
On the last day, we did a nice Tokyo tour with the same great bus driver and awesome tour guide lady! We were leaving around 8:30am so we could see the morning rush along the way:
First, we visited a government run safety center where we learned to deal with fire/smoke and earthquakes. The learning was on video+talk but also interactively. For the fire, we were placed in a series of rooms and fake smoke and fire alarms appeared and we had to navigate in the darkness to the exit. The second was an earthquake simulator which simulated an intensity 6 earthquake in a kitchen type setting. We had to take cover under the table. It was very very intense shaking! In addition to the earthquake magnitude, the Japanese system uses intensity values up to 7 to indicate the intensity of the shaking at a specific location. The next large Tokai earthquake that is supposed to hit between Tokyo and Nagoya (any day now! - it's already a bit late and it usually occurs every 100 years or so) will be felt with magnitude 6 (upper/lower) in Nagoya (the predicted magnitude of the earthquake will be around 8.4). Hmm.. there is nothing like hello kitty to teach fire safety!
I noticed the Colonel in a window while driving by.
On the way to the lunch place were some good views.
These interesting looking trees were found in some places - I've also seen them here in Nagoya.
This was our awesome tour guide telling some historical story. You can see a map on the monitor - that's our complete tour itinerary (the red X was the hotel).
We parked next to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. On the way to the restaurant, there was an interesting statue of a historical figure standing on a turtle.
The lunch was a nice selection of Japanese foods (also buffet style). The hit attraction was a pot of soup that sumo wrestlers eat at their training places.
This is almost all of us postdocs.
The restaurant was on around the 25th floor so it offered a good view of the area. This is the new Tokyo TV tower being built, called the Sky Tree. It is already the tallest building in Japan.
This is a school with the sports fields on the roof!
After eating, we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum that told the history of the city over it's 400 years of existence. Ok, this will be just a pic spam since I don't have much time (hiragana test tomorrow!).
Old cookbooks.
Old toothbrushes.
Old coins:
The start of a popular/oldest department store in Japan.
Traditional Japanese theatre.
After the museum, we went to see a very large Buddhist temple in Tokyo (Asakusa district).
These are just normal sunflower plants. What's interesting is that they are being grown 3 stems from one at the bottom.
We also went to a Shinto (the original Japanese religion) temple nearby. They are usually characterized by these shaped gates.
Our tour guide showed us how to purify ourselves.
The prayer is: bow twice, clap your hands twice, pray for something, bow once. Similar at the Buddhist temple, you just don't clap.
These statues symbolize beginning to end. On the right is one with open mouth (beginning) and on the left is one with closed mouth (end). I guess similar to alpha and omega in christianity.
Ok, back to the large Buddhist temple.
The dragon in the temple protects from fire.
You can get a fortune from one of those boxes.
A Buddhist angel.
My fortune is bad, so I was told to leave it at the temple (it's the middle one here). You can see rows of these little papers at the temple.
The smoke from the incense burning place is supposed to cure diseases.
Nice gate.
Hmm this picture didn't turn out all that well - it looks like I have a big hat!
A tower.
Large shoes?
Prayer lanterns - mostly used for advertising of companies...
In front of the temple is one of the busiest shopping places in Tokyo - people can buy lots of food items for gifts and other misc things. I bought a cat!
Hmm some tasty specialty.
So many sweets.
On the way to the train station, we passed right through Akihabara (from my previous post at night).
This is how taxi cabs look like:
Another one of those interesting trees.
From the Tokyo train station, I took the shinkansen back to Nagoya. I just bought the ticket when I arrived and it was for the train in 30min. So no problem buying tickets ad hoc. Here is one of the older models.
Of course apart from bento, you can buy the obligatory sweets to take home to your offices. I got some at the hotel so I was set.
And finally a dinner bento I bought at the station and ate in the train! Fall special.
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