The First Day Out, or, Japanese Water Cannons

Day 2

So I went to bed at about 4-5am last night, and I managed to get at least a whopping five hours of sleep after. I didn’t have a super clear plan of what I was going to try to do this day, but I knew that it would basically involve just going to a couple districts and spending as little as possible. I also knew I wanted to try to put together my skateboard, and razzlematazz the locals with the awesomeness that is Gravity longboards. Unfortunately, I’ve got butterfingers, and I dropped a very small piece that was crucial to making my whole skateboard work, and it bounced off of my shoe into oblivion. I spent about half an hour trying to find it, to no avail, and finally went to the front desk to see if the guy working there could direct me to a hardware store, which he did. It was a place called, apparently, Doityo, pronounced as two syllables, doyt-yo, and it was only two metro stops away.

A word about the metro system: Though initially bewildering, after using it just a couple times, it really is incredibly simple. I couldn’t have imagined just how normal it would feel to use the Tokyo metro system after only maybe 2 or 3 rides on it; the system uses probably about 10-12 subway lines, overlapped by another network of maybe a half dozen or more trains, and then a few shinkansen (high speed trains) for good measure. I haven’t used the shinkansen yet, and the regular trains only a couple times, but this is basically a gigantic transit system, and magnificently quite easy to get the hang of.

So I get out of the metro and look for Doityo. I soon see a store called Do It Yourself. Do It Yo…. I figured that’s what this guy MUST have intended. And sure enough, once I got inside, it was easy to see that it was primarily a hardware store. Now I’ll never think of the phrase Do It Yourself the same way ever again.

Unfortunately, the other washer I brought with me so as to compare to the ones available somehow fell out of my pocket en route, so I had to make a S.W.A.G. (Scientific Wild-Assed Guess) as to what the proper size was.

As you might imagine, it turned out I was wrong, so the two packs of washers I bought were for naught; luckily, they were pretty cheap.

So, I gave up with the skateboard for the day, and hung out in the lobby of the hostel a bit; soon, a couple of my new friends from the night before showed up, and I chatted with them for a spell. Actually, as I recall, it was only one of them, Adelle, and she helped me try to figure out how to go to the Imperial Palace, which I decided would be my first sightseeing destination.

While we wrangled with that (actually a pretty simple task), a girl I didn’t know walked up to us and asked if we had any recommendations on places to go nearby, that could be reached fairly easily. I told her that I myself was going to the Imperial Palace, which was only a few metro stops away, and so began a 2 day adventure with a new travelling companion, a British girl by the name of Marie, from Manchester. We ended up circumnavigating the palace grounds, which were sadly closed for business on Friday.

There were some funny things about the Imperial Grounds.

One of the things that most leapt out at me, pun utterly intended, was their drinking fountains. These drinking fountains are not made for the faint of heart. If you turn it on all the way, you're basically turning on a fire hydrant. Marie was utterly thrilled with the resulting effect, my face being blasted with water from the drinking fountain, without having the slightest idea that such a thing was about to happen.

That was just too bizarre, so I turned it on again and ran away real quick to take a picture, for proof. Here you go, and sorry for including the towel that was in my left hand that I had to use to wipe away the disaster, but time was of the essence; perfect disaster shots are not easy to take:

Here's a few extra photos of various things around the palace, just for grins.

Then we walked to Tokyo Tower, a complete blatant rip-off of the Eiffel Tower, but cool nevertheless.

Took a lift up about 500 feet, and got some pretty nice views of Tokyo at night. Unfortunately, the pictures I took were through glass, so they didn't come out all that well.

After that, we got lost for a bit in the surrounding area, and stumbled across a pretty large summer festival, of which there’s probably hundreds if not thousands that go on around Japan all summer long.

Along the way in our travels, we also came across a few different temples and shrines, just in the middle of the city; those who’ve been to Tokyo or other parts of Japan wouldn’t be so impressed, but I think almost anyone else would find it pretty interesting. It can be in the middle of the busiest business district imaginable, and then all of a sudden you’ll find yourself in a place of serene beauty and peace. It’s so drastically different from anything I’ve ever seen in America, I was quite struck by it.

We made our way back to the hostel via Shinjuku, seeing some big shopping areas that hold little charm for someone such as myself, and then called it a night, hitching back to the hostel on the metro before the last trains ran through (metro stops at midnight in Tokyo).

All in all, it was an extremely successful day of sightseeing, if you ask me, and I was happier with Tokyo than I expected I would be.