Sunday, November 12, 2017; Hamarikyu Garden, Asakusa, Imperial Palace grounds and Ueno

Sunday, November 12, 2017; Hamarikyu Garden, Sumida River cruise, Asakusa, Senso-ji Temple, Imperial Gardens and Palace grounds, Ueno

Breakfast at the Villa Fontaine was more limited than the Yokohama Bay Hotel’s.  They had the same sausages that looked and tasted like little hot dogs.  There was no omelet station, but their eggs on the buffet were completely cooked.  There was no bacon or ham but they did have some good puff pastries.  There was salad and a pretty tasty chicken ocra curry soup and a decent minestrone along side the miso soup.  No congee, but they did have rice and pickled vegetables. 

The pillows at the Villa Fontaine deserve special mention. They are particularly awful.  There are 3 on each bed. The first is a tiny throw pillow filled with solid foam.  The second is an extremely dense feather pillow that resists all attempts at fluffing.  The third is an usual affair consisting of crushed walnut shells on one side, and a solid high density foam sheet on the other side, creating a pillow that is both uncomfortably lumpy and unyielding at the same time.  

We met our half day guide Michiyo Seko in the hotel lobby at 9:00AM.  She arrived early and had a sign with our name on it.  She spoke excellent English, and had spent 10 months in Norman Oklahoma as part of her English Studies.  Her 18 year old daughter is working in the Pike’s Place Market and hoping to start college in the fall as an in-state resident to study in a field where she can do the farm to table restaurant concept.  We asked Michiyo why our hotels served salads, pasta and soups at breakfast.  She was surprised that westerners didn’t consider those breakfast items and said that Japanese hotels provide those items thinking westerners want them.  That was kind of funny.  

We started by taking a walking tour of the Hamarikyu gardens that we can see from our hotel room.  The gardens are large, and well maintained.  There did not seem to be the variety of exotic plants and no stone gardens like we saw in Kowloon, but it was peaceful and beautiful.  We had green tea and a miniature moon cake like pastry with steamed bun on the outside and red bean paste on the inside.  The green tea was what she described as “espresso” for green tea, made of ground steamed tea leaves. There were tatami mats in the tea house and you had to take your shoes off to go in.  Fortunately for us, they had some tables and chairs so we didn’t have to sit on the floor.  We were both concerned we might not be able to get back up if that were the case.  While we were there, we saw a pair of women in kimonos in what appeared to be a photo shoot.  One woman was a young Japanese woman, while her friend looked like she was an Eastern European super model.  It was odd seeing a blond woman in a kimono.  

We seemed to be walking slowly in the gardens, and it turns out that the ferry from Hamarikyu gardens to Asakusa didn’t leave until 10:30AM.  Once we boarded the ferry, the ride up the Sumida river was relaxing.  Janet tried to get Michiyo to identify the karaoke song that was stuck in Janet’s head, but that was unsuccessful.  As we cruised up the river, we learned that the Tsukiji fish market is due to be moved to a new location so that a large parking structure can be built in advance of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.  We also floated past the Sumo stadium, but learned that at this time of the year, all the Sumo wrestlers are in Kyushu for competitions and training. Only the young trainees are still in the Tokyo area at this time of the year.  

We arrived at the Asakusa district, where a large shopping district has cropped up around the Senso-ji Buddhist temple.  We arrived on a day when 3 and 7 year old girls and 5 year old boys receive a special blessing, so the place was jam packed with locals as well as tourists.  There were so many little girls all dolled up in kimonos that it was quite a scene.  Parents and grandparents also came in kimonos, and the kids end up going home with a bag of candies, not unlike Easter in the US. The surrounding markets were packed with people and stalls selling all manner of touristy items including ceremonial swords and clothing.  

We were kind of relieved to exit the crowds of Asakusa and take the subway to the Imperial Palace grounds.  Michiyo took us in through the back gate, supposedly used only by servants, women, convicts and the dead.  The back gate is every bit as impressive as the front gate, but we later saw that there was a huge line of tourists at the front gate waiting to have their bags searched before entering the Imperial Palace grounds, while at the back gate, there was no waiting.  The palace gardens are meticulously groomed but don’t have a lot of exotic flora, other than a fruit tree grove with persimmons.  There was also an area growing tea leaves.  There are massive stone ramparts, moats and walls around the grounds, as well as several guard stations that have been restored to pre-WWII condition.  There wasn’t much else to see in terms of structures on the grounds, but Michiyo pointed out a building behind chain link fencing where real-life Ninjas train.  The palace is guarded by 1000 imperial guards. Interestingly enough, there’s also 1000 gardeners employed by the palace.  

From the palace grounds, we walked to Ramen street, which is a collection of Ramen shops buried deep within the bowels of Tokyo station.  The station was packed with people and luggage moving in all directions, so we never would have found it without her guidance. We parted ways at the end of our half day guided tour at Ramen street.  The Ramen shops had the same sort of vending machines outside the shops where you place your orders in advance, and then wait for seating to open up. These vending machines, however, were able to use our PASMO cards for payment, so we didn’t have to get into our Yen notes or coins to buy lunch.  The ramen we had was good and filling, although what we had in the Ramen Museum as a bit more flavorful and interesting.  

From Tokyo station, we headed north to the Ueno district, and toured the tiny but interesting Shitamachi Museum, which contains a reconstruction of a 1920’s pre-Kanto earthquake period low town neighborhood of 8 tiny buildings.  We asked if they had an English guide, and one of the women behind the counter enthusiastically said “YES, that’s ME!”  So for the amazing price of only $2.20 per person, we had a privately guided English tour of their little museum with great explanations and our guide also volunteered to take several pictures of us in the exhibits.  We even had our fortunes told by shaking a stick out of a box.  The first stick Ben shook out, the guide looked at it and frowned and said try again.  On his second try, she looked greatly relieved and said “Good Fortune!”  Janet’s first try resulted in “Great Fortune!”.  On exiting the museum we received detailed printouts of our fortunes. We had seen many similar fortune telling stations at other shrines.  If you get a bad one,  you tie it to a rack and pray for better fortune next time. It was a great little experience.

We then strolled around the Lotus Pond to Bentendo Temple, where there was a festival going on with lots of food vendors, and a demonstration of building boats from reeds where children of all ages were pulling on ropes and pounding on reed bundles to create a seaworthy craft made of reeds.  It reminded us of the Kon-Tiki expedition from the 1970’s.  The food vendors had some unusual items including Tempura battered spiral cut potatoes on a stick, all sorts of meats and seafoods on a stick, chocolate coated waffles on a stick, and there was a huge line for Panda shaped cookies baked in a waffle-iron like device over open flames.  

We then wandered a bit through the market at Ameyoko street, which was colorful, and perhaps a bit less crowded than Asakusa, but by then, all these markets are starting to look alike.  Night was falling, so we headed back to our hotel to rest our feet and take a short nap to recover from our morning.  Ben’s Apple Watch logged 20,500 steps that morning, and boy, did it feel like we earned every one of them.

We had been looking forward to trying an Okonomiyaki restaurant just around the corner from our hotel, but when we got to the building, it was dark and locked.  Apparently this building closes on Sundays.  We talked to a security guard who suggested we try kicking around the Shimbashi Station, which has an underground mall.  As we headed there, we did stop at the Taco Bell.  The sign was turned off, but it looked like they were open.  A Taco Bell Box meal that would cost $5 in the US was $9 in Tokyo. So we pressed on and eventually found a place in the Shimbashi Station that offered a complete set meal including  ramen, 3 gyoza, and fried rice for $8.  While there was nothing extraordinary about the ramen, the gyoza was tasty and we left with very full bellies, and waddled home for the night.  

Tomorrow, we plan to explore the Odaiba district, and have booked a dinner cruise in Tokyo Bay for tomorrow night.