Tokyo

18 October Tokyo, then board ship
Yesterday, we had a guide who was worse than useless, and I was anxious about how we would get along today. I did speak to the port agent who quite seriously noted my remarks. Today, once on the bus, it was obvious we had lucked into a terrific guide. Her name was Yuki and she was easy to understand and very enthusiastic.
On the way to our first stop at Meiji Shrine, she explained many aspects of Japanese life.
- there are a number of train stations in Tokyo, one of which handles 3.5 million people per day, another 3.1 million per day and the third 2.4 million per day.
-there would be some 300 varieties of pine trees in addition to cedar trees at Meiji Shrine
-the entrance to Shinto shrines is always through Shinto gates. These gates are two solid vertical side posts over which there are two horizontal headers. Walking through these is said to purify, your life. Locals bow on their way in and turn around and bow towards the shrine on the way out. Shintoism is an indigenous religion that concentrates on living the good life now while, Buddhism concentrates on preparing yourself for the afterlife.
-Shrines are an important part of Japanese life. Given that Shrines are supposed to purify the soul and contribute to a healthy life, children who reach the age of three, then five and then seven are brought to the shrine, to receive power, purification, and a good future. We saw many of these youngsters with their parents at the shrine. These occasions , celebrated in November each year, called Shichi-Go-San, are a big deal for the families. The adults get all dressed up and the youngsters are outfitted in the most beautiful kimonos. They take endless pictures. Chitose ame ( 'thousand year candy') is given to children on Shichi-Go-San. Chitose ame is a long, thin, red and white candy, which symbolizes healthy growth and longevity. It is given with a bag decorated with a crane and a turtle, which represent long life in Japan. Chitose ame is wrapped in a thin, clear, and edible rice paper film.
-During the first few days of the New Year, most families go to the shrine or temple to wish for good life. At this particular shrine, approximately 3 million people, more than any other shrine or temple in the country, attend for the year's first prayers (hatsumode). Compare this to approximately 2.5 million people who visit Mecca a year over 6 to 7 days.
-She told us about the train cars which hold 150 people but at rush-hour they have pushers that force up to 300 people per car and she said you can’t even turn around. It’s so crowded you can’t even scratch. We didn't find any evidence of that.
-There are 88,000 Shinto shrines and 77,000 Buddhist temples. (I can believe that!)
-Only about 2% of the population of Japan are Christians and as such, Christmas, as we know it, is not celebrated in Japan. But December 24th is a big deal. On December 24, the most popular dinner in Japan is KFC, yup, chicken! And why is KFC at Christmas ‘really big’ in Japan? The Japanese prefer Kentucky Fried Chicken to turkey at Christmas, partly because turkeys are not common in Japan and, coupled with this, because of the 1970’s American fast-food giant’s clever marketing ploy, all as a result of a serendipitous case of eavesdropping. According to KFC Japan’s official website, one Christmas, a sales team employee in Tokyo overheard a foreign customer say: “I can’t get turkey in Japan, so I have no choice but to celebrate Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken.” This offhand remark inspired the KFC for Christmas campaign. KFC starts advertising and taking pre-orders and reservations for its holiday specials as early as late October to get the country excited for the upcoming Christmas season. The demand for KFC is such that ‘you can forget it’ if you haven’t reserved it in advance.
- Notwithstanding all of that, Christmas cake is a popular dessert that's sold for December 25th. The cake is simply a sponge cake, frosted with whipped cream, often decorated with strawberries, and usually topped with Christmas chocolates or other seasonal fruits, and a Santa Claus decoration. On December 26, the day after, she said that the price of the cake goes down by 50%!
-The average age of marrying for women is 29 and the average age for men is 31.
-Tokyo is a very lush city with ginkgo trees lining the streets. The benefit of the ginkgo tree is that the leaves hold a lot of moisture which makes it somewhat of a fire deterrent to slow down the spread of any possible fires.
-Tokyo is the only city in Asia to have had the Olympics two times. The 2020 Olympics were not good because of Covid. There were no spectators at the games. They put pictures or silhouettes in the seats in place of spectators.
-The most popular sport in Japan is baseball. The most popular team is the Yomiuri Giants, and the most famous major league baseball player Shohei Ohtani is from Hokkaido who now plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
-The Japanese monarchy is the oldest monarchy in terms of years in the world. The emperor has no power but is mainly a symbol of Japan.
-Because of the expense of cars and particularly of parking only 20% of people own their own cars and the balance are owned by companies.
- Our guide discussed fashion and even car colours for Japanese as being almost monochrome, black and white as being respectful and not flamboyant.
Our first stop was the Meiji Shrine The main complex of the shrine building is located a ten-minute walk from both the southern entrance near Harajuku Station and the northern entrance near Yoyogi Station. Entry into the shrine grounds is marked by a massive torii gate, after which you walk through the Meiji Jingu forest of approximately 100,000 trees that were planted during the shrine's construction and were donated from regions across the entire country.
At the middle of the forest, Meiji Jingu's buildings have a unique setting because they are surrounded by the high rise buildings of the city. Visitors can take part in typical Shinto activities, such as making offerings at the main hall, buying charms and amulets or writing out one's wish on an ema. Emas are small wooden plaques, common to Japan, in which Shinto and Buddhist worshippers write prayers or wishes. We saw hundreds of these hanging on racks and many of them were uplifting and many sad because of what or why they were making the wish.
Our next stop was at the current Imperial Palace, located on the former site of Edo Castle, a large park area surrounded by moats and massive stone walls in the centre of Tokyo, It is the residence of Japan's Imperial Family. Edo Castle used to be the seat of the Tokugawa shogun who ruled Japan from 1603 until 1867. In 1868, the shogunate was overthrown, and the country's capital and imperial residence were moved from Kyoto to Tokyo. In 1888 construction of a new Imperial Palace was completed. The palace was destroyed during World War Two, and but was rebuilt in the same style. Emperor Naruhito is the current emperor of Japan. He acceded to the Chrysanthemum Throne upon the abdication of his father, Emperor Akihito, on 1 May 2019, the oldest reigning monarch and head of state in the world.
At the imperial palace, we couldn’t actually visit or see the palace, but we did visit it's iconic symbol, the Seimon Ishibashi bridge leading from the main gate to the palace. They call the bridge the eyeglasses bridge because of the reflection of its dual arches in the water of the moat. It looks kind of like the iconic bridge in the Master’s except it’s much larger.
The bridge is decorated with carved chrysanthemums because in Japan, the chrysanthemum, also known as kiku, has many meanings. The chrysanthemum is the emblem of the Japanese Imperial family and appears on the country's passports. The imperial throne is known as the "throne of the chrysanthemum". It is also a symbol of a long and happy life and rejuvenation. In Japanese lore, a single petal at the bottom of a wine glass can promote a long and healthy life.
Hamarikyu Garden is a metropolitan garden in Chūō ward, Tokyo. Located at the mouth of the Sumida River, it was opened to the public on April 1, 1946. It is a landscaped garden of 250,216 m² and includes Shioiri-no-ike (Tidal Pond), and the garden is surrounded by a seawater moat filled by Tokyo Bay. It was remodeled as a public garden on the site of a villa belonging to the ruling Tokugawa family in the 17th century. The garden includes a peony garden, a plum tree grove and fields with flowers for every season. As we walked through the fields, we can only imagine how beautiful they would be in full season.
At the Centre of Shioiri-no-ike is a teahouse, reached by two bridges, where visitors can enjoy refreshments, such as matcha and Japanese sweets, in the tea-ceremony style. Lee visited this but did not have time to participate in any of the offerings. While Lee did that, I visited a pond and duck blind where they told us how they used to lure the ducks from the pond, close enough that trained falcons could catch them and bring them back to the hunters.
Following the visit we were taken to the ship, found our luggage and our cabin and after a bit of unpacking, we headed down for dinner. Dinner was in the Compass Rose restaurant, which was spectacular, not only because of the quality of our food, but because of the décor. Yes Heather, they still have Versace plates, just a different colour from the Navigator.
We were able to stay awake long enough to go to the show starting at 9:30 which was a selection of different musical genres put on by the ship's singing dancing theatrical crew.
Very smooth overnight to the point that we didn’t even think we were moving.Read more