Port 08 Tokyo, Japan

by Ed · April 13, 2024

Aisatsu! Greetings! Ohayo gozaimasu! Good morning!

Early morning on 24 March, 2024, we approached Tokyo, Japan, under a hazy dawn. The factories on the shore are barely visible.

We see our home dock for the next two days! Yay! They have a ramp for us! No stairs!

From the bus on the way to my first tour, we see an island that was created during World War II to station cannon to protect the shore. (Joy decided she didn’t need to see another garden and selected a different tour. So “we” means me or me and the rest of the tour bus.)

We arrive at Edo-era Koraken Garden, believed to have been built in 1629. Many elements of this garden were selected and designed to reflect, represent, or present places around Japan dear to the hearts of the emperor and designers. This includes rivers, trees, waterfalls, shrines, and even simple stones.

A simple bridge creates a wonderful reflection!

An unlabeled shrine is identified by the guard spirits on either side of the steps. Where there are typically lions, we see dogs!

Peeking inside, the shrine inside echoes the exterior. We had a shrine for cats in Kagoshima. Now we have a shrine for dogs in Tokyo!

This is a 9-8 store. Huh? It’s called a Kuhachi-ya (ku = 9, hachi = 8, ya = store). OK, this is a sake bar! The 9-8 refers to a policy of never serving a cup of sake filled to the rim. During the day, fill it to 9/10s (ku), and during the night fill it to 8/10s (hachi). Moderation in all things!

A beautiful bridge is blocked off from crossing, but I can get around it. However, I watch as this location is used for a couple of photo shoots! So others find it as picturesque as I do!

I see this beautiful tree from the other side of the lake and am surprised when I finally get around to it! See the little sign at the bottom right?

This is what the sign says! I’ve never seen anything like this!

I ease down the steps to the water and find my frame. This is the shot I want! I can believe many artists would block the paths to draw and paint this!

We leave Koraken Garden and head to Tokyo Tower. As we approach the Tower, I spy this beautiful street art!

Yama-san, our tour guide, lets us know we’re about to pass Tokyo Station, the historic 1914 rail station that suffered bombing in WWII but has long-since been restored. It’s beautiful! I wish we had time to visit it!

We arrive at Tokyo Tower. It is a zoo here! Dozens of buses are in the lot!

I spy these carp flags. These are flying for Children’s Day, just around the corner. There used to be a Boy’s Day and a Girl’s Day. I guess they decided to combine them!

Once inside the lobby we begin our queue for the elevator. We are greeted by this strange fellow! Meet “Noppon”! This is the younger of two brothers, both with the same name, but the older wears blue coveralls! Fun, huh?

There isn’t much to show of the Tower itself once we reach the Observation Deck, but this strange setup is going on! I thought, “This is an odd way to use an inversion table!” (We have one at home, and your back goes against the bed, not your belly!) But this is “Bungee Jumping”! Virtual bungee jumping, that is! But this also gives you an idea of how the observation area is set up – very similar to other high observation points with slightly tilted glass and a convenient handrail! There are two levels in the Observation Deck area, and the lower one has a section with a glass floor! Don’t go there if heights bother you!

Of all of the photos I took from this deck, there is only one I want to share. This is the Zojo-ji Temple! No other building visible from the Tokyo Tower compare to this for its grace and elegance! The others are primarily office buildings.

I leave Tokyo Tower by the stairs since there isn’t any visibility in the elevator, and there was a waiting line. Approximately 600 steps down! Half of it is inside the tower, and half is in a caged area, allowing a view outside!

Later in the evening we (this time, Joy and I) have another tour to have dinner and see a geisha performance!

On the way we see the Tokyo Tower lit up! Beautiful!

Here’s our table at the dinner! We succeed in having one of the tables closest to the stage! The gentleman in the vest is Uchida-san. He pours the initial rounds of sake and makes sure we are well supplied with fresh carafes of sake! Beer is on the table, self service. Red and white wines are available for the asking.

Dinner is an eight-course menu including several seafood bites and wakami (seaweed salad), sashimi, teriyaki salmon, and the most tender octopus I have ever had!

At the end of the evening Uchida-san pours Japanese whiskey for us! Yummy!

Here are two of the three geisha we had performing tonight! Here they are about to perform the Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Dance!

At the end of the evening we are allowed to get our photo with the geisha! This is my favorite!

[P.S. we just heard that Japan is passing a law forbidding westerners from having photographs with geisha – the westerners do not know how much respect the geisha deserve and treat them poorly. This is sad news.]

As we leave the event for the bus, we are given time to photograph the beautiful artwork this resort has on display. For a sense of scale, the ladies in this picture are almost life-size! There are about twenty of these panels as well as waterfalls, ponds, pottery, and small shrines! It’s a lovely walk around this resort!

We have crossed this bridge a couple of times during the day. It is the Tokyo Bay Bridge, also known as the Rainbow Bridge. Tonight we see the green lights! They do change colors, hence the name “Rainbow”, but it is a slow change.

On our second day in Tokyo, we have a tour called “Shopping: Modern and Traditional”! (Joy wanted to do some shopping, and other tours didn’t allow enough time.)

We begin by driving north to Asakusa. We spend a little time around the Senso-ji Shrine. It is raining! It is a little cold, but not bad.

Near the Shrine there are a few statues that someone thought enough about to knit caps and scarves for them!

There are twin Buddhas, called Nisonbutsa (A Pair of Buddhas). For worshippers of Buddha, the one on the right is said to bring mercy, and the one on the left, wisdom!

As the crowds thin we make our way to the Hozomon Gate. This is one of the gates for the Senso-ji Shrine.

This gate has the iconic red chochin lantern displayed in the center opening shown above – the left in this image below.

The pagoda is visible from the courtyard, bet we don’t go into it.

Instead, we head out for a little time to shop!

We didn’t find anything here, but it is a vibrant part of town! This is the “traditional” part of our shopping tour, and I won’t trouble you with the random photos I took of the streets.

Now it’s time for the “modern” part of the tour. We head to the Ginza!

Our focus for today is to find some paint brushes and thank you cards. I snap a few memorable corners.

We see some dated hot rods running down the street – people can rent these for a day, and it seems like a poor decision when it’s raining!

We stop in front of the Sony building and Joy takes my camera! We’re here in the Ginza!

By the way, we found the paintbrush we wanted as well as the thank you cards. And I found a beautiful fountain pen to add to my collection – one with Mt Fujiyama painted on it!

As we leave the Ginza with our “loot” I see this in a few buildings! A car comes out of the gray door on the left, stops on the round disk. It’s a turntable that rotates the car 90 degrees so it can pull straight out of the building! This certainly reduced turn radius and driveway length! Very cool!

Returning to the Tokyo cruise terminal we are told this orange boat is an Antarctic research vessel! It returned home for the Antarctic winter and will return in the fall, the Antarctic spring!