Friday, 06 July 2018

Today sucked.  We left our little house in Kamakura and drove 30 miles to Tokyo.  The plan was to return the rental car at Tokyo Station (one of the main train depots), take the subway to our hotel, and spend the majority of the day having fun.  Instead, we had an all-day affair of frustration and expense.

I don’t recommend driving in Japan.  For one thing, Japan requires foreigners to have an International driver’s license, which you have to get before you leave your home country.  Adam went thought the process months ago during the planning stages of our trip.

Secondly, driving in Japan is stressful.  They have some strange road rules and the roads themselves are narrow — they seem too narrow for two-way traffic, but that’s how they are used anyway.  The country doesn’t seem to be set up for cars well; parking is hard to find, expensive, and they have a lot of indecipherable rules about it.  We were constantly afraid we’d return to our parking spot and find our car booted or towed.  It also made finding Airbnb’s more difficult because we had to get places with parking spots.  (In the case of Kamakura, our designated parking spot was nearly 1/2 mile from the house.)  And the rental car agent in Kyoto stressed to us that every time a car is involved in any kind of problem, the police MUST BE CALLED.  She repeated this probably 8 times.  We were worried about what on earth we’d do if we had to deal with police when we can’t speak Japanese.

And lastly, many of the roads are toll roads, and the tolls are really steep.  One was US$70, another was $US50.  Most were in the $13 – $20 range, to go just a few kilometres.  Gas was nearly $6 gallon.

In short: driving in Japan is frustrating, inconvenient, and expensive.

We had the address of the Toyota rental agency in Tokyo, the place we were required to return the car.  We keyed it into our GPS; and then found ourselves driving around in Hell.  It kept saying “You have arrived at your destination” when we clearly hadn’t.  It was like a video game when you’re standing right on the map dot, but the thing you’re looking for is. not. there.  At least with a video game there is a great online community that gives detailed instructions on how to fix your problem.  In this case, each time the GPS told us we were at our destination, we were inside a tunnel. There was no online walk-through to help us out (and believe me, we looked for one!)

This particular tunnel had a toll booth near the entrance with a $13 fee each time you drove through.  The first time, the guard let us through without paying since we’d gone such a short distance (like 100 feet or so).  We didn’t find the Toyota Rental Agency inside the tunnel (You have arrived at your destination — “What the hell?!?”) , and the GPS re-routed us 5km through the city — back to the exact same tunnel.  This time we didn’t even have a toll ticket because the on-ramp didn’t take us back onto the highway where the tickets were issued.  The guard looked annoyed, but wrote something down on a clip-board and let us through again.

This time we saw a dingy little off-ramp midway through the tunnel that looked like a maintenance access area for authorised personnel only, but it was for an underground parking garage.  We drove by, looking for another off-ramp, and ended up outside the tunnel again, and again were re-routed 5km through the city (which in traffic took around 30 minutes each time).  Adam quit using the car’s GPS and switched to the one in his phone.

Now we were sent to a different location, but the result was more or less the same:  we weren’t in a tunnel this time, but the thing said you have arrived at your destination with no sign of a Toyota Rental Agency.  Adam pulled over and tried to call the number on our rental agreement, but it took several calls to get an actual human, and when we did, he barely spoke English and had no idea where the Tokyo Station rental agency was located.  He just gave us the same address we already had.

By this time, we’d been driving the same 5km loop in Tokyo for nearly 3 hours.  We finally had the idea that maybe the rental return was inside that parking garage back in the tunnel.  Back we went; this time the guard was none too pleased and made us pay the $13.  We pulled into the parking structure and found several rental car agencies (success!!) which turned sour when none of them were for Toyota.  I finally got out and asked at a different agency, and the girl (who spoke no English at all) understood “Toyota” at least, and gave me a little map — all in Japanese.  We spent some time deciphering that, and realised we had to take an exit from inside the parking garage into a different part of the city and drive to a different parking garage to find Toyota.  That cost us another US$3 to drive though the first garage. In total, $16 to drive through a parking garage we never parked in.

At last we found the correct rental return agency.  We were frustrated, stressed out, hungry, and now hauling all of our luggage through the city.  (As we walked away, shed of the car we now hated, Adam muttered “That was a total clusterfuck.” All three kids wide-eyed and open-mouthed: “What did you just say?!”)

It was after 1:00 p.m. by then and all the nearby restaurants had lines out the door, so we couldn’t even get food.  We headed to the train station to go to our hotel.

Our hotel is another frustrating issue:  unbeknownst to us, Tokyo instituted some new licensing rules for Airbnb that took effect about 3 weeks ago, and more than 50,000 places were shut down while they waded through the bureaucratic red tape to get their license renewed.  A couple days ago we discovered this highly unpleasant surprise when we could only find ONE place to stay in all of Tokyo and surrounding areas, and that place was over US$2,000 per night.  We finally found a regular hotel out by Disney that could take us, but could only get 3 days there.

As far as hotels go, this one is actually pretty nice.  It’s connected to the train station and the ride into the city is only about 20 minutes, so hopefully it won’t be too inconvenient.

Anyway, the whole ordeal killed an entire day and left us in terrible moods.  We turned in fairly early and hope that tomorrow is much better.

(Below) On the train to our hotel.  Holden now travels the trains like a local.

Our hotel: Urayasu Brighton Hotel Tokyo Bay.

View from our window.  That’s the train station, so it’s really convenient for getting around.

Adam’s take on the day:

We’re finally in Tokyo – and will be here for about a week.

The origins of this trip are based on Isabella’s graduation from high school. Although this trip isn’t her graduation present, we did allow her to have a strong say in where we spent this final summer before she heads off to college.  She wanted to return to Japan and, specifically, Tokyo.

We have kept our travel itinerary pretty loose on this trip. We wanted the freedom to wander as it pleased us and determine the amount of time we stay in any location based on our feelings at the time. The week in Korea was a last minute side trip just because we found ridiculously cheap airline tickets to Seoul, for example.

It never occurred to me that we might have problems finding lodging in Tokyo. It is the world’s largest city and has a robust AirBnB community. However, what I didn’t know was that a new law went into effect on June 15 in Tokyo that essentially shut down AirBnB for awhile. All landlords must now go through a new process to register their locations. The new law’s backers are a combination of the Hotel Industry (which hates the competition) and the residents of local neighborhoods (who hate having an endless string of foreign lodgers come and go).

The result of this was that more than 80% of eligible AirBnB locations were shut down and there was NOWHERE in all of Tokyo for us to stay. We had to start having discussions on avoiding Tokyo altogether or fly off to some other country & etc. In the end, we found a hotel outside of town (20 minute train ride) near Tokyo Disneyworld that could accommodate the 5 of us. We decided to stay here for 3 nights and then see what else might come available…

****

Friday was a travel day, and a lousy one.. probably the low point of our vacation. It took far too long to get into Tokyo (bumper to bumper) and finding the Toyota-Rent-A-Car location in downtown Tokyo, in some underground garage that wasn’t marked, was a real stress builder. By the time we got to our hotel and got some food in us, it was already 2:00pm. It was raining and a bit cold. Everyone (mostly me) was testy. By the time we got to our room, all we wanted to do was shower and hunker down in our beds and watch TV.

I did manage to drive successfully through Japan without any incidents (that I’ll admit to). 1400km driven, including several hours in downtown Tokyo. I earned my merit badge.

Some good news, we have found an AirBnB for us to stay MON-FRI nights of this week.. it just came back online after having been registered and I grabbed it the minute it came available. These apartments are not only cheaper than hotels, but we get several rooms (the 5 of us in one hotel room really tests the love we have for each other..), a kitchen, fridge and can do laundry. This is a huge upgrade and has saved the final week of our trip.

Saturday, 07 July 2018

Adam: I told the kids that we don’t have any agendas or “must see” places this time.. so they’re going to get to decide the majority of the itinerary. Isabella and Josie wanted to return to Harajuku and the famed Takeshita Street (pronounced “talk-esh-ta”, not like it reads…)

Harajuku is known internationally as a center of Japanese youth culture and fashion. This is where all the freaks let their flags fly. Shopping and dining options include many small, youth-oriented, independent boutiques and cafés.

We got their early in the day (a common complaint from my family) and it was too soon to get real crazy.

On the way: Holden putting on sunscreen, me copying what the Asians do to avoid the sun.

There is practically no graffiti in Japan.  The only place we’ve seen it had a sign posted reading No! Graffiti  Any violation is punishable by law. It seems that passive-aggressive notes are not appreciated in any culture.

Harajuku is known for their creperies and there is no shortage of options.

The streets when it’s “too early” to be crowded.  A lot of the shops weren’t even open yet.

This little shop, CalbeePlus, specialised in potato chips, cut and fried right in front of you. We chose “pizza taste with melted cheese.”  They were pretty good.  They tasted a lot like nachos.

People in costumes are starting to come out.

We just happened to stumble upon a restaurant specialising in tonkotsu ramen: Kyushu Jangara Ramen Harajuku.  They had room for 5 at a counter, so we took it.  Best of all, they offered a bowl of vegan ramen for Josie.  Finally something for everyone!

Adam ordered a spicy version called Budo-Karabon.  — Menu description:  I put a spicy in rich soup “Bonchan”.  I just pursued “the depth of taste” not just painful.  As a result, we decided to blend ten kinds of spices. People who are “regulars who love to spice” are regularly “bunny” straight lines. A moderate spicy leaves a faint and lingering finish in the mouth. Please try by all means once.

I ordered Kobonshan, a garlic variety.  Menu description — Please enjoy the sense of unity of “Homemade Mercer Oil (Garlic Burning Oil)” and “Mild Tonkotsu Soup Boiled Crisply”. The material is Tonkotsu, License. “Kumamoto ramen” is the roots. Especially it is rammed with a characteristic flavor/sweetness. If you sip a soup, you will find “fragrant garlic fragrance” in your mouth. Its mellow richness is captivating the people of “Gobon Mania” throughout the country.

This meal was a treat for all of us.  It was one of the best meals we’ve had on the whole trip.  We also got really lucky to find seats; after we’d ordered but before we’d been served, the place filled up and people were being turned away.  I am going to try my best to recreate this type of ramen dish at home.  (All the food close-ups from now on are because I want to remember how they are supposed to look.)

After lunch we walked back through Takeshita Street going the other way so we could see some of the shops that had still been closed on our first pass. Now it’s starting to get crowded.

Holden (on balcony, greenish shirt) signaling to Adam that Mom and sisters need him inside the store.  Adam is the keeper of all the yen.

Adam: After lunch, we traveled to another part of town for one of Josie’s choices – a return to the largest Pokemon themed store in the world. This place was also crowded – People can’t get enough of this stuff and it rivals the cult-like-fervor for Disney gear that we sometimes see in the U.S. The kids didn’t buy anything – they said that everything was low quality and too high priced. Since all of their purchases on this trip come out of THEIR pockets, they’re much more discriminating. With regards to Pokemon gear, I think they’ve all just outgrown the interest – what was cooler 3 years ago when we were last here is now not as interesting.

Inside the Pokemon store.

The kids’ chief complaint was that most of the merchandise was Generation 7 (whatever that means) and they don’t know any of the characters.  Our kids were into Pokemon during Generations 1 thru 4, and apparently the Pokemon people aren’t making merch for Gen 1-4 anymore.  “We can’t be expected to pay money for something that isn’t nostalgic” Isabella declared.  Josie said, “That was kind of a letdown.  I was really looking forward to this and I’m disappointed.”

It was too early to go back to the hotel for the day, but we were all getting tired of being out.  We decided to visit Tokyo’s version of Disney Springs, in Orlando — Disney Ikspiari.  It’s the free part of the Disney complex where you can shop or go to restaurants without buying a park ticket.  Ikspiari is only one train stop from our hotel, so when we were done it was a quick trip back home.

People like to dress up here at Disney, too.

They have a Mexican restaurant!  Guzman y Gomez.  This display of plastic food is sitting outside the door so people can see what they might be served.  We thought about eating here just to see what the Japanese take on Mexican food is like, because we’ve found that other countries typically butcher Mexican food.  America does a pretty good job, especially if you’re fairly close to the Mexico border, but even in the US you usually get TexMex instead of authentic Mexican dishes.  It was too early for dinner, though, and we ended up deciding not to. We were also a little afraid that we’d end up paying a lot of money for not-very-good food.

More people all dressed up.

Adam: We have not suffered from the huge rainstorms in Southern Japan. All of the deaths and destruction are taking place well to the south of us. Saturday was a very pleasant day in Tokyo and the weather looks to hold fairly well.. slight chances of rain each day, but we won’t get socked in.

We did, however, “enjoy” an earthquake last night. It hit about 8:20pm and rocked our high-rise hotel building for about 30 seconds. The kids have never experienced an earthquake and THAT got them jabbering well into the night.

Richter 5.9 earthquake. No recorded damage. I know well that the buildings in Tokyo are designed for this, but it’s still always a bit unsettling.  My last earthquake experience was in a high-rise in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and I do NOT know how well their buildings are constructed.

Sunday, 08 July 2018

Today we walked around some of the kids’ favorite locations, Shibuya and Akihabara.

Adam (below): Inside one of the video game parlors in Shibuya – an active neighborhood in Tokyo.  The kids are always eager to see these… “They don’t have THIS in the U.S!”  

These places are loud, dark, overwhelming, and filled with smoke.  They may be one of the last places left in the world where people can smoke indoors.  Whenever I walk into one of these parlors, I am brutally yanked back to my childhood.  This is what the late 70s smelled like.

Shibuya is famous for its scramble crossing. Three large TV screens mounted on nearby buildings overlook the crossing, as well as many advertising signs.  This is the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world. Its heavy traffic and inundation of advertising has led to it being compared to the Times Square intersection in New York City.

This is what the street looks like when the crosswalk signal goes green.

All of us were getting a little tired of noodle dishes, so for today’s lunch we chose a place inside Shibuya Mark City mall called BiKiNi TAPA, a Catalan Spanish restaurant.  Adam and I shared some paella, Josie found a grilled vegetable platter, and Holden & Isabella both ordered a pork chop with rice.  The food here was quite good.

Isabella picked up Adam’s camera while he was in the men’s room and started snapping pictures even though she doesn’t know how to work his Leica.  This was the best shot she got, and the only picture we have of the restaurant.

Below: Interior shot of Shibuya Mark City. It’s like a mall, only bigger and has more stuff.  One entire floor is dedicated to restaurants (good ones!), it has a huge train station, a hotel, and Toyota Noren-Gai (Foods) — “opened in 1951.  It is a very famous food shopping street with its long history. We’re offering genuine articles and high quality food for the gifts, providing with nice taste and Omotenashi, perfect service.”  The place is so big they have little kiosks with map booklets in multiple languages peppered throughout the complex.

The kids found a pet store with the most adorable Shiba Inu puppy we’ve ever seen, with a US$2,000 price tag. The door to the left is for some seedy sex-parlor thing. You can see the signs showing “18” as minimum age.  (Oddly, “Baby Doll” is the pet store, not the sex store.)

Adam: An eight-storey guitar store… Great place to wander, but the rest of the family was bored.

We didn’t have any agenda this afternoon.  We just wandered from street to street, up and down alleys. There is more than enough to see and every once in awhile we find something crazy or new that keeps us interested.

Adam: Like gay boy singers with two horse-headed accompanying dancers. The sign says “Spread with Asobi virus and Horses!” Does that help?  

I looked up Asobi virus when we got home because I thought maybe it was a public warning about something like Mad Cow disease.  Nope.  Asobi Virus is the name of this band and apparently they are kind of a big deal here.  They have a large online presence and you can download their albums on iTunes.  Their webpage, as translated by Google, says “A boy running around the country with my short blond freckles blonde lives in my head.” Is that more helpful than “Spread with Asobi Virus and Horses!”?

These three guys were doing something, but we couldn’t figure out what.  They were dressed like Native Americans — sort of, in what looked like repurposed bed sheets and flip-flops, along with the feather headdresses — but had heavy black-face makeup on.  It was really weird and probably wildly racist, but we couldn’t tell which race of people were supposed to be offended. (Or honored?)

On to Akihabara. This neighborhood has dozens of stores specializing in anime, manga, retro video games, figurines, card games and other collectibles. It plays to the “Otaku” culture – the nerds/geeks that come here for electronics, games, books & etc.

Inside the Mandarake store – 8 more storeys of toys, collectible items, books, DVD’s & etc. Each floor is packed with cases and full of people.

Our kids are looking at collectible Pokemon cards. Some of these go for more than $1000 each.  Isabella could hardly believe it when she saw a Charizard card from the initial Japanese release in 1996.  These cards weren’t released in the US until 1999.  They wanted ¥120,000 for it.

For all your toy car needs.

Narrow staircases between each floor.

Adam: Endless Manga books. In this store, each floor had a specialty. For example, a floor of books for girls, another floor for boys, another floor just for girl-on-girl love books, another one with sex themes and other strange, naughty habits. These books are definitely for adults and we skipped a number of floors altogether, but not without loud and chattery observations from our 3 kids.

Below: This floor made the least sense to me.  It was all about these dolls.  They were incredibly creepy, partly because they didn’t have eyes.  There was a bin filled with eyeballs by the cash register. The deal is you pick out your body, eyes, hair, outfit, face shape, etc. to create your own character.  The bodies were all female, but they ranged from the ones in this photo with small boobs to the ones around the corner (not in the photo) with boobs so big the dolls couldn’t sit up without a special back brace.  They all had nipples.  It was gross and creepy and definitely had a fetish vibe, but was also weirdly innocent.  What are you supposed to do with these things?  They are too small to be sex dolls, but too sexual to be anything else.   The straight-up porn floors are easier to handle just because they at least make sense.  I don’t like porn, but I understand porn.  These dolls, though.  They’re fucked up.

Back outside, a restaurant specialising in caviar.   The Beluga course will run you ¥63,000 — about $570 per person.

Monday, 09 July 2018

Today we visited the Tokyo DisneySea.  This park is unique in design and rides and has received strong reviews from folks who travel all over the world to enjoy theme parks.  The tickets are reasonable (about half what you pay in Orlando) and the weather held up.

We ended up having a great day. We didn’t stay too late because we still needed to return to our hotel, pick up our luggage (which they were storing for us), and take several trains back into Tokyo downtown to find our next apartment.

Adam didn’t want to lug his good camera around all day, so these are all iPhone photos.

The biggest impression we had of the park was how beautiful and well designed it was. Here are some shots of the views..

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride.

Of course there were lines.

Many of the rides were set up to let people do their waiting inside air conditioned buildings with lots to look at.  It was so hot outside you didn’t mind getting into a long line because it meant you could stand inside where it was cool.  This is the line for Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull.

It got so hot in the afternoon — nearly 90°F, 79% humidity– that they started making safety announcements over the loud speaker system urging people to drink enough water, stand under umbrellas, and take frequent rest breaks to avoid heat stroke.

Standing in front of the roller coaster Raging Spirits.  It is the only coaster in the park with a 360° loop.

The only real disappointment of the day was that the park’s most popular ride, Journey to the Center of the Earth, was closed for repairs.  It’s underneath that volcano in the background.

Venetian canal rides.

One of the highlights of the afternoon was going popcorn hunting. Throughout the park they had small stands selling various flavors of popcorn. The kids walked all over looking for new styles.  In total, we sampled: Curry, Strawberry, Milk Chocolate, and Garlic Shrimp. We’d buy a small box at each stand and all share.

The small container (in Holden’s hand, above) was ¥350.  For between ¥2500 – ¥3100 (US$22-$27, depending on how fancy they were) you could buy a souvenir popcorn bucket.  They were elaborate affairs with different themes depending on where in the park you bought them.  We initially thought you could get free refills all day with the purchase of a bucket, but then found out that each refill was another ¥500.  (The refills were more than 2x the volume of the small container above, but still!)  Holden spent quite a bit of time doing the math to figure out how much popcorn you’d have to eat to come out ahead on the purchase of a souvenir bucket.  When we thought the refills were free, he figured you’d need to eat the equivalent of 7 or more small boxes.  When we found out the refills actually cost money, he gave up.  He couldn’t do the calculations in his head.

Below:
Adam:  Here the kids are coming off one of the rides where you get real wet, Aquatopia. I wanted to go and the kids actually balked for awhile, but finally relented. I told them that they wouldn’t get THAT wet … but we all did.  They were mad for about 30 seconds until they realized how nice they felt after a good soaking.

We had a fantastic time and got to ride on almost every attraction we wanted.  By 3:30, we were hot and getting tired, and still had a couple hours of train travel ahead of us — with all our luggage — in order to move from our current hotel to our new Airbnb in a neighborhood more centrally located in Tokyo.  We stopped for this one last photo before heading out to the train station.

More later!