Today we had a blessed sleep in - not needing to meet until 9:35am. So I enjoyed a blissful rest before gathering up a pile of pencils and USB drives as gifts for the students of Keio University.
Our first stop today was the Meiji Shrine. For the first time in a long time we were without a tour guide, so Kaoru showed us around - as an expert from visiting the shrine for the past few years. This shrine was built to honour the Meiji Emporer, who opened up the country to foreign traders in the late 1800s, early 1900s (the birth of Mitsui). He was a revolutionary Emperor who brought Western culture to Japan - a running theme for today. The shrine itself is actually huge, it extends back to near our hotel, yet we caught the train around it for a number of stops to get to the best side. It is surrounded by a park which includes a baseball field amongst other sporting areas. The shrine is simply immense.
Massive Wooden Tori Gate
The main Shrine itself
The Emperor was well known for eating Western food and wine and these barrels were donated to his shrine
Our next stop was Keiro University, which was founded in 1858 during the Meiji reforms. It was done in response to its founder, Fukuzawa Yukichi (who appears on the 10,000 Yen note) believing that Western standards of education should be adopted as the country opened its doors to the world. The campus itself is beautiful, although it does operate a little differently to an Australian University. Primarily, there are still bells in this University and periods. Classes are listed on TVs to inform students what classes are on where.
We first had lunch at the cafeteria, which was amazing. For 300 Yen ($3) I had a chicken breast, chips and roast pumpkin. That is a ridiculous price for the food! And the food was amazing. The actual eating hall was full of students and there was a surprising number of Western exchange students. Josh and Clint made friends with a group of French students. After lunch we had a tour of the beautiful campus grounds with a number of students who will be going on exchange to Australian Universities in February including UQ, ANU and UNSW.
The campus itself is really beautiful, although much more compact than Newcastle's. There is a reasonably large quadrangle, but most buildings are more like small apartment blocks. There are a couple of heritage sites, including the first public speaking hall - which was made to reflect founder Fukuzawa Yukichi's fondness for making speeches and his belief that this was an important tradition from the West. (I happen to agree wholeheartedly.)
The original University Library - now used as a meeting hall
Bust of Fukuzawa Yukichi
The main stained glass window in the old Library - showing a goddess (Western Civilization) meeting a samurai warrior (Japan). The latin underneath is the Keio Uni's motto and means: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword.
After our tour we joined in on a political science class where the Professor utilised the presence of us Australians as an opportunity to discuss the roles of Japan and Australia as "middle powers" particularly in regards to the rise of China as an economic, political and military superpower. There were two Australians per group, I was paired up with Clint. We had a fantastic time discussing the influence China has, particularly regarding the purchase of property and farming in Australia, migration, as well as the fear of the unknown behaviour of China, compared to a cultural understanding with the United States. I think we all learnt a lot. Steve said that he discovered a lot about Australia that he didn't know (Josh was his group partner and I believe Josh knows a lot about international relations.)
This evening was a free evening. The girls organised their own trip which later turned out to be the Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku. It received rave reviews from them so I intend to go tomorrow and see it. However, Steve and I went back to Akihabara to have a look at the night life. And it was like a completely different space. There were big crowds, lots of noise and plenty of shops vying for your attention. The craziest thing was that if you walked two meters away from the shopping area, it was like coming up for air - the area was so much quieter, less crowded - even less traffic. We dove head first in and I did a little bit of shopping (even successfully found some anime things I had been searching for for 17 days for a friend). We had McDonald's for dinner, like disappointing western tourists, but food was hard to find.
Lights and Crowds everywhere!
Tomorrow we are visiting the Australian Embassy and if the weather remains good, going up the Sky Tree. Hopefully a lot more photos for tomorrow (and a great Robot Restaurant story!)
We were running early today due to good traffic, Tokyo looked like a dream with fantastic weather. It was certainly a great day to go exploring. We were on our way to visit Nippon Steel, which is over the other side of Tokyo Bay. So instead of going around, we went under. In the middle of the bay is Umihotaru, an artificial island which serves as a rest area with food and an incredible view. We stopped there for a Starbucks because we were running so early today. The top floor is an open area where the Bay can be easily viewed. I didn't stay out there long however as the sea wind was extremely cold. In the middle of the day today it only reached 14 degrees, so winter has well and truly arrived.
The view
Turtles!
The way we came from
The itinerary today, in many ways, started out like a day at the office. It was really great to see a different type of foundry - steel sheet hot rolling and blast furnace, to what I am used to working in, although I did notice a few key differences. Primarily, that neither us nor the regular workers were wearing ear plugs, which was unusual given how loud the place was, particularly when the rolled steel was deformed and would bang across the rollers at high speeds. There was also no real barriers to prevent steam burns and we, as observers on raised platforms did not wear safety goggles, although we did wear helmets. All it all, I loved visiting, because it was just like going to work in the heat treatment plant, with hot steel and ovens and the sound of quenching.
Blast Furnace No. 4 - Biggest one
Gas Storage tank - used to collect waste gas for energy production
Materials used in the Blast Furnace Process, mostly from Australia (iron ore and coal)
Our next stop was back to Umihotaru for lunch before going to the Tokyo National Museum. This place was huge, with approximately four buildings, with multiple floors in each. With only two hours of time, Josh and I explored the themed rooms on Western Art (in Japan in the 19th century), Metal Work, Ceramics and the Japanese garden outside. It was beautiful and a real shame we were not able to stay longer to admire the breadth of artwork that was there. I found the Western style artwork a little sad because to me, it represented the Western demolition of a unique and beautiful culture as the Japanese artists tried to emulate Western methods and ideas behind art.
Buddha - not much you could photograph inside the gallery
The unique features of Japanese swords
Japanese garden photos - Josh insisted I stand in them
Model Pavilion
Not sure what this is exactly. It was in the garden of a Tea Ceremony hut
Purifying water for a tea ceremony
Overlooking the lake to the Japanese style Museum building
We went shopping for a few hours, first at Ameyoko (American Street) and then at Ginza. At Ameyoko, I bought myself some gloves, because my hands were cold. I imagine they are fake leather (although they smell like leather to me) because they were so cheap and they did not have a label, but I don't mind. At Ginza, I went to the Swarovski, and if I did not fall in love I don't know what I did. For months I have been admiring the Limited Edition Fantasia Mickey Mouse statue that Swarovski released this year, but I saw today the ultra expensive, limited to 150 pieces, crystal set version. He was at least twice as tall and took my breath away. The entire store was amazing, with multiple other statues made in the same way, and crystals set into the floor and the stairs. There was a crystal cherry blossom branch hanging from the ceiling of the first floor and the second floor had a crystal art piece on display. It was completely incredible.
He's so pretty
Sorry for bad photo - trying to be sneaky. Stairs!
Our final stop for the evening was dinner with the MPE's in Ginza. Choosing from the menu was great and we had a wide variety of food, even though the place was known for its fish (which made it hard for Clare.) I had grilled chicken breast, some amazing tempura sweet potato with a sweet honey sauce and some stewed pork. Of course, one particular thing on the menu caught my eye: Whale. I've never seen it on the menu in Japan so far. The MPE's hadn't really eaten it, bar Yuri, who said she used to have it as part of school lunches for cultural experience when she was in elementary school Intrigued as she insisted it tastes like chicken, we ordered a plate to share between the sixteen of us. When it arrive it looked like blue cooked steak. Upon tasting I could best describe it as a hybrid of tuna and beef. I wouldn't say I was a huge fan, but I have certainly tasted worse.
On the menu
Whale on the left and right, whale bacon in the centre (apparently a delicacy - not a good one though)
Clare didn't eat any but she sat there whilst I tried it. Josh and Steve also gave it a go.
It was a late night but fortunately we have a late morning. Tomorrow we are attending University. There's just seven more days till I am home. How the time has flown by.
It was nice to have a bit of a sleep in today. Whilst the girls slunk out early to go to Disneyland (or Disney Sea I think) the boys and I decided to meet up in the lobby at 8:30am to catch the train to the Geek Mecca: Akihabara. Well known for its retro video games, Akihabara is a hub of everything awesome - retro video games, Marvel, DC and Anime merchandise and technology shops. You do occasionally find yourself in stores with less than wholesome merchandise - hentai blurs with comic books a lot, so a word of warning if you are visiting.
We arrived at about 9 o'clock, which was an hour before anything actually opened. This was actually a good thing because Akihabara is actually quite large, with multiple versions of the same store (I believe they stock different things) and it is very difficult to get around, particularly without internet to use Google Maps. So our first stop was Yodobashi - the same chain as the massive toy store from Kyoto. It was nine stories tall, but only one floor was toys - although the floor was huge. My first stop was the camera department to try and get a filter for my brother, but I couldn't find the right brand (I should never be sent shopping for things I know nothing about.)
Some of the buildings around Akihbara
Speaking of which, I have been spending the last couple of days searching for a birthday present for Frank (my friend) who is turning 21 before I get home. So every toy store I go into I am searching anime aisles without speaking a word of Japanese or having any understanding of any of his animes which leads to hours of hilarious time wasting. I have seen so much anime and it all looks the same to me (cue: nerd rage). Still, despite best efforts, not luck at Yodobashi.
Our next stop was going to be a Maid Cafe - a cute little place where the waitresses are maids and refer to you as master/lady. It was going to be our quirky Japan thing - we were all pretty sure it was going to be fetishist, but fun none-the-less, but after much searching and being unable to find our original one, we found another that opened at 11:30. So instead we visited retro gaming store. Three floors of original PlayStation, Nintendo Game Cube and Gameboy games - it was incredible. It even had a Virtual Boy which was an amazing thing to play. Even more surprising was how cheap the games were, for vintage games. The only issue is they are all Japanese and some are region locked in one way or another. It was still great fun to explore, play some old games, listen to 8-bit music and I got some neat merchandise too.
Vintage Nintendo in Pristine Condition
After geeking out we grabbed lunch at the Maid Cafe @home cafe. It was a small cafe where we were greeted by adorable girls dressed in maid costumes. Our waitress, Rii, was super nice and her English was very good. The prices were also really good considering we spent about 25 dollars each and got a drink, meal and a photo with a maid of our choosing. When we were shown the photos of the maids we all picked the same maid, who happened to be the girl serving us. She was so happy we picked her and was very grateful.
I ordered a massive chocolate sundae that filled me up quite nicely. It was super delicious, although the jelly at the bottom tasted funny (could just be my cold) and it oddly had cornflakes in it. Before we could eat it, we had to do some hilarious Japanese chants which were magic that made our food taste better. The water we were served as complimentary was also "love water." At the end we also got a few presents, a pair a chopsticks because we were from Australia, a letter and card for being so nice to our maid and a folder for posting a status about it on Facebook. Afterwards, we went to the souvenir store and Josh bought all five photos of our maid that were available, which was hillarious.
The coffees got a picture of your choosing drawn on them by your maid
Yum!
The photo of my photo with Rii - our sweet maid
We explored Akihabara for the next couple of hours before splitting up at 2pm. Steve and I headed towards to National Museum for Emerging Science and Technology. It was a reasonable trip of about forty minutes, most of which was on the new monorail across town. If nothing else, the view on the way there and back was totally worth it. The monorail runs over the main Tokyo bridge and across the harbour, showing a brilliant view of the city.
Poor window shots of some of the view - I will have night ones tomorrow I hope
After arriving at the museum, we had two hours to experience everything. We were lucky we got inside when we did, because not even a minute after we entered, it started to absolutely pour down with rain again. Unfortunately the dome theatre with the 3D projection of the universe was full, but we did get to explore how space was formed and climb inside a spacecraft, as well as look at the ISS and the role it serves for humanity. We also sat down and watched a lecture (in Japanese) about Brain Machine Interface (BMI). It was a talk aimed at kids and already having experience in the lecture helped me follow along. The Science Communicator warned us before it started and was super nice about it. We didn't sit through the whole talk, but we did get to see a very cool demonstration of the technology. As an engineer, this excites me so much for the possibilities in assisting the disabled and allowing us to access dangerous areas with ease and without risking human life.
Dog Statue for an event on at the Museum
The Museum itself - pretty impressive huh?
Thermal Imaging Camera Selfie!
A digital globe hung in the front of the museum - it rotated weirdly though
Aussie Pride!
BMI Demonstration - she controls it with her brain!
The other floor was totally awesome. It was all about robots and the challenges in having androids involved in our everyday life. There were a number of robots to interact with, as well as interactive displays on hydrogen generation, conductive plastic and how computers transfer information. The highlight of course has to be the live Asimo Demonstration. It was incredibly talented for a robot and took the time to demonstrate how the entire body must compensate during walking. It even sang a song and signed the words as well. That alone was definitely worth the entry fee.
This android would sit and talk to you
Asimo!
Sending a binary message
The message was the letter "Shi"
Tada!
An octopod that wasn't on demonstration today
Android reading the news
Asimo Demonstration
After a long monorail ride back, enjoying the gorgeous views of the city at twilight, Steve and I grabbed some food for dinner and headed back to our hotel rooms to have a nice relaxing evening before getting right back into the fast paced itinerary for our final week here in Japan.
