The moral of today’s story: I should have worn shorts instead of long pants.
Today’s plan, as yesterday’s had 4 things on it. Go to Kendo practice, Visit the Imperial Palace grounds, see the Tokyo Metro building in Shinjuku, and take in a movie. As with yesterday as well, I only got half of my list done.
I got up with my alarm at 7:00am as planned. Made ready and was out the door by 8:00. Kendo practice didn’t start until 9:30, but I wanted to have plenty of time so I could find my way. I rode my normal train into Shinjuku, disembarked, and found the entrance to the subway I needed to take. As the subway got moving I wasn’t sure if it was the right one because the subway maps (unlike their train counter-parts) are all in Kanji (the Japanese character set I don’t read well.) But after a while I found a map in the subway car that had “Roman” lettering for station names. Reassured I rode the subway for maybe a half an hour. When the subway pulled into the station I was to switch trains at I found that I was far enough away from the city center to where they don’t put “Roman” lettering subtitles on things for foreigners anymore. Luckily I managed to find the line I needed to take and went up to the platform.
Now, up to this point I’ve been feeling pretty in control of my surroundings. I know Shimotakaido, Shinjuku, and Ichigaya like the back of my hand. I know the JR (Japan Rail) train lines like whoa. I got careless. I rushed for the train sitting on the platform as I came up the stairs. 20 minutes later when the train stopped at a station, everyone got off, and the conductor came and told me to get off, I realized I had the right train line, but had taken it in the WRONG DIRECTION! By some amazing feat of time travel I managed to be only 5 minutes late for the start of Kendo practice.
Kendo practice was, um, interesting. The Sensei (er, instructor) really knows his stuff. The teacher from NiDai (as the Japanese call Nihon Daigaku) who invited students to participate stepped aside to show me some of the basics (how to hold the Shinai, where to put my feet, how to sit Seiza style (ouch).) Shorts would have been better here because there was a lot of foot work and my pants kept dragging on the floor making it hard to move about. After some warm-ups and drills, I took a side seat and watched as the students did 2 person drills. The first one they did involved hitting their opponent on the head repeatedly. They wore helmets (the kind you see people who do Kendo wear…) After that the older (I assume more practiced) students did a sort of match practice, where they tried to score hits on their opponent. After practice was over I thanked the Sensei and my teacher and headed back to the train.
So, I learned my lesson right? Don’t rush for the train, even if you’re mostly sure it’s the right one. Right? WRONG! This time I took the train in the wrong direction for an hour. I changed trains twice (the train would stop, everyone got off, another train came, we got back on.) Eventually the landscape started to roll by… Tokyo’s built on a plain… I got off finally and asked a station master what train to take to get to Ichigaya station (to get to school/the Imperial Palace.) He said there’s be a train by in about 15 minutes on the other platform so I bought a pop and rested a while thinking how unearthly stupid I had to be to get my self in the same situation twice. The ride to Ichigaya would have taken maybe 20 minutes if I had gotten on the right train in the first place… Ungh! But, the Imperial Palace awaited!
I exited the Ichigaya subway station and had to get my bearings. Unlike other places, in Ichigaya, the train and subway stations are separate. I found a map on a wall and charted a course over to the palace grounds. After about maybe 8 blocks or so I came across a high wall with wrought iron spikes at the top and trees on the other side. I figured this was an outer wall to the palace and followed it around for several hundred meters only to find… it was the English embassy. Wow, do they have a nice joint. I’ll have to find the American one some day… following the embassy wall a bit further I spotted the wall across a street and a moat (a dead giveaway) the real palace wall. I crossed the street and followed the moat around the outer wall for a while. Eventually a road bridge crossed the moat towards the walled area so I went over. Continuing to walk along the outside of the wall (now without a moat between me and it (well a ditch)) I noticed to two things most evidently. First, the Imperial palace grounds are HUGE. Take the whole of the mall in D.C., throw in the White House and you’re close. Take the Kremlin and multiply by 4 and you’re on track. The scale of the complex is amazing. And there’s more to that but before I get ahead of myself the second thing I noticed was that funny “I’m being watched” feeling. Even when I couldn’t see anyone watching I had the sense there was a sniper somewhere begging permission from his chief to be able make my head into soup if I so much as stepped wrong. I suppose that comes with visiting another countries seat of power though. After some time I came across a place where the moat running around the palace turned and ran right through it. On the side sans Imperial residence there is a very nice… park, thing. It is in fact the Imperial Gardens. On the way in you get a little tag. There’s no admission, but the tags are used to make sure everyone’s out of the park at the end of the day. The gardens used to be part of the palace proper, but have since been turned into parkland. There are still several spots that have remnants of the old castle. Thankfully there were also signs in English so I knew what I was looking at. (Yes, yes, I’m here to study Japanese, but sometimes it’s nice to know what the **** you’re looking at.) After meandering and taking pictures, I strolled out a different gate than the one I came in. Mistake?
I’m a navigator at heart. I pride myself on having a good sense of direction. I got lost. Not really lost though… I knew where I needed to go, but I was so far off track that it took me a good hour of walking to get back to known ground. In that hour I walked through what is normally a bustling business district (thankfully it was Sunday), under a freeway, and over a moat (the 2nd defensive palace moat) several times. It was hot, why did I wear long pants!? While walking I came to the conclusion that this city waits until you let your guard down before it eats you. The 3 times I slipped today all involved me thinking I was better than the city, that I knew it so well… But the city proved me wrong, and I respect that. Tired and stressed I hobbled onto the train to Shinjuku.
I paused only shortly in Shinjuku to buy a real adapter for my laptop power cord (as opposed to the ad-hawk solution I was using.) before getting on the train home. I’m so tired right know I can barely type. I’m so glad tomorrow is a holiday. I could use a break. All that’s on the docket for tomorrow is relaxing, laundry, cleaning, and homework.
Today’s plan, as yesterday’s had 4 things on it. Go to Kendo practice, Visit the Imperial Palace grounds, see the Tokyo Metro building in Shinjuku, and take in a movie. As with yesterday as well, I only got half of my list done.
I got up with my alarm at 7:00am as planned. Made ready and was out the door by 8:00. Kendo practice didn’t start until 9:30, but I wanted to have plenty of time so I could find my way. I rode my normal train into Shinjuku, disembarked, and found the entrance to the subway I needed to take. As the subway got moving I wasn’t sure if it was the right one because the subway maps (unlike their train counter-parts) are all in Kanji (the Japanese character set I don’t read well.) But after a while I found a map in the subway car that had “Roman” lettering for station names. Reassured I rode the subway for maybe a half an hour. When the subway pulled into the station I was to switch trains at I found that I was far enough away from the city center to where they don’t put “Roman” lettering subtitles on things for foreigners anymore. Luckily I managed to find the line I needed to take and went up to the platform.
Now, up to this point I’ve been feeling pretty in control of my surroundings. I know Shimotakaido, Shinjuku, and Ichigaya like the back of my hand. I know the JR (Japan Rail) train lines like whoa. I got careless. I rushed for the train sitting on the platform as I came up the stairs. 20 minutes later when the train stopped at a station, everyone got off, and the conductor came and told me to get off, I realized I had the right train line, but had taken it in the WRONG DIRECTION! By some amazing feat of time travel I managed to be only 5 minutes late for the start of Kendo practice.
Kendo practice was, um, interesting. The Sensei (er, instructor) really knows his stuff. The teacher from NiDai (as the Japanese call Nihon Daigaku) who invited students to participate stepped aside to show me some of the basics (how to hold the Shinai, where to put my feet, how to sit Seiza style (ouch).) Shorts would have been better here because there was a lot of foot work and my pants kept dragging on the floor making it hard to move about. After some warm-ups and drills, I took a side seat and watched as the students did 2 person drills. The first one they did involved hitting their opponent on the head repeatedly. They wore helmets (the kind you see people who do Kendo wear…) After that the older (I assume more practiced) students did a sort of match practice, where they tried to score hits on their opponent. After practice was over I thanked the Sensei and my teacher and headed back to the train.
So, I learned my lesson right? Don’t rush for the train, even if you’re mostly sure it’s the right one. Right? WRONG! This time I took the train in the wrong direction for an hour. I changed trains twice (the train would stop, everyone got off, another train came, we got back on.) Eventually the landscape started to roll by… Tokyo’s built on a plain… I got off finally and asked a station master what train to take to get to Ichigaya station (to get to school/the Imperial Palace.) He said there’s be a train by in about 15 minutes on the other platform so I bought a pop and rested a while thinking how unearthly stupid I had to be to get my self in the same situation twice. The ride to Ichigaya would have taken maybe 20 minutes if I had gotten on the right train in the first place… Ungh! But, the Imperial Palace awaited!
I exited the Ichigaya subway station and had to get my bearings. Unlike other places, in Ichigaya, the train and subway stations are separate. I found a map on a wall and charted a course over to the palace grounds. After about maybe 8 blocks or so I came across a high wall with wrought iron spikes at the top and trees on the other side. I figured this was an outer wall to the palace and followed it around for several hundred meters only to find… it was the English embassy. Wow, do they have a nice joint. I’ll have to find the American one some day… following the embassy wall a bit further I spotted the wall across a street and a moat (a dead giveaway) the real palace wall. I crossed the street and followed the moat around the outer wall for a while. Eventually a road bridge crossed the moat towards the walled area so I went over. Continuing to walk along the outside of the wall (now without a moat between me and it (well a ditch)) I noticed to two things most evidently. First, the Imperial palace grounds are HUGE. Take the whole of the mall in D.C., throw in the White House and you’re close. Take the Kremlin and multiply by 4 and you’re on track. The scale of the complex is amazing. And there’s more to that but before I get ahead of myself the second thing I noticed was that funny “I’m being watched” feeling. Even when I couldn’t see anyone watching I had the sense there was a sniper somewhere begging permission from his chief to be able make my head into soup if I so much as stepped wrong. I suppose that comes with visiting another countries seat of power though. After some time I came across a place where the moat running around the palace turned and ran right through it. On the side sans Imperial residence there is a very nice… park, thing. It is in fact the Imperial Gardens. On the way in you get a little tag. There’s no admission, but the tags are used to make sure everyone’s out of the park at the end of the day. The gardens used to be part of the palace proper, but have since been turned into parkland. There are still several spots that have remnants of the old castle. Thankfully there were also signs in English so I knew what I was looking at. (Yes, yes, I’m here to study Japanese, but sometimes it’s nice to know what the **** you’re looking at.) After meandering and taking pictures, I strolled out a different gate than the one I came in. Mistake?
I’m a navigator at heart. I pride myself on having a good sense of direction. I got lost. Not really lost though… I knew where I needed to go, but I was so far off track that it took me a good hour of walking to get back to known ground. In that hour I walked through what is normally a bustling business district (thankfully it was Sunday), under a freeway, and over a moat (the 2nd defensive palace moat) several times. It was hot, why did I wear long pants!? While walking I came to the conclusion that this city waits until you let your guard down before it eats you. The 3 times I slipped today all involved me thinking I was better than the city, that I knew it so well… But the city proved me wrong, and I respect that. Tired and stressed I hobbled onto the train to Shinjuku.
I paused only shortly in Shinjuku to buy a real adapter for my laptop power cord (as opposed to the ad-hawk solution I was using.) before getting on the train home. I’m so tired right know I can barely type. I’m so glad tomorrow is a holiday. I could use a break. All that’s on the docket for tomorrow is relaxing, laundry, cleaning, and homework.
Ja Mata Ne.
posted by Dockett at 9:00 PM
1 Comments:
Should I call AAA for a Tokyo map?
Dad Cat
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