As of yesterday, we’ve traded Bangkok for Tokyo. The population of each city is around 13 million and both are large urban areas. But we’ve gone from tropical heat (mid 90’s) and high humidity to emerging spring (temperatures in the high 60’s). From palm trees and lush greenery to deciduous trees just beginning to leaf. From loud traffic, thousands of motor scooters and much street activity in Bangkok to just cars and men hurrying along the street in dark suits. Hard to believe, but Tokyo seems very quiet to me! And very orderly and neat. Everything worked upon arrival. The six hour flight was smooth, the immigration process efficient, and the luggage arrival almost immediate. We did have to open a few bags for customs inspection, but even that was fairly quick.
Our hotel is in a quiet area close to the U.S. Embassy (not planned) and our room quite large. The hotel is a classic one and most would call the architecture dated, which it is, but so far the service and the food have been first rate. As this is Japan, there is lots of bowing. All the hotel staff bow several times when greeting you and then again after whatever conversation or request has been made.
It turns out that we are in Tokyo at just the right time for the cherry blossoms. So this morning we headed via subway to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. Riding the subway requires both determination and patience. Determination in the form of willingness to learn a new system that has many lines and unfamiliar names. The names are also in English on the signs and maps, but still…. Patience to persist when the automatic ticket machine won’t take either your yen bill or your credit card. The third time was a charm and we got our all-day 600 yen tickets.
The garden was lovely and the cherry trees as beautiful as promised. There was a security line to get in checking bags for drinks as alcohol is not permitted, but it moved along. We saw lots of Japanese families and office workers picnicking on the grass and, of course, everyone had a camera of some sort!
After lunch at a small tapas restaurant where we enjoyed grilled swordfish with rice and a salad, we got back on the subway for a short ride to the stop for Meiji Jingu. This is a Shinto shrine built in 1920, which houses the ashes of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. It’s in a lovely park with lots of trees and the entrance is marked by a series of very high stately wooden arches. The shrine buildings themselves are rather spare and mostly the brown of the cedar, a sharp contrast to the bright red and gold used in some of the Chinese temples we visited in Vietnam. We had fun watching two different bridal parties process through the courtyard on their way to the shrine, the brides both in white and their attendants in lovely kimonos.
Bangkok Footnote
On our last day in Bangkok, we spent the morning at the Science Centre for Education. This is a complex of six buildings which provides science learning opportunities and events for children in Bangkok and also from the rest of Thailand. They see around 2 million students each year and offer science labs, science camps, science festivals, and teacher training in addition to 8 floors of museum exhibits and a planetarium. They also have an extensive traveling outreach program which features three buses: a planetarium bus, an astronomy bus and a biodiversity bus. We were impressed!
