Japan Trip 2013: Day 2 - Shinjuku Garden, Sumo Wrestling, and Akihabara

Warning: This is an incredibly long post. Good luck!

On Day 2, which was Friday, it was my plan to wake up early and go to the Tsukiji Fish Market to see the tuna auction. Ever since I saw Jiro Dreams of Sushi, seeing the tuna auction became something that I was really interested in. All of the guides I read said to get there around 4:00-4:30 a.m. because they only let 120 people in every morning. Since this was my first morning in Japan, waking up early was actually pretty easy because of the time difference/jetlag.

The subways and trains in Tokyo do not start running until after 5:00 a.m., so I had to grab my one and only taxi I took during my trip. I asked the guy at the front desk of my hotel if he could call me a taxi, but he said it would be faster if I just walked out to the main street and hailed one. He knew his stuff, because as soon as I walked out there, taxis were all over. It seems more like Tokyo is "The City That Never Sleeps."

Taxis in Tokyo are nice in that the door opens for you automatically and they are impeccably clean. I simply told my driver, "Tsukiji Shijo Nihonbashi, kudasai," which means Tsukiji Fish Market Japan Bridge, please. The Nihonbashi side of the market is where the fish market's information center is. It's good to specifically ask to be dropped off on this side because the market is so big.

Weaving through the streets of Tokyo was lots of fun, and if the taxi wasn't so darn expensive, I would have enjoyed doing this more. When I got to the market, the first thing I noticed were foreigners, i.e. other people who looked like me, walking away from the information center. I immediately started to worry that either the tuna auction was already filled up, or closed.

I saw three guys standing on the corner with one of them wearing a Canadian shirt. I asked them what was going on and they said that the auction was already full for the day. They said that they filled up at 3:00 a.m. WHAT!? 3 A.M.!? There was no way I was going to wake up at 2 a.m. any morning I was in Japan just to see the tuna auction. So, scratched that one off the list. Seeing the tuna auction has become the most popular tourist attraction in Tokyo now. If you want a guaranteed spot in the viewing, you'll need to get there at 3 a.m. Tsukiji Fish Market will be moving to a new facility soon, so perhaps they will accommodate with more room there, but I would not be surprised to also see them start charging for what is right now a free event.

But, it was still 4 a.m., dark, trains closed, and nothing to really do. The Canucks asked me if I'd like to join them on an exploration down the street, but I politely told them no as I had other plans throughout the day. As I wandered down the alleys of Tsukiji Fish Market early in the morning watching shop keepers putting out their merchandise and food for the day, I started to get hungry and went in search of a yummy ramen place I had read about. Most of the restaurants around the market were already open because of being able to serve the fish market workers.

I couldn't find it. The streets and alleys surrounding the perimeter of Tsukiji are a maze. How people can find things in this city simply based on an address is a mystery to me. Still, seeing the wide variety of shops and goods was interesting enough, but sorry, no pictures. It was really dark out still and I was tired.

I made my way to Tsukiji Shijo Station and hopped on a train back to my hotel to plan out my routes for the rest of the day. At some point during that time, I got to have my first Skype video call with Bethany and Coral back home. After catching up on what I've been up to, I headed out for Shinjuku Garden, a free Sumo tournament at Yasukuni Shrine, and the Meguro River.

 The sidewalk path towards Shinjuku Garden from Aoyama-Itchome Station.

The south entrance to Shinjuku Garden was only one subway stop away, so I decided to walk instead. It was a nice walk, and I'm glad I did it, but when I got to the entrance, the gates were closed. No, the garden wasn't closed, just that particular entrance. The other entrance was on the complete opposite side, so then it made sense to catch the train as it was 5-6 stops away (it's a big garden). This did require me to make a transfer at Shinjuku Station again, so I was hoping I'd have a little more luck figuring out where I needed to go this day.

But no. Shinjuku Station was still confusing as hell. I even asked people how to get to the line I was looking for, but they didn't know. They only knew where they needed to go, which makes sense. If I ride the 566 bus from Kent Station to Overlake and someone asks me how to transfer in Bellevue to get to Seattle, I'm going to tell them that I have no idea. I was so lost that I wasn't even near any station guards that I could ask. I eventually found my platform, but goodness! I vowed never to enter Shinjuku Station again. You win.

You've probably seen crazy pictures of Japanese folk falling asleep on the subway. It happens. A LOT! I even caught myself dozing off a couple times. This chap was nearly sideways by the time he got to his stop and almost left his cell phone behind.

Ichiyo cherry blossom tree in full bloom. Very pretty.

One of the few pictures of me taken by my phone. In front of the above sakura tree.

I eventually arrived at Shinjuku Garden, and if I was ever stressed, tired, or worried that my trip was a waste so far, this made the whole idea escape my memory. Shinjuku Garden is gorgeous. I may have missed the main somei yoshino and yamazakura cherry blossoms, but I did get to see plenty of shidarezakuras (weeping), ichiyo (20 petals), and kanzan (deep pink) cherry blossom trees. Even if there were no cherry blossoms at all, Shinjuku Gyoen is just a beautiful, serene place to be. It felt cool to have such a nice place right in the middle of the city, with skyscrapers surrounding it. I imagine that it's what Central Park feels like in New York.

You can see here that the cherry blossom trees that are bare are the ones that I missed this season. The thick blooming ones are the ichiyos.

Still very, very pretty.

I was going to mention that the garden was very clean, but all of Tokyo was pretty darn clean. They take good care of their environments and I rarely saw any trash on the floor. It's like walking around Main Street at Disneyland. There are still quite a bit of cigarette butts lying around since smoking is still a big deal there, but not too bad.

This sakura tree was angled pretty funny. Looks like Neo trying to dodge some bullets.

A few normal cherry blossom trees still had some petals, and this little guy was getting whatever was left behind. Japanese bees look weird.

There was lots of traditional stuff around the garden, too.

Beautiful view.

Largest stone lantern I have ever seen.

Japanese maple.

Lots of cherry blossom petals collecting in the pond.

Yeah, I was obsessed with the NTT DoCoMo Yoyogi Building from the park.

Taiwan Pavilion in Shinjuku Gyoen.

This weeping cherry blossom tree was losing some of its petals already.

This would be the perfect place to take a picnic and relax all day.

There was a couple having wedding or engagement photos taken in the garden. Lovely spot for it. More pictures of them in the full set.

Neat rows of trees at the southeast end of the park.

The garden wasn't so busy when I first got there as it opened, but it filled up pretty nicely by the afternoon. I could have stay here all day.

I was able to do a video call on Skype with Bethany from here and it was fun to show her the park from my phone. Again, pocket WiFi is a must-have in Tokyo.

The Tokyo Metro signs do not stand out as much as London's Tube, but Google Maps is a big help to find any entrances or exits.

Every station feels so different. Here, the metro train came above ground and they had gates.

And then this station is underground with doors.

More often than not, you see these normal platforms with no door or barriers.

Vending machines like these are littered everywhere in Tokyo. Prices are the same in convenient stores, so buying from here made sense a lot of times. I tried a lot of them and never had the same drink twice, except for my favorite. Can you guess what it was?

Picking seats on the subway is like picking a urinal at the men's room. Don't choose the one right next to someone else unless the train is full and don't make eye contact or talk to anyone.

Most subway stations have their exits clearly marked in English. This was helpful for a gaijin like me.

From the garden, it was a 4-stop ride on the subway to Yasukuni Shrine. One of the things I searched for before my trip were sumo wrestling shows while I was going to be in Tokyo. I was delighted to find that there was going to be a free outdoor one at Yasukuni Shrine, just north of the Imperial Palace. And it's not just a simple sample of sumo, but a real, actual tournament.

Torii gate entrance to Yasukuni Shrine. So tall!

Yasukuni Shrine.

These are o-mikuji. People either pick or write their fortunes on them and tie them to string.

These wooden plaques are called ema and it's the same idea as the above. Both cost about 100 to 200 yen, a bit over $1 to $2.

Taken while waiting in line for the sumo viewing. Businessmen chillin' around the shrine's garden while cherry blossom petals fall.

I would not have visited Yasukuni Shrine had this sumo thing not been there, but I'm glad I did. It was very pretty and quite large. There also weren't any signs that I could see pointing to the sumo event, but I was able to sneak around the side of the Shrine to find the entrance. It was a brief 10 minute wait to get into the event. I was shocked at how many people were already inside.

The equivalent of Michael Buffer saying, "Let's get ready to rumble!"

Lots of stretching before a sumo match.

I've never really watched sumo wrestling before, so this was my first experience. It's another unique thing from Japan. Watching obese men in thong underwear try to out push each other either out or to the ground of the ring. But before that, there's a lot of prep and warm up. In fact, I would guess that there is 180 seconds of stretching, adjusting, squatting, flexing, pounding, drinking, tossing salt, and bowing before 10 seconds of actual wrestling between two sumos.

This part has a bunch of singing and chanting. Neat at first, but dragged on a bit too long.

Then there was a parade of competitors. Cute sumo baby there.

Am I knocking on the sport? A little, but it's still intriguing! What I do like about it is that it refuses to change with the times. The arena is still swept and smoothed by old brooms that look like they should be hanging upside down in large ceramic pots at Pier 1 Imports. The referees (or Gyōji) still wear shiny, elegant silk robes based on the same outfits from the Ashikaga period (1338-1573). People in the first dozen rows still sit on the floor cross-legged, which I presume keeps a sumo wrestler going all WWE on some poor soul and picking up a metal folding chair.

Another pre-match tradition. Getting some water, and then throwing some salt in the ring.

A wrestler wins by either knocking their opponent out of the ring, or making them fall to the ground.

Yay! Fighting!

There are lots of ceremonies, chanting, banner carrying, and singing, which can all get a little boring. But it's part of the tradition and it's what people expect. Then there are those matches, especially closer to the end of the tournament, where the really talented guys come out. That's when you see things like guys teetering on the edge of the ring, only to somehow turn around and make a solid comeback by tossing the other guy on the floor. That's when the place goes wild and it's what these people go to sumo tournaments for.

Wait! That's a white guy! Apparently lots of foreigners have come into the sport and are competing well. Other countries would be like, "Get the eff out!" But Japan's sumo wrestlers take it as, "I must train harder." This guy was a fan favorite though as I heard many cheers for him. He won, too.

Loved watching them pick each other up. Crazy!

Guy on the right here was also a popular sumo wrestler. He also beat his opponent.

I left after about an hour and a half because I was standing in the sun the whole time. After a quick rest in the shade, and a cool drink from a vending machine, I was off to my next spot.

On my way out, I saw all of the sumo wrestlers going to the shrine. Another big and tall white foreigner in the middle there.

Leaving the shrine. I bet this area looked gorgeous a week ago during cherry blossom season.

Walking back towards the train station. I love the streets here.

I was right by the Imperial Garden, but I didn't feel like going inside since I had already seen the Shinjuku Garden. I did take a few pictures of the neat moat though.

Meguro River is known to be one of the best spots in Tokyo to view cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, they seemed to be all of the normal blooming kind and none of the late blooming ones, so it wasn't terribly exciting. By this point, I was pretty convinced that I missed cherry blossom season in Japan, but it really didn't bum me out too much. Mostly because... well... I was still in Japan, and then alone was awesome enough.

Need a smoke? There were beer vending machines, too.

Meguro River. No more cherry blossoms. =(

The sakura festival was still going on though. At night, they light these lanterns up.

I walked along the river for a little bit and still got some good shots. Then I went back to my hotel as I needed a nap since I got up so darn early.

Waiting at station to go back to hotel.

While I was transferring at Shibuya Station, I ran into this Uniqlo pop-up shop. This is originally part of the train station platform with tracks and everything, but obviously not in use. This shop just sold graphic t-shirts, but it was neat. More info here.

They had this video system set up where you could model a Uniqlo shirt and it would make an animated .GIF of you that displays on a huge video screen. Then you get a small discount on the shirt you tried on after.

Super neat. Wish they did pop-up shops in Seattle.

Often walked this path back to my hotel. Those bars there keep bikes out.

Some of the restaurants near my hotel.

After my nap, I went and had dinner down the street at Curry House CoCo Ichibanya. Then I made the decision to visit Akihabara at night for the first time. The most popular area of Akihabara is called Electric Town. You would think it would be called this because of all the amazing colorful lights on all of the buildings, but it's more because of all of the electronics sold there since the 1940s and 50s. This is where a lot of the anime shops are, and that's the main reason I was eager to visit Akiba.

My dinner at CoCo Ichibanya. Their beef curry is sooooooooo good!

Getting off the train at Akihabara Station and there's already lots of anime around.

Ad for the second season of To aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun). I enjoyed the first season of To Aru Majutsu no Index, but never got further than that. Mikoto Misaka is cute though.

Akihabara! Visiting this street was a dream come true! Amazing place.

This shop sold lots of card game stuff. Lots of people into it, but not for me.

There was construction going on here, and then a big ad featuring Evangelion cologne on it.

Went into Gamers a couple times, but never found anything I wanted. Still lots to look at. I think it was 8 floors tall.

Manga and anime are a big part of Japanese culture. Everyone reads it, and I mean EVERYONE! Men, women, boys, girls, teens, parents, grandparents, models, athletes, actors, etc. It's not treated like it is here where it's mostly fat teenage or 20-something boys with bad acne who love manga and anime. I felt fully accepted in these stores.

Akihabara is where you'll see maids on every street corner handing out fliers to visit their restaurant. Maid cafés are popular restaurants where patrons go inside and are treated like masters or lords. There's overpriced typical Japanese café food for purchase and you get to cast cute magic spells on your food and what not. There's nothing sexual about it, other than the cute maids themselves wearing pretty short dresses, but it's all in good fun. I did not go because I was by myself. If there were others with me, or Bethany was with me, I would have gone. Maidreamin was certainly the most popular there.

Grown men and women reading manga! I'm accepted here.

Newer releases were on the first floor. Older and classic stuff on the floors above. Cashier on every level.

There are books and toys and pictures of girlies everywhere in these anime stores. Usually the store has at least 5-6 floors, and each store had something different on it. Two floors would have books aimed more towards male audiences. These would be your action manga and slice-of-life manga with the cutie girls. Another floor would usually have books aimed towards the female audience. These are usually romantic stuff, or even homoerotic manga. The girls over there dig that stuff, man. Then another floor would have music CDs for sale.

Poster promoting the second season of one of my favorite animes, Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai. Yes, that's a mouthful. Us fans simply call it Oreimo. Season 2 was just okay, until the third episode, which was just a lovely bit of storytelling.

Cute girlies everywhere you look! Was trying to figure out why I love the style of anime so much. My only guess is how much I loved Disney movies as a kid and all of the characters having huge eyes. XD

Back outside. Huge SEGA arcade and more shops.

I could walk around this part of Tokyo forever. So neat.

Even the side streets are amazingly interesting.

More Akiba. Can see the metro crossing the bridge on the left there.

A couple other floors would have toys and merch; these were my favorite. Anime merch is hard to find in the greater Seattle area. You pretty much either have to go downtown, or to a few places in King County that might sell anime stuff, but the selection is not even close to what they have in Japan. There are sections of shelves with merch for just one specific anime, and there are dozens and dozens of these sections. I was mostly on the hunt for K-On stuff, but came up empty a lot due to the anime not being as popular anymore. I did score big in a couple stores though, so I'm still very happy with how that turned out. I was also happy to see Oreimo stuff for sale, but wished there was at least a little Tamako Market and Kotoura-san stuff.

Shops inside Akihabara Station. There was another Uniqlo in here.

This is a must visit if you ever go to Akihabara. Yodobashi is an electronics store similar to Fry's, but times 100. It's huge. There's even a giant food court at the top with at least a dozen restaurants.

Shops started closing at 9 and 9:30 p.m., which I guess really isn't that unreasonable, but still. It was a Friday night, the streets were still packed, and lights were still flashing all over. Feels like these places should be open later. I wandered the streets some more before returning to Akihabara Station to go back to the hotel.

When I got back, I finally figured out how to turn the TV on as the remote control was completely in Japanese. I watched some baseball highlights, which is cool because they featured the Japanese leagues, but then also cover all of the Japanese players who play in the MLB. Players like Yu Darvish, Hisashi Iwakuma, Ichiro Suzuki, Hiroki Kuroda, and Kyuji Fujikawa.

Oh, and I also watched some anime. This is the fourth season of Minami-ke, called Minami-Ke: Tadaima (translation: "The Minami Family: I'm Home"). It's a slice-of-life show about three sisters. Can be a yawn sometimes.

If you made it this far and read everything, congratulations. Achievement unlocked! Next time: Day 3 - Ginza, Ueno, and more Akiba.

See all 240 photos from Day 2 of my Japan 2013 trip here. See all 27 mobile uploads from Day 2 here.

Day 1 is here.