Day 27 – October 14 – Kyoto – Tokyo

This morning I got up early to walk around the city in the morning light. I really enjoy Kyoto, it has the history and calm attitude I expected out of Japan. People walk around the city in kimonos and sandals. The elderly residents look up at me and give me a nice, bright smile, nodding their heads as I bow my head and smile at them. There are plenty of gardens and shrines to wander through randomly, it is fantastic. I wondered what I would find around the next corner. I walked back to the Buddha statue and sat underneath as the bells tolled again. There was a intangible majesty to looking down upon the ancient city from a perch high above, looking at the meshing of modern cell towers and old pagodas. I think I would rather stay here than go to Tokyo, but duty calls. Time to be on my way and explore what was one of the most dynamic and interesting cities of the 20th Century.

I boarded the Shinkansen bullet train for Tokyo. Man, I really do love this JapanRail pass. Seat reservations are included in the ticket price I paid back in LA, so even if I miss the train I was supposed to be on, I can get a reservation for the next train, 6 or 7 minutes later! Awesome. I took the train to the Shinjuku station in the center of Tokyo. I am using some of my hotel points garnered from my business travel days to stay at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. Damn, this is a nice hotel. It occupies the top floors of the Park Tower which borders a large park and the Tokyo Metropolitan Offices. The Metropolitan Offices is the seat of the city government and the building is designed after Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I’ll just put this out there, I don’t like the design. Just bad. Come on, there is a different between being inspired and just grasping at straws. The Park Hyatt, however, was fantastic. The hotel has several great restaurants and the bar is superb with a view of Tokyo Tower and other major sites across the city. The fixtures and size of the rooms amazed me. In Tokyo space is at a premium, and the size of the room was significantly larger than I expected. There was no lobby, per say, but you took an elevator to the 42 floor where there were five desks and large armchairs, where one could checkout. By the time I was out of the cab, they had asked for my name and someone was waiting at the elevator for me with my room key. My only complaint: it was really only women working at the hotel and I was not about to give a 4 foot 10 inch, 85 pound woman carry my 45 pound backpack to my room. So I lugged it around with me. I don’t think they get many backpackers at this hotel, but, hey, I like to be unique. My room had a fantastic view of Tokyo Tower and the city at large. It was great.

I walked down into the Shinjuku area and just wandered around underneath the bright neon lights. There was a McDonald’s or 7Eleven every couple of hundred feet, more so than in the States. It just seems that people in Tokyo go and consume, consume, consume. There wasn’t a single person I was who didn’t have a large bag of clothes or electronics clutched tightly in his or her arms. One of the most hilarious moments I had in Tokyo was while I was walking towards a major boulevard to a large pedestrian zone when I literally bumped into this girl dressed as a Japanese anime character. She was wearing a bright pink dress which pointed out almost horizontally due to several petty coats underneath. It had a slick, plastic appearance and looked like it would not move or wrinkle, ever. Her face was dusted white and she had applied large red circles to her cheeks with matching bright red lipstick. Her hair was generously gelled so that it stuck out at all angles like a frightened porcupine. I was afraid that she might run at me with her head down and gouge out my eyeballs. He platform heels were some of the highest I have ever seen in my life, and she obviously had issues walking on them as she teetered precariously atop them. Upon seeing her, I burst out laughing. Had I had a camera on me, I would have taken a picture in her face with the flash, momentarily blinding her, and then ran for it. Any person dressed like this cannot be mentally stable. Instead, she gave me the evil eyes as I laughed and walked away indignantly, or at least she would have looked indignant if she weren’t concentrating so hard on not falling off those heals.

I had dinner at a restaurant two floors below ground, sitting cross-legged at a table and picking the wonderfully pictured foods in the menu. Thank you, Japan, for putting pictures next to all of your food! I had some gyoza, sashimi and skewers. The food was fine, nothing special. It was at least relatively cheap and the Asahi beer was good. Most of the bars and restaurants in Tokyo are located on different floors of buildings, so if you don’t speak Japanese, it can prove difficult to find the place you want to go. I returned to the hotel in order to give my eyes a break after looking at neon lights all evening and had a drink at the hotel bar. Man, that is a fantastic bar. I suggest anyone in Tokyo go to the Park Hyatt hotel bar and have a drink while looking across the city, bright with lights. It is amazing.