Day 4, September 28, Trip to Meiji Shrine and Sky Tower
Meiji Jinju Shrine Foundation Poster, Shibuya City wayfinder sign, signs of a rainy day in Tokyo.
Today was a rainy and overcast day! The next few days are likely to be much of the same, due to the effects of Typhon Surigae, 900 miles away from Japan’s main islands. You will see a lot of rain, mist, and umbrellas in today’s photos.
The two of us awoke early this morning, about 5:15-5:30ish. Doug had a good night’s sleep finally, having crashed last night at 9:30. Patrise still struggles to sleep through the night and awoke a couple of times throughout the night. As we lay awake in the bed, in the dark, Doug expressed is discontent with the way the tour logistics had worked out yesterday. Patrise concurred. It turns out that a lot of us were experiencing the same concerns. These were expressed to the current president of Gate City, its Executive Director and to the tour company. All were hoping that today’s experiences would be an improvement. And indeed, that would turn out to the the case.
We got up this morning and had the breakfast buffet before an 8:30 AM group photo. The group organized for a photo in the lobby of the hotel, before boarding our buses.
Hotel employee preparing to take GCBA group photo; Pierce Seitz, GCBA president speaking to traverlers before the photo; travelers preparing for group photoshoot.
Then, we loaded the buses to ride to the Meiji Jinju Shrine which is located in a wooded area in the center of Tokyo (think Central Park in New York except more densely wooded). The shrine was erected in 1921 in memory of and honor of Emperor Meiji and his empress. The shrine is Shinto-based and dedicated to the "the deified spirits" of the Emperor and Empress.
While headed to the shrine on the 30-minute ride through workday traffic, those of us on the Group A bus, the group to which Patrise and I have been assigned, everyone took turns introducing themselves. This was one of the criticisms stemming from yesterday’s experiences: that there were sixty (60) people traveling around Tokyo and no one had asked us to introduce ourselves to each other. Some folks knew others, but most people did not know most of their fellow travelers. This proved to be very helpful and immediately the day started better, because we no longer traveling with strangers; rather, we had a starting point for conversation and getting better acquainted.
When we arrived at the shrine grounds, after a short walk, we came to the Shinto worship temple and a park that has been designed, to promote meditation and tranquility. There were places where you could “purchase your forture” and where you could pray to Shinto deities for better life outcomes. We witnessed several people doing this: throwing coins into a designated area, clapping twice (only twice), then bowing and praying as their faith tradition suggests. We were not allowed to take pictures or video of these specific practices, which seemed appropriate to me. Someone else’s practice of faith should be the subject of tourists’ gawking and photography.
The two of us took pictures of the shrine (where tourists are permitted to photo) and the chrysanthemum doors that led into the meditation tranquility area. There was not much to see at this location, so the group didn't stay very long.
We boarded the buses after about 30 minutes and headed to Sky Tower, where we had an 11am appointment to admit the entire GCBA group.This tower is located at the top of the Shibuya Scramble Center. The tower allows visitors to view the Tokyo skyline from the 45th floor. As stated earlier, it has been a rainy and hazy day, so our distant visibility was very limited, but you could see closer to the building. One interesting feature was observing the Shibuya Scramble Intersection from above. This is the famous intersection where thousands of people cross the intersection in all directions simultaneously, when the light changes. It was a fascinating thing to observe, both from our high position and later at ground level, when we actually participated in a crossing. [As I (Doug) looked down from our lofty height, I kept thinking of the Dave Matthew’ band song, “Ants Marching.” (“Driving along the highway, all these cars and upon the sidewalk, people in every direction. No words exchanged, no time to exchange. When all the little ants are marching, red and black antennae waving. They all do it the same, they all do it the same way.”) The song is not actually about ants of course; it’s about people and the monotony and repetitiveness of our daily habits and 9-5 routines. If you’ve never heard it before, check it out on Spotify, Pandora, or YouTube.]
Row 1: High rise office with prominent video advertising, same building, Shibuya Scramble Square location embedded in side of the tower.
Row 2: Baseball megastar, Shohei Otani (Japanese, but he plays for Los Angelos Dodgers); Shibuya display inside tower, Patrise waiting inline to go up to 45th floor.
Row 3: Some GCBA travelers waiting to go up to 45th floor; tour guide Masa (right) speaks with Sky employees; wall plaque about the Shibuya Sky attraction.
Here then is a gallery of photos taken at the Shibuya Sky visit, beginning with the elevator visual art, then the views around the city from the 45th floor, and other digital art installations on the 45th floor walls.
After our tower visit, we went down to street level, to see the statue of Hachiko, nicknamed “Hachi”. Hachi was the Akita (breed) dog, who locals paid tribute to.
A photo of "the real Hachi" and his statue in Shibuya Scramble Square
As the story goes, he would accompany his owner to the local train station everyday, and every day he would come to the train station to meet his owner at the time he would return from work. He did this faithfully every day. However, there came a time that the owner died. Still for many years afterwards, Hachi would come to the man’s train station exit, hoping for/awaiting his master’s return. Due to Hachi’s loyalty and awaiting the return of his master every day –legend says that Hachi kept appearing for ten years after his master passed away – the Shibuya City erected a statue to him and adopted the Akita breed as its mascot. It is an interesting story, an interesting bronze statue, and a very moving tribute to the faithfulness of “a human’s best friend.” Also, according to legend, Hellen Keller was so inspired by the story of Hachi that, upon visiting Japan, she supposedly brought the very first Akita to the U.S. You can read about the story in this Wikipedia entry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachik%C5%8D.
After seeing Hachi’s statue, we parted from the group, and we looked for a nice place to have lunch. We found it in Café L’Occitane that offered a view of the Shibuya Scramble Square Intersection from the windows of the restaurant. We enjoyed our meals. We even were able to have a pleasant dessert. I had a grape cake and a lavender creme brulee and Doug had a creme brulee. Once again, no decaf coffee for anyone.
We were free for the rest of this afternoon and as a result, Doug decided that we would try a grand adventure of taking the train back to our hotel. The hotel wasn't too far away on the train. We made it back. However, it was very confusing trying to figure out which train to take, where to catch it, and how to pay for it. This was a very trying and stressful experience for Patrise. She said that on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best experience and 1 being a God awful experience, she would rate it a ‘3’! Doug was not too worried about it. (Worse come to worse, all we had to do, would be to exit the train station and hail an Uber. LOL) Patrise was glad we worked as a team; Patrise relied on her navigational skills and me backing her up with my familiarity with train operations. When we arrived at the train station closest to our hotel, Patrise walked straight to the hotel from the train station without any directions, as she normally does. She had been in this area just yesterday morning, to get coffee at a Starbucks and a visit at a bank ATM.
Row 1: Shibuya Scramble Train Station; train station; sign on train for our exit station.
Row 2: Ikebukuro Station exit for out hotel; shopping mall across from hotel; making our wait out of the train system.
Now we are settling for the evening. If the weather is not too bad, we will likely go out to find a nice restaurant for dinner. And tomorrow is a completely free day, so stay tuned for more adventures.
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