Disappointment Turns to Awe.

Kiyosumi Gardens

I normally don't like to start my post with a picture, but today is an exception. I started my morning a little later than usual since I have been working 14 hour days, but I knew where I wanted to go this morning, Kiyosumi Gardens.I made it to Kiyosumii around 7 am. To my dismay, it was closed. I couldn't tell what time it opened, but workers were busy inside preparing the park to open. I saw a Denny's sign not far down the street, and I decided this morning I would have an American breakfast.

     Denny's, like other American companies tailors it's menu to the over seas market. It wasn't what I expected. Luckily, I found eggs on the menu among the fish, rice and steak breakfasts. My guess, it wasn't the Japanese Grand Slam. I was happy I wasn't eating rice again for breakfast.

Denny's menu

I ate my breakfast of eggs, salad and toast. Yes, I said salad. I didn't eat the salad this morning.  I'm still not used to eating lunch for breakfast, unless it's pizza. I  ambled back to the main gate of Kiyosumi, and it was still closed, I though it may open by 8 AM, but I was wrong. The actual operating hours are 9-5 pm, but I didn't even know the name of the gardens, so it was har to Google them to get times. I was also unaware that there was a charge of 150 yen to enter. It's not a large fee, and it's well worth it if you can get inside.

I continued back to my hotel room with the fortunate luck of finding Basho's statue. Basho is a famous Haiku poet from around the 17th century. If you have read my post, then you may have noticed a haiku in it. The traditional form of haiku isn't a three line poem. Haiku is written top to bottom. There are also other nuances of real haiku that are improperly taught by our American school system.

Basho, Japanese poet

Once back to the hotel, I briefly spoke with Blaine about heading to the office. Blaine wanted a good American breakfast and was going to a restaurant named Johnathan's. he invited me to join him, but I declined. Blaine was coming into the office late, and the rest of the team wouldn't be there till later. I decided to take another shot at Kiyosumii park. Still closed.

Third time is always a charm and it was. Our first quiet morning in ten days, Blaine and I went down to Kiyosumi park... It was open. We didn't get a lot of time in the park before we had to go because of a call from the office, but I grabbed some great pictures.

Isowatari (stone path)

The park has a stone path that creates a small path across the main pond in the garden. On either side of the pond, Koi swim freely about. There isn't a guide rail, so this park wouldn't exist in the United States.  OSHA compliance or someone falling the water walking over the rocks would close it. Especially when the Koi jump out of the water right beside you.

It was a warm enough day that the turtles were out sunning themselves leisurely on the rocks. We walked right up to one of the turtles and he wasn't worried about us one bit. As you can see from the pictures, there wasn't a lot of foot traffic in the park. The sun was pretty bright, so I'm not happy with all the pictures. I used my phone instead of my Nikon. The UV filter on the Nikon would have been nice to have today.

I had a chance at lunch to ninja myself out to grab some more cash and head to Asakusa. Getting cash can be problematic in Tokyo unless you have a CitiBank card. Additionally, it's hard to find an ATM that is in English. Ryan, my co-worker was down to around 1000 yen or approximately ten dollars. I was a little better off, but we both needed cash. We wandered around Eitadori looking for an ATM that would allow us to complete a few transactions.  No luck. Ryan left to head back to the office empty handed and poor. I grabbed a cab to try to get to Asakusa.

I've picked up some Japanese out of necessity while I've been in Tokyo. I've navigated the subways, given taxi drivers locations and placed my order at dinner. I consider that a high level of success for a someone who found out on a Sunday they were going to Japan and left the following Monday. As life goes, when you feel like the process is running like a well oiled machine, in steps Murphy.

Asakusa is a major shrine in Japan with a huge Tori and a major tourist attraction. Somehow, my taxi driver did not know where Asakusa was, and neither did  The cab driver started chatting at with in Japanese speaking a plethora of words that I could not comprehend. My Japanese was too limited to give an explanation sufficient enough to satisfy my driver. He asked me to hold on and hopped out of the car, spoke to another driver, and hopped back in the car and started driving. He assured me he knew where we were going. Well, he knew where he was taking me, and it wasn't Asakusa. Unfortunately, I didn't know he was taking me to Hie shrine near the palace.  I paid my bill and exited the taxi to make my way up the two hundred or so steps to the shrine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hie_Shrine

The Hie shrine wasn't disappointing, but its not Asakusa. Hai has one of the national treasures stored within it's walls, an ancient Tachi or longsword that predates the Katana. There are also a number of samurai statues sitting in the main gates as you enter and exit.  The Hai shrine is quiet a walk up via a long stair case.

View at the top of the stairs at the Hie Shrine.

The most interesting thing about this shrine is it is a monkey shrine. At the other shrines I've been to, there are human statues or dragons to either side of the main pagoda. At Hie, there are two monkeys on either siede of the main Pagoda. It is dedicated to the monkey god.

The shrine was very active with a swarm of monks working throughout. The shrine was once the emperor's shrine, but it was moved to it's current location where it has been rebuilt a few times. The monks in the shrine were busy cleaning while I was there, and some were playing drums when I entered.The elder monk was easy to identify. I took a picture of him walking into the main yard of the shrine.

I haven't researched the importance of the large rice bails in a Shinto shrine yet This shrine's outer wall was lined with them with beatiful markings on each bail. There are about 60 bails of rices on this wall alone. I normally like to research some before I write in the blog, but I'm just too tired to at the moment.

 One last shot of the Hei shrine before I go to bed. I took another panoramic and used Photoshop to piece them together.

Courtyard of Hei shrine

We ended the evening going to Roppongi after work. I wanted to grab some trinkets for the girls, and Roppongi is an interesting area. Not only is it the home of the US embassy, it's also the red light district of Tokyo with heavy Yakuza influence. Some people are real fans of the area, but I was completely turned off by the continual bombardment of Nigerians asking me if I wanted to go to a gentlemen's club.  I was amazed at their persistence. As Michael, blaine and I made our way to the Hard Rock from out taxi, we must have been badgered eight or nine times. It was ridiculous. The Hard Rock was small, like most restaurants in Tokyo, but I can actually say the hamburger hit the spot.

Hard Rock Tokyo

It's time for bed, and tomorrow is going to be another busy day. I'll post one more picture of Kiyosumi gardens. Maybe tomorrow will be an earthquake free day.

Tomioka Hachiman

Some morning walks are more exciting than others, especially when I find something unexpected. I woke at my normal 5 am time and quickly readied myself for the day. I had decided I wanted to walk back to Fukagawa and explore the area a little more. I was disappointed with the Shinto shrine I had found there. Especially, since a lady I had met recommended I find the Shinto shrine near the Buddhist one. The morning air was cool ,brisk and felt fresh as I made my way back to the Eitabashi. I passed Mc Donalds and I knew I was getting close to the Buddhist temple.  I decided to return to the Buddhist temple since there seemed to be a lot of activity. The monks were busy getting ready for the day, and they had a multitude of knick-knacks available for purchase. I looked around to see if there was anything I wanted to pick up for the kids, but the prices were much higher than a few of the shirnes I had been to, so I decided to hold off on purchasing anything. As I made my way out of the temple, I looked to the right and noticed something I had missed the first time. Down the road, there was a Shinto gate being supported by a large number of ropes.  The gate had been damaged during the earthquake and the Shinto monks were shoring it up with a number of ropes wrapped together like a spider web. I regret that I didn't take a picture of it, but I was happy with what I uncovered.

The Tomioka Hachiman Shrine (富岡八幡宮,)   is dedicated to the god Hachiman. He is the god of war and protector of all of Japan. The original temple was burned to the ground during the bombings of Tokyo in 1945 but rebuilt after the war.

This is the largest shrine that I have been too so far, and it was full of surprises. The main pagoda pictured above  and below was very sizable, the grounds of the shrine were open to the sky.

Tomioka Hachiman Shrine

  I am standing back at the entrance gate when I took this picture, and the buildings to the left and right are far from being in view. In the lower right of the picture is where the Japanese hang their prayers.

Japanese prayer boards

Each prayer is written on a small, bamboo ornament that you can buy from the monks in the shrine. People travel to specific shrines that are dedicated to a god that may help them or because the shrine is attributed to a specific miracle. I looked to the right of the Pagoda and decided to take a small path I noticed. The path led me to the Sumo stones.

Sumo Stones

The Tomioka Hachiman Shrine is considered the birth place of professional Sumo. and The sumo wrestlers etched into the stones are lifesized. Following the path  from the sumo stones, I walked through a series gates or torii  into a Japanese water garden.

Series of Torii in the Hachiman Garden.

Torii usually indicate a temple or shrine in Japan, and I am not sure what the series of torii represent here. The torii were lined with statues of dragon dogs. It's hard to see them from the picture, but you can spot one on the left side if you look closely. Within the garden was a smaller shrine and a large Koi pond.

I took this picture for my mother, who has a Koi pond. The Koi in this pond looked to be between 2 and 2.5 feet long. The area around the pond had beautiful flowering trees, and the fountains in the garden made it an extremely peaceful place. When I met Blaine in the hotel lobby this morning, asked where I've found all the shrines near our hotel since the city can easily consume the building below. I took him a block away to his first shrine and he was amazed at how secluded the shrine was even though is was surrounded by buildings and next to busy streets. This garden was no exception.

There were numerous other statues and memorials at the shrine including a statue of Ino Chukei, Japan's first surveyor. Ino Chukeis spent over twenty years mapping japan.

Ino Chukeis, first surveyor of Japan

Additionally there were a couple portable shrines the monks carry around on festival days. The shrines are made of wood and gold. One of them was so large, it needed to be pulled by a cart. The other smaller shrine is carried by a clan of Shinto monks. The shrines are behind glass, so getting a good shot of them was difficult.

Portable Shrine

I wanted to get one good shot of the Torii at the Hachiman shrine to put things in perspective. I still have a few spots I want to hit in Fukagawa and I can mark it off my list.

 

Question of the Day

I wanted a quick post at about 4 pm Tokyo time for me. I thought everyone may find this amusing. The question is simple. Why is this guy wearing a mask?

Choices
a.  This man is allergic to children, but he has to get this one to work.
b. This man is worried about the radiation from Fukijima.
c. This man is not feeling well.

If you answered A, then you need to ask yourself why this guy had a child in the first place. He must really love kids to run around in a mask all day. If you answered b, then this is one cruel dude. Someone should call child protective services on him for not putting a mask on his daughter. Maybe the answer is A and B. He's allergic to children and he wants the baby to get radiation poisoning. Well, the correct answer happens to be C. Japanese people do not like to spread germs if they don't feel well.. They feel bad. They wear a mask. I know when I teach Sunday school, if your kid is sick, bring them to Sunday school to make other kids sick. This post is truly a rant, but I thought I would provide everyone with some humor for the day.

Hibiya Park and The Imperial Palace

Yesterday was our first sizable earthquake since I've been over here. It was about 100 km from Tokyo, and the 5.5 made the IBM building roll and shake. The quake lasted for about 4 minutes with a rolling motion, then a shake followed by a final roll. there was no question that there had been an earthquake. 

This morning, I woke up early so I could sneak in a trip to the Emperial Gardens before work   I took a train from just outside my hotel to head back to Otemachi. Getting to the train was easy, but finding my way out of the subway once to Otemachi was a little difficult. Finally, I found the exit (出口). Even though exit is writen in English, learning the Japanese is helpful in places like a subway. I finally found sunlight and took a few moments to get my bearings. The subway has multiple exits, and I wasn't sure which one I left out of. I quickly found a map and oriented myself. The Palace gardens were not far away, and navigating the to the palace was fairly easy.

On the way, I found an interesting shrine dedicated to Masakado-zuka. Masakado was a Robin Hood of the Kanto region and a local hero. Masakado was killed fighting the government in 940 and his head was put on display in Kyoto.Legend say his head flew all the way back to Kanto where it is enshrined today. Masakado was declared a god and a shrine was built honoring him. Unlike most Shinto shirnes I've been to, this one did not have the bright red and white flags. Instead, it had black and white flags representing death.

To my dismay, I arrived  at the Palace, and it was closed until 9 am, when I was scheduled to meet my team. Disappointed, I still took the opportunity to walk around the palace walls. 

Imperial Palace Wall

The walls of the palace and the parks surrounding it have been reduced significantly over the years, but it is still a massive area. In the morning, the paths around the palace are busy with runners making the 10 km loop.remain palace walls are surrounded by a large moat and some sections of the wall were under repair.

Palace wall under repair

I made a quick stop by the Nijubashi Bridge on my way around the palace walls. The Nijubashi is on the must see list for Tokyo. I'm not sure why. It is neat loking bridge, but I thought the Buddhakon much more impressive. the bridge is opened on the Emeperor's birthday and state visits. Like most of the palace gates, the Nijibashi does't see a lot of action.

Near the Palace is the statue of Kusunoki_Masashige. There wasn't any information about the statue, so I looked up Susunoki on the web. He is considered the ideal Samurai. Greatly outnumbered, Kusunoki followed his Emperor's wishes and met  Takauji's forces on the field of battle. When the battle Kusunoki realized he would be taken prisoner, he committed suicide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusunoki_Masashige

Kusunoki wih the sun behind his back.

Hibiya Park

I was disappointed that I could not enter the imperial garndens, but I was very surprised with a small park near the palace called. Hibiya Park (日比谷公園,) Hibiya is a western style sunken garden with Japanese.  influence. The park had a mixture of western fountains, ponds and flowers, but the Japanese influence permeates the flowers and shrubs that fill the park. I entered the park at Hodokyo Gate and immediately noticed a small fountain.

A Hibiya fountain

The stairs to the immediate left mark one of many paths up and around a set of rock features that was designed to be an exercise area. Although I had looked at the map, I had enough time to explore the park with little direction. 

 The park was filled with gifts and dedications, but I found this one was a little odd. It is a replica of the US Liberty Bell. Ironically, the bell was given to the Japanese during post war occupation.

The crane fountain sits in the center of Shinji-ike pond. Apparently, the wings on the crane are draped with icicles in the winter when it freezes. The shores of the pond had a brilliance of reds and greens that I saw nowhere else in the park. The fish in the pond were the length of my arm, and looked to be well fed. There was a small sitting area with a stone leading to the pond where the fish congregated.

Shinji-ike pond

I continued on my walk through the dogwood forest. The dogwoods were gifted by the New York city to Tokyo in 1961. Just like the Cherry Blossom tree is not native to the United States, the dogwood is not native to Japan.

Dogwood Forest

One of the most interesting features in the park is the Kubi-kaki Ginko. The tree was scheduled to be cut down around 1899 with the expansion of the road around the park. The Kubi -Kaki was the largest ginko in the park, snf Dr. Seroku Honda lobbied the Tokyo government to move the tree. The tree was sucessfully transplanted where it remains today. The name Kubi-kaki mean head staking and is attributed to a quote from Dr. Honda who said. " I will have it transplanted even if my head is put on a stake. It took me a few shots with my camra to get the hole tree. I used photoshop to stich it together for the shot. 

Kubi-Kaki Ginko

I think I'll close with random pictures of the park and flowers.

The Sake Box

I wake with Tokyo

My family prepares beds

Wind will bring me home

Tokyo has the largest fish market in the world, and  it would be a sin to go to Japan and not have sushi. Sasamoto-san took us to a small dive very close to the office and almost across the street from my hotel. The room was small, and it was very tight. Most of the Japanaese restaurants we have been two only seat 10-15 people at a time, but the patrons tend to eat high dollar items and spend a lot of time there. I ordered

sake masu. Which is sake served in a small bamboo box. The sake is poured into a glass until it overflows into the masu. You drink the shot of sake from the glass, then you drink the sake from the box. .

Sake Masu

 Our order of sashimi (sushi without rice) was colorful and very well presented. The fish was amazingly colored and a small white flower completed the presentation. The tuna was a darker red than I had seen in the states, and there was a good variety of fish, muscles and other beast of the sea. Although most of the sashima was augmented with the regular wasabi and soy, some pieces were well complimented by a light dusting of salt accentuating the taste of the fish

Sashimi plate

 Hands down, this was the best sake and sashima I've had.I tried two different cold sakes. Sasamoto-san mention that the first sake is very rare. I didn't write the name of it down (Sasamoto-san gave me the name this morning Koshinokanbai), but it was a delightfully smooth tasking drink with a hint of sweetness. The sake glass was a little more dry, but equally as smooth.

Japanese subway car

Today was my first experience riding the subways in Tokyo. We wanted to go from Otemachi to Shibuya. Luckily the subway has a map in Japanese and English, but the subways are very crowded, and the hot rail cars are packed with people packed like sardines pushed into their can. We got off at Hashiko station. It is named after a dog, who waited at the station everyday for his master to return. His master had passed away, but the dog had grown accustomed to waiting for him that he continued to do so after his masters death for 9 years. There is a statue of Hashiko just outside Hashiko station, and it is a common meeting point in Shibuya.

Shibuya reminds me of Times Sqaure in New York. It was very crowded and there were swarms of your Japanese businessmen and teenagers packing the sidewalks and walkways. Stephen took us to see some of the electronic stores and shopping life of Tokyo. The people on the streets moved like  zigzagging school of fish. Stephen mentioned that you have to learn to move like Neo did in the matrix.  When Neo is first reinserted into the computer generated world, he bumps in to everyone. After a while he learned to navigate his way throught the crowds. When the cross walk gave the green signal, Ryan and I started veering left and Stephen started veering right. The people coming the opposite direction vectored themselves like a defensive line on a foot ball field. Ryan and I were running backs looking for a seam.

Shibuya

Shibuya is a great place to people watch, and and interesting place to see the local fashion scene. The Japanese taste in fashion is very interesting. Some girls wear extremely short shorts, but them have on tights while others look like they are right out of an Anime cartoon.

We finished our visit in Shibuya after looking at some electronics stores and hopped a train to Shijuku station, the busiest rail station in the world. Tonight was not a busy one in Shijuku, so I can't imagine trying to navigate it during a busy hour.

It was key to know the stations. Getting on a train is pretty easy, but getting off can be tricky since the cars are loaded so tightly. The trick is not to be rude but push you way out before the tidal wave of people comes rushing in.

Nemawashi - My daily ranting from Tokyo.

Wikipedia - Nemawashi (根回し) in Japanese means an informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, and so forth. It is considered an important element in any major change, before any formal steps are taken, and successful nemawashi enables changes to be carried out with the consent of all sides.

I had a colleague ask about what it is like to work with the Japanese, and I figured I would write a little about my work experience so far. The word Nemawashi can cause some late work hours. In Japan, you don't go to a meeting without first building consensus about what you are presenting. It is not uncommon to find Japanese executives sleeping through a formal presentation. They have already given their input before the presentation, and it is our job to incorporate the input quickly. To my team, this sometimes means throwing out large sections of our deck to tailor it to the customer.

Since the quake, most companies have reduced the number of elevators that are in use. In IBM the conference rooms will not be cooled during the day time to cut power consumption by 20%. It is not a problem now, but it will be a problem as summer approaches and the heat of Tokyo starts baking our conference rooms. Sony just enabled it's full bank of elevators. Initially, only one elevator was running after the earthquake. It is amazing to see how there is a lack of personal space within an elevator, but I'm sure the days after the quake, this was tested.  In the office, the workers sit side by side with no walls in an open area. during the day and well into the evening, it looks like a call center within the facility. The only real place to get some privacy is the bathroom. Each toilet is it's own little closet.I'm working with an IBM partner on the project who is fortunate enough to have his own desk. He does not have his own office. This is quiet different than the states where a partner has his own office.

Office space Japan style

At 9 am a lady announces on the intercom that we can open the blinds. At  pm, the lady announces we need to close the blinds. The partner on the project left his blinds open one night, and people complained in one of the apartments that someone at IBM had not closed their shades.At night, the residence of Tokyo want their privacy. With such close quarters, it is considered rude to leave you blinds open.

I am amazed at how the Japanese queue themselves in lines for the elevator, bus or even at the cafeteria counter. No one tries to pass someone else. Everyone patiently waits their turn to place their order. Once the order is placed that move into the next line quickly. Lunch is always process driven and mostly efficient. Watching the Japanese is a great way to visual queuing and watch processes buckle under load. In the cafeteria yesterday, we arrived early to eat. We watched as the servers diligently brought trays to each table of our orders.  As more people came though, the staff could not keep up with the onslaught of hungry patrons. The amazing thing is the process never breaks. It may slow down, but it never breaks. This typifies Japan.

My suits are out of place for Japan. It is acceptable for me to wear what I've brought, but it stands out like a grey suit among many dark suits. Nothing says Gaijin like a grey suit. The Japanese are masters at blending in, it is evident by their culture, hair color, eyes and choice of suits. Everyone wears a dark blue suit. It's very interesting. Women have much more latitude in their dress, but men do not. The women wear black skirts, but they have shirts and sweaters. Of course IBM is very formal in Japan, but this is pretty much the standard.  the entire american team packed light colored suits, so I don't feel so bad.

Japanese Red Bull

I couldn't figure out whether to post this in a food post or a business post, but I think it's suiting for a business post. The little drink pictured in this pink bottle is a Japanese Red Bull. The Japanese market for energy drinks far surpasses ours, and the caffeine jelly beans or gelatin shots that are popping up in American have been here for some time. To put my picture in perspective, that is a 2 liter behind the my Japanese Red Bull.

Japanese Red Bull

So many energy drinks. So little time.

Caffeine shots

 About the Radiation

In closing, I know a bunch of people have been concerned about the radiation levels in Tokyo. I've verified from multiple sources the number of microsieverts an hour I am receiving while I've been out here. Amazingly, Fukashima's radiatiion is no a factor in Tokyo at the moment. Just to put everyone at ease. A human being receives radiation of 50 microsieverts from one chest X-ray. In Tokyo, we receive .079 microsieverts an hour of radiation. this is 1.896 microsieverts a day for a gran total of 17 microsieverts for my entire visit to Japan.

Foods naturally contain Carbon-14 which is radioactive, as well as Potassium, of which a small amount is radioactive. This results in an average dose of around 20 mrem a year. Also, some plants and animals naturally accumulate radioactive materials, resulting in higher than background dose rates.


You naturally contain Potassium, Carbon-14, and other radionuclides. This makes you radioactive. To the tune of around 40 mrem a year. Other people are also radioactive, so you get slight doses from being around other people as well.