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.