5-23-035-23-03On Wednesday, Chris and I got to do the first actual, intentional sightseeing of this journey. First stop: Ueno (oo-ay-no) Park. This park started when some important guy built the Kanei-ji (ka-nie gee) temple in the 17th century to “negate evil spirits that might come from the east.” The temple and the fact that there are three spectacular ponds that serve as an annual stop for beautiful migrating birds have made this place a must-see for the last 400 years or so.
So being typical American tourists, we have a tour book (but it’s one of the Eyewitness Travel Guides with all of the awesome color pictures and maps…I highly recommend then and must thank the goddess Kelley Galvin and the ever-helpful Anne Tofalo for directing me to them for the London trip). We’re trying to walk and read all at the same time, and that never really works out too well. So we just look around and the first thing I see is the cutest fountain that looks like a Japanese frog spitting water into the basin. I immediate decide I must have my picture taken with it (frogs remind me of my childhood friend Fro…hi Fro!). As I pose with the frog, I see an old Japanese woman sort of shake her head…I wonder what schmack she told her friends in regard to the idiot American girl in the park.
After a look at the book, we realize we’re going to get to see what we
came to Japan to see…pagodas, temples and shrines…just like the ones at EPCOT!
The first stop was Kiyo-mizu Hall, a Buddhist temple. I’m going to sound like a moron here, but to my poorly traveled, American eyes, it just looked
completely cool and *foreign* with that crazy, curvy gabled roof. It was hard to remember not to act too touristy because there actually people in the
temple praying and lord knows I’d be pissed if mom and pop Buddhist came to
Holy Redeemer Catholic Church to take pictures and eat cotton candy. After the temple, we saw a cool stone area where two robed women were burning incense.
Behind the little alter?? (not too sure what to call it) were two tombstones dedicated to the many brave samurai who died fighting the 1868 battle of Ueno.
Since the samurai had been dead for a long time and there was no praying, we took pictures.
Next we came to a series of toriis (those are big reddish-orange wooden structures shaped pretty much like the symbol for pi if you made the line at the top straight instead of wavy and added a second line right below it). These are “gateways” that mark the entrance to the scared precincts of a shrine. We went through the first torrii and down these mossy, creepy stairs. The stairs were steep and as went down them, we simultaneously went through this long series of wooden gateways until we reached the Gojo shrine. I’ve never really understood Shino, but basically it’s Japan’s oldest religion. The core concept is that deities (kami) preside over all things in nature, living, dead or inanimate. Now-a-days, not many people practice only Shinto, but many people observe Shinto rites alongside Buddhism. Lots of Japanese habits (like the obsessions with cleanliness and purification) come from Shinto…explains why the taking off the shoes thing is so important and ingrained. Once at the shrine, I could tell this it was dedicated to a cereal crop kami because it was guarded by several stone foxes wearing red bibs – I mean isn’t that always the tip off (truthfully, I read it in some book)? When at a shrine like this, the worshipper stands in front of the main sanctuary, pulls a bell rope, tosses money in a box, claps to summon the resident kami and then stands in silent prayer. I shit you not: I saw real people do this. To my cradle Catholic, American-centric self, this was cool and doofy all at the same time. I really wanted to try it myself, but again I had to remind myself that this wasn’t part of a theme park pavillion, and we left to let the people pray.
OK, temple..check. Shrine..check. Pagoda…..hey, where’s the damn pagoda? There’s one on this here guidemap.
Finally, through the trees, we see the top of a pagoda, but after extensive walking around, we still can’t find where it is in the park. However, we do find the Tokyo National Zoo. At only 600 yen a ticket, that’s a bargain…especially since the zoo was sure to have a food court. I’ve already told you about the Japanese hang-up about eating while walking, so finding a little place to pick up a snack is a pain in the ass. On our way into the zoo, an OCEAN of thousands and thousands and thousands of fat fat fat Japanese pigeons starts to swarm. These are the bravest pigeons I’ve ever seen. They let people pick them up…they just randomly land on people. I am very disgusted and more than a little squikked out. I LOATHE pigeons. Why do the rats of the sky have to live in Japan too? Then I notice the problem…there’s a popcorn stand and people are feeding the damn things. Well I guess it’s rude for the people to eat the popcorn themselves so they feed it to the f-ing birds…makes perfect sense to me. Yeah, except for the part where it doesn’t.
Once in the zoo, we were happy. Actually, once in the zoo we found the food court and ate. Then we were happy. But the food court provides a great story. Chris has been a super star about learning Japanese. He’s even got this little book where he can look up basic Japanese symbols and try to figure out words. I’ve been impressed with his ability to pick this stuff up, because it isn’t easy at all. So we get to the food court and use the picture menu outside to decide what we want. Chris is all about this basket of fried chicken and fries, but we realize that the menu board inside doesn’t have pictures we can point to. So Chris pulls out his handy book and starts trying to decipher the symbols enough so we’ll recognize them and can at least point to those. So he starts with the first symbol and manages to figure that it stands for the syllable “chi.” Second symbol was a little harder but he finds that it’s “ken.” Third symbol: “ba.” Fourth: “se” Fifth: “ke.” Chris turns to me and says “you are SHITTING ME.” Yeah, um string all that BS together and you get chiken baseketo.
Then to the animals. We saw all sorts of cool ones. This zoo has Ling-Ling the giant panda. Cute - but the lazy shit was sleeping on her side and wouldn’t move so I could get my 600 yen worth of viewing. They had a super cute creature called a Lesser Panda that was reddish brown and panda-like but smaller and more active. Poor thing, being called “lesser.” Really, he deserved a better name so I called him Viggo, after a certain hottie I wish I knew if you know what I mean (and I think you do – a shameless TWoP reference for those in the know).
Just after the first bird enclosure I realize I’ve lost my black
Anne Taylor jacket, like the only name-brand piece of clothing I own AND the
only thing that dresses up half my wardrobe enough for work. Well damn hell shit. That sucked cause you know no one is turning in a size 10 Anne Taylor
jacket.
Anyway, we keep going and what should we happen upon, but THE PAGODA. It was in the zoo the whole time. Pagodas are also Buddhist in origin and they’re built to house relics of the Buddha. This one had 5 stories and was mostly red and gold. The one at EPCOT is prettier but this one was genuine and 400 years old, so I guess we’ll give it a thumbs-up.
As for the rest of the animals, only a few more were of note. I saw a giant squirrel that was seriously as big as a cat. I love squirrels less than I love pigeons, so you can imagine how I felt about that. In the words of Owen Meany…(I swear I wasn’t going to say anything about the doink or the balls for those familiar with the wisdom of Owen) it gave me the *shivers*. We saw the coolest kangaroo rat ever. I think Madeline would love one of those, and I don’t mean to eat. The thing was HUGE and it was hopping all over its enclosure. And finally, the hippo.
My brother Alex has liked hippos since he
was a little boy. These days, giving him hippo stuff is sort of a family in-joke. But regardless, hippos remind me of my sweetest brother (no offense
Wills, but you and I are not “sweet.”) and I go out of my way to see them.
Just ask Alex Tennet how long I made him spend looking for the blue Egyptian hippo statue in the British Museum. Anyway, we get to the hippo pool and find the liveliest hippo I have
ever seen. This critter was hilarious. He stayed mostly near the surface of the water and mugged for the cameras. He opened his zany hippo mouth and
showed those crazy hippo teeth. He rolled over in the water and showed us his silly hippo feet. I had a ball watching this thing, and a little crowd of people gathered to watch him too. Funny hippo. Silly hippo. Happy hippo. And
then the damn thing farted. The fumes started at the opposite end of the pool and wafted our way. I saw people stop and look around. I saw them fan their
noses. And then I saw them realize that it had come from the hippo.....comedic gold that only a hippo fart can buy. A Japanese man behind me laughed
hysterically and then he scolded the hippo. I would have paid another 600 yen if I could have known what he said.
Ok, that’s enough for today. I don’t want to make your eyes bleed or anything.
As a quick update, I’ve got a firm job offer from a tiny school in Chiba-ken (translation: near here) and a very promising second interview with Berlitz on
Monday. Things are looking good so far.
I love you all!!
-MG
PS – Remember how PISSED I was that I lost my Anne Taylor jacket? Well on the way out of the zoo, I learned why the Japanese are cool. I took a huge chance
and stopped at the zoo info booth. After no small amount of patience on their part and pantomime on mine, I discover that the Japanese word for jacket is
(wanna guess?)…..jaketo. I also discover that neatly folded and properly creased is my jacket in the Tokyo Zoo lost and found. It was logged and
carefully stored, waiting just for me. Now in the states, if it wasn’t stolen or thrown away, it would have been wadded up at the bottom of a dirty bin with a
snow cone tossed on top. None of that crap in Japan. Most of them have too much honor to steal and I do believe that if they could have had it dry
cleaned for me before I picked it up, they would have. Arigatoo gozaimas Japan!