It all actually started in the plane where I met a Japanese man who was going back home after some nice 2 weeks holidays in Switzerland! It was funny, the first thing he said to me when I asked him about his CH experience was, '' it's very nice, but it's all a bit of a mess here and also dirty, the airport its complicated, there are no slippers or toothbrush at the hotels and it's so expensive...'' but he also said he had a great time visiting his Spanish friend and that nature it's stunning.... moral of the story, as always, everything is so relative. It all depends on our point of reference and for some things, there is no good o bad, we are all different and unique creatures, with our own stories and background, so at the end we can only judge what is good or bad for ourselves. We talked a lot until dinner and when we landed he took me to Shinjuku, the station where I needed to change to a metro line to go to my hotel. And guess what? him, a local, who works in that area, got lost in the station... so.. well.. I knew how I would get lost myself :)
But for now, it was easy to find my place and the people there were super nice! great place by the way :) more on that later!
With so much excitement to get to know this new place, I took a quick shower, change, no sleep and I went out..there is too much to see to start by sleeping! go to the metro ticket machine..
And I decided to start by the traditional and head to one of the two main temples, Meiji-jingu. First step was t take the metro and I was expecting to get super lost but to my surprise it was very easy! Every line has a number and every station has a number as well so even if the map looks insane, as soon as you remember the numbers you are ok... and even for a person like me who is the worst with numbers it was ok :)
Ha! and on the way... i found the drinks machines I like so much.. so smart, like the guy in the place said to me, in Japan we don;t have t carry bottles of water, there is a machine in every corner, so true and a great idea! :) I actually didn't have to carry water at all!
The temple was hidden at the end of a park after passing some sake offering barrels and it was beautiful and different from all other temples I have seen.
Mostly all Japanese temples are Shinto temples as Shintoism is the biggest religion here, followed by Buddhism. In Shintoism, there is no one god but multiple ones called ''Kami'' and they worship the different nature elements, water, mountains, wind, sea, etc. Thats why there are no figures, yes rituals.
Before entering the temple, its important to rinse yourself: pour water on your left hand, then on your right, then wash your mouth and spit it and use the remaining water to wash the end of the wooden stick. Of course I did this every time to show my respect, its really rude just to go in and take pictures! The people also pray in a different way here, they through a coin, bow once, clap twice, bow and clap once more... hope I got it right!
There is always also a place to share the prayers and gratefulness messages in a piece of paper or wood as well as some fortune and reading of says of past people.. of course, a lot of special rituals.
While exploring the temple I was lucky to see a wedding picture ceremony! The lady was stunning, wearing a beautiful kimono and tons of makeup. And as everything else in Japan it had to be perfect. She was getting her make up re touched before each shot and the guest were being corrected on their postures or their clothing, at the end I am sure they got a beautiful picture :)
On the way back I took a detour into a garden with traditional tea houses, water pods, flowers...beauty all over, a try Japanese garden :)
After all these peace and tradition, I walked for 10 minutes and I was in crazyland: Takeshita Street :) I found it all, gotics, lolitas, people in ''customs'' and loooots of people, but all very quiet! I closed my eyes for a few seconds and i felt I was alone, open them and couldn't believe I was in the middle of such a mess :)
I kept walking to a more ''sophisticated'' street with all the big brands, went to kiddy land, full of kid and big kids buying Star Wars and Lego games and toys and then into the Oriental Bazar where they have all these beautiful pots, tea cups, beautiful chopsticks, kimonos, house stuff... haaa I wanted all of it but cannot start buying on day 1, so I left and finally found food, my first real SUSHI in Japan, I couldn't be happier :)
Here sushi is like fast food, nothing very special, like taking a coffee standing up in Italy! You go, sit, eat quickly and leave and to my surprise it's not about salmon! Salmon is so overrated in Europe jajaj (but still my favorite). here Tuna has a bigger role and i have to say the tastier tuna i ever had. My firs was this white fish... delicious! :) loved it! something really nice is that you get green team for free, you make it yourself, with powder :) looks rare at start but its very nice.
After making myself happy with the sushi I headed to Shibuya, the very famous crossing with million of people! yep! loots! but once more, so silent, incredible! I looked at them for a while from the train station, just crazy to see this, then my turn to cross... fuun!
I went out to explore, was getting dark so all neon lights were on! full of arcade game places, i went in..wowwww soooo crazy loud, you need some earplugs, they are in a trace playing these games. From war games, gambling, sports to trying to get Hello Kitty prices. My favorite was the picture machine :) this was FUN, super FUN! I tried to get some Japanese girls to join me on the pics, but they are so shy, really! come on people, open up! This made it really hard to get human connection, really a pity.... anyway, I went into the machine and made my girly pics dancing to the bang bang song, I couldn't have had more fun. After the pics are made I moved to a ''cutifing'' station to put hearts and fun stuff on the pics and after i got them printed! I also here tried to ask her to some girls to send to them one of the pics and then send to me as the only version only worked in Japanese systems... but they were all to shy....
And yes, I had sashimi for dinner!
happy, happy, happy first day :)
No comments:
Post a Comment