Click here to see the photos I took on this day.
The weather forecast for this day was "scattered showers", but when we woke up the weather looked pretty clear. On this day we did more walking than we will probably do on any other day of our trip, and we had the privilege of taking our shoes off to enter buildings twice, which was an unexpected surprise.
After breakfast at the hotel buffet again, we took the subway to Ueno Park. This part of the subway was actually the first subway anywhere in Asia and was built in the 1920s. This was obvious from the low ceilings and cramped passageways.
Ueno is also an obviously older and less modernized section of Tokyo prefecture, but the main attraction for us was the park and the zoo. (By the way, these blog entries have been getting a bit long winded...I'm going to try and keep it shorter today and maybe I can catch up).
There were dozens of school groups walking through the park on their way to the zoo. Each school identifies their children by their hats and their smocks. We noticed that some kids had elaborate felt pictures sewn into the back of their smocks, presumably by their mothers.
As we walked down the path through the forest, we noticed a row of tori gates heading down stairs to our left and decided to check it out. What we found was a secluded shinto temple (common throughout Tokyo) and an even more secluded fox shrine hidden away in a dark, cavernous hallway.
Along the way to the zoo we also visited a shinto temple and a shinto pagoda. I asked the monk watching the pagoda if it was okay for me to take pictures, and he told me (I think) that I could take pictures of statue of a face of Buddha that was on display, but not the pagoda itself. A pagoda is a building that houses a sacred relic. These relics are sometimes on display, but often are considered too holy for people to look at and are kept in a chest of some kind.
Finally arriving near the entrance to Ueno Park Zoo, we saw that some sort of bazaar was taking place, so we headed into the tent to check it out. In the front were people selling foods almost entirely foreign to us, and in the back were many vendors selling pottery, rugs, ornate chopsticks, etc. I bought a tiny hand carved cicada-shaped incense holder.
Amusing side note: At one point we heard an "eek!" and turned in time to see a giant crow land in a woman's lap, steal a huge chunk of the pastry she was eating, and fly away.
Now, on to the zoo. This is the zoo that was home to the famous panda, Ling Ling. Unfortunately, signs all over the park informed visitors that he had died in April of this year of heart failure. It was a little sad to see so much of the zoos architecture devoted to the popularity of this panda and for there to be no panda in residence.
We did see some interesting stuff there, although I won't go into too much detail. Red pandas (which look a bit like raccoons and can be seen at the Oklahoma City Zoo), elephants, the usual. But we were very glad to finally see an actual tanuki, which is a Japanese raccoon-dog featured in many Japanese legends and the statues you see of a smiling creature, standing upright with a huge grin, a hat, and a bag of money (In my photos you can see a huge selection of them in the bazaar we visited earlier). But the best attraction at the zoo were all the giddy school children running around in their uniforms.
Erin wants me to be sure and tell this story: While watching some Japanese monkeys we witnessed one of the most amazing things. A baby monkey strayed a little bit away from its mother and accidentally stumbled down a small hill. Unable to see her, he totally freaked out, curled his arms and legs in and started shaking and screaming in fright for his mother. She quickly ran down to get him. After that he became extra clingy for a bit.
For lunch, we ate at the zoo. I ordered takoyaki (fried balls of batter mixed with bits of octopus tentacles) and Erin ordered a box containing edamame (young soybeans you suck out of the husk), two plain rice onigiri with soy sauce baked on the outside, and a couple pieces of tempura fried chicken. After eating we smiled at an exhibit featuring the exotic creatures known as "prairie dogs" and "American Bison" as we left.
On our way out, Erin noticed that there seemed to be an interesting temple or shrine of some sort we had missed just to the south of the zoo. We couldn't be more glad we went to check it out.
This turned out to be Ueno Toshogu -- a shrine built 400 years ago in honor of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. After a long walk between ancient stone lanterns we paid 200 yen each for what we thought was a walk around the exterior of the building. Actually, the walk was leading us up to the entrance to the building itself, at which time we were told to remove our shoes before entering and not to take any photographs while there.
It was a pretty amazing place. The shogun's armor and some of his clothing was on display, as well as his actual will and other priceless artifacts. There was no security in the building...something you would never find in a place of such historical significance in the US, and with good reason. The walls were covered in actual gold leaf, and many of the artifacts weren't even displayed behind glass.
Back outside of this shrine -- to the side of the walk up to it -- was a shiny new monument consisting of a huge marble slab and a dove-shaped carving containing a live flame. Hanging on either side were bundles of 1000 origami cranes. This was the Eternal Flame of Peace. The amazing thing about the flame itself is that it has burned continually since 1945 when the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima started it. A man went to the home of his uncle in Hiroshima following the explosion, and found this flame still burning. He carried it back to his village and kept it burning. In 1968 his village built a torch and transfered the flame to it. Now it has been transferred to this spot to stand as a monument devoted to the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Say what you will about how the Japanese started the war and what we had to do to stop it, but when we turned around from this monument and saw a small group including an elderly Japanese man who clearly remembered first-hand what we did that day, we felt ashamed and wanted to apologize.
Next we headed North, and after making a few wrong turns we eventually asked a woman to point out on a map where we were, got our bearings, and found a giant cemetery we had been wanting to visit on our way to a museum.
We weren't sure about the respectfulness of taking photos in a Japanese cemetery, so I only took them when people weren't around. Some of the monuments were huge and well traveled, and we have since learned (from our tour guide in Kamakura the following day) that there are many famous authors and even some ancient royalty buried there.
Our ultimate goal, however, was the Asakura Choso Museum, which is actually the home of the late Asakura Choso, arguably Japan's greatest sculptor. Here again we were told we could not take pictures and were asked to take our shoes off before coming inside, only this time we were given slippers to wear. We both had trouble keeping them on our feet.
His sculptures -- nearly all of them in bronze -- really were amazing, and so was his house. Much of it was off-limits, but we were allowed to go upstairs where there were many statues of his cats in many different poses (obviously, Erin loved this). We also entered a room where we had to take off the slippers to walk on a tatami mat floor, and then again swap our slippers for sandals so we could climb up to the roof and take in the fantastic view. I wasn't sure if they wanted me to take a picture from there, either, but I couldn't resist sneaking just one.
Leaving there we headed towards the nearest JR train station and made our way to Asakusa to visit Senso-Ji temple. On the subway, an older Japanese man across the car was stumbling around, trying to reach under the chair for a jar he had spilled. The train was accellerating and he was obviously drunk, so I got up and grabbed it for him. Turns out it was a jar of sake (we had seen them for sale in stores). He laughed and thanked me. As we exited the car at Asakusa, he waved, smiled, and thanked me again.
Senso-Ji is famous for the HUGE shopping arcade lining the long walk toward it. There are all kinds of useless trinkets and trash souvenirs, but also some amazing snacks and desserts that you can buy and eat moments after they have been prepared. I kept smelling these shaped pancakes being cooked and couldn't resist buying a bag of 10 for 500 Yen. They threw in an extra one for free, which I ate immediately. I was surprised to find it filled with something -- sweet red bean paste -- but I was even more surprised at how much I loved it. It was a completely alien flavor to me, but it was wonderful. I'd bring some home, but their shelf-life is only three days.
So we viewed the temple, full of the usual people praying, purifying themselves, wafting incense over their ailing body parts, making wishes, purging themselves of evil spirits, tying bad fortunes to ropes, etc. Once we had done that we went to take a quick picture of a place featured in a videogame that Sid and I play called "The Last Guy", shopped around a bit, and headed back to the hotel.
Dang. I didn't get caught up -- nor was I brief -- and it's midnight. Maybe I'll catch up tomorrow.
about you and the monk story:
Once there was a big statue of Buddha(destroyed in 1923 by heavy earthquake) and its pagoda(dismantled in 1875). Now we can only see the face of the statue. So, I think the monk told you about it.
Posted by: my thought | December 09, 2008 at 03:25 PM