Japan Day 6

Another full day of travel today. I woke up very early and decided I would just walk around a bit in the morning. I didn’t know what time the first bus ran, but I did know that where I left my luggage would not be open until 8am. I gathered up all my stuff and headed out to the lobby to hang out for a minute and get a little bit of stretching in. The lobby of the hostel was pleasantly peaceful at 5:30am. I’m finding that I’m fond of waking up early and watching the world come to life.

I was going to stop by Lawsons and grab some Monster to wake me up a bit however they were not open yet. I swung by the 7-11 instead and grabbed an iced coffee and a very stale donut. Out of all the 7-11 snacks I bought on my trip this was by far the worst. My guess is that being so remote this store doesn’t see a lot of traffic. I took my morning snack over to the bus stop on the other side of the road and found that the first bus wasn’t scheduled until 6:20, so I had about 30 minutes to spare. The bus stop at Hakone backed right up to lake Ashi with a nice railing to look out at the lake as the sun was coming up.

I got a bit distracted feeding some ducks that floated over to me and the first traffic I heard that morning was my 6:20 bus flying past the bus stop! Thankfully, the buses run about every 15 minutes in that area, not to mention the store holding on to my luggage in Odawara didn’t open until 8:30 AM. I made sure to be standing at the bus stop when the next bust showed up and I was on my way to Tokyo, leaving the scenic Hakone behind.

There is one thing I didn’t mention before that I feel really needs to be shared. The bus drivers in Hakone are absolutely nuts! These drivers go up and down winding mountain roads without batting an eye, cutting corners I would barely feel comfortable taking in a standard pickup truck, much less a fully packed bus. I spent most of the trip Odawara clutching onto the handrail of the seat in front of me so I wouldn’t get tossed to the ground on the switchbacks.

Arriving at Odawara station I made my way to the store to pick up my luggage, getting there 30 minutes before they were scheduled to open. I went by the JR counter first and snagged a Shinkansen ticket to Tokyo for 8:45AM, leaving myself plenty of time to pick up my luggage. There was someone in line at the luggage pickup when I arrived. He tried asking me some questions about the Hakone free pass, but I wasn’t able to grasp what he was asking. When some others showed up in the line, he asked them the question and I could understand their answer that he was in the right place to buy free pass. I actually had the vocabulary needed to help him, but I don’t believe he ever mentioned that he wanted to buy the free pass!

Snagging my luggage was a quick process. I handed over my ticket and got my luggage back in just a few seconds. I was feeling comfortable navigating the train system and could get to my platform with about 20 minutes to spare. With the extra time I had, I grabbed some snacks on the platform and grabbed a pork sandwich. I had about 4 hours before I needed to be at the sumo event I booked for lunch and I was set to arrive in Tokyo in an hour, leaving me plenty of time to get around. When I arrived in Tokyo, I was so relieved to see a line of taxis waiting outside the station. It felt great being back in an area with easy and quick transportation.

My hotel for the remainder of my trip was the Super Hotel Ginza. The price for the hotel was quite reasonable, so I assumed it was a decent area, but nothing too fancy. It turns out that Ginza is a high end fashion district. My sweatpants and hoodie felt a little out of place, but at the point, I was getting used to that! Glancing through Google maps, I looked for something interesting to do on my way to the sumo event since I had a fair bit of time before it began. Kiyosumi Park was fairly close to the event location, so I headed there first.

I made a short walk across of the Onagi river and into Kiyosumi park which was amazingly beautiful. Given that Tokyo is so dense, seeing this large park full of nature with the backdrop of the busy city was a unique experience to me. The park itself had a lot of cool rock features, including some rock pathways that crossed the water. Some trees had a fairly intricate system of supports attached to them in order to shape the branches that were growing. I spent around an hour walking through the park before heading out and making my way towards lunch.

I got to Dosukoi Tanaka with no trouble. The restaurant was open early and let everyone in to sit down and relax before the food and show started. This was another one of those incredible experiences that I’m so happy to have done. They had an announcer who came out and gave us a rundown of what to expect. We learned a little bit about the history of sumo and what a the day of a sumo wrestler is like. The meal was fried pork, some great rice, and ‘Chanko Nabe’ or hotpot. The food was quite tasty, but I was really looking forward to show.

The two sumo wrestlers came out and started going through some stretching and warm-ups. They injected comedy into the whole thing, which I enjoyed. I was quite impressed to see one of them perform a full split! These were big men with tremendous flexibility! After the demonstration, we were given the opportunity to challenge the wrestlers to a match. Going into this, I was quite certain that there was no way I could win a match against a trained sumo wrestler. I hoped that my power lifting background and size would at least make them put forth some effort against me.

We threw some salt on the ring for good luck, squared off, and I started pushing with everything I had. Shockingly, I felt Jo, who I was matched up against, sliding back across the ring. I gained a bit of confidence that I was giving him a minor challenge. Just as I felt I was on the verge of pushing him out of the ring, he stopped. I don’t mean he started pushing back, or that he started putting for effort. No, this man just stopped moving entirely. I felt like I was pushing against a solid wall. I tried adjusting my grip, changing the angle I was pushing at, but nothing was working. After what felt like minutes of futile pushing Jo finally relented and took a step out of the ring, giving me the win (as he did for everyone).

The photo Op at the end of the event really threw me for a loop. We were standing there taking photos, doing some posing, and then these two guys lift me up onto their shoulders. I’m far from a small man and I’m not sure to being lifted into the air! I got another opportunity to take a photo at the end of the event without the silly head piece as well. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience, which turned out to be a theme for most of what I did in Tokyo.

My agenda for the evening was set, with a local guide who was going to take me to a few Izakaya. I had plenty of time before we were set to meet, so I booked a ticket for the Tokyo Skytree. Getting to the Skytree was incredibly easy. I was really appreciating the simplicity of navigating the Tokyo subways. Every stop was numbered, and each line was assigned a letter. Going from one station to another was a simple task of figuring out what station you were at, and then looking at the signs to determine if the train was going upwards through stations or downward through them.

The Skytree was surrounded by a huge mall. I was now truly understanding the fascination that Japan has with department stores or what I would call a mall. Every time I found myself in a departo, I was sure that it was the biggest one I would see on the trip. Once again, I was wrong and the Skytree mall was bigger than any I had been to in Japan yet. At the Pokemon shop, I found souvenirs for all of my kids. Each of them wanted a stuffed Pokemon, but my oldest was looking for a very specific Pokemon, the Herulian Growlith. I was pleasantly surprised to find one sitting on the shelf! With the hundreds if not thousands of Pokemon currently out there, to see this particular one in stock was delightful.

The rest of the mall was a standard affair. I checked out some lovely Japanese cooking knives and almost purchased a Demascus chopping knife. The nearly $400 price tag and complexity of getting it home dissuaded me from pulling the trigger on that purchase. I made my way to the 10th floor where the Skytree elevators were located and got in line to head to the top. The view from the top of the Skytree was stunning. It was amazing to see how much of Tokyo is just a solid sheet of concrete. Everywhere you looked it was grey spotted with little patches of green where a park broke the sprawling cityscape.

There is a small section of the floor in the Skytree that is made of glass. Standing over it wasn’t as disorienting as I expected it to be. As I was looking down at the mall below, another larger gentleman was trying to pull his friend onto the glass floor. Just as his friend got there, the larger man jump and his friend nearly dove back to the ‘safety’ of regular floor! I got a good laugh out of it and asked the guy ”一緒？” (together?) and we shared a quick moment doing a little hop on the glass floor. I wish I would have snagged a photo with him, but didn’t think about it at the time!

I made a trip back to the hotel so I could drop off my bag. Sitting in my room, I was debating cancelling the evening tour I had planned and just crashing on the bed right there. In retrospect, I am extremely grateful that I didn’t back out of the tour. It was a highlight of my trip. Shuri gave me directions to meet up with him just outside the subway station, not too far from my hotel. He was very enthusiastic and his English was great, though he wouldn’t admit it. We headed out to our first location, which I would have never found on my own, nor do I think I would have been welcomed.

Shuri went in to make sure it was alright for me to join. He came back out and told me it was fine, but that I shouldn’t take photos inside or be too touristy! We sat down at the only available spot in the small establishment at the back. The table was setup for four people and Shuri let me know that if someone else showed up, they may join us. We ordered a bottle of green tea whiskey and a set of appetizers. Once again, chicken liver ended up on the table! Thankfully, Shuri was a big fan of it and was happy to enjoy all of the liver, well I rather liked the grilled chicken skin.

30 minutes later, an older woman and her granddaughter came in and sat down with us. This was another highlight of the trip. Shuri translated for us and we talked about families, jobs, and how I was enjoying my trip so far. The old lady and her granddaughter drank their way through a whole body in the same time that Shuri and I finish our second bottle.

We left the Izakaya and made our way to a much fancier establishment. This one was a sake house and we tried about 6 different Sake. Shuri turned out to be quite the connoisseur of sake and guided me through an excellent selection of different local brews. I wish I had the foresight to snap some pictures of the different bottles, but at this point I had drank too much to think that far ahead! The drinks were excellent, but sharing stories and photos with Shuri made the evening incredible. We made our way back to the subway station, said our goodbyes. I was sad to have the day coming to a close, but it was an incredible experience.