So, we checked out of our hotel and headed with all of our earthly possessions to Tokyo Station, where we put them in a locker.. somewhere.. and left out one of the exits.. somewhere.. In order to get to the Imperial Palace! Now, my classes every day in Kyoto are a 10-minute walk from the old-school Imperial Palace is, but it really gives no context for the one in Tokyo. For one thing, the one in Kyoto was made in the old Imperial Shinden style, based off of Chinese capitals, while the one in Tokyo was build on the grounds of Edo Castle, built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, lest anyone doubt just how much of a baller he was. If anything, Nijo Castle in Kyoto is a more fitting comparison than the Imperial palace. On the other hand, there is hardly anything left of the castle, either; you can go stand on top of the foundation of the gigantic keep, but it burned down in the Edo period and was never rebuilt. Where the Emperor actually lives is a 50s concrete building (the one they build in the Meiji was totally obliterated by us firebombing Tokyo to the ground in World War 2). We got the tour, and it was very nice. They even gave us little mp3 players with an english audio tour on them. The Japanese know what they're doing with gardens, I can tell you. There are basically two levels of security; only tours go into the inner part where the Emperor lives, but there is a large ring of gardens and things around it that apparently you can go in and out of freely. A lot of people were eating lunch there.. pretty sweet break room, if you ask me. We also stumbled on a Police Brass Band playing a lunchtime picnic concert, so that was nice.
All gardened out, we headed just a bit north and checked out Yasakuni Shrine, because one of my companions has a boundless appetite for controversy. Meanwhile, I brought along only my hideously over-acute sense of "I am not supposed to be here." Yasakuni Shrine is a Shinto Shrine where the kami enshrined is the sum total of everyone who has died serving in Japan's military since the Meiji Restoration. It's a bizarre thing for a Shrine to be doing, and is a strange outgrowth of the Meiji-era re-invention of Shinto into something more resembling a "modern, Western" religion that could be used for Nationalism. At the same time, invented or not, I don't want to belittle a place meant to honor the dead. "Well," one would think, "What's so wrong with this? We have Arlington, and no-one minds.." The difference is that many of the Grade-A War Criminals that committed horrible atrocities in China and other places in East Asia are enshrined there along with everyone else that died in the war. Every time a Japanese Prime Minister visited the shrine to pay their respects (and the LDP ones frequently did, at least in part because one of their biggest power bases was veterans), China flipped out and there was an international incident. Prime Minister Hatoyama apparently has pledged not to do so, but the Shrine remains in any case.
Regardless of issues of war criminals, I just felt times a million like I shouldn't be there. Many of the Japanese there were elderly and perhaps paying respects to a brother, father, or friend; many of them might have been in the war themselves, and here is this jackass American kid flouncing around taking pictures of them because "it is so interesting." No thank you, I tried my best to rush the group through as fast as possible and I have very few pictures from inside the precincts of the shrine itself. We also didn't actually ascend into the main building, just looked from afar. They have giant imposing metal Torii; it gives a very brutal feel (though I got a picture of two doves cuddling on top of it which is like 18 billion symbolism points). I also managed to get a lot of thinking and looking in between trying to escape, it was interesting but I still felt bad because even apart from what the Japanese think, there I was at a shrine honoring guys that, no less than crimes in China and Korea, were trying their damndest to kill my grandfather and I'm not sure how OK I am with that. Anyway.
We spent the rest of the day in transit- wasted some more time lost in Tokyo Station looking for our stuff, and then we hopped a train for Nikko after being joined by a new member, bringing our team up to 4. Nikko is about 4 hours via local train to the northwest of Tokyo, and is a magical wonderland! We stayed at a place with little Japanese-style cottages (http://www.nikko-inn.jp/, I highly highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Japan, it is run by a great couple that were extremely friendly and chatted with us for a while over tea, the cottage was fantastic, and it was fairly cheap!), two stops before Nikko itself. Getting off at the station was a bit scary.. the station was a platform only big enough to fit two cars, and the ticket booth was a porta-potty sized shack, and there was NOTHING IN SIGHT (later in the morning we learned there were a bunch of buildings around, the Japanese are just concerned about the environment or something and don't leave all their lights on everywhere with the blinds open). Fortunately the main building of the Inn was about 4 feet from the station so it was all ok.
After and extremely restful night (We got sushi delivered right to the room/cottage! And slept on futons on tatami! So traditional!), we headed out bright and early to experience the wonders of Nikko. Lemme tell you it was pretty wonderful. There were pagodas and temples and a reaaally nice garden that was right at the right time in terms of the autumn leaves. But all this paled next to one thing I experienced in Nikko.
The best thing in Japan. Hands down. This is the greatest thing the Japanese have ever made. It is one of the greatest things anyone in the world can ever make. I couldn't handle it I stood staring for literally minutes. This thing is off the hook. We paid 14 dollars for a combo ticket that got us into all of the temples and shrines in the area, and I would have paid 20 just to see this one thing. I would have paid 100.
Look closely at that picture. See that gate? That gate??
THAT GATE!
Tokugawa Ieyasu is enshrined here, and his successors decided he wasn't just going to be enshrined as a god, he was going to be enshrined as a god in STYLE. And what a style it was. Japanese Art Historians generally hate on it, calling it "Japanese Baroque (AS IF THAT WERE A BAD THING)" and saying it is "ostentatious." Japanese art historians mainly busy themselves with the subtle beauty behind a cup which is slightly lumpy one way and another cup lumpy another way, so I will forgive them for not recognizing the sweetest thing to ever happen in the world when they are looking right at it and complaining. It's like the Micheal Bay of architecture. Instead of "hey, there is a scene without an explosion, I'ma put in a helicopter and blow it up," it's "oh crap there is something not covered with gold, let's carve a SWEET DRAGON on it and THEN cover it with gold."
Who is that jerk all getting up in my picture of the gate? I don't know but his ugly mug is detracting from HOW AWESOME THE GATE IS.
I don't care what anyone says, I love that thing. The rest of the shrine was similarly gilded and awesome, and there are the hear no evil-see no evil-speak to evil monkeys carved (in painted wood, BO-RING) on one of the lesser buildings, I guess, but it's like being offered a 5-star restaurant meal while CONSUMING AND BATHING IN THE AMBROSIA OF THE GODS, except instead of that it's a gate. The best gate of any gate ever. I will forever be jaded at architecture, because I'm pretty sure nothing is going to measure up.
Above was one of the other temples in Nikko and hey look it's pretty I guess? What-EVER. Man, that gate.
Anyway, we ate food or whatever which I didn't taste because all I wanted to taste was the gate, we rode back on another long train (away from the gate...) and I stayed in CAPSULE HOTEL which was an experience and a half, and I dreamed all night in my tube of love of my life, that GATE. MM that gate.
I don't even remember what we did the last day. I know we didn't get onto the night bus until 11 PM, but being so recently parted from the only thing I ever truly wanted to see in my life was traumatizing. I think we went to Ginza and ate at that Chocolate Cafe (I got chocolate sandwiches! They also had strawberries and it was pretty good but not as good as THAT GATE). We may have wandered around Akihabara a bunch more and I got to be reminded of home by rummaging in bin after bin of random fairly worthless computer and electronic components (Fun idea for rich people: Fly to Tokyo, go to Akihabara, everyone gets 500 dollars to buy enough junk to piece together a functioning computer. At the end of the day you put them together and the best one wins!). Anyway, after another rousing jaunt on the misleadingly named dream bus, I was back in Kyoto!
Phew. Back to writing about my boring life, instead of my boring life surrounded by exciting things!
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