Glimpse of Tokyo - by Lily

A business trip brought me to Tokyo in May. Since I was going with my Japanese colleague, I didn’t do any research or preparation. Tokyo turned out to be very different than I imagined….

A crowded city

Tokyo on the surface doesn’t seem to be very crowded. The roads are narrow, cars many, but there are many trees lining up the streets that mellows the scene. There’s even a small park up the hill right behind our hotel in the busy Shinagawa district. However, the crowd shows up at every major train transit. There can be 16 or more platforms at each transit, people rush in and out in fast pace. Things happen in amazingly good order; the platforms are constantly filled with people then emptied out as the trains leave then filled again. Up at the street level, all day long there are large crowd crossing the intersection in a hurried pace.

The water way

            It didn’t occur to me that you could travel in the city by water ways until my friend took me to the water bus. We took the train to Hama Rikyu, a landscape park in central Tokyo, and boarded the water cruise to Asakusa. Along the way, we passed many bridges, saw many interesting buildings along the banks, and saw people running along the riverside parks.

on water bus

The temples and gardens

When we arrived at Sensoji temple in Asakusa district, it turned out to be the annual Sanja Festival. It was super crowded with a lot of celebration going on. Teams carrying mikoshi (portable shrines) parade through the temple, they chant, dance, and jostle through the crowd competing with each other.

In the afternoon, when I strolled into the Meiji jingu it was mostly quiet and peace. Evergreen forest covered the road leading to the temple. As I get close to the shrine, there’s a wall of barrels of sake on one side, the other side a water basin where people perform Temizu, a hand washing custom, before entering the shrine.

Walking through the shrine exiting from its north side, I headed to Shinjuku Gyoen, the royal garden. I was surprised to see such a large patch of green field in the center of crowded Tokyo. Families with kids were enjoying the field. The garden features a mix of French, English, and Japanese styles. The greenhouse has some amazing floras.

barrel of sake

ceremony of washing hands

Sensoji Celebration

Sensoji celebration 2

Flowers in the greenhouse

Garden behind the hotel

The national garden

The food and the toilet

            There’s food everywhere in Tokyo and people are eating all the time 😊 My friend always meticulously maps out her eating route every time she goes back home, so I tried a variety of things with her from rice burger to raw egg noodles. She also took me to the supermarket at train transit to marvel at the neatly packaged vegetables and the price of a melon (over $300 for a cantaloupe! extreme case). But I can’t help wondering what’s in the Japanese diet that contributes to their health and longevity. Traditional Japanese food are pickled, fermented, or fried, and with a lot of carb. Diet alone can’t be it. Perhaps it's the fact that people are always on the move walking 😊   

At the end of a busy day, sitting on the luxurious Japanese toilet becomes an extremely soothing experience.  The seat warm to the bone, hot water streams up under the control of my finger tip making one totally relaxed, a whole day's tiredness is gone! 

A bidet

* bidet - A bidet is a plumbing fixture or type of sink intended for washing the genitalia, perineum, inner buttocks, and anus of the human body. It may be located next to the toilet in the toilet room. Fixtures that combine a toilet seat with a bidet, which may be electronic, are available. "Bidet" is a French loanword