Japan Day 1: Shinagawa, Imperial Palace & Marunouchi

1. Sengaku-ji, Soto Zen Temple

We got up super early and got ready to head out. Went to this temple first, which was about a 15-20 minute walk from the guest house. This temple was built to honor the 47 ronin (masterless samurai) who plotted for two years to wreak vengeance on the man that caused their master's death in the 18th century. It is a very popular legend of loyalty in Japan and there is a two part black and white film that was released in 1941 and 1942 in Japan. It was released in the west sometime in the 60s/70s.

Nothing at this temple was in English and there was a lot of incense burning. I would suggest going to this temple with someone who knows Japanese. It looks like it would've been pretty interesting had we known what the signage said.

Graves of the 47 Ronin

 

2. Tokyo Imperial Palace Bicycle Ride

After getting something to eat at Cafe Milano, we went to the Tokyo Imperial Palace and rode bicycles. Every Sunday from 10:00a to 2:00p they shut down the Uchibori-dori (the street around the Imperial Palace) and give free bicycle rentals. This was one of the most awesome things we did. It was a perfect day to ride bikes and hang out around the palace.

Thought the 'please wait a little' was funny

Flier for Imperial Palace bicycling

Statue outside the Imperial Palace

3. Higashi-Gyoen, East Garden of the Imperial Palace

Walked around the gardens for a while after the bicycle ride. Everything is space out and very elegant. This was our first time greeting people in Japan. A group of four elders greeted us with many Konnichi-wa's. We were pretty excited. While here, we also went to the Museum of the Imperial Collections for the Opening of Meiji Art. There weren't a lot of pieces, but they were pretty cool anyway.

Flier for the Museum of Imperial Collections

^ Watari-yagura-no-Shachi of the old Ote-mon gate. The stylized dolphin used to be the roof finials 
of watari-yagura (a building for storage and defense) of the Old Ote-mon gate which was damaged in 
World War II. April, 1945. The date carved on the head suggests that the fish was made after the gate 
was destroyed in the conflagration of 1657. The present watari-yagura building of Ote-mon gate was 
reconstructed in 1968. 

^ The stone walls of the Imperial Palace are designed as a special historic structure of the former Edo Castle. The Nakanomon Gate stone wall deteriorated over centuries resulting in deformation and bulging of the stones, loose joints, cracks and separation. Because of its historic value, an in-depth investigation was carried out by means of the latest survey technology, a 3d laser survey, to explore the masonry configuration and the remains. The restoration work of the Honmaru-Nakanomon Gate stone wall was carried out from August 2005 through March 2007. The purpose of the work was to restore the stone wall to its original condition that had existed before it deteriorated and to conduct culture assets investigation while performing the work. The Nakanomon Gate is built with stones larger than those used in other stone walls in the Edo Castle and by employing a technique called "nunozumi", where rows of stones are horizontally laid on top of one another. As regards the Honmaru-Nakanomon Gate stone wall, the castle once had a barbican defense house. Watariyagura-mon constructed as entry point to the Honmaru buildings.

One of the gates into the palace

Imperial Palace in the far background

Trees in front of the Imperial Palace. Beautiful!

Trees vs. city view

^ Doshin bansho Guardhouse. Doshin bansho is one of the three guardhouses still remaining. Samurai guardsmen kept constant watch especially on the members of a lord's retinue who entered through Ote-mon gate.

^ Hyakunin-bansho Guardhouse. A bansho was a guardhouse. This was the biggest guardhouse set up in front of the Ote-san-no-man gate leading to Honmaru (inner citadel) and Ninomaru (second citadel), for inspection of visitors who entered from Ote-mon Gate (main entrance) in the Edo period. One hundred samurai guardsmen, chosen from among the Kinsmen and loyal retainers of each of the four main branches of the Tokugawa clan, had their quarters there and worked in shifts day and night.

Imperial Palace gardens

Every plant is marked.

Lost of swans in the moat

Pond in the garden

Little waterfall in the background

Bamboo trees in the gardens

Garden vs. city background.

Lots of fish in the ponds and moat

Pretty flowers everywhere

Moat

4. Mitsukoshi Department Store

This was Japan's 1st department store. We wandered for a while and went to CITI restaurant. They put us in the very back part of the restaurant, but the food was awesome and the beer much needed. After that we went back to some of the stores and did some shopping. We found a lot of stunt monkeys and I found an awesome pack of crazy postcards (my favorite one is below).

Stunt monkeys!

5. Kanda Myojin

This Shinto shrine was made to enshrine the Kami gods to bring good luck in business and in finding a spouse. There was not a lot of English here either except for the sign on the history of the shrine. Did get to see a few people take part in the shrine "ritual".

Kanda Shrine History: Kanda Shrine is formally known as Kanda Jinja but is more popularly called Kanda Myojin. The deities enshrined are the guardian deities for 108 Tokyo neighborhoods. Prayers to the deities are particularly efficacious for family happiness, marriage, prosperity and success in business, recovery from illness, and protection against accidents and disasters, among other things.

Kanda Myojin was founded in 730. With almost 1300 years of history, the shrine is one of the oldest in Tokyo. In 1309, Taira no Masakado (903-940), a famous warrior hero of Eastern Japan, was enshrined at Kanda Myojin. In 1603, when Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu established his government in Edo (now Tokyo) and rebuilt Edo Castle on a larger scale, the shogunate moved Kanda Shrine to its present site in order to guard against misfortune entering the castle from the inauspicious Omote Kimon (demon gate) direction. During the Meiji period (1868-1912), Kanda Myojin was named one of the ten shrines in Tokyo to which an Imperial emissary was sent on the occasion of festivals and was officially regarded as the guardian of the City of Tokyo and the Imperial Palace.  In 1874, another deity (Sukunahiko-no-mikoto) was enshrined. It was that year the Emperor Meiji paid a personal visit to the shrine. Following the destruction of the shrine complex in the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, the shrine buildings were rebuilt in Gongen sytle, but instead of traditional wood, reinforced concrete was used. After the war in the 1940s, the Zuishin Gate and other structures were rebuilt, restoring the shrine to its Edo period grandeur.

Stepping up to the shrine area

Shrine

This bear is everywhere. Always with really large balls.

One of the deities

On the corners of the temple

You have to walk around this a certain way before entering

6. Akihabara

We went to Akihabara to try and find Tsukomo Robotto, which is supposedly a store of robotic heaven. If you've been to Akihabara, you will realize the impossibility of this endeavor. This area was crazy and in the end we were so overwhelmed by all the neon and bright colors that we gave up trying to find the store and just walked around soaking up all the madness.

I wanna touch you station.

7. Minami Machida

After Akihabara, we headed to Greg and Hisayo's house in Minami Machida on the train. Greg picked us up from the train station and we got settled into the house on our futons, after a beer or two. Monkey had a little fun on the train.