Our third day in Tokyo was a rain day. It actually snowed a bit in the morning. We decided it would be a good day to go to the Tokyo National Museum. Our hotel had free umbrellas to borrow, but we had rain coats and didn’t really feel like carrying a big umbrella around. Lesson learned – everyone uses umbrellas when it rains and leaves them in large umbrella stands outside their destination. We got pretty wet, and while everyone else on the subway was dry, we were in our dripping coats. The subways were easy to use, and new trains arrived every few minutes. It was pretty crowded at times but it was still calm and pleasant. There is no pushing, people give you space, people are very quiet, and there is no eating, drinking or talking on phones allowed in the cars. Everyone is so polite.
The Tokyo National Museum was a great place to get a whirlwind tour of Japanese history, art and culture. There is a subtle Japanese aesthetic in art across the centuries that values simplicity, refinement, less is more. A simple tea cup is one of the museum’s most valued treasures. Scrolls written in remarkable calligraphy with no need for decoration. The gentle curve of a samurai sword with no need for gaudy embellishments. Beautiful woodcut prints with simple lines portraying all the beauty of a mountain, a wave or a cherry tree branch. This simple elegance permeates so much of Japanese culture. There is a certain order to things, calmness, beauty.
When we got back to Shinjuku train station, we decided to grab supper there. The train station was so huge – there must have been thousands of shops and restaurants! Many of the restaurants have replicas of their dishes on display making it easier to figure out what each restaurant serves. We chose an udon soup place and used Google translate to figure out what to order. Google translate can use your phone’s camera to translate words, but it can be very funny. One of the soups we ordered was described as “run away fast”. I’m glad we didn’t, as it was delicious like everything else we tried so far.
We left Tokyo the next day. We stopped by a local Shinto shrine on our way to the station. The plum trees were blooming, which were very pretty. We are a couple months early for the cherry blossoms, but we were happy to see some plum tree flowers. At many shrines or temples, we saw monks sweeping the grounds with old-fashioned brooms. Doing simple tasks like cleaning, gardening or cooking are very Zen and can lead to enlightenment.
We took the Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo station to Kyoto. The Tokyo train station looked European above ground, with the exception of the bonsai-like trees. Underground, it was another massive station with an impossible number of shops and platforms.
I remember reading about the Japanese bullet trains as a kid. They started operation in 1964 and in nearly 60 years have never had a fatality. Each train can carry 1300 passengers and they run at over 200mph on magnetically levitated cars. Our train took just over 2 hours to get to Kyoto, which would have taken over 6 hours by car with no traffic. It was so smooth and very quiet as there were no heavy wheels riding directly on the tracks. As a bonus we got great views of Mount Fuji on the way.
Leave a Reply