Japan Entry 5

Yes, back again.

When I woke up, my right hip was screaming at me in pain, each step was a chore and I sort of half-waddled to the 8th floor to get my morning shower in before heading out. It's 5 days into the trip and I'm feeling the effects of all the trekking I do each day. I know my grandfather was a mail carrier who walked his entire route, so I should have good genes when it comes to this, but it seems it might have skipped a generation. Leaving a hostel at 9 or 10 am and walking around until 9 or 10 pm has made my feet, calves, and thighs sore in a way I thought previously impossible. When I finally do get back to the hotel, I gingerly move around as little as possible to avoid further 'injury.' I think Sunday is going to be a less intense day.

However, Saturday was a totally intense day! I started bright and early, setting out for the Tokyo Tower in the morning hoping to avoid a lot of the rush that would sure to accompany a lunch time crowd, so I got there around 10 am. Though there may have been more of a crowd at mid day, there was still a 45 minute-long line to stand in before getting into the elevator and heading up. The elevator had a ton of LED's that would go off in sync with the mood music that gently faded in while the woman stationed to hit the buttons talked into a microphone thanking us for visiting. At some point, the elevator's glass (which was fogged) suddenly became clear as we climbed and we could look out as we moved higher and higher.

The observation deck was full of families and little kids running around, yelling while the parents stared at the views. I walked around the whole deck and took the time to admire each portion of the 360 degree panorama. I mean, hey, why not take my time? I paid for it. Not to mention I got the combination set that also included the wax museum and guinness book of world records museum. I had never been to a wax museum or a world record museum, so I figured, "why not?" and bought the more expensive ticket to check it out. After the observation deck, we were let out of the 'down' elevator on the '4th floor' where there were small children's amusement rides as well as an arcade. Yeah, the Eiffel Tower didn't have an arcade. Step your game up, France.

The wax museum was a strange kind of ode to a random mishmash of stars, the models themselves were sometimes scarily accurate and other times very, very poor. Julia Roberts looked terrifying. It was a quick walkthrough and, to be honest, I was pretty disappointed with the whole thing. Hoping that I'd quickly be made happier by visiting some world records... I wasn't. It's sort of, well, very trivial. A lot of lists of who holds what record with photos of the winner, and some cool memorabilia from various movies and such... but all in all, you should completely and immediately skip both these museums.

Looking down from the top, I noticed a cool looking temple close to the base of the tower, so I hoofed it over there once finished with the Tower, taking a moment to look at a performing couple who were feeding a small monkey which must have been the main attraction of their show. All I could think was how hot it was. Arriving at the temple, I snapped some photos and admired the traditional feel it gave before heading back up the hill to the metro station (Which I almost didn't find) in order to get over to the War Museum.

I hopped out at the stop that the guide book said would be the right one, and then promptly forgot the Japanese name for the shrine where the museum was located and went the wrong way. Instead, I went into a giant park that was home to the Modern Art and Science museum (of which I desired to see neither) so I spent about 45 minutes walking in the afternoon heat sweating while growing more frustrated with my situation. Yes, it was a beautiful day and the park was very nice, but damn it's too hot to be outside for extended periods of it. I should have picked a different time of year to come visit. Eventually though, I did find the right shrine and entered the museum only to be frustrated by its content. The Japanese War Museum, as my guide book warned, is more a revision on history than real straight facts, and it was really frustrating to see how they portrayed all acts of war not committed by Japan I suppose it's understandable, but I left with a bad taste in my mouth and I wouldn't recommend visiting.

Leaving there, I settled on heading to Shinjuku since Shohei and I didn't see very much of it the day before, but stopped for a quick gander at the shrine itself. There were a lot of people praying there, this shrine was supposed to honor dead soldiers I believe, but I didn't partake. It would feel really disingenuous to honor warriors who gave their lives trying to take ones from my fellow countrymen.

I read in my guidebook about a sports bar that had british beers on tap and showed a lot of premiership league soccer, which is all good and right up my alley, but it turns out the book was a bit out of date. Tokyo Clubhouse, the sports bar, had closed shop a while ago, and I was left to aimlessly wander Shinjuku side streets trying to find it. Suddenly, I noticed a bar called "The Clubhouse" which was on the 3rd floor (like the sports bar) and so I thought, "They must have moved! Yes, I found it!" Sure didn't. I climbed the stairs past a hungarian cuisine restaurant (shoutouts to Laurel) and pushed the door in. The bartender looked up and stopped midgreeting with a look of surprise before finishing his sentence. I bowed and sat at the bar next to 3 other men. After being shown the menu, I settled on a beer and opened up my guide book to figure out my next move.

My next move, as it turned out, was to sit and talk in an english/japanese hybrid conversation for a couple hours as we discussed our love lives, movies, music, and things to see in Tokyo. The guys who worked/owned the bar were really nice, and I guess their surprise was due to very few Americans visiting their little bar. Well, it was either very few Americans or very few straight Americans would come into the bar. It turned out I'd found a gay bar with a very similar name to the one I had been searching for, the two dudes who worked there were very reluctant to tell me though, and I didn't learn about the... persuasion until mid-way through my visit. Of course I'm totally fine with gay people, so it was kind of cool to stumble upon a less-talked-about Tokyo subculture.  Best $16 I've spent on beer in a long time, probably.

Afterwards, I walked Shinjuku to take a look until I was too tired to possibly walk a minute more, and went home to bed. As I said before, I think Sunday is gonna be rest day.

GT

I've given up on this image uploader, here's the photobucket:

http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d151/WebSlinger69/Japan%205/