My course work starts tomorrow, Monday, so I took advantage of my Sunday to the fullest! I braved the Tokyo metro to head into the heart of this metropolis. The photo below shows you what I had to navigate. My only hope was that when I was at the metro station, that the station names would be written in English- otherwise this situation would have been hopeless. (Get ready, I'm going to quiz you in a bit!)
To back track a bit, in my course of nightly browsing through my guide book and the web to decide what to do the next day, I came across to incredibly helpful websites. One is the Tokyo Metro site which lists the "most popular attractions" in Tokyo, with the added benefit that they are all on a metro stop! The second website allows me to type in any two stations (departure and destination) and it gives me the most direct itinerary and train schedule for that route! (The times are rather arbitrary since you never have to wait more than 8 minutes for the train you want).
So my goal for today was to visit several different locations:
1. Meiji Jingu Shrine that is surrounded by a man-made forest.
2. Yoyogi Park (unfortunately it was raining today, so I didn't get to see the crowds of Sunday park-goers there)
3. Ota Memorial Museum of Art that had a special exhibit of Ukiyo-e (Japanese Block printings). The other feature was that you had to remove your shoes in the exhibit and wear special slippers.
4. Omote-Sando a sophisticated shopping district where the high end stores are no match for the sophistication and bizzarreness of Japanese fashion!!
5. Shibuya Crossing- why not throw in the most heavily used intersection (by pedestrians) in the world! For some true Japanese crowds.
Where I am staying is on the outskirts of Tokyo, where I am the tallest, most foreign, blondest, person wearing the least amount of clothing, and most-Japanese illiterate in the town. (I have yet to run into another foreigner in my neighborhood). This of course was not the case in downtown Tokyo! PLENTY of tall tourists (Spanish, German, English... you name it), PLENTY of dyed platinum blonde, blue, and red Japanese heads of hair, PLENTY of scantily clad city goers, it was definitely a great place of people watching!
So, before I crash here is the quiz. Then in part 2 of this blog post, I will give my response and post photos. Take a look at the metro map provided. Find KANAMACHI station (north east corner). That is my home station. I wanted to go to MEIJI-JINGUMAE. How should I get there? What line/s should I take?
Good Luck!
Wow looks hard! Also did you self timer that photo in the rain???
ReplyDeleteI think I found Kanamachi (left of Ikiburo, on the red and yellow lines), but I cant find Meiji-Jinguamae. How many times did you have to change trains in the end?
ReplyDeleteAll the photos that have me in them, have been self-timered! Its pretty hilarious. I try to find some flat surface that is high enough, set up the camera and then run to the spot where I think I will fit in the picture! Usually I get more ground than anything else.
ReplyDeleteDo you see the big green metro line? My goal was on that line (right near Shibuya station). I basically ride that green line from the complete other end al the way across town. Basically follow the green line (Chiyoda line) from the Top right corner of the map, to the bottom left corner. There were only 2 exchanges that had to be made. And just enough English is used on the signs, for me to safely make it around!
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