7-11, Shrine, and Baseball

Saturday, July 29, 2017 – Tokyo, Japan

I have trouble sleeping once it is light out, especially when I am in a new city on the threshold of adventure. Our bedroom had traditional paper screens over sliding doors onto our balcony, so when the early summer sun started pouring in at 4:30 am I was awake and ready to go. Aaron was up also, so he and I went for a walk around our new, short-term neighborhood. We found a beautiful park and would observe over the next few days that Tokyo has many beautiful parks. There is a lot of common, green space – lots of places for a quiet, natural respite from the urban jungle.

When we returned to the apartment, Chrissy was up. We retraced our steps through the park and went to a 7-11 for breakfast. Seven-eleven stores are very popular in Japan and are a bit different than in the U.S. They are convenience stores much like the U.S. stores, but there is a strong emphasis on high-quality fresh food for immediate consumption. The stores receive deliveries of fresh items several times a day and many have tables where you can eat your meal. Aaron had a tuna cake, I had a rice bowl, and Chrissy had yogurt and a banana. This wasn’t the hot dog on a roller grill from your American 7-11 for sure.

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With breakfast handled, we set off for the Government Center observatory. The twin towers of the Government Center are among the tallest buildings in Tokyo and the observatory is free. It was a great way to soak in the vastness of the city early in our visit. I have been to observatories in other cities – The Empire State Building in New York, the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago, and so forth. In every other observatory I could see the edge of the city giving way to the suburbs and rural areas beyond. In Tokyo the city appears to just go on forever. The urban area stretches as far as the eye can see. And Tokyo has no “grid”. From above it appears as a hodge-podge of streets, alleys, and highways running at odd angles every which way. Beautiful chaos that all comes together and creates a vibrant, wonderful city.

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Next up was the Meiji Shrine, a Shinto shrine commemorating Emperor Meiji, the Meiji Restoration, and the Meiji Era. The shrine sits in several acres of lush forest in the middle of the city. It attracts many visitors and is important to the culture and the people of Japan. We soaked in the beauty and history of the space, and also got to see a wedding processional.

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Meiji Shrine is in the Shibuya District, which is a very busy shopping district. We explored Takeshita Street, a popular street that was crammed wall-to-wall with people. It seemed most were eating crepes shaped into a cone and filled with ice cream and/or whipped cream and/or fruit. Of course we had to find the crepe shop and give it a try! We also found a five-story toy store with an entire floor of Star Wars.

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We had dinner at a food court and unfortunately, I didn’t record what each of us ate. I do remember the food court and it was a good choice because Aaron and I were eager to try all things local and Chrissy was a bit more conservative. After dinner we were able to get tickets to a baseball game. Baseball is very big in Japan and we wanted to experience a game there. We saw the Tokyo Giants play the Yokohama BayStars at the Tokyo Dome. The Tokyo Dome reminded us a lot of Tropicana Field, except that it was full. So full that our tickets were for standing room only. We were standing at the rear of one of the 1^st level sections. Our view wasn’t great, but our goal was to soak up the experience and it was perfect for that. The crowd was much more animated than at most American ballparks, leading to a party atmosphere and a great time, including a Pikachu invasion between innings. After a long day of walking and sightseeing, we grew tired of standing and decided to leave after the seventh inning stretch. We went back to the apartment and crashed so we could go full-tilt again the next day.

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