Tokyo Trip: Day04
From www.ChopStork.com
I broke the Japanese breakfast streak today when Mrs. Maher was kind enough to make me some good old scrambled eggs and toast. Not fish eggs either, chicken eggs. Then it was off to the DMV to finish what we started. The bureacracy was strong today and they wanted AJ and Hampton to go to a 2 hour lecture before receiving the licenses. At that point Mr. Maher had to step in and kick some diplomatic ass (he may or may not have mentioned that we have an aircraft carrier parked outside the country, I don't know the Japanese word for aircraft carrier). The bottom line was they changed the two hour lecture into a 20 minute movie that I got to watch with them, and fortunately it was in english. I give you the cliffs notes: a) they drive on the left side of the road in Japan, b) don't get in an accident, c) pedestrians always have the right of way in Japan and d) they drive on the left side of the road in Japan. With that we had two real licenses, and made friends with the guy who cut through the BS for us, who incidently has a 5th degree black belt in Judo. Good thing I didn't try to intimidate him with force. We have included the DMV sign so you know what to look for when you are getting your license in Japan.
Back to the Maher house for a lunch of fried rice with Grandma. Grandma doesn't speak much (any) english. However she did laugh at my desire to buy a sword. For the record she also prefers Hampton's hair to AJ's. Apparently it's cool to have it stick up. So far all of AJ's siblings are cooler than he is. Next we were off to the sword store.
The sword store we went to today was called "Japan Sword," and was three stories tall. The bottom floor contained some really nice replicas and some even nicer real Katanas. The real swords were anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000. One sword was made for the Shogun, had the sword makers name etched in one side of the blade and the three people it had killed in the other side of the blade. How cool is that. The 3rd and 2nd floor was basically a museum quality open layout of Samurai Armor, and other real sword. Incidently if you are trying to buy the 10 foot long sword for killing people on horseback you can't. Not because the price is near $200,000 but because it's considered a national treasure, and can't be removed from Japan. I also saw a pair of swords I'm very interested in purchasing, but I have to think about it because they are expensive. An interesting note regarding samurai sword blades: one style of blade has a wavey pattern because they purposely make the blade slightly narrower and thicker so when it is sharpened it looks wavey. Interesting. Finally AJ and I were off to Asakusa.
AJ and I rode the subway to the Asakusa stop, so we could visit the Senso-Ji temple. Senso-Ji is interesting because it's got a beautiful temple, pagoda, and other traditional style buildings surrounded by modern skyscrapers and vendors shops. There is an extremly long entrance way with shops on both sides. It's really pretty, fun, and filled with people. The red lanerns lit the way down the aisle to point the way to the temple proper. There were so many people and wares, AJ and I were going nuts trying to get pictures of everything. Of course AJ was using his SLR camera and getting artistic shots of people while I was snapping away with the idiot proof digital. Watching AJ try to take candids of people splashing themselves with incense smoke was the most enteraining. Every time he pulled up his camera to take his shot everyone scattered thinking he didn't want them in his picture. Eventually he got his picture. I hope they turn out. The incense smoke is supposed to protect an individual so the smoke was mobbed with people. There was also a wall of "fortune drawers" where one deposits a coin, pulls open the drawer and gets their fortune. Next we visited the Pagoda. It was really beautiful as the sun was going down. Unfortunately that also meant not much light for pictures. But I have a feeling we might come back here when the whole gang is here. Next on the Temple self tour was the hexagonal temple, which is the only remaining structure from the 1600s. See. All the other buildings were damaged during WWII. We had to take a picture of the fish pond on the way. After we had all the pictures we needed we decided to check out the shops.
AJ had to get some pictures of the people flipping the sembei (rice cracker) which are cooked over a fire. We also bought some to try. They are ok, kind of salty. We stopped in another print store. After speaking with the shop keeper AJ learned that most of the famous original block prints are not in Japan any longer but in the Louvre, and the MOMA. Those museums steal all the good stuff, just ask the greeks. We stopped by an aquarium. No wait, that was a seafood restaurant. Sadly there were more than a couple Maku donarudo (""McDonalds"") scattered among the other stores. Do you think it's "Le big mac" in Japan as well? As we started freezing our asses off, AJ and I decided it was time to head home. We hopped in the subway, which was disapointingly empty (I have yet to see the people whose job it is to cram people into the subway). We made it back just in time to have a nice dinner of oden (fish and vegtable stew).
The Japanese characters I learned today are: dirt, to put out, inside, and rice patty. We plan on going to Kyoto tomorrow taking the shinkansen (bullet train) so no clubbing for us tonight.
-DP
My California license has the renewal date, but not the day I started driving (9 years ago). That means I've never driven before, so I get to put these on my car when I drive for the next year. Safety Drive!
And this is my attempt to mimick Hampton's jafro. I am a failure.
-A.J.
