Day 1: Ghibli, Yakatori, Nakano, & Shibuya

OK, the goal for Day 1 is to keep moving and not let jet lag get us, so we set our alarms for 6AM with a goal to hit the hotel gym, get breakfast, and make it across Tokyo for a 10AM Ghibli Museum opening.  We slept well and bounced up and ventured down to the basement, which literally is an underground beautiful pseudo mall/convention center with a fitness center as well that is larger than a lot of our full-size free-standing gyms at home.  We would clean our shoes and enter a well-stocked, but crammed fitness area.  Andy and I managed to get in good workouts all be it I had some testosterone happening in the free weight area with bench and weight etiquette failing.  Andy would finish before me and get a tour of the lap pool and the locker rooms that he says were out of this world.

Quick shower and we were off to the Club Lounge again for breakfast which was just like Happy Hour...amazing.  We ate quickly so we could get ready for what our challenge of the day would be...the Tokyo subway system.  Thankfully drinks with friends who had been here before had revealed all we needed was Google Maps and they were right.  It told you everything from train to platform to exits "gate." It even read where you were and told you how many stops until you disembarked. Not to say we still didn't struggle a bit.  Andy was able to use his phone for his ticket, but me, the lone family Android hold-out had to get a plastic card ticket.  And we might have gotten a little cocky with our first ride going well because we broke down and asked for help on our second.  But by the end of the day we did lots of rides and had no more issues.

So let's take a second and talk about one of my loves in Asian countries and mass transit.  I love orderly cueing.  Those exiting get off first while those entering are lined up to the sides of the doors.  This is clearly marked on the platforms, and it makes it so easy.  Also I love the appreciation for elderly in Asian countries.  I saw on more than one occasion a young person give up their seat for an elder.  And clean, yes so far it lives up to the hype.  We did not see any litter anywhere until we reached Shibuya Station which leads to Shibuya Crossing which is inundated by tourists, which I assume are the litter offenders.

We started our day with something that is making our kids a little jealous.  We made a one-hour trip via subway and foot to the Studio Ghibli Museum.  Some know movies like Ponyo or Totoro as they were picked up by DreamWorks.  Our family has been watching for a very long time and find the art and the characters absolutely endearing.  So we wandered through this space which we found truly to be a museum as you learned about the craft behind the magic.  Definitely for adults and not children.  Kind of like the Disney Museum in the Presidio of San Francisco.  

Here's where I put AI to work for us next.  I had plugged in our itinerary with several suggestions from friends and had it fill in our free time.  ChatGPT would take us on a pretty walk across Inokashira Park to  Iseya Koen Store.  Here we would have our first meal, shoes off, and cross legged on the floor.  It is a renowned and historical yakatori (aka charcoal grilled meat skewers) that involved meatballs, pork cartilage, chicken liver, and more. It was packed with locals so we knew we had it the jackpot. All of it was delicious and I was pleasantly happy to find a NA Sapporo available.

Back on the subway we were off to the Nakano Broadway to see if we could find some anime swag for our adult children and house sitter.  After about an hour of popping into different shops and having no luck, we gave up and headed back to the subway and decided to knock off the famous Shibuya Crossing.  This station was insanely busy, and this is where we saw our first trash and homeless. Homelessness would be a topic of conversation for us this evening as Tokyo is a city of 14 million people and their last homeless count in January of this year was only 506.  However, many factors contribute to this.... 1) Housing - they have a ton of very small (including capsule) housing units that are affordable to keep them from sleeping on the street 2) Culture - they live by a norm of don't create disorder which means don't inconvenience others and don't leave things behind which leads to 3) many are hidden in the 24 hour manga and internet cafes or on the riverbanks obscured from view.

Shibuya Crossing was quite a site, but having been to Times Square as well as Picadilly Circus in London well it didn't hold the awe for me as it might for others. And yes we did the "scramble" where all the lights go red and you can go right across the entire intersection.  It is known as the busiest intersection in the world with as many as 3000 people crossing on the red light which happens every 2 minutes.  We decided to go check out one of the mega department stores, so we hit Don Quiote.  Referred to as "Donki" this was Target meets Japanese Bazar.  We wandered a few levels but quickly got over whelmed...and well we had been hoofing it around Tokyo now for 7 hours and were getting exhausted.  A few souvenirs in hand we headed back to our hotel where we managed to stay awake and the Club Lounge for another happy hour dinner and back to our room for a second piece of cake.

But wait, before I sign off I must tell you about the continued service at this hotel.  When we got back to our room.  We found all of our electronic cords had been wound nicely and tied with gold twist ties.  My book had a beautiful bookmark lying on top.  Workers would come by our room with ice and chocolates and at the lounge this evening one of the staff would chat with us and present us with origami tiny birds.  Again, in awe.