Passing Palaces and Finding Friends

Well, another early morning. This time I got up to follow a suggestion given to my by Yuki. That is, I returned to the temple in Asakusa that I had visited on my first day here. That and the street in front of it that I referred to as reminiscent of Chinatown. I arrived there at 7:30, before all the shops opened, and it was great. That early, none of the shops had opened. So, there were all closed shut with metal screens that slid down over their fronts. But, each of these screens was painted with hand-done unique works. There were paintings ranging from fireworks to geisha, dragons to temples, and more! They were very pretty. This trip was also nice because not only were the street and temple clear, but the sky was crystal clear too. So, I was able to retake many of the pictures from my first visit with ease.

After my walk I returned to the hostel at about 9:30. There I did my usual morning or reading and sending emails, some random tasks, and drinking coffee. I received 2 particular emails of note today. The first from my dad, suggesting a trip to the US Embassy if I had time. The second from Yuki, confirming my suspicion that there really is an Imperial Palace and I simply got caught in the east grounds and was bested by some walls. This was unacceptable. So, I planned a short trip to Roppongi, and from there the US Embassy and the Imperial Palace.

They were all relatively close to each other and in line with each other. The first thing I noticed was Roppongi itself. I arrived around 11:30, and recalled that Yuki described it as a very busy center for foreigners living in the area. That was very obvious at noon. The entire area became the center for international businessmen. People of tons of ethnicities, all rushing around, all wearing suits, carrying briefcases, talking on phones, and moving with purpose. It was really quite impressive.

Before long I turned up the street that the US Embassy was on. There, I found the building at the top of the street (hill). Unfortunately, it was not quite the site I was led to believe (dad...) (though it was still nice to go ). Anyway, the building itself as fine I thought... it was a nice building with nice security. The hilltop was nice though. I think what took away from the building though was the newly constructed massive building that stands on the slope of the hill in front of the embassy. By dwarfing it so much it takes quite a bit away from the US building.

From there I continued north to the palace grounds. There, I started on the west side, and worked my way around the perimeter counterclockwise. Never... have I seen so much garden, with so many walls... and such massive walls... with so few buildings. There were none! And I was beginning to give up and think I'd been bested in round 2 as well. But, as I turned north at the southeast corner, hope was restored.

The grounds were suddenly more crowded and had a good vibe. As I walked north along the moat, the water turned west, passed under a bridge and forked. The bridge was flat on top, but ornate with arches beneath. 1 fork turned back north and out of site. The other fork continued straight into a dead end of a valley after passing under another higher valley. Then, the valley rose steeply with bright green grass. There, at the top of the north face of the valley stood the palace. A beautiful building, white, with a green ornate roof, stood on the edge of the drop, looking down over the valley, moat, 2 bridges and all. It was quite a sight and definitely worth the time to find it.

After that I returned to Asakusa, where I joined Margaret for lunch. We ended up in what I believe was a chinese place, but its food was not quite chinese or japanese... interesting. Anyway, we ordered a spices noodle soup and a dish of deep fried rice with seafood. Both were quite good. After lunch we grabbed some dessert off the street. It was very similar to 2 pancakes, sandwiching some boston cream, and then warmed. Delicious...

I then headed by subway back to Akihabara. There I had plans to meet Charin, a friend of Nozomi (the girl I met in Osaka). Turns out, he and his friends play magic and invited me to join them friday night. I could hardly refuse. (Again, if you care for it it will be described in my other thread). So I met Charin and a few of his friends. They took me a round Akihabara a bit, and while I don't claim to know all about the area, I did not feel like I saw much I hadn't before.

We did however go to a ramen shop, which was something I'd been curious about. It was really good! Inside we were given a sheet of paper. On that sheet was "Make your custom ramen". We could choose the noodle size, spice amount, oil amount, firmness of noodles, types of veggies and meat, and all the toppings we wanted. It also came very quickly and was really good. No ramen will ever be the same again. I have definitely confirmed that even the "bad" japanese food is totally awesome!

I apologize for my tardiness with this update. With that I am off to write another!

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