THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2023

A DAZZLING SAYONARA AND FINAL THOUGHTS

For my last day, I wanted to head over to Ueno Park and visit the Tokyo National Museum. Stepping out of the Metro, it once again felt like a different city, with wide-open paths and tons of green space. There were so many school groups around, with kids of various ages—not surprising that it would be a field trip mecca with all of the museums in the area. This park is also notorious for being a prime sakura/hanami spot with more than 800 cherry trees, but at this point we were past the bloom so it was just a lovely scene of green.

The Tokyo National Museum is considered the oldest national museum in Japan, is the largest art museum in Japan, and is one of the largest art museums in the world—it’s massive, made up of seven buildings, and holds 120,000 cultural properties.

Once I was there it was slightly confusing since only one building is really marked as the Tokyo National Museum (that I saw), but it was the one I wanted to visit as it houses the collection of Japanese art. (The other buildings hold art from other parts of Asia, as well as a research center.)

The view in the other direction, standing at the museum’s entrance

The building I visited – Honkan – houses Japanese art from prehistory through the late 19th century, from beautifully embroidered kimonos to Samurai armor and swords, ink painting, wood block prints, Buddhist statues, tea ceremony elements, and more. I didn’t really have a plan in mind other than wandering the galleries, so I picked a starting place and went from there. It was all really well curated and there were some truly gorgeous pieces on display. The Samurai armor was my unexpected favorite!

The samurai galleries were so interesting! This is what the intro copy said at the entrance to the gallery:

The samurai ruled Japan for nearly 700 years, from the late 12th to the 19th century. They emulated the imperial court, which was the home of high culture, but also borrowed from the practices of common people. Wishing for divine protection in this life and salvation in the next, they worshipped both Shinto and Buddhist deities. The culture of the samurai was complex and ever-changing, but always reflected their authority as the warrior class of Japan.

This gallery focuses on the most prominent symbols of samurai authority: swords, armor, and other military equipment. These had many purposes. Through diverse colors and materials, they showed the tastes of their owners. Differences in shape and construction reflected differences in rank and social standing. Many samurai passed down this equipment as heirlooms, while high-ranking samurai exchanged it as diplomatic gifts. Swords and armor were also donated to Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in prayer for victory in battle.

I really loved the galleries of Buddhist sculptures – but it was interesting that you were allowed to take photos of some of them and not others. I wonder what the distinction was?

After the main galleries of the museum, my ticket also included a special exhibit about one of Kyoto’s most prominent Zen temples, Tōfuku-ji. From the museum website:

This exhibition is the first ever to comprehensively introduce Tōfuku-ji’s temple treasures. These include The Five Hundred Arhats, a monumental work by the “painter-saint” Minchō, which will be displayed for the first time since conservation. Also included are countless examples of invaluable cultural heritage that survived the devastating Ōnin War as well as exquisite Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and works of calligraphy that mirror the grand scale of Tōfuku-ji’s buildings.

Tracing the history of Tōfuku-ji from its early years and exploring the Zen culture that flourished through exchange with mainland Asia, this exhibition presents in depth the significance of Tōfuku-ji in Japanese culture.

It was a nice exhibit to walk through even though I didn’t really know what I was looking at! The vast majority of the show didn’t allow photos so this will be short.

After the exhibit I decided I was good with what I saw of the museum, and headed out after a stop at the gift shop. …which I somehow failed to take a picture of even though it was uniquely wide open and very pretty, so here’s a picture from the internet.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so I wanted to just sit outside for a little while and take in the fresh air. I went to a little cafe outside and picked up a coffee and, after googling to make sure it wasn’t, like, raw stingray eggs, this treat called mitarashi dango. Definitely not seafood, they’re rice flour balls that are covered with a sweet soy sauce glaze and stacked on a stick. And they were really excellent. Dense and chewy with a smoky/sweet flavor.

This morning I had been debating, based on where I ended up time-wise, whether to check out one of the other museums in the area, or walk the 25 minutes over to the Nezu Shrine. I felt at that point that I had visited enough shrines in my time in Japan, but there was a seasonal azalea festival happening there that looked like it would be pretty, and I decided it was worth the trip. After all, it was a beautiful day and why not enjoy the walk. I started out of the Ueno Park area, but then decided to quickly sit and eat something a little more substantial to tide me over until my flight.

The other outdoor patron

After lunch, I started the leisurely walk to Nezu Shrine, taking in the sights along the way.

As soon as I got to the shrine and saw a peek at the azalea garden through the torii gate, I knew I was in for something special.

Walking through, you’re immediately blown away by the brilliance of the whole area covered in color. That reaction kept growing as I made my way around and through the bushes, oohing and aahing at every turn and every new view of the colorful landscape.

Anyone can walk around the base of the garden, and then if you want to walk up and through it on the paths, you go through a little hut with a donation. (A big splurge at ¥200, about $1.43.)

After wandering the garden, I made my way down to the path of gates that looked like a miniature Fushimi Inari in Kyoto – a nice little Day 5 callback for my last activity in Japan.

Little hint of Korea on my way out of Japan.

After a particularly fantastic half day, it was time to leave on a high and head back to the hotel to pick up my bags and head to the airport.

Last time leaving from our “home” station near the hotel. Sayonara!

I had been meaning the whole trip to capture some of the sounds of the Tokyo Metro, but it was really similar in Osaka, Hiroshima, and Kyoto as well. Always the most pleasant chime music playing when trains arrive and depart!

It only took about 45 minutes to get from the hotel to the airport by subway, though required three different train changes. Thankfully there are airport signs all over the place, so it would be hard to go the wrong way.

Once I was checked in I had plenty of time to wander the airport, eat some dinner, and get ready for the long haul back to New York by way of Atlanta.

I really loved this giant HD screen showing tourism reels of Japanese culture and sights. This video can’t capture how sharp and eye-catching it was.

Come on.

And after a long but uneventful 13 hour flight from Tokyo to Atlanta (time traveling and arriving five minutes before we left 😵‍💫), and then an uneventful two and a half hour flight to NYC, I grabbed a Lyft and made it back to my apartment around 1:00am NYC time. Pretty sure I fell asleep within minutes.

What a trip!

Some Final Thoughts

One of the most interesting things to me about Japan is the extreme contrasts. Feels like everything is either very minimalist, peaceful, and calm… or a colorful, epileptic explosion. Particularly in Tokyo – walking from the overstimulating Harajuku area to the Meiji Shrine minutes away felt like a completely different country.
Jet lag coming back from Asia is no joke! When I landed in Osaka at the beginning of the trip I was able to hit the ground running with no issues, but the way back East was a different story. I have never felt that level of mental and physical exhaustion, and it honestly took over a week to start feeling normal again. (I’m sure it didn’t help that I landed in NYC and then two days later went to LA for work for like two days. My body clock was not happy.)
As is the case with every trip I’ve ever taken, an unpredictable dark horse emerged as my favorite part: Hiroshima. The memorial park and museum were very moving as expected, but what made me love it was the good bonding times with our group, the cherry blossoms starting to flutter through the air at the end of their bloom, my two favorite dinners from the trip, the most beautiful day on Miyajima Island, and the cherry on top of getting to meet Ms. Yasuko Kondo and hearing her incredible personal story of surviving the atomic bomb.
I really enjoyed getting to see how the Shinto and Buddhist religions intersected and are such a positive way of living. I visited a multitude of shrines and temples, and while I started to learn the recurring elements that we’d see, each was unique in its own way, often dedicated to a specific virtue or part of life. It’s such a positive representation of religion benefitting a people.
I had all sorts of delusions about coming to Japan and suddenly becoming an eat-anything person, but I should’ve known better. I loved so many things about Japan, the nature, the shrines and temples, the creativity of Toyko… but the food was so much more of a struggle than I thought it would be, and definitely put a damper on the trip – particularly in the later days when I was on my own in Tokyo quite a bit and had grown weary of having to image-translate every word of everything. It became easier to just not eat at all rather than trying to find the rare thing that was not seafood or dessert. But I can’t emphasize enough: it’s not you, Japan, it’s me.
On the flip side, the language barrier was not as challenging as I thought it would be. Most people didn’t speak English –I wouldn’t expect them to– but just smiling and gesturing and saying “arigato” (thank you) a lot seemed to suffice. For the few times when I really needed to communicate, Google Translate made it so easy. And thankfully almost all of the metro stations and trains had signage in multiple languages. That said, it’s much different than visiting a country with a language that uses Roman characters – where even if you don’t speak the language you can figure bits and pieces out. I did try to do the Duolingo Japanese course a few months before the trip, but realized quickly that learning the characters (which uses three different syllable alphabets in a complicated interchangeable way) in addition to what the words actually mean, was never going to happen in any meaningful way in time for the trip. So while I might be able to deduce in Europe or Latin America that pescare/pescado/poisson/peixe is fish, in Japan you’re totally flying blind.
Still totally floored by the size of Mt. Fuji compared to what I was expecting, and so thankful that we got to see her in all her clear-skied glory on the second day in Hakone.
Everyone in Japan is so nice. From our wonderful guides Maho and Mamico, to every kind shopkeeper who bows hello and goodbye, to the gracious hotel staff and restaurant servers, everyone went out of their way to make sure that we were all happy at all times. Tipping is not only not the custom in Japan, it’s considered rude, and I understand why now. It’s just in their nature to be kind and above-and-beyond helpful without expectation.
All in all, I’m so grateful that I got to experience a country that is so different from anywhere I’ve traveled. It was more of a culture shock than I’d ever felt in my life, but I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to expand my world in this way!