My Final Commute Home
Well, my class is over, and, by all accounts, it has been very successful, and for that I am pleased. Now the plan is to stay one more night at the Royal Park Hotel and then fly home from Narita tomorrow morning at about ten o'clock.
I have already shown you enough pictures and movies detailing my commutes and forth this week. Today, I have just a couple of additional pictures to show. It occurred to me that I had never taken a good, clear picture of the inside of one of the subway cars, so just after we left the Otemachi Station heading out, I took this picture of my
subway car interior.
Also, as we traveled along, I took one more movie from inside my subway car, and you can watch that movie with the player at left. And, finally, as we left the station just before my stop at Suitengumae, I caught another of the
subway line employees
performing his duty.
I returned to the hotel and did my exercises, and then got cleaned up and ready to go to Shinjuku for the evening.
Evening in Shinjuku
Getting There
Shinjuku is arguably the busiest business commercial district in the city. It is located about two miles west of the Imperial Palace, and I visited it before when I was here. Chock full then of department stores little restaurants, nightclubs and other entertainment then, it is today the location of most of Tokyo's tallest buildings and the center of the consumer electronics trade- particularly the computer and handheld markets, markets that did not exist when I was here before. I found something entirely different than I had remembered.
To get there, I took my normal subway into Otemachi Station from the Royal Park, but at that station I went
down the escalator
to the platform for the Shinjuku Line, where I waited for the next train heading west. You can watch the movies of this portion of my trip with the players below:
In the Otemachi Station
The Shinjuku Line Platform
The Shinjuku Station, the busiest in Tokyo, was about six stations away, and I could see why it was the busiest when I arrived, and if you will watch the movie with the player at left, you'll see too. I arrived a little after eight in the evening. According to statistics, the station handles 800,000 passengers a day- more than any other station in Tokyo. It was my orgin point many years ago for my trip to Nikko.
The Area Around Shinjuku Station
When I came out of Shinjuku Station, I could look up above the station and see the Odakyu Department Store was above it, and there was also another Odakyu store across the
plaza in front of the station.
I made a movie of the activity at Shinjuku Station; there were a lot of people about, and all the stores seemed to be open- even this late. There were also some street performers in an area off to the side of the main station entrance. Use the players below to have a look at the two movies I took here at the station:
Around the Shinjuku Station
Street Performers at the Shinjuku Station
It looked as if the area right in front of the station would be interesting to walk through- lots of small streets and lots of activity, so I headed across the street and began wandering around.
Shops and Stores Near Shinjuku Station
The diagram at the left shows, bounded in green, the area that I spent the next couple of hours wandering around in. There was a lot to see and an incredible number of people out- something I am not used to in Dallas.
I spent quite a bit of time wandering around this area; everything was interesting (even more so because I had to stick my head into a particular shop to see what they were selling). I found a lot of electronics stores, and purchased a small travel mouse for Fred; the brand name was "Buffalo."
I also ran across an old friend from my first time here- the Patchinko Parlor- and I'll show you some pictures of one of them in a separate section below.
I also stopped to eat- twice. The first time was to get something I'd been missing all week, and the second time was to get my last authentic Japanese meal. But, again, more about that in a section below.
I took a lot of pictures and movies as I wandered up and down the narrow streets; they aren't all great, and they aren't in any particular order, but I think most of them are interesting enough to include here. First, here are some of the pictures that I took. Just click on the thumbnails to see them:
(Click on Thumbnails to View)
And here are players for some of the many movies that I made. To watch any of them, just click on the play button in the player window:
Visiting a Patchinko Parlor
When I was here in 1970, it seemed as if patchinko was all the rage. There were parlors all over the place with row after row of patchinko machines. They are like vertical pinball machines. You use a flipper to loft a ball bearing to the top of the display, and then it finds its own way down, by chance, sometimes giving you bonus balls back, sometimes not. There are no flippers as in pinball, though. Back then, machines were supplied with the ball bearings through a maze of overhead tubes, fed from one gigantic hopper near the ceiling. When you put your money in, you get a certain number of balls, and when you win more, they come out the bottom like in slot machines.
Anyway, today's patchinko parlors have gone high-tech. Instead of little battery operated lights and mechanical workings, the new machines have all kinds of electric lights, electronic gates and rewards, sounds and music and digital displays so you can keep track of how many balls you are ahead or behind. Here is
one row of patchinko machines
in a parlor that must have had eight or ten rows like this. The noise level is quite high when a lot of the machines are in use. Let's eavesdrop on one player; use the player at left to watch my movie of a patchinko player in action (who didn't seem to mind if I filmed him over his shoulder).
When you are done playing, an attendant will carry your "winnings" over to a counting machine; some players trail around little tiny flatbeds with plastic boxes piled high with the ball bearings they have accumulated. At the counting machine, the attendant piles all the bearings in the hopper and they are counted amazingly fast, the total appearing on a digital display. (You can watch a movie of this process with the player at right.) Now, when I was here before, the total could be traded in for prizes or merchandise; I did not stick around long enough to find out what is done now, although I suspect that the procedure is still the same.
I thought the machines interesting enough that I brought one home with me from Japan; I used to have it set up, but now it is in my closet- although it still works perfectly.
Having Dinner
I actually ate twice while I was walking around. Right after leaving Shinjuku Station, I ran across a quaint little
foreign restaurant
that I just had to try. I've seen these restaurants before; I remember eating at one in Frankfurt, Germany, and I think there are some in the US also. But here, the restaurant is crammed into a very small space. Food is ordered on the first floor; when it is ready it can be carried up to the three floors above where all the tables are. Unlike the US, smoking is allowed, apparently.
Much later in the evening, I came back to the same street and ate in a little
local restaurant
right across the street. This was different from my experience earlier in the week. There is a
menu machine
machine just inside the door where you select the dish(es) you want and purchase tickets for them. There are no plastic replicas here- just pictures of each dish. When you've got your tickets, you go inside and find a vacant seat at
the serpentine counter
and put your ticket on the little shelf in front of you. A waitress comes along and picks it up, calling out to the kitchen what it is (apparently). Then, a few minutes later,
your meal
is put down in front of you. It's really a neat system, and the noodle dish I had was quite good.
I made a movie of the inside of the little restaurant while I was waiting for my noodle dish, and you can watch that movie with the player at left.
Returning From Shinjuku
Although it was close to eleven, I wasn't really tired, and I knew I could sleep until about eight the next morning, so I decided to go to see the Ginza at night after leaving Shinjuku. (I made another movie as I was leaving the Shinjuku area, and you can watch it with the player at left.) I walked back to
Shinjuku Station
and headed down the
broad stairway
to the Maranouchi Subway Line- which would take me right to the Ginza from here.
I took two movies in the station as I went down to the subway level to find the platform for the Maranouchi Line, and you can watch these movies with the players below:
Descending to the Subway Level
Going to the Maranouchi Line Platform
Nighttime in the Ginza
Getting to the Ginza
When I got down to the ticketing level for the Maranouchi Line, I bought my ticket to the Ginza station, and then descended the stairs to the platform. There were a lot of people waiting on the
Maranouchi Line platform;
I only had to wait a few minutes before a train came in and I hopped on it. Next stop- the Ginza. You can follow along on this portion of my trip by watching the movies I made along the way; use the players below to watch them:
Buying My Subway Ticket
Going Down to the Platform
The Ginza Train Arrives
The Ginza at Night
The Ginza at night is really a fantastic place, and my little camera really didn't do it justice. Although I took quite a few pictures all around that major intersection, very few of the still pictures turned out well. One exception was this
typical street scene,
although the cars are a blur whizzing by.
As I mentioned when we came by here last Sunday, there are diagonal pedestrian crosswalks in addition to the normal ones we are used to. When the traffic stops, it may stop in all four directions, and then pedestrians get a special signal that they can use the diagonal crosswalks as well.
I made a number of movies here, and while I moved the camera around a bit too fast in most of them (I was nervous standing in the middle of the intersection- and I DO mean the middle), on the whole they'll give you a good impression of what nightlife is like here- even after eleven. To watch these movies, just use the players below:
Returning to the Hotel
I won't bore you with any more pictures of my subway travels; you've probably been skipping them anyway. But there were two things that I found interesting on the ride back to the Royal Park. One was the glass elevator in the Ginza Station that you could use instead of the stairs. I am sure it is for handicapped, but it was such a pretty elevator, I just had to try it. Use the player at left to watch me doing so.
The other thing was something I'd seen all week, but really just noticed now. In all my travels in the subway, I have noticed that a majority of the riders seem to be occupied with fiddling with their cellphones or handheld games or some such. Hardly anybody talked, and those that weren't doing something with a mechanical device were always reading. I just didn't see a lot of conversation, even in groups that I assumed were traveling together. And no one ever gave me a second look as I stood there mumbling and filming the action. A culture of privacy, perhaps? Use the player at right to watch my movie of this activity.
Anyway, it was back to the Royal Park and my last night here in Tokyo.
