| Stuff |
[Jan. 4th, 2007|08:21 pm]
Scott
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The Nagoya-Tokyo Shinkansen. 200+ mph.
My family owns a Toyota hybrid, so we thought it would be fun to go to a Toyota museum in Tokyo called Hybrid Wonderland. "Hybrid cars are practically living creatures!" says this sign cheerfully. There was also a robot that could play the trumpet.
Next door was the Toyota laboratory, with fun stuff like this iUnit "wearable car". It can travel both upright (as seen here) and on its side, at which point it looks like a more traditional car. There's more about them (including cooler pictures) at this site, but I already have all the information I need to know that I WANT ONE SO BAD.
The centerpiece of the incongruosly named "Venus Fort" mall is this "Happy Flower Chair". Basically, it's a chair with flowers around it, and you sit in it and they take a picture. I was going to, but then a policeman came by and started randomly talking to my mother and I about it and I chickened out.
To my disappointment, this is not an actual teleport station. It's the subway station serving the Teleport neighborhood of Tokyo. Apparently the Japanese think that "teleport" is just a neater-sounding word for "port".
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku. It's even bigger than it looks.
You know, usually the giant mushrooms don't start smirking at me from out behind store displays until after I take the drugs.
Japanese believe it's lucky to start the New Year by praying in a shrine, so they all line up in front of the biggest shrines in town starting the evening of the 31st. Jeremy and I thought we'd join them, so here we are at the Meiji Shrine at midnight, along with (according to the news reports) 2,999,998 other people.
Don't I have a lovely family?
The waiting area in Akihibara station was designed by a great Zen master. If you can figure out whether or not you're allowed to smoke there, you achieve enlightenment. At least that's the only explanation I can come up with.
My guidebook mentioned that one of the buildings in Tokyo "is ridiculed by locals for appearing to have a giant golden piece of poop on the roof", but it didn't say which building it was. I'm thinking this one seems a likely contender.
The infamous Crazy Right Wing Van People! There are a whole bunch of crazy right-wingers who hate China and Korea and America and the West and want to go back to being a closed society with an all-powerful Emperor and lots of samurai. They like to buy black vans, paint them with ultranationalist slogans, attach loudspeakers, and then drive around town shouting things. Sometimes they'll also play a song that I think might be the lyrics of the Japanese national anthem to the music of the Imperial March from Star Wars. Anyway, this particular Crazy Right Wing Van Person was in front of Shinjuku station, shouting something that I'm pretty sure was an anti-American diatribe. Anyway, I smiled and waved at him and snapped a picture when he was out of his van to get food or something.
Twice a year, including once on January 2nd, the Emperor throws open the doors to the Imperial Palace and receives the adulation of his people. Being in Tokyo, I decided to join them. It was a little tense at first, partly because the streets were SWARMING with Crazy Right Wing Van People, all of whom wanted to go see the man they believed to be a living god. But I made it through to the entrance, where everyone was handed a little Japanese flag to wave and then herded down various paths into the center of the palace. As you can see, there were a lot of people.
The Emperor, Empress, and Crown Prince, Crown Princess, and various retainers greet us, and the Emperor gives a short speech. I could only catch a few words, but according to CNN, he said "I am truly happy to celebrate the new year with you. I wish for the happiness of people in our country and peace in the world." Then we all shouted "Banzai!" and yelled and stuff. Miniature flags for all!
The Fuji TV building. I'm trying to figure out whether it was built that way, or whether an alien spacecraft landed in the middle and they haven't figured out how to remove it yet.
The Himiko. I saw the ad my first day in Tokyo and decided my new life's goal was to ride on it. Well, it took me two days to get a seat that wasn't sold out, but eventually I did, indeed, take a river cruise on the Himiko. And it was awesome. Here's a website with some more pictures and history (it was designed by an anime artist) and technical specs.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to know what the heck the Statue of Liberty is doing in Tokyo Harbor.
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