First, let's talk toilets. When one thinks of toilets in Asia we often think of the old squat toilet. We only saw 2 of those, in the airport and in a park restroom. They are easily avoided as there is always a western style toilet in the next stall. The Japanese seem to have embraced the western toilet and made the most elaborate flushing, sound and heating system in the toilet seats imaginable. Toilets are an art form. There are all kinds of buttons to adjust the heat, the sounds, the sprays (we did not touch the spray buttons). The heated seats are something I could really get used to. One toilet, at the Cat Cafe, even lifted the lid automatically for you when you stood near it! Often the control panel is right next to the seat, but sometimes it's on the wall, like this one:
Today is Culture Day in Japan, a fairly recent holiday set to celebrate culture, the arts and academics. We notice some streets being blocked off, perhaps for a parade or something. Our goal, for our last day in Japan, is the Calico Cat Cafe. As we walk along we realize we walked through this part of Shinjuku last night, admiring all the lights. It's fun to see it during the day and realize we may have been right near the Cat Cafe.
The Cat Cafe is another modern Japanese experience and I'm surprised to see people here sitting and reading, playing video games, and just hanging out. It's $12 an hour per person and we stay for an hour. In order to really get the attention of the cats, you really must feed them, so we buy two containers of chicken and have cats climbing all over us. We also enjoy cups of tea. Our bill is less than $40 and we really had fun interacting with the cats. There was one breed that was particularly aggressive about being fed, the thin reddish brown cats. Pushy little guys -- every single one of them.
For lunch we find a little noodle shop next door to the Cat Cafe. It's the kind where you put your money in the machine and push the buttons. Only these buttons just have text, no picture, and the kid pushes the wrong button! A kind man working the counter notices us looking exasperated as we try to figure out what to do next. I give him our ticket and then point to the button of food we really wanted handing him fifty cents to make up the difference and he is so accommodating. He serves up exactly what we wanted. When I go to pick up the food he asks if I know how to eat it in very broken English, and then goes through gestures showing me what to do. Another example of the great customer service we encountered. The noodles were cold soba noodles with a peanut dipping sauce and they were delicious. We use the chop sticks provided, struggling a bit but getting better as we eat, and we we are nearly done he brings us out some plastic forks. A bit late but certainly appreciated. I continue to struggle with the chop sticks but the kid loves having a fork to use.
We have a bit of time before our train so we walk through the Gyoen National Garden. Since it's a national holiday there are many families enjoying the park. This park also had a huge display of chrysanthemums, some in the Ozukuri bed style. It's a huge mound of blooms that takes a year to create via special pinching techniques. I'm amazed it only takes one year. It grows from one root division or plant. Amazing!
We have to catch our train and it takes us longer to get back to the subway station and to our hotel than planned. Panic begins to set in as we hurry to pick up our luggage. Luckily we flag down a taxi easily and the instructions we were given to show our taxi driver takes us to the door right next to an escalator and the NEX (Narita Express) train platform. We have 10 minutes to spare. The train is not even here yet. It's true what they say about the trains being on time. At about 5 til the train arrives and everyone quickly steps on. As the train pulls away I look at my phone and it is exactly on time, not even 1 minute past.
We remember to drop off the pocket wifi at the post office at the airport. That was such a valuable tool during our travels. I leave the kid to sit with our luggage while I try to turn our subway cards in for a refund. They have roughly $20 on them so not a huge deal, but we have no reason to keep them. I hand over my card and they want my passport. I try to explain that the other card is for my daughter and she has her passport and I will need to get it from her. He calls over someone with better English skills and being known for their willingness to please they tell me they will do the refund without the passport "just this one time". They run the cards and then inform me that I didn't pay for the NEX so they can't give me a refund. Oh no! We had used our cards to get into the station, but then used the paper tickets we bought to ride the NEX to exit the station. I explain to her that I did buy tickets and I start to dig for my receipt. They tell me it's fine. In America they would want to see my receipt, but they take my word for it as I continue to find and present my receipt to them to show I did pay! Maybe this is a common mistake. It never occurred to me to use the paper ticket to enter the station. We were so used to using our plastic cards. They hand me my money and I am very thankful for their willingness to accommodate me. The was the one of the few times the language barrier was a bit of an issue, so overall you can conclude things went very smooth the entire trip!
The rest of our travel toward home goes off without a hitch. It is a long flight to Dallas and I can barely stay awake for our 5+ hour layover before we depart for Denver. The kid does her homework while I doze. We will suffer from jet lag for many days that follow, but we so thoroughly enjoyed our adventure in Japan that we can't wait for our next international trip.
I'll try to answer some of the questions I have been asked about Tokyo...
The Cost: I think Tokyo is similar to other large cities like New York -- it's not cheap, but it's as expensive as you want to make it. The prior year we paid $200 per night for our La Quinta hotel in the heart of Manhattan. We found two hotels in Tokyo that provided acceptable locations along with breakfast and free wifi for less. We paid $175 per night for the Richmond Hotel Asakusa and $147 per night for the Tokyu Stays. Those prices include all taxes and fees. There were many cheaper options to be found, and of course many more expensive ones too. Hotels are priced by person so a hotel for 2 in a major city for under $200 a night seems reasonable to me. The biggest problem I had when searching is that I wanted something that specifically said "no smoking". I was also looking for twin beds as most rooms have one double. You pay more for twin beds. Now, our Disney hotel, the Hilton, was more expensive at $253 a night, but everyone knows that you're paying for the Disney location. Price out the Official Disney hotels at $350 and up and $250 feels like a deal.
As for other costs -- the train rides in and out of the city to the airport for both of us were a little over $100 in total, but there were cheaper options for that too if you don't mind a longer train ride or switching trains. The subways and trains in the city cost about $2 - $3 per ride. So overall it doesn't add up to a lot. We took taxi's 3 times for short distances when we had our luggage -- that was $8 - $15 and worth it. Museums are mostly inexpensive, less than $10 to get in. Disney tickets are much cheaper in Tokyo than California and Florida. A 4 day adult ticket is about $152 in Tokyo. In California a 4 day starts at $250 and it's over $310 in Florida -- without any hopping options.
Food costs run the gamut. We were easily able to find meals for $5 - $12. We are not huge foodies so didn't want to do any huge expensive meals. Drinks can add up, many costing $4 for a small beverage with no refills. No wonder there are vending machines selling drinks around every corner for $1- $2. It's the airfare that breaks the budget and I don't think there's any way around that.
One of the absolute best things about Japan is No Tipping! None! Not expected and also NOT accepted!
The Food: I was worried about the food. I don't eat onions and I don't like miso soup which is a staple. The Japanese are not a "special order" kind of people. So, "hold the..." or "on the side..." are not things they are used to dealing with. The free breakfast buffets at the three different hotels provided us a way to easily sample some Japanese foods without much investment. Mostly we found the food undesirable. Cold fish for breakfast did not win us over. But the noodle lunches we ate did. We were eager to try some of the Japanese food like soba noodles and udon noodles. I'm surprised at how little we ate Japanese food. It seemed we ran into pasta places all over and while they did have some very Japanese looking pasta dishes, we just weren't brave enough to try them. We ordered carefully and except for the ham sandwich found that everything we bought was pretty good and tasty. Next time I think I would seek out more new foods to try, but for us, meals are just a quick refueling stop -- not much effort is put into it. We decide we are hungry and we start looking for a place to eat. We quickly were able to find something budget friendly with no wait to be seated.
Eating at Disney was another story. This is where we had the most difficulty trying to find something we could eat. Massed produced amusement park food is not the best to begin with, and then add in the Japanese flair and we had some troubles. Also, the lines -- long, long lines for the the little food huts were shocking. Neither of us loves food enough to stand in long, long lines for it. I had done some homework ahead of time, finding menus online, so I knew of a few Disney staples like turkey legs, and where to find them.
The Language: I used the Pimsleur CD's to learn some key phrases and get familiar with the language. I found I didn't usually need my new Japanese skills because most people we interacted with in the stores, hotels, and restaurants spoke enough English that we were able to check in, order food, or buy things. As long as the interaction was very basic things were okay. They would usually thank us in English. Restaurants would hand us an English menu when one was available and all menus contained pictures of the food items which really helps in ordering. Picture menus are great! You just point and smile and nod.
One thing that really helped is being able to pronounce the subway stations, lines and destinations correctly so that if we needed directions you can use voice inflection to ask and they'd recognize the location you are asking for. A lot can be communicated with pointing and hand gestures. When we needed to communicate beyond the pleasantries of "excuse me" and "thank you", my limited language skills were of no help. I asked at the Hilton if they could call and make us a reservation at the Cat Cafe. He had no idea what I was asking and had to get help. Luckily there is usually someone nearby with enough English skills to help out.
On the subways and at Disney, instructions were often repeated in English and a few Japanese tried to chat with us a bit in English, mostly at Disney. The Japanese are a very quiet people so I never felt overwhelmed by the Japanese being spoken around us. We heard a lot of English pleasantries and greetings during our travels and as long as you go with the flow you don't really need to speak -- an "Arigato" and a smile goes a long way.
Lessons Learned: One thing I would do differently is set my camera to Tokyo time! My photos are time stamped to Denver time, but the iphone photos are on Tokyo time, so it's a jumbled mess. Also, I would do a mass rename of iphone photos as I blend them with the camera photos on my laptop so that we know whose phone they came from. We actually have some photos from my camera and my child's phone that have the exact same name and number -- it gets very confusing. Thankfully they are from different days. Trying to organize over 2500 photos is a huge task.
The Surprises: Things that surprised me in Japan were how strange it was to see other Western tourists. We didn't even speak to each other. It was as if no one wants to be taken out of this reverie of being on an adventure in a new land. The other thing that surprised me was the lack of automobile traffic. Unlike New York city we never saw the streets packed with cars. I guess that says a lot about how effective and efficient their public transportation is. What also surprised us is the great balance of the young and old riding the subways and trains. It is often necessary to stand and we saw many people standing without holding on at all. Even little old ladies with impeccable balance, just standing there as the subway lurched to a stop. My child, who's a gymnast and dancer tried it but did not have the grounded balance to pull it off.
I was surprised to see young and old carrying huge, 3 foot long umbrellas. Even hip teenagers with umbrellas as long as a cane. Back home a teen would rather stand in the rain than be seen with an umbrella, but I guess because it rains so much in Japan the umbrella is a necessary fashion accessory. Outside of some hotels, restaurants and museums there are little racks to lock up your umbrella. In a city where bicycles are sometimes left unlocked I'm guessing this is so that others don't mistakenly take your umbrella thinking it was theirs. Lastly, as I stated previously, we were shocked to see people in coats and long sleeves in 70 degree weather. It was often very warm in restaurants and hot in the subways -- very little air conditioning. I think because we were so prepared for the differences, little surprised us.
The Culture: The Japanese appear to be a very reserved and orderly people. They are not rule breakers. My tween laughed about the walk signal lights -- in America it's a big red hand telling you to "Stop!" In Japan it's a man standing and patiently waiting. It kind of sums it all up. There were times we'd be at the crosswalk and nary a car in sight and yet the people still wait. I was so tempted to quickly cross against the light! But they wait until the lights tell them to go.
I had spent so much time reading about Japan and the culture and the social norms that I didn't experience any culture shock. I joke that I probably spent more time reading about Japan than I actually spent IN Japan. I really enjoy the planning part of trips, learning about our destinations, and being informed of the habits and social niceties so that we can blend in and be polite and courteous visitors.
We really loved our time in Tokyo and our visit to the Tokyo Disney Resort. I will gladly go back some day and explore more of Japan. What a lovely country and a lovely people. And the Disney Resort lived up to all expectations.
