So
come Friday Lucy had to return for more lessons and this time for a
few hours. So I decided I would take her bike and head out into
Saitama. I headed over to the freeway and then took a left and
followed it on and on. Underneath the raised freeway is a highway...
bit odd. The difference between these roads is that there is no way
on to the freeway and the highway has loads of traffic lights. I
headed out of the urban concrete jungle and quickly it gave way to
its secrets. Around the train station there are lots of small mini
supermarkets and other shops for living goods. But as you slip away
from these centres of people you come out to the housing areas and
there is more space. There are bushes, trees even hedges. There were
quickly few people around. I headed on and on following down under
the freeway passing more and more odd things, but never leaving the
city. Where in Gloucester for example I would have left the city and
ended up being surrounded by farmland I kept going on what appeared
to be never ending housing roads and vending machines. My main
objective for that day was to reach the Arakawa gawa, the Arakawa
river but in the end I didn't even get half way there. Instead, I
learnt to be daunted by the scale of this monsterous mega city. It
really made me question my idea of a city completely. I always felt
that a city ended where nature met buildings but here you reach the
edge of the prefecture before that happens!
The
path started to get hilly and it turns out I'm not designed for that
bike and my knees started to ache. I see what Rob and Sam have been
having problems with now ¬_¬ I crossed over to the other side of
the road and tried to look out across the area by crossing on a
bridge, but I didn't see anything spectacular. I took a detour and
got a little lost and found a kitteh. The roads here are funny. On
the slope that took me back down the slight hill they had put red
lines and a rotating red light to warn motorists, put warn them of
what considering it wasn't even a hazard? I rejoined the highway and
had to stop as a middle school class all on bikes rode past. That was
the most out of place I felt the entire time, I had to wait for them
all to pass in single file before I headed on... or so I thought.
They all pooled on the other side of the road and so instead I had to
cycled through them all to carry on. I found the big interchange in
the freeway where it meets another. I rounded a corner and saw a
police patrol car had pulled someone over, and both officers were
peering in through the window.
I
passed a few construction yards and decided to call it quits around
there. I found an interesting shrine complex but the map was useless
and I had to accept that the area was so much bigger than I had
thought. I couldn't even see the Arakawa from my perch looking out on
the freeway winding on into the distance. I decided to cut my losses
and bought a Matcha flavoured iced milk tea thing, I think its
basically a green tea flavoured milkshake... which is just awesome
and something I'm going to miss the most. I liked to think it was
something I could only find in that area of Tokyo but then I saw it
near Lucy's apartment so...
I
started heading back the way I'd come and tried to soak up as much of
the air of being in Japan as I could, it was definitely a place
unlike anywhere else I've been. The day wasn't ended here though. I
headed back and got Lucy and we headed back to Harujuku. On that busy
street we rebraved the sights and sounds and attained the lolita
clothing shop. This time I bought her something and it was rather
satisfying to have been assertive over it. Then we headed walking on
down to Shibuya station which has the famous crossroads that everyone
thinks of when they think Tokyo, and no these massive crossroads
aren't all over the place. It was weird and made sense that when
there was a red man all the cars came rushing past and then when it
went green the middle filled with people. We took a video while
walking across it to show the amount of people coming and going.
Obviously we had to say oh hai to Hachiko. Then we caught the train
and rounded on Tokyo Tower. There were a few more foreigners here and
we approached the lit red Effiel Tower here in Tokyo. We walked
across a small shrine like park and found ourselves in the presence
of ninja cat and the towering... tower. There is a little tourist
complex at the bottom, not as big as the Sky Tree village but there
all the same. It was closing as we were there but we looked around.
We tried to get some good night photos but it was hard. On the way
back over a slight hill we counted three churches all in the same
place and then strolled on past some interesting food places.
On
the last day we headed on to Ueno, Lucy wore her new dress ^__^ We
attained the park and wandered around the food stands there selling
choco bananas and takoyaki. We decided to rent a pedal boat for half
an hour and went a pedalling across the boating lake there. I don't
think Lucy appreciated it when I pedalled fast but by the end we were
both doing it.
After
the boat trip we crossed back where we had come and watched some more
Koi fish omnom on the water. They are really colourful but they look
really silly with their mouths opening and closing in gulps like
that. We walked on into the park and it was good to be in a park, a
green space away from the buildings. The main path there was very
wide and we didn't know where we were headed. I had mentioned to Lucy
quite a few times that I had wanted to watch baseball and seeing as
Japan has baseball as a national sport I had been excited to watch
some, but it wasn't until the last day when we were walking through
the park until I got to see some. There were two high school teams
facing off on this Saturday in a baseball cage and I couldn't resist
sitting down and watching, getting all Cross Game on the spectacle.
The
funny thing about the park is that while everywhere else has plenty
if not too many vending machines the park has none and so it was a
little hard to get a drink and it was getting hot. We passed the zoo
and I made a little paper aeroplane out of a flier, we threw it
around like a couple of
excited kids.
Next we walked off towards the actual city like area of Ueno and
passed the train station, we headed in on the hunt for food. As we
were walking away from the train station we headed down some stairs
and over a walkway that was raised above the busy roads below. I took
some really interesting photos with some good sights in the
background. Then we wandered on over to a department store with many
things on each level but restaurants on the top. This is where we
headed for pizza, bought the cheapest one but also truly discovered
the awesomeness of the service here. When the lady came with the food
she also brought the receipt, oh and the water was free and she
brought it over without being asked, but having the receipt given
straight away meant that when we had finished and the dishes taken
away, or maybe before that, we could just get up and pay straight
away. Plus they don't believe in tipping here so there was no secret
service charge or expectation of extra monies.
After
having a quick look around the local area, and it seemed more rough
with people keen to get their own way and some interesting shops we
decided to head back. When we did leave I remember saying that it
feels like we've lost if we go back now and the last day came to a
close.
It
was sad to leave Lucy and sad to leave Japan. I knew that this was
probably the best time I was going to have for the foreseeable future
and yet I spent the whole time being envious of future Dan when I no
longer have to say goodbye to her. Even though it was only going to
be two and a half months til it gets to be that day, which is
considerably less time than seven months, I still felt really sad and
since then time has been going really slow and I count the days. I
know I have a lot of things to do before I can leave but its still
painful to be apart.
After
a long plane journey I was quite the tired and yet I had to endure a
rather intense customs search at the airport, I guess its just very
unlikely for a man alone to travel to Japan?
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| Lucy getting angry at daytime teleV |
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