Dreaming and Planning
My interest in Japan began in childhood. For all I know to the contrary, my interest may have been stirred by the 1956 release of the American version of Godzilla. The American release was bowdlerized into a poor semblance of the original classic film, but even in its dubbed and mutilated form this was an important moment in film history. I still watch Japanese monster movies and just about every other form of Japanese film too, from Akira Kurosawa’s masterpieces like Dreams and Seven Samurai to jazz-heavy yakuza gangster movies. As an undergraduate at UVA, Japanese Buddhism was one of the things I was most interested in studying. I had been reading about Zen
since junior high school. I seem to remember taking all the undergraduate Buddhism courses that were offered. I became interested in Japanese porcelain and pottery. When I started gardening, I became fascinated by Japanese gardening. Japanese art fascinates me, particularly the woodblocks.
since junior high school. I seem to remember taking all the undergraduate Buddhism courses that were offered. I became interested in Japanese porcelain and pottery. When I started gardening, I became fascinated by Japanese gardening. Japanese art fascinates me, particularly the woodblocks.
I discovered anime around 1999 or so. My children of course watched lots of Americanized anime, such as Speed
Racer and Robotech. Robotech was another American hybrid, a U.S. series spliced together out of three different Japanese anime, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis
Climber MOSPEADA. We had no exposure to the originals. The first anime series I watched was Bubblegum Crisis, and I don’t really remember what led me to it. In the search for a similar show (as an aside, in the streaming era the word “search” seems strange now), I stumbled across Takeuchi Naoko’s immortal bildungsroman, the anime series Sailor Moon. I was soon caught up in the fascinating, complex and lovely Sailor Moon universe. Luna the Cat was the gate to a lively interest in anime, quickly turned into a passion by first viewings of Miyazaki films and such shows as Love Hina.
Racer and Robotech. Robotech was another American hybrid, a U.S. series spliced together out of three different Japanese anime, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis
Climber MOSPEADA. We had no exposure to the originals. The first anime series I watched was Bubblegum Crisis, and I don’t really remember what led me to it. In the search for a similar show (as an aside, in the streaming era the word “search” seems strange now), I stumbled across Takeuchi Naoko’s immortal bildungsroman, the anime series Sailor Moon. I was soon caught up in the fascinating, complex and lovely Sailor Moon universe. Luna the Cat was the gate to a lively interest in anime, quickly turned into a passion by first viewings of Miyazaki films and such shows as Love Hina.
After the first 80 or 90 episodes of Sailor Moon, I starting thinking of visiting Japan. That was years ago. I don’t
travel much, partly because travel is inconvenient. I think I just wanted to be in Sailor Moon’s world, walking the streets of the Azubu Juban Shopping District, with 36 views of the Tokyo Tower looming in the background like Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji. Of course one doesn’t like to intrude. Also, aside from ice cream cones, deli cakes, and transdimensional monsters, it was not at first clear what there would be to do there. The idea that one might really meet a talking cat was something I was not yet prepared to take seriously.
travel much, partly because travel is inconvenient. I think I just wanted to be in Sailor Moon’s world, walking the streets of the Azubu Juban Shopping District, with 36 views of the Tokyo Tower looming in the background like Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji. Of course one doesn’t like to intrude. Also, aside from ice cream cones, deli cakes, and transdimensional monsters, it was not at first clear what there would be to do there. The idea that one might really meet a talking cat was something I was not yet prepared to take seriously.
Over the years that followed I began studying maps of Japan and reading history more seriously, as well as the classic travel masterpieces. I began buying phrasebooks and memorizing likely-sounding tourist remarks—which
turns out to be a very good idea, incidentally. Finally, this year my son Alex, a professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii, began planning our actual trip to Japan, where neither of us had ever been.
turns out to be a very good idea, incidentally. Finally, this year my son Alex, a professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii, began planning our actual trip to Japan, where neither of us had ever been.
Our plans began with three days in Tokyo, followed by two days of decompression at a hot springs resort at Nikko, in the mountains north of Tokyo. For the third phase of the trip we elected to visit the Kumano Kodo, or
Incense Path, a network of ancient pilgrimage routes among hot springs and natural shrines in Wakayama Prefecture south of Osaka. Then, after three nights in Wakayama (the scheme went), we would briefly visit Kobe to have lunch with a friend there, and then go on to Miyajima, an island in the Inland Sea south of Hiroshima. Finally, in what we thought of as a bonus or throw-away night, we would return to Tokyo and stay in the vicinity of the airport at Narita before flying out. We planned to travel primarily by train, preferably by express or
shinkansen high-speed train.
Incense Path, a network of ancient pilgrimage routes among hot springs and natural shrines in Wakayama Prefecture south of Osaka. Then, after three nights in Wakayama (the scheme went), we would briefly visit Kobe to have lunch with a friend there, and then go on to Miyajima, an island in the Inland Sea south of Hiroshima. Finally, in what we thought of as a bonus or throw-away night, we would return to Tokyo and stay in the vicinity of the airport at Narita before flying out. We planned to travel primarily by train, preferably by express or
shinkansen high-speed train.
The resulting itinerary, annotated with hotel reservations, train tickets, tables of movement, ancillary maps and printouts of relevant receipts and contact information, filled a reasonably thick folder. I believe in leaving everything to chance; it’s what I do best. Mortals make plans and the gods laugh. But the mortals can help chance out a lot by giving it more material to work with. Therefore each stage of the trip had at least one backup plan, and two backup plans in some cases. This, I believe, drove Alex slightly crazy at times, since once you start making backup plans there is no logical place to stop. Plan B forks into Plans C-D and then Alternatives E-F and G-H, and so on ad infinitum until you find yourself working as a fry cook in a truck stop under an assumed name, or wake up one morning as a deck hand on a guano freighter. Fortunately we never had to deploy any of our backup plans and our worst fears turned out to be pretty funny.
Arriving in Tokyo
On the first day of our trip, after a 15 hour flight for me and a 7 hour flight for Alex, we met up at Narita Airport and took the train to Tokyo Station. Narita is a suburb but soon the outskirts of Tokyo spring up and give the impression of industrialism to the horizon, with factory complexes sprawled like huge pipe octopoids surrounded by skyscrapers, some blandly modern and others with splashes of whimsy and color. There are reminders and relicts of the past, and a persistent flavor of science fiction, a fractal scramble of beautiful things and ugly things, and mysterious neighborhoods poignantly embedded below the elevated rail line. The Tokyo Skytree becomes visible, so enormous the scale doesn’t even register on the brain. One might even wonder why the Skytree doesn’t go all the way up.
I expected Tokyo Station to be quite crowded because everyone says so. It wasn’t. We were let out in the old station, 100 years old this year, with its brick turrets restored for the first time since they were blown off in the war. It was a lazy afternoon in Tokyo. No one appeared to be in any hurry. A farm truck nearby was selling huge peaches off the tailgate.
The history of Tokyo doesn’t prepare the traveler for the place. Archeological digs have shown that for thousands of years people lived along Tokyo Bay, farming and catching fish and shellfish and leaving burial mounds and
shell middens. There were hamlets along the rivers and creeks emptying into the bay. Ferries were important in a delta landscape like Tokyo, and the points upstream where bridges first became feasible eventually became significant landmarks and boundaries. By medieval times, Tokyo had become an ancestral small town with a small local castle of no particular strategic or political importance.
shell middens. There were hamlets along the rivers and creeks emptying into the bay. Ferries were important in a delta landscape like Tokyo, and the points upstream where bridges first became feasible eventually became significant landmarks and boundaries. By medieval times, Tokyo had become an ancestral small town with a small local castle of no particular strategic or political importance.
However, around 1600 C.E., after a particularly destructive cycle of civil wars, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa Shogun, selected this remote spot as his capital. It became the city of Edo. Edo was the Renaissance
city of the Shoguns and within a century, it was the largest city in the world.
city of the Shoguns and within a century, it was the largest city in the world.
Gate to the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Shrine of the Sleeping Cat, Nikko. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Edo was also one of the most disaster-prone cities in the world, just as Tokyo is today. In 1657 the Meireki Fire burned for three days, fed by a typhoon, destroying 70% of Tokyo and claiming over 100,000 victims. The old keep of Edo Castle burned and was never rebuilt. Its foundations survive on the grounds of the Imperial Palace.
Foundations of Edo Castle. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
The Ten’na no Taika in 1683 was perhaps the next worst of several major fires in that century. Then in 1772 the Meiwa Fire killed 15,000 people, followed by the Bunka Fire in 1802.
Of course, aside from typhoons and fires, Edo had problems with earthquakes, particularly the Great Ansei Earthquake of 1855. In folk belief, the underwater antics of giant quasi-supernatural Namazu catfish were said to be the likely cause of quakes. Loss of natural harmony was a more sophisticated theory going back to ancient times. It’s a good question whether people literally believed in earthquake catfish or if they were just a good metaphor. Possibly in a few centuries people will wonder if we believed in Godzilla. At any rate, Edo was struck by a major fire or quake, or both, every 20 years or so, often with astonishingly heavy loss of life.
People Studying a Picture of a Namazu, or Earthquake Catfish
Disaster Prevention Museum, National Diet Library
Disaster Prevention Museum, National Diet Library
Ansei Earthquake, 1855
http://render.fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=1402193&width=249&height=164&domainid=1
http://render.fineartamerica.com/displayartwork.html?id=1402193&width=249&height=164&domainid=1
After the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Imperial Restoration in 1868, the Meiji Emperor renamed Edo. The new and perpetually rebuilt city would be called Tokyo, conceived as a modern Enlightenment city. Just as Edo grew from a small town to the largest city in the world in the span of a human lifetime, Tokyo became a full-fledged modern industrial city. The fire and earthquake dilemma did not end when modern geology replaced the Namazu, however. The Great Kanto Earthquake on September 1, 1923, which was also fed by a typhoon that drove firestorms across the ruins of the city, killed over 100,000 people and left most of the city in ashes. Just a generation later, in March 1944, a firestorm caused by U.S. aerial bombing during WW II again nearly leveled the city and inflicted so many casualties it is hard to say how many died—perhaps as many as a quarter of a million people.
Tokyo after the March 1944 Firestorm
Wikipedia Commons, 米軍撮影 – http://www.ne.jp/asahi/k/m/kusyu/kuusyu.html
Wikipedia Commons, 米軍撮影 – http://www.ne.jp/asahi/k/m/kusyu/kuusyu.html
In short, Godzilla is authentic enough, and the irrationality of real history is very much on a par with the giant supernatural catfish of yore. History also helps explain the great Tokyo historian Edward Seidensticker’s
remark that one goes to Tokyo not to see where things are, but to see where things were—a sensibility shared by Tokyo’s great literary chronicler, Kafu Nagai.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Seidensticker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaf%C5%AB_Nagai
remark that one goes to Tokyo not to see where things are, but to see where things were—a sensibility shared by Tokyo’s great literary chronicler, Kafu Nagai.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Seidensticker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaf%C5%AB_Nagai
The ideal of Tokyo may very well be Sailor Moon’s triad of cities, beginning with the Moon Kingdom, or Silver
Millenium, a prehistoric lunar city of perfect light that was totally destroyed eons ago. The Sailor Senshi drifted from that lifetime to lifetime in modern Tokyo, seeking the reincarnation of Queen Serenity in the future city of Crystal Tokyo.
Millenium, a prehistoric lunar city of perfect light that was totally destroyed eons ago. The Sailor Senshi drifted from that lifetime to lifetime in modern Tokyo, seeking the reincarnation of Queen Serenity in the future city of Crystal Tokyo.
Crystal Tokyo, from
http://silvermoon424.tumblr.com/post/16273900730/classical-architecture-in-sailor-moon-part-4-crystal
http://silvermoon424.tumblr.com/post/16273900730/classical-architecture-in-sailor-moon-part-4-crystal
Lost in time between these once-and-future perfections, modern Tokyo may be a battleground of natural and unnatural forces. Disaster-preparedness icons in the modern city still sometimes include a stylized catfish design, and Godzilla remains popular. Meanwhile, to the new visitor, Tokyo doesn’t at first seem extremely beautiful until you start walking. Tokyo may be a city that won’t reveal its loveliness until you seek it.
Chiyoda Ward from the Imperial Palace Moat. Photo by Alexander Mawyer.
So Much to See
When we reached Tokyo and checked into our hotel, the next thing Alex and I did was to set out on foot. The first thing we found was Hibiya Park.
Park benches in Hibaya. Photo by Alexander Mawyer.
Hibiya was the first western-designed park laid out in Tokyo. It has seen a lot of history, including the riots and protests after the Treaty of Portsmouth. It has been used for military exercises, for refuge in time of disaster, and as a convenient spot to install oddities such as a Yap money stone, a rock from Antarctica, a replica of the Liberty Bell, a replica of the statue of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf, and other awkward but monumental things. It is as if the founders of Hibiya Park foresaw the arrival of such objects and created an appropriate place where they could be exposed harmlessly to the elements. Around its modern paths, Hibiya is littered with cut stones and the remains of walls, arranged and rearranged as landscape features. These apparently date
from feudal times—when were they scattered? Is the Hibiya Amphitheater the setting for the climactic scene in Akira Kurosawa’s early postwar film, One Wonderful Sunday?
from feudal times—when were they scattered? Is the Hibiya Amphitheater the setting for the climactic scene in Akira Kurosawa’s early postwar film, One Wonderful Sunday?
Hibiya remains important for rallies, festivals, protests, music, public meetings. It has been a citizens’ forum since it was built, whether it was intended as one or not, and it has the dusty trodden look appropriate to a forum. It is also a place where the roots of the past come to the surface.
Photo by Alexander Mawyer.
Among the leftover cut stones from a long-demolished feudal castle, we found a very friendly cat. The cat probably had no idea how far we came that day to meet it, but it welcomed us just the same.
Soon we found another huge park, and then the moat of the Imperial Palace, one of the few really functional moats left in the world. Daylight ended. Imperial bats flitted over the moat beneath an imperial crescent moon, catching imperial mosquitoes.
Imperial Palace. Photo by Alexander Mawyer.
Soon afterward we reached the floodlit National Diet Building, paradoxically stomped by so many kaiju over the course of modern film history and yet none the worse for it.
Diet Building. Photo by Alexander Mawyer.
At that point, having in effect paid our respects and presented our credentials to the Emperor and the Legislature , we went back to the hotel for a very good kaiseki dinner.
Some elements of dinner. Photo by Alex Mawyer.
Menu. Photo by Alex Mawyer.
It would be tedious to repeat the touristic effusions over Tokyo. There is a lot to see. Of all the amazing things that could be said about Tokyo, it’s ease of transportation is perhaps the most flabbergasting. One might expect a city of 13 million and a metro area of 50 million people to pose a transportation riddle. Admittedly, we had chosen well-known places to go. But everywhere we went, getting there was absurdly simple. Central Tokyo to some extent preserves the layout of the streets and wards of Edo. Superposed on the Renaissance city is a modern rail and subway system that really works. Above all, however, Tokyo is a great walking city. Walking around Tokyo is a treat. We walked for hours at a stretch.
We went to Akihabara, the anime and manga district, also sometimes still called Electric Town. This was a sort of pilgrimage to the center of anime culture, the hottest spot in Cool Japan. Akihabara didn’t disappoint—it was fresh air for the soul.
Akihabara. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
We went to the fashion center, Harajuku, which was was more fun than we dared hope, a beautiful train station and a veritable candyland replete with shamelessly sugary crepes.
Harajuku Station. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Crepes. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
We walked from Harajuku to Shibuya, another world fashion hub, by way of the Ukiyoe Museum, which was holding a special exhibit of Edo-era woodblock prints of ghosts and monsters. Shibuya was marvelous, especially its bakery district next to the JR station busy setting the world standard in tasty rolls and buns.
Shibuya, the busiest intersection in the world. Photo by Gary Mawyer.
Shibuya bakery. Photo by Alexander Mawyer.
We saw the Tsukiji Market, where commerce and fish come together in a fabulous display.
A Tsukiji Fish Market breakfast. Photo by Alexander Mawyer.
We encountered the Tokyo Tower again and again, close up and at a distance, by train, by bus, and on foot wandering the streets. We saw the Tokyo Tower the way I most wanted to see it—in the background, as it appears in Moonlight Densetsu, part of the backdrop to Sailor Moon’s home town Azabu Juban.
http://www.moonkitty.net/sailor-moon-travel-guide-tokyo-tower.php
But we came back to Hibiya Park over and over again. It’s not very spectacular. It is very real, though. It is as if the roots of Tokyo’s past come to the surface there. And we wanted to see that cat in the castle ruins again. But she was busy elsewhere.
As a matter of fact you can’t see Tokyo in three days. As far as the great life of the city went, we were merely mayflies on the pond, a brief span of hours in a floating world.
In later posts I'll write about the rest of our trip.
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