Takao-san

After a night of partying with the neighbors upstairs on Friday night, I awoke late Saturday morning with a headache and little motivation to do anything. I had thought I'd be visiting Asakusa and Ueno in Tokyo with some housemates, but after they decided to wait until Sunday, I had to figure out what to do with my Saturday. I have absolutely nothing against them, but unlike my housemates (who are mostly here for more extended periods than myself) I am only in Tokyo for a month and I feel like I can't afford to lose a day without knocking something I've been meaning to do off my list.

Earlier in the week, my co-worker Mariko had told me about some cool mountain shrines in her hometown about a 1 hour train ride away. I almost decided it wasn't worth it as I wasn't ready to get out of the house until around 1:30pm. But the train fare was pretty cheap and I decided to just go.

By 3pm I'd arrived at Takao-san Station at the far western edge of the Tokyo Metropolis region. The station is right at the foot of Mt. Takao and the rest of the huge mountain range, with a short path to another station with a funicular that takes you halfway up the mountain.

At the upper end of the funicular there is a base station with a restaurant on the edge of a cliff - not a bad place to sit and have a pint of beer. It was already kind of late in the day, though, so no time for sitting around.

Shortly after the start of the trail, there is an option to purchase a $4 pass to get into an area where a large number of monkeys are kept and cared for. I decided I needed to see some Japanese mountain monkeys, and it definitely ended up being worth it. After entering a building with glass windows that allowed you to get right up next to some of the biggest monkeys...

I was able to climb up to the roof where a trainer was talking in Japanese with some other tourists.

After spending some time on the roof, I went back downstairs where a trainer had brought out a baby monkey and was letting some others pet him. He was very well behaved except for the moment I decided to videotape him:

As I climbed further up the mountain, some low clouds had descended and covered the trees of the forest in an atmospheric mist. At a few look out points over the mountain range, I could see other peaks being revealed and then being hidden again as the clouds slowly moved across the landscape.

As I passed under a large torii gate, the pathway started to be lined with wooden red lanterns signaling the entrance to the area of shrines. If I'm not mistaken, this entire mountaintop is dedicated to Tengu, a winged, long nosed, red faced Shinto god. He can be seen at numerous points along the way, from statues to masks to the stores at the bottom of the mountain.

I was surprised at the number of structures atop the mountain, as I had expected only maybe one big temple. There were numerous smaller shrines leading up to the largest near the top, each one perched high atop a steep staircase with views out over the trees and the roofs of the other structures.

After I finally made it to the last shrine, I thought about heading back down, but I could tell I was close to the very top of the mountain so I decided to keep going. Another 20 minutes and I was at the top, along with several others who were hanging out up there. There was a large viewing platform out over the mountains. The sign at the lookout said that Fuji was out there, but unfortunately, as is often the case, Fuji was hidden by clouds.

I hiked back down and took the train home, arriving back at the apartment by around 7:30, glad I had to decided to make the trip.

Once again, I'll post a big update of photos at some point soon. I just want to weed out the bad ones so I don't put up a bunch of crappy photos. Stay tuned.

For relaxing times...

Here are a couple of your everyday street advertisements featuring some guys you might recognize:

Here's Hideki Matsui selling some kind of energy drink:

Ichiro loves him some Kirin. Look at him rocking that tap!

Tommy Lee Jones looking his craggy best and selling Suntory soft drinks:

And then there's this guy selling...cigarettes? Look closely and you will see lipstick and extended eyelashes on this guy, not to mention: who smokes a cigarette like that? Apparently somehow this says "American masculinity" to Japanese folks. While we're talking about cigarettes, it's also worth noting that they still have "Phillip Morris" brand cigarettes here.

Tokyo International Forum

Here's another architecture post to prove to my professor that I am in fact observing some buildings while I'm here. I went to the Tokyo International Forum by Rafael Vinoly the other day and I was kind of surprised by how impressive a space it was. I'd seen pictures in books and online, but it was much more of a sort of "grand" space than any picture could convey. I think just the sheer size and height of the indoor space and the fact that there are only two massive columns supporting the entire structure is probably what makes it so awesome. I managed to take a few pictures while I was in there. Here are some of the better ones:

Sunday photos

I made a trip over to the Roppongi Hills, Aoyama, and Omotesando areas of Tokyo on Sunday to see some notable architecture. Here are a couple of my favorite photos from the day. I'll put the full set up soon:

Roppongi Hills:

Tokyo Midtown (Nikken Sekkei and Kengo Kuma) and 21-21 Design Sight (Tadao Ando):

Building with nice concrete formwork behind 21-21 Design Sight:

National Center for Art (Kisho Kurakawa):

A couple other photos from Omotesando, including the Prada Store (Herzog & DeMuron)

Take me out to the yakyū game...

After managing a bit of a headache on Saturday morning after the izakaya, I awoke to an email from American friend Zack, husband of a close family friend who happens to be in Japan on assignment with his job in the U.S. Navy. Zack had put together a plan to check out a Japanese baseball (yakyū) game in Yokohama, a separate city from Tokyo about 45 minutes away, but still part of the greater Tokyo metropolis. Told to meet at a certain time in front of Yokohama stadium, I hustled down to meet Zack, only to arrive a few minutes late. With no phone and no internet, I assumed I had missed my chance to catch up with my friend. I decided to buy a cheap ticket anyways since I was already there, and the smells and sounds of baseball emanating from the stadium were too much to resist.

Entering the crowded bleacher seats, I discovered that I had purchased tickets right in the middle of the cheering section for the Yokohama Bay Stars. There were cowbells, drums, trumpets, and organized cheers whenever the Bay Stars were at bat. Cheers were led by fans at the front of the section, calling out the next chant and keeping time with a whistle.

When Yokohama was in the field, it was the opposing fans' turn to cheer, with their own very loud constituency making their presence known on the other side of the stadium. The opposing team, by the way, happened to be the Hanshin Tigers, who, according to some accounts, are the Japanese equivalent to my own Boston Red Sox. The Tigers are the arch rivals of the Tokyo Giants, widely regarded as the New York Yankees of Japan. Any way, their fans certainly appeared to be as dedicated as Red Sox fans, easily outnumbering the Yokohama fans at their own stadium.

Also, I was surprised to see former Red Sox draft pick and Chicago Cub outfielder Matt Murton in CF for the Tigers.

Since I couldn't read the seat or row numbers on my ticket, and no usher showed any interest in directing me to a seat, I eventually just grabbed a vacant one. After about 20 minutes, I suddenly realized that Zack and his friends from the Navy were sitting just 4 rows in front of me! Relieved, I went and found them and hung out with them for the rest of the game.

Beers were available the entire game, and were mostly served by attractive Japanese girls in traffic-sign neon yellow or orange outfits. There were a few strange ballgame snacks, such as orange slices served over noodles, but cracker jacks were also available. And yes, there were also baseball cheerleaders.

Sadly, it was not a good day for the Bay Stars, giving up 4 runs in the 4th inning enroute to a 7-3 loss to the Tigers. However, our section kept up the cheers, non stop, until the very last out.

It's also worth mentioning that apparently the catchy marketing slogan for this year's Bay Stars season is "Full season, Full Power, Analyzing Baseball." Hm.

Afterwards we took a walk through Yokohama's Chinatown (the largest in Japan) and grabbed dinner. We then said goodbye, and I somehow managed to navigate my way back to my apartment through a maze of commuter train routes to Tokyo, satisfied with my Japanese baseball experience.