Imperial Palace vs. Electric Town

Today we did a bit of old and new Japan.  We started with a tour of the Imperial Palace grounds.  The Imperial Palace is the home of the emperor and empress of Japan.  The tour doesn’t include the inside of the actual palace (which was less regal than I thought it might be- check our the pictures on the Piictures tab), but it was neat to see this place, which is rich in Japanese history.  The Imperial Palace is built on the grounds of the old Edo castle, which was used by the Tokugawa shogunate, which, I gather, were the warring feudal lords.  The shoguns ruled from about 1200-1800 when somehow Japan began having an emperor (maybe when I get to Kyoto more of these gaps will get filled in).  The walls around the palace still had marks in the stones that belonged to feudal lords.  The tour was in Japanese and they gave us English audio guides, but I still felt like I was missing a lot, including some good jokes by the tour guide.  I need to learn Japanese asap.

After the Imperial Palace, we headed to Akihabara aka “Electric Town,” which is what Dan had been waiting for.  Our first stop was to an 8 story “camera” shop which was more like Best Buy on crack.  It had every piece of electronics equipment you could imagine.  It was overwhelming.  We even ate lunch on the top floor, which had a bunch of nice restaurants.  Think about that, a Best Buy with a food court?  Insane.  When we left the camera shop, we went to this crazy little section of Akihabara that used to be known for selling radio parts, which include every tiny piece of electronics to build your own radio.  This includes a lot more now, but it was cool to see these little stalls with old men sitting arranging leds, wires, circuit boards and everything you can imagine.  Dan was on the search for buttons and joysticks for his homemade controllers, but we didn’t have much luck.  We might go back tomorrow to try again.  And then, the trip to Akihabara wouldn’t be complete without a minor detour to the arcade for some Streetfighter.  I was kind of annoyed because I was really tired and the dang arcade people wouldn’t let me sit down at an empty machine unless I was playing, so I walked around and thought about playing those claw games where you grab a toy, but the claw only had 2 prongs!  No fair.

Our last little side trip was to the Sony building, which is listed in the top 25 places to visit, but it wasn’t so impressive.  It was sort of like the store at Kenwood, but 6 floors worth of it.  And, all I kept thinking was that I like macs so much better.  But, the Sony building was in an area called Ginza, which is a super fancy shopping area, so that was cool to see (but not buy anything).

Seeing these two different worlds today (old vs. new) made me think of all of the people on the subway with their cell phones in their faces, texting, listening to music, watching tv shows, etc.  I wonder if the older generation here (like at home) bemoans the new technology and thinks fondly upon the days when people talked to each other minus a screen or took the time to write a hand written letter.

We got back to our hotel at around 6, got some carryout, and stayed in because we were exhausted.  The past few days are definitely catching up with us.  One more full day in Tokyo before we head to Mt. Fuji to soak in the hot springs!  And boy do we need it.