Friday, May 8, 2009

Go Go Golden Week!

Go Go Golden Week!

We decided to go to Tokyo during our holiday vacation. This holiday vacation is called Golden week. Golden Week is the time period in Japan that is a compilation of 4 public holidays, these holidays are: Showa Day, Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day and Children's Day. Most Japanese take surrounding days off, and many companies give their employees the week off, and the kids are out of school. So needless to say travel during this time period is insane. Flights in and out of Japan are cost prohibitive and mostly unavailable so we decided to head south and take the time to explore Tokyo.

As I've said before, Tokyo is amazing. We now go to Tokyo when we crave a little "American/Euro" culture. It is such an international city, you really don't need to know any Japanese to communicate- all signage is in English, and most people bilingual. There is a little of everything, and I mean everything. If you can't find or buy something in Tokyo, it doesn't exist.

When you realize that in every building there are numerous floors and on every floor there is a shop or restaurant- it is commerce and people everywhere you look.
Not only above ground but underground, joining the subway stations are countless malls and stores. In the popular Shibuya area- when crossing the intersection at Shibuya station there are 2,000 people crossing at the same time. It's a virtual sea of people.

The boys are in heaven when we go to Tokyo, because we travel by train and subway constantly- although we make them walk all over town as well. They are now experts on the Tokyo subway system and can navigate the lines like pros.

We enjoyed mostly kid-friendly activities, and we wentt to most of the different neighborhoods and communities.

Here are some of the highlights:

We treated ourselves and stayed at the incredible Peninsula Hotel in the Glamorous Ginza area. Gotta Love Ginza- very posh, beautiful stores, restaurants and hotels.

We went to "Kidzania" this is a place like Wannado City in Florida, where kids take on jobs and earn kidzos (money) to spend.
Different corporate sponsors brilliantly create the attractions. Unlike Wannado City this place is like Vegas for kids, and like everything in Tokyo- it's a better version and more hi-tech than the US version. Zack particularly enjoyed the science lab, so we decided his future in robotics, and that the real reason we are in Japan is for him to learn Japanese for his robotic career and Max's baseball career. When in Rome....

One of the only real "sightseeing " events was when we visited the Imperial Palace Gardens and Grounds. The Imperial palace is in the Marounouchi area (financial district) and it is located on the former site of Edo Castle, a large park area surrounded by moats and massive stone walls. It is the residence of Japan's Imperial Family. You cannot go in the buildings but walk the grounds.
The stone walls are the remains of the Temple. Edo Castle used to be the seat of the Tokugawa shogun who ruled Japan from 1603 until 1867. In 1868, the shogunate was overthrown, and the country's capital and Imperial Residence were moved from Kyoto to Tokyo. In 1888 construction of a new Imperial Palace was completed. The palace was once destroyed during World War Two, and rebuilt in the same style, afterwards.


A real treat was a visit to the JCC Tokyo and joining in on their Saturday Family Shabbat service. They are in a temporary space, with a terrific but sadly, temporary Rabbi in Minami- Aoyama, close to Roppongi and Shibuya (fun area!) but have an amazing community of Jewish expiates and Toyko-ites.They were all so welcoming and wonderful, we will visit them again soon! We were so taken with the community and Tokyo in general, that we will need to make it a more regular trip.

We went to an amusement park smack in the middle of the city, called Tokyo Dome, also here is a stadium where the Tokyo Giants play and when not playing, concerts perform here, and of course there is more shopping. The giant roller coasters and log flume wrap around the mall building and the parachute ride flies over the Stadium. We were lucky enough to visit the day that the popular goth group- X Japan were performing so the people watching was fantastic. Alas- punk is alive and well in Tokyo- I love them, brings me back to 1984! The fans all dress like the group, and they LOVE to have their pictures taken. Disappointingly, our camera lost battery and we had left the charger behind in Sendai. This was the only downfall losing the camera so early in the trip!

The weather was glorious so we walked our way through Ginza, Harajuku, Aoyama, Marunouchi, Roppongi, Shibuya, and Shinjuku. A beautiful vacation in an electric city.

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