Tokyo -- Imperial Palace Gardens, Yasukuni Shrine, and Tokyo National Museum

October 1, 2017

This morning, we rode through a business and commercial district of downtown Tokyo that was “Sunday quiet.” Along the way, Paul Tierney, an American expat living in Japan and working for Road Scholar through its affiliation with Walk Japan, helped us begin to understand some of the geography and history of the city, and how they’re intertwined.  Tokyo was once a city of waterways and hundreds of bridges, though many of both have disappeared in the path of progress.  Canals, moats, and rivers have been filled in as the city has grown and their original routes have become highways and boulevards.

The buildings and density of the modern city are interrupted by the walls of the Gardens of the Imperial Palace.  After walking across a bridge spanning the moat, we entered the extensive property through a series of massive gates.  The fortifications were built on walls constructed of enormous granite blocks, precisely fitted and assembled without mortar; the engineering expertise of the ancients reminded us of what we’d seen at Machu Picchu.  Quarried far away, the blocks were transported by water and then loaded onto sledges whose passage to the site was eased by laying seaweed on the road to grease the skids.

The gardens, originally a complex protected by three concentric levels of fortifications, are a quiet oasis in the city.  Though the original structures were destroyed by fire, everything is verdant and beautifully maintained and we enjoyed our walk through the enclosure from one end to another.

Our next stop was the Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto Shrine memorializing Japanese war dead throughout history.  It is a controversial institution, given the fact that the resident populations of Chinese, Koreans and Taiwanese are offended by the enshrining of men they consider to be war criminals.  The shrine is the site of frequent demonstrations and protests, one of which we could hear this morning.  Paul explained a bit about the coexistence of and crossovers between Shinto and Buddhist religions in Japan (the world’s most un-religious religious nation).  We approached the shrine on a walkway that passed under three torii (arches) that are the hallmark of the entry to Shinto shrines.  Though we could not enter the shrine itself, we could look in and were able to see the papers inscribed with good or bad luck fortunes pinned to clotheslines in the courtyard and fluttering in the wind. 

This afternoon, we walked through Ueno Park to the Tokyo National Museum, one of several museums in the park.  We visited a series of galleries where samurai regalia, calligraphy, kimonos, pottery, scrolls, sculpture, tea sets, wood block prints and more were highlighted.

After a short break back at the hotel, we walked to a nearby restaurant for a multi-course dinner composed of a succession of Japanese foods.  We probably shouldn’t plan to lose weight on this trip, if our experience thus far is typical of what’s to come.