#14: Tokyo! Again! (July 13-14)

July 16, 2024

For the final weekend of my trip here to Japan for the Nagoya University Summer Intensive Program (NUSIP), my friend Tim and I made an overnight trip to Tokyo, returning to see and do a whole bunch more stuff even though we were there for two nights just the week before. You can never run out of things to do in a city as massive as Tokyo.

On this trip I finally got to ride the famous Shinkansen bullet trains of Japan. Each shinkansen travels over 150 miles per hour, and some up to 200, on express routes linking major cities. The track length to go from Nagoya to Tokyo is 227 miles in a route that hugs the coast. Driving that route would take at least four hours by car, but the shinkansen had us at Tokyo Station in just an hour and a half! It was very smooth and very nice, but you want to avoid looking out the window as much as you can, or pull the curtain down, because everything blurs by you so fast that if you're like me it'll make you feel motion-sick. I was fine, though. Like flying on an airplane on land.

We checked into our hotel shortly after arrival. Our hotel was one of Japan's capsule hotels, which are pretty cool. All the beds are in boxy capsules in a large room (men-only or women-only depending on the floor) that are perfect for people that just need a bed and a pillow before they're off the next morning. This one was even nicer, though. On the second floor was 24/7 free rice, soup, and soda. We enjoyed those, and other people who stay there enjoy the hotel's sauna and jacuzzies in the basement and the three daily free alcoholic beverages. A cool and unique hotel experience. Only problem is, like in a cabin at a summer camp, you can't expect a good night's sleep when you're sharing a room with 40 other people, even if you are in your own curtained-off capsule: they are not snore-proof.

After checking in and dropping off stuff, we still had several hours left in the day to explore, and we took the subway to the famous Shibuya district. Shibuya is known for having the busiest crosswalk in the world, which we watched for several minutes as swarms of people would fill it once the lights came on and disappear in a flash as soon as the lights were gone. As we walked around, ducked into tech stores, arcades, shops, restaurants, etc., I just realized how absolutely stunning Tokyo is to look at: especially at night. The lights, streets, buildings, and everything is just an experience to take with your eyes and wander around in with no destination in mind--and the sports cars! With all the sidewalks and public transit, the roadways are pretty uncongested and free for taxis, buses, and Ferraris and Lamborghinis. We didn't have to Google cool places to walk to and see because everything was a cool thing to see. I will remember the sights and sounds of Tokyo for a long time after this trip is over.

Sunday morning after checking out we hit up McDonald's for a gourmet, five-star breakfast and then rode a train out to the Snoopy Museum in the city outskirts. Just like there are things America loves from Japanese culture, like anime and Godzilla, there are things Japan loves from American culture, and one of those happens to be Snoopy and the Peanuts gang. There's Peanuts merchandise in almost every shop and souvenir store I've been to throughout this program, and the Snoopy Museum arrived in Tokyo last decade to celebrate all things Charlie Brown. It was a really impressive place. They showed so much of Charles Schultz's life history and the stories behind every major character in the comics. While it's called the "Snoopy" Museum, it was really about all of Peanuts, and I learned a ton about the comic strip I'd never known before. Schultz drew every single comic himself, and did it continuously from 1950 to 2000 before retiring! I left really wanting to learn more--and also find some books of old comic strips!

After the Snoopy Museum we walked around a small park, got ice cream, checked out another tech store, and made our way home on the Shinkansen again. It was a fantastic trip and a great way to do something really cool on the last weekend of the program. I'm really glad I got to go to Tokyo for three total nights. Now the preparations for the return journey begin! I think almost everybody's excited to head home. Thursday night we check into another capsule hotel inside the Nagoya airport to wake up early and get on the morning flight to Tokyo so we can fly to Dallas so we can fly to beloved and much-missed Lexington!!!