ASIA TRIP 2024 - JAPAN PT.5 - TOKYO Day 2
July 1
I slept good the first night in Tokyo. The bed was comfortable, the city was quiet, and the room had air-conditioning. What more can you ask for? Well, as it turned out, I could have asked for better health. The previous day in Oshino Kakkai I was bitten by an insect or spider. I was concerned it was the latter due to the red bullseye on both calves. In fact I was bitten 3 times, twice on my right leg and once on my left. I seemed to be having an allergic reaction as my leg was swollen, particularly around the actual bites and there was some rash and much to my surprise there was some bruising. I’d never had a reaction like this before and I started to get nervous as to what it was that bit me. But there wasn’t much time for being nervous as we had to figure out what we were going to do today.
Everyone had different things they wanted to do. My wife and mother-in-law wanted to go shopping, my son wanted to go to the arcades and I just wanted to walk the streets taking photos. We decided to split up that morning and then meet up later for lunch. My son and I decided to start by visiting the Tokyo Skytree tower that we’d seen while walking around Sumida.
To say the tower was massive is an understatement. It was easily visible from our house in Sumida and as we walked closer it only grew bigger. It’s a structure that boggles the mind when you take the time to think about how it was built. And to think that it’s built in a location that experiences earthquakes on a regular basis is even more mind boggling.
As we walked closer we found ourselves in awe. The perspective from below seemed unusual due to the shape of the observation deck. We hoped that it wouldn’t be too busy. When we made our way to the main lobby for tickets it seemed fairly busy and the line was fairly long. Instead of making our way to a ticket counter to purchase a ticket from a person, we instead were in line for several computerized kiosk. It seems like everything is self checkout these days. We were given two choices, the 350 meter observation deck and the 405 meter observation deck. We assumed there wouldn’t be much difference in the view so we decided to choose the cheaper 350 meter option.
We then made our way to the line for the elevators where we had a wonderful foreigner, probably American, who was coughing up a storm right behind us. Of course he wasn’t respecting the local culture with regards to wearing a mask, nor was he making an attempt to cover his mouth in any way. All I could think is, what an asshole. It’s no wonder that American’s get such a bad reputation.
As we waited for the elevator one of the employees told us that due to high winds the elevator would be running slower than normal. We boarded the large elevator that seemed to have a few too many people on it, when in reality it was just fine. As we began our ascent the elevator had a monitor that displayed our speed. I can’t remember what it said, but my son said it worked out to about 22mph. The most amazing part to me was just how smooth it was considering the speed. Acceleration and deceleration was almost imperceptible.
I could feel my excitement grow just before the elevator doors opened. I’m not a fan of heights, but I knew this was going to be something special. As the doors opened the first thing we saw were lots of people between us and the windows. I was initially disappointed and assumed it would be difficult to get a glimpse from right next to the windows. Fortunately I was wrong and the people kept moving. We were able to get plenty of pictures and enough time to really take in the view. It was incredible to say the least.
The weather wasn’t ideal for photos or the view, but I didn’t really care. The experience was incredible and I was in a place that I never expected to be. It hit me again how I wished we’d had more time. I would have loved to stay here a little longer or even come back during a different time or day.
Tokyo Skytree from below.
View from the 350m level of the Tokyo Skytree.
A great place to sit and think.
The first sight of Akihabara just outside of the station.
After Tokyo Skytree, my wife and I decided to take our son to Akihabara since it was something he’d be most interested in and it would make us happy to see him enjoy his time. This is when things started getting more concerning for me. The bites on my legs combined with the walking and quite possibly the heat started to cause my legs to swell from the knee down to my toes. My ankles in particular were noticeably swollen and my shoes became uncomfortably tight. Of course this all happened when we were already in Akihabara.
Fortunately we were able to find a pharmacy at the Akihabara Station. We were able to find an employee that spoke English and he told us we should visit the dermatologist a few blocks down the street. By this point in the trip I felt terrible, not physically, but emotionally as I felt that I was wasting everyone’s time. My son wasn’t getting to play at the arcade and my wife didn’t get to go shopping or see our son have fun. Instead, they were with me at the doctor’s office.
The experience of visiting a doctor in Japan was something I found to be quite interesting as well, not that I would have sought this experience out. Like most places in a big city, the office was pretty small. Again I felt lucky as there was someone that spoke English. She asked me if I had insurance. I ended up letting out a laugh unintentionally as I knew my insurance was almost useless back home so I could only imagine that it would be useless abroad. I was correct in my assumption. She then told me that I would need to pay cash before I could be seen all while giving me what I perceived to be a serious expression. This expression made me a bit nervous. Did I even have enough cash? Would my credit card work? How much was this going to cost me? Back home in the U.S., having to pay out of pocket can be very expensive. I proceeded to pull out all the cash I had, which I assume wasn’t a huge amount. She looked at the wad of cash and told me it’s enough much to my relief.
After a short wait for my walk-in visit to what I can only assume is an appointment only office I was taken back to see the doctor. He asked me where I was when I was bitten, I told him the Fujisan area. He looked at the bites and quickly concluded that it wasn’t anything serious and that I just needed some basic prescription medication which I could get at the same pharmacy at Akihabara Station that I visited earlier. So I paid my bill and headed back to the pharmacy. The girls at the pharmacy filled my prescriptions fairly quickly however I still felt like I was wasting everyone’s time.
While waiting for my prescriptions to be filled I saw tourists come and go from the pharmacy. I overheard as some American complained loudly about not getting what they wanted. I immediately wondered if it was the same asshole that was coughing everywhere at Tokyo Skytree. It wasn’t. The employees were more than polite but even so the entitled American got upset and left. All I could do was think to myself that I need to somehow make up for that idiot’s behavior. I tried my best to be extra polite without being annoying or seeming fake. I tried to say ‘thank you’ in Japanese which is about all I knew how to say – well, that and ‘excuse me’. I’m not sure if it helped or not, but I hoped it would make up the shit tourists that I imagine the locals have to deal with on a regular basis.
After a while I received my prescriptions and I was curious just how much the entire thing cost. When I converted the cost to USD I was surprised to see it was about $50 for both the doctor’s visit and the medicine. I was shocked, in a good way. This was significantly less than I expected. Although I guess I really shouldn’t have been surprised since America’s medical system is a joke.
After wasting more time that I’d like to admit we finally took my son to an arcade. I thought my son would prefer to play the video games but as it turned out he was far more interested in the claw machines. The great thing about the arcades in Japan is that you can ask the employees exactly what needs to be done in order to win a prize. They will tell you step by step what needs to be done and roughly how much it will cost. Even with that information, it’s still up to the player’s skill to actually win the price. However, we learned that some of the steps required to get the prize were a bit counterintuitive and we were quite grateful for the help. With that knowledge my son proceeded to win a Mario doll with minimal attempts.
Sadly due to my legs swelling we weren’t able to stay for very long as standing seemed to be worse than walking. We decided to try to visit a few more stores in the area hoping to find some good Nintendo Switch game deals, or maybe games that weren’t available back in the U.S. I was also trying to find some places that sold video game soundtracks. We didn’t really have much luck with any of those.
The front door of Naoyoshi. 35.71152° N, 139.81557° E
We ended up heading back to Sumida to meet my wife’s friend for dinner that night. Her friend chose a wonderful little restaurant that had a sign on the door that said “Foreign language service is not available so please come with somebody that speakes Japanese.” I assumed her friend spoke Japanese since he’s been living in Japan for many years. Fortunately he does and he proceeded to order some wonderful food.
It seemed like there were endless courses coming out. Before I could finish much of anything another dish was arriving at our table. I didn’t want to rush and take too much food in case someone else wanted anything, however they kept bringing more and more and soon we were out of table space.
I was surprised that we were the only ones in the restaurant that night. Maybe because it was so small. But even so, they had a bar area and I saw some sushi on the menu so I was kind of surprised that no one was dining or drinking.
I ended up leaving early as my legs were getting worse still and I just wanted to lay down. Fortunately it was a short walk back to our rental house. I really enjoyed walking around Tokyo. It felt completely safe, it was clean, and surprisingly for a city, it was relativity quiet and peaceful. At this point I lamented just how quickly this trip to Japan was progressing.
