The Tastes and Sights of Japan

I arrived in Japan on August 3rd to assist with William and Mary’s Japanese-Baseball Diplomacy Project. Throughout the past year, I have been assisting with interviews in order to create an archive of stories surrounding baseball diplomacy. Despite being on this trip to work I did have some opportunities to sightsee and chow on some damn good food.

I started my trip in Tokyo. I attempted to get into the Imperial Palace, but did not realize that requires a reservation and they only allow tour groups in the palace. So instead, I wandered around the Imperial Gardens. This was my first experience with the heat in Japan. On typical August days, the temperature sits in the low to mid-90s with high humidity. I thought summers were rough in Washington D.C. but that’s incomparable to Japan. It makes a lot of sense why you’ll see so many walking around the city with either sun umbrellas, sweat towels, or little handheld electric fans.

To escape the heat I wandered over to Tokyo Station. Below the station are rows and rows of restaurants and shops. I was trying to get to one specific part called “Character Street” where there are many different branded stores like a Pokémon shop and a Studio Ghibli store. It took me over 20 minutes to find character street due to how vast the shopping center was. Once I arrived at Character Street I perused the stores and bought some gifts to bring home.

On my second day, I had to travel to Kamakura to meet up with the Williamsburg All-Stars Little League Team and some William and Mary professors who were coming as a part of a cultural exchange for the project. But before going to Kamakura I stopped at Shibuya Crossing and the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.

Shibuya Crossing is the busiest crossing in the world. Up to 3,000 pedestrians may be crossing the street at Shibuya at any given time and it sees up to 390,000 commute through it every day. To call it Japan’s Times Square is an understatement. Nothing makes you feel smaller than Shibuya Crossing and realizing you are a speck in a city of 32 million people.

While around Shibuya Crossing I stopped at the Hachikō Statue. For those of you who do not know, Hachikō was a dog who was owned by a professor in Tokyo and who lived by Shibuya Station. Hachikō would meet his owner at the station every day on his commute home from work. Sadly his owner passed away from a brain hemorrhage while at work. Hachikō proceeded to go to the station every afternoon for the next 10 years to wait for his owner until his passing. In Japan, the story of Hachikō is revered as a symbol of loyalty and devotion.

From the Hachikō Statue, I walked for about 10 minutes to Don Quijote, a chain mall around Japan. The one at Shibuya is one of the largest in the country and spans 7 stories. The store was stocked with absolutely everything you could imagine. It is one of those "you need to see it to believe it” moments.

I then made my way to the Meiji Shrine. There are two major religions in Japan, Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto religious sites are shrines while Buddhist sites are temples. You have probably seen the iconic gateways that are in front of all Shinto Shrines. Crossing through these gateways represents one crossing into a more spiritual realm and usually involves a ritual of one washing their hands and mouth ahead of passing through. At the Meiji Shrine made an offering and prayed before receiving an “Omikuji” which provided a fortune and poem. The poem I received read: “Managing to live / Without becoming concerned / With trivial things / Seems in terms of living long / To be the best medicine.”

I plan on detailing the Baseball Diplomacy Project in a different post, but I will go over some of the more interesting experiences while traveling with the group. First, we visited a Buddhist Temple, the Great Buddha. This was a large statue of a Buddha that you could enter as well. After seeing the Great Buddha we had Soba, a traditional Japanese dish for lunch. From there we went to another temple, Enkakuji. Here we were led to a part of the temple that is usually closed to the public. The monks at the temple brought us to this section and led us for an hour of Zen Meditation. This meditation was difficult and I found completely clearing my mind to be very challenging. The goal of Zen Meditation is to realign your spirit by realigning your body and mind. As we spend more time meditating I found it easier and easier to clear my thoughts. It is most definitely one of the most relaxing activities I have taken part in. With how hectic and crazy life gets it was therapeutic to reconnect with my inner self.

We also visited an island called Enoshima. This is a small island just off of the Kamakura prefecture. It takes a small pedestrian bridge to get to the island. There was lots to do on the island including lots of shrines, a hiking trail, and caves on the backside. I chose to go get a fish pedicure first. Little carp ate the dead skin off my feet. I don’t know what feeling I was expecting but the experience felt tingly and almost a little ticklish. After getting my feet eaten by fish I made the trek up the mountain on Enoshima to get to the caves. Along the way, there were countless shrines where I made offerings and prayed. After finishing the long hike I had finally made it to the natural caves on the other side of the island. These caves were littered with statues of different Shinto gods. The natural beauty was surreal and the views of the Pacific Ocean were unbeatable.

Now, I do not feel like I would have made a proper trip to Japan without stopping at a Japanese Steakhouse. There was one about a 15-minute walk from my hotel in Kamakura. The restaurant, Steak Take, surprised me by how small it was. There were only about 7-8 tables that could seat 4 people per table. These smaller restaurants are fairly common in Japan. I ordered the Wagyu sirloin that came with a house salad. The salad arrived first and was unbelievable. The highlight was the dressing. I had to ask the waiter what dressing they used, and they make it in-house and sadly do not sell it. Then came the steak. The medium-rare cut was extremely tender as the steak knife carved through the meat like a hot knife through butter. Then came the first bite. I barely had to chew as the meat almost melted in my mouth. I had to slow myself down and truly savor the meal. My steak was topped with a delectable spicy garlic sauce. For dessert, I had a crepe that was lathered in an orange-flavored sauce and a scoop of ice cream. (Crepes are surprisingly popular and abundant in Japan). I consider myself a big crepe fan, but nothing I have ever had compared to this. That night I dreamt of that meal and I would be lying if I said I didn’t find myself daydreaming about going back to this steak house.

To wrap things up I want to talk about the Shinkansen, or what Americans know as the bullet train. This train arrived on the second every time and rail workers were extremely apologetic when it was even just 3 minutes late. I rode the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka. This would be a 6-hour drive by car but is only 2 hours via the Shinkansen. The train tops out at 200mph while still being a smooth ride. This train made me fairly upset that we have nothing like this in the U.S. Amtrak is slow and bumpy. We need to bring the Shinkansen to America ASAP! Japan is even taking another leap ahead of us as its maglev train is supposed to be done in 2028 which will make the trip from Tokyo to Osaka in just an hour.