Holiday Shugyo

day 2.5

5:30am Tokyo Time

Sunday, Nov 15

Plenty of holiday sun. Winds will be light and variable and perfect for throwing.

Realfeel®: 70 °F

High: 65 °F

Off to Shinjuku for class at Hombu. On time. 3rd student on the mat.  Kanazawa Sensei, a 20+ year student named Gunther, and Ryokatatetori (two hands grasping one arm). Gunther was my partner to work with the entire session.  And I'm damn glad he was.  The dynamics of body mechanics never cease to amaze me. Learned more about my center today and not leaving any of it behind.  And a bonus for-  Gunther to me: "You just picked up 90 kgs-  not bad... not bad at all."  I think he was more like 115 kgs, but I felt it best not to say anything.    

Back by 10:45am and out of the hotel by 11 for a visit to Ueno to walk the Flushing-esque labyrinth of the Ameyoko market with all its long lost spices, Chinatown Nikes, and Japanese Jersey flair. 

From there we visited a shrine in Ueno Kōen, a lush and spacious park filled with museums and shrines and an amusement park.  Our destination was a holy place...

Toshogu Shrine – Ueno

Found in Ueno Park,  it is still a kind of a mystery that this shrine still exists.. The original shrine is said to have been built in 1627 by the warrior Todo Takatora,  daimyo of Iga and Ise. The wooden, intricately decorated Toshogu shrine survived repeated fire bombing raids, massive earthquakes, and even one of the major battles of the 1868 civil war. As a reminder of the days of the Tokugawa Bafuku (Shogunate),  it is one of the few remaining links Tokyo  still has to  its former past Edo. The name “Toshogu” is a royal title. Literally translated, Toshogu means “Light of the East” or “Sun god of the east”.Toshogu shrines were built throughout the whole country often adjoining important temples which had a family or personal connection with Tokugawa Ieyasu. There were about 200 Toshogu shrines with it’s deity as Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ueno Toshogu was declared a Tokyo municipal shrine in 1873, and in 1907 the Haiden, Karamon and Mizu-Gaki were declared National Treasure.

After our study of the shrine we were back on the Metro to Ginza-  not our cup of tea. A bit flat, and lacking  the character we’ve seen in our short time here.  So a quick layered cake for Yen and back to Shubiya to track down Sushi Ouchi.  Finding addresses here can be a bit of a quest.  No one in the area that worked or lived there knew where the address was after seeing the map we had which included a house number.  So we walked around the block to what we thought was closest to the place and discovered our own find.  

It appeared to be a loading dock for the hungry.  Styrofoam cooler tops displayed the specials for the night, along with wholesale butcher paper flags posted all over the ceilings and walls that served as the menu.  In this 3 level warehouse our seats were cushioned milk cartons and the tables were rickety unlevel wooden crates.  Tuna Cheek and Whole Grilled Fish for the taking, with giant oysters and a fresh pint of Japan's finest. 

End of the day.  Just have to take care of this Kirin and finish watching this riveting game show chronicling the life of Ultra Man.

We take Tsukiji at dawn.  Then bullet to Kyoto.