Japan - Day 6 (Part 1)

Japan – Day 6 (Part 1)

27 May 2024

Couldn’t sleep last night and it was almost 1 am when I actually dozed off. My alarm was set to go off at 4 am and it did, but I snoozed it and then for whatever reason it did not ring again (it does that sometimes, no doubt possessed by the same evil technology spirit that has possessed my google maps and data roaming) and when I finally checked the time it was already 5 am. So a bit of a rush but I still managed to leave the hotel by 6.15 am.

Yesterday I had gotten directions from the hotel staff as to the way to the nearest Ginza line station. But just for fun, I turned on my google maps and lo and behold! The ‘start’ button function had magically re-appeared, on the very day when I did not need it. My own devices are gaslighting me and I have no doubt that the evil technology spirit possessing all my gadgets will one day send me straight to the lunatic asylum.

The human directions given to me were spot on (up yours, google maps!) so I didn’t get lost except for finding the station itself. Some stations here in Tokyo are positioned almost like a Speak Easy so that you can easily miss them if you do not have eyes in every direction, including at the back of your head.

On the way to the station, I came across 2 interesting landmarks. The first was an oldish-looking house with a beautiful small flower garden in front. According to the board stationed in front of this house, in 2011 during the process of conservation of the former Residence in Tokyo for the Yi Imperial Family, the brick-coursework foundation of the former Western-style residence for Prince Kitashirakawa was discovered. These grounds, which had been the site of the main residence in Edo of the Kii Tokugawa Family, were gifted during the Meiji era to Prince Yoshihisa Kitashirakawa.

In 1884, a grand Western-style residence of two-storey brick structure in Gothic architecture was built, designed by one Josiah Conder, a British architect who came to Japan in 1877 as a professor of architecture at the Imperial College of Engineering, and who remained in Japan to the end of his days. In 1894, the residence was damaged by the Tokyo earthquake and part of the building was removed. In 1912, the Prince’s family was moved to a new residence. In 1930, the residence was re-built in the same original style it was first built for the Yi Imperial Family.

The second structure I saw was like a remnant of an old stone wall. According to the information board, the wall was part of the Akasaka-mon Gate constructed by Kuroda Tadayuki, the feudal lord of the Fukuoka Domain, Chikuzen Province (current day Fukuoka Prefecture), in 1636. The gate kept watch over Akasaka (Red Hill) Edo Castle. The gate was the starting point for the Yakurazawa Highway connecting Edo and Kanagawa. The towers and other structures were demolished in 1871, and the stone walls were also demolished in the period from the late 1890s until around 1906. The remains of the embankment and moat were designated as a National Historic Site in 1956, and named the Edo Castle Outer Moat Ruins.

I guess these are some of the things that one would miss if one takes the easy way out and hopped into a taxi. But then again, it’s impossible to see absolutely everything in Japan, or even Tokyo for that matter, within a week.

Anyway, I found the station with the help of some locals, and had a minor hiccup at the ticket machine but a kind local girl helped me out. Then I rode 14 stops and got out at Asakusa station, and within 2 minutes was at the entrance of the Senso-ji.