05/31 - In the Heavens

High up in the sky

not in an ivory castle,

genius in the night



Today was a great sightseeing day and an amazing chance to catch up  with some good friends. I met my close friends Simon and Reina, as well as another former Vancouver student, Tomoka. Simon is currently visiting from Switzerland so he can spend time with Reina, who lives in Osaka. They are both spending a few days in Tokyo. They have both spent a good amount of time in Vancouver, on different trips no less. We met up at the Tokyo Sky Tree, the tallest tower in the world at 634 m. The choice of the word "tower" being important. It's really easy to see, so I knew I was in the right place when I got there, unfortunately I was waiting at the wrong station for them. After we found each other we headed in and got our tickets to the sky. The elevators in the Sky Tree were super impressive, taking us up or down 350 m in just 15 seconds. The view was also incredible. Even though it was a slightly hazy day you could see so much and so far. They also had a glass floor and a cool picture that showed you what the landscape would have looked like from up there back in the Edo period.

After the Sky Tree we headed to Asakusa for some more sightseeing. We ate some delicious but expensive tempura don, checked out the cool souvenirs on offer on the long street of stalls as you approach the temple, and ultimately checked out the temple. At the temple I did some cool activities, like making a wish with a coin, spreading incense smoke over our bodies and getting a slip of paper to tell me my future. I got the best fortune, which is fortunate. It basically says anything good that could happen will happen. I don't usually like horoscopes or the such, but I can't complain about that. The incense smoke wafting was really cool. It brings good fortune to your body and mind or wherever you guide the smoke to. The only issue is that you're standing next to burning sticks and guiding hot smoke over you when it's already a blisteringly hot day.

At night we met more friends, some of whom I hadn't seen for about 3 years, for some food and a few drinks. It was really fun, especially when everyone tried to help teach Simon and I more Japanese. My buddy TomTom kept calling me a genius (in Japanese) whenever I would figure out what people were saying or talking about in Japanese. It was pretty funny, because I was only deciphering the most basic of sayings or vocabulary. Encouraging nonetheless.


For the record, today's poem obviously references the Sky Tree, as well as the ivory tower of academia. I thought it was a funny thing to write into the haiku since TomTom was calling me a genius for some suspect reasons and also because of the Sky Tree's lexical dependence for its record. You'll notice the syllables only fit if you pronounce it not [ahy-vree] not [ahy-vuh-ree].