Tokyo

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After an 11-hour flight out of Los Angeles, I landed at Narita Airport outside Tokyo. From there I would have to take a train for over an hour more before reaching my destination. As I looked out the train window I saw mostly farmland at first, but the population density quickly increased before exploding as the train entered Tokyo. By the time I arrived at Asakusabashi station, it was already dark, but the map the hostel provided was very good, and it didn’t take me long to find the Anne Hostel. After checking in I promptly fell asleep.

As expected, I woke up early the next morning, and set out to explore the center of the Asakusa area, which was just north of Asakusabashi, a sub-division of Asakusa. As I walked down the streets towards the Sensoji Temple, I observed the strange nuances of my new surroundings. One of the first things I noticed were the no smoking signs painted on the sidewalk. From what I could tell there is no smoking outside pretty much anywhere in Tokyo, except for designated areas. One such area was right outside the subway stop. A machine about half the size of a person was labeled “Smoking Area”, and had vents which I assumed were for air intake. Except for the main roads, there was very little space in between buildings. Lines were drawn on the asphalt to designate a sidewalk, much like bike lanes are designated in the US, except narrower. A more standard sidewalk ran along the sides of the main roads. The cars drive on the left side of the road, which also meant when walking down the sidewalk people tended to drift toward the left side when passing oncoming pedestrians. Crosswalk lights were at every intersection, but the surprising thing was that most people strictly obeyed them. I observed people waiting even when there were clearly no cars coming. Normally I would default to what the locals do, but I have things to see, and many intersections to cross. The buildings were mostly at least 4 floors tall, and 6 on the main roads.

Surrounding the Sensoji Temple was a lively marketplace. Mostly catering to tourists, these markets were setup either completely outside or with an open front. Everything from chopsticks to authentic kimonos was sold in these shops. A bean bun was recommended to me to try while I was there, and although they came in many different flavors, I wanted to try the original. The bean bun looked like a small dinner roll, but biting into it revealed a sweet pasty center. I found it very good, but then again I do have a sweet tooth. I had not made but two steps from the markets towards the temple, when I was asked to take a picture with a local. He, a young man of probably about 22, handed the camera to another person to take the picture. We stood beside each other in front of the temple when the young man took a fighting stance, then indicated I should do the same. So I stood fists up for the camera, and was a given a very enthusiastic handshake, complete with multiple phases (think A.C. Slater).

The temple had a few surrounding structures of similar architecture which featured statues and large paper lanterns. The temple itself had an extra large red paper lantern featuring the Japanese symbol for thunder. Inside people bowed before a shallow elevated pool to pay respects. An inner chamber filled with flower bouquets had pews with more people bowing in respect. I walked through the temple and each of its surrounding structures, including 3 gateways, then headed back to the hostel. I took a different route back, and found a giant building labeled Ban Dai, maker of Thunder Cats, Mega Man, and Dragonball, among many other lines of products. I walked past what appeared to be a gun store on the way, but upon closer look were all air-soft guns. It was only upon closer look that I realized this, because these guns looked pretty authentic. And by authentic I mean no bright orange tip or anything else to readily indicate its harmlessness.

For lunch I stopped at a nearby Japanese fast food place. The menu, which was entirely in Japanese, had pictures of rice bowls with different accompanying meats and vegetables. Upon entering I was sat at the “bar” and poured a glass of ice water. After touring through Europe last year, seeing the automatic free water service was very refreshing. No one seemed to speak any English at the restaurant, which would be a continuing trend. No matter, I just pointed to the bowl that looked the best to me, and it was brought out in about 5 minutes or so. It was tasty mix of rice, mushrooms, onions, and some sort of meat that I would end up eating again a few days later before finding someone that could verify that it was beef.
That afternoon I toured all around the Imperial Palace. Encircled by about a 50-foot wide moat and rising well above its surroundings, the ground structure of this palace was impressive by today’s standard. However, inside the wall only a few structures remained from the original palace, while many seemed to be simply gone, replaced by manicured gardens and flower beds. Immediately surrounding the moat were parks, theaters, arenas, and municipal buildings in this denoted center of the city of Tokyo. In one particular park was a statue of a well-armored and armed Samurai General on horseback. On the walk back from the Imperial Palace, I stumbled upon a large gathering of street vendors lining both sides of every street for about 4 square blocks. These were definitely temporary setups which suggested a festival as opposed to business-as-usual. The vast majority were selling food, including skewers of various meats, bananas dipped in chocolate or other sweet coatings with sprinkles, and many many bean buns.

The next day I took the subway to Ikebukuro, the Sunshine City. Upon exiting the subway station, I was greeted by a large square in the midst of large buildings with bright advertisements. This would become a trend in Tokyo. My main destination was the Sunshine 60, a 60 floor building with an observatory on the 60th floor. On the way to the building were many gaming places. These were places where kids went to play video games and adults went to gamble. It appeared that the majority of the gambling was based on video games. Not video poker, but fighting games and sports games among others. On one end people were betting on horse-races… video game horse races. A large screen showed a well-rendered horse-race “video game”, and people sat and apparently bet on the winners. On the other end were people betting on a race of physical horses. And by physical horses I mean they were made of plastic and hooked up to a machine that ran them around a plastic track. Just when I thought I had seen it all… Also, while most places were non-smoking, or had smoking sections, smoking was apparently allowed everywhere in many of these gaming places.

I reached the base of the Sunshine 60 after walking about a half-mile through a mall within a substructure of the building and immediately surrounding area. After waiting in a small line, I went into the elevator that went straight to the top. The lights switched to black light revealing glowing stars and planets on the walls of the elevator as it begin the ascent. A status screen showed the current floor as well as the current speed of the elevator, which topped out at 600 meters per minute. Yes of course I converted it, and it’s about 22 mph. Windows lined each side of the 60th floor where you could see that Tokyo was one giant city. The metropolitan area just did not end, and the only non-urban features were the faint mountain tops in the distance. The Sunshine 60 was not exactly in the center of the city either. In fact, I could barely see the roof of one building at the Imperial Palace. Before taking the subway back to the hostel, I stopped in the famous Tokyo Hands store. This place was recommended for its selection of DIY products. Each of about 8 floors has its own theme defining the products on that level. On the toys level I found some Final Fantasy figures and other accessories. I thought a Final Fantasy t-shirt would be kind of a cool souvenir, until I looked at the $50 price tag. Seriously??? I haven’t paid that amount for a concert t-shirt, and those are notoriously sold at gouging prices. The hardware level contained a selection of electronic components that would make Radio Shack blush along with a healthy selection of name-brand power tools. I found the electronics section impressive… until a couple days later.

That night, after dark, I went to explore the night life of Shibuya. The sun had definitely fallen, but you wouldn’t know it walking down the main streets of this area of town. Extremely bright signs and video boards lined the buildings along these main streets. A few night clubs sat in the hills surrounded by many many “love hotels”. These were hotels where rooms could be rented by the night or the hour, and they were literally everywhere. In any direction my field of vision probably encompassed at least 3. Many were given cheesy names like Princess Hotel, and Caribbean something-or-other. Also in the midst was the only head shop I came across in Tokyo. And what night-life/counter-culture experience would be complete without a proposition from a practitioner of the world’s oldest profession. It was raining so she covered my head with an umbrella as she opened, which I thought was nice so I heard her out, not having any clue what she was selling. It took a while for me to understand what she was trying to say, and in frustration she began giving me very explicit details. I probably blushed as I politely declined (yes I did and you can’t prove anything different!).

The next morning I checked out of the hostel, but had until midnight before taking a bus to Kyoto. The bus station was located in Shinjuku, home to the largest cluster of skyscrapers in Tokyo. Upon arrival I found signs leading me to another observatory at the top of a municipal building. Though this view was only 45 floors up, it was free unlike the Sunshine 60 observatory. The sky was just after sunset, but with enough glow to make for some beautiful scenery. To the northwest stood an elegant hotel which I learned was the hotel in the movie Lost in Translation. In front of the hotel was an elevated park, which I explored after descending from the observatory. The park seemed to be elevated anyway, although it was probably just on a hill hidden by the multi-floored sub-structure of the surrounding metropolis. The park had plenty of feral cats roaming throughout, and a small population of cardboard “tents” setup by the local homeless. There were also plenty of restrooms, and this was true throughout the city’s parks, subway stations, malls, etc. Though Tokyo had many of the same stenches of urban environments, I had noticed, to my delight, that one in particular was missing. Yes, these bathrooms were all free, and that was another refreshing contrast from last year’s European tour.

In the last couple hours before boarding the bus, I walked through the busy, and expectedly bright-lit streets surrounding the Shinjuku subway station, which I think is the largest in Tokyo judging from the map. Here was quite the display of electronics stores, many specializing in cameras or cell phones, each having a disproportionally large number of salesman compared to the patrons. Many were just outside the stores yelling what I assumed to be sales-pitches, occasionally employing megaphones. It became normal to see what I assumed was nearly every item on display for customer testing. Among these electronic shops was the mother of all electronic shops, LABI. I entered this establishment to get a closer look at the cellular phones and accessories on the first floor, which I assumed at first to be the only floor of the store. I assumed this partly because this was normal for the surrounding stores, and partly because the product selection was extremely dense. Once I realized there was more than one floor, I had to explore the entirety. Each floor was like a different section of Best Buy, which was dwarfed in comparison. Now imagine walking into a Best Buy where about 90% of the products they sell are available in every color of the rainbow. I’m only slightly exaggerating because it wasn’t just cases and other accessories, but core name-brand devices available in any color. Here, you didn’t need to buy a case for your phone to give it color. Apparently, you just buy the phone in the color you want. And of course everything was on display for customer testing. I needed some new earbuds, so I spent a while listening to the different models they had in stock. When I found the pair I wanted, I picked them out in the color of my choice: blue.

It was finally time to board the “Dream” bus to Kyoto, a name that I was not naive enough to take literally. I walked up to the woman holding the clipboard and asked if this was the bus to Tokyo. She said, “Yes, and you’re Adam Langley?” For an instant I was blown away, but then I looked at her clipboard to find that mine was the only name written in a western alphabet. When I handed my ticket to the driver as he asked for my name, I should have pointed to one of the other names on the list and said, “Actually, I’m that guy”, just to see how he reacted, but the thought occurred to me too late. He told me I was in seat 5B, but when I entered there were only Japanese labels. I counted the rows to five and took the aisle seat on the left side. It turned out my seat was actually the aisle seat on the right side. I’m not sure if that is an effect of driving on the left side, reading from right to left, or both, but I’ll have to remember that for future bus trips.

As a whole, Tokyo is about as urban as a city can get. Most of the “ground” is actually supported by a couple floors of substructure, similar to Manhattan. I was a little surprised at how few English speakers there were, or people willing to speak English to me, however you want to look at it. I can’t tell the difference so it’s all the same to me. Tall buildings and bright lights dominate most of the terrain, and with an average wait-time of about 4 minutes at any given time, the public transit system is solid. Though it can be confusing, and doesn’t follow the rule of labeling the direction with the last stop, the employees and even the authorities are very helpful, even to tourists like me who haven’t bothered to learn one word of Japanese other than “arigato” and “dori” (street, which is obvious because it’s on every street sign and is often one of the first words I learn when entering a country with a new language). However, I know I am a dork at heart because exploring LABI was definitely the highlight of my experience in Tokyo. This is one city I will definitely return to. No, really, I have to return so I can fly back home.

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Photos

Asakusa
Tourist rickshaws

Asakusa
You don't see buildings like this everyday

Imperial Palace
Part of the surrounding moat

Sunshine 60 Observatory
It looks like this from pretty much every direction.

No Smoking
My favorite No Smoking sign ever

No Really, No Smoking
Don't get caught there, fella

LABI
You knew this was coming. These aren't fax machines.

Comments

[Vanessa]

Amazingness.
1. Best smoking sign ever. I might have to make that my new profile picture. 2. I am super jealous that you saw the Lost in Translation hotel. 3. I totally expect you to tell the hooker store along with gestures and accents when you come home to us.