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Published: October 1st 2007
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So not much time passed since my last post, but I'm getting free internet access after buying a very expensive bottle of ice tea, so here I am again...
I had some Wendy's breakfast meal this morning (not exactly sure what I actually ate...), walked around Shinjuku very early in the morning (around 6AM), and stumbled upon a Buddhist graveyard.
Yep, just walked in... thought it was a nice little zen garden, and then realized I was surrounded by tombstones... But it was so beautifully built! The plants were like bonsai, and there was a bell tower built with such detail, the roof top curving perfectly outward, and the platform built with perfect blocks of stones. Kind of reminded me of the Incan temples in Peru, with perfectly chosen blocks of stone forming the walls of royal households.
After walking around some more I decided that I would get my tickets to Hokkaido for tomorrow, so I took the metro to Tourist Information Center. I decided that I would do a little Taoist drifting, and basically went wherever Tokyo's somewhat confusing metro system took me.
So first I ended up in Akihabara. Literally translated to mean Field of
Autumn Leaves. There are no leaves there. It's the electronic mecca of Japan, and it also known as electric city. I've heard much about this place actually, and decided that I would see just what the fuss is all about. As soon as I got off of the train, I was greeted by posters of anime characters and video game sceneries. And just across from the metro station was Sega Club, and a Nintendo store. Up and down the street were CD/DVD stores and multi-story buildings devoted to electronic appliances. The outside of the buildings were giant screens reminescent of Times Square, except it only plays animes and video game trailers.
Ok, so I was impressed. There were 4-5 blocks jammed with tech stores. Awesome. But things were not really any cheaper than back at the states. By this time I was tired, so I decided to walk around and find a coffee shop to sit down. And as I kept walking, it dawned on me that this electric city was much much bigger than I had imagined... with audio stores, video game stores, computer stores, cell phone stores, stores specializing in headphones, or tv's, or pinball machines, or funky
lights... stretching out endlessly block after block. I can spend days here and not go through every store... I decided that I must leave at once, before I get sucked into this digital paradise (any anime you can think of, they have a collector's box set for it, and Wii games I've never even heard of).
Next stop was the Yurakusho station, the Tourist Information Center. I got the information I needed about Sapporo, and the lady was super helpful, spending almost 30 minutes going over the details of going up to Sapporo. It's going to take me 10 hours... 1 way. Just listening to how to get there got me tired, and I walked out of the place much in need of a bottle of tea. I spent some time walking through a book store, and found a small english section and flipped through a few books... then I started to head towards Shibuya.
Except I didn't get to Shibuya. I got off on the wrong stop and ended up here, Ebisu. But that's ok, because I saw signs pointing me towards the "Ebisu Garden," which means nice plants and a touch of zen right? No, it's
actually a shopping center with a Sapporo beer factory. So that's nice I guess. And here I get to use the internet for free. So that's where I am now.
Will Shugi end up going to Hokkaido? Or will he just get lost again trying to navigate through Tokyo's web-like metro system? Tune in next time and find out!
More things I noticed about Japan:
1) The Japanese will run on the street in suits and high heels, only to wait patiently at the intersection until the little walk sign turns on, I seem to be the only person who j-walks
2) The Metro trains are on time 100% of the time but only stops precisely on the right spot 50% of the time, the japs aren't perfect after all
3) The japanese people walk on the LEFT side and passes people on the RIGHT. So I always find myself walking against a crowd of people or blocking someone's way on the escalator.
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Brian Kim
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whassup world traveler!
Dang, it sounds like Japan's quite an adventure! Try to post some photos if you can. Wish i was there with you. B.