Retracing My Steps

---

...they call it "Capital City"

What would Britain be without London? Italy with no Rome?? Thailand, sans Bangkok? Or America, with no Gotham City???

Yes, Capital city was where Ethan and me were headed for a second chance to get reacquainted with one of the largest urban sprawls on earth, Tokyo!

From the time I arrived, the camera rarely stayed in its case, as Tokyo is a beautiful city that offers both super modern sky-scapes, next to ancient temples seeped in history. A very photogenic city.
Thus a large part of this blog can be left less to the imagination but instead be read in pictures once again.

We set off with the aim attending the returnee’s home conference in Yokohama, set against the backdrop of Yokohama port and in the famous Pacifico Hotel. The time to say goodbye to Japan was slowly approaching and it was made all the more clearer by this conference. A chance to get thinking about the future, and to be reminded that the world did not revolve around the four corners of Kamijima Chou.

However, the real purpose f this trip was far and away to get, far and away and check the city that is usually on everyone’s favorite list of places in Japan. I was to be a five day excursion which is not be sniffed at in Japan and would involve a night buses and stiff necks, all in the pursuit of experience.



Tokyo lies on the Central Eastern coast of Japan, looking out into the Pacific Ocean. It is surprisingly far from where I live and I think is about at least 500km from my enclave in the Inland Sea. Never the less, I came to Japan to see Japan and so of we set off on Friday night at the cost of days of organizing and endless discussing with my employers about whether we would be allowed to go and or if we would have to take our own paid leave or not, but happy to on the way.

Traveling the equivalent of London to Edinburgh in one night can be tiring to say the least, but Japanese coaches are actually fairly comfortable and as they are 3 berth coaches (width ways that is) very spacious. And a return will cost you just under 100 pounds, so as long as you have the energy for it, its really not such a bad way to get around.

Tsukiji fish market and Asakusa

We arrived in Shinjuku station at around 600am in time to head straight to the Tsukiji fish market, world renowned as the end of the road for most of the oceans tuna, as well as almost every other kind of sea life imaginable.

It has to be seen to be believed, and it is very easy to understand where the oceans are quickly disappearing to, once you learn that the market operates daily and apparently and the same frenzied pace.
We were just a little late to miss the tuna auctioning, that so many tourists flock to witness; in the early hours, but on arrival there were still some massive examples of what can fetch upwards of 20 grand a pop.
In all fairness however, the shear scale of the fish market and the frequent narrow misses for the unique stand up motorized trolleys that wiz by in every direction are enough to give a unforgettable and slightly overwhelming early morning experience that required a breakfast fit for king Neptune himself! Hah!

We quite fittingly dined on, of course, tuna and lots of it, in various forms. But all of which were raw sliced and big. It was in word, raw, and in a few other words, god dam delicious, and off the back of this protein packed stack, we set off looking for a room with a view.

For those of you traveling to Tokyo looking for a bit more of an out the way retreat from the city itself, then the Asakusa area, with its so named red temple is a good choice. We were however, not looking for the quiet life, but were happily rewarded with a capsule hotel with one of the best views I have ever taken, butt naked, over looking the Asahi Beer building and surrounding cityscape, in the form of an asakusa capsule hotel. Setting you back only 2500yen and with a Japanese style bath on the top floor with a balcony, I happily spent many a pondering moment, in the raw humanity of the birthday suit over looking the metropolis of Tokyo, feeling generally chuffed with the choice of venue. Give it a try. Invigorating.

The rest of the Saturday was spent generally taking in the fact that I was in a city worthy of London’s epic ness once again, and recovering from the long journey. Whilst doing this we took the sites of Akihabara, or rather walked around the electronics shops and drank the occasional pint of ale in a nearby British “style pub”. My first in almost a year and a half, and one that was so god dam good that, I just had to keep going back for more….
There is something that I am definitely starting to miss, and that is beer that doesn’t all taste the same and come packed with as many bubbles as can of coke. Its not that I don’t like Japanese beer, in fact they have hit the nail on the head when it comes to a hot and steamy pacific summer evening, but I do not see the necessity in not creating any other kinds of beer to fill the many gaps in the supply. In everything else in Japan, more is more and you often find shops that specialize in one kind of product that have every kind of style of that product imaginable, but when it comes to beer they have settled on a light yellow colored lager, served only cold, premium and not actually beer, as it consists in part of rice, which turns it into something wholly different I believe, and that give you a serious pain in the skull the next day.
In saying all that I’m not exactly that I'm the designated driver of the group, but anyway it was just great to taste something different.

That evening we thought we checked out Roppongi, the district know as both being the nightlife area of Tokyo and also, the area over looking Tokyo Tower which I was pretty keen to check out - being actually one of the few ‘sites’ of Tokyo, although there is a infinite wealth of spots that would not necessarily make it into the official definition of “sites” by western standards.

Tokyo Tower

This, if you ever are in the area, is a truly worthwhile trip, best undertaken at night and with camera and steady hand ready. Despite its obvious tourist grip, and possibly being created entirely for the purpose of scaling and taking photos, and being charged for the pleasure, the reward at the top is a view that has inspired many a futuristic vision and movie, and one that gives an understanding of where the inspiration for both Ridley Scotts Blade Runner as well as the realization of what an industrial, commercial and technological “big boy” Japan is.
The Japanese often refer to their love of the small and discrete, over the big and brash, however, the size scale and ridiculous number of lights that go into eh Tokyo cityscape paint a wholly different picture.
Scale is everything here, and in fact the space confinement cause the massive size of buildings, and the competition to sell and advertise within this small confinement, may be the reason for the almost overwhelming amount of lights that dot the cities and small towns, and even rural countryside. I sometimes wonder what chance a country has at reducing global warming impacts, when every door, wall and even toilet is either electrified, or actually brightly light up. The idea of having to reduce the electricity bill of Japan must run a shudder of terror through even the average noodle seller. “But how will my door open!!!”

Anyway, once up at the top of the tower, or half way up anyway, there is no way to not be amazed and fell like you are swimming in some other galaxy of stars that are closer, and that blink in all the colours of the rainbow.

We headed down from the tower after rinsing the batteries almost dry from the cameras and headed toward Roppongi for a few, and a taste of the nightlife.
We, however, paid the price for staying so far out of the centre of town, and of Japan, very stringent transport finishing hours, and by the time we arrived in the nightlife area, after some particularly rubbish directions, it was basically time to go home. I noted thought, however, that Roppongi appeared little different from Tottenham Court Road, or some other metropolitan city centre, which I both was surprised by and happy to see. In vast contrast to Osaka, Tokyo has had many a year of foreigners living and setting up home in, and the result is a good mix of people, bars and restaurants, if not a little seeding but then what club district isn’t.

Harujuku to Shibuya

The following morning we set off to take a rather long and famous route, which would join the area of Harujuku to Shibuya.
This was a fantastic day and gave you a sense of how big and endless Tokyo is a metropolitan sprawl.
We managed to start early so decided to walk most of the way and see what we would see, perhaps staring a little further out than planned but this too turned out to be a good thing and another great example of how great it is to get lost, especially in a city like Tokyo. I have promised myself to do it in London when I return.

At first we passed through what appeared to be the metropolitan business area. A land of towering grey, but modern, chunky skyscrapers, that made their way slowly toward the governmental offices.
Big, tall, some grand others more modern, they were all something that we just don’t have in London (and frankly would look out of place) and made Britain seem almost as if it were still in some pre planning phase, as people tried to work out how they would building constructions so high. “Where do we get the cranes?”

Next we passed into clearly heavily rich, more residential area, which skirted a large park and even had its own Tokyo Riding School. You could smell the money and around the corner you could even smell the park.
I think both Ethan and I are city boys at heart, and for me a lifetime has been spent in city parks watching the world go by. Japan seems to lack parks and although it sounds strange as I life in the countryside, I find I rarely actually sit down in field or a woods.
This park was a Tate of home, and probably modeled on a western style park as the Japanese have their own style of magnificent but not so user-friendly parks. I felt that Ethan wanted to set up camp and relocated from the capsule he was so amazed by the occurrence in the city.

Its funny what you realize isn’t their when you find it right in front of you.
The grass in the park was white. I liked it.

We exited the park via an enormous and beautifully maintained Shrine that was in use for a number of traditional Japanese weddings. Japanese are in themselves, very beautiful and unique to see, and I always am quite interested to have a look. We moved on however, with the hope of getting to the entrance of Harujuku station where supposedly loads of crazily dressed Japanese people would waiting to greet us and fulfill our Lonely Planet quota of newer Japanese culture, but clearer they new I was coming and there was not quite so many to speak of. However, we were greeted by the throng of one of the busiest shopping areas of Japan, the equivalent of perhaps Camden for its more independent shops, and from there we wandered for miles down small streets, past small shops and restaurants and thousands and thousands of other shoppers. It was actually pretty mind blowing the shear number of people and I was at odds as to whether there were the same numbers of people on Oxford Street on a Saturday! I decided that possibly there were but I possibly stay the hell away on a Saturday and that the last year and a half on an island with 2000 people had caused me to lose the ability to process groups of people over that, much in the same way as someone used to the pound, ceases to bother counting when he arrives Turkey and sees a cup of coffee for 5million lire.

Of course we in the west, could be coined as having invented capitalism, but once again it takes the Japanese to hone and polish and package it so well. Everything in Japan is trying either selling you something or advertising something, to the point where essentially the shopping areas become the real symbols of the city. Super modern, with everything you could imagine. Not the best place to be on a budget but well worth the visit.

It was all too much in fact, and we decided to slip away into yet another English pub for a pint of ale. A few of those later and as we emerged in the neo darkness of the streets in search of the only thing that washes a pint down better than a kebab (in my onion) a bowel of ramen noodles. And in fact ramen is probably the equivalent of the kebab, and just as unhealthy and available everywhere, at all hours in Japan, and we headed to Shibuya (for some reason) so as to soak up the alcohol.

In the particular establishment the garlic was bottomless and the pickles were as pink as I had ever seen, and I emerged, confident of being one step closer to a heart attack than before.

Another night was then spent in the capsule hotel, after a ritual standing on the balcony naked, and toothbrush to iliminate the smell of garlic.

Yokohama

Eventually, the serious business of the returning home conference had to begin and so we made our way the short trip out of Tokyo, half an hour to neighboring Yokohama. A city, which spills over into Tokyo, creating one of the largest urban, sprawls in the world. Yokohama, however, being located by the sea on a busy port, had more of an open feel to it and I thought that there was a certain kind of more laid back fell to the city.

I wont go into too much detail about the conference. It was a 3-day affair with members of various embassies, companies, university, general key speakers, and even NASA came to convince the Americans the sky as not the limit.
It was wholly beneficial and got me thinking about the next step in my life, and the possibilities about what I could do with my 2 years of international survival experience.
More interesting was that we decided to locate in Chinatown, the biggest in Japan, next tot eh Yokohama Bay stars Baseball stadium, and spent a number of nights crawling around, eating Japans equivalent (and just not quite right) version of Chinese food. Its not that it was not being made by and sold by Chinese people, in Chinatown, but the Japanese, being rather particular (fussy?) about food, are prone to molding things to their own image of what food should be like. Thus, you rarely actually find foreign food restaurants that are selling their bread and butter recipes, and instead all have to cater and mould whatever cuisine they are making to suit the Japanese’s rather limited palette. This includes things like the fact that you will never eat anything other than Japanese rice any restaurant in Japan. That includes Indian or Thai restaurants, ad although I do agree that Japanese rice is amazing and my favorite rice, it is missing the point. This example can also be seen in the square blocks of sandwiches, sans crust displayed in every convenience store, or the fact that there really is only one kind of bread in Japan; thick white, packed full of preservatives, sliced classic. Nice but since deciding that that is what bread is they have rarely looked outside the box. Into this, Curries are not spicy, western breakfasts often consist of toast, salad and soup (?) and for that matter Italian food usually resembles something you would cook at university when you had run out of all ingredients apart form pasta bacon and butter. It is however, easy to poke fun at these synthesized foods, but it comes down tot eh simple fact, that the Japanese like Japanese food, and so food that sway to far fro the simple, beautifully presented, often just a little bland, path, do not make it onto the menus of most Japanese diets.

I was pretty taken with Nikuman, which not only sound like a good description of me, but with eh doughy soft outer bread and minced pork inside, saw me through many a breakfast, lunch and dinner, whilst I was in Chinatown.

The most interesting speaker during the course was the Guardians Correspondent to Japan, who gave an inspiring, but also incredibly detailed talk on everything that what involved in becoming involved in journalism. But there were a surprising number of wholly uninspiring talks, which seemed focused on or around the acquiring on Masters degrees, and many of the talkers seemed unable to talk outside this box.
I went away wondering what to make of it all, and even contemplating a career in the Foreign Service at one point, but decided that I was possibly a little too much of a anti-social job, for me.

We spent eh final day wandering around the shopping metropolis that is Shibuya, killing time before we had to make the epic journey back to the countryside.

As the bus pulled in the next morning, I realized I had never really noticed how much colder the countryside was without all those buildings and energy pumping away to heat it.

I wonder what a life in the British countryside would be like…

---

Photos

Blue gate
chinatown

Internationalising
First pint of Ale of the year

Tokyo starfish
From Tokyo tower

Oyaku.
Shibuya.

dinosaur
harujuku

Asahi golden something
From the Capsule hotel roof.

style in harujuku

"How do they get it in the tin?!?!"
Tuna, Tsukikji market

Old backstreets
Asakusa