Arigato gozaimasu!

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My second day in Tokyo...

It's a crazy city...or more urban area since you don't really have just one city centre but several. Yesterday I mostly went around Shinjuku, a hip business and entertainment area in western Tokyo. I got lost in the station complex a couple of times which is like a maze with several levels above and below ground as well as shopping centres and terminals for a number of different train lines and companies. It's not easy to find your way out, and when you do you don't exactly end up where you had planned. And all the time people...everywhere... Though I still haven't experienced the real rush hour with people crammed into the train carts like sardines in tin cans. Word has it that when such a train arrives at the platform, the platform attendents in their uniforms and white gloves, even help squeeze you in if you want to get on the already full train. I've seen the way the men in suits fold their newspapers to be able to read them in such carts...very innovative and impressive I must say.

I stay in Soubudai-mae not far from a place called Machida. I have my own room in an apartment shared by Rosanna and a scottish girl named Emily. They both work for the language school Nova, which is like the McDonalds of language schools here in Japan, where they teach english. According to Japanese tradition you sleep on a thin mattress on the floor. Beds apparently don't exist for the normal Japanese...though I hear IKEA will soon open up their first store in Japan and Tokyo.

Yesterday evening I went out with a couple of friends and colleagues to Ros. We went to some hang out of theirs where they have the infamous beer tower. It's like a long pipe filled with beer standing upright with a tap at the bottom. You serve yourself and your friends until it's empty. Then you order a new one.

Today I had planned to check out the yoyogi park, show off gorunds for the hip people here in Tokyo, and Shibuya with the famous walk and big screen from "Lost in translation". It's however been raining here for the last couple of days so maybe I'll wait another day and go for some indoor events instead. Supposedly they should have a great art museum of photography not far from here.

Yesterday when I went and picked up my flight ticket to Taiwan at a travel agency here in Shinjuku, something very different happend. The office was located at the 7th floor. As you got out the elevator you arrived right in the office with a big reception desk between you and the 30 clerks working there. I got my ticket and as I walked into the elevator they all simultaneously stood up and greeted me with "Arigato gozaimasu!", which is like "thank you very much" in Japanese. It took me two seconds to realise that it was meant for me...since I was the only customer there...so I greeted them back and left. They are very organized and polite here. They like to line up in perfect order and they always use very polite phrases to people they don't know. The service is most of the time excellent!

Ok, have to go out and see if the weather has gotten any better!

Take care and catch y'all later!

/M

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Photos

So many umbrellas
Men in suits and umbrellas at Shinkjuku.

My bed
When in Rome...

Pink!
Man in suit with his pocket computer matching his tie. You see lots of vain males around here and pink seems to be THE colour.