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Tokyo at Night
This photo is from Shinjuku, but it could be from just about anywhere in Tokyo at night.As usual, I am behind on my blogging, so I'm going to have to wrap up my Japan experience in this blog entry. I really enjoyed Japan, especially Tokyo. It is an amazing place that is full of energy and sights and sounds that are strange and wonderful. Everyone seems to be in a hurry and it is hard to work your way through a train station without seeing people running to or from their train. The girls must practice how to run in heels at a very early age. The people are very polite and more than willing to help me out. Even though I didn't understand a word they are saying I felt welcomed. You can't walk into a store or a restaurant without the entire staff yelling out a "welcome" (in Japanese of course). I know American waitresses sometimes get schtick for being overyly happy (think TGI Fridays), but those critcs should try Japan someday. Everyone in general seems to be pretty happy.
One of the first things that really hit me when I arrived in Tokyo was just how many Japanese there are! I know that sounds obvious, but let me explain. Tokyo is one of
Salaryman in Nagoya
This guy was good fun! He taught me the proper way to drink saki. the world's international and financial hubs. Think about whenever you see the separate clocks to indicate different time zones in the world. You always see New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo. If you walk down the street in New York or London, it is impossible not to notice the diversity. If you go to a pub in any of those other cities you could very easily strike up a conversation with someone from America, Europe, India, Africa, Asia, or the Middle East. I guess I was sort of expecting a similar type of cosmopolitain atmosphere. That just doesn't seem to be the case in Tokyo, which is roughly twice the population of London. Japan is a homogenous and semi-closed society. With restrictive immigration laws and limited use of English, it has higher barriers to integration than the US or Europe. In some way this adds to the charm though. It keeps the Japanese uniquely Japanese. Any western ideas or products that succeed, usually do so with a bit of a Japanese twist. For example, the latest special at Starbucks was an iced coffee with coffee jelly cubes on the bottom. You'll have to ask Matt how that tasted.
Tokyo
Takayama Festival
Here is our "jump for Toyota" picture. Diane had several attempts, and this was the best one. Matt looks like he's levitating, Nirav is shooting hoops, and I appear to have been shot in the back. Behind us is one of the shrines that get wheeled out into the town. was an amazing city, and I think I could live there, if I could speak Japanese. There is deffinately a buzz about it and there is always something strange going on. It doesn't really have a true city center like you would find in most European cities. Instead, there are several different areas that serve as hubs of major activity. Some of the train stations are massive and Shinjuku is the bussiest train station in the world, serving about 3.22 million people a day! The train network in Tokyo was a bit confusing at first, but I got the hang of it. They have 2 different rail systems, the Metro and the Japan Rail (JR) lines. It's kind of like how London has the tube and overland rail services. Each system uses the same colors for different lines which makes it all confusing at first.
Paying for a ticket is a bit backwards. At the machine, you select how much money you think your journey will be and buy a ticket for that amount. After you reach your destination, if you haven't paid enough, the barrier will alert you to make a fare adjustment with one of the attendants.
Pop Awful
Rowan and Matt perform one of their duets at kareokee Doing things backwards is a common occurence in Japan. They read from right to left, so all of the magazines start from what we would consider the back page. When you get on a bus, you enter from the rear and exit from the front. You pay the driver when you get off, not when you get on.
I know New York claims to be a 24hour city, but it has nothing on Tokyo. The neon lights never seem to go off and it is not hard to find someplace to eat, drink, or sing kareokee into the wee hours of the night. Even video arcades don't seem to get a rest. The trains stop running at about midnight and most people who work in Tokyo live far away in the suburbs. If they miss the last train, it is too expensive to get a taxi back, so they just make a night of it. There are internet places that you can rent by the night, so some people just stay there overnight and go back to work the next morning. Another option is to stay in a capsule hotel for the night.
I stayed in a
capsule hotel Sing Us a Song Mr. Pianoman
I think this was our first encore of the night. for my first week in Tokyo and thought it was a brilliant idea. Most capsule hotels are for men only. You walk in and immediately take your shoes off, place them in a shoe locker, and put on a pair of house slippers. After checking in, you head upstairs to the locker room. In your locker you'll have a couple of hand towels, a few toothbrushes, and a blue robe. You get undressed and put the blue robe on. Everyone is walking aroud the place in these blue robes and it kinda looks a bit like you're in a mental institution. The bathrooms are Japanese style, so instead of a stand-up shower, you get a little plastic bench to sit on. You lather up and rinse down in front of a mirror and using a shower wand. Afterwards, you submerge yourself in the bath and chill out for a bit. The capsules themselves are stacked 2 high, and it kind of looks like a mortuary when you step into the room. You enter the capsule, which is at the foot of the bed, and then pull down your shutter. Inside, there is enough room to sit up and, for me
Geisha Girl
Here's a Geisha wandering through the tradional district of Gion in Kyoto. anyway, just barely enough room to lay down with your legs straight. The pillows in Japan are traditionally filled with rice instead of birds feathers. I kinda liked it. Inside the capsule I had a TV, Radio, Light, AC, and alarm clock; all built-in. Some people might be worried about claustraphobia, but I had more room in there than some of the hostel bunks I have been in.
I stayed in Akihabara for my first week in Tokyo. This area of town is otherwise known as "Electric Town". This is were you go for all the cameras, electronics, and video games; new and used. The neon signage used in this place is just what you picture when you think of Tokyo. On Sundays, the area is filled with tons of street performers who are all vying for attention. This area is also the Mecca for Manga. Manga is basically Japanese comics, and there is no shortage. There are all types of Manga, including lots of pornographic titles. All of which you can pick up at your nearest 7-11 convienence store. It is not uncommon to walk past a 7-11 and see a row of men all reading the latest
Down by the grill
I forgot what this food is called, but they grill a bunch of noodles, veggies, and egg right in front of you. Thank god Carla was there to translate for us. issues. So basically, Akihabara is filled with sexually repressed teenage boys who are into comic books and video games. This also seems to apply to about 75% of the male Japanese population.
One of the towns that really impressed me was Nara. It was not too far away from Kyoto and was filled with shrines (Shinto) and temples (Budhism). The town is home to 8 UNESCO world heritage sites, which really impressed me at first. I was soon to learn that Japan is full of World Heritage sites. It is almost impossible to avoid them. Turns out that Japan is also the biggest contributor to UNESCO, so there you go. There is a big park that houses all of the temples and shrines and it is full of not-too shy deer. You can buy special deer biscuits to feed them which instantly makes you their friend. Within Nara is Todai-ji, the world's largest wooden building and, wait for it,...... a World Heritage Site. It houses a ginormous bronze Budda statue and some impressive wooden statues of ancient muscularly guards. One of the supporting pillars in the Todai-ji has a hole bored out at the bottom. It is said that
Fishmarket trolly
I must have almost gotten run over about a dozen times from one of these. They are everywhere! I hope one of them makes it into the next version of Grand Theft Auto. if you can pass through this hole than you will achieve enlightenment in the next life. I saw a few kids do it and some small girls, so I figured I would have a go. Alas, my shoulders were too wide and I got stuck. I had to be pulled out and it looks like elightenment will continue to allude me😞 Nara was a great place for cherry blossom viewing, as was nearby Yoshino. I took a day trip there from Nara and luckily met 2 girls who were headed the same way. We explored the area together and I got to try on some of my Japanese, but their English was much better.
After Nara, I headed to Kyoto. Kyoto is one of Japan's most loved cities. It has more temples and shrines but also a more traditional area of the city called Gion. Gion is home to most of the country's dwindling ranks of Geisha's. It is still possible to see them clomping down the streets in their wodden sandles as they make their way to their next appointment. Geisha's are entertainers trained in the way of music, dance, and flattering conversation. I saw a few Geisha's
Hooked on You
This is one of the many tunas being sold, sawed, and packaged up at the fish market. with Matt at one of the tourist shows. I'm still not sure if we really saw the real deal or not. Real Geisha's typically perform for private Japanese business events, and foreigners are typically not present.
Kyoto is full of more temples and shrines. Some notable ones include the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. This temple is covered in gold and sits next to a reflecting mirror pool which makes for a fantastic photo. Perhaps one of the most famous landmarks in Kyoto though, is the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is featured in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha." This shrine consists of thousands of orangish-red torii gates which wind their way up a mountain before flowing back down. Along the way are countless shrines. It takes a couple of hours to hike the whole way, and I was working up a sweat by the time I summited. I can't imagine how long it would take to paint all of those gates.
After a few days in Kyoto, I had a few friends arrive in Tokyo. Matt, Carla, and Rowan flew in from London and Nirav from New York. I took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo to meet
Doggy Stroll
As if it's not enough to dress up your dogs, some owners push them around in little doggy buggies lest they actually get some exercise. up with them for a night. The Shinkansen is the bullet train in Japan. After dealing with British trains for the past 6 years, I felt like I was in rail heaven. The trains arrived and left on time. Not one delay or cancellation the entire time I was in Japan. Even though the Japanese are not as tall as the British, I had more than enough leg room in coach. I had to lean forward to touch the seat in front of me. And all of the seats are on a pivot mount, so when the train pulls into the last station, the attendants turn all of the seats so that they are facing forward. So simple, yet so elegant. And there wasn't that disgusting smell you get on British trains either. It was very clean, but then again everything in Japan is pretty clean. I think they have OCD or something. Even fruit is individually wrapped. Even though the streets are clear of any refuse, I was hard pressed to find a trash can anywhere. Everyone is happy to carry their trash around until they do finally find a bin. Riding up and down the country, I didn't
Doggy Dress Down Day
The Japanese LOVE to dress up their pooches. It is a very rare occasion to see a naked dog in Japan. By contrast, most girls wear very little clothing prefering very short skirts. It's both a strange and fantastic country:) encounter any grafitti or vandalism; not even in Tokyo. This is a great example of how low the crime rate is there.
Anywho, back in Tokyo I met up with the gang. Matt offered to let me stay in his Hilton room for free. This would be a re-occuring theme, but I did manage to drag him to a hostel and a few ryokans. Thanks Matt! As you can imagine, the Hilton is pretty big step up from the places I have been staying at. We all met up for a drink at the top of the Park Hyatt. This was the hotel that Bill Murray stayed at in the movie "Lost in Translation." There are a number of scenes from the movie that were filmed there and it was nice to soak up the posh atmosphere. That is a great movie to watch if you want to experience a foreigner's visit to Tokyo. Nothing seems to make sense and confusion abounds around even the most simple tasks.
It was great to see everyone again and we made up for lost time real quick with some kareokee. You are never too far from a kareokee spot in Tokyo.
Who ate all the pies?
We saw this guy on the street before hitting the club. I really wanted to see a sumo match while in Japan, but alas the season was not on:( I'll just have to go back another time:) There are plenty of English titles to choose from and I think Matt and I have perfected "Mr. Roboto" after many performances. I've got some classic videos, but fortanately for the public, they are too big to post. Nirav was even achieved honorary white-guy status for his Journey rendition of "Don't Stop Believin!"
The next day Matt and I headed up to Nagoya. There was a festival going on in Takayama that we wanted to catch and it was only on for 2 days. I pre-booked a place in Nagoya because I couldn't find a place in Takayama that wasn't booked. We arrived in Nagoya, dropped our stuff off, and then headed back to the train station to catch the 2.5 hour train to Takayamma. We thought we had the right platform and when we saw that the train was about ready to leave, we made a quick dash for it. Once on the train, we were not quite sure if we were really on the one we wanted to be on. I asked a few people and seemed to get some positive responses. Here's another interesting tidbit about the Japanese psyche. They don't like to say no to
Mountain Song
This guy was performing outside of Ikebukuro station. He was performing his new single, "Mountain Song". It was horrible, but Matt and I couldn't help but watch. I managed to capture his trademark dance for all of eternity. anything. I don't think they even have a word for it. It's disrespectful to show disagreement so you are more likely for someone to say yes to something if they don't understand you. So, as you guessed it, we found out a bit too late that we were heading in the completely wrong direction.
By the time we made it back to Nagoya, it was going to be useless to try and head to Takayama that day, so we just decieded to see the sights of Nagoya instead. Although Nagoya is one of Japan's biggest cities, it ranks pretty high on the boring scale, especially on a Monday. An attempt to tour their robot museum, as was listed in my Lonely Planet, revealed that it had in fact closed the previous year. We looked around for other interesting sites, but none were to be found. Faced with such a delima, we did what we would do in London, ended up in a British Pub. We used the time constructivly to plan out the tail end of our Japan adventure and then headed off for some grub. We settled in at this small restraunt where everyone sits at a bar
Harajuku Girls
Ok, so there is this area of Tokyo called Harujuku that has a lot of cool clothing stores. Kind of like Camden Market in London. It is next to Yoshino park where all these girls go on Sunday to dress up as a cross of punk and maids. They just go there to be looked at and pose. Same as the girls in one of Gwen Stafani's videos. It's a way for the Japanese to express themselves and rebel, although they typically do it in pairs or in groups. Everything is organized in Japan. and orders from the cooks on the other side. Sitting next to us were a buch of sallary men who were a good laugh.
Utilizing our phrase books, I think we made successful communication. They taught us some naughty words in Japanese and our pronounciation must have been pretty good because we were told to quiet down. We shared some saki and biru with them and convinced them to come out and party with us a bit more. Where did they takes us, but the same British Pub we were in earlier. This happened to be a blessing in disguise as this is when we met Bob who would subsequently get us free tickets to the baseball, which ended up throwing a spanner into our previous planning. It was well worth it though. Again, Matt and I ended up in a Kareokee bar, and again we thanked Mr. Roboto.
The next day Nirav met up with us and we all headed to Takayama together; this time on the right train. The journey was pretty slow, with frequent stops, but the scenery was amazing. Unlike the urban sprawl that zooms past you on the Shinkensen, this train winded it's
Noodle and Rice Shop
I love these restaurants. For about $5 you can get a bowl of rice or noodles. You put your money in this vending machine, make your selection, and get a ticket. You give the ticket to the waitress behind the counter, and before you can sit down, she is bringing your hot order to you as if by magic! way past mountains, over streams, and over small houses. We made it to Takayama with about 2 hours of the festival yet to go. The festival basically consisted of these large shrines on wheels that are wheeled out into the town once a year. Some of them had puppets on them and we were treated to a puppet show for a while. There was a parade of sorts, and I must admit, I didn't really know what was going on, but it was good fun anyway. During the festival we met Dianne, an Aussie who was traveling by herself. She seemed as excited as me to find someone else who actually spoke English. We all took in the festival together and she got us to participate in her jumping photo fetish where someone takes a photo while everyone is up in the air. Kind of like those old Toyotta commercials.
After leaving Takayama, we finally made it to Kyoto and Nirav attemped to see everything in Kyoto in a day before he had to leave for Tokyo and his flight home. The rest of us stayed in Kyoto for one more night and then another in Hiroshima before heading
Shibuya Crossing
This is probably one of the busiest crossings in Japan. Shibuya is kinda like their Times Square with 3 different jumbo-trons going at the same time. At a certain time, the green man comes on and people cross from all different directions. It's crazy! I shot this from the Starbucks that was apparantly used for the same vantage point in "Lost in Translation." back to Tokyo. Back in Tokyo we call got up super early so that we could be at the Tsukiji Fish Market when it opened at 5:30 in the morning. The fish market is the most bustling place I have ever been too. When all the fishing boats return from the sea they dock here and every morning an auction takes place to auction off pretty much anything that you could find in the ocean. The fish are all boxed up and delivered all thoughout the city. There are thousands of people moving around in just as many directions. You really have to keep on your toes and watch out for any motorized carts that may be about to run you over. I've never felt more in the way in my entire life. There are certain areas that tourists are not supposed to stray into, and I think we probably did a time or two. Rowan, Carla, and I sat down for some early morning suishi. Matt decided to opt out. Don't get me wrong, I like a nice piece of raw fish every now and again, but at 6 in the morning it just wasn't going down as smooth
Shinjuku Train Station
This is the busiest train station in the world. Don't even try telling someone to meet you there. With over 2 dozen exits spanning several blocks, you better be more specific. as it could have. I had to leave a few pieces behind.
Oh yea, during my first week in Tokyo, I tried some fugu while I was there. Fugu is another name for blowfish, which can be poisonous and fatal if cut the wrong way. Suishi chefs must go to school for years before gaining enough experience to be allowed to cut the fish. I went to a restaurant with 2 other people from my capsule hotel and we tried it raw, deep fried, and grilled at our table. For the last one, they brought a little charcoal grill out to our table, and a plate of freshly cut fugu. It was so fresh in fact, that one of the pieces was still twitching. It doesn't get any fresher than that! Eight hours passed and none of us died; result! I wonder if my travel insurance covers that.....
We all saw a few more sights and did one last round of kareokee. I don't think Rowan and Carla had ever heard of the band Styx before, but I think Matt and I have managed to hook them on Mr. Roboto. Carla and Rowan had to jet back to
Kill Bill
This is the restaurant that was used as the model for the famous fight scene in Kill Bill. London and I was thankful that they and Matt and Nirav had made the journey. It was great to be with my friends again. As confucious would say, "Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar?"
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Carla
non-member comment
We need you back here!
That closing quote made me miss the daily motivational message, bring it back!