February 10, 2008

Tokyo (JAPAN)

Tokyo-in-a-Day

Today I tried my best to compress the world's largest city into a manageable day-tour. For anyone who is too lazy to read through the numerous journals where I have written in-depth on a variety of areas/topics, this may be the easiest way to develop a feel for the city.

I left to meet my father at his hotel at 8:30 am with only a sweatshirt and a small rucksack. After passing the Myanmar embassy on my right, and strolling through the secluded Gotenyama park where nearby residents were already walking their dogs, I met my father in the main lobby of the Laforet. We made a quick phone call to the United States, and subsequently started the walking tour. First on my list was Gotanda, which is the next station on the Yamanote Line, and has a great selection of restaurants and seedy areas (including a notorious red light district.) Although my favorite ramen shop hadn't yet opened, I too him instead to a Starbucks-like coffee shop called Tully's, where we had fresh coffee and toasted sandwiches. It wasn't exactly the most Japanese start to the day, but it was nonetheless a typical place for breakfast on a Sunday morning.

We climbed four flights of stairs and bought a one-way ticket to Akihabara at Gotanda Station (I have a PASMO card that can simply be swiped at the entrance gates), and rode Tokyo's most famous line: the JR Yamanote. As Tokyo whizzed by outside, I explained that Akihabara is one of the most identifiable parts of Japan because it is the source of otaku culture.

Otaku is a word used to describe someone who is overly passionate and knowledgeable about something - often manga (comics), games, or electronics -  and lives in a sort of imaginary realm as a result. Akihabara is famous because it has the greatest concentration of electronics in the world; imagine an entire 20 blocks radius packed to the brim with Best Buys, Circuit Cities, Radio Shacks, and every other electronics store you can think of, big or small. Then, add in the game centers (arcades), girls dressed up in cosplay and willing to chat with you at a Maid Cafe (for a price), and of course the otakus themselves, and the result is one of my favorite parts of Tokyo. Unfortunately, we arrived too early today to see the district in full swing, but we still caught sight of a French maid looking for customers, we looked around a six story arcade with gaming systems far more advanced than most airplane cockpits, and browsed every type of electronics under the sun in the famous eight story mega-mall Yodobashi Akiba.

Afterward, it was time for a change of scenery, so we rode the Yamanote line a couple more stations to Ueno, which in many ways is the heart of historical Tokyo. While we didn't visit any of the museums (such as the National Art Museum or the National History Museum), it was nonetheless pleasant to stroll Tokyo's equivalent of Central Park among the many Japanese families who were out for a morning walk. In my opinion, Ueno is one of the best places to see the normally reserved Japanese people interacting openly. I led the way down to Ueno pond, which is famous for its picturesque reeds sticking out of the water and the seagulls and ducks who serve as long-term residents. Also, there is a pleasant shrine in the middle of the pond where I demonstrated the proper worshipping technique - from how to properly clean one's hands at the well to the subsequent ceremonial clapping and bowing. It can be awkward doing such things for the first time, but David-san was a good sport about it.

From Ueno park it was a short 5-minute walk to Ameyoko market, which is located under the train tracks between Ueno and Okachimachi station. The market first developed after World War II when American soldiers sold a variety of black market items here, but it has since become a bustling area with goods ranging from Army jackets to fresh fish to cheap noodle shops. My real motive for taking him here was to watch how many people he scared away as this 6'4" goliath pushing his way through the crowd.

While buying tickets at Okachimachi station, it dawned on me that I might as well show him the famous Sony showroom in the uber-trendy Ginza area. From Yuraku-cho station it was a quick walk through towering shopping malls with brands like Gucci, Tiffanys, and Dolce and Gabbana screaming for attention behind sparkling windows adorned with photo-shopped human specimens. Egh! Fortunately, the Sony showroom was worth the overtly superficial assault on my senses. We strolled past all the "tourists" on the first floor and began in the consumer electronics section, working our way up to the fifth story. Most eye-catching were the big-screen LCD televisions, which are in fact approaching movie theater size these days, and a new product called a "Rolly" that plays MP3s and dances to the music. I found a youTube video of the Rolly, shown below:

(My father and I mimicked the above dance routine at the Sony building, but were undeservedly escorted from the premises - I still can't figure out where my father learned his "grooving" from.)

We walked about 20 minutes from Ginza to Hamamatsu-cho station where we hopped on the Yamanote line once more, stopping for lunch at a ramen restaurant in Gotanda. We ordered two pork shoyu ramen dishes from the vending machine at the entrance - making our selection, inserting 800 yen ($8USD) - and taking the ticket to our seats at the counter. This is a typical lunchtime meal in Tokyo, with steamed white rice and iced water being complimentary.

This marked the half-way point in the day, and we transitioned from touring the area North of Shinagawa Station to the area to the West. There is really no way to qualitatively explain just how big Tokyo is except to say that even on clear days it is nearly impossible to see across the city without climbing a skyscraper for an aerial view, and the Yamanote line itself, which completes a loop around the inner part of the city, is 34 kilometers long.

Anyway, we got off at Shinjuku station where shopping and restaurants dominate during the day and the darker side of Tokyo comes out at night. I thought about dropping my father off in Shinjuku's "Gay District" where there are a lot of bars and restaurants, but I might find my future funding severely curtailed. Besides, there were too many other things to see. We walked through Shinjuku park, which was spared during WWII and thus had century-old trees and wide open fields, and then continued on the walking tour toward Shibuya station, via Yoyogi, Meiji shrine, and Harajuku.

This part of Tokyo is famous for its entertainment (bars, karaoke, and clubs), shopping, food, and the younger crowd who come out to enjoy it all. Of particular interest are those who dress up in cosplay, and as usual they were out in force in the area near Harajuku. When I return to Tokyo I will do a full post on the different costumes that exist because there is simply too much to cover in this one post, but suffice to say there are several hundred people dressed up in every imaginable outfit.

Last on the agenda was walking to what I consider to be "typical Tokyo," and that is the square outside Shibuya station that was made famous in the movie, Lost in Translation. While the largest Tower Records in the world (shown to the left), certainly merits a "been there" photo, this square is Tokyo at its overwhelming best. Even at 15:00 on a Sunday there were crowds galore at the cross-walk, so just imagine what it looks like on Friday or Saturday nights!

The pictures below were taken from the world's most famous Starbucks, which is located underneath the jumbotron overlooking the square.

Rather than continuing the tour to Roppongi (foreigner-central) or Ebisu, we were both understandably exhausted after eight hours of heavy walking, and at 17:00 we headed back to Shinagawa. We took the long way back from the station, passing underneath the headquarter buildings for Japanese giants like Sony, DoCoMo, and Canon, before walking through Old Shinagawa. This area is the kind of thing that separates Tokyo from so many other cities: one second there are overwhelming skyscrapers, and around the corner are areas that look like they haven't changed in the past hundred years.

After a trip to the sento so I could unwind in the hot baths (not everyone has the luxury of a massage chair in the room, David-san), Kumagai-san and I gave David-san a tour of the Shinagawa house where I have been living since September. We sat around the living room for an hour chatting, and then decided to have freshly made sushi at a nearby sushi bar. This earlier post details what the meal is like (I am too tired to type any more), but the basic idea is the customer has their own personal chef who cuts and shapes the raw fish right in front of your eyes.