Nippon I - Tokyo

First off, my extreme apologies for having taken so long to update this thing. Summer vacation and the monotony of a real job are taking their toll on both my creative juices and my energy/care to write anything down. I suppose the most logical place to jump back in, then, would be to explain exactly what I was doing over my week-long reprieve from whining 5-year-olds.

For some time now I have been longing to explore the mystery and extreme cultural uniqueness that is Japan. Why do they love robots so much? Is honour really that important to them? Just what is the deal with that super crazy porn they produce in droves? Fascinated awe is the best way I can phrase my outlook on the culture pre-trip, and I was extremely curious to see how much my zany expectations matched up to the real deal. Seeing as how it is the most proximate (non-life-threatening) nation to the one in which I currently reside, it was also a logical place to spend my vacation.

Mike and I booked our flights way back in April. We planned to fly into Tokyo and out of Osaka and, after a small logistical battle with our employer because of the recent porky pandemic, were airborne for our week’s adventure on July 23rd.

The first unexpected part of Japan was its greenery. This was not something I had anticipated, but looking out of the plane’s window on our final descent into Narita, I was taken aback by just how lush and vividly green the countryside was. Not only that, but the fact that there even was a non-skyscraper-ridden countryside was the first indication that at least some of my preconceptions would be shattered.

Upon landing in Tokyo, I was a little disappointed to see that the impending quarantine I had been warned would be imposed on me because of swine flu fear was not a big deal at all. While I had been expecting dudes in Ghostbuster-style biohazard suits spraying me down with some sort of chemical, the screening process was nothing more than a man with a sanitary facemask behind a desk passing out awareness flyers to everyone who walked passed him. Unlike Korea, it seems, the Japanese are aware of the hyper-inflated nature of the panic.

After clearing customs, we were soon on a train bound for central Tokyo and all of the bizarre insanity it would entail. Our first stop was the busiest train station in the world, Shinjuku station, where we were to meet up with our Couchsurfing host for the next few nights, Koichi. Koichi was a slight and devilishly cheeky young businessman who had been born and raised in central Tokyo. Simultaneously shy and extremely social, this man is perhaps one of the Queeniest gay men I have ever met and served as an excellent cultural guide for the area. His quirky personality was great and we definitely lucked out to have found someone willing to accommodate 2 big white dudes in a tiny Tokyo apartment for a few nights. Not only that, but the Shinjuku area is one of the most happening in all of Tokyo so our locale could not have been better, either. Suffice to say, our 4 nights spent in the largest city in the world were lively and ridiculous, with us coming back in from extended drinking binges long after the sun had risen.

View from Koichi's apartment - 9th floor, Shinjuku

Tokyo wasn’t all about the nightlife, though. Indeed, the many offerings of the city’s daily bustle were absolutely incredible. Among them, we went to a museum of “emerging technology and innovation" that housed ASIMO and all manner of other robots (the descriptions for which were often too technical for my puny non-Japanese brain to comprehend). In addition to this techie stuff and the tireless search for Godzilla-like monsters on the skyline, Mike and I also did some more casual exploration. 4 days of hard tourism didn’t allow us to even scratch the surface of the city, but we still managed to see some pretty cool stuff like the central imperial palace. We continued to wander around numerous shrines, temples, and parks in the city – each more beautiful and serene than the last. One of the aspects of Tokyo I found most amazing was that you could immerse yourself deep into the dense greenery of a park and hear nothing but insects and the stillness of nature. Here it was surprisingly easy to entirely forget that you were standing smack dab in the middle of the world’s largest city.

A small building on the grounds of the Imperial Palace

Contrary to this peacefulness, there was also the expected insanity of throbbing downtown Tokyo. In addition to the wacky metro system (don't get me started on how difficult this thing was to navigate), certain parts of the city were so jam-packed with humanity they make downtown Montréal look like the 'burbs. Shibuya crossing is reputedly one of the most heavily trafficked pedestrian intersections in the world; standing in the middle of it truly makes you marvel at just how insect-like we mostly-clothed apes can be. Take a gander at the insanity below and keep in mind that a crossing just as busy as this happens at every light – about once every 2 minutes.

You can see an aerial view of the intersection at this Wikipedia page and I encourage you to read the entry on scramble crossings as well if you can’t figure out what’s happening here or if you are into urban geography like me.

While bumming around, we also stumbled upon the world headquarters store of Sony International, an electronics paradise which left us weak in the knee at all the mouth-watering gadgets. For the sake of saying I did so and because they are of incredible quality, I bought a pair of over-the-head padded headphones for 4000 yen (about $40). They’re ballin’ but they still don’t hold a candle to the noise-cancelling $550 earbuds also on sale there.

For our last night in Tokyo, Koichi unfortunately had to head off to Kyoto for business so we were on our own for accommodation. After a bit of head-scratching, we decided it would appease both our wallets and our sense of adventure if we just slummed it and hunkered down in a park somewhere. Mike’s friend had supposedly done this some years back with no problems, so that was a good enough green light for us. Since we both had sleeping bags and it was a nice evening out we figured we’d give it a shot. After casually downing a few (street-legal) beers in a very pleasant park we found, we finally scoped out a sleeping spot in a secluded patch of trees near a fence around nightfall and were asleep by midnight.

Just before dawn a cacophony of unimaginable abruptness punctuated my slumber with alarming force. There was a squaking of crows so intense and immediate that I was sure they were fleeing the rampaging attack of some Mothra-type creature. Mike and I, alarmed at the intensity of the noise, quickly assembled our gear and stumbled our way out of the park. On the way out, I stopped to look at a map of the area and perfunctorily located the place we had slept. It turns out the fence we were sleeping next to was actually the entrance to a large bird sanctuary; the patch of grass which we had so delicately chosen to rest our heads was about 10 metres away from a whole bunch of chipper, vocal, dawn-loving creatures. Being bleary-eyed and groggy at the time, we did not register the full hilarity of what had happened to us until a few hours later.

Later that morning Mike and I made our way to Tokyo’s central station and booked our tickets for the Japan Rail (JR) high-speed train to Kyoto. We left that afternoon and were off for the second half of our already-eventful trip that will not soon be forgotten.

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Seeing as how this entry is running on a little long and that I am already quite late in updating, I will stop here and leave the second half of my Japan vacation for my next post. Sorry again for how long it took me to get back to this but I promise you will at least have the complete story of my trip within a few weeks.

On an unrelated note, it has been a full 6 months since I first landed in Korea. (!) It is absolutely insane how fast the time has gone. For better or worse, this ride is halfway over.