Ohaiyo Tokyo
Arrived in Tokyo yesterday around 6:30 pm local time. I was exhausted and didn’t stay up much past 7:30 and then, of course, woke up at midnight. I haven’t been able to sleep very well after that and gave it up around 3 am.
I was expecting an utterly foreign land, much stranger than anywhere I’d been in Europe. So are, things are different but not what I expected. Maybe I feel this way because I already knew about the many-buttoned toilets? I suspect things will take on a more alien feel once I leave the confines of the hotel today.
I’m staying at the Tokyo Dome Hotel that shares its location with the Tokyo Dome stadium and a large amusement park (here’s a satellite view from Google). As I was ascending in the elevator, I saw someone descending across from me on one of those faux-parachute drop rides at about the same speed!
The airport (Narita) is about 60 km from Tokyo and I took a shuttle bus in. The surrounding area is quite industrial and, frankly, quite ugly. It didn’t get much better in Tokyo proper as we took an elevated roadway snaking through the dense city and every descent to street level (to get to other stops) led to a collection of dark and dingy viaducts. For some reason I was expecting everything to be shiny and new, but the architecture I’ve seen so far is clearly post-war and not so pleasing. Again, these are first impressions only.
Here’s a night shot from my window (I couldn’t kill the reflections):
The lit curve is one of the elevated roads. It seems every single building has red lights and they form the night horizon. Most of them slowly blink, giving the appearence of a red, roiling sea.
September 3rd, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Hey Jay,
Glad to see u made it to Tokyo. I think to have the Tokyo experience you have to go to Shinjuku and Akihabara and wonder and watch. Be safe and have some fun.
September 5th, 2006 at 3:22 am
Wow. U. and I have talked about wanting to see Japan at some point.
Could you please explain the many-buttoned toilets?
September 5th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
I found Tokyo to be really interesting. The many-buttoned toliets contrasted with the really rough “open ditch” in a few places, even in the city! I also found many smaller restaurants to be a fascinating cultural exchange filled with hand waving, finger pointing, botched Japanese phrases, and covered-mouth giggling. Who was doing what is left up to the imagination of the reader. The most interesting factoid was how buildings were numbered (order of construction rather than order on street). Finding your way around can always be an adventure!