Woke up today in a hotel in Tokyo!
Had one night in a hotel since the hostel we wanted was too far to get to so late at night. It was a tough decision but it sounded like it was for the best, the Tokyo taxis are supposed to be quite expensive. Caught some Japanese television in the morning, which does not need to be understood to be enjoyed. We played a game, when commercials come on you have to guess what the commercial is for, and see who's right at the end. It is really hard. What looks like it's for life insurance might just be for hair product, and what looks like a dance routine about a beverage might actually be about post-secondary school. It was the perfect introduction to the day - we'd had small-town island Japan and now was our chance to finally see what the big city was all about.
Lindsay's from a small town in the south called Kochi, so she's never been to Tokyo either (except to fly out), which made this a first for the both of us. I'd been told by Rob, who i'd met in the Vancouver airport not to worry about the transit system, because in the city centre, almost all of the signage was in both Kanji and English. I wasn't too worried...i'd seen a map of the Tokyo transit system and it looked rather daunting in terms of its size, but it was generally pretty straight forward otherwise.
We had to get on the train by the hotel, transfer at Shinagawa to the Asakusa line, and take that right to Asakusa station, from which we could walk. We were to meet Lindsay's friend Debbie in downtown Tokyo once we'd dropped our bags at the hostel. She's another JET english language teacher from Toronto.
I'll tell you, if getting lost was an art form in Okinawa, it was a fine art in Tokyo. Google maps had told us to stay on the same train at Shinagawa, and we'd automatically transfer to the correct line. This was wrong. We reached a terminus. We went back to Shinagawa, and waited for the next train on the correct line.
We managed then to get all the way to Asakusa station, and once there, found a map on the wall. We needed 2 - 22 - 2 Asakusa, Taito-city, Tokyo. Neither of us are sure which number denotes what, but we had a 2 at both ends, so we were pretty confident if we got to one of the blocks labelled 2 on the map, we could figure it out from there.
Two city maps and a police box later, and we discovered we'd been walking in the wrong direction. We are of course, walking from the hotel to the hostel, so we have EVERYTHING on our backs - which I later learned, my backpacks together weigh 22 kilos. About a 30 minute walk in the direction the police have sent us, and we're lost again. We think this is the right block...this is how far they said to go, and we can see the hotel we're supposed to be nearby, but we can't find anything. We asked a few passers-by, but when none could help, we asked at the counter of a nearby fried chicken place. The Japanese helpfulness struck home again, as the cook asked us to wait, and went in the back. Ten minutes later he returned with a printed page from google maps, and the lady at the counter walked us through it with a pen.
We followed her directions and with but one small discrepancy (there were now lights at an intersection previously without them) we finally found the hostel. It was two-thirty. We'd intended to meet Debbie at 1:19. And we'd left the hotel at 11:00 that morning.
Debbie let us know to meet at Mitsukoshi, on the Ginza line. We found the station, Mitsukoshimae and headed for exit A2, where she'd said to meet. There was no sign of her. Lindsay called and asked for landmarks, we exchanged what we could see from where we were standing, but none of it matched up. The station we were at, Mitsukoshimae, is both a Tokyo Metro station and a JR (Japan Railway) station. You see, they have two train systems just in the downtown...not counting the high-speed Shinkansen (bullet train) that connects Tokyo to the rest of Japan. We thought well hey, perhaps there's an A2 in the JR half of the station...even though Debbie had distinctly told us she was at the metro.
Mitsukoshimae is so big, and so narrow and linear, that the in-station map of Mitsukoshimae is sixty feet long. It just goes on and on. After walking 80% of the way to the JR we realized every sign for exit A2 pointed back the way we came.
It was at this point we discovered we were at the wrong station. She wanted to meet us at the Mitsukoshi building at Ginza station...which is also on the Ginza line. The more you know...
After that, we were finally finished with getting lost. It was nearly 4 o'clock, We'd met up with Debbie, eaten a good late lunch and headed to Akihabara to check out some of cool Tokyo.
The district she took us to - Akihabara - is like an Anime lover's heaven. Imagine Pacific Mall, spread across twenty blocks, and eight stories high. Now imagine it's also full of pachinko parlors and costumed girls, and it spills out into the streets. It's all figurines, wallscrolls and soundtracks, electronics and flashing lights, and even snacks with your favourite characters on them. If I'd come here when I was sixteen, I would've spent all the money I'd ever made. Coming now...just sort of made me feel...gross.
I thought there'd be some wave of nostalgia, this was the Japan I wanted when I was young, going to get bubble tea with my friends and adding to my collection of figures or DVDs. But it never came. I instead felt really overwhelmed...there was just too much of this. Floor after floor, store after store, city block after city block it was just more and more of the same. I did get to test out a crazy 8mm fisheye lens though.
The one interesting thing about the walk through downtown Tokyo as evening changed over to night, was the vertical-ness of the whole city. It's really an incredible use of space. If you just walk by with your eyes on the first floor, you could miss everything.
You've got to look up at the cascade of vertical signs, and see what's on every floor - 'cause it's all different, and all hidden away.
You've got to look up at the cascade of vertical signs, and see what's on every floor - 'cause it's all different, and all hidden away.
I walked past a set of sliding doors in the shape of an AT-field being ripped open by an Eva, and walked up to check it out. Immediately upon entering my ears were assaulted by the sound of a thousand washing machines full of ball bearings. The smoke in the room was so thick you could climb it. Lindsay told me "It's pachinko."
Most of what I know about pachinko I know from the Nicolas Cage commercials I posted earlier - but i've since learned that most pachinko parlors were formerly yakuza owned, and that because gambling is illegal in Japan, pachinko inhabits a sort of legal grey area.
You can win pachinko balls! Which have no cash value. But when taken to a nearby merchant...you can exchange these balls for cash. Because they're two different businesses under two roofs, they squeak by the illegality of gambling. Also, i've since learned from wikipedia that the estimated annual revenue of pachinko games is in the ballpark of 378 billion dollars US...which is four times the total profit of world-wide legal casino gambling each year.
And they're awful, awful places. Loud to the point of not being able to hear yourself think, thickly filled with smoke, and oddly zombifying....seeing row upon row of people staring into brightly coloured lights, swirling about in front of their faces.
It was a little scary. Also, I wasn't allowed to take photos but I managed to sneak in some video before getting ushered out.
We got back to the hostel pretty late at night, after saying goodbye to Debbie at Akihabara station, stopping quickly to poke our heads into the Gundam themed cafe.
I felt pretty overwhelmed by Tokyo...it wasn't really what I'd hoped for. Granted, much of this was my fault for not having really made any definite plans, just hoping to go out and see the city...and so I felt somewhat let down. Tokyo certainly was amazing...but it's much in the vein of a super-sized shopping district, many of the things there you could find at home. Stack Bay street, or Yorkville on top of itself a few times, and that's one part of Tokyo. Stack up a few Pacific Malls, and that's another. Thing is, big cities around the world are usually really similar. I'd just come so far...I thought something would be different.
As we snuck quietly into our shared dorm room we learned that no one else was asleep. We chatted a little with our room mates, some were off to see a fish market in the morning, one was waiting on a layover for a flight back home to Australia. Lindsay and I conferred and put together a plan of what we wanted to see downtown tomorrow, to try and make the most of things in time for our train to Kanazawa. Tomorrow, we'd hope Tokyo had more to offer - and being the sizeable city it is...we weren't too worried about it.
-Jeff
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