上京

Let me just start by saying that Tokyo is a crazy city. Pretty much everyone has seen pictures and has some kind of impression of what the city is like, but unless you've actually been you can never really know.

I should probably start by explaining how I ended up in Tokyo so suddenly to beign with. Andy's brother, Peter, was visiting him on his spring break and he had a JR Rail Pass which allows for free travel on any JR line suring the 2 week period his pass was valid for. He left a couple of days ago, but the pass was still good until the 16th. Andy couldn't use it because he has an intership at a construction company in Osaka so he gave it to me. With nothing really else to do I decided it would be a good a time as any to see Tokyo especially since I could take the bullet train which is normally a $120 ticket from Kyoto to Tokyo for free. So I packed a small bag with the basics and one day's change of clothes and left on the afternoon of the 15th.

A couple of hours later I arrived at Tokyo station. Not knowing where to really start I took a train to Shinjuku. In retrospect probably not the best place to start. Shinjuku is the busiest working area in Tokyo and I arrived right when the evening rush began. Needless to say the trians were packed. Granted I was travelling against the major flow, but it still was pretty tight.

Shinjuku






I didn't spend much time there because Christoph, another friend of mine was actually in Tokyo at the time working at a service industry exhibition for a friend of his named Oto (who I had met before in Kyoto) who has a food importing company. His friend offered to let me stay at his house in Yokohama which beat my idea of staying in a capsule hotel so I had to get to Yokohama station around 8 to meet up with them. The train ride to Yokohama was also really packed as well, but it didn't take as long as I had expected it to so that was at least pleasant.

I met up with Christoph and Oto and they grabbed some dinner while we waited for another of Christoph and Oto's friends, Mako, who I had also had the pleasure of meeting when she came to Kyoto and stayed with Christoph for a week. The four of us headed back to Oto's house which is the incredibly nice condominium complex modeled after some massive villa in Spain. For just one person his condo is really big, even by Toronto standards.

The next morning I started out by heading to Yoyogi, one station south of Shinjuku, and working my way south to Shibuya via the Meiji Shrine, and Harajuku. The Meiji Shrine has got to be the most un-Tokyoesque thing I saw while I was there. Not in the sense that it's not Japanese, but in that it's so quiet and green that it felt more like I was back in Kyoto.

Yoyogi and the Meiji Shrine




Shibuya is definitely one of those places that can't be experienced any other way than in person. Lots of crazy buildings (the Disney store building for example, see picture below) and people everywhere. I doubt that there is a time of day aside from maybe 3-5 a.m. when this place isn't packed. I didn't really spend to much time in any one place looking around, but when I go back to Tokyo this area is certainly up near the top of places to explore more indepth.

Shibuya










After Shibuya I headed over to the east end of the city to check out Akihabara, the sumo arena and Ginza. Final Fantasy 12 was released on Thursday when I was doing all of this so my trip to Akihabara was motivated by the potential chance to get my hands on a machine that had it loaded up and ready to play. Unfortunately this was not the case. I must have checked about 15 stores and came up empty handed. They all had massive FF12 displays and promotions going on, but not a single one with a playable version hooked up to test out. Defeated, I headed a bit further east to check out the massive sumo arena. It was pretty impressive from the outside and I'm sure it's massive on the inside. Muich bigger than the Osaka gym where the current tournament is being held.

An Akihabara alley, the sumo arena, and Sumida River






The final area I checked out before heading back was Ginza. It wasn't night time yet so it wasn't as alive as I sure it gets, but it was still pretty busy with a lot of suits and fancily dressed people shopping around for their luxury goods. In front of some of the clubs you could see the host boys getting ready for the night's work but overall it was still pretty quiet. Ginza is a place that you really should see at like 11 at night to get full experience. By this time it had started to rain and my feet were killing me so I decided to call it a day and head back. All and all a wonderful time in Tokyo, but saying this I'm very glad I live in Kyoto. I don't think I could handle all the people and the hustle and bustle of Tokyo life for any extended period of time.

Ginza