Neo Tokyo

I've been studying many maps like this underground rail map of Tokyo. The same chaos of these lines is mirrored in the streets & avenues above them. Aerial images and line maps of the city look like a frenetic, writhing organic sprawl, like a mix between unrestrained Banyan trees and the semi-conscious muscles and tissues that wrapped around Tetsuo as he grew. I think a time lapse of Tokyo urban development over the last 100 years would show ever-emerging serpentine growths lashing out and wending their way towards the throbbing and expanding pulse of the city center, bubbling at and away from the great Imperial Palace. To date, 23 wards have pressed away from the sea and out to the foothills, filling in the remaining gaps steadily.

These 2 hi-res NASA radiometric images of the city illustrate the sheer density, revealing it as the most populous metropolitan area in the world. So many people with such a seeming civility. I saw a quote somewhere to the effect that Japan has learned to defend it’s history and the precious traditions it has crafted over so many centuries against the constant onrush of modernity. Thus, the multifaceted and somewhat schizoid state of it’s capital, at once bleeding right over the edge of digital hyperspace and simultaneously reposed under the austerity of Mt. Fuji and the calm sine of clarity hung on the tune of the temple bell. Japan is rooted in a deep and old animism. It’s electronics are alive.

I called Cingular to see if I could use my phone over there. They told me none of the US phones worked in Japan because their cellular system is so advanced that no-one else has caught up. I think they’re using 5G. Seriously. I may be able to rent a phone when I get there. Apparently this is a reasonable business model catering to technologically savage foreigners like myself.

I honestly can’t believe I’m going to be right in the middle of it all. I’m beginning to understand the locations of these semi-mythic places I learned from Gibson – like Chiba Prefecture, Akihabara, Shinjuku. Names like ono sendai. I’m re-reading Mona Lisa Overdrive just to get back into the fringes of those hyperkinetic streets, still just a collection of shadowy images in my mind.