more pics here.
(written last week with sporadic web access)
We’ve been in Tokyo for 5 nights now and could easily stay another
couple of weeks. The place is absolutely amazing on so many levels.
Tokyo gives new meaning to the word “metropolis” as the city extends
off in every direction beyond the horizon. It’s simply gigantic,
covering 2187 sq km and contains approx 12.5 million people - that’s
about 6000 people per sq kilometer. So the subways and trains are
almost always packed and the major civic centers are thronged with
people constantly moving in time with the pulse of the crossing
signals and train schedules. Yet somehow in spite of all this the
place is remarkably peaceful, respectful, incredibly clean, and
exceedingly polite.
We’ve been to Harajuku, Akihabara, Shibuya, Ebisu, Roppongi, the Edo
Tokyo museum, the Imperial Palace, many restaurants, numerous vast
shopping districts, and countless rail and metro stations along the
way. Every day has been painfully packed with activities and the
amount of walking required has been brutal on the feet and legs. The
sheer level of detail is overwhelming, from the architecture &
skyline, the kanji adverts & signage, the constant people-watching, 6
floor department stores, 7 floor toy and manga shops packed to the
gills with product, and the crazy buzzing nerd-dom of Akihabara’s
Electric City. The scale and density of the city is recapitulated on
every level here. With 12.5 million people, apparently you need entire
districts devoted to towering stores full of manga & electronics.
Most cars on the road are service vehicles & taxis. Rail and metro are
the dominant transport and they become impossibly packed during rush
hours, but it’s quite refreshing to be free from the gas beasts we so
adore at home. Everyone is constantly using cell phones and although
talking on them is not typically allowed in trains and stores they are
constantly interfacing with them, texting, reading novels, browsing
the web, or watching tv (their cell phones have antennae that
pick up digital tv). In fact, finding any open wireless nets is quite
difficult since everyone has web access on their mobiles. And yes, the
toilet in our hotel room has a remote control. They’re years ahead of
us.
The city layout is exceedingly complex and chaotic, like a tangled
mess of udon noodles. There are no rectilinear grids of streets. It’s
just a wild criss-cross that loosely tracks the underground rails.
Thankfully the public transport is exceptional and the trains run to
the second.
Today we take the shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto for a 5 night stay
there. It should provide a fascinating contrast to the hyper-neo
metropolis of Tokyo, yielding to the deep traditions of classic Japan.
Until the mid 1800’s Kyoto was the capital, proudly rooted in
thousands of years of tradition. Then emeperor Meiji move to Edo and
renamed it Tokyo. This marked the shift from old Japan into the new
age when the country began to open up to the west and march towards the
industrialized superpower it is today. Tokyo is the new and Kyoto is
the old.
After that we have 7 nights unplanned which will either take us to the
beaches in Izu, or perhaps the mountains near Nagano, but most likely
back to Tokyo for one last week in the metropolis. Every day in the
city so far we have packed full to the brim. And every day we learn of
more we wish to see and explore and experience. Kyoto will be a nice
retreat and respite but the shiny crazy glow of NeoTokyo is magnetic
and irresistible. I’ve never met a city like this!