Japanese New York City
Feeling the blues of being away from home for the second consecutive Thanksgiving, I went to Tokyo for the weekend. Thursday was a national holiday in Japan too - their Labor Day - and I was able to get Friday off, leaving me a good block of time to spend in the nation's capital.
Being from outside New York City, and having spent most of my life in and around big cities, I was not overwhelmed by the number of people or the size of the buildings. In fact, it did bring bring a large slice of home to the homesick. In many, many ways, Tokyo is New York City. The most glaring exceptions to this statement are that Tokyo lacks much of what I've come to really detest about the Big Apple.
For example, Tokyo is clean. In true Japanese style, there is very little graffiti. There are very few cigarette butts on the ground, and practically no litter. The city does not have the aromatic combination of urine and garbage.
Tokyo is quiet. This got a look of confusion when I listed that in my impression of the city to some locals, but comparing Tokyo to New York as far as noise goes is no comparison. Hardly any car horns or sirens. I heard some, sure, but nowhere near what is heard in a 30-second sampling of New York City sound.
The locals are also far nicer than anything I've come to expect from a Manhattanite. Not just to me, but to each other. Near-bike crashes were met with laughter rather than screaming and blame.
Tokyo is also far brighter than New York. And as the sheer volume of neon lights which power the city's advertisements is rivaled only by Las Vegas, even in the daytime, buildings are painted a rainbow of colors, not the gray / brown / brick combination seen in New Amsterdam.
The sights I saw in Tokyo were plentiful. Certainly the city is so large that 4 days is hardly enough to see what there is to see, but I got a good sampling. Of course I made it to the famous Meiji shrine and the Imperial Palace.
But having the interest in electronics that I do, I could not pass up a trip to Akihabara, the center of the electronics universe. By every account I have come across, Akihabara has all the electronic equipment you could ever want (and then some).
Most of what I saw was stuff available anywhere and everywhere, at roughly the same prices. The sheer volume of what I saw was the most impressive feature of "the land of tomorrow." However, there are a couple notable things I came across worth sharing.
I was walking around this electronics paradise and I saw this man who looked like he was in a fight. Curious as to what was going on, and even more curious as to why everyone else around him was so calm and disinterested, I walked over. As I got closer, I saw this man was wearing these giant white boxing gloves and swinging at the air. Meanwhile, his virtual hands were pounding a computer opponent onscreen.
Later, I found a most interesting USB gadget. Plug this sucker into a USB port on your computer, and your cup of coffee will stay warm. Something all computer and caffeine addicts could use.
When I mentioned the "sheer volume" of what was to be found in Akihabara, here's an example. The Japanese love to accessorize their gadgets, the most ubiquitous of which is the cell phone. Charms range from souvenirs (sold at most sights I've been to in the country thusfar) to cartoon characters, stuffed animals to jewelry. They're usually on strings a couple inches in length, and most people have one or two attached to their phone. I have seen people with a greater volume of charms than the phone they're meant to accessorize (for the record, my phone is charm-less). This one store in Akihabara has two entire aisles dedicated to everything cell-phone charm. TWO AISLES! While I resisted the (*cough*) overwhelming urge to buy twenty of them, I was unable to contain myself from photographing the madness.
One of the highlights of the weekend was my excursion to the Park Hyatt Hotel. This is where much of the film Lost In Translation was filmed. I went to the bar on the 52nd floor and enjoyed a couple (outrageously expensive) drinks. The bar was pretty cool, and it offers an outstanding view of the city.
There's one more thing which Tokyo has that New York does not - a mountainous skyline, punctuated by one of the best-known mountains in the world - Mount Fuji. Before arriving in Tokyo, I had heard people mention that once, long ago, seeing Fuji-san was possible from Tokyo. But with the pollution and haze which has come along since the city reached its worldwide stature, those days were long gone, save the exceptionally clear day.
Before entering the bar, we were graced with such a marvelous view of the sun setting behind this glorious mountain. A picture hardly does the scene justice, but that is all I have to offer.
All in all, a great weekend. Tokyo quickly became my favorite place in Japan, and I plan on going back soon.
Being from outside New York City, and having spent most of my life in and around big cities, I was not overwhelmed by the number of people or the size of the buildings. In fact, it did bring bring a large slice of home to the homesick. In many, many ways, Tokyo is New York City. The most glaring exceptions to this statement are that Tokyo lacks much of what I've come to really detest about the Big Apple.
For example, Tokyo is clean. In true Japanese style, there is very little graffiti. There are very few cigarette butts on the ground, and practically no litter. The city does not have the aromatic combination of urine and garbage.
Tokyo is quiet. This got a look of confusion when I listed that in my impression of the city to some locals, but comparing Tokyo to New York as far as noise goes is no comparison. Hardly any car horns or sirens. I heard some, sure, but nowhere near what is heard in a 30-second sampling of New York City sound.
The locals are also far nicer than anything I've come to expect from a Manhattanite. Not just to me, but to each other. Near-bike crashes were met with laughter rather than screaming and blame.
Tokyo is also far brighter than New York. And as the sheer volume of neon lights which power the city's advertisements is rivaled only by Las Vegas, even in the daytime, buildings are painted a rainbow of colors, not the gray / brown / brick combination seen in New Amsterdam.
The sights I saw in Tokyo were plentiful. Certainly the city is so large that 4 days is hardly enough to see what there is to see, but I got a good sampling. Of course I made it to the famous Meiji shrine and the Imperial Palace.
But having the interest in electronics that I do, I could not pass up a trip to Akihabara, the center of the electronics universe. By every account I have come across, Akihabara has all the electronic equipment you could ever want (and then some).
Most of what I saw was stuff available anywhere and everywhere, at roughly the same prices. The sheer volume of what I saw was the most impressive feature of "the land of tomorrow." However, there are a couple notable things I came across worth sharing.
I was walking around this electronics paradise and I saw this man who looked like he was in a fight. Curious as to what was going on, and even more curious as to why everyone else around him was so calm and disinterested, I walked over. As I got closer, I saw this man was wearing these giant white boxing gloves and swinging at the air. Meanwhile, his virtual hands were pounding a computer opponent onscreen.
Later, I found a most interesting USB gadget. Plug this sucker into a USB port on your computer, and your cup of coffee will stay warm. Something all computer and caffeine addicts could use.
When I mentioned the "sheer volume" of what was to be found in Akihabara, here's an example. The Japanese love to accessorize their gadgets, the most ubiquitous of which is the cell phone. Charms range from souvenirs (sold at most sights I've been to in the country thusfar) to cartoon characters, stuffed animals to jewelry. They're usually on strings a couple inches in length, and most people have one or two attached to their phone. I have seen people with a greater volume of charms than the phone they're meant to accessorize (for the record, my phone is charm-less). This one store in Akihabara has two entire aisles dedicated to everything cell-phone charm. TWO AISLES! While I resisted the (*cough*) overwhelming urge to buy twenty of them, I was unable to contain myself from photographing the madness.
One of the highlights of the weekend was my excursion to the Park Hyatt Hotel. This is where much of the film Lost In Translation was filmed. I went to the bar on the 52nd floor and enjoyed a couple (outrageously expensive) drinks. The bar was pretty cool, and it offers an outstanding view of the city.
There's one more thing which Tokyo has that New York does not - a mountainous skyline, punctuated by one of the best-known mountains in the world - Mount Fuji. Before arriving in Tokyo, I had heard people mention that once, long ago, seeing Fuji-san was possible from Tokyo. But with the pollution and haze which has come along since the city reached its worldwide stature, those days were long gone, save the exceptionally clear day.
Before entering the bar, we were graced with such a marvelous view of the sun setting behind this glorious mountain. A picture hardly does the scene justice, but that is all I have to offer.
All in all, a great weekend. Tokyo quickly became my favorite place in Japan, and I plan on going back soon.
posted by David at 9:30 PM
4 Comments:
man didn't know you went to akihabara, would've asked you to pick up some stuff for me :)
it's suntory time. i hope you said that to the bartender.
Happy birthday to Dave!! You're still about a fifteen minutes away from it here, but it has already begun there i think (from amanda and chris-we're too lazy to login).
Suntory time, hehe. On Japanese and laughter, many often use it for a defense mechanism, to hide fear, embarassment, worry, etc. More so than how we may be familiar. I remember on Okinawa, when some American nearly ran over a woman's little kid that ran into the street - the woman started laughing, which enraged the American. It took him a while to realize this was a reaction to assuage her fright.
got to go to tokyo, love the pics
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