On November 20th 2004, Andy, a friend from England called Nick, and I
went to Tokyo. We knew someone, Nathan, who had moved there from Kyoto, so
he offered us a place to stay. The four of us went on a 3-day rampage
(!) around Tokyo! We had a day off Tuesday because it was a National
Holiday, so after work Saturday we pegged it to Kyoto to catch the
shinkansen (bullet train). I've been on it before, but it was Andy's
first time (and he was like a kid in a candy store!!! He all but stuck
his nose against the window!). It has a lot of space and so you can
stretch out and put your seat back - luxury! It took 2 hours from Kyoto
to Tokyo on the fastest bullet train (there were only 2 stops before
our station). The time flew by and we arrived at 11:40pm.
Nathan met us at Shinagawa station (it's located in the central
area of Tokyo, near all the places people visit). We went back to his
apartment, and then set off to look for food. We were all famished as
we'd worked all day and hadn't had time for dinner.
Nathan took us into Shibuya - a trendy, neon-filled mass of tall
buildings and all manner of architecture, lit up by blue christmas
lights on a group of trees near the station. We went to an Izakaya he'd
been to before (that's just a word for a reasonably priced
run-of-the-mill restaurant). We ordered pizza toast, raw tuna, scallops
and shrimp, small fried shrimp, egg, fried potato, a korean style
pancake and had beer to wash it all down with.
After that we went people-watching around that area. We saw people
who look cooler and are more approachable than in Kyoto, but they also
'think' they are cool and with it. They did seem to laugh more and have
more fun though. We saw such an array of boots!!!! To the thigh-high
white ones, platform ones, brown pointy ones, suede eskimo style
ones..... you get the picture - it was really good entertainment!!
The next day, we went to Harajuku, as Nick told us that every
Sunday there are people who dress up and walk around the park.
So off we went, and sure enough there were hundreds of people all
dressed up - usually as Goths or old-fashioned, Queen Victorian maids. It was amazing the amount of time and effort that had gone into
making the costumes! It seemed like there must have been an art college
nearby, but no, this was just a hobby and people of all ages were
joining in. Some of the hairstyles and make-up were excellent and I
could appreciate the creativity and talent of the wearer.
We walked around the park, and we stopped to watch a cordoned off
area where mature guys were dressed in leather trousers, with denim
jackets or PVC shirts or black vests/T-shirts and cool boots with duck
tape on to prevent them getting ruined. They had a player and were
dancing non-stop to American rock music, inc some Elvis. They must have
been dancing for hours! They did some backflips, dropped to the ground,
twirled around and were really enjoying themselves! It looked so great,
and they had a large group of spectators at all times.
Moving around the park, we saw people playing drums, groups of
children skipping, couples playing badminton, and a couple of very
weird guys dressed in cardboard boxes! You could only see their arms
and legs. There was a lake in the middle, some fountains, and actual
grass. In Osaka it's more like straw, and you would never dream of
sitting down on that. Here, there were loads and loads of trees, and at
that time of year there were red,
bronze, gold, copper and lots of other shades of leaves. It was a
spectacular sight, the sun was out and the sky was blue. There was a slight crispness in the air that just
made you feel alive.
Moving on, our next stop was Shinjuku - which has the busiest train station in Japan
- and had lunch at an all-you-can-eat yakiniku (korean-style grilled
meat). Then we moved along to see the Tokyo Metropolitan Government
building. This was a very impressive building, and indeed all the
surrounding government constructions were amazing. They were made of
marble in the 'bubble' era of Japan and show off the extravagance of
that time. From the top of that main building (which was free) you can
see all across Tokyo - to Mt Fuji and back to Tokyo Tower. It's the
largest city in the world and it's difficult not to be impressed by it.
All the smaller buildings looked like lego blocks from that distance.
We walked aound the park that is next to the government edifices,
and we saw such a sorry sight. It's homeless man's land. There was
a shanty-town composed of blue tarp over cardboard boxes, a few
straggly washing lines put up between two trees, a terrible smell, and
bundles of branches and twigs. It's such a shame that there can be so
much opulence and grandeur, and then the signs of poverty and mental illness are
sticking out like sore thumbs but are ignored, forgotten and
uncared about.
We made our way to a bar and had some drinks to catch up and chat
for a while. Then we went home and got up the next day ready to see
Roppongi hills. Roppongi is the main area for ex-pats, other foreigners
and sleaze. It's the main red-light district and has loads of bars,
hostess bars, clubs, and guys out on the street trying to get
men to go into the stripclubs etc. I was a little behind as we had to
walk in single file. It's so busy in Tokyo and there are always people
no matter what time of day it is. Andy, Nick and Nathan were asked so
many times, and the guys would walk with them, thrusting flyers in
their faces. Luckily they are the three best guys a girl can be
accompanied by, and they kept saying no. One guy was very persistent,
so they all turned to me and said, "there's a lady with us". The guy
admitted defeat and walked off.
Roppongi hills was good. It's a huge building - very stylish and
quite an elegantly shaped building. There are designer shops in there,
a "Tokyo city view" platform (but too expensive so we didn't go up
there), a walkway through a Japanese style garden and other areas we
didn't check out.
We got hungry, so found an Indian and went in. It was a lovely
restaurant, reasonably-priced and the food was really delicious. After
that, we went to a bar and had a couple of beers, then decided to find
a nightclub that Andy had spotted in a brochure on Tokyo. We went to
Ebisu station and it took us an hour and asking 5 people to find it!!
Luckily, once we were inside it was really good. It was house/dance
music and it had a big dancefloor with really cool lasers, a chillout
area with red sofa seats for relaxing, and upstairs there was another
bar with a DJ with more mainstream dance music. We had a great time and
went home at 6am Tuesday morning!
Lunch that day was in a lovely little Italian restaurant down the road, where I
had lasagna. It was absolutely gorgeous, in a very creamy tomato sauce
with lots of cheese and some herbs. We got bread with it, and shared a
margerita pizza between us, which was also very tasty. We had a beer
and then returned to Nathan's to pick up our bags as it was time to
head home. So we grabbed all our
stuff, walked to the station and got off at the next stop with 10 mins
to spare to catch our reserved bullet train.
Great trip!
