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Tokyo

Tokyo

Hmm, let’s see, how do I describe Tokyo? The first words that come to mind include: unique, fun, sophisticated, busy and SCARY!!! I don’t like having to go into Melbourne city at the best of times because I think there are too many people and it makes me a little nervous. In comparison, Tokyo is like a colony of ants to Melbourne’s flock of birds, making it a ratio of about 1,000,000:1!! Oh boy, even from the last time I went to Tokyo, I just don’t think I have ever seen so many people in my life! I had to think about the best way to write about my experiences in Tokyo and I’ve decided to do it by place. All up, I went to nine different places in Tokyo in one and a half days, plus I spent a bit of time in Nagano on the way back. Before I get to that, I need to make comment on the weather. Sounds boring I know, but this has to be said. Before I left Yuta-san checked the weather forecast for me on his phone. It said that the two days I was in Tokyo is would be fine and about 10 degrees. I was satisfied and got to talking about my last trip to Tokyo. We stayed at Tokyo International Youth Hostel and one morning we woke up and it was snowing. We were all so so excited. I said this to Yuta-san and his reply was 「うそ！珍しい！」Translated that means “No way! That’s really rare!” Well, day one, it snowed! All------day------long! Depending on where I was it was either snowing or raining and the snow was wet snow, which is when it turns to water when it hits anything. Needless to say, I got a little wet! But I have now been to Tokyo twice, and twice it has snowed!!! Definitely NOT a rare occurrence! When I went back to work and said it snowed, they were a bit shocked!! Anyway, here’s the trip.

Getting There and Around

To get to Tokyo, I took a bus from the Resort Centre to Myoko station, a train from
Myoko station to Nagano station and from there a bus to Tokyo. The bus ride wasn’t too
bad. It took less than four hours including a rest stop and arrived slightly earlier than scheduled. I arrived at Shinjuku station and had to go by train to Asakusa to go to the hostel where I was staying. I have included a photo of the Tokyo subway map. Looks a little complex, doesn’t it?! It’s actually quite sophisticated and extremely efficient. All of the trains are coloured coded and you pay for the distance you travel. The regular trains include the JR (Japan Rail) line, which does a circle around Tokyo, so you can get anywhere in under 30 minutes, smaller JR lines, which cut through the basic loop, and two subway lines, which make up the maze of tracks that are on the map. Once you get used to it, it’s really good. All trains run every 2-3 minutes, so if you miss the one sitting there, wait a couple of minutes and the next one will arrive. The thing I didn’t get, is that despite this efficiency, people still run for a train! It’s totally unnecessary! Also, I was waiting at Ueno station, wanting to go to Tokyo station, which is only a few stops away, I watched three trains go by before deciding I would go the long way around. A lot of people have the stereotypical view of Japanese trains being incredibly over packed and they have people pushing passengers into the trains…well, there’s no one pushing people in, but that’s probably because it’s not necessary! They pack themselves in! Those three trains I watched go by, people were only just in enough for the doors to close and they’re squished against the windows and it just looked awful!

I didn’t actually use the subway line. The only time I used it was to go to and from my accommodation because it’s only a subway line. I spoke to Satoshi before I left and he recommended just getting a day ticket for the JR line, which goes to all of the major stations. This worked out really well because all I was really doing was shopping and to get to a lot of the tourist spots, you would need to use the subway… or try and walk!! Everything I needed was on the JR line (except accommodation and that 160 yen one way.)

One good thing about Japan is that because there are so many people, they need jobs for a lot of people and on the trains, they have the driver at the front and an attendant at the back, who makes signals, controls the doors, makes announcements etc. In addition to that, there are people scattered all over every station directing the flow of passengers, making sure people are safely on and off the train etc. It’s simply amazing! Also, when the train arrives into the station, the conductor at the back will get out and push a button that plays music. Every line has a unique sound, so even someone who is blind can get on the right train. But because Japan is such a high pressure, need-to-conform society, it doesn’t really accommodate for disabled people and you actually don’t see that many disabled people around. But at the stations, it’s all stairs and no elevators, but they have machines on the side of staircases that can take someone in a wheelchair up and down, but it’s quite inconvenient because they have to get a station worker to do it all for them.

Asakusa

I stayed at the Sakura Hostel in Asakusa. It has only recently opened, but despite that it still seemed to be a mixture of new and old. Freaky, freaky coincidence: When Hannah went to Tokyo before coming here, she stayed at Sakura Hostel and we stayed in the same room AND the same bed! Freaky, freaky coincidence! In typical Japan style everything was quite squished but I didn’t spend all that much time there. I arrived around midnight and basically went straight to bed. The next night I returned about 8pm and because I could get wireless there, spent the night on the net. The next morning I was gone.

On Wednesday (6/2) after I had done my shopping, I spent the evening in Asakusa, which has a big arcade full of shops. In Japan, trading hours are usually 10am to 8pm, so it’s a nice way to spend an evening. The only issue was that I was really tired and having to lug around my shopping! I started out memorising where I was from Sensoji Temple (because from there I could find my way back to the hostel!) but eventually I just had no idea. I wasn’t bothered though. I found a nice curry café for dinner (I’ve grown to love Japanese curry!) While I was eating I was looking through the menu and when you order you need to specify how much rice and what level of spiciness you want. My spiciness level was mild “for children and people not accustomed to eating spicy food” and it was very nice. Level 1 is the “normal” level and from there they had levels 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6-10. For levels 6-10, the customer has to eat a full serving of level 5 and they can only have one level at a time. Presumably if someone wanted to do that, they’d get some sort of card and would have to keep coming back. Afterwards, I asked a waitress how to get back to the temple and I found my way back to the hostel.

The breakfast at the hostel didn’t look all that appetising, so I figured I’d get something on my way out. I walked a different way from the hostel early Wednesday morning and discovered a 24 hours McDonald’s. I will just say now, Macca’s in Japan is superior to that in Australia! For brekkie I had an egg and bacon wrap, but the Japanese equivalent of and egg and bacon McMuffin doesn’t use an English muffin, it uses thick fruit pancakes as the bread. I didn’t eat it, but it seemed interesting! LOL!! They have some really nice looking things though. Teriyaki chicken burger! Mmmm!

Ueno

When I said I was going to go to Ueno, Satoshi said not to bother because it’s not very nice. Well, he wasn’t exactly wrong! I left the hostel about 7am and remember how I said trading hours are from 10am? Well, nothing much was open, so my first few hours in Tokyo were quite dull! My first impression of Ueno is that compared to other places I had seen, it was quite dirty. It’s also known for its high population of homeless people and it’s quite unnerving to see how many people are sleeping on cardboard on the streets. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in Melbourne, but probably because I haven’t spent enough time there. In the morning I didn’t stay long in Ueno but I came back in the afternoon.

It was really drizzly weather but the Ameyoko Arcade was open and it was fascinating to see the things they sell. A lot of the stalls sell clothes and belts and bags and stuff. A lot also sell foodstuffs, some of which I have never seen in Australia. It’d quite interesting to bring some of it back, but I didn’t buy any of it because it probably wouldn’t be allowed into Australia because of our quarantine laws. From Ueno, I bought a jacket and some stuff from the 100 yen shop. I tend to buy something from every 100 yen shop I visit! It’s remarkable what they sell for $1!

Akihabara

I was very excited about going to Akihabara because the whole point was to buy a new electronic dictionary. After my disastrous morning, this was the first place I felt relaxed and excited about being in Tokyo. I wondered the streets for about three hours all up. I looked at electronic dictionaries in heaps of places and it wasn’t until I had been looking for over an hour I found a shop with a dictionary that looked really good. I had a play around with it and then I wanted to try typing a Japanese word and seeing what examples are provided in English. I was shocked to discover it didn’t have that function!! I looked a bit more closely at the dictionaries around it and not one of them contained a Japanese-English dictionary! I went back to other stores I had already visited and examined ones I ad considered and realised they were all only English-Japanese!!! ARGH!! Not good! That’s not much use to me. Anyway, I eventually found the perfect dictionary! It’s a 2008 model Ex-Word (which means nothing to anyone but that’s irrelevant!) and it’s 100 dictionaries-in-one, has a stylus pen to input hiragana, kana, kanji and English, has English and Japanese written examples and has English and Japanese pronunciation. *sigh* I’m so happy with it! It cost me 30,000 yen ($300) and for a 2008 model, firstly, for people outside of Japan, you can only buy it online and secondly for a brand new model it’s cheap! I had researched dictionaries before I came and to get the equivalent of what I have could cost upwards of $500, so I think I got a good deal.

I was also on the look out for PSP’s and DS’s (portable game consoles) and DS games. I thought I could get a PSP for Scott; I didn’t end up buying one because I was a bit unsure about it. If I can find it next time I go to Nagano, I’ll probably get one. I already have a DS and I wanted to get at least one game for kanji learning (for those who don’t know, kanji is the Chinese characters), which I found. I went into a shop that was devoted to DS and asked about the games. The store owner assumed I was a total beginner because the first game he showed me taught kanji I’ve known how to write since primary school!!! Uhh, excuse me; I’m a little more advanced than that! Again, when I go back to Nagano, there are few other games I’d like to get. Mum also asked me to have a looked for her, but everything was in Japanese, except games that teach English!

Ochanomizu

Yabai! I was in heaven!! Ochanomizu is good for buying two things: guitars and snow gear! When I first left the station I started walking and about three quarters of the shops sold guitars! So, because this was all I was seeing, I went into a convenience store and asked where the ski shops were. I only had to walk another two minutes and there they were. I spent the second longest time in this town. I customer at the Resort Centre had told me about it and I went there looking for a ski bag that would fit all of my gear in it, a neck warmer (this is really good in bad weather because it keeps my mouth and nose warm during bad weather without the restricted feeling of having something tucked under my goggles.) and a pair or goggles with a clear or slightly tinted (but not orange) lens for overcast days.

After a long search I found a bag I was happy with. I got it cheaper at a bigger store than the smaller ones. It’s a double bag, which means it has specific compartments for the skis and poles, straps to hold the boots in place and room to put in ski wear and accessories. I got my neck warmer but missed out on the goggles because I didn’t even see a pair under 8000 yen.

Suidobashi

Satoshi recommended I go here because it’s where Tokyo Dome is. There wasn’t much to do, so I took a photo to show I had been there and left. It was just rainy and apart from the dome itself, there was nothing else there! A theme park is being built but obviously wasn’t open. I would certainly like to go back to see a baseball game though!

Tokyo Station

Well, early in the morning when I had given up on other areas because it was just too early, I thought I’d go to Tokyo station. I was in Shibuya and if you imagine a square, Shibuya is in the bottom left hand corner and Tokyo is on the right side in about the middle. So, from that, the most direct route would be to take a train going to the right of your current position right? That was the plan! I stood on the platform and watched three trains go passed. I could not bring myself to even go near the door! It was so crowded that people were just squashed against everything! It amazing the doors could even close! Eventually, I got on a train going the other way, which enabled me to sit down, so even when it became crowded, I still had a bit of breathing space!

When I arrived at Tokyo station I just wanted to go for a walk around to see what was there. The first three exits I tried just showed me huge buildings for business. I wanted to go to the Imperial Palace Gardens so I went to an information centre and the girl tried to explain how to get there and showed me on the map, except she kept telling me to go to a particular staircase and every time I asked where this staircase was, she’d simply point it out on the map! Not useful!! Anyway, I walked around a bit more and just ended up totally, totally lost and could not find my way out at all! *sigh* So, what did I do? I went back to the platform and got back on a train. I was getting stressed, so I decided Akihabara would be the best place to go because I knew exactly what I was looking for there. This spontaneity was not good for my nerves!

Shibuya

The only reason I went to Shibuya was because there is a massive crossing in front of the station and Hannah said all you need to do is go to Starbucks across the road, grab a coffee, go up to the next floor and watch flocks of people cross the road at the same time. Sounds easy right?! Wrong!! Especially when one unknowingly exits the station from the back and has no clue where the hell they are!! I got so so lost! In Shibuya they have overpasses for pedestrians everywhere and I spent quite a bit of time crossing this way and that trying to find the crossing! I should mention Japan doesn’t really have street names and street signs. Only major roads are named. I don’t know how they expect people to navigate their way around. Anyway, while I was hopelessly wondering around, I felt something wet hit my face and all I thought was “You have got to be kidding me!” Of course, it started snowing. But please remember: this is a rare occurrence! *rolls eyes* After 20 minutes or so I found a sign with a street name, got out the Lonely Planet guide and worked out which direction to go. I found my way to the crossing, crossed over to Starbucks and sat down to watch. I must say, I was very disappointed! Maybe my timing wasn’t good, but for the time I spent there, the crossing wasn’t overly crowded at any point, so it didn’t look spectacular. After that I left. Later that night I went back briefly and just stood out the front, it was most definitely a lot more crowded but I couldn’t be bothered doing much because I was tired and carrying a lot of shopping.

Shinjuku

Shinjuku was the beginning and ending of my trip. This is where the bus arrived and departed! When I arrived, I found myself wondering around like a lost sheep. I think I missed the big sign saying “Shinjuku Station”!! I have a feeling I just went in the wrong direction. When I was going there to leave, I made sure to be there with plenty of time to spare so I could find where the bus would depart from. See, I do have some smarts for thinking that because I needed that time!! I came out of the station and tried to find things that looked familiar from two nights earlier. Eventually I did find the bus stop but found myself facing a sign that says the bus doesn’t depart from here, it departs from bus stop number 50. Well, I was standing at bus stop number 26 and in front of me was bus stop number 27. So, logically number 50 should be somewhere in that direction. I walked straight and looked around, went around the corner and looked around, the highest number I found was 28!! LOL! Not good. So, I turned around and saw a building with the bus company’s name on it, back around the corner, back passed stops numbered 27 and 26 and guess what number was about 20 metres back?! All I had to do was turn around, but no, I chose to follow logic!! Anyway, this looked like the right stop and I asked one of the attendants just to be sure. I was still early and there were lots of shops around so I went for a bit of a walk and found that the majority were selling phones, which was not much good to me. (But I so so so want a Japanese phone! You can not begin to imagine how good they are! They all use email, 5.0 or higher mega pixel camera, QR code software and so many functions it’s just amazing. Next year, Kate, next year!! Hehe, can’t wait!!)

The bus ride back was very quiet. I just sat the whole trip. I was just so exhausted I couldn’t even be bothered to get my iPod out. When I first got the bus timetable from Hannah, she said it might be better if I went to and from the Nagano Intaa (the Nagano Interchange, I think), but I chose to go from the station and thank god I did! The Nagano Intaa is in the middle of NOWHERE!!! I was shocked. All the stop is is a little shelter on the side of the road with nothing around it! Phew! That was lucky.

Ikebukuro

I only went to Ikebukuro on the second day and because I only had few hours I was just going to stay there until I needed to go to Shinjuku for my bus. I tried my very, very best to be as late as possible because, of course, nothing opens until 10am. So, what time did I wake up? 6:30am…naturally! I took as much time as I possibly could taking a shower, getting dressed, folding my sheets to return to reception, going downstairs, checking out, walking slowly… everything I could. What time did I arrive in Ikebukuro? Before 8:30am! Damn it! Oh well, my first task was to find a locker to put all my luggage in because I didn’t want to carry it around. I spent a few minutes looking for them and finally found the coin lockers tucked away in a corner. I took in every possible sign to make sure I could find my way back. This was the first time I had ever used a public locker and stupid me assumed they were locked, so you put your money in to open it. But no… I turned the key and it locked and when I opened it again it requested another 400 yen. Grrr!!! Anyway, by the time that was sorted I still had 90 minutes to kill. I found my way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Arts Centre, which the only attraction, if you’re not there to view a performance, is to take the escalator ride up and down. That’s it! Including the ride and taking photos, that used up about 10 minutes. Off I went again looking for something to do. In the end I went and sat in a little café, had a drink, played my DS, wrote stuff… YES!!! It’s 10am!!! I figured whilst in Tokyo I had to go to at least one department store, so I went to the biggest Tokyo had to offer called Tobu. I do not recommend walking into a department as soon as it opens. All of the staff are lined up in their stores and almost in unison they all bow and greet you and when this happens a 100 times over, I just felt my face go red! I quickly left the first floor and made my way through the levels. I must say, department stores are definitely not my thing. I found a few interesting things on the upper floors before making my way down to the basement for the food stalls. It’s always interesting to have a look at what they have because it all so beautifully presented and so expensive. I found a stall selling the most beautiful you have ever seen. How much? One apple cost 800 yen, one mango cost 1200 yen and a dozen strawberries cost 8000 yen! Pocket money, right? =P

Eventually, because of boredom and because it was almost time to leave, I left for Shinjuku.
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There you go, that was my Tokyo trip. I apologise for the lonnnnnnng delay in this being posted. I was writing this over several nights and have fully forgotten what I wrote in most sections and because I don’t re-read my own writings; there was probably repetition on some things and even more likely things I forgot to mention! I should also add that when I returned from Tokyo, I spent some time in Nagano, but I’ll write about that in the next blog. I’m starting to get behind but I have a long list of things I need to catch up on. I will do my best.

Before I leave I have one more trip to Nagano for shopping. If anyone wants anything, souvenirs, something Japanesey, just let me know. I’ll try to find it. You can email me at kate_cortous@yahoo.com.au or tell Mum and she’ll pass it on!! Scott, can you please make up your mind about whether you want a DS or PSP! Cheers! =)