Tokyo: First Impressions

Five-story pagoda

The Greater-Tokyo area is home to over 33 million people, making it the largest city in the world. But it's not just one city - it's made up of 23 city wards, 26 cities, 5 towns and 8 villages, and let me tell you it is massive. Just mind-bogglingly big. The Tokyo Metropolis is kinda like a state, and includes many small islands and areas far outside the city. When you look at just the city center, it's the most densely populated metropolis in the world. Knowing all of this, I'm sure it'll come as just as much of a surprise to you as it was to us that Tokyo is probably the most peaceful city we've ever been in. It's remarkably quiet. Owning a car is very expensive (and this is already a very expensive city as it is), so there's not a whole lot of traffic. The cars that are on the road actually follow these things called "driving laws" which have been largely ignored pretty much everywhere else we've been. And they don't honk. Ahh, the sweet bliss of traffic without all the honking. Most people seem to take public transportation or ride bikes. It's pretty flat and there's plenty of bike lanes or at least wide sidewalks that make biking very easy. It's not uncommon to see old people probably in their 80's riding home from the grocery store.

like this guy...

Then there's the public transportation. Where do I begin... it makes Marta look like Thomas the Train. There's the subway system, then a rail system (which is operated by over 30 different companies), and we haven't even attempted to use the bus system. It's hard to even grasp the complexity of it, but there are 882 different rail and subway stations. With very little signage in english, let's just say it can get a bit confusing.

this is just the subway map

overlap the JR train map over the subway map, then add about 20 more lines not served by JR

Adding to the peacefulness of the city are the shrines, temples, and of course the japanese gardens. We've been to a few temples so far and I have to say they're not super interesting. Pretty much all of them were either destroyed by a major earthquake in 1923 or air raids during WWII. The architecture is cool but there's not that much going on inside. There are, however, a few rituals going on outside that are worth noting. Our favorite would be the fortunes. For a 100 yen donation (about $1.25), you shake a metal box with a small hole in it until a stick slides out. You match the symbol on the stick to the correct drawer and retrieve your fortune! As fate would have it, I drew a "Bad Fortune" on my first go, but since I forgot to make a wish I cheated a little and drew again, this time only receiving a "Regular Fortune" which I was satisfied with. Steph of course drew a "Good Fortune" on her first try and was very happy. Whatever wish she made is sure to come true, though she hasn't received her "free Starbucks for life" voucher quite yet.

Sensoji Temple

Steph excited by her good fortune

oh no! bad fortune!

There are also incense burners outside most of the temples, where you're supposed to waft the smoke over yourself as it has healing powers. I sent some the way of my receding hairline. Another popular ritual is the purification fountain. It's usually an intricate fountain where you use a ladle to rinse your left hand, then your right, then put some in your mouth and spit it out. It supposedly purifies your hands and mouth, but I found it slightly ironic that it wasn't clean enough to drink.

not enough incense in Japan to cure this one

cleansing myself

It's no surprise that the gardens here are lovely. All the stereotypes are here - manicured hedges, arched bridges, and lots and lots of koi. The best so far has been the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, which are housed on the former site of the Edo Castle, dating back to the 15th century. Edo was the original name of Tokyo until it was changed in 1868. We've been loving the fall weather here - cool and sunny - but while there are some nice fall colors here and there, there's not a whole lot of flowers blooming and especially none of the famous cherry blossoms, much to Steph's dismay.

this is actually at Ueno Park

As is this one. Steph is dying to come back here in spring - the orange trees are cherry blossoms

the walls of Edo Castle in the East Gardens

bamboo garden - who knew there were so many types of bamboo?

picture-perfect

the Imperial Palace is gorgeous

There's been so much to see in Tokyo we've been fully entertained by just walking around and observing. Let's go over some of the things we've done and seen. The first thing we did once we got here was go find an electronics store to get a new camera. You may not have noticed since we've edited every photo we've put in the blog, but our old camera had a few scratches on the lens and some dust on the sensor that was creating some nasty splotches on our pictures. It was very frustrating, especially since electronics are much more expensive everywhere we've been so far. Who would have thought the US is the cheapest place to buy electronics. Luckily Japan is nearly as cheap, so we've been waiting a long time to snag a new camera. The electronics store was a massive 8 levels of everything a techie could dream of. The amazing thing was that it was just one of a chain of stores, and there are a few other big chains. They certainly love their electronics here.

Another thing they love here is Christmas. We don't really understand why, but there are certain things from Western culture that the Japanese just go crazy for. Christmas just happens to be one of them, so we've been enjoying all the decorations and holiday music. Another thing they go crazy for is home grown - video games. We've seen gangs of people clustered together at random locations playing handheld Nintendo games. We went to a 6-story arcade (and they say everything is big in the US...) and saw the experts play Guitar Hero-type games at unreal speeds.

Gameboy party

Some of the more traditional Christmas decorations we've seen...

...and some of the more strange. Notice the rabbit is holding a mannequin baby with shades on

I guess the Japanese like to know what they're getting into before ordering a meal, so instead of just showing pictures of the items on the menu, all the restaurants of have display cases with plastic replicas of their food. I have no idea where they can get such specific replicas, but some of them do look tasty.

yummy

People watching is also pretty fun here. Some of the haircuts and outfits of the "fashionable" young adults border on comical (scratch that, they can be downright hilarious). My favorite though, are the adorable old people. I seriously think the Japanese shrink with age, because we've seen many old people that are no more than 4 feet tall. They're always hunched over, usually a couple out for a walk, all dressed up like it's 1920. The only problem is taking pictures of them without them noticing.

cute old couple

she's in front of Steph and still looks so much shorter

Tonight we took a train out to an artificial island called Odaiba. There's a lot of shopping to be had on Odaiba, but we were mainly there for the view. It's situated in Tokyo Bay and has a great view of the Tokyo skyline, especially at night. We tried to walk across the Rainbow Bridge that connects to the island for the best views, but it closes early in winter. So, we had to take the high-tech, fully automated train to and from the island. This reminds me of another cool thing about Tokyo. You know how I said how quiet it is? Well, you're not allowed to talk on your cell phone while on a train or subway, and people actually follow the rule! The cars are usually packed full, and people just stand there in silence. It's amazing.

Rainbow Bridge