Tokyo

After a good night’s sleep and breakfast on the ship, I walked with a group of SASers to the Yokohama station to take a train to Tokyo. When we reached the main station, my friends Margalit and Lauren and I broke off from the group to check into our capsule hotel in Asakusa. To fully understand capsule hotels, I would suggest typing it into Google images, it’s easier to understand by seeing a picture. Capsule hotels are not like any other lodging experience—the “rooms” are really individual units not much bigger than a twin sized mattress, and are lined up two high in rows on either side of a hallway. The room situation was not the only interesting thing about the hotel, however. Toilets were normal, in individual stalls, but you had to shower communally. Everything was in one big room, where you first rinse off on one end of the room and then soak in a communal bath on the other. After we took some pictures and marveled at our circumstances, we dropped our backpacks off in lockers and went for lunch.

A lady at an information desk recommended a local ramen place so we went to check it out. It was around lunch break for local businesses, so the restaurant was filled with people in suits noisily slurping their soup. In Japan, it is customary to eat very loudly as it is a sign that the food is delicious. The restaurant was organized somewhat like a bar because we sat facing the chefs at a narrow table, which I learned is a typical setup for both sushi and ramen places. I was really glad that I ended up watching that movie Tampopo about the ramen tradition because it explained a lot about how people eat it in Japan. At the beginning of the movie, an older man described to a younger one about the proper etiquette for eating ramen. He said that first you have to look at the bowl, absorbing the whole art of the placement of the pork and the onions on top. Then, you gently caress the noodles and tuck the pork deeper into the soup, saying to it that you will enjoy it later. Finally, he said you could start to eat, again in a very particular way. The movie’s description of the process definitely seemed like a caricature, but I did caress the noodles before I ate it just in case. It was delicious! The broth was very rich, and the noodles were a great texture. It was so much better than college ramen I can’t even compare the two.

After lunch we took a train downtown to see the Imperial Palace. We couldn’t get in to the palace, it is closed to the public every day except New Year’s and the Emperor’s birthday, but it was very pretty to look at nonetheless. We then walked to Ginza, a famous area for shopping. On the way, we passed through a park where three guys, probably around our age, were doing some sort of regimented workout that involved lots of very loud yelling and running around. We couldn’t figure out what in the world it was for, but they were quite animated and almost scary.

We got to Ginza, which had some very high-end stores so we didn’t do anything more than window shopping. We also went to the Sony Building, which is basically a showroom for all of their new technologies. They had lots of 3D simulation stations, audio technology, and even cameras that could track where you were by following you around, recognize your face and take a picture. They also had this really cute robot thing that spun around to music.

We headed back to the capsule hotel where we met friends for dinner and karaoke. We ended up eating at a place that didn’t have English menus except for the categories, so I just pointed at two vegetable dishes, one beef dish and one chicken dish to share as a table. We apparently ordered cabbage, mushrooms, beef something and chicken skin. Then, we were surprised to realize that everything was raw and we had a grill thing in the middle of the table. Everything ended up being really good, especially since our selections were so arbitrary. Our other friends, who were at a table right next to us, weren’t so lucky and ordered chicken feet and cow intestine (we think).

A karaoke place was not too far away so we all went there to sing. Karaoke is much more intimate than the bar or club scene in the states because you stay in an individual room with friends rather than drown in a mass of people. It was a lot of fun; they had a wide selection of American songs and Japanese people acting in music videos to them. After a few hours of loudly singing, we returned to the capsule hotel for bed.

The next morning we woke up around eight to explore the Asakusa area around our hotel. We were a mere five minute walk away from this huge temple with a gigantic red paper lantern that was surrounded by small shops. Margalit and I found these breaded things filled with red bean paste that were really tasty for breakfast. The machine making them was right next to where they were sold so we saw how the breaded part got its molded shape. We also wandered into a gambling place, which was absolutely packed even though it was only 10 or so in the morning. They didn’t have any card tables, just rows and rows of slot machines. It was very loud, bright, smoky, and surreal; after taking a couple pictures we quickly exited.

We went back to the hotel where we met my friend Jun, who was in the U21 Climate Change Adaptation summer school program with me. He told us that he had just finished his thesis on Monday, which he had been working on until 5 in the morning throughout January, so I guess we were in Tokyo at the perfect time! It was great to reunite with someone from that program in his home country; it’s awesome to have friends from around the world that can show you things you wouldn’t see otherwise!

We first set off to Akihabara, the home of the Electric City known for anything and everything that could satisfy your electronic desires. Our first stop was a NINE STORY building with anything electronic you could imagine, from refrigerators to computers to kids’ toys. We found massage chairs on one of the floors and decided to try them out. We got a free ten minute amazing treatment, I had no idea that sitting in a chair could feel so good.

We continued on to the main part of electric city, which had an overwhelming amount of activity and stores. We went into one store that had lots of manga, or Japanese comic books, some of which were not suited for kids. There were also a lot of collector’s dolls and other strange things you would never find in the states.

After our fill of electric city, we went on to Harajuku, a famous but very crowded shopping district. We got delicious crepes; I chose one with lots of berries and whipped cream to make up for my lack of fruit on the ship. We went into a few stores, including a costume shop that was packed with odd outfits, most of which were covered in beads or sequins. Jun also led us around some of the back streets which had some neat stores. The whole time all of us were asking Jun about different aspects of Japanese culture, everything from how they treat minorities to reasons behind them having the highest suicide rate of any country. He was an absolutely fantastic guide, and he didn’t seem to mind too much that we kept pestering him with questions. One of the most interesting things he said to me was that the Japanese don’t really think about national pride or what it means to be Japanese until they interact with foreigners because the country is so homogenous they aren’t really challenged to consider these things. Comparatively, citizens of the US like to think about what it means to be American, and discover things about their own culture.

We were getting pretty tired and cold, so we stopped around three for a while at a local restaurant called the Pink Panther. We were enjoying talking when someone dressed in a pink panther costume emerged from somewhere! It was very surprising, but we enjoyed his company.

When we felt that we had exceeded our welcome, we continued to Shibuya, which as Jun noted was comparable to Times Square in New York. Jun didn’t really like the area, he called it disgusting, and I guess I would tend to agree; I’m not much of a city person. One intersection in particular was absolute madness—everyone was scrambling in different directions in no discernable manner. All of the pedestrian traffic goes at once, so if you want you can go from one corner to the other without having to cross two ways. Since it was raining, everyone had their umbrellas and it was so crowded that all of the umbrellas were overlapping to create one massive one. Jun also pointed out a statue of a dog that had supposedly waited for his master for twenty years or some ridiculous amount of time in that crazy intersection in Tokyo. I don’t think I could wait for someone even for more than an hour in that place; it was insane.

We took refuge in a shopping mall, which was actually pretty interesting because there was one section that sold kimonos. They ranged from anywhere to about five dollars for used low-quality ones to over $300 for the really nice ones. Soon after that, we met up with Shin, who I also met at U21, and all went to dinner.

They led us to a sushi place a little off the beaten path a few blocks from the main street. It was conveyer belt style so at busy times you could just pick what you wanted from a track going around and then they charged you at the end based on how many plates you have. We had an earlier dinner so we didn’t actually get to eat off the conveyer, but it was cool to see how that system worked. I ordered avocado rolls, the egg and rice combination, yellow tail, salmon, and fatty tuna. They had a whole range of tuna quality, the fattier being the more expensive, and I tried a supreme fatty tuna and it MELTED IN MY MOUTH. I thought I had had good sushi the night before, but it paled in comparison to the place we ate with Jun and Shin. The fish had the consistency of butter, and tasted divine. I had no idea a fish could taste that way. The place also had unlimited green tea which was delicious. I tried Jun’s miso soup which was rich and thick and tasty.

Fully satisfied, we continued to look around Shibuya for a while longer. We found these hilarious stickers that were written in both Japanese and English, and often times the English translation made absolutely no sense. For example, one said something along the lines of “beware of blood type B people, they are up to no good” while another stated simply “he is a bullshitter”. It was pretty hilarious, we got a laugh out of those for a good while.

It was eventually time to head to Tokyo station to catch our overnight bus to Kyoto. We found Lauren’s brother Zack and his roommate Isaac in the station, and then bid a very thankful farewell to Jun and Shin for their hospitality. I was so happy to meet up with them, and I really hope they enjoyed their time with us a fraction of the amount that we enjoyed our time with them. We boarded the bus around eleven, and prepared for a rough night’s sleep until six in the morning.