Musings on... Tokyo

We started the first leg of our trip in Tokyo. We stayed at a lovely hotel near the city center. If Aunt S thought her hotel room in Paris was tiny, I don't know what she would have thought of our room!!! The bathroom was so small hubby had to duck his head to get in!!! ;) But the staff was great and the room impeccably clean and we had a complementary non-stop service of green tea and even got to wear Takanas (which I later realized all hotels in Japan provide their guests with)!

We soon realized that Tokyo is mighty deceiving when it comes to 1st impressions. Depending on the neighborhood you're in, the scene changes drastically from one place to another. Since we were staying in a business part of town, my first impression was that Tokyo looked a lot like Mexico City! Lots of avenues and concrete office buildings all over the place, sprinkled with little restaurants here and there to catch a quick lunch in between meetings. Not much green to be seen but instead grand shopping galleries where all the executive people can run errands during their 15 mins smoking break. Everyone we saw on the street, man or woman, was dressed in dark business suits and carried a briefcase. The women were all in high heels and hoses, rain or shine!


But later that first day, we decided to visit our fist temple so we hoped on the subway (I'll have to write a whole separate post on Japan's transportation system sometime!!) and headed a couple of stations up north to the Asakusa neighborhood. Walking out of the station, paf! We were in a whole different universe!!! Chaos all around and not a single briefcase in view. Instead, a magnificent alley way filled with shops of food and hand crafts and wood-block carvings and whatnots that headed straight towards our fist Buddhist temple, the impressive Senso-ji, guarded by two very mean-looking samurais! You can fairly say we were awed by everything around us.

See, that's the way Tokyo is. Just when you think you got it figured out, it completely throws you off guard.


Take Shinjuku for example: you come out the west side subway exit and this is what you see:


But you come out of the east side subway exit and this is what you see:


(granted, these were taken at different times of the day, but you get the idea)

And, just when you think it can't get any more bizare you come accross a shiontist temple wedged in between two 30-storey buildings!!!



Or take Shibuya.

You think "cool, another shopping district".... except walking out of the station you're swarmed by masses and masses of people and simply crossing the avenue next to the subway station is the highlight of the entire place! One of those things that must be done once in a lifetime. We tried capturing it on video, but I'm not sure you can get the enormity of it all... Still, it goes something like this:



Or the fish market, Tsukiji shijo, at the pier (which I admit I didn't have the guts to go to because.... well... of all the guts). Hubby says it's quite amazing and if you get there early enough (like 5am or something) you get to witness a real fish auction that I hear is quite the thing!! This is the place where all the restaurants in town come to get their fish which you'll be chowing down later in the day at any given sushi joint. How's that for "fresh off the boat"?



Or how about the Rippongi district which looks pretty grey and cement-y during the day......


... but that turns into THE spot to hang out at night with a colorful, loud, chaotic, incredible avenue filled to the rim with the best of the disco's and restaurants for the partying crowds!



Even Ueno park isn't all that it seems... it's a great place to go for a stroll and grab a quick lunch from the lines and lines of street vendors selling all sorts of japanese "antojitos".......



..... all while visiting a solemn and ancient Tosho-gu shrine.



I really liked Tokyo even though it's probably less beautiful than other places in Japan. I loved the energy and the vibe you get walking through its streets. I loved the rows and rows of never ending lighted signs and Japanese signs which you can't understand a word of but still get your head turning in every possible direction. I loved the infinite restaurants you find usually by entering buildings and just floor hopping.... I loved how even though you are surrounded by masses and masses of people you never actually feel crowded and how "people watching" goes to a whole new level in this city.

I'm really glad our journey started at Tokyo because this way I got to fully appreciate the city's unconventional beauty before it could be outshined by other more luscious places......



Fned.

P.S. More to come tomorrow.....