I arrived at Narita airport without having any real knowledge of Tokyo or Japanese. I found out that the airport is actually very far away from central Tokyo. It would take over an hour to get there, which means a taxi would cost about 30,000Y (~$300). Even though I had all my bags, I wasn't about to waste all that money on a taxi, so I took the train for only 1,000Y ($10) and then the subway to my hotel in Asakusa for 160Y.

I noticed that almost everyone on the train or subway closed their eyes and took a nap immediately after sitting down. I also noticed immediately that most of the people I saw have really bad yellow teeth.

To go back to my flight in... I started a good book that my friend Fill recommended, The Long Walk. It is a true story about the author's arduous struggle to escape a Russian prison camp during WWII. It is truly an amazing story, but what makes it enthralling is the author's choice of wording and descriptive details that are focused on. Anyway, enough of the book report.

There was a stewardess on the plane that kept coming by to find out what has happened to Rawicz in my book since last we spoke. I would share more of the story with her along with my insights and opinions. She seemed genuinely interested in the story (and maybe in me, but she was a few years too old for me).

Now I'm at my closet.. er.. I mean hotel room. It's actually nice and clean, just very small. I think it's very funny that they give you long pajamas on the bed. They kind of look like hospital pajamas or something.

I dropped off my stuff and went in search of food. I eventually found somewhere (not noteworthy) to eat and then walked around Asakusa aimlessly. I got slightly lost, but found my way home and went to sleep.

Here is the night view from my hotel room:




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I was in a mission today to buy presents for my family and a few friends. I ate breakfast at the Jonathan's at the hotel. Jonathan's is kind of like a Japanese IHOP. The Japanese have some weird combinations of things for breakfast.

There were two parts to my mission today: 1) Buy two wedding presents and 2) Find a katana (Japanese long sword) for my brother and myself. I must have walked up and down every street in Asakusa twice looking for gifts. I found a beautiful Japanese china tea set from Kyoto as well as a similar Sake set for the two wedding presents. After I bought these two gifts, I paid $65 to air ship them to my house. They didn't take credit cards, which was surprising (but wouldn't be the last time I was surprised by this).

Before I found these gifts, I had some sushi at a cool little place where the sushi goes around the center. The chefs are in the center and place different items on various colored plates the denote the item's cost. The most interesting thing I saw was sea urchin, which was the entire urchin turned inside out and cut open. The sushi was good, but not great and certainly expensive ($25 for this meal). Without a guidebook, it was difficult to find good places to eat. I tried to find a place that had mostly Japanese people and was on the crowded side.

The entire time that I was walking around I was looking for katanas. I started to get very frustrated because every place had absolute garbage. I eventually found one place that had one decent sword, but I was looking for two and they had no selection. Just as I was about to give up for the day, I stumbled upon a little shop that had a relatively huge selection. I talked to the salesperson for an hour about the differences between the swords. The conversation probably would have taken half the time if I spoke Japanese. I couldn't decide between several swords, so I'm coming back tomorrow.

While walking all around Asakusa, I took many pictures of Senso-ji, the Buddist temple, and the five-storied pagoda (first built in 942 - See the picture below). I also prayed at the temple in the traditional manner (first wafting the incense smoke toward me and then tossing a coin into a wood box, clapping my hands twice and then keeping them together for prayer). I prayed for my friend from Boston for her to get through a recent tragedy.



It was around dinner time now, so I took the subway to Ueno Station (just west of Asakusa) and found a place to eat. I was specifically looking for a restaurant that served Tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet with a special sauce) that my co-worker, Yuko, recommended (see picture above). The sauce is what makes this dish different and interesting. It was served in this little bowl with a wooden serving utensil that looked like a little wooden pipe.

After dinner, I wanted to try to make it to Tokyo Tower in Central Tokyo before it closed. It's kind of like Tokyo's version of the Eiffel Tower (see pic below). Unfortunately, when I got there it was almost ready for closing (9:40pm, closes at 10pm). The very top "special observatory" was already closed at 9:30. I went up to the first level (250m high and the upper deck is 100m higher) and had about 15 minutes to look around the city. That was really about all I needed anyway and I'm glad I didn't pay the extra money to go to the top. Tokyo is a fun city to see at night (see one example below). In the distance, there was a group of buildings that all had numerous flashing aircraft lights. They were all flashing asynchronously in a hypnotic ballet of flashing lights.



They kicked me out of Tokyo tower at 10pm and then I left for Roppongi. This place is similar to Bangkok's Pot-Pong, but a little less aggressive and much more flashy lights. There are many non-Japanese guys in this place who are all trying their best to get you to go to their clubs. Their pitch is usually, "All you can drink for 2 hours" or something similar.

I didn't spend that long in Roppongi, but no one told me that Tokyo's trains stop just before 1am. I took the last train as far as it would go (only two stops) and then I asked someone about a taxi. The taxi would have been about $60, which I refused to pay. I started walking back toward Asakusa for about and hour and half. After that, I was pretty tired and the area I was in started to look a little sketchy (not to mention it was off of my map). I took a taxi to my hotel and it was only $20. The taxis in Tokyo (along with just about everything in the city) are very expensive; I would always recommend the trains or subways. I would have thought that a huge city like Tokyo would have 24 hour train service. I guess I should stop bitching about Boston's subway closing around the same time.

I got back to my hotel around 3am and crashed.

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It was very difficult waking up this morning because of the long day yesterday. I was thinking about it and I probably walked at least 15 or 20 miles yesterday throughout the day. My feet hurt a bit, but the heat was the only thing that made it unpleasant. The new hiking boots that I bought were serving me very well.

Today is the hottest day so far and I'm worried how hot it will be in China. I had to keep buying lots of water. The first thing that I did after getting ready today was to change more currency. Tokyo is a very expensive city. In fact, it is supposedly the most expensive city in the world. They were very efficient at the bank. I was interested to see the differences in a day to day activity like that. I think these are some of the things that makes going to a foreign country interesting... see how differently they do things that you don't even think about doing differently any more. At this bank, different tellers used the same stations. You get a number and go up when you're called, then you write out the proper forms and give them your instructions. They go away and take care of your stuff and another teller comes up and helps someone else. The teller that helped you then comes back and calls your number when the transaction is complete. It seemed much better than waiting in a line.

After the bank, I went back to the store in Asakusa that had the practice Katanas. They recognized me right away (probably because I was such a pain in the ass customer who asked tons of questions). I ended up getting the swords and bargaining them down an extra $100 less. They were also going to take care of shipping them to me by air (which I have now received). I was very happy to finally find a sword for me and my brother.



I was committed to go to the Imperial Palace. I've made an intentional effort to plan as little as possible on this trip. I want it to be more of an adventure without the constraints of an itinerary. This was a great way to take the trip, but it also had its drawbacks. I'm bringing this up because when I got to the Palace, it was closed. It's closed on Fridays and Mondays. The palace itself, actually, is only open twice a year near Christmas and on New Year's. I was really bummed out because I know it would have been great. Oh well, now I have a good reason to come back soon. Some of the surrounding grounds were open, so I walked around there and took many pictures. I met a guy from the UK walking around that was there on business. We chatted briefly about this and that and went on our separate ways.



I really think I would have enjoyed looking around the gardens of the palaces. The outside was pretty spectacular in and of itself. The statue below is one of the coolest I've ever seen. The moat was vast and wide and the landscaping was beautiful. It made the trip worth out to the palace worth while even if I couldn't go into the grounds.



To get to the Imperial Palace, I took the train to Tokyo station. As Rony (or Daniel as some of you know him) would say, Tokyo station is ginormous! Some people I've spoken with since my trip claim Shinjuku station is bigger, but that's hard to believe. It was hard to determine just how big it was, but my best guess was about 4 football fields put together. There were so many people. I tried to capture the station with a panoramic picture, but it was mediocre at best. It kind of reminded me of an ant colony, with hundreds of people moving every which way unconcerned with anything else and moving quickly.



Since the gardens at the palace were closed, I decided to go to Akihabara, also known as "Electric Town". It is supposedly the largest electronics retail center in the known universe. It is a crazy place to go, partly because of the fierce competition between competitors. You can tell by the extensive measures different shops take to try to get customers in the door. There are guys with megaphones making pitches, pretty girls with signs and lots of flashy video equipment. You didn't have to speak Japanese to understand their message.

While still in Akihabara, I went into an arcade and was quickly disappointed, but that was my mistake. I didn't see that there was an escalator at first. It ended up being 6 stories of games and probably wasn't the best one in the area. They had a few games I'd never seen before as well as some cool group play setups (like a bunch of people who could control an entire soccer game). I left Akihabara in search of food and finally got some dinner (technically breakfast since I hadn't eaten anything yet) in Ueno. I went back to the hotel and decided where to go next.


(left: Akihabara - Electric Town; right: Shinjuku)

I decided to go check out Shinjuku. I recently came across this description that fits better than the description I would come up with, "Streams of screaming neon, high pitched shrieking sounds; people, people everywhere - silent and robotic. There's no room, there's no escape - earthquakes yet skyscrapers, it's hot, it's humid, it's calm, it's still for this is Shinjuku - a business and shopping district in the west of Tokyo and the ultimate, overwhelming experience."

The train system in Tokyo is awesome in the true sense of the word (well both senses really). Most of the fares are less than $2 and the trains go everywhere. It can be a little confusing at times without speaking the language, but the people can be very helpful. I took the JR line to Shinjuku without any trouble. When I got off the train and left the station, I saw a glimpse of the craziness. Once I got away from the station a bit, I saw how expansive and wild this place was. I thought Akihabara was hectic and flashy with bright lights everywhere, but Shinjuku put that to shame.

Besides all of the tightly packed buildings and flashing lights, there was an absolutely staggering number of people. The crowds were so big that a few of the crosswalks were probably at least 200ft wide!

Another funny thing about Shinjuku are all the young people hanging out. Most of them look like young Yakuza wanna be's with their silk vest, briefcase type bag and, of course, the light dyed spikey hair. At one point I was at a crosswalk and look around. I wish I had my camera with me because it was like being in the Matrix. Everyone looked almost identically fashioned from their clothes to their hair. It was really weird. They were even all smoking.

I tried to avoid a repeat of last night's long walk home, but I left Shinjuku later than I expected. Luckily, I took the train all the way to Ueno station, which wasn't a far walk to my hotel (about a mile or two). I was on the last train and it was PACKED. when getting on it was like a jet of people streaming in and crashing up against another wall of people. It was crowded like this for about 10 minutes until enough stops were made to let people off. It was so ridiculously full that you couldn't put your arms up or if they were up, you couldn't put them down. It was pretty late when I got back to the hotel and I had to get up very early to fly to Hong Kong, so I crashed right away.


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