Tokyo Tales
My first time in the big city. Hah. Big city. That’s a joke. We were still at least an hour’s drive from the hotel when we were already within the city limits. Tokyo is massive beyond belief, and I only got to see a small fraction of it on this, my first journey there.
Keiko and I left Fukuroi at about 7:00 p.m. Saturday night after my last class. I had burned us a few CDs to listen to in the car, and as soon as we hit the highway the tunes were playing and we were happy to be on the road. Luckily we were able to avoid traffic the whole way until we got to the Tokyo expressway. From my apartment to the hotel it took us less than three hours. We hadn’t brought a road map with us, so luckily we picked our way to Iidabarashi St. where the Grand Palace hotel was, and again luckily, I remembered what it looked like from the picture on the website where I booked the hotel room. And there we were. Painless as it could be. The room was booked in advance so I just filled out a form, was handed a key and we were in room 2005 lickety split. We took a few minutes to relax, then each jumped in the shower, changed and were ready to hit the town by 11:00.
Tokyo has an incredibly vast subway system, with at least 16 different lines criss-crossing in every direction possible. Although the route map we had was color-coded it was written in Japanese, so I was lucky to have Keiko along. In all modesty I have a fairly good sense of direction, but without being able to read the names of the stops I would have been lost. The subway is also impeccably run; very clean, and extremely efficient. The longest wait we had for a subway all weekend was about 3 minutes. We hopped on the Hanzomon line and rode the five stops to Shibuya station. Shibuya is a major district downtown, home of many department stores, clubs, and a veritable mecca for the young adults of Tokyo. Unfortunately for us, I had done some preliminary research, but I forgot to print out a map to the club that I wanted to go to. We had to ask some people on the street where to go, and even once we got to the right area we couldn’t find the place. We asked about a dozen people where Club Womb was, but no one seemed to know. And I thought this was a fairly large and well-known establishment. Finally, we ended up asking one of the girls working the door of another club in the area and she pointed us in the right direction.
Womb was suggested to me by one of my supervisors, Brad, who shares the same taste in dance music as myself. I’m glad he did. It was a very nice place. Four floors all told, the first floor being a bar and small dance floor where the DJ was playing some groovy techno. The second floor was the main stage, and it was a very large room, complete with the biggest disco ball I’ve ever seen suspended from the ceiling, an excellent lighting system, and a massive quadraphonic speaker system. The third floor was a lounge with windows that looked down into the main dance floor, and at the top was another bar, the VIP lounge and a small dance floor where the DJs were playing drum and bass. The way it worked out Keiko and I spent about an even amount of time on each different floor, and generally just got our grooves on in a good way. I had brought a couple demo CDs with me, and I was lucky enough to find the booking manager, so although I’m not going to get my hopes up, it would be fantastic if I could get a gig spinning at this place. I’m just imagining being able to tell people: “Hey! I’m playing in Tokyo this weekend!”
The next day Keiko and I went to Akihabara, which is another district in downtown Tokyo, and famous for being a massive neighborhood comprised of electronics stores. I had come to Tokyo with my heart set on finding a good deal on a digital camera. Once we got the main drag in Akihabara I could see that it would take us quite a while as electronics stores lined both sides of the street. They had actually closed off the entire area from traffic, so people were thronging in the middle of the street from sidewalk to sidewalk. I couldn’t tell you how many shops we went into, but I was on a mission. I was offered a few deals here and there, but nothing really grabbed my attention. We had walked up and down both sides of the street, and I had gotten a good idea of the camera I wanted, but I was looking for a really good deal, and finally I got it in a little shop where the manager gave me the “nice face” discount. She said she could tell I wasn’t Japanese from my face. I was thinking to myself, “Thank god! I was starting to worry there. Maybe I really AM turning Japanese!”
After the arduous shopping trek we stopped for a late lunch at a little tempura place around the corner. Then it was on to Harajuku, yes… another large district downtown. This is the home of the trendy youth of Tokyo, filled with all kinds of shops from upscale places like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Tag to vintage clothing stores. We walked down a street lined with all the upscale joints to Harajuku station where there was a massive throng of people gathered for some kind of festival. Troupes of people were dressed in beautiful and colorful costumes, all focused on the large stage beside the station where a presentation was being made. Keiko explained to me that it was a Yosakoi festival, and the different troupes were all there for a dance competition. For me it was another moment when my lack of Japanese language skills really burned me, because I wanted very much to understand what was going on. We made our way through the mass of people and past them so that we could get to the Meiji shrine, a major shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji, the first Emperor of Japan when the power shifted from the feudal Tokugawa government in 1868. It was a beautiful walk through the woods and passing through several massive torii gates we arrived at a large walled plaza. We washed our hands, as is typical custom at shrines in Japan, and then payed our respects at the shrine itself. Unfortunately it was already late in the afternoon and we had to leave almost right away because the shrine was closing.
Once back on the street we took a long walk through Harajuku. It reminded me very much of Kensington market, for anyone who’s been there; lots of boutiques and clothing stores everywhere. The streets are very narrow and there were teenagers everywhere. We pushed our way through Takeshita street to Cat street where we proceeded to get lost. It was fully dark and we were both exhausted by the time we made it back to the subway, and again because I had forgotten to get a map of the area we were unable to find the used bookstore I was looking for. We took the subway back to the hotel where the plan was to check movie times and then head out for the flickers, but by the time we were laid out in our beds, neither of us wanted to go. We ended up falling asleep by about 10 p.m. that night. I guess that’s what you get for partying till the morning light the night before.
The next day we checked out of the hotel and then hopped down to the Lloyd’s of London headquarters in Tokyo so that I could set up an account to send money home. That was sorted out quickly enough and then we got back on the subway and went back towards the hotel but got off a little ways away so that we could tour the Imperial Palace. We walked the grounds for some time, and I got plenty of snaps with my new digital camera, which you can see on my photo website, (the link is on the right side of this page). We passed by the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, which I had wanted to see, but unfortunately Monday is the only day of the week it happens to be closed. We walked all the way from the south end of the palace grounds to the north where we passed through the gardens, stopping to look at the Tokyo Science Museum and Budokan music hall on the way. After coming out on the other side of Budokan we were about two blocks away from the hotel. We picked up the car and were on our way back to Fukuroi by the late afternoon, and I was feeling very satisfied with my first trip to Tokyo. I am already looking forward to my next visit. There is so much that the metropolis has to offer, and I only got to see a quick glimpse. Yay for being so close! I’ll be back soon enough, Tokyo. Get yourself ready.
Keiko and I left Fukuroi at about 7:00 p.m. Saturday night after my last class. I had burned us a few CDs to listen to in the car, and as soon as we hit the highway the tunes were playing and we were happy to be on the road. Luckily we were able to avoid traffic the whole way until we got to the Tokyo expressway. From my apartment to the hotel it took us less than three hours. We hadn’t brought a road map with us, so luckily we picked our way to Iidabarashi St. where the Grand Palace hotel was, and again luckily, I remembered what it looked like from the picture on the website where I booked the hotel room. And there we were. Painless as it could be. The room was booked in advance so I just filled out a form, was handed a key and we were in room 2005 lickety split. We took a few minutes to relax, then each jumped in the shower, changed and were ready to hit the town by 11:00.
Tokyo has an incredibly vast subway system, with at least 16 different lines criss-crossing in every direction possible. Although the route map we had was color-coded it was written in Japanese, so I was lucky to have Keiko along. In all modesty I have a fairly good sense of direction, but without being able to read the names of the stops I would have been lost. The subway is also impeccably run; very clean, and extremely efficient. The longest wait we had for a subway all weekend was about 3 minutes. We hopped on the Hanzomon line and rode the five stops to Shibuya station. Shibuya is a major district downtown, home of many department stores, clubs, and a veritable mecca for the young adults of Tokyo. Unfortunately for us, I had done some preliminary research, but I forgot to print out a map to the club that I wanted to go to. We had to ask some people on the street where to go, and even once we got to the right area we couldn’t find the place. We asked about a dozen people where Club Womb was, but no one seemed to know. And I thought this was a fairly large and well-known establishment. Finally, we ended up asking one of the girls working the door of another club in the area and she pointed us in the right direction.
Womb was suggested to me by one of my supervisors, Brad, who shares the same taste in dance music as myself. I’m glad he did. It was a very nice place. Four floors all told, the first floor being a bar and small dance floor where the DJ was playing some groovy techno. The second floor was the main stage, and it was a very large room, complete with the biggest disco ball I’ve ever seen suspended from the ceiling, an excellent lighting system, and a massive quadraphonic speaker system. The third floor was a lounge with windows that looked down into the main dance floor, and at the top was another bar, the VIP lounge and a small dance floor where the DJs were playing drum and bass. The way it worked out Keiko and I spent about an even amount of time on each different floor, and generally just got our grooves on in a good way. I had brought a couple demo CDs with me, and I was lucky enough to find the booking manager, so although I’m not going to get my hopes up, it would be fantastic if I could get a gig spinning at this place. I’m just imagining being able to tell people: “Hey! I’m playing in Tokyo this weekend!”
The next day Keiko and I went to Akihabara, which is another district in downtown Tokyo, and famous for being a massive neighborhood comprised of electronics stores. I had come to Tokyo with my heart set on finding a good deal on a digital camera. Once we got the main drag in Akihabara I could see that it would take us quite a while as electronics stores lined both sides of the street. They had actually closed off the entire area from traffic, so people were thronging in the middle of the street from sidewalk to sidewalk. I couldn’t tell you how many shops we went into, but I was on a mission. I was offered a few deals here and there, but nothing really grabbed my attention. We had walked up and down both sides of the street, and I had gotten a good idea of the camera I wanted, but I was looking for a really good deal, and finally I got it in a little shop where the manager gave me the “nice face” discount. She said she could tell I wasn’t Japanese from my face. I was thinking to myself, “Thank god! I was starting to worry there. Maybe I really AM turning Japanese!”
After the arduous shopping trek we stopped for a late lunch at a little tempura place around the corner. Then it was on to Harajuku, yes… another large district downtown. This is the home of the trendy youth of Tokyo, filled with all kinds of shops from upscale places like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Tag to vintage clothing stores. We walked down a street lined with all the upscale joints to Harajuku station where there was a massive throng of people gathered for some kind of festival. Troupes of people were dressed in beautiful and colorful costumes, all focused on the large stage beside the station where a presentation was being made. Keiko explained to me that it was a Yosakoi festival, and the different troupes were all there for a dance competition. For me it was another moment when my lack of Japanese language skills really burned me, because I wanted very much to understand what was going on. We made our way through the mass of people and past them so that we could get to the Meiji shrine, a major shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji, the first Emperor of Japan when the power shifted from the feudal Tokugawa government in 1868. It was a beautiful walk through the woods and passing through several massive torii gates we arrived at a large walled plaza. We washed our hands, as is typical custom at shrines in Japan, and then payed our respects at the shrine itself. Unfortunately it was already late in the afternoon and we had to leave almost right away because the shrine was closing.
Once back on the street we took a long walk through Harajuku. It reminded me very much of Kensington market, for anyone who’s been there; lots of boutiques and clothing stores everywhere. The streets are very narrow and there were teenagers everywhere. We pushed our way through Takeshita street to Cat street where we proceeded to get lost. It was fully dark and we were both exhausted by the time we made it back to the subway, and again because I had forgotten to get a map of the area we were unable to find the used bookstore I was looking for. We took the subway back to the hotel where the plan was to check movie times and then head out for the flickers, but by the time we were laid out in our beds, neither of us wanted to go. We ended up falling asleep by about 10 p.m. that night. I guess that’s what you get for partying till the morning light the night before.
The next day we checked out of the hotel and then hopped down to the Lloyd’s of London headquarters in Tokyo so that I could set up an account to send money home. That was sorted out quickly enough and then we got back on the subway and went back towards the hotel but got off a little ways away so that we could tour the Imperial Palace. We walked the grounds for some time, and I got plenty of snaps with my new digital camera, which you can see on my photo website, (the link is on the right side of this page). We passed by the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, which I had wanted to see, but unfortunately Monday is the only day of the week it happens to be closed. We walked all the way from the south end of the palace grounds to the north where we passed through the gardens, stopping to look at the Tokyo Science Museum and Budokan music hall on the way. After coming out on the other side of Budokan we were about two blocks away from the hotel. We picked up the car and were on our way back to Fukuroi by the late afternoon, and I was feeling very satisfied with my first trip to Tokyo. I am already looking forward to my next visit. There is so much that the metropolis has to offer, and I only got to see a quick glimpse. Yay for being so close! I’ll be back soon enough, Tokyo. Get yourself ready.
posted by Unknown at 11:31 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Jake: This trip was great. Had such a nice time looking at the pics from your new camera. They are really good! I did that first, then read the blog. Perfect, because I knew what you were talking about at the end. Tokoyo; who would have ever thunk it?? Next trip, how bout remembering your maps?? haha.
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