The giant crosswalk in Shibuya district. Now you know. (And knowing is half the battle!)
Happy Valentine’s Day from glorious Tokyo! Apparently I can only get one free 10-minute internet trial every ten days here, so I’ll just post this later.
I slept in this morning until 10 am, when the hostel closes up and kicks everyone out until 5 pm. I’m not sure how I managed to sleep so much. 7 pm yesterday until 10 am today = 15 hours. I guess I was making up for a lot of lost time.
I woke up with a really bad headache (I think I was dehydrated, or maybe in caffeine withdrawal), so I bought a soda, from one of the MANY conveniently located street-side vending machines, and left. My destination: the famous Shibuya [渋谷] district, which my free guide pamphlet says is a “stimulating town” and a “fashionable area that continues to set the latest trends.”
I got on the metro, and a really friendly Japanese guy led me to the train I needed to take. To be fair, I would have probably figured it out on my own…it just would have taken a lot longer.
So I made it to Shibuya, got lost some more, then found the giant crosswalk thing I have so eloquently tried to explain to some of you. I wanted to get a more birds’-eye view of the thing, so I climbed up a nearby building, which happened to be a bookstore. I bought a copy of Twilight in Japanese, because I love having books in Asian languages, it was only 700 yen (about $7), and I don’t mind waiting until I’m fluent in Japanese to read it. I then found Shibuya 109, a ten-story shopping mall stuffed with women’s clothing. Note: Japanese shopping centers, like Chinese ones, are vertically-oriented and very open. That is, there are about ten businesses on a floor, and many floors. Also, the businesses aren’t sealed off into separate walled areas like in America, because this way the shop clerks can shout at everyone who passes by.
I took a lunch break and had my first Japanese food, some form of pork-broth based ramen with onions called tonkotsu. Like Chinese food, Japanese food it is actually tasty in its country of origin. Who would have guessed? Then, having a couple more hours before the hostel reopened, I decided to go to nearby Yoyogi park, in Harajuku [原宿] (it’s still in the Shibuya area, but separate from the enormous crosswalk/Shibuya 109 area). The park is itself a nice escape from the bustling city, but it also contains Meiji Jingu, a memorial to Emperor Meiji, who toppled the feudal regime and led Japan to modernise and Westernise. The park and memorial area was a taste of old Japan, with Torii gates and a temple complex. I enjoyed this area the most because old Asian structures are something I’m quite used to (hello Asian studies major!), and so I felt more at home here, plus I could compare and contrast to Chinese temples I have visited. I wanted souvenirs, but everything was so expensive =(.
After that, I took the metro back to the hostel with no problems whatsoever, feeling slightly guilty about ending today’s travels so soon. But of course, going around a city by foot and subway train for 7 hours is very tiring, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad about returning so early. My current plans include eating something, then sleeping.
First impressions: people in Shibuya are gorgeous. The girls clearly spend a lot of time and money on their hair, makeup, and outfits, and many of the boys do too! I had heard that many people in Tokyo are androgynous, and it is definitely true. I wish I had faster reflexes and a faster camera so I could have recorded more of the outfits. One guy, who I did manage to get a picture of, had pierced ears, a cap which said “Hollywood” in sparkling pink sequins, and a faux fur-necked leather jacket. Other treats included a businessman featuring an Elvis-like pompadour, a girl dancing in a pink bunny costume, and a teenage boy with long curly blonde hair and a maroon jacket. It’s wonderful that Western gender restrictions are so limited here, but I think there’s still a lot of homophobia.
Tokyo has a lot of people (as far as I know it’s the largest city in the world). And a lot of foreigners. People barely even stared at me as I passed, and if they did it was probably just to judge my lack of fashion (I wore a black sweatshirt and black sweatpants… probably a mistake in such a “fashionable area”, but it’s COLD out so =P). I did a completely spontaneous and informal headcount at one of the tourist sites, and I counted 15 obvious foreigners and 85 Asians…and that’s not counting Korean or Chinese visitors.
Also, I personally find the idea of travelling through Tokyo more daunting than the idea of travelling through any part of China or Taiwan. Even though it’s quite possible to navigate Tokyo without knowing Japanese (the subway announcements are made in Japanese and then English, signs are in Japanese and English), the language barrier here, for a low-intermediate Japanese student, is much thicker than the barrier in Chinese-speaking Asia, and so I am much more nervous about getting lost than I would be in a region where I can communicate well. I never thought I’d “rest on my laurels” where Chinese was concerned, but I feel like travelling Taipei will be child’s play compared to Tokyo.
It’s definitely food and then sleep time for me. I’ll write again tomorrow and hopefully get a chance to post soon.
-February 14, 6:15 PM
Update: apparently I’m stupid when it comes to following directions, and the internet here actually works fine when you’re on the 1st or 2nd floors (my room is on the 3rd floor).
-February 15, 6:31 PM
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