The moment has finally arrived! We’ve been wandering around these Roman founded, Christian dominant countries for long enough, and now for something completely different – Rainbow Chasers is going to Asia! Jon and I are well versed in Asian cultures, having played a lot of Pokemon and watched several old WWII movies, so aside from our near-complete lack of a plan, we feel well prepared for whatever craziness comes our way. So grab your Hello Kitty and hold onto your butts, the Land of the Rising Sun awaits!
Surprisingly, getting all the way from Oslo to Tokyo wasn’t too hard, just really, really long. It took us just over 20 hours, including a 2 hour layover in Doha, Qatar, to reach Tokyo around 7pm. From there, we still had nearly a 2 hour train/subway ride to reach our hostel from the airport, which is what you get when you fly a budget flight – they fly to inconvenient airports. We were strung out and exhausted by the time we finally reached the Wise Owl hostel, so hopefully you’ll forgive me when I tell you that our first impressions of Tokyo were “Wow! This place is packed with Asians!”, and “what the hell is this train system?”.
I’m sure it sounds stupid to be surprised that Japan is full of Japanese people, but let me emphasize that I mean absolutely, overwhelmingly, packed with people – Atlanta wasn’t as busy during Superbowl weekend as that random sidewalk and train were in Tokyo on that random Saturday night. And, having grown up in Atlanta and having just traveled extensively in Europe where diversity is the norm, the total lack of white or brown people was just weird. For clarity, I don’t mean to pass any moral judgement on that, only that we personally found it quite strange. To add to it all, I was wearing my neon blue shorts, which I’m certain got more furrowed brows than my being white or carrying a big, smelly backpack on a crowded train.
Click here to watch a video of the dancers in action! *SOUND WARNING!*
Anyway, after we finally checked in at our (aptly named) hostel, we walked across the street to try our first taste of Japanese food. It’s only now, in writing this blog, that I look back and see that it was actually a Chinese Noodle bar, but apparently we were too culturally illiterate to notice the difference and the noodles were pretty good. In the morning we were surprisingly refreshed, so we decided to start our Tokyo tour off big with a trip Shinjuku City, which is one of Tokyo’s most important wards. And, with our signature lack of a plan, we wandered right into a Dance Festival cum Parade in the streets called the “Harajuku Omotesando Genki Matsuri: Super Yosakoi”. Don’t ask what all that means, just enjoy the dancing. That’s what we did.
After the dance parade, we walked over Meiji Jingu shrine, which is among the most visited in all of Japan. The setting is quite tranquil, and the way it’s painted really shows of the woodwork, and it even has a board where you can make Shinto wishes, but beyond all that it’s just OK. Like in much of Japan, the original temple and park were both destroyed in WWII, so what you see is a faithful replica. The parkland, regardless, was a welcome break from the swarming masses of people everywhere else in the city. It speaks to the Japanese mentality that this placid shrine sitting amongst 170 acres of forest in the largest city on Earth.
That evening, following the recommendations of our expert Japan guide, Stevie, we had our first proper Japanese dinner. There are a million tiny restaurants and bars like the Udon bar we chose hidden all over Tokyo, this one being crammed into the alleyway between to huge apartment towers. Each one seats like 10 people and is seemingly more delicious than the last. After dinner, we took another brief and confusing trip on the subway to the Tokyo Metropolitan building, which was more exciting than it’s name suggests. The whole top floor is given over to free, 360 degree viewing platform with a fantastic view of the city. Seeing the whole, vast cityscape all at once is mind-boggling. It truly is like looking at a video game or a movie, mostly because your brain has no other real-life comparison anything that unbelievably big.
Still reeling from the view, we decided to finish the evening by strolling through Shinjuku’s big shopping district along Yasukuni-dori Avenue. In it’s own way, it’s no less incredible than the view from the top of the tower. Nevermind that it was 9pm on an unremarkable Sunday, the place was in full swing with giant crowds of people and the neon cranked up to 11. Aside from just walking down the street with our mouths agape, we also tried out a couple arcades and shops, including an alarmingly pink Hello Kitty store. Completely exhausted and jet lagged, we finally quit around 1030 and took the train home. Speaking of the train, allow me to go back and explain what the hell is with Tokyo trains since we are taking so many train rides.
I’ll start with this little fact; Shinjuku Station, where we visited this same morning, is the busiest railway station in the world with approximately 3.6million people passing through the station each day. Seriously, read that again. More people pass through Shinjuku station each day than live in Denver, CO or San Diego, CA. And that just one station on a network with 120 distinct lines and 30 different train operators, all going at the same time. The track map looks like one of those incomprehensible physics diagrams they draw for the movies. The stations themselves commonly had 50 or more entrances and exits to navigate, not to mention that the different train operators have their own platforms, ticketing, and number system. In summary, when I casually write “we took the train” in this blog, what I mean is we swam through a sea of people to pick out one single train along the world’s most obscene train network – so each stop was sort of an adventure on it’s own.
Speaking of, in the morning we hopped back on the train(s) to finally take our first Japanese free walking tour through one of Tokyo’s most infamous wards, Akihabara. Akihabara is the center of Japanese pop culture, and the whole district revolves around names like Sony, Nintendo, and all the manga and Japanese anime franchises ever to exist. There are “maid cafes”, a million dirty manga stores, and the cities best arcades, all just swarming with nerds and nerd voyeurs. The Japanese even have a word for those fedora lovers who willingly devote their lives to gaming and anime, called “otaku”. Otaku culture is so strong here that there are local Shinto deities in Akihabara and the Otaku themselves consider it a holy site. Yup, people are really into it.
Beyond that, the tour took us through Kanda Myoujin Shrine, where we learned confidently how to use the holy water dippers to cleanse our hands before entering, and learned to recognize Shinto shrines by their distinct Torii gates at the entrance. Most importantly though, we learned that when praying to the gods, like Ebisu who had a statue at the shrine, be sure to include your full name and address so he doesn’t accidentally bless someone else since there are so many people in Tokyo. Oh, also the beautiful gate at the entrance is actually a Buddhist structure with Shinto gods swapped in, so hopefully you don’t get those mixed up and offend everyone! Moving right along!
The tour finished by walking through one of Tokyo’s more notable street markets, Ameya-Yokocho, which apparently got it’s start selling American military surplus and candy after WWII. To me, it was a place where you could buy squid cooked and prepared in every conceivable arrangement, buy every knockoff American shoe brand ever, and try soft serve Matcha ice cream for the first time.
After the tour, we accidentally walked to the train by way of a huge lotus pond full of turtles and neat views of the city skyline, before eventually arriving at a fancy fish and Sake joint for dinner. The sake came served in these antiquated little saucers and flasks, and we learned the appropriate etiquette by spying on some Japanese business men and frantic googling. Apparently, it’s polite to serve one another with a series of gracious gestures and bows. We tried, but no doubt we just looked like nodding idiots.
OK, that’s it for Tokyo part 1! For all that we’ve seen, it’s barely a fraction of all the things to do in Tokyo. Fortunately, we still have a couple more days in Tokyo before heading off to the rest of Japan. See you soon!
What a funny, crazy adventure!!!