It has been wonderful staying out of thei? home, and obviously a great change from hostels. Mrs. Ochiai is also an incredible cook, and I have had all my favorite japanese foods since I've been here.
Every night I look forward to a wonderful meal. I have had tonkatsu, yakisoba, tempura, fried oysters, and numerous other great japanese dishes. I think I have gained all the weight back that I lost in Turkey. My days consist of a wonderful breakfast courtesy of Mrs. Ochiai, a day of sightseeing, a delicious dinner, after-dinner tea, then a hot bath and reading or watching tv. This is the life. I have been so spoiled, I don't know how I am going to handle Vietnam!
They stay in an area called Hanakoganei, which is about a 30 minute train ride outside of Tokyo downtown. It is kind of nice to be out of the city, since the city is pretty hectic. The only downside is that the last train leaves for hanakoganei at 11:30, which puts a damper on my nightlife (which may be a good thing, keeping me out of trouble and saving me money..)
Tokyo itself is just as frenetic and as impressive as I imagined it. You get a sense of it once you arrive in the biggest downtown trainstation, Shinjuku. It seems like absolute chaos for a moment, then you realize that everyone knows exactly where they are going to, and they are all going in a hurry. The trains are pretty confusing and really take a while to figure out. Once you do, getting places is incredibly easy as the trains are punctual and frequent. The only thing they are not is cheap. It is easy to drop 15 on the subways in a day of sightseeing.?Oh, people don't talk on their cellphones on the trains which is also great.
Longer distance transportation in Japan is especially expensive, and you should consider buying a Japan Rail (JR) pass before you arrive (you actually have to purchase it before you get to Japan, since you can't purchase it there). It is around 280 US for a couple weeks, which I thought was expensive, but have spent over that with just a very limited amount of travel The only long distance trip (and only 2 1/2 hours at that) was to Kyoto, and that was 240 dollars on the bullet train (shinkansen) round trip.
In Tokyo you have to see the incredible contrasts that exist. The biggest contrast I saw was the mass conformity vs. over-the-top individualism. Mass armies or blue and grey suits going to work on the trains, amongst kids that have pink hair, legwarmers, black makeup and multiple piercings. It was like many of the kids were telling the adults that they weren't planning to participate in their world, and dressed to prove it.
The one thing that pervaded Tokyo, and seemingly everyone there was kindness. People were all so friendly, it was unbelievable. I was always asking for help on the trains, and people were always willing to help out. In asking for help on the trains, I never once had someone refuse to help. Other interesting things also happened.. Someone insisted on leaving their track (which I was incorrectly waiting at) and walk me entirely across the train station to my track. I had someone give me their card as we were rushing to catch the same train (about a 10 dollar card as well!). An older couple invited me to the dinner they were going to. The generosity of the people in that city is really unbelieveable.
The other thing that has been great about Japan, is that I have actually used my real wallet (as opposed to my travel wallet) for the first time on my trip. It is incredibly safe and crime doesn't seem to be an issue here at all (knocking on wood).
As far as what to do in Tokyo, there are a lot of cool tourist sights to check out, including the Imperial Palace, which is immense, and there are a lot of really good museums (see the National museum, the saporro beer museum!, the sumo museum, and I especially liked the museum of photography.
What I was most interesting in is shopping and just walking around the city. There is an unbelieveable amount of shops and department stores, it really seems like there is no possible way any city could support that many stores. Ginza is the most sheik, and Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harajuku also have their share of nice stores. They are all pretty expensive, but also cool just to walk around in. Takashimaya department store in Shinjuku has terrific restaurants also has a great view from it's roof deck as a bonus. Harajuku and Shibuya are the most geared towards younger shoppers, and in this means hiphop wear right now. In Shibuya especially, you see store after store of Sean John, Fubu, and Marc Ecko wear. A lot of big jerseys and retro Nikes. Almost all the shops in Shibuya hire black guys to stand outside their stores to give them credibility. Funny thing is is I talked to some of these guys, and most of them are Africans and have no street credibility themselves!
Another very cool thing to do in Tokyo is the Tsujiki Fish market. It goes on every day on the weekdays. The difficult thing about the fish market is that the best times to see it are at 5 in the morning and definitely before 6. That is because this is when they have the big tuna auction, which is incredible. I decided to go, but knew I would not get up at 3 in the morning to get there, so stayed out all night in Tokyo before the morning. This was surprisingly easy to do, as many of the bars and clubs in Tokyo don't close before 7! Actually at 5 in in the morning, Tokyo was still busy (or Roppongi was still busy rather)! I went to some bars, then to Starbucks, which closes at 4:30 (and reopens at 5:30!) to get a coffee and wait for the train.
Going up to the fishmarket is crazy. Since I was in a dazed state since I had not slept, I thought I was going to get killed by all the trucks and moving equipment flying by me. There are dozends of huge trailers unloading containers of every seafood you could imagine: tuna, lobsters, octopus, shrimp, eels.. then you hear all the commotion of the tuna auction. It is crazy with all these fish brokers, I guess, standing around,?and there is an auctioneer calling off numbers that I could not follow. It is like the stock market they are throwing bids and paper around. From what I could gather, some of the fish were going for tens of thousands of dollars (for ONE fish!). After the sale, each of the fish were then tagged with the buyer then the sale price.?Then you can follow some of the buyers taking their fish to other locations on the perimiter and slice up their tuna for resale. They expertly use HUGE knives and carve up the fish for sashimi -for the best quality meat-and other purposes for the lower quality sections.
You also see the wholesalers on the outside boxing up their other buys, including octopus, squid, etc, sometimes boxing it and packing it with ice. One of the more interesting sights was seeing them kill live eels by slicing their throats from the live bin, then throwing them in another bucked. Makes you want some fresh Unagi!
After this I went to one of the sashimi restaurants that line the market. It was only 6:30 and I sat down for a big sashimi breakfast. I tried everything, tuna, mackrel, eel, salmon eggs, and even the sea urchin (uni) which I have never been a fan of. I'm still not a fan. I did enjoy everything else though, although the unagi (eel) wasn't as enjoyable as usual.. I'm sure I'll never have sashimi that fresh again in my life.
As?far as nightlife is concerned, I did manage to get out a couple of times. Tokyo is a pretty great town for nightlife, but it really is a weekend town. People work too hard for it to have good weekday nightlife here, I think. Roppongi is the most known place to go out for gaijin (foreigners) and does have a pretty good scene. Many of the bars do have their share of annoying foregn guys that are just there to try and pick up a japanese girl, but that comes with the territory in Roppongi. Two crap bars that are popular are Gas Panic and 911. Two of the better bars I found there are Propaganda (good drinks, bartenders and music) and Bauhaus (good live cover band that plays a bunch of 70's and 80's hits. it's funny to see japanese guys sing these songs!). Another good bar I found for blues and jazz was blue note, but cover is around 50 bucks.
Better neighborhoods I think for going out (i.e. more local) are Shinjuku and Shibuya, but it is difficult to talk to people without at least a minimum amount of Japanese. A good club is Liquid Room in Shinjuku and a good bar is Rock Bar Mother.
Running out of space on Tokyo. Modern, hip, fun, great food, awesome! Go there.