| -- Coming and Going -- |
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| I was waiting with my bags at the local bus stop, standing with several other people, when an elderly lady turned suddenly and smacked right into my backpack... "Gomenasai!" I automatically said, bowing apologetically... She stared at me like I was insane... This was, after all, Chicago, and not Japan. Coming home from a trip is always an interesting experience, and being back in Chicago after 3 weeks, I can understand why Westerners were once stereotyped in Japan as "hairy barbarians".. we are large, loud, and coarse compared to the Japanese. I can only imagine what it must have been like for the first contacts between Europeans and Japanese, especially since many of those westerners were Portugese sailors after long sea voyages. We don't have to do the long sea voyages now. We have airplanes that whisk us to and from Asia in hours, not months; and by now, the Japanese are used to large and awkward gaijin coming to their country. Nowdays, most of us gaijin come through Tokyo Narita Airport. The name is a bit of a misnomer, since the airport is actually an hour and a half train ride away from Tokyo.. an appropriate analog might be putting a big airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and calling it New Chicago International Airport. Strange. The airport itself is a snap to navigate, and is very intelligently laid out... you go from your plane to the the baggage claim, to the agricultural and food inspectors, and finally through customs, and into the area where you arrange transport to the city proper. As a JR Pass holder, I had to go to the JR office at the airport and have my pass validated , but within 90 minutes of arriving at Narita, I was on my way into Tokyo. Tokyo is, without a doubt, one of the most complicated cities in the world to navigate, and at first, trying to find your way around can be daunting. The rail system map of the city looks like 3 or 4 multi-colored octopi having a wrestling match. Tokyo is a good place to start your trip to Japan, because if you can weave your way through the morass of railway lines and still get to where you're going, you can pretty much get anywhere in Japan with no problem. I had instructions on how to get to my cousins' (the Fukudas) home in Nishieifuku, but was told by the JR rep a "better" way that took me through Shinjuku station. One has to experience Shinjuku first-hand to appreciate it. Imagine a large railway station in the west, such as Victoria Station in London, Grand Central Station in NYC, or Zoo Station in Berlin... now imagine it 5 times larger, serving not only one rail company and a subway line or two, but serving at least 4 major rail carriers, being one of the major operational hubs for Tokyo's 20+ line subway network, and incorporating hundreds of small shops and restaurants to boot. Over a million people pass through Shinjuku station every day, making it arguably the busiest railway station in the world. Certainly it's a large, loud, and quick-moving place. I managed to find my way to the Yamanote circle line somehow. I'm sure that many of you have seen video of Japanese commuters being crammed into subway cars by uniformed attendants like so many sardines. That's the Yamanote line. I happened to hit it for the first time during a quieter time, and somehow managed to find the train going the right direction to make it fairly quickly to Shibuya station, where I had to switch over to the private Keio railway's Inokashira line to get to Nishieifuku ... after a particularly sadistic JR employee gave me bad directions to the Inokashira Line (forcing me to walk a couple of blocks in pouring rain!), I finally got onto the right train and got to my cousins' place... you know, if I had followed my cousins' directions to start with, I would have made it a lot sooner! Nishieifuku, by contrast, is practically pastoral compared to the center of town. It's more of a residential area, and there is even some green around. This is a contrast to most of Tokyo, which is a fairly grey place, without a lot of greenery. All large Japanese cities are pretty ugly, but Tokyo is without a doubt one of the the ugliest places in Japan. This is not to say that the buildings are ugly. Some of them are, in fact, quite well designed pieces of architecture.. But the lack of restraint in city planning has made for an unattractive hodge-podge of clashing architectural styles ranging from great glass towers to ugly concrete bunker-looking boxes, to a few old wood and tile buildings that predate WW2. Add to that, the extensive urban sprawl and industrial areas that go on for miles, and you have a pretty bleak landscape in general. That being said, I thoroughly enjoy Tokyo. The city may be ugly, but it's also full of life. It's definitely one of those places where you can always find something new to do, to see, to eat, to smell. I probably could have spent my 3 weeks just in Tokyo, and never seen everything interesting. |