See the world through Von and Jordan's eyes - through pictures of food, transport, tall buildings, good friends, unique experiences, and iconic or rare views of skylines.
Long exalted as the "busiest pedestrian intersection in the world," Shibuya crossing is actually worthy of the title. Its swarms come from the crazy busy train station at Shibuya and the dense shopping, eating and living district across the street. You could compare it to NYC's Times Square, but it wouldn't be a fair comparison. In Times Square, cars almost equal people in numbers. Not so here. The swarms of people dwarf car population, leaving me wondering why they allow people through the area in the first place.
What is most impressive about Shibuya crossing is that the number of people doesn't change much from light cycle to light cycle. The crowds are constant and committed. The favorite place to observe the phenomenon is the Starbucks on the corner, which, most likely positioned itself here intentionally as a commercial grandstand to the ped show.
On the ground it is just as busy, but probably slightly less impressive.
I have lived in New York, Hong Kong, and now Singapore, and have visited just about every major city in the western world with a respectable rush hour. Ladies and gentlemen, Tokyo takes the cake in just about every category. Here are the categories:
Sheer crowdedness
Expanse
Concentration of rush
Orderliness
Ubiquity of dress
Peacefulness
The Yamanote Line (explanation to follow)
Ok so these categories may have been created specially for Tokyo, but it deserves the special attention and accolades.
Let's start with Sheer Crowdedness. The crowds are massive, ever flowing, and they mean business. At times you cannot see the floor. This is Shinagawa. The crowds never stopped.
Here is the Shinagawa outpouring of people from the station to the street:
Expanse
Then there's the number of stations. Spiderweb, or 1/2 of the Tokyo metro?:
I say one half because that's exactly what it is. There is an entirely separate system (these were built as separate concessions) that is of similar size and serves different parts of Tokyo.
Concentration of Rush
When you talk about rush hour in New York, you could in theory say that rush lasts all day. Sure, there are lulls in ridership, but generally the subways are packed from 7:30-10:30 and 3-7. Tokyo's rush certainly has a beginning and end. Like New York, it is crowded nearly always, but their rush is basically 200% crowded, whereas the rest of the time is 70% crowded. I blame the Japanese culture of timeliness. Apparently Tokyo had to run public service ads encouraging people to not kill themselves trying to get to work. It's not the end of the world to be 2 minutes late, it says.
Observe the proverbial river of workers heading to the same place at the same time. It's basically a one way bridge at this point.
Orderliness
Everyone queues up to get on the train, but before they do, they patiently wait for the current riders to detrain. It's a common spectacle in Asia, particularly Hong Kong, but Japan just does it best. Everything they do is orderly, from swiping in and out of the metro system to the lines they make as they rush like cattle toward their office buildings. Here is the boarding/alighting anomaly I referred to:
Here they are lined up in the train itself waiting to alight in an orderly manner:
Ubiquity of Dress
I have never seen a more monochromatic society of people. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was wearing a black, dark grey, or dark blue suit. And nearly everyone was wearing a suit in the first pace. I don't think they have casual Fridays.
Observe:
Comb the photos I have uploaded. You can count the number of bright colored outfits on two fingers.
Peacefulness
This is me enjoying one of the rush hour cars. Me taking this picture was the loudest sound on the entire train.
Seriously, you can hear a pin drop. It's almost uncomfortable.
The Yamanote Line
The "circle line," as we referred to it before we knew its proper name, serves every neighborhood that a visitor to Tokyo would want to see. Ginza, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Rippongi, Harajuku, Akihabara, etc. Apparently, it also serves every neighborhood the residents of Tokyo live in as well. This line single-handedly moves more people than the London Underground in a day. Let me put that in perspective - the London Underground moves approximately 1.4 million people per day, or the population of Estonia. The Yamanote Line moves 3.7 million people, or the population of Bosnia and Herzogovena. The best part of the line, besides the alluring destinations, is the frequency of trains - they come literally every 2-3 minutes, and each is packed. Evidence:
Here is the entrance to one of them. We were fighting the tide at this particular station. They adjust the direction of their fare gates based on time of day to enable the flow.
Round and round it goes, constantly serving the people of Tokyo. What a mensch.
The Yamanote line is the feather in the cap of the most expansive, convenient, and busiest metro in the world. Kudos to you, Tokyo for your fantastic trains!
I will do a "weird Tokyo" post eventually, but if I put every weird Japanese thing in that post, it would be a novel. This one in particular deserves its own post.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Robot Cabaret:
Yes, I said robot cabaret. For those unique-seekers out there, this show is old news - having been around for years and even showcased on my favorite show (Anthony Bourdain - Parts Unknown), which visited the "restaurant" two years ago. It's not a restaurant by any stretch - it's as close to a full blown spectacle as you can get, and I think that's the goal. It's also a glimpse into those nightmares that you wake up from thanking baby jesus it was just a figment of your sub-conscience.
"What is robot cabaret?" you ask. To be honest, I'm not sure either! All I can tell you is that large mechanical creatures battle each other, and people bang on drums lined entirely in neon as they are driven around by remote control. It's quite an experience. What impresses me most is how effectively they use the space. The robots come right up to the line of seats and never mess up, although they do spill the occasional cup of popcorn or beer.
Rather than try to explain it as a concept, I will present you with the evidence. Dinosaurs battle:
(here's a glimpse into the battle)
Ladies drum:
Giant Pandas ride cows:
And ladies celebrate beside robots:
While this show is kept alive by tourists at this point, it has Japanese origins. Kinky, weird, fascinating, pure fun, and a little uncomfortable. That's Japan! We thoroughly enjoyed this and it is a must-do for anyone visiting Tokyo, no matter how jaded. If nothing else, the for-sale popcorn is delicious, and their waiting room before the performance is a site to behold.
When we arrived, a robot was singing karaoke. All I could think was, yeah, that's about right.
So as you know, I would be remiss in a vacation if I did not ride every train type available at that location. Tokyo had no shortage of fun train things to do - we didn't even finish! (we still have to ride the one remaining streetcar). My favorite, however, was the "monorail" that crossed the rainbow bridge and went over to the Tokyo Bay islands. This thing was like riding a roller coaster.
Whenever I take a new train, I try to perch myself in the front to look out the front-facing window, if there is one. Well, my typical spot was taken by this young trainspotter, who more eagerly bolted to the front than I did (quick little bugger!). Not only was he enthralled by the journey to the point that his mother needed to basically drag him off, he is wearing a train backpack to advertise the Shinkansen high speed trains of Japan. I believe the backpack says "Shinkansen is the only way to go...and I'm ready to ROLL."
Hence, my kindred child soul. If you're gonna be on the spectrum, let it be an obsession with trains, that's what I say.
Little me was right to be enthusiastic about this train. It goes above ground, crosses a suspension bridge, and gives you sweeping views of the harbour and Tokyo. The "Rainbow Bridge" it crosses is a ridiculous suspension bridge that has a loop-the-loop on the landside approach. Here is a good shot from the Tokyo side. You can't see the loop, but it's a cool bridge.
The entire ride is tons of fun, filled with vistas and weird stuff, like this Statue of Liberty:
And this eerily large ferris wheel.
I love an industrial wasteland vista!
I'm telling you, it's like a roller coaster.
I couldn't resist taking a video.
I know this post isn't thrilling unless you're me, but that's the point of blogs, is it not?
Our first meal in Tokyo was perhaps one of our best ones. We went to ishikawa in shinjuku for a kaiseki (pre set) meal. This is one of our favorite ways to eat haute in Tokyo because the chefs really do know best, so why not let them serve you what they consider worthy?!
This meal was 8 or so courses, each being somewhat small but packed with flavor. This appetizer was maybe my favorite, but it was cheapened layer in the trip when another chef served an inferior version of the same dish. This one is crab with crab innards and some sort of sweet gelatin with fish eggs? Delicious.
The best part of the restaurant (besides the food) was the interior. It was so tasteful and extremely Japanese. A single teapot decorated the wall behind Jordan. We had a private room with a paper and wood sliding door. If Jordan looks sleepy here its because we landed at 4 and had this reservation at 830, so we were a little zombie-esque. We did however figure out that the noon flights to Asia are certainly the way to go. You land in te afternoon and can basically go to bed after dinner. It's perfect.
The other side of the room was dressed only with our bottle of sake. Sake that actually renewed my faith in the drink. It also probably increased the meal cost by 50%, but was well worth it.
Here is some salmon roe in a cup. Because why not?
We loved this course but by the end of the meal we were bursting so we couldn't finish it. At the end of the meal they offered to "make us a breakfast bowl" with it. Uh, is there a question?? Yes I want my leftovers for breakfast. Jordan of course devoured it when we awoke.
So we told them it was our honeymoon and they were surprisingly elated. We weren't sure how Japanese would cope with us being a couple but it really was all positive. To celebrate our occasion they surprised us with a special dessert on a plate that said congratulations on your wedding. I guess they couldn't Google translate honeymoon but this was just as sweet!
It's also worth mentioning that one of the chefs came our and joined our waitress in clapping for us and yelling congratulations. It was darling.
Probably the most surprising part of our tokyo adventure was our befriending of Dr. Yoshihiro Ono. On our plane ride over he witnessed me voraciously planning our trip using jordan's day by day itinerary sheets and our lonely planet tokyo guide. After a few hours of this he leaned over and asked if it was my first time to Tokyo, if there was even a question. I asked him for food and sights recommendations and the rest is history. He offered to take us to lunch at an iron chef's restaurant, who he plays golf with. Because that's normal.
Let me explain a little about Dr. Ono, our periodontist friend. First he strikes me as probably 70+. He is certainly a little weak in the body/agility department but in true Japanese form he is in no way feeble. Sure, the flight attendants helped him get his bag down every time (I'm pretty sure he's a regular on that flight) but he certainly did not ask for the help. He plays golf regularly with celebrities. He's still active in his profession, traveling around the world to lecture and attend conferences. He also has no problem sitting in first class while his wife is, well we don't know, but definitely somewhere else. When we deplaned at Narita, he rapidly sprinted toward immigration. He has a limp and a bad back, but was still faster than both of us, dragging his two suitcases behind him. He only stopped on his way to the NEX to make sure we had directions to our hotel, knew where the bus ticket counter was (how would he have known that even if this was the more logical mode of transport, I would be taking the train?), and was certain we knew what was going on. Then just like batman, he was gone. This is the man we are dealing with.
Anyway, we couldn't take no for an answer and joined him for lunch at the Japanese iron chef's restaurant. We have a private room and were doted on hand and foot. The first course was this. All delicious. The little yellow block was "grilled cheese." That one confused me for a while because it was literally a block of grilled cheese.
The main was fascinating - marinated sliced thin beef on a bed of the most delicious rice you could dream of. Idk if this was Japanese but it was certainly tasty.
Following dessert, and after some commotion and a lot of Japanese, the iron chef himself emerged from the back! Apparently this was a rarity and we were very fortunate! It was lovely to meet him in person. He was the japanese iron chef on the original Japanese version of the show - without a doubt the superior version of the show.
Fast forward to the next night when Dr ono insisted on taking us to a sushi dinner. After some consultation with his iron chef friends he picked a sushi restaurant. We donned our best and hit the subway.
This was perhaps the best sushi we had ever had. Prepared by this guy. He was gooooood.
Some highlights: Uni. Sea urchin. Delicious and tasted like ocean. Squid, salmon, and of course tuna were everywhere. All melted in our mouths. Uni:
Here is Dr. Ono. We owe him many thanks for the special meals he facilitated for us and for his pity and generosity toward these two lost travelers. After learning that he has many condos in Japan, I'm sure we will see him again on a future trip to the land of the rising sun and the eastern capital.
Add Dr ono to the growing list of reasons this is one of my favorite countries.
So it has been a rude awakening transferring from our first class JAL seat to our, how should I say, lesser class hotel room? The Shinjuku Prince Hotel does the trick as far as location and price and ridiculous japan-y-Ness, but leaves a lot lacking in the space department. Our room is perhaps the size of our flight seats. I have no photos of the room itself but this because there is no space to take them. Our views, however, are badass and exactly what I think of when I think of Tokyo.
Of course, the trains really seal the deal for me. We can hear them at night like a soft lullaby. Seriously - not too loud and just audible.
We are in shinjuku, which is one of the busy areas for both office jobs and night life - perfect for the salary men by day and night. Our arrival was cloudy. It cleated up the next day.
This intersection is fun to watch during rush hour.
Shinjuku is known for its less than savory night activities. This is one of the streets where all the magic happens. If someone can explain to me why there are south Africans trolling this place trying to lure you into their bars, I'm all ears.
Another view to the west from our room on a clear day.
Tokyo is pretty!
This is our hotel from the outside. Nothing to swoon over but tall enough.
By night our view is pretty cool as well. All in all we are happy with our 90 square feet. The neighborhood I'd tops for convenience too. It's close to our favorite past time - local gay are exploration! We found an awesome tiny Taiwanese gay bar that we loved nlenglish speakers. We made friends with the bartender!
We don't remember his name but we had a lovely time!
Shinjuku is also home to one of the coolest nightlife areas of Tokyo, if you ask me. Golden gai! These tiny streets are home to hundreds of tiny bars, each of which can fit maybe 10 people at max. And they all are full!!
The streets are so tiny you can't fit cars down them.
It also has this quaint little path to nowhere.
By day the area is not as lively but just as cool. And delicious!
We found a lovely ramen place, nagi, that specialises in anchovie broth. It's a cool take on the traditionally chicken, pork, miso, or vegetable. The place is tucked away and would be hard to find were it not for the queue out front.
We could barely take a selfie!!
They make the ramen noodles right in front of you. It tastes so fresh and delicious.
The final product.
All in all, Shinjuku is great. We already feel like this is one of our homes away from home. All thanks to our temporary home in Shinjuku!
