Tokyo is massive! Full of rules, without much room for breaking them. It is also clean, funny (it is actually hilarious some times), inebriating colourful, expensive (if you are not careful), fast paced, modern but still with bits from older times...
I arrived late at night, right next to the Shinjuku Station (the largest train/metro station in the world, a city by itself). I had booked a capsule hotel for the first night, which was a fantastic way of experience the Japanese efficiency after two weeks in the chaos of Vietnam. Endless corridors with thousands of capsules with the size of a single bed, full of men (it was an hotel just for men with no tattoos!) who probably missed the last train after a drinking night. All the rules for where to put the shoes, how to get to the capsule, how to use the common bath made the whole bizarre experience simple, accessible and comfortable. It was small example of how the Japanese rules and protocol are here to make everything simple, comfortable, elegant and welcoming.The next morning I had a bath in the Onsen (public bath) on the top floor - a bunch of naked Japanese men in a massive hot tub or showering while sitting on a small stool.
The next two days were fantastic: chaotic, a bit stressful, frustrating and very exhausting. Sounds horrible, right? Wrong! These were some of the best days in the trip so far. Instead of sightseeing I had to sort out stuff in a massive city with a language that made no sense, stuff happening everywhere that made no sense, with a culture with different rules and protocol while being bombarded with all the colours, signs and sheer scale of everything! Amongst other things, I had to find a way to contact my brother (living in Tokyo at the moment) after having lost my SIM card in Vietnam, book an hotel, meet my brother Chossas, sort out my Japanese rail pass, buy the visa for China, etc. Back in London I would have sort this in one morning, here it took me 2 days full of travels in the wrong direction, frustrating conversations in telephone shops to try to buy a SIM card (impossible for a foreign tourist, by the way - it is possible to rent a super-expensive card in the airport), trying to contact my brother via skype and trying to meet him in Tokyo station. This pushed me straight into the way of living in Tokyo and made me explore areas I would never go if I was just sightseeing.
After this it was easy... Very, very easy! Once you know the rules, everything works.
The next days I hanged out with my brother, met his Japanese colleagues in an unforgettable sashimi dinner, met some westerners living here for many years, met Zach, an ex-colleague from London and went hiking in the mountains of Hakone Park with Tanabe sensei (my brother's supervisor here) and his wife, with volcanoes and Mount Fuji in the background. These experiences showed me some privileged points of view over what the hell is going on here.
Sightseeing was just an excuse to get lost in the streets where all the craziness happens. From dog-manicure shops to ultra-exaggerated Rockabillies dancing in an hilarious way in Yoyogi? Park... I also realised that all the characters that we see in Japanese cartoons actually exist! Every time you see some cartoon character that seems to be very exaggerated, both in physionomy and behaviour, you'll find it in these streets, believe me!
And of course, the food... Oh, the monument that is Japanese food! I'll leave that for another post!
To be very honest before I came here I was less excited about Japan than China... It annoyed me the way sometimes the West praises Japan and doesn't care whatsoever for other cultures. I was expecting it to be very westernised, and consequently more accessible...and it is (which explains in part this fascination by the western people), but the quirky differences are many... and fascinating indeed! Tokyo turned out to be a great positive surprise!
No wonder why the Westerners fall in love with this place and culture... It's impossible not to!
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