Tokyo adventures
The last two days have been jam packed with adventures, so I'll just point-form some of the highlights and observations in the interests of time. Now with pictures!
-Yesterday, I spent most of the day just wandering around gawking at temples and crowds and stuff. It was raining all day, which was a bit of a downer, but it was also a great primer in Japanese umbrella etiquette. For example - when entering shops, you NEVER just bring your umbrella inside. You either leave it in an umbrella stand at the door, or you put it in a specially designed disposable "umbrella bag", which sit in dispensers at the entraces to most major stores. Beside every dispenser is a giant pile of discarded plastic umbrella bags. My inner environmentalist cried out in protest, but I'm still new here, so I figured it was probably best to not start consciously ignoring local protocol just yet. The umbrellas made for great visuals at the Shibuya crosswalk though. It's apparently the busiest crosswalk in the world. I believe it.
-I got thoroughly and utterly lost in Shimokitazawa, which is the Tokyo equivalent of Toronto's Kensington Market - quirky shops, artisty-types, and all sorts of interesting sights and smells. The only difference is that Shimokitazawa is about 10 times as dense, and most storefronts were about 8 feet wide. Also, I think the public planners involved with the street layout have a personal vendetta against right angles. As far as being lost goes though, it was a pretty entertaining adventure.
-There is NO CRIME here. Like, zero. There are hundreds of thousands of bikes in this city, and not a single one is locked up. There are four or five bikes sitting outside our hostel right now, just hanging out. Also, there is no vandalism anywhere, and litter is totally unimaginable. Somehow, Japan has managed to create a society without jerks. It's incredible.
-I made some friends in the hostel last night, and we went to the 52nd floor bar in the Park Hyatt hotel, for some 235 metre views of the Tokyo skyline at night, and also to re-enact some scenes from Lost in Translation. There was lots of angsty Bill Murray-quoting. "For relaxing times, make it Suntory times." Sadly, they didn't carry Suntory Whiskey, so I had to settle for a 12 year old Hokkaido. For relaxing times, make it Hokkaido times.
-I had octopus balls today. You can't tell from the picture, but those flakes on top are fish flakes, and they have the most disturbing habit of, well... moving while you eat them. They kind of ripple and sway, curl and uncurl... weird. The octopus was actually pretty tasty though.
-Here's the best English packaging I've seen so far (though there have been lots of contenders). It's on a bear-shaped USB key.
That's it for now, next update from Hosei University!
-Yesterday, I spent most of the day just wandering around gawking at temples and crowds and stuff. It was raining all day, which was a bit of a downer, but it was also a great primer in Japanese umbrella etiquette. For example - when entering shops, you NEVER just bring your umbrella inside. You either leave it in an umbrella stand at the door, or you put it in a specially designed disposable "umbrella bag", which sit in dispensers at the entraces to most major stores. Beside every dispenser is a giant pile of discarded plastic umbrella bags. My inner environmentalist cried out in protest, but I'm still new here, so I figured it was probably best to not start consciously ignoring local protocol just yet. The umbrellas made for great visuals at the Shibuya crosswalk though. It's apparently the busiest crosswalk in the world. I believe it.
-I got thoroughly and utterly lost in Shimokitazawa, which is the Tokyo equivalent of Toronto's Kensington Market - quirky shops, artisty-types, and all sorts of interesting sights and smells. The only difference is that Shimokitazawa is about 10 times as dense, and most storefronts were about 8 feet wide. Also, I think the public planners involved with the street layout have a personal vendetta against right angles. As far as being lost goes though, it was a pretty entertaining adventure.
-There is NO CRIME here. Like, zero. There are hundreds of thousands of bikes in this city, and not a single one is locked up. There are four or five bikes sitting outside our hostel right now, just hanging out. Also, there is no vandalism anywhere, and litter is totally unimaginable. Somehow, Japan has managed to create a society without jerks. It's incredible.
-I made some friends in the hostel last night, and we went to the 52nd floor bar in the Park Hyatt hotel, for some 235 metre views of the Tokyo skyline at night, and also to re-enact some scenes from Lost in Translation. There was lots of angsty Bill Murray-quoting. "For relaxing times, make it Suntory times." Sadly, they didn't carry Suntory Whiskey, so I had to settle for a 12 year old Hokkaido. For relaxing times, make it Hokkaido times.
-I had octopus balls today. You can't tell from the picture, but those flakes on top are fish flakes, and they have the most disturbing habit of, well... moving while you eat them. They kind of ripple and sway, curl and uncurl... weird. The octopus was actually pretty tasty though.
-Here's the best English packaging I've seen so far (though there have been lots of contenders). It's on a bear-shaped USB key.
That's it for now, next update from Hosei University!
posted by Bryce at
2:06 AM
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