9/11/07: In Tokyo

[davidlevine]

Took the shinkansen (bullet train - basically a long, very-low-flying airplane with wheels) from Takayama to Tokyo today. Spent much of the trip studying kanji, and determined that shinkansen means "new trunk line," nothing to do with bullets at all. Didn't figure out the kanji for "passenger car," though, which was more important because it would have helped us ask which car of the train we were supposed to be in.

Arrived in the Tokyo neighborhood of Shibuya, found our hotel, checked in, found dinner. Shibuya is exactly the 2019 Los Angeles of Blade Runner, complete with light drizzle. All it needed was umbrellas with neon shafts to complete the picture. Imagine taking about four blocks of downtown Portland, clearing away all the buildings, and dropping them down at random on the surrounding blocks. Pave the area where they used to be, then cover every vertical surface with neon and video screens (each with its own blaring J-Pop soundtrack). Now take the entire population of Portland and dump them all in those same blocks. Have about half of them stand at the edge of the paved area, and every five minutes have them all scramble to a randomly-selected point on the opposite side of it. That's Shibuya.

(By the way, does anyone know why the Shibuya branch of Mandarake might be closed at 6pm on a Tuesday night?)

Having obtained dinner (tuna sushimi to die for, plus two salt-grilled things-with-eyes in garlic and olive oil, yum) we returned to our hotel to do laundry and plan the next day. Tokyo is overwhelming, but we have made a decision. Because Shibuya is not stimulating enough for jaded travelers like us, tomorrow it's... Ginza!

Comments

[charlieallery.livejournal.com]

The carriage number is on pre-booked shikansen tickets along with the row and seat number, but istr the back of every chair having a map of the train layout showing which carriages were reserved, hmmm, and maybe something on the platform pavement at Kyoto as well.

Alma and I did briefly did Ginza, but our biggest achievement really was finding a citibank with international ATM. :) things we enjoyed on the day we had to ourselves - the Edo-Tokyo museum and the Japanese Sword Museum (hidden in the backstreets). Unfortunately the Bonsai museum we found on-line appeared to be closed.

Glad you're enjoying yourselves.

[davidlevine]

Yep. The tricky part is that we knew what car we were in, but there were a billion different number signs on the platform and we didn't know which "7" we should stand next to so that we could board our car when the train pulled in. We had the kanji for "car", but didn't know how to pronounce it so that we could ask someone on the platform. I hate being illiterate.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Sometime you'll have to ask my hubby about some of his business travel experiences in Japan--all on the Shinkanzen. Like the time they took the local by mistake...

Now he's the guide for most of the corporate folks at his company.

[charlieallery.livejournal.com]

Despite hating being crammed in with other people and herded around, that was one of the advantages of the organised tour. We had at least 30 mins solid lecture on how the Shinkansens worked, where the markings on the platforms were, how the seats were arranged and how we should not try to all get out from one exit because, y'know, only 2 mins at the station! Scared the living daylights out of us, enough that anghara and myself were up and loaded with our luggage and standing at a door 10 mins before we were due to stop. If I'm heavily laden, I like to be out of the door asap and not waiting on people in front of me to get out of the way! :)

Hope Ginza was good.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Have fun in the Ginza!

One memory I have from our evening visit was that of a fortuneteller sitting in a doorway--a very elegant lady in traditional dress, the shadows from her candles flickering across her face as she stared inscrutably into the street.

You might want to watch out for Kate when you get into the kimono areas of the department stores, though ;-)

I wanted to come home with one myself, even given the price tag.

Ginza

[chiefwirehead.livejournal.com]

I hope you weren't too disappointed by the Ginza. It seems to be about half the expensive name-brand shops you'd ind in NYC, Paris, or London, and half really, really cool stuff - if only you could read the kanji to discover what was there.

We've found another of couple Ramen museums, sort of.
One is in a little alley in Sapporo (so, they're all Hokkaido style), and one is on the restaurant floor of a Depaato next to the JR station.

Re: Ginza

[davidlevine]

Which depaato and which JR station? We're in Tokyo until Sunday.

[davidjwilliams.livejournal.com]

enjoy it!

gotta say, I've always loved the map of the tokyo subway:

http://www.bento.com/subtop5.html

sushi dinner

[anitar.livejournal.com]

Our last night in Japan, Jack and I had dinner at a (mostly?) sushi place at Lalasquare in Utsunomiya (where we changed trains to Nikko, and again on the way back). I ate most of the sushi because Jack doesn't really like it. I *think* they brought me a drink because of their admiration of me using wasabi in my dipping sauce ("Very hot!" but it wasn't, really), but we just thought they were bringing it by mistake and sent it away.

The funniest part was when they brought a large slab of tuna rib bones to the Japanese man sitting next to us at the counter. I think these were left over from the sushi they made for me! The man had never had such a thing happen to him before and was very surprised. (He was a history prof at the local University and his English was good.) The sushi-maker (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackwilliambell/1356051171/) had to demonstrate to him that he should take a spoon and scrape the remaining tuna off the rib bones.

Re: sushi dinner

[davidlevine]

Very cool. We had sushi yesterday at a place in the fish market. Not the best sushi I've ever had, but probably the freshest...

Re: sushi dinner

[davidlevine]

One thing I've been struck by is the lack of spice in Japanese food. They expend effort on getting a variety of textures, and interesting shapes, but the flavors can be rather bland. The sharpest addition seems to be vinegar.

(Which can get pretty vigorous -- those umeboshi pickled plums will really wake you up in the morning.)

[davidshallcross.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Godzilla statue yet, between Ginza and Hibiya park?

David S.

[davidlevine]

Not yet, might not... this is a biiiiig town.