Tokyo

After a 2 and a half hour bullet train ride from Kyoto, we glided into Tokyo central station. What a nightmare. Not only does Japan have, far and away, the most confusing public transit system in the world, but we were navigating the nerve center of it with bags in tow during rush hour. Now, the Tokyo metro system is very comprehensive and can take you most anywhere you want to go, but you REALLY have to know what you’re doing. There are three separate entities that operate the various lines and they all have their own tickets. So, for example you wanted to get across town and make two line changes along the way, that could mean buying 3 tickets and actually re-surfacing to find the adjacent but identically named station. The disjointedness of having three separate networks of trains running around the city is just stupid. It’s way overcomplicated and not user friendly at all. There are long walks during changes and often, one has to surface, walk down the side walk and go back underground again to continue on the next train. Just terrible.

Sorry about the rant. The metro just really got to us during our 4 days in Tokyo. Aside from that, it was a pretty cool city. The first day we were there, we went and applied for new Chinese tourist visas so we can re-enter China to change out our suitcases in a couple weeks. The process was painless and we even got one-year, multi entry visas for the same price as a 30 day single entry. So bizarre. All that hassle with our work visas, but they’re just handing out long-term tourist visas like crazy. After that, we checked out an all in one work-live-play development called Roppongi Hills. It’s a huge and beautiful complex including offices, apartments and shops and designed to be a city within a city. Pretty neat. We had Indian food for lunch (it’s become a staple food for us here in Japan) and continued on to see the Shinjuku area. Shinjuku is known for its wild shopping, red light districts and first class people watching. However, Shinjuku metro station is the busiest in the world, serving more than 750,000 people…per day… and is a huge maze of corridors and exits. We arrived at Shinjuku station but didn’t actually find the right exit for at least 20 minutes. When we got out on the street, we realized Shinjuku is kind of a seedier part of town and we weren’t in the mood to see Tokyo’s red light district. So, it was back to the dreaded Shinjuku station.

One stop away was Shibuya with it’s famous crossing. We got out of the station and onto the street. And then we saw Shibuya crossing, the biggest convergence of moving people in all of Tokyo. Alexa was gleeful to be crossing amongst the hundreds of other people. There were black heads in all directions. Above us and to the right and left were giant screens. It was wild. We made our way across the street to the two-storey Starbucks and got some drinks. And then we camped out. We sat on the second floor bar and watched the crossing for two hours as the afternoon faded to evening and rush hour began. The Starbucks was playing jazzy Christmas music and we were able to just relax as we watched the frenetic energy below. I didn’t want to leave. But, we had another view waiting for us at our next stop…

(Alexa) Ryan had told me the day before that he had a surprise for me, something the Scottish guys in Osaka had told him about. Little did I know that he was taking me to the bar at the top of the Park Hyatt where they filmed Lost In Translation, one of my favorite movies. When we got to the hotel we kept reciting lines from the movie and pointing out where they filmed scenes. We took the elevator to the 52nd floor and when the doors opened our jaws fell open at the blanket of colored lights below us. The bar is encased in floor to ceiling windows so it’s almost impossible to take it all in at once. Luckily, the waiter directed us to the best table in the house, right next to the piano. We ordered drinks (Whew! The cost what we would have paid two meals for on a normal day!) and just sat in awe at the view for the second time that day.

Other highlights from Tokyo included the Tsuki Fish market (the largest in the world), the Sony Exhibition Center (where they display all the new gadgets that have yet to be available to consumers), a day trip to Mt. Fuji (which actually ended up being a bit of an expensive disappointment) and eating breakfast every day at Denny's. Yeah, the cheap American diner Denny's!

All in all, Tokyo was cool. A bit overwhelming at times, but it's essential Japan.

LINK TO TOKYO PHOTOS