Visiting Tokyo: Apex Metroplex

“There is nowhere I am smaller and forced to scurry than a thrumming, daunting city that drowns out all I am.” – Old Sean

Well-Lined Jungle

After leaving Osaka, I gathered my things in a poorly packed backpack and rode the Shinkansen line to Tokyo.

Tokyo has more going on than any person can reasonably unearth in a week or two.  It’s a massive hodgepodge of brambling architecture, layers of underground points-of-interest, a secondary world of hidden shops are bars squirreled away as buildings ascend with numerous tourist attractions rooted across the city.

Tokyo isn’t exactly what anyone expects, since it varies so wildly from zone to zone. 

Around major train stations and night shopping centers, it following the Hollywood norm of legions marching through neon streets in a jumble that defies the eyes. 

But a ten minute walk in nearly any direction results in a quiet, quaint neighborhood with narrow roads, mismatched buildings and people walking dogs dressed in tiny sweaters.  A further examination leads to offshoot alleys with bars, restaurants, girlie clubs and theme cafes within the third story of an old building.  Naturally, there are also islands of Japanese traditional culture, including moated parks, old towns and sequestered temple grounds.

It’s not even a dichotomy, since that would require a consensus of differing parts.  At best, one can call it a meticulously planned and painstakingly-designed hodgepodge sloped with natural societal-growth. 

So no, Tokyo isn’t what anyone expects.  You’re there for the ride and everyone leaves with a wildly differing impression.

Into the Lights

I arrived in Tokyo to stay in Taito City, a district on the roughly eastern portion of the city, next to a large tourist street. 

Enjoyably enough, I stayed at the Nine Hour Asukusa Hotel, which is a capsule hotel.  I was given a locker for my things in a downstairs area and the rest of my stay was spent sleeping in a narrow, white cubby with a drop-down screen.  People tuck themselves into these nooks for nights at a time, enjoying a fairly cozy amount of space.  My only concern is that there’s no temperature control in these capsules, meaning that body temperature quickly makes the small space toasty. It’s worth having very-light pajamas.

For the rest of my time in Tokyo, I was very fortunate to not be alone.  I joined a high school friend named Chad, whom I’d seen back in Dallas during my last visit.  We caught up on the opposite side of the world, munching down on Japanese tofu blocks in a tiny, cramped restaurant where Chad provided his fractured understanding of Japanese to navigate the city.

Chad’s a great guy, and compelling conversationalist in general.  He’s immersive with his thoughts and engaging in conversations.  However, when we met up, his eyes were slightly sunken and cigarettes vanished from his fingertips hourly.  Chad had been working for an architecture firm in Japan that demanded an obscene amount of time and energy with slashingly-low pay.  The company appears to have taken the Japanese culture of overworked salarymen and combined it with the Western cut-throat business model demanding meritocracy to simply stay afloat.

When I caught up with Chad, he was exiting Japan.  This was his last week, work was done and he was just beginning to replenish his reserves of energy.  As a result, we did my favorite travel activity, one that I have a particularly hard time finding companions for.

Endless, meandering walking.

Where In Thou, Tokyo

We strode through the city for eight hours each day, bopping around locations with only the vaguest tourism goals in mind. 

Chad had a series of architectural wonders in Tokyo he was interested in, so we ranged widely checking these out. 

Tokyo’s zoning laws are partially sound-based, meaning that noisy areas face a certain tax.  To limit expenses, Tokyo structures naturally have the places with more noise pollution press together, such as train stations, clubs, night bars etc. 

On the other end of the spectrum, Tokyo doesn’t have a style-standard for the buildings in the city.  So an architectural tour involves the oddly mechanical-tank structure of the Disney Building, followed by a walk past the curving arcs of a shopping center, split by the solid cookie-cutter shapes of a resident neighborhood looking exactly like a Halo Combat Evolved urban map. All of these were separated by a building made of interlocked recycled wooden jacks and punctuated by the uneven window-diamonds of the Prada Building.

Tokyo, man.

A List of Locals

Anyway, we got to see a lot.  On the first night we passed most of Shibuya City, doing wide, pointless loops to obscure architectural icons.  Chad explained most to me and the things he pointed out (which I would have bypassed unknowingly on my own) were really interesting features of design.  I truly believe he adore architecture as a field, but his job has simply wrung the passion out of him for the moment.

We also passed through the more foot-traffic-heavy parts of the city, commenting on Goth-Japanese band advertisements, hunting down pastry shops, lounging around specialized indoor smoking shops (for Chad, not myself ) and standing on street corners where a camera displays pedestrians with entertaining filters as they wait for the light to change.

After a long night of walking, I retired to my miniature capsule and woke up early to do normal ridiculous things. 

I started by visiting Senso-ji, a temple and the final resting ground of the legendary 47 Ronin Samurai. 

Heading south I bought a specialized Bento from Ekibenya Matsuri, a great little bento-box store inside Tokyo’s metro system, but a real struggle to find.  Meandering further I passed by Omoide Yokocho, also sometimes called the Blade Runner Alley, but locally known as Piss Alley.  All names have accuracy merit.  I stopped by a couple of cafes, a pinball arcade and a Denny’s for breakfast.

Pinball Mind

Tokyo is just so hectic, I spent a significant amount of time reeling.  I finally made it to a place called Akihabara Electric Town, which is an electronic shopping district. 

Here, my brain short-circuited.  It was crowded, crammed with endless products, alit with noise and sound, plastered with advertisements and mined with life-sized models of movie characters,

I simply couldn’t process everything I was seeing.   It was cool, but I was relieved when I finally stumbled back onto the street, little spots swarming in front of my eyes.  I tried to make it to the Kite Museum (located on the third floor above a diner), but it was closed on Sunday.

Needing a bit of breathing distance from people, I headed toward the Giant Ghibli Clock, a marvel of gears, metallic chicken legs and ticking parts that seemed to drop straight out of Howl’s Moving Castle.

Godspeed Studio Ghibli.  Keep up all that you do, for you do it well.

Deep Breathe

Heading toward the coast, I had the chance to see Hamarikyu Gardens, which is a pretty little section of the city portioned off by surrounding skyscrapers. 

They have some historical duck-blinds as trapezoid earth mounds and a 300-year-old pine tree that has a place of honor in the park.

Following this detour, I agreed to meet up with Chad again.  He had been out with his companions the previous night and was ready to meet up with me for a late lunch. 

Our restaurant selection was Gyukatsu Motomura, a very nice, typically-cramped restaurant in the Chou City where visitors cook delectable slices of pork cutlets on a candle with a stone wedge atop it.

What a world.

Anyway, after eating our food, we made a point of looping up towards Chiyoda City, an impressively large green space.  We spent a lot of time ducking into Japan’s numerous, famous convenience stores for WIFI and whatever else we needed at the moment. 

By now, we weren’t exactly touring around at this point; just wandering.  We had vague plans to meet up with Chad’s ex-coworkers that night, but where and when was anyone’s guess.  Eventually, Chad steered us to Shinjuku City.

Sheer Wattage

Shinjuku City is one of Tokyo’s designated night-life zones and it’s a bit on the seedy side.  The number of people on the street trying to coax others into bars, clubs or sex-services is daunting. 

There’s a cool Godzilla head peering out over all the flashing lights and numerous shops dedicated towards Japanese people’s specific kinks, shopping habits and preferences.  Numerous girls in skimpy French maid outfits shiver on the streets and gentlemen in dark finery often make sweeping gestures towards massage locations or arcades. 

There are also lots of bars as well as some really interesting restaurants. Many of these places have an odd symbol above them; the number 18 folded over symmetrical arrows.  This indicates that the services a place offers is only for Japanese people, foreigners and gaijin shouldn’t bother trying to enter.

If you’re looking for authentic oddities, I recommend checking out Golden Gai, which is a whole mess of small, poorly lit food and liquor places crammed into a tight network of alleys.  I advise against going on a crowded weekend, as it’s the sort of place that fills up quickly, but the foreigners lounging around there and seem quite happy.

Chad and I looked around for a jazz bar, including the Old Blind Cat, but unfortunately none were empty enough to merit staying. 

Instead, we ended up in a confusing maze of ninja houses that served us literal buckets of light beers while people smoked fields of cigars in thatch-walled rooms adjacent to us, creating a thick layer of perma-smoke throughout the labyrinth-like establishment.  I wish I knew the name of the place, but we sort of just… stumbled in.

A Farewell to Chad

Now, one of the issues with Tokyo is the metro system, which is generally closed at midnight. There are very few five or ten minute exceptions, but transport is shuttered at midnight.  So a lot of people who get caught outside drinking at 11:45PM either have a very long walk home, a friend who lives nearby or they’re forced to check into a love/romance hotel.

Chad managed to get us to a subway station on the second-to-last train, which was great as I didn’t fancy walking much more. My feet are still tender a day later. After saying goodbye, we tipsily headed our separate ways.

I’ll have to say hi when I see him stateside.

Regardless, I went back to my capsule, spent the next morning checking out a sword shop and anime arcade (which are expensive beyond belief) before finally checking out and gathering up my things.

Tomorrow I’m heading to Fuji.  It’s been a hectic, stride-oriented few days in one of the largest most description-defying cities on Earth.  I’ll be very happy to be in a forest where none of the trees have ads flashing below them.

Until then, ‘till next time, Tokyo.

Best regards and excellent trails,

Old Sean

Written January 26th, 2020

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