shikata ga nai [translation]

Wow, Tokyo is cool. I've never been to a big city like this before—Seattle has about one twentieth of the population of Tokyo, and it shows. Mass transit is awesome, and all the buildings are gloriously densely packed. (I wonder aloud about the steepness of stairs in houses, and G points out that as people get older, they tend to just stop going upstairs in their homes.)

Our first full day in Tokyo is a rush of impressions, and I have trouble remembering the order things happen in, so let's just go with a list of happenings and oddments:

Bicycles: They're everywhere! It's apparently illegal to lock a bicycle to a railing in public, so all the bikes have tiny little locks mounted on the frame that do nothing more than keep one wheel from spinning. I've yet to see a U-Lock.

But the sheer variety of bicycles! I'm filling up the digital camera with pictures of bicycles with cool logos, fancy shapes, and corporate sponsorships I'll never see in the United States (Chevrolet bicycles? Coca-Cola bicycles??). It's awesome.

Crosswalks: I was prepared for traffic flowing on the lefthand side, but the crosswalk lights completely blow me away. First I notice that the "go" light is green instead of white, then when it's about to turn red, instead of flashing red, the green light flashes! Then it hits me--in the United States, the little walking guy faces right, but here it faces left. I am truly in a foreign land.

Stores: I see an AM/PM. I'm annoyed by this. I expected McDonald's, and wasn't surprised by Starbucks, but AM/PM? Apparently there are 7/11's here as well. What's the point in flying for more than eight hours just to see the same convenience stores I see at home?

Persimmons: J and I are walking along after a delicious noodle lunch, and a guy comes up to us excitedly talking in Japanese. J translates—the guy wants to share his fruits with us. He tears open the bag with his teeth and gives both of us one of the fruits, encouraging us to eat up, eat up! I thank him profusely and am quite excited by this sudden munificence, but J is totally blase about it. I roll my eyes at his boredom and bite into the fruit.

I'm still not quite sure what kind of fruit it is, though J says it's some sort of persimmon. It's got an orange rind (J's not sure whether I'm supposed to eat it or peel it), and when I bit into it, it's quite firm and not at all juicy or powerful sweet like I'd expect from a United Statian fruit. I've almost finished it before I realize I hadn't taken a photo of it. This saddens me.

Cats: Cats look different here. So far the only one I've seen is being carried by a woman on the street. Its meowing sounds foreign. I wonder if maybe Japanese felines have a different lineage. I wonder if that woman thinks the cat actually enjoys being carried like that.

Toys: J takes me to a really cool toy store—six stories of way cool Japanese toys, each level a different genre. An entire floor devoted to railroad models, another for robots, one for guns. The guns thing surprises me—apparently firearms are illegal in Japan, but it's popular to collect nonfunctioning models of handguns and submachine guns. I take a picture.

Bathing: There are many things I like much better about Japan than the United States. The design of the baths is a good example—the bathtubs have taller walls than their United Statian counterparts, but are shorter to fit in the smaller room. But the entire room is a shower stall with a drain in the floor, so you use a handheld showerhead to rinse off, then lather up with the water turned off (thus conserving water), then rinse off the lather. There's no bar soap—everything is liquid soap, thus why it's so important to have a loofah-like bath towel, I suppose.

And the toilets never seem to be in the same room as the bath, which totally makes sense. It's the little things that really seem to stand out for me.

Gaijin: There are foreigners everywhere. I expected less racial diversity. J says it's just the areas we're checking out— there are apparently more homogenous neighborhoods in Tokyo. I just need to be patient, J says. I think I'm starting to annoy him.

Puppet museum: Apparently the Japanese word for "puppet" is the same as the word for "doll", thus explaining away the confluence of the two notions in Ghost in the Shell 2. E suggested I check out the puppet museum she'd heard about, so J and I head on over. We have a little trouble finding the place (there are no street numbers per se in this country—everything is done by numbered blocks and detailed maps); we finally locate the place, and it's amazing. As J says, sensei is there, and gives us a brief demonstration of the puppets' movement, as well as some of their features (female puppets have pins jutting from their mouths in order to hook their voluminous sleeves on, thus indicating emotional trauma to the audience).

Then J's cellphone rings, prematurely concluding the lecture. Argh!

Still, it's quite an enjoyable visit. Japanese puppeteers use a lot of the same construction methods I've seen United Statian puppeteers using. The artistry of the puppets and dolls at the museum is breathtaking, and the preponderance of lagomorphic idols leads us to the discovery of a tradition wherein you collect images of the opposing Chinese zodiac in order to foster success in your life. (Upon learning this, I start hoping that my fondness for dragons means that I'm draconically opposed, but it turns out I'm supposed to collect horses. Bleah. Even worse, J, who continually makes fun of my drake fetish, is opposed by the Dragon.) There is no justice in the Universe.

A little Universal justice: After a stupendously great experience at the doll museum, J drags me across numberless streets in search of a toy museum he's visited in the past. We're finally close to the right area of Tokyo, so J crosses the street to confer with a security guard standing in front of an empty lot. The security guard smiles, gestures to the recently-demolished building behind him and proceeds to entertain J with the story of the toy museum's recent destruction. This balances out the Dragon thing. Somewhat.

Max headroom: The top of my head is endangered by the low ceilings in this city. I fret for E, who is even taller and yearns to visit Japan someday.

Tissue handouts: I'd been warned by the excellent Tokyo guide Just In Tokyo, but I'm still surprised by how often I'm offered packages of disposable tissues wrapped in colorful advertising brochures.

Fun foods: Today I had duck with soba noodles for lunch. I don't think I've ever eaten duck before. For dinner we had a sampling of foods at some nice restaurant where I had by far the finest whiskey I've ever tasted, as well as horse sashimi. Horse tastes pretty good raw. Now I just need to find a place that sells whale dishes...

Random photos: Today I make sure to get the requisite shot of someone with a bit of architecture sprouting from their head. The adventure has definitely begun now. I also have a shot of Pikachu masks for sale near a Shinto Shrine ("It's SHinto SHrine, BuddhisT Temple," as J reminds me.), several more bicycle shots, a sampling of cute media images, ivy-covered architecture (I just didn't expect to see it here for some reason), some dragon iconography, and then nothing after 2pm, when the camera battery runs dry.

Vending machines: No, really, they're freaking everywhere over here!

Last updated by eric Sat Sep 11 05:29 2004 | deed/tokyo trip | link