Walk Down to Electric Avenue

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  Tokyo, Japan
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

'...and then we'll take it higher.' Nothing get my inner geek going like differential equations.  Seeing as how those don't pup up in everyday life my next biggest guilty geeky pleasure (welcome to my secret life) would have to be high rise neon advertising.  That particular brand of Madison Avenue ingenuity that baths city squares in the bright glow of progress.  On trips to New York I might pop-out at 42nd and Broadway to take in the light of Time Square and then never tell anyone the real reason why I was late to dinner on the other side of town.  When it comes to this over the top advertising I am of the opinion that the higher, the brighter, the better.  I am also secure in my thoughts that in the land of neon Tokyo reigns supreme, and within its empire Shinjuku is the capital. 

Shinjuku is a hodgepodge of restaurants, shops, bars and 'entertainment' venues.  Sounds intriguing, no? If you think of entertainment as paying for sex than Shinjuku is your neck of the woods.  It is the home to the red light district, love hotels and an assortment of entertainment for women.  The red light district has your standard assortment of whore houses and plenty of the all to Japanese variety: dressed up as anime characters, in full stuffed animal outfits, as a domineering school girl, hell kitty, etc etc.  The love hotels are one of the few places where sex starved Japanese, the country having the lease boom-boom per year in the developed world, can knock the boots.  Japanese families will typically live in incredibly small quarters with extended family in tow.  Where in these abodes can you do 'it' in privacy? No where. So to the love hotels people flock for some alone  time.  There are blocks and blocks of these rent by the 4 hour rooms (side note: 4 hours seems a little aggressive for people not getting any sex....doubt the whole time would be required).  Oh yeah, you can get the rooms in Micky Souse theme with sex swings or other sorts of random accoutrements that get you in the mood.  Nothing says lets do it like Disney.  Finally, the entertainment for women involves some wort of boy bands with long mullet-ey hair and fake tans.  I have put it to Katie to figure out what is actually offered at these venues. 

I am way off track.  Back to the angelic glow of this city.  Each area has its own panache.  In Akihabara, the electric city where all the geeks hang out, the sights are all 'techy' and the red lights are replaced with anime advertising and cartoon porn (yup....dirty cartoon comic books for people that have traveled so far down the rabbit hole that actually women, or men,  no longer do it for them).  In Shibuya the scene changes again and there are giant televisions, restaurants and whole neon buildings where every floor is karaoke.  Amazing.   

In this neon jungle it can become overwhelming.  Let me rephrase that.  I can imagine, mostly because I have a great imagination, how someone would find this luminosity stifling.  To me it felt like the rays of the sun reaching a plant: giving me the strength to grow and become the best version of myself.  But sometimes respite is necessary and I was happy to see that small shrines were spread around the entire city. You can walk along the streets in a dense sea of sky scrapers and suddenly spot tori gates tucked between two buildings.  These gates mark the entrance to a shrine and you simply follow the path through the chain of gates until you hit the sacred space.  The city falls quiet in these spots and you can zen yourself out while living in the centre of the biggest city on Earth.  The backdrop of old timber Shinto shrines against the towering neon modernity is an unbelievable, truly Japanese, sight to be experienced.

Check out my Tokyo photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hewharris/sets/72157605901485015/

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