Hard lessons in Tokyo
Trip Start
Dec 14, 2007
1
75
187
Trip End
Mar 16, 2009
Tokyo,
Kanto,
Japan
Friday, May 2, 2008
Anybody who has ever visited Tokyo will know what I mean when I say the train and subway network is an almost impossible maze! Unless you're taking a very expensive direct or express train to your final destination you are in for an interesting time as very few trains go directly to the station you intend disembarking from. Very often you need to switch between 2 or 3 trains and it's not always clear where this needs to be done. Even though all the station names are displayed in Japanese and English almost none of the announcements are in English
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. Lucky for us on the way into town we sat next to a young Japanese chap who could speak English and overheard us discussing where to switch trains and mentioned to us that he was going to the same area and that we should just follow him. Thanks to his help we got to the right station after taking 3 different trains which we would never figured out on our own. All this just to get to the city centre.
With a population of 12 million people we knew Tokyo was going to be busy but we had no idea that it would be this busy, especially Tokyo station. We arrived in the city somewhere near mid-afternoon and the station was like a sea of people rushing around in all directions and strangely seeming to know where they are going. It was only when we saw a few other disorientated Westerners (wide eyes) did we have a good chuckle and realise that we were not alone.
A few differences we noticed right away after travelling through SE Asia was that there seemed to be a lot more order in the mass of people. Queues automatically formed, everybody using the elevator stood to the left, there was no spitting, as instructed no one used cell phones on the trains and there just seemed to be calm and order.
People in Tokyo seem to be very fashionable as everyone apears to be wearing trendy if not sometimes weird outfits and sporting that latest techno gadget, most notably cell phones that turn into TV's. Tokyo is an amazing place to just sit and people watch.
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The streets we passed were lined with high-rise building often covered with walls of neon lights and cartoon (Manga) covered billboards. The traffic was significantly less than what we were exposed to in Vietnam or Thailand and there was no hooting. It seems the main mode of transport for people not using the trains or buses are either bicycles or little motorbikes. Our first priority after arriving in the city was to find somewhere to have lunch. We tend to avoid the easy option of KFC or McDonalds and try to find somewhere authentic. Most restaurants advertise their menus and dishes in the form of realistic plastic models from the street. Even though theses plastic reproductions give you a good idea of what the meal might look like we still didn't know what we were going to be eating. Some very good looking beef turned out to be horse meat and tripe. So to avoid inadvertently eating whale meat we searched till we could find a menu with an English translation. After walking a few blocks we managed to find a traditional looking noodle house which had some English translations on its menu. The funny thing about the restaurant was that you had to make your selection and pay at a ticket machine outside the restaurant and then enter, take a seat and wait for you meal.
We selected using the numbers on the menu, paid and were warmly greeted by all the staff upon entering the restaurant. We both had a superb meal of noodles with pork slices and mine even came with a boiled egg
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. The beer was very good and not too expensive (Y350 = $3.5), I found out later that this was the cheapest beer I would buy in a restaurant.After lunch we continued walking through an area called Shinjuku which is well know for its bars, restaurants and night-life. We passed numerous interesting looking establishments and ventured into one of the little bars called 'Mysterious', more out of curiosity than for anything else. The bar was in a basement of the building and when we reached the bottom of the staircase we were greeted by a lady at the door. She looked a little startled and asked if she could help us? I asked if it was a bar and said we wanted to go in for a drink, she obliged and had a little waitress dressed in a fluorescent pink jump suite lead us to our table. The bar / restaurant was all painted in black except for light neon strips on the floor and consisted of many little booths separated by black steel cages. It was clearly designed for shorter people than I as I had to keep my head down almost the entire way to our table. We were seated on mats on the floor in a little caged enclosure with a triangular table. Although a little strange we thought 'what the hell' and decided to have drink and treat it as part of the Tokyo experience.
After browsing thought the menu and deciding it was really expensive so ordered a beer to share. A beer arrived and shortly after a table snack consisting of two little bread stick and a little bowl of some sort of sweet dip
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. We were not hungry after our lunch but ate the snack nevertheless. When we rung the service bell and asked for the bill I almost had a heart attack (I actually wanted to say something else here but let's call it a heart attack). We were charged Yen1100 ($11) as a table fee. I demanded a explanation and wanted a manager to come and explain. It turned out that the two measly bread stick and dip was the reason for the change, but when I explained that I did not order it the reply was this is normal for Tokyo. I'd had enough of Tokyo for one day so we both decided to throw in the towel and retreat to the hotel to get a good nights rest and better prepare ourselves for tomorrow. Getting home wasn't easy! To save money after paying $10 for 2 breadsticks we opted to take the local train which is much slower as it stops at every single station. What we didn't realise was that this meant we had to switch trains and only realise this when the train got to the end of the line and it was nowhere near where we wanted to be. The day could not get any worse! With the help of some conductors we were able to get on the correct train back to the change-over station. All this resulted in us spending almost 4 hours on and waiting for trains.
So some valuable lessons were learnt:
Use express trains wherever you can afford them, Ask if the train is direct and if not where do you need to switch trains, Get the someone to write this down, Before sitting down at a table and accepting "free" snacks ask if there is a charge, don't panic, just smile and wave
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. Tokyo day 2: After a good nights rest and some lessons learnt we were ready once again to tackle the city. This time we bought a 1 day Japanese Rail ticket which would work out cheaper than individual tickets and included an express ticket to Tokyo which only took 70 minutes as apposed to the 2.5 hours of the previous day. Once you figure out how the train systems work and you have a decent network map things start falling into place.
We had plotted a walking tour of the cities highlight and started off at the Royal Palace gardens, the Sony Building and then Shibuya crossing where literally we watched a thousand pedestrians flood onto the street and then just as quickly disappear. We wished we could have spent more time in Tokyo and possibly the country side north of the city.
Our next stop was Kyoto and to get there we had book ourselves onto the high speed bullet train called Shinkasen which was a real treat. The train was extremely fast and the first thing I said to Inge-Marie when we arrived in Kyoto was "lets do that again!!". The train journey lasted a little less than two and a half hours and passes some impressive landscapes including the famous Mt Fuji. As we approached the mountain we could clearly identify it but as usual it s peak was covered in clouds. As we neared Yokohama (the city not the tyre) the mountain was fully exposed for a few seconds, I dove over a few passengers, switched on my camera, steadied myself, zoomed in a little, got the mountain and the snow capped peak in focus and the snapped one shot before the train entered a tunnel for what I though was a perfect shot! To my horror I discovered the camera had no memory card and only opportunity was lost. Lesson to self: return memory stick to camera when downloads are complete!
