The East - Japan
Trip Start
Apr 02, 2006
1
2
Trip End
Apr 21, 2006
Tokyo,
Japan
Sunday, October 8, 2006
Having seen "Lost in Confusion", I knew what to expect when I landed in Tokyo (movies are exactly like reality of course): a bustling city, masses of people, glowing neons lights. As the train to downtown left the airport, I was confronted with...rice paddies. And not just a few rice paddies, but mile upon mile of farmland. This is Tokyo?!
It turns out that the Tokyo airport, Narita, is nowhere near Tokyo. It's about 40 miles from the center of Tokyo, and it seemed much farther - perhaps partly because I was going to Yokohama, which was a half hour beyond downtown Tokyo. Many people in Colorado complain about how far the (relatively) new Denver International Airport (DIA) is from downtown. A common joke is that Denver's airport is actually in Kansas
Artsy shot in Kamakura
. Well, if DIA is in Kansas relative to Denver then, relative to Tokyo, Narita is in Guam. And the terminal is also ridiculously far from the gate. It was a good 20 minute walk at a fast pace. Former Speaker of the House, Tom Foley was on my flight. He was looking a bit frail, but bravely ambled toward the terminal, even though an assistant had a wheelchair at the ready. But because the distance was so far, Rep. Foley finally gave in and took the wheelchair. On the plus side, the customs officials and baggage handlers were the most efficient I've ever seen - I hardly stopped walking as I passed through customs.Four hours after landing, I finally made it to my hotel in Yokohama - the Yokohama Crown Prince Hotel. It sounds quite nice, but the fact that it's the "Crown Prince" hotel and not the "Emporer" hotel should've been a hint. In many ways it is indeed quite impressive. It is a huge complex sitting atop a couple hundred foot cliff - you actually entered a high-rise apartment building below the cliff, went up 18 floors and then crossed a bridge to get to the floor of the hotel. My room on the 12th floor, with floor to ceiling windows had a potentially magnificent view. Unfortunately, the reality of the view was rather disappointing. Basically, the hotel overlooked generic apartment buildings in the foreground and the warehouses and cranes of Yokohama harbor in the distance
More at Kamakura
. The hotel had the feel of a glamorous age gone by. It was a very nice hotel, with a beautiful atrium, first-class restaurants, etc. However, it was virtually empty and while at one time it was certainly nice, the furniture, carpeting, etc. were worn and stained in places.Thus, my first experiences in Japan were ones of contrast, which really marked my entire visit. For example, take technology. I expected Japan to be at the forefront of the latest technology. And in some ways this was certainly true - particularly in the bathrooms. I've never been a fan of the automatic faucets with infrared sensors. In America, you often need to wave your hands under them in a epileptic-like fit trying desperately to get water to come out. In Japan, the faucets appear to have some sort of ESP sensor that detects your subconscious decision to use the faucet and times the water to turn on just as you're about to put your hands under the faucet. I've also never been a fan of the hand dryer in public restrooms. I realize that they're environmentally friendly and also more hygienic. But it's just annoying that after vigorously rubbing your hands under American dryers for a minute or more, your hands are still moist. In Japan, the hand dryers are top-notch. The blowers must be based off of jet engine technology. You put your hands in and in less than 10 seconds, your hands are drier than the Sahara desert
Temple at Kamakura
. And their toilets - let's just say that the best of their toilets are suitable for astronaut training. There were hi-tech features on them that I didn't dare try to figure out. And yet I nearly had to sell my soul to find a usable ATM. I found one in the airport when I arrived and got some cash. Later in the week, I looked for an ATM to get more money, but could not find one. They are not nearly as ubiquitous as in America. And apparently, most ATMs that are to be found do not take foreign cards. I actually had to dig into my reserve American cash that I had saved for my return (fortunately I had some, and fortunately the hotel had a currency exchange) or else I would've been stuck at the hotel. This is very different than Europe, where ATMs can be found on almost every corner.
The ATMs are symbolic of how surprisingly insular Japan is. I knew that it was a very different culture. However, it is also one of the more westernized Asian countries, is an aggressive international trader, and has close ties with America. Which meant, in my naive understanding, that Japan would be easy for an American to negotiate. And in fact, American businesses are found all over. There was a Denny's and KFC just down the street, a 7-Eleven next to our hotel, and right at the train station was...Mr
Ultraman!
. Donut! But, despite these familiar sights, I found Japan surprisingly perplexing. This was most evident in language. Of course America is generally ignorant of foreign languages. But in my travels overseas, particularly Europe, most foreigners were much more worldy and most speak English (often better than Americans). This was clearly evident in Vienna, and I expected much the same in an international metropolis like Tokyo. However, this was not at all the case. Very few Japanese speak English. Even most of the hotel front desk staff could speak only rudimentary English. This made things much more challenging. And the language difficulties were more than simply communicating with other people. Because of the alphabet, just walking around was a challenge. In other foreign countries, even if you don't know the language, you can still read store signs, etc. - you may not know what the signs mean, and you may not be able to pronounce the words, but there is something comforting in just being able to read it. Even in Moscow, with its cyrillic alphabet, one can fairly easily transliterate it to roman characters and read the text. But this is impossible in Japan. While some signs have English characters, many do not. This difficulty really hit me while trying to figure out the weather. For some reason CNN didn't seem to want to put Tokyo on their list when giving weather for international cities
What a view!
. So, I thought I'd try the local channels. Sure enough, just like in the US, the local morning news would flash the weather of various cities for various days. And they used icons of sun or clouds or rain. But of course, the cities and days were in Japanese characters. So, I knew the weather for someplace in Japan at some point in the present or future, but nothing more than that. Of course, communicating with others, was the biggest problem, as the following example illustrates.I took the train from Yokohama to Tokyo to spend a day. As expected, the trains in Japan are efficient, well-kept, and convenient. (And fortunately, in a rare exception, all the signs are in English and Japanese characters, making it relatively easy to navigate the system). But, in another strange contrast, there is not one unified system. In fact there are two train lines and two subway lines, none of which are interconnected. As I was going to and from Tokyo and then wanting to travel at will around Tokyo during the day, ideally I wanted an all-day pass for any train or subway. According to my guide book this was doable. However, it was not possible from the automated machines I had been using. So I had to go to the ticket agent. I tried to explain what I wanted. After a period of confusion, he seemed to understand. He charged me an extra few hundred yen (about $3) more than a simple round-trip Yokohama-Tokyo fare, which made sense since I would also be riding locally in Tokyo. He gave me my ticket...or should I say two tickets. As I eventually figured out, there was one ticket for the ride into Tokyo and one ticket for the ride back. With no ticket remaining for the rides around Tokyo. So why did he charge me a few hundred yen more? I guess he interpreted my English "I'd like an all-day all-train pass" as "I'd like to give you a few hundred more yen than I'm supposed to."
A final demonstration of the language difficulty was when a group of us went to downtown Yokohama for dinner one night. Many restaurants, while having menus only in Japaneses, often had models of the food in the windows so that you can just point to a model of what you want to order (apparently making such food models is a big industry). However, we wanted to go someplace more local, more authentic. We went down several alleys with small restaurants, trying to find a place to eat. However, we ran into a problem in that we couldn't read the menu, so we had no idea what kind of place it was, and it seemed like a place was either too full to accommodate our relatively large group of six, or it was so completely empty that we suspected something could be wrong with it. So, we wandered through countless blocks of Yokohama for over an hour. (A contributing issue was that there were just so many restaurants - there was always another one or ten on the next block that looked promising). Finally, exhausted and starving, we stumbled into what we eventually figured out was not really a restaurant, but a bar that served only appetizers. The food was very good, but it wasn't much. So as we headed back to our hotel, we were all still rather hungry. Where oh where, could we obtain the needed sustenance? As we exited the train, there it was, its neon lights shining like a beacon in a storm: Mr. Donut!
Food was another study of contrasts. Some of the food was excellent and some of it was, well, to say the least, weird - usually all within the same meal. One night, a fellow co-worker Bruce joined us for dinner. Bruce lived in Japan for a few years and is fluent in Japanese. This was most helpful; it made for a much easier night than our previous night's excursion in Yokohama. He took us out to an authentic, local Japanese restaurant. No food models, you take your shoes off before entering, etc. - the real deal. And Bruce was able to order a great selection of stuff - some of which was great, and some was very strange indeed. One thing we had was whale bacon ( or as Homer Simpson would say it, "Mmmm, whale bacon..."), a rather politically incorrect thing to eat, but it was something unique. And as Bruce rationalized, "Well, the whale is already dead anyway." It was quite good, though it left me with no desire to emulate Captain Ahab.
A major contrast between Tokyo and Vienna was in the architecture, and for Tokyo it was one of the biggest disappointments. I've been to many big international cities and Tokyo is by far the most underwhelming in terms of architecture. This is not completely Japan's fault. Most of the city was destroyed by America during World War II and the rebuilding had to surely be done quickly and inexpensively - not much time or money for distinctive styles. So there are blocks and blocks of generic cement and steel structures. On my free day after the meeting, I went first to Tokyo Station, right downtown and walked out expecting to see a distinctive city center, something like St. Stephen's Square in Vienna. Instead it was just a bunch of faceless office buildings. One of the few real distinctive structures is the Tokyo Tower, which is modeled after the Eiffel Tower, but whereas the Eiffel Tower is a radio antenna that looks like an elegant steel structure, the Tokyo Tower simply looks like a radio antenna. And in a big city one expects some nice shopping districts - New York's 5th Avenue, Copenhagen's Stroget, even Moscow had some really nice shopping streets. But not in downtown Tokyo. While Tokyo is home to some of the world's largest shopping malls, many stores are underground, leaving the ground level feeling rather desolate.
On the other hand, amidst the rather soulless city buildings, were numerous beautiful gardens and temples. Near downtown is the Emporer's Palace. And while you can not get anywhere near the actual palace building, the grounds and gardens surrounding it are quite pleasant. And on a day off from the meetings, our group was taken to Kamakura, one of the more famous temple areas in Japan. The emporer actually lived in Kamakura for a relatively brief period in (I believe) the 1200s, before moving to Kyoto and then Tokyo. This was beautiful architecture amid a beautiful and peaceful setting.
Though many shopping malls are underground, there are some interesting above-ground shopping districts, including the famous Shinjuku and Shibuya, with their huge neon signs and bustling masses of people. Both are particularly well-known for their many huge (and I mean huge) electronics stores. I eventually (on my last night in Japan) made it to Shinjuku (partly because that was one place where my Lonely Planet guidebook said foreign ATMs could be found) and this was the classic, bustling, neon-lighted Tokyo that one sees in "Lost in Translation". I had finally found the "real" Tokyo!
