Hitting the big city

  Tokyo, Japan
Sunday, February 12, 2006

It's been a while since I was last in the hectic mess that is Tokyo, so Mayu and I made plans to pay the metropolis a visit. Granted, mid-winter is probably not the most picturesque of times to go sightseeing in Japan, but it also means there are fewer tourists about to dodge. On top of that, it's about the only time of the year that you can just about count on seeing elusive ol' Fuji-san en route - during the warmer months, the mountain's typically cloaked in dense clouds. And see Fuji indeed we did, among other things.

Now I'm hardly the world's most avid fan of theme parks. As far as I'm concerned, if I've got $100+ eating a hole in my pocket, the last thing I want to blow it on is a healthy dosage of kitsch, cutesy characters and mechanical rides. It was great when I was 12, but times have changed. Mayu, however, doesn't always share my lack of enthusiasm there. Since she had never visited the place and we were heading that direction anyhow, she wanted to spend a romantic day as a couple at Tokyo Disney Sea. According to the marketing slant, it's geared more towards adults and couples than its swarmed, neighboring counterpart, Tokyo Disneyland. Accused a couple times before of dominating the trip-planning more than necessary, I relented. Seeing how we had four days at our disposal, dedicating one day to artificial entertainment wouldn't be too much of a loss.

03: Mock-up Disney Italy

It's bloody cold out there in February though! Both Disney resorts are set on top of a space of reclaimed land jutting out into Tokyo Bay just over the border into Chiba-ken. While this is probably great for a little extra air in the stuffy summer, it just results in a blustery, frigid experience in the wintertime. Mayu had it in mind to stay the whole day and catch the big sound and

04: Japanese mouseketeers

light display after dusk. By the time 4:00 in the afternoon rolled around, we couldn't find enough to keep us busy and warm enough to tolerate sticking it out. Even still, having arrived on a Thursday, we did have the rare luxury of getting to go on pretty much any ride we wanted without horrific crowds and two-hour queues. Not too shabby, really. And, admittedly, it was a very good time. A cultural experience it perhaps isn't (save for "pop culture"), but a Disney resort is a pretty difficult to place to not have fun at.

That doesn't mean I'm going to go three or four times a year for the rest of my days in Japan though! (unlike many young female Japanese do!)

10: Nikko's main drag

Mayu had also never been to the famous temple town of Nikko, despite having grown up in a country where it usually figures on a school trip itinerary somewhere in the 12 years of standard education. Though I'd already been there a couple times, I agreed to head up once more so that she could see it. At least this time I had a better chance of seeing it minus the pouring rain (unlike the previous two, summer visits!). And we wound up with fine weather after all - well, fine weather in the single digits, seeing how it was February and in the mountains.

15: Stretch of stone lanterns

The frost and leftover snow added a certain air to the place though, especially when constrasted against the sheer blue sky and the tall coniferous trees. But Mayu should have maybe known a little better: Nikko's a temple town and she couldn't care less about temples and shrines generally. Even despite the gaudy, highly flashy character of the architecture she was bored by the time we'd spent a couple hours there. I guess too many trips to Kyoto has worn her out on that sort of thing.

A couple of Mayu's old childhood friends live in Tokyo now, so we met up with them for a night on the town in Shinjuku on Friday night. For some reason, they decided on a Polynesian restaurant, complete with costumed dancers that come out and drag customers from their tables to boogie down. It made for a nice variation from the usual izakaya for sure. At one point, the feistier of Mayu's two friends got yanked up and proceeded to cop the dancer's moves with wild enthusiasm. Other tables were in hysterics . . . quite gobsmacked that an attractive fellow Japanese girl in her 20s would pull something so spontaneous.

17: Below Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices

On the remaining two days, we stuck to scouring around Tokyo proper. For Saturday, we scheduled a visit to Shinjuku's Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices, hoping that the crisp winter air would allow for that rarest of views: a Tokyo skyline minus the haze. In fact, it wasn't completely ideal (the windiness from the previous days had died down), but at least we had a clear, blue sky. After that we wandered around Ginza some, before making our way through Marunouchi and the Imperial Palace grounds and outer garden to the city's most infamous shrine.

Yasukuni-jinja has been all over the news in recent years. This is the place that Koizumi always visits around New Year's, severely pissing off Korea and China. When it comes down to it, the notion of the sacred site is not a bad one. It was originally established to commemorate

21: Turret outside Tokyo's Imperial Palace

Japan's war dead, a kind of thing that most countries develop in some form or other. The problem is that years later in 1978, 14 Class A war criminals were enshrined there, essentially absolving them of their crimes. Literature published by the shrine and the basic whitewashing characteristic of its on-site museum have only contributed to the controversy. If you pay a visit to the place, you can be guaranteed of seeing at least one of the ultra-nationalists' black vans parked somewhere on the grounds (at least they aren't apparently allowed to blare their "patriotic" anthems and spew xenophobic venom anymore though).

23: Main gate into Yasukuni-jinja

But then, if you do pay a visit to the place, it all seems so relaxed and unobtrusive (minus the museum). Without all the media attention and the reputation (oh, and the black vans), you'd hardly notice anything differentiating it from other significant shrines. The only thing I thought was ominous was the size of the gargantuan metal torii marking the main approach. It's fascinating how someplace with such menacing renown can seem so, well, normal.

29: A Sunday morning at Shibuya crossing

For our last day, we tramped around the earthier, youth-oriented shopping districts of Shibuya and Harajuku, making sure to

25: Shinjuku by night

swing by the freak parade at Meiji-jingu. As expected, the goths, French maids and "nurses" were everywhere and more than eager to be photographed by any interested visitor. Probably the oddest tourist "sight" in Tokyo, it's also arguably one of the best insights into the subcultures and trends of modern Japan. All the same, hanging around there for a bit, I began to feel like there was going to be a Sisters of Mercy concert in town soon or something.

34: Roppongi Hills' Mori Tower & sculpture

After catching some lunch off posh Omotesando, Mayu and I spent the rest of afternoon around Roppongi Hills, a vast post-modern commercial and residential complex that has breathed new life into a previously questionable area of Tokyo. Most Japanese living elsewhere in the country are fascinated by the place, and I've had questions pop up in lessons multiple times about whether I've been whenever the subject of Tokyo came up. Admittedly, it's quite a cool place, combining up-market shopping with sleek new architectural appeal. Unfortunately, given the money we'd already spent, we couldn't indulge too deeply, so we stuck to a cursory exploration. Once we got back to Shinjuku for a final couple of errands, it was only a short matter of time before we had to catch the train back to Nagoya again.