Tokyo Dreams

My flight to Tokyo was sadly very eventful. The flight from Seoul to Tokyo normally takes 2 hours, but I In my planning and fiscal wisdom has decided to take an airline rewards flight, a mistake I shall never repeat. Instead of boarding the sometimes-reliable Delta, I took China Eastern, an airline that clearly operates under the same guiding principles as Death Row: delay the flight until all passengers have given up hope, announce and then cancel boarding a few times, then provide such a nauseating bumpy ride that everyone pukes.

Oh, it was miserable. My flight was two legs - Seoul to Shanghai, then Tokyo - and a fistfight almost broke out in my first flight. The Chinese passengers had each, it seemed, bought reams of duty-free items, all packages in plastic bags and bubble wrap, and took up all the overhead space with cheap perfume and chocolates, leaving no room for actual baggage. I luckily boarded early and found a home for my backpack, right before the old Chinese woman next to me stuffed the rest of the compartment full of bags, shoving until every last inch was filled with airport mall crap.  Before long she was shouting at new passengers who dared to move her cargo in search of space for theirs, and glaring and screaming at businessmen and teenagers alike. She spent the latter half of the flight vomiting, so I suppose she got what was coming to her? (Although I suffered mightily from the smell in the process, I might say.)

I somehow made it to Tokyo that night, only to land so late that the train had stopped running. I made friends with an older French textile designer in front of me in the massive immigration line, and she took me aboard her taxi for free! In the meantime, I got to hear all about her cool life jetsetting to clients around the world and shaping the fashion industry, which honestly sounded a little exhausting.

Below: the massive Tokyo immigration line

I stumbled into our Airbnb and crashed, preparing myself for 5 days in Tokyo. Before I go into the specifics of where I visited, I'd like to address one of the things Japan is most know for: its train system.This system is often praised for its efficiency and the famous bullet trains, but for me, this was one of my worst-ever experiences on public transportation. This starts with the ownership: there are both public (subway)  and private (train) lines, all of which charge different amounts of money, have different routes and schedules, and naturally don't cooperate with each other. Even the Japan Rail Pass (which I have) only gets you into a fraction of them. Only some of the maps are in English, and the stations are enormous, covering several acres. To make matters worse, there are unmarked express trains, so you'll suddenly find yourself whizzing past all the stations on a line with no clue how you got there. The stations aren't well-marked, either, so you frantically squint out the window at every stop, wondering if this was your destination. The subway system itself is impossibly complicated, with a dizzying map and far too many interchanges. We stayed near one of the main stations in Tokyo, Shinjuku, and still weren't able to get anywhere on a direct subway line; everything required one or two stops. In Tokyo you also have the additional complication that the subway and train lines overlap, so you may need to switch between the two systems. This lethal combination led to several instances of me wandering, close to tears, through one of the stations, lost until one of the few English-speakers took pity on me and guided me to the correct area. You could say it's because Tokyo is huge and therefore complicated, but Seoul is also quite large, but its subway system is a dream in comparison. Given the notorious Korea -Japan trnsions, I probably shouldn't be posting this while in Japan --but Korea's subway outclasses Japan's by light-years.

Anyway aside from my whining on the subway, Tokyo was great! We had 5 days there, and we made the most of them, visiting many of the districts in Tokyo. Our first day we visited Harajuku, famous for its crazy fashion. I expected anime girls at every turn, and was sadly disappointed to find only tourists. We did see crazy fashion stores, though, if that counts. We visited an otter cafe afterwards, which made the trip all worth it. Kate is obsessed with otters, and her face while playing with them is priceless.

Below:  crazy Harajuku fashion stores, and otters/hedgehogs/chinchilla petting

We also made our way to the Tsukiji Fish Market, which to my relief  did not smell a bit fishy. We saw lots of dead fishies and octopi and squid, and then ate fresh tuna sushi. Yum. Later that day I managed to meet up with Aashika's great -aunt, who was randomly traveling through Japan at the same time. She was a very cool old lady, a retired doctor who still traveled all over the world, and came to Japan bearing an entire suitcase full of Indian snacks.

Below: Tsukiji fish market and Aashika's great-aunt (plus all her snacks)

Kate and I spent a day touring Asakusa, an area famous for a nearby shrine. We made sure to complete all the good-luck rituals: wafting incense smoke in our face (not sure if coughing for ten minutes afterwards negates the good luck, hope not), washing our hands from a special well, paying 100 yen for a fortune (mine was awfully good for a "Regular Fortune," so I'll take it) , and throwing coins into a well. We emerged sooty, wet, and poorer, but full of good luck...I think?

Below: Asakusa

That afternoon we strolled through the Imperial Gardens, walking through avenues lined with blooming cherry blossom trees and flowers. Lovely.

Below: the Imperial Gardens

Our last few activities were very new experiences for me. Kate dragged me to the first: the infamous anime subculture. Anime/manga, for those who don't know, is kind of like comic books for adults. Everything is illustrated, but the plots and themes are more like novels than children's books. Anime is the televised version of the book series (manga). Kate is, to put it lightly, a huge anime fan, and so we visited anime stores, sites in Tokyo where her favorite series (Tokyo Ghoul)  takes place. I had lots of fun people-watching in these stores, the clientele being somewhat unusual in dress and nature. I also managed to find the most unusual anime figurines, which tended to be scantily -clad women whose bodily parts, shall we say, defied gravity. I also took stalker pics of Kate bounding in joy in the store, and deciding between which anime character keychains she wanted. Although I've watched several excellent series, I still have trouble telling the characters apart - they tend to be tall, slim young men with haunted expressions and hair colors that God doesn't typically grant (blue, stark white, green, etc).

Below: anime anime anime

Our last hurrah in Tokyo was the robot show, held at the famous Robot Restaurant. This is difficult to explain in words -you'll just have to see the pictures. Nothing will ever be glittery or psychedelic in comparison.

Below: Robot Restaurant