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Jun. 25th, 2012 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cryowizardI'll do the rest of Hong Kong later.
Now, Tokyo scratch, in no particular order. Pictures and video later too.
Flying Japanese economy class is royally detrimental to your knees if you are anywhere near 6 feet. I have yet to see a seat arrangement any tighter than what ANA has on its economy flights from Hong Kong. Terrifyingly tiny. The only comfort was the fact that the flight was only 4 hours.
If you can get a flight to Haneda instead of Narita, do it. Narita is nowhere near Tokyo and it takes an hour to get to the Tokyo Station via Narita Express train (3000 yen, I think, about 36 USD).
The machine that sells tickets for Narita Express, as well as most JR and Tokyo Metro ticket vending outlets, does NOT take credit cards despite sporting a VISA/MC logo on it. And this is a supposedly technologically advanced country. At Narita, you can get away with using your Visa at a manned ticket counter. At Tokyo metro you are fucked because the machine only takes Japanese IC cards and cash. If you are say in the vicinity of Imperial Gardens there is not an ATM for a ten-block radius so you dont have a lot of options transportation-wise.
A Japanese colleague told me that despite all the technology Tokyo transactions are mostly cash-based, so an average person carries an equivalent of 200-250 USD in their wallet/purse. The exception is the metro PASMO/SIUCA card.
Tokyo metro is huge, very dense and awesome. You will need a Japanese-English metro map available at hotels (along with a great English city area guide) to wrap your head around where to go. Trains are on time, clean, very wide (even wider than NYC). The great part is station numbering. Every line has an English letter associated with its Japanese name, like T for Tozai or A for Asakusa or H for Hozomon, and each station has a sequential number for one terminus to the other, say H1 to H23. On subway map you just look at which number you get on and on which number you get off. Platform sides list train direction in terms of increasing/decreasing station numbers (instead of "This a Coney Island-bound Q train", as if a foreigner would know what Coney Island is). Of course, each station has a Japanese name as well, but also a letter and a number, so it is very easy for non-Tokyo residents and foreigners to get around without knowing station names at all -- you just travel between M3 to M9 stations. The metro is also bi-lingual -- not that it helps without a map. Also, if you dont buy a universal PASMO card, the fare is different between stations so you have to calculate your fare when buying a ticket. Calculate wrong and the system wont let you out unless you put more money on the ticket (all magnetic or IC).
The flipside of awesomeness is that many metro lines are "connected" only on paper. If you think Atlantic Avenue transfer is long, think again. It is not uncommon to see the signs underground, when you're transferring, telling you that your line is 250m away. No kidding. Some connection.
Some train cars are designated "women only" during peak hours. From what I hear groping is still a big deal during rush hour but I can't confirm it given that I live a 5 minute walk from my office.
Just like in Hong Kong, there are entire mini-cities inside big office buildings. From basements to top floors, there are shops are restaurants in just about any high-rise, and most high-rise blocks are inter-connected with under- and over-passes.
If you don't know Japanese or don't have a native speaker with you, your food options outside the most touristy of places and the most expensive of restaurants are very limited. After having gone through a Kabuki theater of trying to order food from a menu you can't read while speaking to a person who doesn't understand you, you will start shying away from Japanese-only places. In some mom and pop shops you can simply point to a picture of food you want -- I did that in a few noodle shops and at Tsukiji fish market, where I got most awesome off-the-boat sashimi from a sweaty unkempt dude for 1000 yen. Shop was a hole-in-a-wall establishment but the food was fantastic, which I concluded by observing the patrons for a few minutes. In most shopping districts like Akihabara or Shibuya or Ginza however, you will literally walk around food of all sorts but unless there is a picture you can point to you are screwed. Thank God for the ubiquitous 7/11 (same as in Hong Kong), as well as Lawson and Family Market, where I subsisted on freshly made sandwiches, cookies and a thousand gazillion varieties of canned teas.
As someone who wholeheartedly hates shopping as an activity, I think most of central Tokyo is nauseating simply because it is a giant collection of very complex and interconnected shopping malls.
The best place I have so far visited was Sensoji temple complex in Asakusa, one of the oldest (in not the oldest) temples in Tokyo. Very touristy and very traditional Japanese simultaneously. Tradition is tradition, and despite the smiles, young people still go through the rituals there.
The famed Roppongi, which was sold to me by just about every one of my colleagues as the place to hang out, turned out to be a dump. Yes, there are western-style bars there, and yes, there are Westerners in those bars. So fucking what. There are also giant shopping centers (barf) and a few blocks of red-light stuff, namely some dens manned by large (reportedly) Nigerians who try to talk you into a "strip club" with "free drinks". I hear you can't drink in those joints cz there is a good chance the drinks are spiked, but who knows. In any case, I stay away from seedy crap like this anyway (in Hong Kong I lived in Wan Chai, which is a renowned world-famous sailor hookerville).
Prices for most things in Tokyo are like in NYC, only in yen. In Akihabara, which is supposed to be this giant electronics market, I looked around for a Casio watch because mine is failing. Didn't buy one because the Pro-Trek series I wanted is more expensive here then it is in the States. No magic here, after all.
Amazingly enough, the office in Japan is almost as relaxed as the one in Hong Kong. I kind of expected an elevated level of Asian manner-minding, but to my surprise there wasn't one. I guess this is not a purely Japanese company and plenty of expats have somewhat watered it all down.
People are nice, especially old folks. A few times old ladies asked me if I needed help when I was standing in front of a metro entrance studying the map. An old couple spoke to me in English in the elevator the other day, completely impromptu, and asked if I enjoyed Tokyo. I was coming back from Shibuya which I hated, but they were nice so I lied and said yes.
In 3 days, I think I have seen 2 police cars. Either there is no crime, or I am simply not walking down properly crime-ridden avenues.
Speaking of police -- the patrolmen I did see at the airport and Tokyo JR station carry revolvers. Revolvers!
At the hotel, the internet is free. If you can get it to work. This is, mind you, Japan. And, mind you, a business hotel. In Hong Kong, it took a few mouse clicks. In Tokyo, when I first got into my room, I spent two hours trying to get a connection because I needed to cache Tokyo city map on my mobile Google Maps app and look up a few places. After two hours, I called front desk. Very polite manager sent me a non-English speaking dude with a Hitachi computer, which he proceeded to hook up to the wire and got a connection. At that point his posture told me his job is was done. The fact that I demonstrated my laptop was not getting a connection no matter what didn't phase him one bit. I sent him away. In the end, it took me some more time to figure out that a) I need to wait about 2-3 minutes for the login page to show and b) that the page will be blank unless you manually change encoding to Unicode or Japanese, and c) that even after that the page is 99.9% Japanese except a Start button that is the one I need to click and finally d) that I needed to wait another 3 minutes for the IP address to be assigned to me. And have I mentioned this is Japan? After this experience, and the funny stories about TSE, I am starting to think Fukushima was not really an accident.
To be continued.
Now, Tokyo scratch, in no particular order. Pictures and video later too.
Flying Japanese economy class is royally detrimental to your knees if you are anywhere near 6 feet. I have yet to see a seat arrangement any tighter than what ANA has on its economy flights from Hong Kong. Terrifyingly tiny. The only comfort was the fact that the flight was only 4 hours.
If you can get a flight to Haneda instead of Narita, do it. Narita is nowhere near Tokyo and it takes an hour to get to the Tokyo Station via Narita Express train (3000 yen, I think, about 36 USD).
The machine that sells tickets for Narita Express, as well as most JR and Tokyo Metro ticket vending outlets, does NOT take credit cards despite sporting a VISA/MC logo on it. And this is a supposedly technologically advanced country. At Narita, you can get away with using your Visa at a manned ticket counter. At Tokyo metro you are fucked because the machine only takes Japanese IC cards and cash. If you are say in the vicinity of Imperial Gardens there is not an ATM for a ten-block radius so you dont have a lot of options transportation-wise.
A Japanese colleague told me that despite all the technology Tokyo transactions are mostly cash-based, so an average person carries an equivalent of 200-250 USD in their wallet/purse. The exception is the metro PASMO/SIUCA card.
Tokyo metro is huge, very dense and awesome. You will need a Japanese-English metro map available at hotels (along with a great English city area guide) to wrap your head around where to go. Trains are on time, clean, very wide (even wider than NYC). The great part is station numbering. Every line has an English letter associated with its Japanese name, like T for Tozai or A for Asakusa or H for Hozomon, and each station has a sequential number for one terminus to the other, say H1 to H23. On subway map you just look at which number you get on and on which number you get off. Platform sides list train direction in terms of increasing/decreasing station numbers (instead of "This a Coney Island-bound Q train", as if a foreigner would know what Coney Island is). Of course, each station has a Japanese name as well, but also a letter and a number, so it is very easy for non-Tokyo residents and foreigners to get around without knowing station names at all -- you just travel between M3 to M9 stations. The metro is also bi-lingual -- not that it helps without a map. Also, if you dont buy a universal PASMO card, the fare is different between stations so you have to calculate your fare when buying a ticket. Calculate wrong and the system wont let you out unless you put more money on the ticket (all magnetic or IC).
The flipside of awesomeness is that many metro lines are "connected" only on paper. If you think Atlantic Avenue transfer is long, think again. It is not uncommon to see the signs underground, when you're transferring, telling you that your line is 250m away. No kidding. Some connection.
Some train cars are designated "women only" during peak hours. From what I hear groping is still a big deal during rush hour but I can't confirm it given that I live a 5 minute walk from my office.
Just like in Hong Kong, there are entire mini-cities inside big office buildings. From basements to top floors, there are shops are restaurants in just about any high-rise, and most high-rise blocks are inter-connected with under- and over-passes.
If you don't know Japanese or don't have a native speaker with you, your food options outside the most touristy of places and the most expensive of restaurants are very limited. After having gone through a Kabuki theater of trying to order food from a menu you can't read while speaking to a person who doesn't understand you, you will start shying away from Japanese-only places. In some mom and pop shops you can simply point to a picture of food you want -- I did that in a few noodle shops and at Tsukiji fish market, where I got most awesome off-the-boat sashimi from a sweaty unkempt dude for 1000 yen. Shop was a hole-in-a-wall establishment but the food was fantastic, which I concluded by observing the patrons for a few minutes. In most shopping districts like Akihabara or Shibuya or Ginza however, you will literally walk around food of all sorts but unless there is a picture you can point to you are screwed. Thank God for the ubiquitous 7/11 (same as in Hong Kong), as well as Lawson and Family Market, where I subsisted on freshly made sandwiches, cookies and a thousand gazillion varieties of canned teas.
As someone who wholeheartedly hates shopping as an activity, I think most of central Tokyo is nauseating simply because it is a giant collection of very complex and interconnected shopping malls.
The best place I have so far visited was Sensoji temple complex in Asakusa, one of the oldest (in not the oldest) temples in Tokyo. Very touristy and very traditional Japanese simultaneously. Tradition is tradition, and despite the smiles, young people still go through the rituals there.
The famed Roppongi, which was sold to me by just about every one of my colleagues as the place to hang out, turned out to be a dump. Yes, there are western-style bars there, and yes, there are Westerners in those bars. So fucking what. There are also giant shopping centers (barf) and a few blocks of red-light stuff, namely some dens manned by large (reportedly) Nigerians who try to talk you into a "strip club" with "free drinks". I hear you can't drink in those joints cz there is a good chance the drinks are spiked, but who knows. In any case, I stay away from seedy crap like this anyway (in Hong Kong I lived in Wan Chai, which is a renowned world-famous sailor hookerville).
Prices for most things in Tokyo are like in NYC, only in yen. In Akihabara, which is supposed to be this giant electronics market, I looked around for a Casio watch because mine is failing. Didn't buy one because the Pro-Trek series I wanted is more expensive here then it is in the States. No magic here, after all.
Amazingly enough, the office in Japan is almost as relaxed as the one in Hong Kong. I kind of expected an elevated level of Asian manner-minding, but to my surprise there wasn't one. I guess this is not a purely Japanese company and plenty of expats have somewhat watered it all down.
People are nice, especially old folks. A few times old ladies asked me if I needed help when I was standing in front of a metro entrance studying the map. An old couple spoke to me in English in the elevator the other day, completely impromptu, and asked if I enjoyed Tokyo. I was coming back from Shibuya which I hated, but they were nice so I lied and said yes.
In 3 days, I think I have seen 2 police cars. Either there is no crime, or I am simply not walking down properly crime-ridden avenues.
Speaking of police -- the patrolmen I did see at the airport and Tokyo JR station carry revolvers. Revolvers!
At the hotel, the internet is free. If you can get it to work. This is, mind you, Japan. And, mind you, a business hotel. In Hong Kong, it took a few mouse clicks. In Tokyo, when I first got into my room, I spent two hours trying to get a connection because I needed to cache Tokyo city map on my mobile Google Maps app and look up a few places. After two hours, I called front desk. Very polite manager sent me a non-English speaking dude with a Hitachi computer, which he proceeded to hook up to the wire and got a connection. At that point his posture told me his job is was done. The fact that I demonstrated my laptop was not getting a connection no matter what didn't phase him one bit. I sent him away. In the end, it took me some more time to figure out that a) I need to wait about 2-3 minutes for the login page to show and b) that the page will be blank unless you manually change encoding to Unicode or Japanese, and c) that even after that the page is 99.9% Japanese except a Start button that is the one I need to click and finally d) that I needed to wait another 3 minutes for the IP address to be assigned to me. And have I mentioned this is Japan? After this experience, and the funny stories about TSE, I am starting to think Fukushima was not really an accident.
To be continued.