I have many things that I want to write about here so might just try to just get the jumbled mess of it down however it happens to flow out -- hopefully it will make some sort of sense.
Japan is a strange place, one which is associated in the west with ultra-hi-tech developments, effieceny a strong sense of tradition, Hello Kitty, neon and cramped spaces. All of the above has some truth in it but their are levels of truth here and things aren&t always as they seem.
One of the things that intimidated me about Japan before my arrival was the thought as too how far ahead of the rest of the world they must be in technological terms and the resultant effect of this on various industries and more specifically mine, that of media production. What I found instead is a production industry which, like any industry, has its quirks. No, it is not ahead of the game in terms of technology, they have programs on TV that look as tacky as anything that can be produced by Hollywood, Australia, or Singapore - or any production industry really. In fact, some things here are still done in what some would consider an old fashioned style -- for instance, when the news of the earthquake on Kyushu ran, they had a map of the island to show where the quake hit. In Australia, this would have been illustrate with computer graphics, animating the depreciation of magnatude as it expanded outwards from the epicentre. On Japanese TV the epicentre of the quake was shown on an actual physical map of the outline of the island and then the camera zoomed in on the affected area. Ok, so it was still effective in conveying the idea and has something to be said for its simplicity, it was just a technique that I haven't seen used for very many years, especially on national TV. Perhaps it is a cultural thing, something that harks back to models and minitures used in the old Godzilla movies.
Having spent over a week now here in Japan, one of the most surprising things is the extent of the language barrier. Now, of course this is Japan and for that reason alone it would be extremely ethno-centric of me to expect that most people have some command of english, however, I have been somewhat mis-informed by some people who have said that it is easy to communicate in Japan as most Japanese understand English. I have found that the opposite is true, which is also quite surprising when you see the number of different English language schools around the place (they are not quite as prevalent as Starbucks, but almost).
In many ways Japan is very closed to western travellers, as there is not much tourist information provided here for the foreign traveller, and indeed if you have left home without your guide book, you are making things harder for yourself (trust me, I am one of those who decided to try and step off the beaten track sans book). As a result however you find your self doing what all travellers do when in a new coutry, they network with other travellers and work out cool places to visit. You also take advantage of the knowledge base of the staff at the hostel (or hotel) as a way to find out interesting things to do.
Having said that, I have found Tokyo a very easy city to get around in. Sure it might take you a minute or five to work out the basics of the subway system, but once you have sussed that out, you are free to move about the city as you wish. Okay so it will take you a bit of staring a the complex map of the subway system everytime you want to buy a ticket or need to make a transfer but you will find many locals standing beside you doing the same thing.
Tokyo Subway Map. Looks intimadating, don't it.Tokyo, like most cities, is about commerce, and as such many of the locations you will find yourself heading for are shopping districts. Whether it be the upmarket Ebisu, the funky and stylish Harajuku, or the hectic in face neon maze of Shinjuku or Shibya, when in Japan you are very much a part of the machine. At times when walking through Shibuya I felt like a pin-ball being bounced between one fractilising neon surface and another - and all this was in the daylight hours so I can only imagine what it will be like when I have to go through again at night sometime later this week.
Of the strange commercial expereinces to engage in is a trip to Tokyo Hands. Tokyo Hands is really just a kind of department store which has one of its outlets in Shibuya. It is about 7 stories high which sounds big but each floor is fairly small for a department store. So it is not the magnitude of the store which is so amazing, but rather the collect of products which it stocks. If you want iPod accessories, no worries, you want foam balls, Halloween costumes, wallets, dice, branches, steel capped boots, wool, a circular saw, nose putty or shower clocks and radios, its all here. This list does not do the store justice, it really has to be seen to be believed.
While still on things Shibuya, it is also the place where most Tokyo teenagers are known to hang out and as such can be thought of as the centre of youth culture in Tokyo. It is also the famous location of the statue of Hachiko, who is perhaps the most famous dog in Japan. Hachiko was an Akita who used to wait for his master at the trainstation each night for him to return from work. One day however, his master died while at work; it is then said that for the rest of his life Hachiko would go to the station to wait for his master arrival. You can read the whole story
here. After already extending my stay in Japan until the 2nd of April, it seems that there might be another reason to extent it to
after the 8th of April. Although I reckon it will only make me miss Kabu so much more, so maybe it is not such a good idea.
