Welcome 2008, あけおめ

What do bad Japanese, The Matrix, and Michael Jackson have in common? My trip to Tokyo for New Year's.

I had NO definitive clue as to what I'd be doing for the winter break for months – there had been plans made, canceled, remade all across the board, but none seemed solid enough to convince me. Talking with my friend Nicole from high school, who was in country teaching at an English conversation company, I learned that she had no plans either. Coupled with the fact that she'd been here almost four months and I hadn't seen her yet, I thought it a good move to go and catch up, and at the same time take in some of Japan's largest city, of which I'd barely caught a glimpse of five months prior: Tokyo.

But the approach would not be easy. Getting there would be akin to the journey from Canada to Japan in that it'd be about a 10 hour trek. Cheapest way we could think of to get from here to there would be an overnight bus that would depart in the evening and arrive in the city very early the following morning. In truth, it sounded longer than it actually was. Good thing about the bus was that all the windows were curtained; even the front portion of the bus where the driver sat was cordoned off so it was incredibly dark in the cabin. The seats reclined a fair bit, and we were all given blankets. A few more degrees of incline and I almost would have sworn I was in bed. The only con was we stopped every few hours for pit stops. This was great for those with no bladder, but for the vast majority of the bus, being roused from deep REM sleep by lights and a large booming voice was akin to a continual near-death experience.

Arrival in Tokyo hit just shy of 6 AM. I'm still surprised by the number of people up and about in any given city before sunrise. It's no wonder that vampirism is on the rise these days. Getting in touch with Nicole was easy as she was still awake and in town from the night before (Tokyo partying for ya), so we hastily returned to her place (as fast as one can go on a 45 minute commute) for some sleep and food, both of which we desperately needed.

Bright-eyed and bushy tailed, my guide and I embarked to take on Tokyo by storm. Day one was probably the longest and the busiest, in that we saw the most things. We started in Shibuya, which is this sort of trendy party/shopping district – fun for both day and night. We observed the famed crossing from a lofty height in Starbucks – such crossing is apparently one of the busiest in the world. Too bad we hit it up on a random Sunday at 9 AM. Still cool nonetheless.

We then moseyed our way on over to Harajuku where sure enough there were people out in all sorts of anime/goth/just plain insane costumes to delight the tourists and get pictures taken. Truth be told, I've never fully understood it meself, but it didn't stop me from getting a few pictures taken with them. Navigating the endless and narrow streets gave witness to some of the most interesting and bizarre fashions I ever have seen. How on Earth some people walk buy and think, "That'd look good!" simply defies me. That being said, the businesses sure seemed to be thriving.

Later that evening, after passing the maddeningly expensive boutiques of Estee Lauder, Yves St. Laurent, and others, we found my friends @ the Gap, but declined an offer for dinner as we’d just eaten. Being far too tired to paint the town red that night, we visited the apartment of a few friend's of Nicole's and vegged to Japanese TV.

The next day following a wonderful sleep in, Nicole took me to Asakusa, which was host to Sensoji Temple. Not too sure what the story was behind this one other than it was very big and very crowded. A plus was that I was able to get a few more little Christmas presents for some people back home (Those keeping up with continuity will note that this is all taking place several days after Christmas).

The best part of this though was Nicole's foray into Japanese. I can't remember how it came up, but I had told her that during my solo trip to Himeji that I was forced to teach myself how to ask someone to take a picture of me in Japanese (Which I'm quite proud to say I thought of correctly all by myself). She wanted to know what it was so I taught her, sufficient that she had it memorized. Not content to let it just slip away, I told her that we must test it out to make sure that she had it committed to memory. Thus, to the first "Japanese" people that we saw approach us – a young couple – she walked up and said, "Sumimasen. Shashin o tottemo ii desu ka?" (Excuse me, can you please take a picture?), done with hardly a mistake. The young man smiled and replied – In flawless English – "Sure, no problem." Not only did he speak English, but it sounded native, with no accent or hesitation @ all. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that he was either a tourist visiting Japan as well, or someone who had lived abroad for MANY years. Needless to say, it was quite amusing that Nicole had to ask the one person who'd understand her in either language.

Oh, also, another thing to mention. Many people ask me how expensive it really is in Japan, and I tell them that on the average things are either the same or only slightly more expensive. On the average. On the other hand, it is possible to find things for much less expensive, as evidenced by our shopping around Sensoji. We found several shoe stores that were offering dozens of styles for about $20 CAD. And I'm not talking knock-off sneakers or anything. I mean full dress shoes and heels and just about any kind of shoes that you'd want. Needless to say, $50 and 3 pairs of shoes later, I was a happy boy. So don't let the image of omni-expensive Japan fool you.

Shopping and donuts later, we returned home to Yokohama to prep for the night – New Year’s Eve. After prettying ourselves up, we grabbed a few drinks (Amen to being able to drink in public and on the trains), and headed back into Tokyo. We met up with a large group of Nicole and Audrey's (another friend from high school who was living with Nicole. They came over from Canada together) friends in Shibuya, along with countless other thousands of Japanese and foreigners alike. I swear, it felt more like Toronto to me what with all the different ethnicities in the same place. Aside from the signs in Japanese and the public drinking, I would have thought I was back home for a minute.

The countdown occurred on a randomly passing bus. We screamed. We hugged. We kissed. Such was the entrance into 2008. Next, after many deliberations and varied delays, we made it to a club around 1 to dance the year away. We somehow bartered the doorwoman to let us in for only $15 when the cover that night was $40, and I somehow kept drinking for free by recycling the one drink ticket that I had. Won't bore you with the details, but it was a fun, albeit tiring night. Audrey, her boyfriend, and I left after 4; while Nicole and a bunch of Australians hung around until 7 or 8 (The clubs don't really close here. You can dance all night if you want). Hats off to the subways being open all day that night. I think it was close to 6 when I finally passed out, a pile of exhaustion and exuberance.

Maybe... 2 the next day, I struck out alone to view a few more places. Among them, Akihabara. This is the famed district in Tokyo where you can get any electronic known to man. Now, I was originally under the impression that one would be able to find things five years ahead of Canadian standards for five times less the price. The reality of the situation is that all and all, you're going to pay about the same, however the quality is better. Thus, what you'd spend for a top of the line camera from Futureshop is what you'd spend here, but the one here is probably that much better than the Futureshop one. If you were to get the EXACT same camera, then you'd find it a cheaper price here as it'd probably be "older". To that end, I didn't see anything that I NEEDED, but did pick up a game or two for my DS and almost got a cordless keyboard for me laptop. All and all, what I DID want or need I could probably get back in Tottori.

On the train ride back, it stopped in Shimbashi, which I'd studied about in textbooks, and I thought, "I'm not rushing anywhere. I have the time. Why not?" So I get out and walk around. I think that a few hundred years ago it was a pleasure quarter of sorts. Now, it's a major business center. Think Bay Street. That being said, on New Year's Day, at 8 PM. It was empty. And I mean EMPTY. There was maybe a five or ten minute stretch where I saw no one @ all – no cars, no pedestrians, no one. And this is in one of the biggest cities in the world. I thought that I'd walked into a B-movie and zombies were going to appear out of the alleyways. As I'm walking along, I come to an intersection and notice Tokyo Tower somewhat distant to my left. The "Why not" thought crossed my mind, and I decided to walk towards it. For the next 45 minutes or so. Lovely view, by the way. I highly recommend going @ night – can't see as much detail, but it's beautiful.

Next day! We hit up Kamakura, city that held the effective executive power of the country for a few hundred years. This mission in and of itself was daunting; took up almost two and a half hours from the apartment to getting off the last train. Transport in Japan? Efficiency, yes. Timely, no. At one point during the trek, the train made a funny movement that caused Audrey to almost fall. But this almost fall was in bullet-time. It was like watching it happen in slow motion. Her vain arm movements, the expression on her face, the speed at which she was moving... It was as if someone has set the movie to slo-mo just to scrutinize every moment in agonizing detail. Amazingly, she didn't even fall in her seven second voyage towards the floor.

We only had time for a few places as I had to be back to catch my train, so we saw the Daibutsu (Literally, Big Buddha) and another temple whose name escapes me. Crowded, crowded, crowded as everyone was at the temples to pray for the new year. We couldn't join as the wait was something like two hours, so instead we just ate from various vendors around the temple and became fat from so many Japanese foods.

Thus, at this point, I had to bid farewell to me friends and hightail it back to Tokyo to make my bus, which! I did with perhaps one minute to spare. Though when I got there, I found out that my time was just the boarding time, and that the bus wouldn’t leave for anther 15 minutes. Ugh... Funny thing happened when I got on. A man in front of me turned back and said, "Same bus" a few times, which I took to mean that it was the same bus that we'd come to Tokyo on (which I knew it wasn't). He eventually explained that it we had rode on the same bus to Tokyo together four days prior. He said that he remembered me because I reminded him of Michael Jackson. *Insert eye roll here. Needless to say, that brought a smile to me face. So long as he was referring to Jackson 5 Michael.

Weirdest thing about the trip was that towards the end, I was actually looking forward to coming back to Tottori. Big city living and all that as it was, I thought it all a little too... busy? Hectic? Fast-paced? I'm not sure how to coin it. But whatever it was, it had me longing for the relaxing air of the country. Or it could just be that in Tokyo, I'm just another common foreigner, while in my city, I'm Michael Jackson.