shinjuku harajuku shibuya ginza roppongi

Brian and I set off for the train station at about 11:30 one Saturday morning. We were going to be ultra tourists: see all the sights, smell the smells, take all the pictures, get lost, eat out, buy a souvenir, and hopefully make it back for the midnight train. It took us about 30 minutes in the Omiya station to figure out how to get to Tokyo proper, and which ticket to buy, and which side of the platform to stand on (we couldn’t remember if the trains drove on the left too…they do). We decided to head to Shinjuku, it was an easy transfer, which we found out later was unnecessary, and it was the cheapest ticket. We waited in the heat, climbed aboard and were whisked away.

My first “really packed train” experience; it was not to be the first of the day either. The nice thing about the train being so full is that you do not have to hold on to the little handles, you just lean on the person next to you, and they, through many others, lean on the wall. Nobody falls over, its impossible. The not so nice thing is the smell, and the claustrophobia, and the panic attack, and the person next to you sneezing, and the old lady ramming her massive purse into your genitals, and the little kid staring at you the entire way…actually the kids are unbearably cute. The smell was by far the worst thing. Not because it smells like human, but because they pump in some type of cleaning agent that makes the train smell like a bucket of frogs ready for dissection.

I never thought the air of a city of 28 million would smell so good, but after the train, the smog and humidy of Tokyo smelled like 28 million roses. And it was hot. About 85 degrees and 40 percent humidity. Me and Brian set off to see what Shinjuku had to offer. We followed a sign that said “skyscraper district”. It was quite boring. We walked through a few alleys, found a map and headed for a Buddhist shrine.

The entrance to the shrine was bordered by a massive Tori, and even bigger trees. The Tori is the gateway looking thing that all shrines have at the entrance. Very beautiful, very humbling. We walked down a long, wide path and enjoyed the peace and quiet. It is very easy to forget you are in the biggest city in the world. The humidity was about twice as high as outside the shrine, but the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees.

We toured the actual temple, tried out the hand washing ceremony and left. The exit to the shrine dropped us right on the border of Harajuku. We stocked up on water and headed back into the noise. Harajuku was fun for about 5 minutes. Between getting hastled by street vendors, yelled at through megaphones, gangs of girls with pink and blue hair, other tourists and usual stink that accompanies touristy places(aka urine), we decide to walk straight through and not look back. We took our first right and headed toward Shibuya.

On the way I ran into my friend Cecile, some of you might remember her as the Italian exchange student. Yes, that’s right, I bumped into a friend (that I haven’t seen in years), in the middle of Tokyo…I walked around the rest of the day trying to wake up from some type of zany dream. After some quick catching up and story trading, she joined our hike and we were off through Shibuya. Shibuya is trendy, pricey and pretty. Not much else to it other than a few interesting buildings. Very European. Off to Roppongi.

Roppongi was very similar, a little more dirty, a little less pricey but not much to do. It was only about 4pm so there was not much going on. We walked around an observatory and a manmade garden that looked like a mini golf course compared to the shrine. We left.

Ginza was the next stop. Let me just say that Ginza makes 5^th ave NYC look like downtown Tucson AZ. Over the top lavishness, Ferraris, jewelry stores, clothing stores, old guys with 20 year old girlfriends and big cigars, not a single piece of trash on the floor, manicured gardens line the sidewalk, and expensive restaurants. Very beautiful, but very inaccessible. We went to the Apple store and chatted with some English speaking employees and the manager, they were very nice and helpful. We left and found the nearest train station.

It was about 9pm and the people were starting to come out. We were on a packed train heading back to Shibuya to get some dinner and see Cecile back home. And more people were coming out…eventually it dawned on me that it was Saturday night and everyone in Tokyo was heading out for the evening. Instantly, it was incredibly crowded, every street crossing was at maximum capacity, every train packed, every station, every line full.

I almost had a panic attack.

So we went to Denny’s. As I soon found out, Denny’s in Japan is like some kind of exclusive fancy restaurant. I was shocked, Brian assured me that it would be good, and it was. There were nicely dressed people, café style seating, and black gold aka American drip coffee. Totally different from Denny’s at home. I had South African style curry dish, I kid you not, at Denny’s. It was good, not spectacular though.

We said goodbye to Cecile, got on the most packed train of the day and stood very still all the way back to Omiya. We both felt like we walked about 15 miles we went got back home. Enough big city for me for a loooong time. I can’t wait to get to up to Fukushima and see some trees and mountains, breathe some clean air. 16 hours left here.