Tokyo
The capital of Japan, formerly known as Edo and our last destination. How can we put this experience into words for you? Let’s say it’s a lot to take in and describing it in a structured way will be challenging. So, we’ll break down our impressions of the city into catogories.
Transport
After returning our little white non-smoking aqua car to the rental, we headed to the station and made use of the enormous public transportation network around the city. You could say that there’s a whole world beneath Tokyo, filled with train and metro lines, walking tunnels, shops, stores… it’s easy, fast and quiet. You can hop off the metro, travel underground for hundreds of meters and take an escalator directly to the shopping mall or building you want to visit. Now we understand why so many people use it and why it gets so crowded, especially during rush hours or rainy days. It’s the ideal way to get around Tokyo.
Let’s talk about the cars in Japan and specifically in Tokyo. In cities like Osaka, Kyoto, and Hiroshima the cars were rather small and cube-shaped. This made much sense after seeing the parking spaces at their houses or even in the city. It’s not unusual to see them parked at home with only a few centimeters between the car and the wall or fence. Next to that, everyone takes excellent care of their car no matter the size or the brand. Seeing a car with a dent or a scratch is exceptional. The way they take care of their car makes it possible to drive it for a long time.
There are also many models that aren’t available in Europe, mostly they are designed to fit the narrow streets of Japan and not take up much space but the luxury cars are different. I’ve seen models of Honda, Toyota and Lexus I wish they would sell on the European market. The new Prius, however, is a familiar sight, and it’s clear the Japanese love it!
The car scene in Tokyo itself stands out, here the cars are a lot bigger but you will also see many expensive and tuned cars in the city. You can pick a place next to a big street and enjoy the amount of wonderful cars that will pass by. If you’re lucky enough there’s a chance that you’ll pass by a group of wonderful cars on the street or even a parking space. We’ve heard there was a special meeting place in Japan for tuning cars but it’s only accessible by car. A pity, nevertheless I still enjoyed the cars that were showing off in the big city.
Lights, music, billboards… a little bit of chaos
Shinjuku, Shibuya and Akihabara are the three most hectic parts of Tokyo, each with their own charm. Shinjuku has Tokyo’s busiest station and on top of that the busiest railway station in the world, impressive to see and experience. The station however is pretty calm when it’s not rush hour and you can wander around in the underground maze. Going up we went to the top floor of the government building and enjoyed a view of Tokyo city and its skyscrapers.
Shibuya is most famous for its crossing, where hundreds-sometimes thousands- of people cross the road every five minutes. The streets connected to the crossing are packed with stores of all types. In this part of the city, you will never feel alone and will see plenty of tourists. The buildings are covered with huge LED screens and speakers to make sure everyone sees the advertisements or announcements.
Akihabara is the place if you like gaming, manga, building computers or when in need of electronic parts. Feels a bit like computer heaven, not the best place to send a nerd like me. You can go into a single shop and buy all the parts you need to build a computer. Multiple shops have all these electronic components, going from a simple distribution plug to specific parts to fix your turntable.
An eye for detail
That Japan has a thing for decoration and art was already clear by the manhole covers. In Tokyo it was different. We didn’t find a lot of nice manhole covers but there was other art to enjoy. You could see paintings on the walls, decorated shutters, and railings all over the city.
Next to that, we saw some amazing art, a photo exhibition, the Ginza art aquarium and DisneySea. First, the photo exhibition was a collaboration of various photographers mostly about the streets of Tokyo. The photos we saw there were clearly on a different level than the ones we took and added to the blog. Showing the beautiful parts of Tokyo from a different perspective as well as the less beautiful parts. The Ginza art aquarium is not the usual kind of art. The museum houses all sorts of goldfish and artistically shows them. We never saw so many different goldfish and definitely not in such a beautiful way. We can’t explain but can hopefully let you enjoy via a photo.
And last, there was DisneySea! As the big Disney fan Delphine is, we had to visit the resort. Because Tokyo is the only place that has a DisneySea, we chose this above Disneyland. Even though the attractions were not always Disney-related the decorations of the park were breathtaking! To make it complete, there were a lot of visitors (young and old) who dressed up as their favourite Disney characters. We mentioned before that we had the feeling that we were walking in a theme park before, but this time it was actually the case and you only notice a small difference. Instead of nicely trimmed bushes, they were trimmed on the centimetre and not a single piece of garbage.
Japanese outside of work
During our stay in Tokyo, we tried to discover what locals do in their free time except for anime, gaming and eating. One thing was clear from day one: they love slot machines. They are everywhere, but really everywhere. Hundreds of men playing next to each other without winning money because that’s illegal. Instead, you are winning tokens, pinballs or other items which you can exchange for cash in another store. There were always people playing but on Friday and Saturday evenings, it was very crowded.
Next to that, we visited the two biggest red light districts of Tokyo, Kabukicho and Ikebukuro. To be honest, it is kind of a habit to see red-light districts in different countries, as they often have unique lighting and energy. Eventually, this is something almost every country has. Even though prostitution is prohibited, it is obviously still happening. At different corners, we saw girls with signs and men in suits discreetly coordinating. At one point tons of young boys and girls were standing side by side on the road with a sign, waiting for a client to choose them. The way things work here is way different than in Belgium which left a real impression on us.
All over Japan and even more around the red light district there are love hotels. A hotel where you can stay overnight or “rest” for a few hours. These hotels are designed for people who want you have sex in a safe, silent or themed place. It is not only for prostitution or cheating but also for couples who don’t have the space at home when living with kids or multiple generations.
During our last days, we tried to catch the Halloween spirit in Tokyo. It wasn’t until evening that we started to see people dressed up, but far less than we expected. We visited a night market with again a lot of amazing food and live music. For the first time, we really saw Japanese people party. It was like they lost the stress of the week and let the music take over their body and mind. At the live concert, everybody (mostly men) was singing and dancing without any shame. They knew the lyrics and choreography by heart. We have to agree that it stays in your head for a while. Their enthusiasm and energy was contagious.
Manhole covers
Now about our collection. Sadly enough Tokyo was also not invested in decorating their manhole covers. Around the whole city, we found only a few! As a consolation two friends of ours, who were also in Japan, sent us a very cute one from around Mount Fuji that we’ve missed. We definitely have to share this with you!
Sadly, our adventure in Japan has come to an end. By the time you read this, we are already in another country. We would like to reflect on our stay in every country by saying one thing we admire about them and one wish we would like to give to them. For Japan, we strongly admire their level of respect for objects, people and their country.
To them, we would like to wish them more social connections with each other. We feel like they are living very fast and kind of lonely. Less living in the online world and more real-life conversations with one another.
Japan has been great to us and we would love to go back sometime.
