Friday, April 27, 2007

Tokyo part 1

There are two types of people here in Japan: the ones who prefer Kansai (type 1) and the ones who prefer Kanto (type 2). Kansai is the area I live in and it holds famous cities like Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Nara. It is the center of west-Japan and the Heimat of Japanese, traditional culture with Nara and Kyoto being the former capital respectively. An older, Kansai-dialect is something the people here pride themselves on. As the center of east-Japan (and of course of Japan in general) we have the Kanto-area with its main unit, the metropolitan city of Tokyo. The concentration of industry in Japan is the densest here and as such many Japanese flock to Tokyo in search for a job.
I used to be a type 1. This stems mainly from the fact that I have always lived in the Kansai-region. I had been to Tokyo once in May 2003, but I wasn't thoroughly impressed. "Yeah, Tokyo is alright", I used to say.

In my last post I talked about the trip to Tokyo my friends and I would embark on. We left my beloved Kansai with the 13:00 o'clock-Shinkansen on Thursday the 5th. We -that is Erez, Efrat, Natalie and I- were very excited to say the least.
After the usual business, like check-in at the hotel, we headed for Roppongi which is famous for its vibrant nightlife among other things to satisfy our primary need: hunger. We settled for a nice Indian restaurant located inside Roppongi Hills (in a complex adjacent to Mori Tower). I had already picked up a beer at the convenient store before even getting into the cab which brought us to Roppongi (to satisfy my personal primary need: alcohol), but nonetheless I was happy to discover it was happy hour at the restaurant. Then, I think it must have been around 19:00, we went up a couple of floors to enjoy the exquisite, nocturnal panorama. I started gazing out over Mori-park, the lit up TV Asahi-building that offered a beacon of light in the clear, nightly sky,... our German friend from Doshisha, Lalita, joined us up on the balcony. The cars twinkled with their white and red lights on the distant roads. "Wow, it's so beautiful here", I said to myself.


And that's when it hit me, Tokyo's superiority over a city like Osaka. I saw a glimpse of the allurement of Tokyo. Goosebumps covered my body.
Osaka is an enormous city with tons of restaurants, bars, places to go out etc. Just like Tokyo. But in se Osaka is quite unattractive. Ugly buildings connected to each other with endless wires and cables (in Belgium they've put that all underground). Osaka's amalgam of architecture is so vast it's certainly impressive, but it rarely is candy for the eye.
But here in Tokyo on my first night I had already found a view on par with the prettiest sites I've seen in Osaka. And the next couple of days this insight was reinforced. In Tokyo you have countless places that are aesthetically pleasing, buildings and skyscrapers that are so artfully constructed and attest of world-class ingenuity, that you stare at them in an awe of astonishment.

We finished off our night in The Hub, an English-styled pub. I used my usual joke to crack the ice with the bartender and get him to make my drink stronger than normal. "Look, I have a massive body, so I'm a pretty strong drinker. Therefore could you please make my drink a little bit stronger?" It's of course all in the way you deliver these lines, trying not to sound like a demanding asshole, but just like a jolly fella who is always smiling and will order a lot of drinks at the bar that night, IF you just provide him this little favor. Furthermore, I really can drink a little bit more than most people which always makes my wallet significantly lighter by the end of the night. The drink in question: Long Island Iced Tea, the king of all cocktails. The guy at The Hub was well-trained: 85% liquor, 15% coke. I approvingly laughed when he handed me over my Long Island and I told him it was perfect. Another satisfied customer. From the rest of the night I remember much laughter, amusing chatter et bien sûr, des boissons alcooliques.

The following day was broken in with coffee and sandwiches, followed by a soothing stroll in Yoyogi Park and some frisbeeing by Erez and I. What a wonderful atmosphere. People were having picnicks in the sun with the beautifully blooming sakura-trees offering comfort and shadow. The park was an oasis of peacefulness and greenery. But above the tree line you could see skyscrapers rising out to remind you that you're still in the middle of this juggernaut-city, never too far away from the next Starbucks or izakaya.
Harajuku with its outrageous fashion scene was interesting and I guess it motivated the girls to do some shopping, so we started walking to Shibuya, visiting stores along the way.
Around 16:30 I realized I still had to visit Yasukuni-shrine, more specifically the museum attached to the shrine, because the shrine itself I had already seen on my previous visit four years back. The shrine is famous around the world for its controversy due to the 12 convicted Class A war criminals who are enshrined there among ca. 2.5 million others who have given their life for Imperial Japan, especially in a time of war. In the museum WWII and Japan's motives are distorted, beautified and even glorified. In other words, it is worth a visit. I thought it was open until 18:00, so I was ecstatic to arrive there at 17:30, because I had hurried like my life depended on it. At the ticket counter of the museum I waited for someone to come and serve me, but nobody appeared from behind the counter. Cold sweat broke out. Had I... I asked one of the persons still roaming around on the ground floor entrance hall of the museum. The museum closes at 17:30 this time of year. Oh, the bitter taste of defeat.
No need to waste any more time, so I headed back to Shibuya to meet up with the girls if possible. Coming out of that station I got another taste of Tokyo's uniqueness: thousands of people crisscrossing each other on the spacious area in front of the station, while countless neon lights and video screens lit up the tall buildings in stark contrast with the nightly sky. For a minute I just stood in the middle of this hasty sea of people with a smile on my face at this incredible sight. It was just like Tokyo is said to be, like I wanted it to be. I called up Natalie and we were able to find a clear meeting point in this vast chaos of human beings: the Shibuya109-building.
Around 20:00-ish all of us met up at Yoyogi Koen-station after which we went to a FABULOUS restaurant, where an Israeli friend of Erez and Efrat called Shlomit who works in fashion was waiting for us with a couple of friends of her. Too bad haute cuisine equals muchos dolares. Subsequently the big event of the night followed: party. Shlomit had been able to use her connections in the fashion industry to put us all on the list of this exclusive club. Queue at the entrance, check. Two bouncers in black suits closing off the entrance by means of a velvet rope, check. Guest list, check. Influential-looking snobs, check. In one word: awesome ;)
The bartender seemed like a cool cat and I asked him to give me the strongest drink they had, which turned out to be whiskey-soda. In my merry state I tried out a new approach ordering my second drink. "If I'm still standing by the end of the night, that means you haven't done your job properly." He grinned and then started making the strongest Long Island Iced Tea I had drunk in a while. The club was excellent with many couches, a decent-sized dance area and dimmed lighting. I divided my time chatting, drinking and of course, shaking my behind. Arriving back from the dance floor to "our" comfy couches a shot of Jägermeister was forced into my hands accompanied by the simple order: "Drink!" Immediately after the girls handed me another one. And another one. At one point I was even drinking Champagne. In other words, it was a good night.

For reasons of length I'll finish up here and tell about my last day in my next post.

3 comments:

E.S. said...

I love your bartender lines...8-)

Anonymous said...

"used to be a type 1"? Are you trying to say, you're turning into a tôkyô-lover? ;)
too bad u didn't make it into the museum of war glorification, it sure is worth a visit!

Anonymous said...

Great work.