Rising

10-02-2010
Day 209 of 365: Tokyo, Japan. Largest city in the world. Home of the slickest gadgets, most reliable cars, most confusing subway/train system, best sushi, coolest animation, and most iconic movie monster on the planet. Last week I had the opportunity to travel abroad for the first time since moving to South Korea almost 7 months ago. I have to say that I loved every minute of it. It wasn't just the fact that Tokyo has always been at the top of my list of places to visit, but having the opportunity to see another part of the world and be immersed in yet another culture was very exciting. Like many Americans, I'm a huge "contributor" to the Japanese economy. But then, who doesn't love Sony, Nintendo, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc? Well, besides Korea that is.

So, yes, I have a huge crush on Japan. To be honest, the fact that Tokyo is a 2 hour flight from Seoul was a major influence in my decision to come to Korea. As a kid, it started when I found out that Nintendo was Japanese (of course), in addition to all the strangely cool cartoons like G-Force (Battle of the Planets) and Voltron. As a teenager, the hottest gadgets around were made by Sony. Remember Walkman or the original Playstation? And as for automobiles, the 3 cars I've owned in my life have all been Hondas (93' Accord, 98' Accord, 08' Civic). there are tons more examples, but it all comes down to this: Japan makes the coolest everything on the planet.

IUnlike my flight from the US to Korea, which was full of inner turmoil mixed with excitement and fear of the unknown, the flight to Tokyo was pretty easy and uneventful, and I was beginning to feel like a pro at passing through airport customs. The real initiation came when I had to make the 2 hour train ride from Narita airport to my hospitality on the far side of Tokyo. I wasn't prepared for how complicated the rail system was. At that point I felt as lost as when I first arrived in Korea, not yet being able to read Hangul. I enlisted the aid of a Korean girl whom I met on the flight to help me out. She practically rode the whole way there with me, even through two transfers. Over the next few days I learned, explored and got lost until I had whole system figured out.

In addition to being the world's largest city, Tokyo also has the highest cost of living in the world. This starts with public transportation. The subways, buses and taxis are all expensive. I only traveled by subway when exploring the city, and ended up spending around $15-20 each day. Food is a big expense also. I went cheap most of the time, spending between $7-12 for each meal. However, to put things in perspective, a Krispy Kreme donut in the US is around 79 cents the last time I checked, but in Japan it's about 2 bucks. You can apply this math to just about everything in Tokyo. That being said, I had a budget and I stuck to it. I brought enough money to spend about $100 a day maximum. I spent an average of $90 each day, so I didn't come home completely broke.

As for the city itself, it reminded me a lot of Seoul - hundreds of skyscrapers, flashing neon lights and something new around every corner. Both cities have multiple areas and districts that rival New York's Times Square. Shibuya and Shinjuku are two of the hotspots in downtown Tokyo, while Asakusa is a more cultural part of the city. Then you have Odaiba, a high tech area of the city that is actually an artificial island built in Tokyo Bay. I did a lot of people watching while there as well. I was hoping I'd be able to tell the difference between Korean and Japanese people after living in SK for 6 months, but it was a total failure. They all still look the same to me. I know that sounds really bad, but it's true. The only differences I could make out between them are that Korean men and women all follow the same fashion trends, so all the men dress alike, as do the women. In Japan, people's dress is more expressive, unique and original. Hair styles are different from Korea also.

I felt much more at home in Tokyo than in Seoul because I recognized all the cars on the road. Like Korea (and unlike the US), Japan buys it's own products, so Koreans drive Korean made cars, and Japan buys Japanese cars, but they don't buy each other's cars. That's because they still hate each other from the Japanese occupation of Korea more than 60 years ago. Koreans hold grudges I guess. The big difference in Japan is that they drive on the left side. I was totally thrown off on the first day when my buddy told me to ride up front, so I went to the right side of the car and he told me to go to the other side unless I wanted to drive. This happened more than once. I never quite got used to being on the left side either. Every time we were on the rode, there was at least one moment where I thought we were going to get smashed from driving into oncoming traffic, only to realize that we were indeed on the correct side of the road. This is also unlike Korea, where Koreans will indeed drive on the wrong side of the road at times. Often actually. Traffic laws aren't really laws in Korea, they're more like suggestions.

That's all for now. I'll be writing more in the coming days on specific sites i visited and other stuff. In other words, to be continued...

Cool Fact: Godzilla's name comes from a combination of two words that mean gorilla and whale, which is how he was first described by his creators.

Uncool Fact: I saw a honeydew melon being sold on the street for $60.