Tokyo the Mad...

A link to the pics I snapped is at the bottom of the post.

We set out Monday morning bright and early. The weather was beautiful, and laden with our packs, we headed into the city. Soon we were off on our way to Tokyo via the Hikari Railstar, the not quite fastest Shinkansen Bullet Train. I sorely underestimated how tiring rail travel would be, and soon the novelty of the train wore off. We got off at Shin-Osaka, transfering trains for the second leg of our trip to Tokyo. After a grueling 6 hours, we arrived ready to get to our hotel and start exploring the city. Only as we watched mile after mile of city pass by our window did we truly start to grasp just how big Tokyo really is.

Tired, but excited, we left the train to the hell that is Tokyo Station. I imagine that a near-future Distopian world would closely approximate Tokyo Station. Not the nice, orderly, fascist world inhabited by clone-like baldies in hospital whites eating Soylent Green day-in and out, but rather the underworld where the underclass live. Tokyo Station was a multi-story building sprawling out in all directions, with people from all over the place hurrying about in some sort of Brownian-model chaos. Perhaps it was sheer stubbornness, but I was determined to find my way out. Sadly, after 40 minutes I was defeated, and asked an information booth how to get to the subway station near our hotel.

While the subway was another adventure that would take a few trips on for us to get used to, we managed to arrive at the Sakura Hotel with little fanfare. Checking in, we were greeted with a fairly nice place, decidedly budget but well worth what we were paying. At $40 a night per person, we had a clean, air-conditioned, and surprisingly roomly place to bunk down for the night. But it was still only about 4pm, and so after a consultation with my friend Jon, also by coincidence in Tokyo with his friends, as well my cousin Miwa, a 10-year resident of the megalopolis, we decided to head to Akihabara, Mecca of geeks and otaku the world over.

My first impression was that of being underwhelmed. Somehow, I imagined a more densely packed, almost European-style street market (local Toronto readers think: Kensington Market) filled with all manner of maid and cosplayers, reeking of geek-sweat and ionized air from all the electricity. Instead, what awaited us was what was at first-glance a built-up shopping area that
catered to the anime-oriented. After a while, we headed for trendy Shibuya, to meet up with my cousin and Jon.

Exiting Shibuya station at the famous Hachiko exit, we were greeted by a throng of young Tokyo-ites, all doing the same as us and using the famous dog-statue of Hachiko as a meeting place. The story of the dog goes that the dog would always wait at the train station exit for her master. One day, here master didn't return (I don't recall the reason why, but war seems likely). Hachiko waited and waited, every day, eventually dying from old age. This story is the basis of one of the more touching Futurama episodes.

After we all managed to meet up, we headed for Tucanos, a Brazilian eatery researched by Jon. There, I ate more meat than I thought possible. Vegitarians, Vegans, Jainites, and Animal Activists may want to skip looking at the picture I took of one side of beef. All others who enjoy the consumption of rump-roast, tenderloin, top sirloin, ribs, sausages, wings, and other parts of the meat portion of the food pyramids should make way to Tucanos to indulge their carnivorous habits.

After dinner, we headed to a bowling alley. An awesome place lit with black-light, I played my first ever game of 10-pin. Fun times were had by all, but soon exhaustion caught up with us at we called it a night. Travel back to the hotel was interesting, with drunk salarymen abound. We arrived back at the hotel just after 1am, and fell into fitful sleep thanks to my inadvertently turning on the heat.

Pictures here.