When Chris and I booked this trip,
there were two options about neck and neck for price. Fly to Saigon,
with like an hour layover in Tokyo, and fly to Bangkok, with a nineteen
hour layover in Tokyo. We took the Bangkok option, even though it
means we'll be doubling back through Bangkok after we go to Vietnam
(also, because at the time my south asia geography wasn't, like, great). We took it because of a simple, magical truth, one so
fundamental it escapes many people for years.
They let you leave the airport.
So, for the low price of grinding sleep
deprivation, we managed to add a day in Tokyo to our mad cap
transcontinental adventure. We got on the plane in LAX at one in the morning, and
got off it in Tokyo at five (which is actually a
twelve hour flight, because of the magic of time zones). We checked
our bags at a counter set up for that exact purpose (fun fact,
baggage storage is priced by volume- the nice man measured our bags
with a tailor's tape) and beelined for the clearly marked Tokyo
Told you
It turns out that the Japanese do not,
in fact, spend twenty four hours at post like NPCs. The district was
completely abandoned because it was six in the morning, but still
quite pleasant to wander through. Chris and I bided our time until
Tokyo woke up, systematically exploring the street vending machines. Truth- they are everywhere. Fiction- they sell beer and
underwear. Surprising fact- if you order a can of coffee or tomato
soup from one, it'll heat the item up for you.
After exhausting the green tea and
pocky reserves of the Harajuku district, we jumped back on the subway
for...I wanna saw, Shibuya district? Look, there are a lot of
districts. Anyway, it is a home of youth culture and political
speech, according Dr. Montegomery Google. We didn't find so much
culture, but again it was like noon on a Wednesday. Additionally,
there were...complications with the subway. Pro tip- if you put in
your ticket backwards, sometimes the machine stops working and two
sharply clothed subway attendants will be forced to dismantle the
turnstile in front of you and politely but curtly usher you through
to the station. Soooo, there's that.
Also, I swear to god the english
language version of the subway ticket menu drops some options. We
never missed a train but had to have an attendant buy our tickets for
us more than once.
Other things about Tokyo you know.
Super clean. At one point I came down
an escalator to see a man holding a rag to the hand rail of the
escalator (the rubber thing that moves with you, conveyor belt style)
with a watch in the other hand. HE KNOWS HOW LONG IT TAKES TO MAKE A
FULL REVOLUTION.
Polite. Chris and I are officially the
Abbot and Costello of international relations, but everyone was very
nice about it.
Punctual. The trains were, of course,
always right on time.
English words are used completely at random.
At least, I'm assuming that's random.
Things you don't know about Tokyo.
It is cheap. The dollar buys 130 yen, and
food was regularly like 400 yen. You can buy a little juice box of
rice wine for 83 yen, and we saw apartments for 29,000 yen a month.
No goddamm food. ANYWHERE. There's meat
on everything. At one point, desperate and starving, we dragged
ourselves into a Denny's, which, it turns out, doesn't serve
breakfast in Japan. I got what I thought was a cheese pizza only to
find ham hidden UNDER THE CHEESE.
There is a shit load of cultural mashup
in this town. People take language, style, and food influences from
America, England, all of Asia and a bunch of other spots and make it
something new. It's pretty cool.
See? That's two different places right there.
As for that toilet- it was in a special bathroom at the airport that had like five signs on the door. I have no idea how to work any of those things.
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