Tokyo has been fantastic. I don’t even know where to begin; it’s just great. I love Los Angeles, but Tokyo has everything I like about LA, plus the food is cheaper, the public transit is reliable, the roads are more walkable, there’s affordable housing, and everything is cleaner.
I think the only advantages LA has are the movie industry (ooh, I haven’t been to a theater here yet!) and, you know, the people I already know and love.
We’ve done several of the touristy things – we went to Tokyo Skytree, Cassie did DisneySea – but just existing here is maybe my favorite part. Just walking from place to place is so nice in a city that’s oriented around pedestrians instead of cars; most of the smaller roads are shared, no sidewalks, which means pedestrians have the run of the place and cars have to drive carefully. And the places (like downtown) where the roads aren’t shared, the sidewalks are all massive, and there are plenty of plazas and the like.
There’s so much greenery almost everywhere you go. Even the more downtown areas have frequent parks and gardens, but the residential area we’re in is just covered in plants – big bushy leafy greens.
The food is incredible. Even the cheapest, less-than-a-buck convenience store food is satisfying, and I had a bowl of ramen in a shopping mall food court that was probably one of my top ten meals of all time. And it’s all so cheap! Four of us went out for lunch at a great place and paid, like, $25. I think the only food that’s at all expensive is the American chains – we’ve done McDonalds once and looked inside a Starbucks, and the prices are pretty much the same as in the US.
Drew and I went shopping at Akihabara yesterday, and I actually found pants that fit me! Not shoes, though; I’m so so close to the cutoff, but I’m a Japanese 31, and most of the shoes only go up to 28 or 29. It does give me hope that if I find a bigger shoe store I’ll be able to find some – the little mall store we were looking at had a few $200 sneakers in my size – but I may just have to order shoes online.
And this has all just been Tokyo, which several people have told us isn’t even the best part of Japan! Actually, it hasn’t even really been Tokyo – just a few small portions of it! We haven’t even done some of the most famous bits, like Shibuya or Shinjuku!
Oh, one funny bit we’ve been realizing. A lot of people have been just throwing rapid-fire Japanese at us even though we’re clearly tourists, and if Drew isn’t around we just have to kind of smile and guess and mime. But last night, Drew and I went to an izakaya (think pub, but with seating for like 12 people tops, and run by a single family), and it clarified why that kept happening.
When we first walked in, the master was like, “Oh! Tourist? Tourist, yes?” in broken English. All Drew said in response was “Hai,” (yes, in Japanese), and the guy’s immediately like, “Ah! Nihongo o hanashimas! Doozo yoroshiko!” and basically turned right into assuming we were both fluent. So apparently they’re not used to tourists making even the barest minimum of effort here – if you speak even a word of Japanese, they just assume you speak full Japanese. Maybe it’ll be different elsewhere in Tokyo or Japan, but it was really funny to realize that had been happening here.
Today we’re planning on taking things a bit easier, but we’re planning on Kyoto probably over the weekend. Maybe Cassie will post later about her time at DisneySea, but just the story I got last night implied it’ll be a lot of “We stood in line for two hours.” So be ready for that!