Day 37, Sunday: Tokyo!

We arrived in Tokyo today! There was an immediate sense that we had entered a much different city than Osaka, even though both are quite large in geography and population. Tokyo is completely dense, busy, and insane. Having lived in NYC for a while (Manhattan, no less), we both thought that we were familiar with big city life and the busyness that goes with it. Well, Tokyo puts NYC to shame when it comes to packing people and businesses into the city limits. The station we arrived at, which is the main station for Tokyo, was big, but the station our hotel was at, the Shinjuku station, is actually the busiest train station in the entire world. And it must also be the largest physically, because it was really easy to get lost in there. I think what makes everything feel so huge is that the stations aren't just stations--they're also filled with food courts and small food vendors, and attached to department stores that also have food courts in the basements, so if you turn left you're at the train platform, but if you turn right you find yourself browsing jewelry and kim chi.

In the busier neighborhoods, like ours, every street we looked down was just packed, packed, packed with restaurants and bars. Every side street, every alley, had signs running the full height of the building listing the businesses on each floor. Our hotel, unbeknownst to us when we booked it, was one of the nicer hotels either of us has ever stayed at, and was part of a newer complex of upscale shops and hotels. And it was unexpected, because that neighborhood is also home to the red light district and a lot of smaller, local (read: not so hot on foreigners entering) bars. There was also a Krispy Kreme there, which must be the only one in all of Japan because every time we passed it there was a line wrapping around the front of the building (a 30-minute wait!).

Eastern view from our hotel

Same at night.

Archer's been really into taking pictures lately. This is from his "experimental" series.

The walkway to the hotel had a bunch of Christmas lights set up, and Archer was REALLY excited about them. (I think only .5% of the population or something is Christian, but pretty much every store has Christmas decorations and music playing.)

Kate writing now:
Our first afternoon we went to Harajuku because I was really excited to see the "Harajuku Girls" in their costumed finery. They were an interesting sight, but of course, they thought WE (read: the boys) were interesting and wanted to chat with them.

Then we went to the Meiji Jingu shrine which was quite lovely. We arrived at dusk, so the lanterns were on and we were lucky enough to see a wedding procession pass through. The shrine was celebrating its anniversary, so there were large offerings of vegetables, fruits, preserved meats and fish, and liquor that the faithful had donated.

We left the park and wandered through crowds of hip young Tokyoites before finding dinner.

After fueling up on dinner*, we walked into the Shibuya neighborhood and walked through "Shibuya Crossing" -- a famous four way intersection. Our guide book sums it up by saying "the green light given to pedestrians releases a timed surge of humanity." We were amazed.

Here's a shot of the city traffic--doesn't look too different from other large cities:

And then the lights turn red and the humans invade:

Yes, all that darkness you see in the background is people! My word! And just as easily it all stops, and the cycle begins again. The incredible thing is that the crowd is never smaller the next time around.

*Actually, we again made the mistake of only getting two meals, and Archer and Malcolm ate mine entirely. So after the boys went to bed, I headed out to an Italian restaurant near the hotel, where I had some really, really tasty grilled Japanese temperate bass, sardines, and tiramisu--which had most of the right flavors, but no ladyfingers.