I decide to go to Hakone today because the weather is the best it has been for the whole week. My brother is staying on until next Monday. My flight leaves in the evening at 8:30. My brother has some misgivings about taking a trip out of town on the day of departure, but I assure him it will be ok. As it turns out, he has a point.
After a Japanese breakfast of rice with fish and various tidbits we walk to Keisei Ueno station and deposit my bag in a locker. I then walk 100 metres to the JR Ueno station and catch a train to Shinjuku. With the aid of the Japanese names supplied by my brother I find the Odakyu station. JR is the main train operator in Japan but there are other lines. Keisei is one and Odakyu is another. The trip will take 90 minutes. This train is designed to carry holiday makers to Hakone so it stops only once, at Odawara, about 6 km from the entrance to Hakone park. I have been put in a smoking car since I probably didn't realize what the ticket clerk was asking me at the counter. But there are a few unoccupied seats and I manage to sit apart from the smokers.
At Hakone-Yumoto I transfer to a mountain railway. This is the start of the ascent up Hakone park, which is about 800 metres above sea level. At several points in the ascent, the train has to reverse direction to continue the ascent because the tracks are arranged that way to reduce the amount of space taken up the railway. Some of those turning areas have space for two trains, one in each direction, so the area serves the purpose of a bypass as well.
At Chukoku-no-mori I get off. There is an open air museum here with sculptures and mobiles by famous artists such as Picasso and Moore.
The grounds command an impressive view of the valley below. At this time of the year, one can see red leaves on trees. I spend an enjoyable hour here wandering among the pieces.
From Chukoku-no-mori it's a short walk to Gora, the start of the funicular railway. It's about 1:30 pm now and I should be back in Tokyo by 6 pm at latest. At this point I begin to have some misgivings about the time required for the rest of the trip. Still to come is a cable car ride, a boat ride and a bus ride. The last will take about an hour. However I feel it would a shame to turn back now so I forge ahead.
At Sounzan many passengers get off to admire the view. Several hotels and a youth hostel are nearby. Perhaps some day I'll spend a night here.
A cable car takes us over the mountain to Togendai. On the way we pass over Owakudani (Valley of Greater Boiling) which is an old crater of Mount Kamiyama. Hot steam and foul sulphurous fumes emerge from fissures in the ground, which is bare, for no vegetation will grow here. Yellow sulphur deposits stain the ground. Pipes and workers are all over, for the hot water that emerges is piped to hot spring facilities elsewhere.
From Owakudani, it is downhill to Togendai, which is on the shores of Lake Ashi. Lake Ashi is a popular vacation spot for fishing and boating. As this was the off-season, it is rather quiet. On clear days, Mount Fuji is reflected in the lake. However the day has gotten overcast and Fuji is hidden behind the clouds. I did however get a glimpse of snow peaked Fuji while on the train to Hakone.
A pleasure boat takes us to Hakone-Machi, at the other end of the lake. The boat is decorated to look like a European pirate vessel. It looks rather incongruous here. A recorded tourist spiel explains the sights we are passing, but alas mostly in Japanese.
Perhaps I should have come prepared with a guide book. It does however mention a hut which is the beginning of a huge underground tunnel to carry water from the lake to the lowlands. Considering this was done in the 19th century using only human labour, it's an impressive feat of engineering.
From Hakone-Machi I catch a bus back to Odawara. By this time it's 3:30 and the trip is expected to take one hour. This means that the first train I can get out of Odawara is the 4:43 Shinkansen express which will get me into Tokyo around 5:30. I might just make it to the 6:00 Keisei Skyliner express, which will allow me to check in at 7:00 as planned. Will probably have to forego dinner though. I must admit this worry at the back of my mind didn't increase my enjoyment of the trip. I would like to come back some other day and walk the quiet paths by the lake in a more leisurely fashion. The bus is packed with holidaymakers returning home and my heart sinks everytime there is a lengthy delay with boarding or disembarking passengers. By the time we approach Odawara, it is obvious that I'm going to have to take the next train, at 5:11. Another worry is whether I can get onto the train without a reservation. Shinkansen trains may turn away passengers without reservations if they are full. It looks like I'll have to modify my plans: arrive in Tokyo, take a side trip to Ueno to fetch my bag, then catch the JR Narita express instead of the Keisei Skyliner express.
The bus arrives at Odawara station about 4:50 and I race into the station. At the booking office, I have a little hiatus trying to communicate with the counter clerk that I want a Shinkansen ticket to Tokyo and also a Narita express ticket. But all is sorted out before the minutes run out.
The English girl ahead of me is trying to sort out her accommodation in Tokyo that night, which has not been determined. Accommodation is very tight in Japan this time of year, or even perhaps all the time now. I had tremendous difficulties booking a room for the symposium and I got the Holiday Inn room only through a cancellation. We wish each other luck. I'm not sure whose shoes I would rather be in at this moment, hers or mine. I make it to the platform with 10 minutes to spare.
On the Shinkansen, stopping once at Shin-Yokohama, I review my plans. The train arrives in Tokyo station at 5:48. The Narita express departs at 6:31, arriving in Narita at 7:29, one hour before departure. Cutting it fine, but doable. 43 minutes to pick up my bag from Ueno station. Perhaps 15 minutes each way worst case, leaving 13 minutes to run from platform to platform. Ok, so I would have to hit the ground running. Thankfully, the tourist information brochures I had give a cross section of the Tokyo platforms so I know exactly which direction to race towards. It's also fortunate that trains are very frequent on the Yamamote line to Ueno.
I join the commuter squeeze on the Ueno train and arrive at JR Ueno. The trip only takes about 9 minutes or so, which gives me a bit more margin. First buy a return ticket to Tokyo before I have a heavy bag on my hands. Then I run all the way to Keisei Ueno, snatch the bag out of the locker and now laden with one heavy bag, alternately run and walk back to JR Ueno. I'm glad that I know the layout of these stations well by now. I jump onto a train headed back to Tokyo, sweating like a hog, drawing curious glances from the girl seated opposite me. I make it to the Narita express platform with 10 minutes to spare. I now know that I've won the race, barring breakdown of the Narita train. Since all seats on this train must be reserved, I'm glad that I thought to book a place on the Narita train back in Odawara, using the JR's excellent online reservation system. I'm glad that in Japan, the rail system works so well. I also had going for me the fact that the information brochures are so detailed.
Was it worth it, to work up all this adrenaline to see a few more sights? Hakone-Machi wasn't spectacular, but I would have liked to spend some time wandering the wooded paths, which would not have been possible on a one day trip anyway. Perhaps the lesson is not to take an out of town trip the day of departure. In retrospect, I probably should have turned back at Togendai since the boat and bus accounted for most of the delay. But one of my maxims in life is to take the less travelled path whenever possible. So I don't know. What would you have done?
The Narita train is the best way of traveling between Tokyo and the airport. As the crow flies, Narita is 50 km from Tokyo, but the line is 80 km long. The Express covers the distance in 58 minutes. The train is fast, but some of the speed comes from not having to make stops. The train is air-conditioned with spacious luggage racks and overhead compartments just as if the train is a continuation of a plane flight. A LED matrix displays selected news items and phone calls can be made. Excellent value and certainly much better than buses or the prohibitively expensive taxis, which would take even longer negotiating the traffic. Car travel in urban Japan is generally a lost cause due to delays caused by heavy vehicles.
In urban Japan it is impossible to get away from crowds, such is the population density. I think the next time I would like to spend more time in rural Japan. But first I will have to learn some Japanese.
The weather forecast is not good. It looks like it will rain a lot today. I check out of Holiday Inn and go to Yayoi Kaikan. I leave my bag in the cloak room because I can't check in before 3 pm. I still have half a hope of visiting Hakone, a park outside Tokyo. In any case I need some breakfast so I go to Shinjuku station, where the self-service ramen shop is. I can't find it today; there are so many passages in the station it could be lurking in. I give up and buy some pastry for breakfast. I do a bit more CD shopping. Fortunately the Shopnade (shop+promenade?), an underground passage, runs underneath Shinjuku, linking all the major shops so I don't have to get wet.
By time I'm finished shopping it's raining harder so Hakone is out of the question. Perhaps I'll take a look at Harajuku, the next district. I emerge from the station and it's still raining and I have no umbrella. I stand around for a while hoping the rain will abate. While I'm waiting there, several Japanese attempt to start a conversation with me. I can't figure out what they want, but my guess is that they are evangelists, since there's a Christian school in a nearby ward. After a while I decide to buy an umbrella from the shop opposite the station. So I dash across the road and buy one. I inspect the main street of Harajuku in the rain. There's a Meiji shrine in the park nearby but it's too far to walk in this rain. So I head down the road towards Shibuya, the next district. Trendy boutiques line the streets. Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya are districts young people like to visit.
Outside Shibuya station is a bronze statue of a dog, Hachiko. According the plaque nearby, Hachiko lived with his master, a professor, in the 1920s. He used to accompany his master to Shibuya station in the morning and back in the evening. One day his master was taken ill at work and died there. Hachiko continued to come to the station and would sometimes remain there for days, in the hope that his master would return. He continued to do this for several years until he died. Even before his death, Hachiko became well known in the neighbourhood for his loyalty so the residents resolved to erect a statue honouring him. Today the statue of Hachiko is a popular meeting point for young people.
From Shibuya station I take the subway to the other end of town, to the Asakusa Kanon shrine. This is a buddhist temple where people come to pray for intercession by Kanon (Buddhist goddess of mercy). In front of the shrine is a smoking vat of incense. People try to waft the smoke towards the part of the body that is doing poorly. I have a relaxing time strolling around the grounds; it was a brief respite from the crowds outside.
The grounds are a bit messy and the buildings somewhat dilapidated. If you have the image of Japan as a place of shiny, spotless new buildings, you have the wrong image. At least this image is true only of corporate Japan. A lot of Japan is old and worn out, but still lovingly cared for. Tokyo isn't litter free in the way that Singapore is but whatever rubbish appears will be swept away by the next cleaning crew. Asakusa is an older district of Tokyo and one can see small businesses probably the way they have been for years.
Tonight we have a friend of my brother with us for dinner. He is Korean and went to University in Japan with my brother. We go to Ueno and select a Japanese restaurant. We have a seafood hotpot, some tempura and some sashimi. We also have some sake (rice wine) with dinner. Sake is quite strong, at about 17% alcohol content, but it goes down smoothly. Perhaps too smoothly; I think the slight headache I have later that evening might have had something to do with the sake.
After the symposium ends, I go back to my hotel to wait for my brother to call. I am enjoying my nap when his call comes. We meet inside a subway station (to avoid paying for two trips) and proceed to Ueno. We find a restaurant serving teppanyaki. Diners take off their shoes and sit on a tatami mat. On low tables are gas-fired iron plates (teppan). Different kinds of food are fried on this plate, most commonly some kind of omelette mix, meat or or sea food. We, or rather my brother, strikes up a conversation with the young couple at the adjoining plate. Her headgear is a bit like Boy George and she is so slight that one wonders if she might get blown away in a strong wind.
I accompany my brother back to his hotel, the Yayoi Kaikan. It is a business hotel. These hotels provide a minimum of services for substantially lower prices than vacation hotels. The room is twice as wide as the single bed within and perhaps only about 5 or 6 metres long. In one corner is a bathroom unit which looks prefabricated and plonked into the corner of the room. For this room one pays about 5500 yen per night. Compare this to the 15000 yen I am paying for the Holiday Inn room. There is a vacancy, so tomorrow night I'll be moving here because I'm paying for my own expenses Thursday.
Today I don't have the luxury of sleeping in. So I join the morning rush on the subway and experience first hand riding in a packed carriage. Probably on account of the close physical proximity they are forced into, the Japanese have a habit of not invading personal space with looks. In the subway, everybody looks unconcerned and this preserves the illusion of social space. For breakfast I grab a box of sandwiches from a subway stall. For a few pieces of egg and ham or salad sandwich, one pays about 300 to 400 yen. Buffet lunches are provided by the symposium and comprise Japanese and Western tables. The Japanese table has a selection of sushi and cold noodles, while the Western table has items which would not be out of place in a Chinese restaurant, like fried rice, but also items peculiar to Japan, like squid tempura (squid fried in batter).
Since my brother has a reception this evening, I kill a little time in Tokyo station before going to his hotel in Ochanomizu, a district close to the University of Tokyo. We go to Shinjuku. At night Shinjuku is even livelier than in the day. Barkers on the street try to induce passersby to patronise bars where they will be hit with astronomical prices for drinks. Only businessmen with expense accounts can afford this. Nobody is harassed though. We select a Korean restaurant and have a Korean style barbecue. There is a rectangular gas-fired grill set in the middle of the table and one puts thin slices of marinated beef to cook there. Sticky rice and a rich stew accompany the meat. Tonight's meal is more reasonable at 2500 yen for two.
Since the conference doesn't start until 10 am, I treat myself to a sleep-in and a room service breakfast. I am awakened before the alarm time by a phone call from my brother at the airport. He is in Japan for another conference which by coincidence overlaps mine by a few days. We arrange to meet in the evening for dinner. Leaving late also means that I don't have to deal with the morning rush on the subways. Rush hour is when people jam the carriages and pushers are employed at some stations to pack the carriages.
After the day's talks, which I will not describe here, my brother shows up. We attend a little of the reception, but leave before the dignitaries commence the occasion. We decide to go to Yokohama Chinatown for dinner. It's a 15 minute ride by train. Chinatown is extensive, spanning several streets. Finally we pick an all inclusive meal package at a Chinese, most probably Taiwanese, restaurant. Since my brother speaks Japanese, this is a great advantage for dining out in Japan. The meal is sumptuous, with about 8 mini-courses but not cheap; with tax it comes out to about 9000 yen for two.
Japan is two hours behind Sydney summer time so I wake up early out of habit. I decide to go to Shinjuku. Somewhere along the way I hope to find a coffee house serving breakfast. Shinjuku is on the opposite side of the Yamamote circle line, a circle of about 35 km circumference. The Chuo (Central) line crosses this circle, making the system roughly the shape of the letter theta. I could have taken the Chuo line to save time, but I am interested in seeing some of the outer districts.
At Shinjuku station, before the exit gates, I come across a ramen shop with a ticket vending machine outside. One looks at the pictures, selects a dish and buys a ticket from the machine. The staff inside take the ticket and hand one a bowl of noodles. Drinking water is self-served from a water cooler. Just what I need, no struggling with the language barrier by using sign language. It is also probably the cheapest way to eat out in Japan, where food prices are high. Single dishes in restaurants start at about 1000 yen and 2500 yen is not impossible. Bowls of ramen start at around 300 yen. There are other self-service shops selling rice and curry meals. Curry is popular in Japan but they are peculiarly Japanese in taste, and hardly ever spicy. Incidentally, slurping while eating one's noodles is acceptable behaviour in Japan.
Shinjuku is a popular shopping district that is overtaking Ginza. One can see a combination of the old and the new in the alleyways of Shinjuku. Beside a traditional restaurant draped in front with a banner advertising the speciality of the shop may be a takeaway doughnut shop. At the Kinokuniya bookstore I look for the 5 volumes of R.H. Blyth's translation of the Zen Classics in vain. Pickings are better in the CD section. Jazz is quite popular in Japan. The prices are slightly cheaper than in Australia (average of $23) but more to the point, the selection is better. The biggest bother to CD shopping here is that the jewel boxes are arranged edgewise on the shelves and the dividers and spines are invariably labelled in Katakana which I can't read. Foreign names are rendered in Katakana so it would not have been in Kanji ever. So I have to slide the CDs out to read the artistes' names. One place I did not have this problem was the Virgin Megastore, which not only has English labels but also has a good selection of imported titles. Japanese purchases attract 3% consumption tax and the prices are often given before and after tax. The original price may be a strange figure like 2233 yen so that the final price is a round 2300 yen.
On weekends some Shinjuku streets are closed off to vehicular traffic and turned into pedestrian malls. There are some street entertainers, but more amusing to passersby is an advertising shoot in the middle of the street. The product is some brand of perfume I think. Both models are Caucasian. He has to lean over and kiss her as in a tango, while she holds the product for the camera to see. The crew spend a lot of time getting the models into the right position, the dress and the angle of the model's hand just right. Western models appear regularly in Japanese advertising. Perhaps they look more exotic. Or perhaps Japan still sees the west as the source of elegance and refinement. Some Japanese girls have dyed their hair brunette.
By afternoon it is cloudy and windy. According to my brochures there is an interesting produce market between Okachimachi and Ueno stations. This turns out to be several very crowded lanes lined with stalls selling goods like dried cuttlefish. There are also stalls selling cheap clothing. Cheap by Japanese standards that is. By the time I saw all of the market, dusk arrives and I walk back to Tokyo central station. Japan is a very safe place to walk even after dark because crime rates are very low. After some searching I give up and return to the same restaurant as the day before for dinner. On the way back to the hotel I buy a box of takeaway sushi to eat in my room. It is quite good.
Note on Japanese names: pronounce every syllable and as in Spanish. The ch combination is soft, so chome (ward) sounds nothing like the metallic finish and is two syllables.
Note on the pictures. Some of the pictures don't correspond to the text so don't email me to say that picture was not taken there. I didn't have many pictures to choose from to start with.
I arrive at 6 am in the morning after an overnight flight from Sydney. My Qantas flight is the first arrival of the morning, touching down just after Narita airport's curfew lifts.
I clear arrival formalities and exchange my travellers cheques for money. Japanese money is simple. In aluminium is the 1 yen coin, next to useless, save for paying the odd bill not a multiple of 10 due to sales tax. The same goes for the bronze 5 yen coin which has a hole in the centre. The 10 yen copper coin is used a lot for vending machines and phones. The 50 yen coin is nickel silver and has a hole in the centre. The 100 yen nickel silver coin is also heavily used. There is a note version of the 500 yen nickel silver coin, but I never saw a 500 yen note while in Japan. The 1000 yen note is heavily used and accepted by many vending machines. Next are the 5000 and 10000 yen notes. The currency exchange rate was close to 100 yen per Australian dollar so it was easy to compare prices by shifting the decimal point two places left.
Next I have to find the train platform for the Keisei line to Tokyo city. Japanese is not easy to read but I can recognize Kanji characters. Fortunately, in Narita and many places in Tokyo, the signs are bilingual, i.e. both Kanji or Hiragana as well as Romaji (Roman alphabet). For 940 yen I get a ride on the limited express to Keisei Ueno station. Limited express means that the train stops at selected stations and commuters get on. I thought it would be a good way to see how Tokyoites travel to work. Although it is Saturday, and early morning at that, the train picks up quite a few workers and students. The Japanese must suffer a lot from sleep deprivation. Many commuters are catching a bit more sleep on the journey. During my stay I saw many other sleeping commuters all over the transport system.
At Keisei Ueno station, I transfer to the subway system and catch the Hibiya line to Hatchobori, where Holiday Inn is. All subway tickets are sold by vending machines and I have to watch Japanese commuters for a while to see how it is done. I'm glad that the Japanese have coloured the cancel button red so that I can retry when I suspect I haven't put the right combination of cash in. Fares vary by distance, and start at 140 yen. Even for distant stations the ride rarely costs more than 250 yen. The machines will accept up to 1000 yen notes and give change. This was my first contact with the extensive use of automation in Japan.
My ticket is collected by the exit guard at Hatchobori. Some entrance gates are automatic and validate the magnetic side of the ticket before returning it to the commuter, but others are manned and the guard will clip a nibble out of the ticket. There are automatic exit gates in some stations and these will be introduced to other stations. Underpaid fares can be rectified by paying the difference to the exit guard or using special vending machines. Tourist brochures recommend that when in doubt, buy the lowest fare and make up the difference at the exit end. If you don't care much about dignity you could probably show the exit guard a handful of coins and they would pick the required amount out; the Japanese are that honest. Next I have to work out where I am with respect to the streets. This is a problem with subway systems anywhere. In the Tokyo subway, guide maps in stations locate the exits with respect to the streets. After a few trips I learnt to use those maps effectively. This first time I took the nearest exit and had to figure out the direction of the hotel upon emerging onto the street.
Subway and JR (Japan Railways) trains run very frequently from about 5 in the morning till about midnight. I never had to wait at a platform more than 3 or 4 minutes even during off peak hours.
Check in time is 1 pm so I leave my bag in the cloak room. But first I freshen up in the lobby toilet. I decide to take a walk to Tokyo JR station. There is an extensive underground shopping centre there and quite possibly a place to have lunch. The streets are slowly coming to life but it being Saturday, traffic is light. A ubiquitous sight in Japan is the drink vending machine. On every corner, even in narrow alleys, one will come across machines selling canned or bottled drinks. Not just carbonated drinks and fruit juices, but also canned coffee and tea, green or black. Some drinks are dispensed hot, e.g. Chinese teas. For some reason, the overwhelmingly popular black tea in Japan is Chinese Oolong tea. And due to some magic of cöoperation or price fixing, all soft drink machines, save in some hotels, charge 100 yen for a drink. Other machines sell beer. Some will even dispense a bottle of whiskey if fed enough money. The next most common type of vending machine sells cigarettes. It is a pity to see that so many young Japanese have taken up smoking. Snack vending machines are extremely rare. I only saw a handful of candy vending machines while there. I saw a few odd vending machines, like one that sells bouquets, but drink and cigarette machines between them accounted for the vast majority of machines.
Japanese products use English strangely. One suspects that copywriters attach English names to products to enhance the image and pay no attention to the meaning of the words. How else does one explain product names that would raise eyebrows or even cause sniggers in the West, like Poccari Sweat (a mineral enhanced soft drink) or slightly out of kilter phrases like Lonely Sundown Boy? I also notice a lot of orthographical errors, even on official signs. The airport touch screen guide spells passenger as paddenger. Some conference speakers use strange words like botheration on their overheads. I guess it's hard to notice mistakes when one doesn't get enough practice in the language.
The weather is a bit cool and temperatures are in the teens so I am wearing a jacket, as recommended. The trees are shedding their leaves, leaving lots of yellow leaf litter underfoot.
I wander the vast subterranean passages of the shopping centre for a while, observing goods and prices. It's like a mini underground city. One can satisfy all needs without ever emerging to the surface. Eventually I leave by the Yurakucho exit and head towards Ginza, traditionally the expensive shopping district. Ginza is being overtaken by newer areas like Shinjuku and Shibuya. Space is scarce in urban Japan. Buildings are crowded hugger-mugger and shops are cramped. For example, a noodle shop will have only standing room and customers eat standing at the counter. I walk around Yurakucho, looking at the plastic replicas of dishes and price tags in the eating shop windows. These replicas are very realistic and I suppose a whole class of artisans exists to make these. After some indecision, I pick up enough courage to walk into a shop advertising Chinese style food and point to a replica of a bowl of ramen (noodles). A couple of waitresses converse in Chinese in low tones. Noticing my lack of Japanese speech, one of them asks me where I'm from. She is from Fukian province in China. She is hedgy about details so I don't press with more questions. Perhaps she was one individual of the growing illegal immigrant problem in Japan.
Districts, Ginza for example, are divided into wards called chome, numbered sequentially. There is no rhyme or reason in the arrangement of chome. One has to have a district map or look at the street signs to know which chome one is in. Many buildings have no street address one just has to know where in the ward it is or ask people.
I wander into Hibiya park and sit down to watch the people and the birds. An old man sits down on the same bench and proceeds to eat his sandwich lunch, feeding some to the pigeons. The pigeons are tame enough to peck my outstretched hand, thinking it is a handout. I infer that the birds are not harassed by the people here.
The Imperial palace grounds are immense and occupy a huge portion of downtown Tokyo. If in some fantasy, the emperor ever steps down from his throne and becomes a commoner, he could do extremely well selling the land at commercial prices. I walk past the eastern moat which is home to flocks of ducks and some black swans. I think the swans must have originally come from Australia. I wonder how they adapted to the opposite seasons here. I never do get to explore the publicly accessible portions of the palace grounds at length. Some other time.
By this time it's past one and I'm tired so I catch a JR train back to the hotel for a nap. There are two train systems in Tokyo. The local JR trains are linked into the national system but serve only major stops within the city. For the spots in between the subway covers the gaps. This coverage, plus the ability to make transfers between lines makes subways more convenient. The JR trains are slightly cheaper and fares start at 120 yen. There is a JR station in Hatchobori adjacent to the subway station so I decide to go there. I get onto an express by mistake and get taken towards Tokyo harbour. At the first stop I get out to take a local train back. If I had been paying attention to the signs I would have seen that the express doesn't stop at Hatchobori and that the colour of the line on the schematic denotes the colour of the carriages. It's only logical. Many of my fellow passengers get off at this stop to visit the Kaisai Rinkaikoen (Kaisai seaside park). I later read about this place in my tourist guides. With land reclamation used to create more land for harbour facilities, the old waterlines have disappeared so seaside parks have recently been established to return some water facilities to the citizens.
Later that evening I venture out again. I want to see the Akihabara district, which is basically an electronics bazaar. Here one can find the latest in sound and video electronics, and computers. The Japanese take their pursuit of consumer electronics seriously. Computer games are heavily represented by CD-ROMs. Not much tempts me because most of the goods are for the domestic market and the instructions would be in Japanese anyway. I thought I might find a place to eat in Akihabara but I end up eating some fast food in Ginza. At night Ginza is brightly lit as day by neon signs. Crowds of people throng the streets. In Japan it is extremely difficult to get away from crowds. Even late at night Tokyo subways are filled with travellers. Many are workers staying late, but there are also businessmen returning from a night of drinking or students who have just finished cram class.
