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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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