Shinjuku

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.