I’ve been in Tokyo for 2 weeks now, and I think that being on a speeding train for 3 hours is a good enough time to jot down some thoughts. I especially want to make sure I can keep separate thoughts about Tokyo from Kyoto.
I often claim when traveling that I have no expectations of that place. Certainly, I don’t think about it very much, but I guess I expected Tokyo to be taller and more orderly. It’s hard to explain, but I guess I come from metropolises that are both concentrated and very built up. I guess Tokyo’s general lack of height (with a few notable exceptions) comes from being very earthquake prone. Still, the backstreets felt all the more claustrophobic because despite the lack of height, I knew that the buildings went on forever in all directions.
And in that endless hodgepodge is this barely controlled chaos. Sure, when you read about Tokyo, you think about subway systems that “just work”, and respectful and friendly people. Yet I found that Tokyo’s a party town, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Groceries are expensive, and housing is so far from the CBD areas that people are used to staying out late most of the week. There’s a lot of drinking, a lot of eating, a lot of partying. For the first time, this self-professed “city rat” felt exhausted keeping up with everything.
Tokyo is designed to assist its denizens with such merrymaking. You can’t go 15 metres without stumbling into a subway station. You can barely go 5 without tripping on a vending machine. Need to get your party on? No problem: you can get a beer from said vending machine. And the convenience stores are actually convenient. Food that people are interested in eating, amenity items they would really use. At all times of the day and night.
I’m writing this like a rant, but it’s not really negative. It’s just the first time I’ve felt uncomfortable in a city. Growing up in Jakarta leaves Sydney quiet, and Brisbane provincial by comparison. Bangkok’s like a bigger, dirtier, busier Jakarta. Singapore is what I was expecting Tokyo to be like, and it was nothing of the sort. I’m glad I came to see this place and found something truly new and different from my experience.
PS: The only thing I’d really change: easier access to internet. There either needs to be a better mesh of truly free wifi hotspots (I’d even submit to some form of advertising to access it), or pre-paid SIMs that aren’t rentals which are only available at the airport and require a USD$500 deposit.