No biting the personnel

IMG_0738Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

The last two days in Tokyo have been fascinating. While in Beijing I had the help of a native Mandarin speaker and was constantly looked at as an abnormality, here we’re only two more foreign tourists that don’t speak the lingo. We’re of no interests to the locals. Getting their assistance as therefore been a challenge. Luckily grunts and pantomimes are universal tools of communication. Barring a few mishaps in the subway and difficulties buying a calling card, we’ve had no problems. We even got our JP Rail pass and reserved the tickets for our train on Sunday to Matsumoto through Nagano.

Overall we like Tokyo although there are little things we haven’t quite absorbed yet. For example, we’re always on the lookout for trash cans. The city is so clean - people don’t litter here - that there’s nothing to throw away when walking down the street it seems and therefore no need for trash cans. We’re still fascinated by the rules of fashion. School kids all wear uniforms (genre Notre-Dame). There’s very little individuality in the dress code between girls from the same school. Coloring your hair while in school appears to be a no-no (which is quickly made up for upon entering the work place). Yes, school girls travel in pack and do the V finger sign of peace when photographed; I doubt they recognize the gesture for what it is. Boys on the other hand, being boys, un-tuck their shirts and take off their jackets as soon as they’re left alone. Young adults are completely different from their school aged versions. While the Beijing professional dress code matched that of the western world, the Japanese one transcends it. Every label you can think of is sold and bought here. As S said, Tokyo people don’t walk around with fake Louis Vuitton hand bags. Beyond the clothing, the hairdo, make up, accessories and stance are like I’ve yet to see in North-America. For example, I’ve seen a few men with hand bags; not that I object but it’s not common practice in Seattle. The hair styles are also straight out of every Japanese TV show you’ve seen (including anime). There are people with the same hair cut as Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef.

Talking about anime, we’ve figured out one element of metropolitan Japanese society, sadly. We believe the reason cats figure so prominently in Japanese media is because of the huge number of them in at least this city. Obviously people here like cats but, like Greenlake as its problem of stray bunnies , Tokyo has its problem of stray cats. According to some, the Tokyo authority disposes of the bodies of more than 10 000 stray cats a year. Literally, they’re everywhere. At first you think it’s cute to see a few cats in the imperial palace. At second glance you realize these cats are mostly bones. Suddenly you understand why they’re so giddily eating whatever the tourists throw their way. You’re saddened by this. By the end of the day, you’ve seen tens more of these furry companions.

The title of this post is “They’re everywhere!” You may think this refers to cats by now. True it at least does a little bit. In fact it refers to the fact that this city is so huge that whatever you see in one part of town, you’re bound to see again elsewhere in the city. For example, I’d guess for central Tokyo that there’s a subway stop in any direction every kilometer (if not less). That’s ignoring the train lines. Instead of jumping into any subway entrance, it’s preferable to look at a map and walk to the entrance that gets you on the line you want to use. Similarly, as per the rumors, there are vending machines everywhere. In fact, according to our book, Japan has a ratio of 1 vending machine for every 20 resident. The same is probably accurate of pachinko arcades.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 5:53 am and is filed under Travel, Asia 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.