Tōkyō (東京)

Waking up in the morning and immediately jumping onto the next Shinkansen to Tokyo!

Directly after arriving and getting rid of our luggage, we ran an errand for a friend to buy some Playmobil, a cute little-plastic-people-world for six-year olds and 40+ years old collectors. The reactions from the shopkeeper made the trip worth the fact that we weren't even allowed to play with any of the stuff we bought. It was a 3 minute giggling and explaining enterprise when we asked where we could find a particular item and her trying to tell us that it was sold out. It needed to be seen to be believed, and the cheeks which already had pink makeup on them only added to the effect.

Shinjuku is one of those areas which I would like to argue as being brighter during the night than it is during the day. And in terms of contrast this is probably quite true. The amount of light from billboards illuminating the street is fascinating in its own right, not to mention the amount of activity of people walking by them.

And the Tokyo metropolitan network is always beautiful to play with. From the ticket gate machines into which you can enter your ticket in whatever orientation you please, it will still always come out in the same orientation at the other end. Or the ticket vending machines where the coin entry is shaped in such a way that you can basically simply take your wallet and pour it in, and it will actually sort out the coins properly (won't take ¥1 or ¥5 though). Or the sheer length of those trains, criss crossing the city at so many different levels, with an incredible frequency, and yet they are never empty (it does shut down at midnight though, and the last trains tend to be anything but empty).

And then I remember what a cute little village I live in. sigh

Memories of the past.

Osaka hotel view panorama