Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Friday 22/Sat 23
Travelling back to Tokyo today, the call of a Starbucks outside Kyoto station was too much, a Grande Latte (and an american/japanese cross of a pastry) and I was awake. I couldn"t do the whole western thing, no international papers, but a copy of an english language broadsheet called the Daily Yomiuri put me in touch with what was happening in the world. The back page suprisingly led with football, but perhaps that was because there was a photo of Shunsuke Nakamura, a Celtic player wrestling a ball away from a Barcelona defender. The rest of the sports section was dominated by American Basketball and elsewhere Hillary v. Obama, target audience?
As the bullet train shot through (sorry) the urban sprawl the overiding impression is of an endless array of low rise houses with pitched roofs abutting tightly or overlapping each other. Together with the absence of large open spaces there seems to be a lost opportunity to follow Le Corbusier's mantra that I have only seen exploited on the towering blocks of the central city area, the best of which I observed was a full size tennis court ten storeys up, encapsulated in netting and supported by an elegant space frame. Food for thought.
After passing through snow at least three feet deep in the mountains outside Kyoto the train diverts towards the coast line following the plain up to Tokyo. The countryside like the cities comprise significant contrasts, there is little scope for 'grey' its either flat or mountainous, no gentle rolling hills here. The wide alluvial plains stretch between the upland areas and are neatly divided into small rectangular fields. The mid-day sun on yet another high pressure hazy day flattens out the undulations and thinly washes the colour away. Though in a month that receives only 5 days of rain accumilating to a few millimetres there would probably be little green to be seen.
Whereas each English country town may have its dominant church or city its catherdral standing tall amongst the pious followers, in Japan there is an alternative altar for which Sunday mornings may present the opportunity to leave the house before lunch; the golf practice range. These huge netted structures climb high above the surrounding low rise dwellings, objects of immense scale, if perhaps of little substance.
Arriving in Tokyo, I deposited my bag at the Capsule Hotel, all very quiet as check-in isn't until 17.00, and realised for the first time I had no plan. After a short walk around the local area of Electric Town famed for its electrical outlets, of course, it's Manga comics, and some strange themed coffee bars called Maid Cafes, where the computer geeks that you see shopping in this end of town are served by young girls dressed as, well, Maids! All pink and frilly. I skipped the coffee and whatever else was on offer and travelled out to Tokyo Bay. I had little text on the area and no map, so a little adventure. The area is a reclaimed piece of land and has the apprearance of the Canary Wharf and its environs, perhaps a little sterile, but there were a few interesting places to visit. The first being the Toyota City Showcase, I had seen this on Jeremy Clarkson's Top Gear, but didn't know it until I walked in; racks of cars that you can 'order' to check out what it looks like in 'green', a race track (max speed 10mph!) to test the variety of cars, and for those less able a track where the car drove you around. A very impressive shed which combines car browsing with entertainment. After watching how tamely everyone drove in the formula 1 car game, I proceeded to crash off at every corner, not impressive, but fun!
The Design Centre has a 'personal transport unit' or I-Unit (sorry Apple you got there too late!) which looks amazing, a one person car or rather seat with wheels, which with just a flick of a button changes shape into something akin to a go cart, I want one!
The Amusment Park, was great fun with lots of interactive games, I tried a few where you enter a court with full size net either playing golf shots into funnels, football at goals, or the best one I tried, swinging a baseball bat at a pitching machine (complete with a LCD of a pitcher) some 20 m away! I wasn't too bad for a rookie, managed to hit a few, perhaps no Barry Bonds though.
My final excursion was into an Onsen (Public Bath) theme Park, where you check in you clothes for a Yaksuka(?) dressing gown and walk around a shopping/eating area with music/entertainment while diverting ocassionaly to take a hot hot bath inside or in the private courtyard. Perhaps leaning to far towards Disney, the baths were real enough, and I wimped out of the cold plunge pools, thats for Japanes and the Germans only!
- comments