Tokyo introspective

John Noel — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:31:24 +0000

Most of my internet access has been in the brief, fleeting moments while waiting for the group to gather for the day’s activities so it’as somewhat nice to be able to have some time to actually write something that doesn’t end with the equivalent “okaygottaguybye!”.

My feet were doing (slightly) better today thanks to some loosening of shoes and no longer having any skin to lose from them although my left foot has shown some signs of trying to copy my right – not best pleased. Nikko today was awesome and showed me something that I hadn’t seen before in a temple; it was sprawling, ornate and yet quiet and reserved at the same time. I also started getting fancier with my camera, having found out yesterday that I had somehow fixed the camera on aperture priority somewhere in transit which was slightly embarrassing but I’ve been storing up some shots for panoramas and also tried a long exposure today of the bridge for some floaty water effect.

Leaving Tokyo is definitely a good thing as having been here for the past three to four days has let me become a bit jaded to it which is not what I had expected. I’ve been using a lot more of the language than I did last time (much to the amazement of one of the hotel clerks when I said good morning to him, to his credit, it was 4am so maybe that’s how he always looks) so I’ve crested the hill that is ordering food and not looking like a complete twit. I’m torn between whether I’m getting used to the language or just using what is most likely to be said next and going from there. Thankfully a lot of Japanese seem happy to ask me questions in English and for me to answer in Japanese, at least then everyone knows what is being said.

Tokyo itself is impossible to encapsulate in a single sentence or paragraph, there is now easy way of saying “City of the Future” or “Bustling metropolis” and capturing the spirit of it, even if both are true and I’ve only been in the city just over 150 hours total. You can be wandering down the street and hear a melody you recognise with words you don’t while nearly being hit by the plethora of bicycle riders and being barraged with neon advertising high above you. Eclctic doesn’t even begin to sum it up. It is a city I love though, there is no congestion to speak of, the transport is first rate and there truly is everything you can think of to do or to buy (both probably available from the local convenience store). I’ll be glad to come back to Tokyo, but just as London isn’t England, Tokyo isn’t Japan and there are hot springs and all sorts of other goodies awaiting.

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Tokyo introspective