Finally! I find some time to tell about our cool weekend in Japan’s metropolis. We spent almost 5 days including travelling in Tokyo and got back on Monday evening with a delay of 4 hours, of which we were stuck 3.5 hours in the plane on the runway. Not much fun, I can tell you. The problem was the wind, which suddenly came up…so we arrived in Taipei at around 2am in the night and I had to get up the next morning for class. Not much sleep considering that I had to catch up on a lot, since the night before I also only slept 3 hours. Tuesday and today have been immensely busy with group meetings, classes and 2 presentations, so right now I am quite tired. But anyway, enough German pessimism, here we go =)
Tokyo, it was, of course, amazing. Just as I expected it to be and heard from so many people on beforehand. It is weird that Japan did not really exist in my travel map before I came to Asia. In my mind it was, I admit, just another Asian country on a level with China etc. Well, but actually it is nothing like that at all. Japan is the perfect country. Everything works and everything is good or excellent. The trains system is the most punctual in the world and it left me, as a German (people say of us we are efficient) astonished. The metro goes in hand with trains. The city is modern and clean. The people are so nice. I have to stress that again, they are SO nice and respectful with each other. Just an example, in the metro, you have to switch your sound off, and this is called the “manner mode” in the phone. If you stand close to a priority seat for elderly or disabled people, you have to turn your mobile completely off. And it is dead silent in the metro, since everyone is sleeping. This is due to the fact that Japanese people are some of the hardest working in the world. Our friend just started work after graduating and she has an average day from 8am to 12pm and sleeps 4 hours a night. I guess you have to work hard to differentiate yourself from the mass of people =) But this is a weird thing, you don’t really notice that there is so many people…somehow I always felt I had a lot of space. Anyways, we tried to see as much as we could in these few days. Tokyo is more like a lot of small cities that all together form a big city and every small city is known for something particular. We went to see Shinjuku, a shopping district and close to where our hostel was. Then there is Akihabara, the geek town, you can really find everything electronic you wish for and Shibuya, another shopping district, which is known for its famous crossing. Apparently the busiest crossing in the world… Watch this for a feeling, just incredible:
Close to Shibuya is also the street featuring the Harajuku girls, which are known all over the world for their, well individual street style!I attached a picture borrowed from the net..
My personal favourite was the old town Asakusa, which is really cute and charming with its little traditional buildings and the famous temple. We had really delicious food there and found a cosy café, where we spend the whole night drinking and chatting along. Another cool place to go is the Tokyo fish market, which presumably is the biggest fish market in the world. This place was limit breaking in three ways: First, I have never seen such an incredible variety of fish, some of them did not even look like fish. Second, I have never seen so big fish, the tunas were up to 1,50m long. And thirdly, I have never eaten Sushi for breakfast at 8am in the morning. Quite challenging, but I made it. And the Sushi was so good, it just melted in your mouth…hmmm.
So that was a little story about Tokyo. Thinking back of it now, it was an amazing weekend and Japan is a fascinating country. BUT. Yes, there is a BUT. Despite Tokyo being how it is, modern, clean, fashionable, polite, efficient, good looking, I felt that something is missing in this city. It did not catch me as much as Hong Kong. I think it is so excellent in everything, that it kind of lacks charm. I did not fall in love with Tokyo, at least not at first sight. Maybe I am just looking for an excuse to go there again and really explore the city and the rest of the country.
Good night!
Alli
