Tokyo - The ritual trip

It has been eight months since, I landed in Japan. And it was only last week that I set out to see the key attractions of Tokyo. The inclination to visit Tokyo had been very less, although there had been a dozen or more trips to the city on some work.

Tokyo is another metropolis and all metropolis in the world are the same; May be not, but that is what I think; All of them have been cosmopolised, completely re-built in the recent past, the history erased and re-written over again and again;

Listing down the things, common to most of the metropolis and Tokyo is one of them....
- Every square inch is constructed, a very effective transportation network of well connected metro trains and buses, shopping malls all over to feed the economy; satisfy the purchase power,long endless foot paths, giant road crossing and signals, multi tier rails and roads, an eerie humming sound buzzing all over the city, a sense of hurry prevailiing in the air, a sense of anonymity among the population, the determination to survive; to catch a train; to take a seat; to reach in time; to be ahead of others; to gain more wealth; no history left, no distinct culture to be celebrated, the city belongs to nobody, nobody loves the place; their minds are miles away in their natives while their brains machine day in and day out to mint money, Skyscrapers, famous Skylines, Concrete Monuments, Cement roads, pubs, bars, a distinct entertainment district, weekend hangout places, Cofee shops for younsters, huge parks for the families, road side shows for children, old age homes, street vendors, music bands playing on the road, street advertsing, neon lights, traffic jams, never ending queues, parking problems . . . . . . .

The list is too long but let me stop here and write something about Tokyo too.

The main city centers around the Yamanote line or the Yamanote loop, trains run round the clock in this never ending loop. You can reach a station by boarding any one of the trains running in opposite directions. 'Yamanote' refers to the upper class town of the erstwhile Edo era.

We headed staright to Shin-juku, the commercial epicenter of the city with huge skyscrapers....The Tokyo Metropolitan Government office (see pic. right) offers a view of the city from the observatory in the 45th floor. Shinjuku station, is the largest station in the world in the sense that 500000 commuters pass through it everyday. Being the center hub of all buzzing activity, the subways, footpaths and a 750m long moving walkway are broad and I could sense how it would be like to be there on a weekday morning rush hour. The view of a city from an elevation, to see the cars like matchboxes, skyscrapers like a pile of bricks and roads like grey coloured ribbon bands is always exciting; As the day was clear, we were able to see as far as Yokohama eventhough Mt. Fuji was not visible.

The next destination was the Meiji shrine in Harajuku; The shrine is dedicated to the Meiji emporer and empress under whom Japan prospered during the late 19th and early 20th Century. He was the one, who opened the Japenese ports for foreign trade. The shrine is completely in contrast to Shinjuku high rise buildings. You feel like steeping back 100 years earlier, once you enter the shrine, nothing is modern, no traces of the present, vast area of greenery with more than 100,000 trees, peaceful and tranquil. The shrine is ideally maintained to attract the foreign traveller, we could see more gaijin (foreigners) than Nihonjin (Japanese); A shinto wedding was taking place in the shrine, giving every foreigner an oppportunity to click some memories . . . . although most of the relatives were dressed in Victorian attire let one some old ladies in kimonos.
The Yoyogi park, beside the Meiji shrine is the largest city park open to the public; It was very busy on that saturday afternoon, with walkers, joggers, doggers (he, he just for the rhyme), picknickers, dads playing with their kids, daters, young couples, picknickers and even yoga classess.....Jus outside the Yoyogi-koen, the street culture of the west is out in the open, the youth of the day, playing guitars, drums, singing and dancing, attracting a lot of onlookers, .....


An another shot in the same place, i luv this..... dunno why? Its a bit unusual, rather a strange sight in this extremely male chauvinistic Japanese society;
From Harajuku, we headed to the otherside of the Yamanote loop to the Hamamutsuchuo station; Tokyo tower is a 15 min. walk from this station and it was very difficult to find the route, every other guy whom we asked for the way, showed us the direction,..."kochi"(this way), but not the route; Finally, it was there - a look alike of Eiffel Tower, an epitome of steel construction, and a nice destination to take "I was there" kind of snaps. Me too, took one.

Nagz