Voice of Will: Why I Love Tokyo

2007-05-18 - 7:35 p.m.
why I love tokyo
So there are many reasons to love tokyo, and a few to hate it.
Here are two examples of why I like tokyo so much.
I was out on tuesday evening with one of criss's co workers named Andy. We were supposed to be going to a club to see a Japanese Jazz band. Andy had heard about this concert about a week ago, and had asked if I wanted to tag along. So I said, sure. And off we went. Well there was one major problem. Andy had gotten the times wrong. He thought the doors opened at 8, and the band started playing at 9. No. At 8 we showed up, but there was NO ONE. The place was completely empty. oookkkkkaaaayy. We went across the street to chill out in this little coffee place. at 9 someone showed up at the venue, so we went over and talked to this guy. It appears andy was WAY wrong on the times. the doors didn't open until 10 and the band wasn't going to start playing until 11.
Now that kinda killed the mood. Andy had to teach the next morning, and I really didn't want to be out until 1am, especially since the trains stop at 1, so if we missed the train, we would have to either hike back (like 15 miles away), or rent a cab at $6.00 a 1/2 mile. Either way could get pretty expensive.
So we changed the plans, and decided to just explore shibuya prefecture. Think of a suburb of tokyo, that is what a prefecture is. Now I love shibuya. I just love the way it rolls off the tongue (she boo yah!) It sounds like something obscenely physical and obviously filled with bodily fluids...She boo yah! So we walked around, looked at shops, chatted, found a music store... and on the way to the train at about 10:40 we stumble on this full 9 piece ska band on the street sidewalk.
Now get this image. You have 9 muscians in black pin stripe suits, wearing sunglasses. there are lots of brass instruments, a couple of guitars, and a drum set. About half have punked hair (ie mo-hawks) and the other half have anime hair.
ON the sidewalk at 10:40 pm playing about a dozen songs, and selling their CD on a Tuesday. In shibuya.
How random is that? (ps we bought a CD. They are called Empty Black Box. Look them up and if you can find it, they are really pretty good. great beat, uptempo, and they sound fantastic.)
This leads me to my second great experience this week. So I had to mail some documents for Criss to the UAE for the job we are moving to in August. Well the local post office doesn't have anyone who speaks ANY english, but they are great folks, and lots of help. Often when I try to mail things, I learn about japanese postal system, and pick up new japanese words.
Now have you ever tried to tell someone you wanted to ship something to another country, when you don't speak their language? Country names are NOT all the same in different countries.
So I walk up to the teller (my favorite one too.) and ask her if she has ever heard of the UAE. blank confused face. Ok. I show her the envelope. It says United Arab Emirates. she asks, "America?" hopefully. No, I tell her. then "chugo?" (which is china, and the teller knows I ship lots of stuff to china)... No.


Now we have several possibilities at this point. She could say wakarimasen (I don't understand) and tell me to go away, she could try to pantomime it out, or pretend she knows and just randomly ship it somewhere. Or she could do this...
She goes to another teller who speaks some english (more english than I speak Japanese) and she can understand NOT America, NOT china, NOT japan. Ok. She starts digging out a "first 1000 words in english" book. So we look through it, but I don't really figure that United Arab Emirates is exactly one of the first 1000 words in english people learn... go figure. So I try globe. Nope. globe is not in the distinguished list either.... we finally get to Map. and world. OK now we are in business.
They ask me to wait, and one of them goes in to the back and I can see her digging through boxes, and I can understand her saying.. "I know it is here somewhere." After about 10 minutes there is a triumphant cry from the boxes. And she comes out waving this old, battered, but very noticeable ATLAS. (YES!!!! I could have kissed her)
so we open the atlas to the world map, and I show them the UAE. Well I show UAE, but they read ARABIA (from saudi arabia). I have to tell them NNNNOOOOO. UAE, this little part. Then we flip through the atlas, and finally find the UAE on the map, and let me tell you, the Japanese name is like 28 letters long.
But by this time, we were all laughing, and joking around. So to make a long story shorter (too late), I managed to mail criss's paperwork with the minimum of fuss, and lots of help from a very supportive post office.
These some of the reasons I will miss tokyo. The people here are really nice. Not all of them, not all the time. But if you try to speak Japanese first, they will be very helpful. It is just the ignorant tourists who get ignored.
p.s. Today the high temperature was 68 degrees, and it rained over 3/4 of the day. Long, loud thundering rain. The flowers are blooming all over tokyo, so you can't walk down the street without smelling roses, carnations, wisteria, and all the other scents, and the city is alive with vibrant colors. I think I will miss that most of all.
p.p.s. this coming month is going to be very busy. Sumo on Sunday, Myspace secret show japan on monday, I go to china on may 30th until june 6th, and on june 9th we will be going to the ghibli museum to see mae and the kittenbus. And next month we will be doing tokyo disneyland before going to the UAE.