Home > Useful information > Experiences in Japan > Vol. 7
Experiences in Japan
Vol. 7 - Tourism
Name: Michael Brodie-Brown
Area of Residence: Tokyo and Chiba
Useful Link:
Roppongi Hills
Tokyo Disney Sea Resort
Last month, I took the trip to Tokyo or 16 days to meet my fiancees parents. They live in a suburb just east of Tokyo called Chiba. Its a long way and the jet lag is fierce (Tokyo is 14 hours ahead) and I recommend that anybody who goes to Japan go for at least a week, because it takes that long to fully adjust to the time difference.
Tokyo a big city, it is a true cosmopolitan. When I first rode the Tokyo subway I was expecting it to be extremely crowded, a common perception of the Tokyo subway system. While it turns out that the Tokyo subway can be very, very crowded it is only during the rush hours. The rest of the time its just like the TTC - but with the benefit of scheduled trains, and there are many, many lines and literally hundreds of stations.
The Japanese diet is much healthier then the North American diet. It is a diet that consists of fish at almost every meal, cooked or otherwise, accompanied by rice and vegetables. There are some beef dishes too, I particularly enjoyed sukiyaki. Sukiyaki involves dipping cooked beef and vegetables in raw egg before eating it and contrary to my initial reaction is delicious. Bread is uncommon, but I enjoyed the japanese equivalent of a sandwich called nigiri, which is basically a ball of rice with a meat or vegetable in the middle wrapped in seaweed. Its makes a great snack and can be purchased anywhere you would buy a bag of chips.
While I was there we went in to Tokyo almost everyday, so I got a really good feel for the city over my 2+ weeks there. Some the places we went was Shibuya, Shinjuku, Otemachi, Ginza, Future Island (across the rainbow Bridge- see picture), Asakusa, Roppongi and Ueno (to see the panda). We even went to Disney sea. One of our best days there involved going to the Roppongi Hills where they have a tower (60+ stories high) and going to the top at night, the view was amazing (see picture) it seems as if the city just goes on and on. We then went to Roppongi for a late dinner, and then out for some drinks. The nightlife in Roppongi is very vibrant, it literally never sleeps.
Overall the thing I enjoyed the most was when we went up to Hakone, (near Mt. Fuji) for a few days to the onsen hot springs. We stayed in a hotel on the side of a mountain, with a onsen hot springs on the property. A onsen hot spring is basically a natural hot tub, where the hot water trickles out of the ground and is green (due to the sulfur content I believe). It is a very relaxing experience to say the least. On the way back to Tokyo we rode the shinkansen, which travels well in excess of 200 km/h, its so fast that scenery is pretty much a blur. In general japanese public transportation is excellent (except during rush hour on the subway as mentioned above).
Overall a great trip.
Some concluding observations:
- Tokyo is a crowded city - the most populous in the world, and there is not a lot of space. The only comparison I can come up with is a stroll through an average street in Tokyo is like going to the CNE on a warm sunny saturday.
- Everything is small - except infrastructure The food portions, drinks (except beer), cars, houses, trucks, cameras, cell phones, bath tubs are all much smaller than N America.
- There are vending machines everywhere, and they have both hot and cold drinks (the Suntory almond flavored latte was my personal favorite)
- Tokyo is very, very clean but finding a garbage can be challenging to say the least.
- Tokyo is expensive, if you go ensure you bring enough money.
