Japan - Tokyo (東京都) ... Totally normal madness

Tokyo, capital of Japan and home of approximately 12.5 million people in the Tokyo Metropolitan area and about 35 million in the Greater Tokyo Area .... and my next stop on my trip through Asia. I had altered my schedule a little to meet up with my friend Alex (from San Francisco) and to have a little more time to travel within Japan. We were supposed to meet at the Tokyo airport on the evening of March 27th, but although I waited for 90 minutes Alex did not show up. I assumed that something must have happened and that a message would be waiting at the hotel or in my email. I took the train into the city and then a cab to our hostel, the "Homeikan" (see http://homeikan.com for more details) a traditional Japanese guesthouse or "Ryokan". There was a message for me that Alex would arrive at 3:00 pm the next day. The next morning I checked my email and Alex let me know about the reasons for his late arrival from Hong Kong, where he was visiting his family). I went out to explore the neighbourhood and find a place for a "western" breakfast. I found a nice coffee house with sandwiches and excellent coffee ..... aaaaaahhhhhh what a welcome change.

I walked around in search for an ATM machine and thereby passed the "Tokyo Dome" and the amusement park "Tokyo Dome City Attractions". with a roller coaster in the middle of a busy intersection. In the attached Tokyo Dome Hotel I was able to get information about an ATM accepting foreign ATM cards and found the banking center in the nearby shopping mall.

My search for an Internet Cafe took quite some time .... Finally I found one of those gaming places I had heard so much about. They are a mix of Internet Cafe, gaming center, coffee shop and cheap hotel. You can rent a cube with a computer, or with a full fledged DVD set or even a bed couch to stay over night. The places are usually open 24 hours.

The biggest challenge for me was next to the absolutely incomprehensible language and writing the sheer number of people. It is so busy all the time and I am not really that good with large crwods. Especially during rush hour and late at night, shortly before the last metro it is absolute utter madness. Everybody is running around to me hecticly, many people checking their SMS while walking and then everubody pushes to get into the train. I almost got lost several times simply because I had a hard time orienting myself within this tidal wave of people.

The roller coaster of the "Tokyo Dome City Attractions", right on the corner of a busy street intersection.

There are actually quite a few channels running through Tokyo, a fact I was not aware of.

Flashing neon advertisements everywhere, it created a strange, somewhat surreal atmosphere. Later we would visit Shybuya Station, an area which was even more crazy.

The plaza in front of Shybuya Station, big advertisement screens all around you, lots and lots of people running around. A little hard to see on this photo, but thousands of people wait for the light to turn green and then rush to whatever destination they might have.

Space management, in a city as crowded as Tokyo a gas station might be a little different. Here the pump is operated "from above", you pull down the hose from the ceiling.

Tokyo has lots and lots of very interesting architecture. Well, I was traveling with an architect and so we visited many interesting buildings. Hey, but don't expect me to remember everything Alex told me.

Alex and myself on security camera in the biggest electronics superstore I have ever been to. Just the selection of photo cameras was amazing, everything from Nikon to Leica and Hasselblad.

More architecture .... the "Tokyo International Forum" an amazing building that reminds you a little of a beached whale. Alex and I had a heated discussion about "function versus design", with my support of the idea that good architecture should be a combination of both.

USB memory sticks in form of sushi ..... absolutely hilarious.

.... but the winner was a USB memory stick in form of a finger.

The "Maison Hermes" (see http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/hermes/index.htm for more) building, constructed only from glass blocks, no pillars ..... quite amazing.

A store selling pretty much chop sticks and nothing else.

Another very interesting approach, however it only looks really interesting at night. I believe that was the Louis Vuitton store ....

We visited the "Imperial Palace" in or better we walked around parts of it since it is closed to the public.

The Prada flagship store in Tokyo .... it cost a whooping $ 80 million .... it is beautiful, but not very functional, no columns, pretty much no storage space, but simply amazing to look at during the night.

Reflexions in the glass blocks of the Prada store ....