I Think Not

Click here to see a very small selection from the Tokyo Museum

My first time on a 747 (2 floors)

Hahahahaha!! The subway system is the biggest, most confusing in the world!! It took me a solid 15 minutes of looking at this "map" and computer terminal before I figured it out (still ended up mistakenly paying the child fare). A girl even asked if she could help me, but I refused. I knew I'd need to learn this SOME time, so this was as good a time as any. An example of HOW big and confusing the system is: there are 12 companies with Tokyo subway lines - each with up to 15 lines! You need 3 different maps to fully understand the system, because all the companies are competitors,and don't share maps!!! Don't bother asking a local - they only know how to get to work!! Hahahahaha!!! I love a challenge!!

This map turned out to be for only 1 company...

Yes, the rumors are true. Subways in Tokyo get crowded. Tokyo's biggest station, Shinjuku, handles the most passengers in the world. 2,000,000 everyday!!

The hostel I use is great. It's got free internet, and almost EVERY Lonely Planet in the world!!

The bedrooms are new. I was happy to have a clean, dust-free bed to sleep in after living in such a dusty apartment in Nepal for so long. The drawback? Well, it was February. Winter. It was SNOWING! So, you can imagine it was cold. Well, in Japan they have a funny notion of health. And this funny notion effects heating in 2 ways. First, they imagine the air in a room needs to be "changed" every few minutes, otherwise it is "dirty". Right. Second, they think heat is somehow bad for the soul. So you get the picture - I arrive in a cold room with the windows OPEN to the snow!! I'm like... %$#@?!#$&#!???? So naturally, I close the window, and turn on the heater. I respect hostels, and their need for low overhead, so I only set the heat for 20 Celsius. Well, after going down into the kitchen for 10 minutes, I come back up to find... the FUCKING WINDOW OPEN AGAIN!!!! I mean#$%@#%!%$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello!!! No one was even in the cold room to make the air "dirty". The kicker??? ...they left the heater on!!!!! So it really wasn't that they wanted to save the energy... just change the air! I've seen this a lot in Japan since this first day.

The sink in a bathroom is built into the top of the toilet tank, so that clean water used for the toilet isn't wasted. Smart!

So I met some other travelers, naturally, and we decided to go to Roppongi - the "club center of tokyo". Well, it was just a rhything mass of losers and outcasts who left their own country to get "easy pussy" in Asia. It was disgusting. I have since learned that everyone knows this, and it's only F.O.B. travelers who fall for it.

The next morning I stumbled back to Asakusa (pronounced Japanese style with no "u" : a-SUK-sa)

My first encounter with a newfound love - Ramen Shops!

Gyoza and Manga - tres Japanese... I mean, totemo nihon!

Asakusa Temple is very famous in Japan... but as you'll eventually learn, EVERYTHING is famous in Japan. It's inevitable if you're country is as old as this one.

At all temples, there is a ritualized cleansing - first your mouth and and hands at the fountain. Then your soul, or something, with the smoke from the insence.

I guess no one told the Japanese about germs and the spread of the flu. ...but they are kept safe with cold houses!!!

Prayers are tied onto these rods.

More prayers - I think it's sort of a religious style of gambling.

Then you throw some money into this box (usually 5 yen) and ring the bell for your prayer to be granted.

The famous market road leading to Asakusa temple

This is Ueno. This, and Asakusa are kind of the seedy, older Tokyo... so obviously I love them!

Hehehehehehehehehe. A Japanese man can dream, can't he?

Only $3... Ha!

Japanese toilets are awesome, computerized, robotic, amusements!

And the sinks are cool too. No knobs - all motion sensitive. Perfect temperature, auto-foamed soap, and handy dryer all in one sink.

Plastic food is an art form in Japan

At first I thought I was seeing Geisha all over Tokyo. Well, after some time in Japan I have learned this is just fancy dress in Japan. Equivalent to a tuxedo in the West. So though you see this all over Japan, they are just going to an important event, and probably aren't Geisha... though they COULD be.