Tokyo Part 1

Hello Everyone!

I am now reporting to you from Karuizawa Japan after having been in Tokyo for three whole nights. So, before I talk at all about my time here in Karuizawa (which is beautiful), I will first talk about my time in Tokyo, which is so big, that it requires two parts, and here is part one (with part two coming later):

Before talking specifically about my time in Tokyo, I'll talk a bit about my expectations, and what really surprised me. Japan has always been a bit of a special country, as it is the one 'non-Western' industrialized country. Whenever industrialized countries are talked about, Japan is almost always included, even despite the fact is located in the Far East and does not have the culture we associate with 'developed' countries. Herein lies what the biggest surprise has been for me. In different places that I have worked on development work from India to South Africa, I had been taught to think about when 'development' is actually just 'westernization.' However, being here in Japan, it is inherently obvious that the terms do not mean the same thing at all. Although they may be some things we associate with Western culture that are just part of being developed, there are plenty of other new cultural aspects that emerge through development, as Japan perfectly demonstrates. Ridiculously crazy toilets? Those can easily be found in Japan (sometimes figuring out how to flush them can be a real tricky task, for one who doesn't read Japanese.) At the same time, Japan has kept many cultural aspects from the past intact while leaving others behind. Yes, samurai are no longer around as modernization passed them by as they didn't adapt, but Japanese people still wear more traditional costumes, especially as I will talk about next in the blog post. However, a serious question is: how much is this because Japan was never colonized?

My first night in Tokyo, when I had just arrived, some people at the hostel told me they were going to a 'festival' (to which I unfortunately did not bring my camera to.) The festival was actually a lantern festival in which there were lit Japanese lanterns everywhere, and it was quite a beautiful sight. There was also a taiko drum performance as well as a bunch of food (the first time I ate off the plane.) At the festival, many people were surprisingly dressed in very traditional clothing, which definitely gave the festival more of an 'authentic' feeling. A great way to start my time in Japan, even if I was incredibly tired, but at least I was able to stay up very late.

I spent my first day in Tokyo mostly going around to different gardens. I first visited the gardens at Korakuen, which were very nice traditional Japanese gardens. Although I have been to many parks ad gardens in many countries around the world, I must admit that Japanese gardening has always struck me as a perfect combination of nature but also organized and planned. The following picture is from the Korakuen garden.

The next picture is from outside the East Imperial Palace Gardens, which is the only part of the large Imperial Palace expanse that is open to the public. The gardens themselves are very grand, with many large stone walls that loom overhead, but the gardens also do provide a very nice view over Tokyo.

The next day, I visited Akihabara as well as Asukasa. Akihabara is the main electronics neighborhood of Tokyo where one can find many cheap and inexpensive electronics (and also see what cool products are now available.) The following picture shows a generic computer store. The neighborhood is very lively, and also had a large number of very active colorful and large casinos, as well as other entertainment destinations.

After Akihabara, I walked to Asukasa, which is best known for its shrine, which part of can be seen in the next picture. For me, it is neat to see the shrines directly in the middle of the cities surrounded by all the 'regular' buildings one would expect to find in a city. A tall shrine definitely adds positively to a skyline, in my opinion.

The last picture is to show how many people get around Tokyo: by bicycle! Bicycles can be seen everyone, and there are usually designated sidewalk lanes for them, which makes them especially practical.
And lastly for this part one entry about Tokyo: a word on the food. Perhaps one of the most surprising things for me has been has foreign Japanese food in Japan is to me. Yes, I did go to a ramen noodle shop and had very good noodles that I was used to, and yes, I did go into a sushi bar with sushi I was used to, but otherwise, most Japanese food I have never had before. At the lantern festival, I had noodles with a fried egg on top (well, actually two, since the vendor gave me an extra once since the first one broke.) Even when ordering something that will seem normal (like fried shrimp), it can end up being something completely unexpected (the complete crunchy fried shrimp.) More recently, here at the summer camp, many of us camp counselors (will talk about more in another entry), have noticed how 'white' the food is. From the bread (only white) to most snacks, to even the fact that they peel their apples, it is really quite shocking.

Finally, Japanese meals tend to be incredibly small, even for people the size of an average Japanese person. This makes snacking a necessity for someone like me. Frequent snacking.

All for now, and stay tuned for Tokyo part two, as well as updates about the summer camp I am working at in Karuizawa,

-Andrew