You are insane. I'm sorry to say, but there is just too much of you. The population of my whole country is crammed into the space of a city. Your subways are are as mad as your rampant shopping districts. Watching thousands of people surge across a Shibuya intersection when the lights go green is fair reminder of why that type of pedestrian crossing was invented (no offence to Bay and Bloor -- but c'mon). Your Tokyo Skytree tower looks almost indistinct compared to the spaceship shopping mall straight from a sci-fi manga, or the Gotham city-like government building. Yodobashi camera sells everything under the sun. I feel myself craving the woods of Blackwater lake more than ever, as this madness is just too much. I've bumped my head on every one of your archways, my elbows are bruised from banging the walls of your weensy showers, my back aches from your shitty beds, I'm sweaty as a mosh pit from your subway ride and my feet ache from walking barely halfway across your downtown. You have a madness that has spawned maid cafes, love hotels, otaku, and more than the moon knows what else. I don't even hate to say it, but I'm leaving you. I'm going to the peace and serenity of Ontario, with cold lakes and room to breath.
Sayonara,
The Youngest Mr. Mills
___________________________________
Well Tokyo isn't that bad (at all). But it is overwhelming. My JR Pass has now expired, and I have eight days to explore this place (less if I do a day trip to the temple cluster town of Nikko). After the capsule hotel in Osaka I went back to Kyoto (a regal city, I had a perfect time on a rented bike where I met a hilarious old drunken woodblock print master), made a day trip to Nagoya (spent a good part of it at a wonderful Toyota museum that was wonderfully informative on automotive design more than simply a sales pitch), spent a couple of days cruising around on a junky orange bike in the quaint town of Matsumoto (staying at a place that felt like the Campbell's cottage), and wasted a day going to an amusement park at the base of Mt. Fuji (which was obscured by fog -- and I got there late in the day and got in to only one ride-- a stupid treasure hunt that was not the Haunted mansion that I thought I had lined up for 2hrs {solo!} for). Yes, that was a terrible run-on sentence, but now we are caught up. Oh how much I crave my own good and reliable computer! Hostel comptuers universally suck.
I have a pretty good grip on Tokyo's layout now, and spent today wandering about most of the main highlight areas (Akihabara, Ginza, Shibuya, and Harajuku), visiting many guitar shops and generally just taking in the atmosphere of the city. I'm 7 books down so far this trip, and swimming through book two of the Game of Thrones series now, which is as good or better in print than on screen. Hopefully I'll be caught up or even slightly ahead of the TV show by the time I'm back. It's supposed to rain for a couple of days now, so I might just get my wish.
No comments:
Post a Comment