Tokyo Is….

Tokyo has so many facets to it that it is almost impossible to do the city justice.  I’ve traveled to many places in the city over the past two weeks:  to Akihabara, still electronics heaven but now transformed into an anime capital; Asakusa with a shrine that is anything but quiet or spiritual as the tourists flock to it; the posh Ginza area, and many others.  I’ve seen the Natural Science Museum’s park, deliberately kept wild as a research facility; the Edo-period Hamarikyu Garden, with a brand new building complex behind it; and the large Shinjuku Gyoen with its wide lawn that reminds me of Central Park.  And I’ve seen some oddities.   So, without further ado, here’s a collage of my Tokyo wanderings to date, with a bit of commentary about what Tokyo is to me.

Tokyo is old and new, as I wrote in my last blog.  The National Museum’s Horyuji Gallery preserves 7^th and 8^th century treasures like this Buddha in a lovely new building.  At the same time, the city is a mecca for contemporary art, in the galleries in Ginza and elsewhere and at museums like the Museum of Contemporary Art, where this installation was on display.

Tokyo is a shopping town par excellence, which is a bit lost on me since I am not really a shopper.  There are the very posh, brand name stores in Ginza and the new complexes springing forth all over the city.  There’s also Mitsukoshi, which opened in 1673 and I think is Tokyo’s oldest department store.  It’s like department stores all over Japan, though its lobby is quite special:  good food court in the basement; nice restaurants on the top floor; an art gallery; places to get your hair done, clothes cleaned and shoes repaired; and everything in between.  The typical old-style shopping streets still exist, arcaded or not, with lots of little shops selling everything imaginable.

Tokyo is beautiful.  It is constantly renewing and rebuilding – the 1923 earthquake and WWII pretty much leveled the city, and a growing population and desire for newness all foster this – so it seems fresh and new.  But it’s also beautiful in its parks and its sculpture:  here a fountain at the Imperial Palace Garden (the part that’s open to the public) and also the Bloomberg Pavilion at the Museum of Contemporary Art, another form of sculpture to me.

Tokyo is also not so lovely.  Sometimes demands of the new get in the way of the old:  The Nihonbashi bridge, for example, has had some of its lanterns cut off to provide for the expressway above.  I found the gold-clad and sculptured Asahi Beer Building a bit of an eyesore, but your taste may be different. That's the new Sky Tree in the background.

Tokyo is clearly urban.  Its buildings butt against each other and have lovely facades, though sometimes what’s behind is not so great.  I saw this building somewhere on my walks, with what looks like air conditioner cables dangling, waiting for a neighboring building to rise and cover them up.  Trains and subways are ubiquitous, a necessary and very efficient way to move people in, out, and around the metropolis.  Though the train in this picture isn’t crowded, it does capture the catnapping traveler and the cell-phone addicted Japanese (just like New Yorkers!).  I particularly liked this man’s socks, though.

Tokyo is a city that values nature.  Being close to nature, physically and/or in spirit, is very much part of the Japanese culture.  Tokyo is an hour or so from Mt. Fuji, and when it’s a clear day you can see it from various parts of the city.  As I’ve noted several before, Tokyo has lovely parks, which helps a lot since only the most recent housing complexes have grassy areas.  I particularly like these stepping rocks at Kiyosumi-Teien Park.

Last, and certainly not least, Tokyo is fun.  It has a sense of humor:  I was going along a walkway in the new residential/office/shopping complex in Shinbashi when I came upon this sculpture of three figures, perhaps sunning themselves, on a roof below me.  It also has various uniquely Tokyo specialties that are fun to do.  One is the “maid cafés” in Akihabara where young women, dressed as 19^th-century maids though in short skirts, serve you tea in an elaborate ritual.  Another, here with my friend Horie, is a “Monja pancake”, a mélange of chopped vegetables, seafood, sometimes noodles, cheese and a tasty sauce, grilled together.  Horie said that a much simpler version used to be considered “junk food” and was popular with the neighborhood kids.