walking around asakusa and ginza
thursday, 19 june 200821h30
this city has kept me awestruck 24/7. it's hard to put in words the "good vibe" you get from it, just from walking around, interacting with the people. everybody is happy and helpful and they bow like a million times when you ask for directions, when you get into a store, when you say hello, when you say goodbye... they are so polite and they look so happy. i wonder how is it that their suicide rates are so high...
the city is amazingly full of contrasts. first, there's all the starbucks and mcdonald's i mentioned earlier but still it's like these people don't buy into the whole western thing. sure, they love their louis vuitton bags and armani jeans, yet they look so detached from what happens in the west. it's just unreal.
on saturday, when i went to the flamme d'or building, i first visited some of the temples in the asakusa district. it was a very strange experience. when you get to the main shrine, you see a lot of people who just stay outside by this huge square pool. as they approach the pool -- but before they even get there -- they throw some coins at it, then stop by it and pray and bow for a few minutes. then, a lot of them go to one of these structures on both sides of the pool, which look like big chests with drawers. they get a long cylindrical metal can, put some coins inside, and shake it violently, then open one of the drawers and take a piece of paper from there, read it, and then either laugh or just make a quick comment to their friends and leave. only very few of them actually go inside, into an area that seemed to be off-limits to tourists.
once i had my religious quota of the day, i went to ginza. this area is just ridiculously rich and fancy: there's ginza street, a strip packed with the most exclusive boutiques and designer stores, and then a bunch of streets around it that look just as fresa. the stores all look incredibly trendy and swanky -- and, yes, they are all full with customers. everything's just like the more famound 5th avenue in new york -- only like 10,000 cleaner and cooler! seriously, ny's 5th is nothing in comparison!
one of the stores which grabeed my attention was, of course, the sony building: six stories (+2 others with cafés and restaurants) of the latest computers, cameras, stereos, tvs, videogame consoles, and some other products like sony's life planner or something like that. this is basically a computer that calculates how much you need to save, spend, etc. in order to achieve your financial goals at every stage of your life, and it does all the research for you. say for example you tell the computer you want to buy a house in southern france, because you'd lik
e to retire there when you are 65. the computer just happens to know how much your house is expected to cost and takes into account a bunch of other things that you most probably wouldn't even consider -- everything from your wife's age to whether your kids will be done with college or whether you'll need to make a few trips a year back home to see your parents if they are still alive -- all probabilities of death, etc. included. just ridiculous.
anyway, the coolest thing were the showrooms, where you could just walk into a living room, for example, and watch a movie on the best equipment -- tv, blu-ray, sound system... you name it.
my dream store.
on sunday, i met alejandro, a mexican guy who's working at the embassy and we hung out around otome-sando and the shibuya district. again, this area reminded me so much of ny and times square with all the huge screens, the neon ads, and every street packed with people... but everything like 100 times better! jaja for some strange reason, even in the midst of all the chaos, one of tokyo's busiest areas still looks very orderly: the streets are spotless and all traffic signs and pedestrian crossings impeccably painted. there's no honking, no ugly yellow cabs driving like maniacs. people wait to cross the wide streets and it's an amazing sight to stand at the main crossroads when all cars stop at the red light and 2 seconds later thousands of people just flock onto the roads and cross the streets in all directions. i love it.
and, of course, there's louis vuitton and armani and everything you can imagine, here also.
on my first day in tokyo, as we walked around roppongi looking for a place to eat, katsu said to me:
anything you want to buy, you will find it here.
only now do i believe this statement was 100% true.
this city has kept me awestruck 24/7. it's hard to put in words the "good vibe" you get from it, just from walking around, interacting with the people. everybody is happy and helpful and they bow like a million times when you ask for directions, when you get into a store, when you say hello, when you say goodbye... they are so polite and they look so happy. i wonder how is it that their suicide rates are so high...
the city is amazingly full of contrasts. first, there's all the starbucks and mcdonald's i mentioned earlier but still it's like these people don't buy into the whole western thing. sure, they love their louis vuitton bags and armani jeans, yet they look so detached from what happens in the west. it's just unreal.
on saturday, when i went to the flamme d'or building, i first visited some of the temples in the asakusa district. it was a very strange experience. when you get to the main shrine, you see a lot of people who just stay outside by this huge square pool. as they approach the pool -- but before they even get there -- they throw some coins at it, then stop by it and pray and bow for a few minutes. then, a lot of them go to one of these structures on both sides of the pool, which look like big chests with drawers. they get a long cylindrical metal can, put some coins inside, and shake it violently, then open one of the drawers and take a piece of paper from there, read it, and then either laugh or just make a quick comment to their friends and leave. only very few of them actually go inside, into an area that seemed to be off-limits to tourists.
once i had my religious quota of the day, i went to ginza. this area is just ridiculously rich and fancy: there's ginza street, a strip packed with the most exclusive boutiques and designer stores, and then a bunch of streets around it that look just as fresa. the stores all look incredibly trendy and swanky -- and, yes, they are all full with customers. everything's just like the more famound 5th avenue in new york -- only like 10,000 cleaner and cooler! seriously, ny's 5th is nothing in comparison!one of the stores which grabeed my attention was, of course, the sony building: six stories (+2 others with cafés and restaurants) of the latest computers, cameras, stereos, tvs, videogame consoles, and some other products like sony's life planner or something like that. this is basically a computer that calculates how much you need to save, spend, etc. in order to achieve your financial goals at every stage of your life, and it does all the research for you. say for example you tell the computer you want to buy a house in southern france, because you'd lik
e to retire there when you are 65. the computer just happens to know how much your house is expected to cost and takes into account a bunch of other things that you most probably wouldn't even consider -- everything from your wife's age to whether your kids will be done with college or whether you'll need to make a few trips a year back home to see your parents if they are still alive -- all probabilities of death, etc. included. just ridiculous.anyway, the coolest thing were the showrooms, where you could just walk into a living room, for example, and watch a movie on the best equipment -- tv, blu-ray, sound system... you name it.
my dream store.
on sunday, i met alejandro, a mexican guy who's working at the embassy and we hung out around otome-sando and the shibuya district. again, this area reminded me so much of ny and times square with all the huge screens, the neon ads, and every street packed with people... but everything like 100 times better! jaja for some strange reason, even in the midst of all the chaos, one of tokyo's busiest areas still looks very orderly: the streets are spotless and all traffic signs and pedestrian crossings impeccably painted. there's no honking, no ugly yellow cabs driving like maniacs. people wait to cross the wide streets and it's an amazing sight to stand at the main crossroads when all cars stop at the red light and 2 seconds later thousands of people just flock onto the roads and cross the streets in all directions. i love it.
and, of course, there's louis vuitton and armani and everything you can imagine, here also.
on my first day in tokyo, as we walked around roppongi looking for a place to eat, katsu said to me:
anything you want to buy, you will find it here.
only now do i believe this statement was 100% true.
posted by adrián at 11:41
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