We're starting to get a feel for this city - although by no means do we understand it. Two themes are emerging.
First, Japan is a nation of nerds. Japan's love of ritual and too high population density seem to have led to people being obsessed with 'the best'. People express themselves by dressing to the nines (after all, no one will ever see your apartment) and publicly demonstrating their commitment to practices that show just how committed they are to what they do.
Sometimes this is awesome, as shown in this popper in Yoyogi park:
Sometimes it's a little misguided. These girls are lining up to eat brunch on the patio of "Eggs and things". They've decided that they are committed to recreating the North American preppy look and all its associated social habits:
The other things we've realized is that Tokyo is a fully modern medieval city. After the city was destroyed many times in the 20th century (first earthquakes, then firebombs), they could have rezoned all the streets (think New York's Commissioners' Plan of 1811 or Haussmann's renovations of Paris). However, they chose not to, and two things become evident.
The first, is that Tokyo is a series of layers, all piled upon one another.
Highway over train over road:
Building upon building upon building, all trying to reach the sky...
The second interesting aspect of this is that the lack of planning means that experiences simply occur; randomly next to one another. For instance, today's walk took us to the "super skyscraper" district of Shinjuku, through a park with ancient temples; very different styles of people watching in Harajuku and Shibuya and finally exploring the love hotels of Dogenzaka. All contiguous; all very different.
Here are some photos.
The atrium of the Sumitomo Building.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building; it's supposed to look like a microchip (obvious, right?).
The view from the top:
We witnessed a Japanese wedding inside the Meiji Shriine of Kamizono-Cho park:
We did a lot of people watching there and in Harajuku and neighbouring Yoyogi park (a surprisingly fun Western-style park replete with runners, skateboarders, saxophone players, beat boxers and dancers):
In Shibuya, we marveled at the wall of people crossing the street. This is probably the only place in the world where its' fascinating to just watch traffic:
From there, we got a kick out of the different themes and unintentionally inappropriate names of the love hotels in Dogenzaka. You can book them to "rest" for 4 hours or "stay" overnight. They're actually a legitimate way to stay at a reasonably priced hotel in Tokyo:
Finally, we had a hilarious dinner in Shinjuku, We wandered the streets and found the cutest izakaya on the back streets. There was just one downside: nothing was in English.
We asked the table next to us if they spoke any English. It turned out that the chef could say "meat" and we knew "sashimi" and "sake", so that was enough for a full meal. The food was amazing; the sashimi below came served with the fish it came from. And after the meal, the waitress (who, along with the restaurant thought it was hilarious that we were eating there - particularly when we ordered a second round of sakes) came out in the street and bowed to see us go.
We also learned a couple of cool things about Japanese eating culture at the restaurant. If you're a local there, you can buy one of those huge bottles of sake and they'll put a charm around it's neck to indicate it's yours. It's then on ice (or heated) for you the next time you visit.
Also, the waitress put a sake cup into a box and then poured the sake into the cup, over the brim and filled up both the cup and the box. You're then served the combination and it's like getting two glasses in one, refilling your cup from the box when finished.