MY ADVENTURES IN JAPAN (May 2005)

When I visited Japan four years ago, I was very excited to see this country and experience the culture that appeared from the outside to be so very discreet, private and closed. I imagined yoga and meditation, waterfalls, bonsai trees and advanced technology, all working together in minimalist harmony. I wanted to slip into Japan to enjoy a few days and learn a little about the culture, eat some good sushi, drink sake, check out Mt. Fuji, and then slip back out…blend in so to speak, as I so often try to do in my travels. I did not really know what to expect in Japan, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was a whole lot more than I anticipated!

I was slightly intimidated when I first arrived because I immediately felt "out of place" there. I drew many stares from people and wondered why. At first I thought they were just being rude or giving me mean looks. After the first few days, the stares finally wore me down. I had just about had it with feeling like I was a circus freak, when I took a closer look and realized that many of their stares were ones of curiosity, not malice. It appeared they were curious about me. Me? But why? As I looked closer (…well actually I started staring back) at some of the faces and deeper into their eyes, I realized there was a genuine innocence in their curiosity, not the mean-mugging I assumed it was from afar. After this revelation, I was able to start enjoying my time in Japan.

I had two glorious massages in Tokyo. One was a Shiatsu (pressure points) massage, which I really needed and which awakened areas of my body that had been asleep for a very long time. The other was a Hawaiian massage, how superb! I fell asleep during the Hawaiian (90 minutes long) and woke up with the protective paper stuck to my face held there by my drool! (Lovely!) That was one of the best massages I've ever had. The masseuse was about half my size and height, but her hands were very strong and she had clearly done this a few times before. I longed for more massage parlours!

At night, the downtown Tokyo scene rivals the best neon light shows that Las Vegas offers! Such an awesome sight to see in the displays ranging from business advertisements to just bright coloured lights illuminating and hypnotizing! Since space is at a premium in Tokyo, everything is built up, not out. Office buildings, apartment buildings, some highways, they all go up. So the buildings are tall and fairly close together, and the endless colours of the neons look even more fantastic on them!

There is definitely a wild nightlife side to Tokyo in which I proudly participated. By way of dancing salsa to Latin music and having to deal with drunken foreign sailors in a bar, I was sucked into the club-hopping scene. I remember leaving one club at around 5:00am and the sun was already shining bright in the sky, yet I was on my way to club number four! Nobody was thinking about going home. Tokyo's wild side seems to be compliments of outside influence though. Good? Bad? You decide, but young Japanese soak it up. Their fascination, and in some cases obsession, with the western world and pop culture is truly undeniable.

There are really good restaurants in Tokyo and as you can imagine, some of the freshest seafood available. I ate at several of them including, of course, Japanese, sushi, Thai, even a steakhouse. I ate a lot of noodles and seafood and can't remember one bad dish. Everything was so good! One day at lunch, I decided it was time to "sake up" and I ordered and drank good sake…really good sake…at about 2:00p in the afternoon. Don't remember if I finished it the small bottle or not. Need I say more?

Tokyo has one of the most (if not the most) expansive train systems in the world. It would take me weeks to figure it out if I had to manoeuvre it on my own. Plus, the trains are usually always packed, since most people use them instead of cars. It was quite an adventure to ride the trains with so many people moving as if in a choreographed production. And speaking of "so many people," they were everywhere. Tokyo is as bustling and busy a city as I've ever seen. So busy in fact, that there is an intersection called Roppongi Crossing (it was even pictured in the movie "Lost in Translation"), which is known as being one of the busiest intersections in the world. What makes it so popular? Well, it's located in one of the busiest areas in Tokyo and it's where about seven major roads meet. It is estimated at every traffic light change, that an average of about 1,500 people cross this intersection. One wrong move and you can mess up the entire flow.

I hung out in Harajuku (one of the areas in Tokyo) where the young and fashion conscious hang out. Well I should be honest and say the fashion and style in Harajuku goes a few steps further and closer to being extreme fashion. (Kind of like haute couture gone wild!) I took a picture with a "Harajuku girl," who was dressed in a babydoll outfit with bright colours and heavy makeup. In this area, young Japanese feel free to express their wildest and most unusual fashion senses, and if you wear "normal clothes," you will be the one who is out of place. This is a good area for people watching.

I also hung out in Shibuya (one of the 23 wards in Tokyo), which is very trendy and is a shopping mecca for just about anyone. Shibuya is one of the busiest areas in Tokyo as it is home to one of most well-known landmarks, which I can best describe as a smaller version of New York's Times Square. Shibuya is also where many of Tokyo's fashion and entertainment trends are born. Whether you're a trend-setter or follower, you should definitely check out Shibuya.

There were several tremors while I was there and one of them, though only minor by Richter scale standards, got my attention! Yikes! The building was definitely moving, and I was frozen. Some Japanese kept on doing what they doing, but others stood at attention.

When it was time to leave Japan, I revisited my checklist: learned a little about the culture...check; ate really good sushi and drank sake...check; see Mt. Fuji...well two out of three "ain't" bad as Mt. Fuji remains on the wish list. I longed for a few days more to continue to savour this distant land. I was just beginning to get a "taste" of the culture and I liked it. For me, there was no more intimidation only anticipation about what I would encounter next. There's so much more to discover and experience and I want to know more, see more and learn more. Mostly, I want to have more really good sake! LOL!!

Written by Screenname TriniDiva (NSL-R)