Evaluation of Tokyo, Japan
Okay, so now everything is over. The trip is coming to an end as the hours of the day flies away. So there is only one thing left… how was it really? This trip to a foreign country which I’ve wanted to visit for so long and finally got to visit? Is Japan really worth all this money to see, all this effort? What’s different and is it better or worse than living in Luleå, really? Well, so far have my journal mostly said what I’ve encountered and what have happened during my trip but let’s se if I can give a better answer to those questions here. I really don’t know how to do this but I’ll think I’ll try with a summary of Tokyo in contra Sweden, or at least my view.
Tokyo as a city is big, very big. It feels like it goes on like forever. In a country as small as Japan Tokyo must cover a really big part of the land. I haven’t been living in Tokyo, I’ve been living in the city of Saitama, but it sure feels like Tokyo when there’s no distinct end of Tokyo and start of Saitama. This size makes in very easy to become confused while navigating the streets and trying just to stroll for a bit. It’s also impossible to walk from one end to another within a reasonable amount of time so to see the whole city by foot is not possible to do if you plan to do it under a week, or a month. The size thou have it’s advantages, it’s a big city therefore they have many stores and many different areas that tries to gather everything in one place. The thing is only that it may be too much for the weak to choose from when you have so much to choose from compared to Sweden. In Stockholm, our capital city, if you go in into the biggest department store you probably have about three to five floors of stuff, but not too much different brands and types. Here you kind find so much more to choose from and the prices actually vary from place to place.
Transportation in the city is mostly trains and subway. To get to other places it’s Shinkansen or bus that dominates. In the city they have a lot of busses too which I haven’t tried myself but I believe that they are good for getting faster to different parts of a district, but not between districts when it seems like the trains are faster. They have taxies, which I’ve calculated actually have about the same or slightly lower prices, so they aren’t the first option. But like in Sweden… if the public transportation isn’t fast enough, if have stopped running or if you have much luggage then taxies are the only option you have. The transportation is actually pretty cheap, you seldom need to spend more than about 100 SEK1 and that’s the days you really going around many districts. If you can take the subway you should, in the long run, it’s almost half price from the trains. Thou the subway is more crowded and have bad air. But if you live in central Tokyo it’s no problem. But then again the city is big so if you are going from one end to the other… get a seat and try not to sleep for too long, because the bad air causes one to fall asleep. It’s like in Forsberg’s room in the cellar, only worse.
Food is everywhere in Tokyo. There is no problem with food at all… if you like fish, meat and noodles, there is. They have fast food restaurants with curry, noodles, sushi, fish, steak and fried meat everywhere. It’s seldom more than about a couple of hundred meters between them, but mostly you can find them just about twenty to eighty meters apart. Thou in some districts they are harder to spot. As for better and bigger restaurants they exist in big numbers too. Just look for signs outside buildings. Most restaurants have two to three floors, and some are even above a store or something. They are a little bit harder to spot, but you can see the signs here and there. They have a good selection of dishes mostly and the prices for the food is seldom more than about 200 SEK 2 for a dinner for two or more. The average price for a dinner or lunch is about 600-900 YEN3 and that’s what you usually pay about twice or three times the money for in Sweden. Their water thou tastes a little funny, but it’s free even thou a soft drink or soda only costs about 5 to 6 SEK.
As a city Tokyo may feel a little bit messy at first. There is cables everywhere, like they so nicely points out in Serial Experiments Lain4, and they are so many and not hidden at all. During the evenings/nights you don’t see them but they’re there. They have many streets in all different sizes and a lot of traffic going on, the good thing thou is that many of the Japanese drives electric cars so it doesn’t smell almost anything of gas. Thou the cars still make sounds and block the street. One thing I like thou is that they in many of the bigger districts they have a square crossing. This means that in every square where they have five roads connecting when the green light for pedestrians turn up, you can walk across the street in any direction. This makes it easier to get where you want, you don’t need to first cross one road, only to wait to be able to cross the next to get to the right side of the street. Well, many big cites are messy in a way, but according to my memories and to the fact that Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world, I don’t think that Tokyo is that messy to be a big city. It has a good system, and many of the roads with stores and similar things, are blocked from traffic during the weekends.
To continue on the previous subject, one could think that Tokyo with that many people would be really, really messy. Trash everywhere and graffiti and junk in every empty space. But they don’t have that much of either. Thou they lack trash paper bins in public5 they have clean streets and everything seems tidy. You seldom see graffiti somewhere and they have specific places where you can put your thrash. If this were Sweden idiots would have taken the trash and ripped it open and spread it out on the street. They have trash, it’s not Singapore, but they are extremely clean for being a city of this size. I think it has to do with the attitude of the people, just take some of my friends for example, if we are out walking and they have had a hot dog or whatever… if there isn’t a bin within the next five meters they just drop the thrash. Some even, even though that are a long time ago now, took great measures to hide the fact that they left some trash at a place where it shouldn’t be.
So let’s see… Tokyo is big, they have great means of public transportation, they have a good variety of food that is available almost everywhere, they are a little bit messy on the first look exterior due to the narrow way they build things and they keep their streets pretty clean. What more is there? Yeah…
Most Japanese are very, very friendly and they seem to all go out of they way to help you. If you ask one Japanese person for directions, even thou it can’t understand you fully and vice versa, it tries as much as possible to help you. And if they can’t help you they fetch the nearest Japanese and soon you have a little hive of chattering Japanese around you that tries to help you. This may sound like exaggerations but it isn’t. So sometimes I say, be careful what you ask for. Like in a supermarket, if you want to ask where the butter is, they may not understand you. Then they soon have fetched a lot of their co-workers to try to find an English speaking person or to discuss what you want. So sometimes it may be easier just to use your eyes a little bit longer than just to ask for everything. So the myth than Japanese people are extremely kindly is more than true. They excuse themselves and always say welcome when you enter a store and thank you for coming here when you leave. They always start with things like; “Sorry to have kept you waiting,” and “Sorry, can I help you?” It’s like they’re always apologizing for their existence and they greatly abuse the word “Sumimasen” that actually can mean so much more than only I’m sorry. It’s a word that you can use in many situations but it’s mostly to excuse your existence… than may not be the whole truth but it’s a word they use to be polite. Which they are, and many other peoples could learn from them.
As for their prices almost everything except for international electronics seems to be cheaper than in Sweden. Actually even international electronics you can find cheaper here, but it’s not that easy. The places where I’ve found that their prices are closest to ours except for in the electric and multimedia shops are in the supermarket. Goods as food and such seem to only vary in some extent. Bread is actually cheaper back home, because we get more bread and the bread is actually not only air puffs. But they make good bread at bakeries but that bread is often more expensive than in Sweden. This makes it not that cheap to have breakfast here when at least a person like me have about four toast a day… often more.
Yeah, hygiene… that’s a point where they are strange… They say that Japanese have a great hygiene, that may be true and in the same time, not. They wear masks when they are a little bit sick or believe that they may get sick, they seldom sneeze in public and most of the Japanese keep themselves clean with the towels you can get on the street for free and with baths. But… many Japanese when they sneeze, they do it in the palm of their hand. I’ve even seen some Japanese when they sneeze on the train afterwards just clean it of on their clothes instead of taking up a handkerchief or a towel. One other thing is that most Japanese don’t seem to wash their hands after going to the toilet either. I’ve been in a couple of these awful toilets, and most people do their thing and then go. No washing there, nope. Not that this matters to me but still, I think than many people think of this as not than great. And what’s actually a pain in the ass are the Japanese style toilets. I know how to work them right, but that doesn’t mean than it’s not very uncomfortable. They are a little bit strange and it’s not funny to pull the number two in a toilet like that. Therefore I mostly go to the toilet when I’m outside and can find a western style one instead.
What more is there? Yeah, was this all really worth it? I can say that for me it was really worth it even thou I haven’t really done anything some days. It really costs to have fun by doing things, but compared to Sweden it’s nothing. Back home I live on a minimum and do things that is for free, if I would do the same here, my expenses would have been about… half of my average monthly expenses in Sweden. Which I must say isn’t much at all. Here you can do a lot more, and most likely never get tiered of them as long as you have money and the will to do it. Tokyo isn’t that great for the one that wants some peace and quiet, but you sure can have it if you want. It’s a crazy town full of events, people and crazy things to do day and night. If I would choose a city to be grounded in I would probably choose Tokyo, seems like a good place. The Japanese people are as crazy as they are polite and friendly.
As an ending comment I must just tell you about Miiko, my dear host for these twenty-three days I’ve been in Tokyo. She’s a wonderful woman that stresses up a lot, but wishes everyone well. She doesn’t really demand that you pay, she only wishes that you did, if you can’t then she’ll provide you with space for one or two days at most anyway. She offers to show you things, to cook for you, and she sometimes tries to invite you to crazy events as well as turn you into a Buddhist. She can’t speak a lot of English but she tries very hard to understand and to be of help for you as much as she can. Even thou she can’t provide everything she provides a lot for the Couch Surfers and want to provide more.
And as a greeting from Miiko, she says that all that wants to stay at hear place is more than welcome and she will try her best to help you during your stay in Tokyo. She even sent a compliment to my mother, haha. Since Nathalie and Danielle went away I’ve been helping her out a lot and she believes that my mother must be a great woman with a strong mind that have managed to make me so disciplined and organized. She thinks that my mother and father must be great parents and wishes to say that they’ve done a wonderful job with their son that is most helpful for an old lady as her. Hehe, well, a great compliment considering that she doesn’t know you at all! But it’s true as I’ve gotten most of my way of organizing and taking care of things from my mother and as for my father he’s learned me about trying to find alternative solutions and not give up, well I think that all of my family is very stubborn, but that’s a trait not a flaw.
Well, as I write this as a final chapter in my journal, my journal actually managed to become fifty pages long. So for last I must say that I’ve had really fun here. I’ve tested my skills with travelling and surviving away from home and I’m very satisfied with the result. I’ve even gotten a compliment that keeping track of my expenses actually makes it easier. Thou Simon thought that when one is on a holiday one shouldn’t worry about those things. That is only one of the few things that annoyed me greatly about that idiot. Well, I find this experience nice and think that I’ve learned some new stuff. Now all that is left is to pay some debts I’ve obviously made… and get back on track with my economy back home and then get back here, haha.
Best regards,
Herid Fel a.k.a. Oskar Vikström
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