Visit to Tokyo followed by frustration in Seoul
This has probably been the longest interval between posts since coming to Korea. The reason for that is mainly laziness as well being gone for four days. Went to Tokyo with an Austrian friend who lives at my apartment. We took a morning flight from Incheon to Tokyo on Thursday and stayed until Sunday evening.
If Seoul was somewhat different from what I originally expected, Tokyo, on the other hand was pretty much exactly as I thought it would be: Noisy, big and exciting.
I never had any special interest in Japan, but since it was so close I thought it best to go see it. First of all, the people are very different from the Koreans. It sounds like a cliche to say that Koreans are very homogenous, but they are. They all dress very appropriately and behave even more appropriately. The Japanese are somewhat different – young people dress extravagantly and there a lots of different styles of dressing and behaving. Japan felt a lot more like Finland in the respect that there were a lot of weird looking people. We also came to the conclusion that the Japanese have more European features, meaning that they look otherwise very western except for the eyes. The Koreans on the other hand have different facial features. Before starting to sound like a nazi doctor, I guess I should stop here…
Not knowing much of Tokyo or Japan, I went ahead and bought the Lonely Planet for Tokyo a couple days before our departure. The previous night me and my colleague made a small plan of what we might do. Let me tell you that the Lonely Planet, even with all its faults, proved to be well worth it in Tokyo.
The most confusing single aspect about Tokyo is the subway system. There are at least two different metro operators and you cannot transfer between those… Therefore for a Finnish man who never asks for directions it was a bit trying at first. Luckily I had an Austrian with me who could ask intead of me.. heh.
Our accommodation was a capsule hotel at the Akihabara district. A capsule hotel is basically exactly as it sounds like – a hostel with no actual rooms but sleeping capsules for each guest. The capsule comes with a TV, radio and a mattress. It’s very convenient and in a way futuristic too. I suppose all you need on a trip like this is a place to lie down for a while. We paid 4000 yen (25 euros) a night.
The first day we went to Tokyo Tower, which is a replica of the Eiffel Tower, except that it’s about 8 meters taller and is colored white and orange. It was dark when we went up there and the views were gorgeous. Even more than Seoul, Tokyo is most at its most beautiful at night. The Tokyo cityscape has much more skyscrapers than Seoul – it looks a lot like New York, except that it’s bigger and there are much more neon lights. Especially the views from the first observatory at 150 meters, right at the level of the surrounding buildings, were breathtaking.
The second day we headed for a Sumo Tournament. After getting tickets for the day’s event we headed for the Imperial Palace grounds, walked by the parliament building and then went to check out the latest gadgets at Sony’s showroom. In the afternoon we returned to the Sumo arena to watch some men with boobs make out. Having said that, I do have to say that after about four hours of sumo, I now do have some real respect for the sport. We also ran into a group of Finnish ladies who were very concerned of whether we had had enough to eat at Tokyo…
At this point I’ve just got to mention that at the Sumo arena I encountered, for the first time in my life, a bathroom which actually cleans and dries your ass. I gave it a go and to the experience was very unique. There are separate wash functions for men and women, as the picture below shows. I accidentally used to one intended for women, first…
After the Sumo we headed for Akihabara Electric Town which is the local electronics and Anime paradise. The place was also home to our accommodation, Capsule Inn Akihabara. The prices for electronics are a bit higher than in Seoul, but still way below the Finnish rip-off tags. Akihabara also has a lot of Anime stores and sex stores featuring the most troubling S&M equipment I’ve ever seen. Apparently the Japanese are into that stuff much more than us Scandinavians.
On Friday night we headed for the Shinjuku district which would supposedly have some nightlife. The guide was right, and we ended up having a very late night. There was this whole neighborhood of narrow streets with bars about the size of a bathroom. You could enter thru any door and there was a bar and a few stools. Each place has its own atmosphere and I’m sure you could spend many nights exploring the place.
On all the street corners there were a lot of black guys trying to get us to follow them to a strip club. If you did not accept they would almost get on your face. It was not until we started talking back to them in Finnish and German that we were able to pass these people wit more ease. I’m not sure how they actually have all these seemingly African American men there working for these clubs. Perhaps these are the same guys who beat the crap out of you if you can’t pay your bill….
Anyways, we found a few really nice bars – Tokyo seems to be filled with British pubs that serve actual pub food and offer all the imaginable brands of whisky and ale. Even got some Strongbow cider (!!!) at one of the places. At least so far I have not encountered this in Korea, where ordering a cider will only get you a Sprite.
On Saturday we headed for Odaiba Island, an artificial island connected to the mainland by a 900 meter bridge. We took a river boat there and enjoyed some real good sushi. To be honest, I’ve never had sushi in my life. I guess it could not have been a better introduction – a fine restaurant with a direct view to the the the sea on Tokyo skyline.
Other things on Odaiba Island include the futuristic looking Fuji building, which looks like it was from a a B-class scifi movie.
We also visited the Museom of Emerging Science.This was a bit off a kid-thing, but we did see the Asimo-robot.
After this we went to the Toyota showroom. What was surprising that the store over there had much more Ferrari F1 stuff for sale than Toyota products.
Talking about cars, it’s been surprising that there are actually very few of those butt-ugly Priuses in the streets in Tokyo.
Toyota, like also the Korean automakers, have very nice models which they do not seem to bring to Europe. It also appears that they do not have to call their cars Lexus in order to make it nice. A lot of the Lexus models are regular Toyotas in Japan.
We finished Saturday with four hours in Joypolis, an indoor game arcade / amusement park also located on Odaiba Island. Some of it was really corny, but there were a few nice rides.
They also had a ‘ride’ called prison break. It was basically a participative prison breakout. Our group followed this Japanese guy thru a few rooms with two other guys following us with machine guns. The comic element was definitely worth doing it. The only thing reminding us that it had something to do with the TV series was the Prisonbreak tune that was being played in the background.
Probably on of the scariest things ever was an attraction called Room of Living Dolls. It was also in Japanese, but that did not make it any less scary. What it was about was, a group of six went in thru a dark tunnel holding onto a railing. After a while we reached a dimly lit corridor where our guide told a story in Japanese. After this we entered a room with a table and six chairs. All around were dolls and in frond was a larger mannequin with red flashing eyes. We put on headphones and sat on the chairs. After this the room went dark and we started hearing an old talking to us in Japanese. I still can’t believe how good the surround effect on those headphones was! You could swear that there really was a woman with scissors somewhere in the dark room. At times it sounded like she was right behind your cutting your hear and about to slit your throat. At times there were some light effects and at the end the chairs we were sitting on suddenly dropped about an inch. This might not sound like much, but if you ever have a chance to visit Joypolis, check this out!
We finished the evening again with a nice British pub. There seem to be a multitude of those in Tokyo.
On Sunday, which was our last day we went to Shibya district for some clothes shopping. Even though it’s pretty hard to find any clothes without glam and chains, my Austrian friend was able to find some clothes.
The last couple of days we had talked about the possibility of finding some whale meat in Tokyo. We presumed that it would be difficult and very expensive. As it turned out, Shibya actually has one of the few restaurants in the world that serve only whale meat. Therefore we ended our Japanese outing with some of the BEST MEAT I’VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. I mean really: imagine the best meat you can get from a cow and make that double more tender. The whale meat we had was only cooked slightly on the outside and was raw on the inside. Still, it was as tender as if you were eating a hamburger. It’s really red meat, only diffence being that there’s less blood. WOW!
Ended up flying back in business class. We came to the airport pretty late and were not given seats until at the gate. My first time flying business, but hopefully not the last. Roast beef and bacon sandwich served on a real plate accompanied by a full bottle of red wine during the 2,5 hour flight – not bad. Therefore : Fly United! LOL
That’s it with the Tokyo trip.
Yesterday we went on a Korean cooking class here in Seoul as part of our Korean language course. Did some Korean pancakes with some of my colleagues. No whale, but still good. Plus it was nice to actually do at least a little cooking. They made us wear skirts afterwards.. 
It’s Tuesday night and I don’t seem to be getting enough of sleep. I keep staying awake until 2 AM even if I have to get up early. Having some more stuff to do than usual, since I was gone for four days and my family is coming over on Friday, so I’m trying to get everything done for next week as well…
If you were wondering why I mentioned the frustration on the heading for this post, well, I’ve just been on a bad mood for the last couple of days. It seems that one month of living with six other guys is about the time when you start getting pissed at the little things. We have a good time together, but sometime it’s like a circus here… I guess I’m better off than the rest of the guys, since I’ll be moving out for over two weeks on Friday: First ten nights at a residence in Seoul with my family and then a few days in Finland… I suppose I have not mentioned it in a while, but I can’t wait to see my son…
