I was in Tokyo for a week from March 23rd, 2008 afternoon to March 30th, 2008 afternoon. I stayed in Shibuya-ku (or simply Shibuya), which is located in the south western part of the city on the JR Yamanote line. Shibuya demographic is mostly young people and so it's not surprising that you'll find people on the streets very late in the night (2-3 am). My hotel, Hotel Cerulean Tower was hardly 200m from Shibuya station's west exit and offered a great view of the western part of the city from the window.
Train stations in Tokyo are quite big and there are many shops within the station complex. Sometimes it appears more like a mall where you can catch trains as well. Each station is shared by multiple train companies and often they share tracks too. Fortunately, it's easy to find your way around the train stations without knowing Japanese as all directions are written in English as well.
The Yamanote line is considered the single busiest train line in the world. This is partly because it's a giant loop connecting most of the key parts of Tokyo city (I think it has more than 30 stations), and partly because Tokyo itself is (probably) the most populous city in the whole world where statistically speaking, almost everyone commutes by train. As a tourist, most of the common attractions can be reached using the Yamanote line. It's advisable to purchase a "Suica" card, so that you don't have to buy a ticket for every trip. Perhaps the only annoying thing about Tokyo train system is that all trains stop at 12 midnight. Coupled with the extremely high taxi cab fares in Tokyo, it makes staying out late effectively infeasible, unless you only visit places in your neighborhood.
I spent the first few days of my stay totally engrossed in work. My breakfast was mostly pineapples served in our office every morning at 10 AM. I was told that fruits in Japan are quite expensive, just like beef and some other meat. Pork is cheap and fish is more so. Anyhow, I really enjoyed the pineapples which were quite tasty like the pineapples I have had in India (pineapples that you get in the U.S. are not as good).
Talking about food, Japanese don't really have much dessert of their own, you mostly get western style cakes and cookies. The funny part however is that the cake and other dessert are served in very tiny quantities. In our office, I ate probably the world's smallest cake. One might argue that it's healthy to eat less dessert, but not so much for most people as we simply ended up having five of those tiny pieces.
Japanese food is quite close to the nature, with very little processing. Fish is usually boiled and served along with rice and soup, and probably constitutes bulk of what Japanese eat. Probably this is why they didn't originally come up with lot of good dessert like Indians and French did because the latter two spend a lot of time processing food, so are more likely to produce great dessert.
Japanese restaurants are the symbol of efficiency. In a typical restaurant, several tables are joined together to complete a circle or rectangle. Customers sit on the outside of the tables. The kitchen may be located in the inside part where the chef cooks food right in front of everyone's eyes (which is good). If the circle is small, the chef can directly drop off the food into the customer's plate. Some places have a conveyor belt constantly running over all tables and the chef may simply drop the food in the conveyor belt for the appropriate customer to pick it up. Of course, if the restaurant doesn't receive enough customers to justify this elaborate affair, the kitchen may be kept separate and only the waiter walks in the space enclosed by the tables, serving each customer. The waiter ends up walking less which is probably good for him and for overall efficiency.
Enough about food. My first visit outside was to the Ebisu Garden Place which is a mall located close the Ebisu station on Yamanote line and is well known for its architecture. It was a brief lunch-time visit with colleagues. I spent a few evenings wandering around Shibuya and Shinjuku which is three stops from Shibuya on the Yamanote line, both places are known for having plenty of dining places. Once at Shinjuku, I asked for authentic Japanese food and was served live shrimps in my plate! Since then I stopped asking for authentic Japanese food.
At a Shinjuku restaurant, I also made friends with three cool Japanese people. Keiju Suzuki is an IT professional and a passionate motorcyclist (like myself) who enjoys long rides on weekends. Anna is the chef cum waitress who is a huge fan of Julia Roberts, and Hida who owns the place is an accomplished football player and is a pretty cool fellow.
On Friday, I took off early from office and visited Yoyogi Park and the Meiji Jingu shrine. Yoyogi park is located near Harajuku station on Yamanote line (and not near the Yoyogi station as I first thought). Meiji Jingu was a highly regarded Japanese emperor (reign 1868 to 1912) who is credited to have ushered in the modern era in Japan. The Yoyogi park is quite big and one has to walk quite a bit to get to the shrine. The walk is quite enjoyable though, as it's lined with trees and Buddhist structures. There are also many narrow trails that you can take.
From Meiji Jingu I set off for Akihabara, which is the diagonally opposite end of the Yamanote line (Yamanote circle would be more appropriate). Akihabara is the electronic town in Tokyo. As such places usually go, it's somewhat crowded and haphazard. Nevertheless, I was quite intrigued by the many cellular phone and computer shops. For example, a simple looking cell phone with a touch senstive keypad, another one on which you can watch live television, pay for travel using an embedded chip which can be programmed to pay for many different services, and so on. Later during the week, going over my colleague and friend Frederic Beal's cell phone, I realized how far ahead Japan is in its mobile phone technology. Other examples include an amazingly useful transit app for cell phones, [try to remember more] etc. I noticed that most laptops and computers for sale came with a TV like remote control which make your laptop look indistinguishable from a TV. Also, I didn't see any computers using CRT monitors, everything was LCD.
We had lunch at a traditional Japanese place in the Nikko town and took an early train back to Tokyo in order to beat the rush as we had seen a lot of tourists pouring in as the day progressed. We were quite enamored by the snow capped mountains engulfing Nikko and it reminded Frederic of his visits to the Swiss Alps. Frederic told me that Nikko receives snow as well and on one of his visits to Nikko during winter, the whole ground was covered with snow. We had Japanese beer on the way back (Asahi and Kirin) and I was slightly drowsy by the time we got back to Tokyo. The train trips although long were quite entertaining as we discussed our different ideas of the kind of companies we'd like to create and other stuff about Japan, France, and India.
I bid goodbye to Frederic at Ueno and on his suggestion went to the Ueno Park which is close to the station. It turned out to be the climax of my trip and an absolutely memorable experience. Earlier in the day, Frederic was telling me how there was no Japan at the end of WWII and how the Japanese people have come so far since then through their hard work and perseverance. I found the perfect testimony of their progress in the park. The park was full of people who were having a nice day out with family and friends. But the most memorable experience was a 200m walk through a trail that was fully lined on both sides with cherry blossoms. I sat by a side and dozed off for sometime as it was a perfect sunny day for doing so. It occurred to me that all the hard work, discipline, and sacrifices have been totally worth it for Japanese people as they rebuilt their country from ruins and have lived to enjoy this amazing day.
I left the park with the conclusion that "No tragedy is big enough". I came to the hotel and overslept, waking up very early next morning, doing sundry chores and checked out at 11AM. I met Frederic again at south exit of Ikebukero station. After roaming around for a while, we ate at a Japenese-European restaurant and followed it up with ice cream at Coldstone. I've never seen such a long line at Coldstone, which makes the JFK immigration line look minuscule. We went to a Yamaha music store where Frederic bought sheet music and also convinced me to start taking Piano lessons. Frederic, who is French, is an expert Clarinet player himself. So with that in mind, I said goodbye to him and Tokyo and left for Narita Airport.
