Tokyo / Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan

June 26, 2009

Tokyo has two faces. Yamanote and Shitamachi: uptown and downtown, mod and trad, respectively.

The dichotomy is not as physically striking as, say, Pudong and Puxi in Shanghai, which are geographically distinct. In Tokyo, the separation is more subtle, with one side bleeding into the other. They are not districts of the city, but a subcultural distinction. Nevertheless, the two areas’ antithesis was palpable as soon as I met my friend-cum-guide, Mr. A.

High Fashion and High Jinks in Yamanote

A City of Superlatives

Tokyo, Japan

June 26 – 27, 2009

Super-duper. That pretty much sums up this Godzilla of a city: Tokyo, the monster metropolis.

Cindy and I got off the bus from Kansai right at the heart of the monster – the Marunouchi district, Japan’s financial vortex. But the grind of the economy was still a faint buzz at 6AM. I caught a glimpse of the city before it stirred from slumber: its avenues still widely empty, its sidewalks lazy promenades.

On the Most Expensive Kilometer in the World: Marunouchi, Tokyo

And the Loyalty Award Goes to…

Tokyo, Japan

June 26, 2009

The world’s most faithful dog and the last samurai. Two stories. Two statues. Two symbols of loyalty. Two sides of one city. I saw the dog statue first thing in the morning, the samurai one before I ended my first day in Tokyo. One devoted his life to loyalty, the other sacrificed his for it.

Hachiko: Waiting for Godot

Hachiko and Me: Shibuya Station, Tokyo

Hachiko was an Akita, a Japanese breed known for their thick coats and tremendous loyalty. He was born in 1923 in northern Japan and was taken by his owner, Eisaburo Ueno, a university professor, to Tokyo the following year.

Canine and human quickly formed a tight bond. Hachiko would see the professor off at Shibuya Station, and meet him again when he returned from work. Fate attempted to cut short this daily routine in 1925 when the professor fell ill at work and died. Hachiko waited at the station for his master who never came. But fate was no match to the dog’s clockwork devotion; he never wavered, waiting for the next ten years in the same spot, the same time, everyday.