...we gonna rock down to electric avenue...
On our last day in Tokyo, Chaz and I got unlimited JR passes and just rode around on the train, getting off at any stops that seemed interesting.
We decided to check out Ueno park, a huge park with lots to offer like a zoo, a few museums, a shrine, a massive pond, etc. The most interesting part of the park (for me, anyway) was that it provided me with my first glimpse of poverty and homelessness in Japan (from what I can tell, poverty and homelessness are pretty 'subtle' in Japan...it sure isn't in your face like it can be back home). Now I'm sure it's not like this for everyone in Japan, but the people we saw in Ueno park seemed to be seriously organized. There were many people sleeping in tents and on cots in the middle of the park. Chaz and I saw a sign that said that the park closed at night, so we figured people would sleep in their tent or on their cot in the park during the day, and then wander around at night when the park closed. Another thing that was interesting was that most seemed to have quite a lot of possessions (seriously, I think some own more stuff than I do!). We also saw many people who collected cans, but instead of just lugging big bags of cans around most of them actually had cart-thingies (I can't for the life of me think of their name, but I know they have one!) full of cans that they pulled around... It was so fascinating to me, and so unlike anything I've ever seen before.
We also couldn't resist checking out Akihabara (electric town) even though we didn't really have anything to buy. It was seizure-inducing to say the least...so many lights, bright colours (seriously, I haven't seen so much neon since the 80s), and people that we really couldn't stay very long (see pictures below).
We decided to check out Ueno park, a huge park with lots to offer like a zoo, a few museums, a shrine, a massive pond, etc. The most interesting part of the park (for me, anyway) was that it provided me with my first glimpse of poverty and homelessness in Japan (from what I can tell, poverty and homelessness are pretty 'subtle' in Japan...it sure isn't in your face like it can be back home). Now I'm sure it's not like this for everyone in Japan, but the people we saw in Ueno park seemed to be seriously organized. There were many people sleeping in tents and on cots in the middle of the park. Chaz and I saw a sign that said that the park closed at night, so we figured people would sleep in their tent or on their cot in the park during the day, and then wander around at night when the park closed. Another thing that was interesting was that most seemed to have quite a lot of possessions (seriously, I think some own more stuff than I do!). We also saw many people who collected cans, but instead of just lugging big bags of cans around most of them actually had cart-thingies (I can't for the life of me think of their name, but I know they have one!) full of cans that they pulled around... It was so fascinating to me, and so unlike anything I've ever seen before.
We also couldn't resist checking out Akihabara (electric town) even though we didn't really have anything to buy. It was seizure-inducing to say the least...so many lights, bright colours (seriously, I haven't seen so much neon since the 80s), and people that we really couldn't stay very long (see pictures below).
We also hit up Harajuku again, but unfortunately there weren't any Harajuku girls there...apparently they don't waste their time hanging out on weekdays. Pity.
After that we headed back to the airport and flew back to Okayama sans incident. All in all it was a super great trip, and big thanks go out to X-tina for being such a super host (she even let us have the bed, how sweet is that?).
Below are a few more photos of some of the interesting people we saw in Tokyo...
posted by bag marla at 5:03 a.m.
2 Comments:
So...I was just wondering how much neon light that you actally saw in the 80's? Since you were living in Saskatoon for all but 8 months of that particular decade I am doubtful that you would have had a neon overdose!
when i said neon i didn't mean neon lights, i meant neon colours, and, HELLO, bro-home and i alone wore enough neon to give anyone a neon overload. man, i sure did love neon...now it makes my eyes want to bleed!!
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