Experience Tokyo! February 10, 2008

Sumo.  These guys eat a lot of rice.  They have public tournaments around the country multiple times each year.  Unfortunately there will be no tournaments while we are in the country (boooo!).

Kabuki.  This has become kind of a tourist thing, given that the locals don’t go out to Kabuki every weekend.  But it’s a type of traditional Japanese theater, a theater of the masses, rather than of the kings.  The plays are about history, morality, and love.  Men play women because women were outlawed long ago from performing in the theater.  There are performances in the Ginza district of Toky and they come with English-speaking headsets, to explain what is going on.

Harajuku.  Also the name of Gwen Stefani’s backup dancer group,  this is a place in Tokyo where people dress up like anime characters and the cutesy, all-too-modern, breaking-with-the-norm look that Japanese school-aged kids sometimes take on.  Much like the dog statue (waiting for its dead owner to return home for 15 years) elsewhere in town this seems like a popular meeting place for people to see and be seen.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government office building. On the 45th floor of this buildling (Tochomae subway stop) is a free observation deck with a better view than those you have to pay for, and on the 1st floor is a tourist information booth.

Pachinko.  This gambling game was “invented” by a ball baring company that had over-manufactured barings one year and didn’t know what to do with them.  Brilliant!

Tsukiji Fish Market.  This open air fish market is open every morning starting at something like 3am.  If you get there by 5 or 6, though, you’ll be fine.  It’s closed on Sundays and every other Wednesday (or so).  They have all kinds of fresh fish in their original form, including octopus.  I think this will be REALLY, REALLY fun.  And there are no doubt the most-fresh sushi places around right there at your fingertips.  According to National Geographic: “Tsukiji is a fish market in the sense that the Grand Canyon is a ditch…”  Niiiiiice.

And I haven’t even gotten to the temples, gardens, and shrines yet!