LOST in Translation

Contrary to Carlos' Facebook post, we are not at the Hilton, but we are at the Shinjuku Washington Hotel. Our hotel room is in a word, petite. Seriously, you walk into room two steps and theres the bed. Carlos fondly refers to our room as "Grandpa's Inn Part Two". (see post "Midnight bus to Vigan") It's not the Hilton, but as far as I'm concerned, it will do. What I do like about the room, is the the toilet situation. Without giving to much away, I must state that using the toilet here is an awesome experience. Theres this control panel on the side of the can, that has various functions such as music, sound effects, and different ways to spray your ass. I am not ashamed to admit that I am now a bidet advocate. If I ever win the lottery, I will buy everyone I know(whether I like you or not) a bidet.

Shinjuku is a neighborhood of Tokyo built around the busiest train station in Japan, if not the world. (More on that later.) I work in San Francisco, so I guess I'm used to big buildings and crowds of people, but this is unlike anything I've ever experienced. The buildings are numerous, gargantuan, and in close proximity with each other. And people, oh my God people. Everywhere you turn, theres a herd (all in white dress shirts) coming for you. At every interesection, it felt like Carlos and I were the Spartans and the oncoming crowd were the Persians! You would think that one would it would be easy to get lost in that crowd crossing the street, but its very organized. People make way for each other. We spent our first evening trying to familiarize ourselves with Shinjuku, which is pretty daunting considering that we don't speak the language. There are big, pretty lights attached to buildings but of course most are written in Japanese. So after a while, things start to look the same. We would walk down different alley ways and see all sorts of restaurants, cafes, shops, and seas of people. We ducked into a small tempura joint to have dinner. Thank the Lord for pictures on the menu, or we wouldn't have eaten.

The next day, we decided to go to Shibuya and Harujuku. Navigating our way through Shinjuku Station was nothing short of a nightmare. It was helpful that Carlos had downloaded an app on his iphone called "Zuti", which is Tokyo rail navigation. We knew where we wanted to go and which lines to take; I guess we thought we were really bad ass and could handle getting tickets all on our own. Aside from the fact that we couldn't read any of the signs, it was sweltering and it was like the New York Stock Exchange in there. It must of been a funny sight for the station workers to see two sweaty tourists yelling our "Harujuku"! If you're a shopper or an "apparel geek" than Shibuya and Harujuku is the place for you. We breezed in to stores such as Opening Ceremony (a 7 floor department store with high-end independent label) A Bathing Ape, Beams, Billion Boys Club, Supreme, Neighborhood, Visvm (F.I.L) etc. etc. Even Forever21 is huge out here (yes I went in, don't judge me) Streets are lined with shops and there are countless alley ways filled with these obscure shops and cafes. I'm pretty sure we only scratched the surface of both neighborhoods given the fact that there are so many stores and streets that make them up. We made it a habit of both wandering into alley ways and getting lost.("Getting lost is part of the adventure" - Carlos A. Gonzalez) Again, there were enormous amounts of people. They too were a sight to behold. I've seen some of the craziest shoes and hair on both men and women. It's almost as if one is expected to stand out. I wonder if people were actually there to shop or just to be seen. We made our way back to Shibuya during rush hour, which turned out to a big mistake. These people do not mess around with their commute. We were literally pushed on the train and pushed off the train. The madness followed us until we actually left the station!

It's been a hectic couple of days for us here in Tokyo. The language barrier being the biggest issue. At first arrigato for us meant "Thank You", "hello", "can you help me" and "I don't speak Japanese". Our way of communicating is by smiling and gesturing, making us look like mongoloid mimes. Yes we've had lists made for us and apps downloaded but for some reason that just went out the window. However, since we've been stumbling through neighborhoods, I'm proud to say we've gotten better. Just don't ask us to read anything. Two things I will note is the 1) People are incredibly polite here. When you enter an establishment, the employees smile and say hello. When you leave the say goodbye and thank you. Especially in restaurants, people there have really made an effort to help us understand what was going on and 2) There is so much structure and a high level of efficiency here. In most place rules are treated as suggestions, but here people actual follow them. I guess its partly because there are so many people here that if there was no structure it would be total chaos.

Enjoy the pictures below. More pictures to follow. Next stop Ginza.