27 October 2012
No cranes
Tonight I headed north, to Ikebekuro, had dinner, and came back via Takadanobaba. How are you going with the pronounciations?
For a while I thought I had strayed onto the wrong side of the tracks, except all the houses and buildings were nice. I kept seeing people bleeding and with black eyes.
Eventually I figured out they were all going to Halloween parties.
Something else I have noticed, there is no construction of any kind in Tokyo going on. At all. I havent seen a single crane.
Now this is a relief to the tourist whos recently been to China where everythings a crane, roads are holes in the ground and dust is inches thick whilst the entire country is one giant construction site. But is this actually good for Japan?
I know they have an ageing population, and a recent tsunami to deal with, but I wonder if in 20 years it will be all falling to pieces. Many of the building despite the constant polishing they receive are starting to look dated, with very few new buildings (except the sky tree which isnt a building at all) to be seen.
With deflation and interest rates at 0.1% theres really not much that can be done to fix the economy. Everyone seems happy enough and theres plenty of life in the streets, for now!
One of my great pleasures is to walk along a road in a foreign country at night, not really knowing where you are or where you are going. Once I spotted the neon I knew I was somewhere.
I found a Chinese place for dinner and had one of my favourites, Mapo Tofu. I also have now discovered 3 times that Japanese people do not speak Chinese. The first two times because I forgot, and spoke Chinese out of habit at convenience stores.
I can tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese people on appearance alone, so its just a matter of being in another country, better speak the only foreign language I have a basic understanding of.
In the Chinese restaurant I did it on purpose, it didnt help.
Still amazed at the electronics stores. This one is 13 floors high. And theres at least 6 similarly sized stores around the station.
The Seibu department store is nearby and stupidly large. The basement food floors (theres 2) are amazing. One day I am going to get up enough courage and walk through one and make a video.
This is Takadanobaba, which is a station with 2 universities around it. Theres lots of cheap places to eat and kids dressed up as zombies getting around.
Finally, I learnt something tonight! I saw a blind man charging down the street faster than I walk. And then I realised what those annoying raised bump things in the footpath are for.
You can see them all over Tokyo, and they go off into stations too.
Perhaps I was the only person in the world that didnt know that?