Tokyo trip, part 1 (>implying traffic)

Monday was the big trip to Tokyo. I, Oono-san, and two freshmen left Aizu shortly after 0600 hrs, with the goal of meeting a fifth person in Ochanomizu. I was responsible for driving us into the largest metropolitan area on the planet, navigating a network of different expressways and complex streets.

As it had turned out, it was the best driving experience in my life so far.

The expressway drive was something else. Elevated roads and tunnels snaked around tall business buildings and apartment complexes. There were reminder signs everywhere reminding people to, above all else, drive quietly at night to avoid waking the people below and around. All the signs were bilingual, so I was never really confused as to where we were.

We arrived in Ochanomizu a bit behind schedule, and while one of the group stayed behind to wait for the other person, I started looking through the stores on the main street. This section of Tokyo is home to many musical instrument stores, especially guitars. They were also much more narrow on the inside as I had originally thought; every single square centimeter was accounted for. I purchased some sax accessories here.

Akihabara was located right next to Ochanomizu, and I decided to head back there before lunch to try to look for a PS2 game that I have been wanting to buy for a long time. This was not my first trip to Akihabara; two years ago, when I first came to Japan to look at colleges, I went through most of the vintage game stores here looking for the game, but could not find it. But I was able to take a look at some of the game stores and electronics resellers around the area. Even with all of the branch locations for major media retailers like Sofmap, the side streets still had that same hardware and computer component spirit that was to be expected of the area.

For lunch, all of us [with the exception of one person who went to meet another friend for lunch] met up at a restaurant called Hero's, located in Akihabara, which was a recommendation from Saitou-san. The restaurant sold steaks sized by the pound, including a three-pound sirloin which was advertised as a dare to the patrons on the street and in the restaurant. A former member of the wind ensemble, Nagasaka-san, met us here, and treated us at the end. As for the steak, my time in Japan has reduced the amount that I can eat at once, so instead of the three-pound steak, I went for a two-pound chuck steak. I said to my friends after I swallowed the last piece of that steak, in Japanese, "Don't mess with an American's stomach." When Oono-san asked me if I could eat a three-pound steak in one sitting, I told him that unfortunately, I couldn't, because I wasn't from Texas.

After lunch, we went to one more electronics store called Mandrake to see if the game was there. Alas, it was not. That makes me 0 for 2 now, which means I'll have to order it online. But we still saw the rest of the video game floor in the meantime, and take a look at the ridiculously overpriced game collection that they had to offer.

~$320 for Battletoads. Battle. Fuckin'. Toads.

Following that, we walked back to the parking garage in Ochanomizu and drove to our next destination: Ginza. Ginza had a lot of high-end stores, including Abercrombie, which I especially wanted to go to. We drove to the parking garage I had planned to go to, only to find out that it was for adjacent hotel guests only. Luckily, the attendant pointed us to a larger parking lot down the street.

After walking over to the station in Shinbashi to meet up with our missing friend, we all took off to do our shopping again. In addition to the Abercrombie, I stopped at an additional two music stores in the area. One was a Yamaha-owned store, that sold both its own and competitor's products [at retail], and the other was Yamano Music, a higher-end music store with, to my surprise, a huge selection of flutes. Also on the street was a Nissan "outpost" showing off a GT-R NISMO and two different concept cars, complete with a marketing-overdosing lecture about Nissan's take on the future of driving. The main street was closed off for pedestrians due to the holiday, but reopened at about 1800 hrs, just as we were leaving the area.

As we were pulling out of the garage, we noticed that it also offered rental spots for long-term use, mainly for people who lived in the area but needed a place to store their vehicles. A man was washing his green Porsche 911 as we were driving out. We also saw a Jeep Grand Wagoneer, an early 2000s Escalade covered in dust, and yet another Mercedes G-Wagon. Truly, Ginza is where the wealthy go to live.

We were running behind at this point, so we axed our plans to go to Shibuya and went straight to Shinjuku for dinner. On the way there, we ended up passing the Diet building, which is where the Japanese version of Congress meets. There was virtually nobody on that street with us, due to Monday being a national holiday. The streets of Shinjuku were very cool, and even though we missed the turn to the garage, we still got to see the roads off of the main one when turning around. That in itself was pretty cool.

We met up with Kaneta-san, Gunji-san, and another person from our wind ensemble in Tokyo for an internship at a restaurant on the top floor of one of the many high-rise buildings in Shinjuku. There, we reconnected over Italian food, and I was able to get caught up with Kaneta-san. While he's okay with his new job, he misses his Civic, and hates the train rides to work during the day because they are always packed. I asked him where, if I were to move to Tokyo, the best place to live would be. He recommended Ikebukuro.

At the end of dinner, we were already 45 minutes behind schedule, and I still wanted to go to Tower Records to pick up a Super Eurobeat CD, as well as get gas while we were still off the expressway. (As it turned out, gas is still cheaper even in Tokyo compared to Aizu. Tokyo! Who would've thought?) It was going to be a four-hour drive home, so we had no time to waste. By 2300 hrs, we were back on the expressway, headed home. We rested for a few minutes at a service area shortly before our exit off the expressway, and then continued onwards.

I had had a fantastic time in Tokyo. I still, however, would not want to live there, because of the overall magnitude of the city. Surprisingly, Oono-san agreed with me, which caught me by surprise seeing how his hometown is not far from Tokyo. It's a good city to stay in, and certainly drive in, but I just don't think I'd fare well there. I'd had my fill of the city, and now I was heading home, making my way along the dark national roads on my way back to Aizu.

And then I got in the accident.

つづく

-wp