Usually reading week is when you’re expected to ‘buckle down’ and make up for all the lost time you spent during the year watching How I Met Your Mother and Facebook stalking people you went to High School with in an attempt to procrastinate. However, if you’re on exchange and you’re lucky enough to be pass/fail for grading it’s the perfect opportunity for a pre-exam vacation to calm your nerves before you are forced to study for what feels like the first time in a semester.
I hadn’t planned on going to Japan during my time in Hong Kong because it’s quite far away, flights aren’t particularly cheap and then once you’re in Japan it’s one of the only places in Asia where a Canadian will actually ‘feel the pinch’ when shopping, eating or hostelling. However, sometimes you’re awake at 12 at night, realize you have nothing to do for the next week, a credit card handy and a niggling desire to make sushi while the sun shines, so book a flight to Tokyo for 7 the next morning (you are also sometimes travelling with someone who has a strange obsession with video games, anime and Naruto, which can contribute to the decision).
The first night in Tokyo we went to Shibuya, a downtown district that’s famous for having one of the most used cross walks in the world. It’s where we got our first taste of Japanese culture, not women wearing kimonos and sipping green tea, but women dressed as maids selling tea to men who pay by the hour to be served by doe eyed girls with a deferential and adoring demeanor. We decided against experimenting at one of the famous Maid Café’s and instead went for the green Kit Kat bars and shrimp burgers and McDonalds. The area was filled with bars and clubs all with a different gimmick to try and lure people in, including giant monsters protruding from signs and multi floor clubs designed to look like Disney princess castles.
The next day we tried to go to the Imperial Palace but found out after we got there that it was closed, that’s what you get for trying to travel sans Lonely Planet! When we tried to google what else to do or download a guide book we ran into an unforeseen problem considering Tokyo is one of the most high tech cities in the world: there is NO wifi! Anywhere. This is because everyone is too high tech for their own good and has data on their phone, but where does it leave poor, struggling tourists who just bought a ridiculously expensive Starbucks drink to use the wifi only to find out it had been in vain?
We ended up going to Akibara, the electronic district where they have multi floor arcades all over, costume stores, comic book shops and all that sort of thing which were slightly mystifying for someone whose parents never bought them video games and whose sole computer game experience was with the Sims. It was really cool to see though, just because I can’t imagine so many huge arcades being able to stay in business in Toronto or ever seeing city tours offered by girls dressed up as school girls, maids, etc.
The problem with the food in Tokyo is that it’s the same price as it would be in Canada. This shouldn’t seem like a problem for Canadians, however considering the fact that I’d been spoilt by Hong Kong prices it seemed ridiculous. We managed to find 250yen bento boxes near our hostel which became our bread and butter and restaurants that served bowls of rice with thin strips on marinated beef or as I called it ‘beef bacon’. The problem is that the person I was travelling with only eats chicken and fish, which should have been fine seeing as we were in the land of sushi, however as cheap students we only had a proper sushi meal once and for the rest of it he was forced to subside mainly on rice and buns while I joined the Japanese in gorging myself on enough beef and pork to make any Texan proud. Our one main sushi meal was at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, where all the fresh fish is sold. It was really nice, but not ground breaking. I think it’s because I’m used to sushi that’s covered in sauce and other fanciness, ex. Crispy spicy salmon rolls.
For one day we went to Kyoto, taking a sleeper bus which we almost missed and spent a terrifying few minutes sprinting around with people leading us in what felt like every direction. I loved Kyoto, it was much calmer than Tokyo and it’s historical buildings made me feel like I was living out part of Memoirs of a Geisha. I still think the Gion district (where all the Geisha’s used to work) would be smart to hire local actresses to dress up as Geisha’s and roam the street to attract tourists but even without that it was still cool to just walk around the area.
On our last day we chilled in the Harijuku district which is filled with lovely shops, boutiques and restaurants and went to a nearbye temple where we saw a funeral taking place with everyone dressed in traditional kimonos. I’m glad I got a chance to go to Japan because it’s really different from other parts ofAsia, especially in terms of development and they definitely have some interesting sub cultures! I also think that as nice as it was I wouldn’t have wanted to travel all the way from Canada just to go to Japan so it was good that I had the opportunity to check it off my travel ‘To Do’ list while I was (relatively) close.