After stumbling off my 14-hour flight from Dallas, I was ready for some Tokyo immersion -- and that means seeing the city when it really shines -- at night. I'm only a here a short while, so there was no point in waiting another day. After taking the train to the center of Tokyo and my hotel, I set off to navigate the subway and take a 30-minute ride to Shinjuku to have dinner. On the way there, there was an empty seat next to me and two 30-something year old women travelling together were eyeing it. I could tell they couldn't decide who would get to sit and whom should stand, so I offered my seat. One of the women said something to me that I couldn't understand and just stared at the seat and then back at me, as if giving me a chance to change my mind and reclaim it. After I smiled and shook my head, she bowed rather deeply, right there in the middle of the subway car. That doesn't happen on the CTA.
My only other trip to Tokyo was 10 years ago and Shinjuku is a neighborhood I didn't get around to seeing then. Even though it was 9 PM on a Sunday night, the warren of streets around Shinjuku Station were alive with neon and throngs of people. Now, not every part of Tokyo is like this, but this is the Tokyo I wanted to see again.
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| Apologies for the poor photo quality -- this was not a misguided effort on my part to appear artistic. Worse yet, it doesn't really do the scene justice. |
As for dinner, there was practically a restaurant or cafe (or 2 or 3) in every building. My choice had no English menus, so I went with the point-smile-and-nod method of ordering, and it turned out fine. Tomorrow, I'll be seeing friends of mine here -- both from work and from Iowa.
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