LIFE UNLEASHED

As I snapped away and enjoyed their coy smiles and willingness to be photographed I can only imagine what they thought of my outfit that day. Merrell sport hikers, baggy cargo pants and a brown t-shirt? You know you’re a backpacker when someone dressed like a pink nightmare looks better than you!  I miss my Mimco handbag already…..

At this point, we are a few weeks behind in our blogging and it’s only post number three. Might as well get used to it as I don’t expect we’ll catch up any time soon. As usual, I wish for a time travel device to allow me several more hours spent in each day. The real question is, would I use it wisely and spend more time lingering in my favourite places (serene Japanese gardens sipping frothy green tea) or exploring those ‘missed’ opportunities likely best missed?

But lets go back to the future and finish up with Tokyo before getting to the rest of Japan.

Perhaps in our first post we left you thinking Tokyo was all about the modern, bright lights and action that it’s famous for. Yes that’s a large part but so to was some history and culture. We enjoyed a lovely afternoon at a local festival with hundred year old wooden floats, stumbled on a another local temple’s evening market & explored local shrines. At each one your choice of amulets, good luck charms and general trinkets would leave any spiritual deity spoilt for choice.

 You can buy amulets for Sound Body & Spirit, Good Marriage, Safe Travels, General Happiness and Keen Fashion Sense (ha ha). The list goes on. Each temple has it’s own recognizable symbol, whether it be an emblem, animal or picture of the temple lovingly adorned on metal, ceramic, glass and wood.

But that’s not the only place to get trinkets. The toy stores, clothing stores, mobile phone shops and many other business’s were also filled with racks of bling.  It may be based on your favourite Anime or Manga character, sports team logo or just about any other piece of pop culture. 

What is someone to do with all these trinkets??? Hang them from your purse, cell phone, wallet, handbag or whatever you can attach them to. You would be hard pressed to find a local Tokyoite without some kind of trinket strapped to their mobile phone. Our favourite was one typical dark suited 50 year old salary man with way more phone bling than any of the 14 year old girls seated next to him on the train. His bling included a tiny smiling bear, several silver balls, a red string and other Japanese amulets of unknown power and origin to us. Perhaps in a city the size of Tokyo your bling is a method of expressing the individuality of you?

 I am now officially part of the obsessed and have my own jangly collection hanging from my Crumpler camera bag. My bling includes a Sound Body and Mind amulet from a Tokyo temple (not quite working yet), the “3 Monkeys” from a famous shrine in Nikko where the original See-Speak-Hear no evil originated, Hello Kitty Harajuku girl, Domo (from NHK –read last post), a 5 cent piece I found on a cobblestone street in Kyoto and one from my friend Pam in Canada who, as always, was in tune with my life and sent a Gratitude amulet to me before my trip started.

To feed my addiction I now stop at every shop or stand tempted to add to my collection.

Perhaps I need a trinket to prevent shopping extravagance.

Japan. A country of contrasts. What better way to start 10 months of travel by throwing ourselves into one of the largest cities on the globe - Tokyo. The tough part was deciding what to write about first. 

 Tokyo is a city amplified & electrofied. Thousands of skyscrapers, neon signs that make a night time walk strain your eyes and of course 35 million people in greater Tokyo. Consumerism on steroids, there are toy stores, arcades & electronics shops that are 10 floors high and 5 stores wide with every possible Hello Kitty, video game or geek gadget you could imagine.

 Did we like Tokyo?

 No we didn’t like it at all. We LOVED it! 

 Arriving in Tokyo at night is akin to waking up inside a pinball machine: plenty of loud noises, multi-coloured flashing lights, and you certainly get bounced around a bit. The thing is…who doesn’t like pinball?!?! It brings out the kid in everyone and that exactly what Tokyo did to us. We shopped in toy stores, went to arcades, looked at Anime (Japanese cartoons) and were literally dazzled and amazed at all we saw & experienced.   Combine all of that with the fact that we couldn’t really communicate very well with people and didn’t understand the way a lot of things worked in Japan - we really felt like kids.

One of the first things that gets you about Tokyo is the lights. Heaps of lit up signs make it like being out in daylight in the middle of the night. You could probably even get a tan. Then there’s the shear number of people. They’re everywhere and they are all going somewhere. Stores are full at all hours.  Crosswalks are like waves of people smashing against the shores of the road. As you ride one of the 20 or 30 subway lines in the city, you can’t help but be amazed at the sheer density of the city. Every square inch seems filled by a building, yet somehow it’s not claustrophobic.

 Sounds a bit like chaos? That’s the craziest part of all - Japanese order prevails.

There are lines for everything and everyone waits in them. The streets are all devoid of litter even though there are few garbage bins (they just take it with them). If your umbrella gets wet in the rain you dutifully wrap it in the provided plastic bags as to not drip water on indoor floors. Everyone carries a mobile phone but none ever ring because they are all on vibrate to avoid noise pollution. Thirty five million people and not that much traffic because everyone takes the public transit to do their part.

You’d be forgiven if you started to think of Tokyo as some kind of urban Utopia. Perhaps all cities should follow Tokyo’s lead to order?

But then it happens…a Pachinko parlours doors slide open.  Pachinko is a kind of slot machine. Except instead of dropping in a coin and pulling down on a arm you drop in tiny ball bearings and watch the drop through a maze. Then, if luck is on your side, the bearing rolls past a tiny geared wheel which you use a paddle to flick, launching the ball in an exciting 5 millisecond arc to dunk it into what I will call the “basket”. If you get a basket…we presume something happens.   For the life of us we couldn’t figure out what despite several confusing pantomime conversations in Japanese. 

You might already think that organised gambling does not fit the Utopian view.  Even more fuel for the fire –As those doors slide open you are hit by the loudest sound you have ever heard. Make the sound “Pachink” as loud as you can. C’mon do it…“Paaaachink“. Now imagine the sound coming from maybe 500 machines. Now imagine that each machine has 50 balls running through it at any one time….all making that gawd-awful noise. Then the doors slide shut. Noise gone. You are intrigued. You go in. In enclosed quarters the noise is almost painful. You dab at your ear just to see if it is bleeding but thankfully it’s not. You breath in a big sigh of relief and nearly cough out a lung because that’s when you notice the smoke. Everyone smokes. And not only in arcades but in coffee shops, business’s and during lunch at the table next to you while you try and slurp down some noodles. No offence to all you smokers but it’s a disgusting habit and if you keep doing it your face will stay like that!

(Note - Lisa wanted me to take out that last line. I didn’t J )

Once survived your Pachinko experience, the evening continues with a late night visit to the toy store. Yes, the toy store 10 floors high, 3 stores wide. Most of us think of toy stores as a torture to find the perfect Fisher Price toy for our nephew.  In Tokyo, the toy store is an all ages diversion filled with every possible sized Hello Kitty stuffed doll, watch, dress, mini keychain, eraser, pencil, pill case, luggage tag, soap dish, pin, hair clip, brush…your imagination is the limit. Multiple that by 50 for every other imaginable icon –Mickey Mouse, Astro Boy and our favourite, a Japanese television mascot from NHK called “DOMO” (which also means “Thank-you” in Japanese). Domo is a square, brown lump with sharp teeth who only eats potato stew and farts uncontrollably. We couldn’t resist and he was added to our list of silly Japanese trinkets (but more to follow on trinkets in another blog).

Other toys that may grab your attention include robotic desk cleaners shaped like bugs, full figured robot women called “Eternal Maiden Actualization”, a rubber Edamame with a face and the ever favourite “Face Bank” that eats your money when deposited. If you make it out of the toy store in under an hour without buying at least 10 useless toys you are a better person than we are.

So that’s your first take of Tokyo through our eyes. It might have been a bit full on but just wait for the next post, including Japan’s obsession with trinkets, Harajuku girls & some early food adventures.

Lisa - “We’re taking too much stuff”

Brad - “No, it’s fine”

Lisa - “Seriously, my backpack won’t shut”

Brad - “No, it’s fine”

Lisa - “It weighs a ton”

Brad - “We’ll hire Sherpas”

Lisa - “Where are we going to find Sherpas in Japan?”

Brad - “Snow monkeys then”

Lisa - “What??!!”

Brad - “Alex told me they ‘re working as waiters in Japan. I’m sure a team of snow monkeys could carry our bags”.

Lisa - PAUSE……“We’re taking too much stuff”.

(Note: Check out “Monkey Waiters” on U-tube)

And so our travel preparations go. No matter how many times we embark on long term travel the same preparation ’stresses’ occur. I worry about bringing too much stuff, about cancelling bills, getting the house packed up, which countries require Visas, what vaccinations we need & what those vaccinations are doing to my body (which by the way is valid considering we were given live vaccines for….count them… 8 deadly diseases –Yellow Fever, Meningitis, Typoid, Cholera, Hep A, Hep B, Japanes Enchipilitus, Rabies). In other words, pre-travel I worry a lot. Of course, worry is not a new thing for me :)  But reducing your life to 10 kg on your back requires a process of elimination. Gradually as the trip progresses, so too will the elimination of my worries.

Brad on the other hand kept telling me how great everything would be. He researched electronics stores in Tokyo, WWII wreck diving in Micronesia, street food he will eat in India and work regulations of native monkeys in various countries. Even more important, how to say ‘monkey’ in every country we will visit.

Japan - “Saru”

Thailand - “Ling”

The lesson from this is that travel requires balance. Preparation & planning balanced with fun & spontaneity. Awareness of word issues balanced with openness to new cultures & ideas.  12 year old backpack filled with life essentials balanced with a plane ticket & the willingness to hit the road.

I think we’re ready.

But are the monkeys?