“Cool, strange, wacky, weird, cultural, big, fast, colourful, busy, edgy, wonderful, inspiring, courteousness – I want to see it all.” Dan ‘Muchacho’ Reyes March 2011
W.T.F Japan Tour: Tokyo Preview
Third Stop – March 16th
Tokyo is not only the capital of Japan it’s also the world’s most populous metropolitan area with 35 to 39 million people (depending on definition) and the world’s largest metropolitan economy with a GDP of US $1.479 trillion – surpassing even New York City. Along with 39,000,000 everyday folks, Tokyo is home to the seat of the Japanese government, The Imperial Palace and indeed the Japanese Imperial Family.
As recently as 2010 Tokyo was named the second most expensive city in the world and yet also named the fourth Most Livable City – great if you’ve got money it seems. The Michelin Guide (a world-renowned food rating body) has awarded it by far the most Michelin stars of any capital in the world. In fact Tokyo has more Michelin stars than the combined score of Paris, Hong Kong, New York, LA and London – so looks like we’re set to be spoilt for choice on the food front!
But when it truly comes to the sights & sounds of Tokyo, where on earth do you begin? Now Sydney yes may have the Opera House, New York you may have The Empire State Building, France you even have the Effiel Tower – but seriously, none of them top this….
A giant robot, just standing there, out in the open, protecting the city from Godzilla. Words simply cannot describe the awesomeness of that picture. You can find out more about Giant Gundam (that’s his name) here
Last week, Tokyo held it’s 2011 Marathon. Normally, pretty much everywhere else in the world where marathons are held, participants don their high performance running gear, Nike trainers, pack the Powerade, load up the iPod shuffle and set out to pound the pavement for numerous hours.
In Tokyo, they just wear stuff like this.
View more photos here.
It made me wonder….if they wear fancy dress purely to go for a jog, what do they wear during the rest of the day?
Funnily enough that question is answered, via a quick Sunday trip to the Harajuku suburb.
Apparently every Sunday, young people dressed in a variety of styles including gothic lolita, visual kei, and decora spend the day in Harajuku socializing – as you do. It certainly makes a change from all the ginger moustaches and pretentious hipster types now rife throughout inner Sydney that’s for sure! So expect to see lots of happy snaps of people basically looking like extra’s from Pokemon.
We actually have 7 days in Tokyo itself, so hopefully that will be enough time to also visit: The electronics captial of the pretty much the world Akihabara, Shibuya with all it’s colour, those beautiful gardens in Rikugien, spend a few nights painting the town red in Roppongi, then be inspired by the art at the Mori Museum, stare in wonder at the animation studio housed within Ghibli Museum, enjoy the hustle and bustle of the Ameyoko markets, view some of the old-skool Tokyo at Asakusa, before switching gears to the more modern area of Odaiba and at some point ending up in the seedy red light area of Kabukicho at 3am wondering why I we all just ordered another round of Sake.
In terms of other notable landmarks, you can’t go past the Tokyo Imperial Palace with its rich tradition and for those postcard views, we’ll be heading up to the Tokyo Tower being the token snap-happy tourists I’m sure!
And finally, for the sheer novelty value alone, we might have the odd power nap, in one of those futuristic time capsules! You get air con and even a TV, just try not to think about the fact that there are 400 people surrounding you from all sides, also in the same plastic coffin.
Now that we’ve concluded the W.T.F. Japan Tour Preview, covering Osaka, Kyoto and Japan itself and despite all the best laid intentions to do all of those things, I’m sure there will be some that we won’t sadly get time to experience.
Some random event will occur and take us on a different path or we might be having so much fun somewhere that we decide to adjust our plans slightly. We might even have a scene where one of us was last seen topless at 6.30am in a karaoke bar, singing ‘Livin On A Prayer’ surrounded by 14 Harajuku fan girls. One thing I do know, is that it will be a fluid trip and I REALLY hope random things like this happen.
So what better way than ending it with a video which highlights just how frentic, compact and intense Tokyo has the potential to be.
All the remains for me to say is, bring.it.on 
