I just started getting into Mutations, a book that I bought a few weeks ago when I was in Chicago.  Javier first found it in the library of the Architectural School at IIT and it was so fascinating that we ended up buying it elsewhere.  It has various contributors, including modern architect Rem Koolhaas with the Harvard Project on the City, Stanford Kwitter and Saskia Sassen.

I browsed through this book for hours at first, looking at the photos and statistics and thinking about how everything in this book relates to everything I learned as an undergraduate student of Anthropology some years back.

And it got me to thinking of some of the large cities that I’ve visited over the years - Hamburg, Paris, Prague, London, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo and Buenos Aires to name a few. I suppose too, that it’s part of my analytical nature to begin to categorize my thoughts on each place I visited and really begin to form an opinion about some of these great cities.  One conclusion that I am beginning to understand is that Tokyo, although a very important, immense and globalized city, is not a very cosmopolitan city at all.

For example, even though the city of Tokyo is the site of many companies who have dispersed their economic activities throughout the world (i.e.: globalized businesses) and imported some non-Japanese people to work in these companies, the population and identity of Japan and particularly Tokyo remains strongly Japanese. Of course, there are products of tourism.  There are a lot of signs in romanji (Japanese using English letters); there are imported goods in the grocery stores; there are a handful of foreign restaurants. The cultural diversity of the city is due mostly to tourism however, as foreigners only make up less than 2% of the population. Equally, maintaining that strong national identity is probably of great help to tourism and their economy.

If all of a sudden, Japan became known as almost American in its ways, my perceived value of a “trip to Japan” would be lowered.  Equally, if they didn’t maintain the global perception that the Japanese themselves are innovators of technology and leaders in this market, there would be a possibility of decreased value of their products.  Yeah, I’m talking possibilities… Tokyo is really global, not in a cosmopolitan sense but in a sense that it’s an important, immense urban city whose economy and innovation has worldwide relevance.

So, if you leave Tokyo and go to the rest of Japan, what do you see? There’s a Japanese culture that exists outside of Tokyo.  It’s a culture influenced with an extraordinarily long history, ancient religions, a government that partially mandates the national identity, multiple environmental issues (including overpopulation and natural disasters such as earthquakes) and the idea of community as a more or less “family”.

In Kyoto which was the capital for several hundred years before Tokyo, we would be stopped at a bus stop or riding along in a bus and someone (usually an older gentleman) would strike up a conversation with us (in English!) asking us where we are from, what we like to do, how is our country, etc.  In Osaka, a much larger city, we found the city center itself immense - and although fewer people spoke English there, (aside from this awesome guy named Bucky that we met in the street asking for directions and he ended up walking with us for several blocks and telling us about Osaka).  We ended eating some fried octopus at one of the best known places for this food in the city.  (Thanks Bucky!)  And then we met up with my friend Yoshi (we knew each other from way back in the day in Chicago) and went out to see great architecture and eat raw chicken (oh yeah, good stuff)!  But in the streets, the (almost Latino) people drive fast and beep their horns and in general, just seemed more relaxed than in Tokyo.  They were easier to connect to - they were more open. But in Osaka, we noted that gringo tourism wasn’t as prevalent as Tokyo, Kyoto, Himeji or Hiroshima.  It’s kind of the forgotten city - and certainly my favorite of all in Japan.

Ok - that’s it on Japan.  Back to Buenos Aires.

Exploring the Tokyo Metro

One of the major things about traveling around Tokyo is the great distances that you need to cover to get from one district to the other. At first we were quite intimidated to use the Tokyo Metro mostly because we were so used to the Buenos Aires Subte with its 5 simple lines. We had seen the maps before arriving, but perhaps just hadn’t mentally prepared ourselves for trying to figure out how we were going to get to our hotel after 32 hours of travel from Buenos Aires. And to see in front of us a Metro map of all the lines going in every which direction and not a single map in Romanji (Japanese words spelled out using English letters), well, we became the typical confused tourists. You see, in Tokyo, not all of the lines are operated by the same company, and depending on the distance you might go or number of transfers you need to take, the rate varies. You need to find where you are and where you need to go (which is a challenge if the only map available is in Japanese) and purchase your ticket accordingly.

The Tokyo Metro closes around midnight and acts as the veins of the city. In fact, unlike Buenos Aires, the city definitely slows down once the metro closes for the night - just after it experiences the big rush of commuters running to catch the last train home at the end of the night.

We spent a lot of time in the Tokyo subways. Once we understood how to purchase tickets, we began exploring the city - sometimes covering two districts during one day - and returning at night to see these areas in a different light! Day passes often came in handy - although we would still end up spending almost $15 (USD) a day in transportation costs.

The Japanese are often extolled for their efficiency and certainly, the transportation system in Tokyo was no exception. In large stations that connected various metro, trains, shinkansen (bullet trains) and Japan Rail lines, you might find up to four floors in a seemingly maze-like structure of train transfers. Not to worry though, since everything was well documented and very accessible. The only downfall is that sometimes you might have to walk up to 500 meters underground (that’s like five city blocks here in Buenos Aires!!) to get from one subway to another. We figured out that on some days, out of the 12-16 hours that we were out and about walking around the city, we spent up to 4 of those hours in the subway or transferring stations or waiting for the trains. I think if they really wanted to be super efficient, they would install moving walkways to help push the people along.

Eh - perhaps that’s just selfish thinking because my feet were hurting so terribly from the blisters that I had from walking all day.

Next time… Getting outside of Tokyo and seeing Japan…

So if there’s anyone who has actually been following Buenos Aires Style, you may have noticed that this past month, I’ve had no new articles - this is not because I totally dropped off the face of the planet - I just dropped off of this SIDE of the planet - and ended up exactly on the other side - in Tokyo, Japan. So the next few articles will be some special editions of “Buenos Aires Style - in Tokyo”. Hope you enjoy!

We arrived on June 17 at the Narita Airport, had our fingerprints taken and upon arrival to the baggage claim, realized that my luggage that was supposed to go from Buenos Aires to Chicago to Tokyo took a detour to Dallas from Chicago and would not be arriving for two more days. We left the airport unphased by the turn of

events (hey, this stuff happens) and set off to the train station so that we could make our way to Asakusa where we were to stay. As we got into the train station, we were quite surprised to find no instructions on how to use the automated ticketing system. Luckily there was a bilingual, very helpful native that aided us in our first buy and showed us how to navigate the system.

After an hour ride into the city, we finally arrived at Asakusa, where we first set foot on Tokyo soil. It was around 5:00 in the afternoon - and the first thing that we noticed more than anything was the silence. Yes, there were cars on the street, there were people walking by, talking, riding bicycles, it was a moving city - but it was almost as if we were watching a video and had the sound turned way, way down. Perhaps we were so accustomed to the noise pollution of Buenos Aires that to walk through a city of very little pollution was a shock to our ears.

The second thing we noticed was the marked difference in air quality - we were totally aware that the old buses that plow down the streets of BA would send up plumes of smoke and of course that’s not good for the air quality, but wow! What a difference we could be living in BA if people and businesses actually paid attention to the amount of pollution they cause with vehicles run on older systems of fuel.

In the days that followed, we walked all over the city - spending about $20 a day on transportation alone, and going into all of the “neighborhoods” that Tokyo had to offer. We explored Asakusa, Ueno and Ginza on our second day - even going to the Museum of Modern Art and walking through the Imperial Palace Gardens. The highlight of the afternoon was taking a tour of Tiffany’s after visiting the Tokyo Forum, designed by Argentine architect Rafael Viñoli. We had lunch that day in the gardens of the Tokyo Forum - a Thai curry sold out of the back of a truck parked alongside the Forum itself.

After day one alone my feet were aching. I wore through a pair of socks that Javier had lent me and wanted so badly to change my clothes and shoes - to shower and comb my hair - so we cleaned up as much as

possible, decided to take a short siesta and go out for dinner that night.

To our eyes, fashion in Japan could only be described as “surprising”. It wasn’t weird at all but definitely unexpected. The first thing I noticed was that the quality of clothing was exceptionally high in comparison to what I was used to in Buenos Aires. The people that we saw on the subway going to and from work were dressed often in black suits or business attire - with very high quality materials used in the fabrics with modern designs. It was quite rare to see women wearing pants (as they mostly wore skirts or dresses - often in combination with knee high socks) and often you would see women walking in high heels all over the place. I felt very unfashionable walking around in my Puma trainers but what was I to do??

We WALKED the whole city!!!

Of course for energy, we needed to take in some good carbohydrates and the easiest and cheapest way to do that was to eat one of Japan’s most popular dishes - Ramen noodles! (You thought I was going to say “sushi” didn’t you?) We tried a lot of dishes apart from ramen though - there were curries and exquisite meats - of course - sushi… but not only fish- we tried chicken sashimi, chicken liver sashimi and even steak sashimi with a raw egg to top it off - thanks to our friend Yoshi - we had one of the best culinary experiences of our lives!

Next time… Getting lost in the Tokyo subway system…