Day 5
Another day! Overcast today, but still warm and humid. After consuming a standard breakfast, I decided to venture further today.
Tokyo does not seem awash with must-see tourist sites. Seems to be more a series of neighbourhoods, each with it's own character, and typically based around a major railway station. For example, Shinjuku for general nightlife and tall buildings, Roppongi for nightclubs, Ginza for high-end shopping and so on.
Anyway I decided to go to Edo-Tokyo museum, situated near Ryogoku station.
The Tokyo train system looks a little confusing to start with, but in reality is as simple as, say, Melbourne, except the lines run in all directions across town, rather than radially from the CBD. The main thing to be careful of is exiting major stations. With all the subways, you can find yourself some distance from the station when you emerge at street level, and if you're in the wrong direction from your destination, you'll be in entirely unfamiliar territory (i.e. lost
).
They do have good large scale maps of the local area located outside the stations with some landmarks noted (not my hotel unfortunately).
There are 13 subway lines, 9 operated by 'Tokyo Metro' and 4 by 'Toei'.
210 yen into the machine at Shinjuku got me a ticket to Ryogoku, on the Toei Oedo line. All lines have names and a letter designating the line. Each station on each line has a number as well - on the Toei Oedo line, Shinjuku was E28 and Ryogoku E12. All very simple in the end. You can buy tickets covering each company's lines, or for a little more, tickets covering both. Or just single trip tickets.
The museum was nicely priced at ~600 yen, but, in what was to become a recurring theme, my enjoyment of it was somewhat diminished by the presence of hordes of noisy schoolchildren. I sometimes think there should be museum hours for children, and museum hours for everyone else.
As the name would suggest, the museum is divided into two parts, Edo (a former name for what is currently Tokyo), and Tokyo.
Edo seems to have been something of a pioneer with fire brigades as due to the wooden construction and close proximity to each other of the dwellings, a major fire seemed to take out much of the city in most years.
Tokyo, on the other hand, suffered as much damage from conventional bombs in WW2 as did Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined from the atomic bombs dropped on those cities. Around 100,000 Tokyo residents died from bombs and resulting fires in one night. The museum was quite good overall without being sensational.
A lot of rain about today, glad I packed the umbrella.
Whilst walking the backstreets of Kabukicho the previous day I had happened upon an Indian food place, with a subcontinental chap (maybe Indian, maybe not) who spoke some English, so I found it again tonight and ventured in.
Not brilliant food but ok. Chicken Tikka entree was not especially good, chicken was ok and not too dry, but the flavours weren't there. Lamb in the curry was good, but not much of it, and the 3 tonnes of rice that accompnaied it was more than a match for me.
These guys were definitely subcontinental, but not very interested in Sachin, so I wondered whether they were Indian. I guess not every Indian person is cricket-mad, especially those who live in Tokyo! Washed down with an OK Indian beer.
I tried a different way back home tonight to try and avoid the Nigerian (I googled later and found out that's what they were) gauntlet - well it was worse! I lost count of how many there were. And it almost seemed they were working together to 'get' me.
I can just imagine the secene: "Psst Olumede, tuapekastar's just entered the streeet, I'll soften him up for you", then when I'd eventually brushed him off Olumede would take over and work on me then pass me to Segun who would pass me to one more guy to deliver the coup de grace ("I think he's nearly broken now Abubike"). Of course they were probably serious business rivals touting for different shows, but no sooner did I get rid of one, then anoher would appear five metres in front of me. I was able to use the umbrella to some effect by shielding myself from them with it so they could not see me till it was too late, but it was only partly effective.
When I googled them later on I found they had only relatively recently moved into the area, and were considered a little rough and dangerous. Perhaps telling the largest of them to #%$@ off! was not the most diplomatic method of refusal, but I was getting very frustrated by it at this stage.
Hoever the oddest, and on reflection most amusing comment for the night came from the last one I encountered.
He demanded to know where I was going - ""Home" I told him (three times). He looked at me strangely and said in a tone that was in equal parts incredulous and offended "It's early in Shinjuku and
you're going home?...Well
we have electricity bills to pay!" - as if it was somehow beholden upon me to go to his show so the electricity company wouldn't cut them off. Hilarious really.
Somewhere in all this I managed to find a different 'British' pub (St James) and sink a couple of pints while watching the world cup - after all it was hot and humid in Tokyo.
Then I went home to bed wondering if the lights were still on that tout's establishment.
