Tokyo Drifter

Seeing how I’m wrapping up coverage of what essentially turned out to be my last substantive trip to Tokyo, I figured that this might be an appropriate time to belatedly tend to a little spring-cleaning. So here they are, the odds and sods: random photographs shot in Tokyo over the course of the last year that never seemed to fit in anywhere else.
After visiting the city a few times, I stumbled upon a hostel in Ueno that quickly became my venue of choice when holding court in the eastern capital. Ueno station is located rather conveniently on the east end of the Yamanote’s loop and this particular hostel happens to be clean, cheap and free of the annoying American anime nerd crowd that seems to congregate at similar establishments.

Upon emerging from Ueno station, the wide-eyed visitor is greeted by a series of serpentine footbridges that snake through the humble Ueno skyline, above the endless torrents of traffic below. As you walk along these bridges, you’re treated to little snapshots of Tokyo street life like the one seen above. Of course, bridges like this exist in more exciting parts of the city as well-the footpath leading out of Shibuya station in particular sticks out in my mind as one of the more impressive ones.

Anyway, while walking over the footbridge to my hostel in early June, I spotted something that I had somehow failed to notice during all of my previous visits. If you look closely at the photo above you’ll spot a pizzeria called Nicola’s, on the second floor of an otherwise nondescript building. Why is this important? Well, if you heeded my earlier recommendation to seek out Robert Whiting’s Tokyo Underground, you’ll know that the original Nicola’s location in Roppongi was many things: the first pizza parlor in Japan (supposedly), perhaps the only parlor offering authentically American-style pizza in Tokyo, the first restaurant in what later blossomed into the bustling nightlife district of Roppongi and a den of seedy yakuza activity. The first time I ever visited Roppongi, I wandered around in the cold, fruitlessly searching for the restaurant that started it all. Much to my dismay, no one seemed to have even heard of Nicola’s pizza parlor, cabbies included. I was forced to conclude that the restaurant had probably served its final pie years before I arrived.

So you can imagine how excited I was to discover that at least one Nicola’s franchise still existed in Tokyo. Upon setting foot in the tiny restaurant, however, I discovered that the Nicola’s of today bears little resemblance to the original joint. As Whiting notes in the Epilogue of Tokyo Underworld, the Japanese investors who acquired the restaurant from American Nick Zapetti kept only the name. Gone are the checkered tablecloths and American-size pies, replaced by a stylish, minimalist décor and the Japanese standard-tiny pizzas covered in mayonnaise and corn. My fantasies dashed, I despondently walked across the street and ordered a cheeseburger.

Here we have a shot of Shinjuku’s main drag by night, the most densely packed nightlife district in the city.
Leo cranes his neck in search of a suitable venue at which to serenade me with his brilliant karaoke renditions of Eminem songs.
Roppongi’s famous Tokyo Tower, which any Japanese kid can tell you is exactly 333 meters tall. As you can see, the tower is designed to resemble the Eiffel Tower.
Shibuya crossing, allegedly the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. I once showed up here at about 5 pm on a weekday and the mass of people crossing at the intersection seemed virtually endless. That Starbucks Coffee you see is also supposedly the busiest Starbucks in the world.

Greg and Jason bravely traipse through the whirlwind of humanity.

Akihabara, known to natives as “electric town,” is the place to be if you’re an electronics enthusiast.
Originally, Akihabara was where Tokyoites went to find deals on exciting new technology like televisions, vacuum cleaners and washing machines. As Japan started to emerge as a leader in consumer electronics, Akiba (as the locals call it) started to shift its focus more towards cameras, computers and video games. Nowadays, Akihabara is known not only for electronics but also for anime, manga and other related nerdy pursuits. I’ve heard whispers that the area is transforming yet again and that within the next decade it will be known primarily for cosplay items. Wonderful.
Yodobashi Camera, the stuff geek dreams are made of. Yodobashi is essentially the Japanese equivalent of Best Buy albeit much, much larger. They sell everything from computers to vacuum cleaners and traveling between the building’s seemingly endless floors feels like excavating layers of Akiba history. Although the company’s core business is selling cameras, most of that is done in Shinjuku, which has emerged in recent years as Tokyo’s camera district. While the newly opened Akiba branch does sell some camera equipment, photography enthusiasts are advised to visit the Shinjuku branch, which boasts four floors dedicated to cameras.
In case you’ve never seen a Tokyo railway map, here it is, in all its glory. Pretty intimidating, huh? While I felt the same way the first time I visited Tokyo, I pretty quickly learned that the Yamanote line (the lime green loop in the center) circumscribes the city center (much like the Chicago “loop”) and everything basically branches off of that. Keep in mind though that this is just the Tokyo JR map, there’s also the metropolitan subway line as well as a number of independently owned, specialized transit lines.
Living as we did, in Aomori, many of us soon came to miss good old, greasy American food. Outside of the globalist arches, there are few places in Aomori where one can eat something that approximates American cuisine. Tokyo, however, offers a wealth of options; I’m willing to wager, in fact, that literally any type of food can be found somewhere in the city. After a few months of delicious research, we were able to determine that the Outback Steakhouse offered the most “American” food that we could find (ironic in that it’s an Australian-themed restaurant) and was therefore the best restaurant in the world. However, steaks aren’t the only thing that Tokyo offers the hungry Westerner.
There’s also Freshness Burger, Japan’s best burger chain and the only place in Japan where I ever spotted a double cheeseburger in the wild. Of course, they operate almost everywhere in Japan-except Aomori.
And real beer! If it wasn’t for Tokyo’s numerous brewpubs, I would have forgotten that beer isn’t supposed to taste like fizzy water.
After a year in Aomori, you can’t blame us for having such a ravenous appetite for burgers and steaks. Of course, that isn’t all there is to Tokyo cuisine. From 24-hour sushi in Tsukiji to the world’s most famous ramenya, Tokyo knows how to please those with a more native appetite just as well. When stepping on to the pavement outside of Tokyo Station at 7 am, bleary-eyed from a 14-hour bus ride, the only thing on my mind is fresh sushi and fast.
Here’s the shinkansen (high-speed bullet train) that takes me home to Aomori. I always let out an exasperated sigh as it pulls up to the platform, knowing that I have no choice but to board.