Tokyo 2007 - Part 1: General Observations

In my initial blog work, I will try to categorize the various topics so that they are easily searchable; in addition to this first general piece, there will be a section on dining specifically, as well as "things to do" and travel recommendations.

The size of Tokyo is mind-boggling; from a high vantage point such as the bar on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt, one can appreciate the vastness of the urban sprawl. It is as if Manhattan has been laid out end-to-end ten times over. The main train station in Tokyo has over 4 million people passing through daily.

Despite its substantial size and population, Tokyo is the safest major city I have ever visited. The denizens of the metropolis are largely concerned with their own business, but very friendly if approached. Whether in the height of morning rush hour or in the late hours of the evening, one will never feel apprehensive be it on a crowded subway line or in a sparsely populated alley.

Whilst Tokyo natives are always happy to help a foreigner, I was surprised by the general lack of English-speakers; try to have a few standard phrases down before journeying off the beaten path.

Fashion and brand are king in Tokyo; the style among women when I was there over the holidays consisted of short skirts and high boots, as well as houndstooth patterns, generally. The style of the moment (which will no doubt have changed by the time I am finished writing this) is ubiquitous ~ it was rare to see someone who was not wearing a skirt with boots and some form of houndstooth (pants, tops, dresses, jackets, scarfs, hats, etc etc). Just about the only thing I didn't see was a pair of houndstooth boots (note to Tokyo fashion merchants - this would have been a good idea to capitalize on the convergence of the two trends).

This love for, and velocity of, fashion has resulted in a number of large, high-density shopping areas that dwarf the largest malls and shopping districts in the US. Going to a department store is a real experience - they *literally* have everything. The breadth of product is staggering; you can acquire things as large as cars and as insignificant as a key for a hotel room at a Holiday Inn in the US (I can't even imagine who the "buyer" is for the 'American Kitsch' department). The latest technology is also rampant, but expensive (and very little of it works outside of Japan).

Tokyo is truly open 24 hours; many locals noted to me that this was not always the case, but in my travels I found it common for a bar or club to be open until 6am. The number of restaurants, bars and clubs is in keeping with the overall scale described herein. The typical bar or restaurant, however, seats only one or two dozen people, and may be on the ground floor (as in the US and Europe) or on any other floor of the building. Many buildings are completely comprised of small bars and restaurants, ten stories high and two or three to a floor. This is necessitated by both space constraints as well as demand. The average Tokyo resident eats out approximately four dinners a week, much more frequently than your typical New Yorker or Londoner.

With that, I will move on to the real meat (no pun intended) of the trip - the culinary experience, for which Tokyo has as rich an offering as any place I have ever been, and on a scale in keeping with its massive size and population.

Beginnings

The idea to start a newsletter about my recommendations from travel (particularly with respect to cuisine) came a few years back when a friend noted that "I always ask for your suggestions because I know that if you liked it, I definitely will"; for some reason, I seem to have a knack for assessing not only the best of the "high end" of a city, but also finding those local, back alley spots that deserve to be on the "must do" list but rarely are.

Today, several years after this idea first germinated, I am sitting at Tokyo Narita airport just wrapping up my first personal trip to Tokyo, having spent the last ten days (including the Christmas holiday) here. This trip will serve as the starting-off point for an electronic version of the newsletter suggestion (in this "blog" format all the kids are using these days). I will post (perhaps in several parts) the highlights (and for good measure, some lowlights) of a relaxing and extravagant stint in Japan.

Thereafter, I will beginning logging my journal notes from prior trips to places like Paris, London, the Napa Valley, Hawaii, New York and Chicago. I hope this will not only provide a useful reference for others but also allow me to commemorate a number of experiences that deserve to be more than just bits of my memory.