Just in Tokyo: Page 15

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Movement

Landing

You'll likely land at Narita Airport, five stories tall. Expect to be able to
take a train or bus into central Tokyo. If you take a bus, you'll see the
staggering amounts of gray concrete buildings and electric lights
composing urban Japan. If you take the train, you'll get there a little
faster.

You should be able to get from the airport in to Tokyo for around $20.
A cab might cost you over $250.

Walking

It has been said that Tokyo was designed to resist invasion. Roads
run twisting, narrowing and widening. Save
for a very few notable examples such as the
Ginza, streets are not laid out and marked
like they are in many cities in America; there
are very few urban grids in Tokyo.

Generally, people don't talk about intersec-
tions and street corners. Most streets aren't
readily labelled. Addresses identify the
district, neighborhood and block a building is
on. Like the Charles and Ray Eames short
film on the powers of ten, use an address in Japan to zoom into a
district, then a neighborhood, and finally a block to find any particular
building.

Tokyo is a series of small towns. You'll find each neighborhood has
two ramen restaurants, a tea shop, a fast food burger shop, a
stationery store selling hanko (Japanese name stamps used for
signing documents), some place to buy a mobile phone, four conve-
nience stores, a small store selling fresh vegetables and dry goods,
a fishmonger, a sweets shop and bakery, three small "snack" host-
ess bars, a karaoke parlour. Central Tokyo does not have residential
and business neighborhoods split up as much as some other cities.

Hand Paper
Public bathrooms in Japan
typically lack hand towels
and occasionally lack toilet
paper. Accordingly, as you
are walking about the city,
people will attempt to hand
you little promotional tissue
packages. Feel free to reach
out and stock up; these can
come in quite handy.

The Japanese are shrinking. According to 1997 figures, the birthrate
is 1.39 children per couple. Japanese folks are not replacing
themselves. Who, or what, will be Japanese in the future?

Movement -