My Tokyo

I don't like Shinjuku, especially at night. The same goes for Shibuya. They somehow embody all that I find irritating in Japan - the crowds, the flashy neon lights, girls dressed in higher heels than they can manage to walk in and boys with their hair done up with tons of gel and feet in canoe-shaped shoes. The noise, the push of crowds of tiny japanese and the shrill sound of laughing girls. It all usuallly makes me want to escape, and fast.

Actually, I had already convinced myself that I don't really like Tokyo that much at all. I remember telling my friends and family that Tokyo doesn't really suit me that much at all, being too big, noisy and crowded.

All this because I hadn't yet found the kind of Tokyo I like. A kind of Tokyo that is a bit harder to find on your own, without a "native guide" of sorts.

I love the smaller roads and alleys you find when stepping aside from the main roads. The houses and apartments with potted plants and clothes hanged to dry on the balconies. The cats skulking in the shadows. The moss that grows everywhere making the walls and ground have a shade of green. The drawn curtains and the little old ladies sweeping the ground or talking with their neighbours.

And the small restaurants and izakayas that you almost fail to notice if you don't know where to look for the door. Places with less than 15 places for customers. Those places where someone you know takes you, and where you can spend hours eating, drinking and talking about everything between zen and different kinds of fish. Split bills and friendly teasing. The dark shortcuts in the middle of nowhere you take to get to these places - and then when walking to the nearest metro station you suddenly realize how few turns separated it from the sea of neon lights in the first place. So hidden but so close...

I especially love my 35min walk to the temple in the monday mornings. It's quiet and calm in the small streets between Edogawa and Myôgadani, and it makes me feel as if I'm alone in the world. Then, climbing the stairs to the entrance, slipping in the silent temple building and whispering a good morning to anyone that hasn't yet climbed to the hondô to wait for the beginning of the zazen... I didn't go today since I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to sit for 40min without coughing all the time (mornings and evenings are the worst), and once again I'm already regretting it. Yes, I know, I'm an addict. I might need some rehab time when I come back to Finland. *g*

Anyways, my only regret is that I still don't know much about this kind of Tokyo, I've only started to realize how near it actually is. I need more time!