I’m not much of a sight-seeing gal in the sense of “ROBOTICALLY MUST SEE ALL FAMOUS PLACES IN MY GUIDEBOOK!” Rather, I dig the approach of wandering til your butt is near ready to fall off from the miles accrued, and seeing what happens along the way.
Here’s the beauty of Tokyo: with 2 ENORMOUS Subway and Train systems, nearly every few blocks are 
served by one stop or another. This means that if you clutch the two train maps in your musty little hand, you will never, ever be lost, as long as you can calculate direction with a map, and as long as you don’t get too lightheaded from being starving cause you’re too scared to order food since all the signs are in Japanese (again, which may or may not have happened). Moreover, should you ever get fatigued, you can always just hop on the train for beddy-bye.
Another nice feature of Tokyo is, in the words of Mike, “Japanese folks think all foreigners are poor.” This means that when I stop to whip out my camera, no one tries to smack me in the face and steal my hip electronics, since they likely have better ones themselves. And also, that would be oh so uncouth, and (unless the businessmen have been drinking) this seems a HIGHLY couth society.
Anyhoo, I found Harajuku! Ring a bell? Here’s a hint: Gwen Stefani has a huge Harajuku fetish, and those cute Japanese girls rock out in the background of such Stefani music vids. In short: a Harajuku girl is a trendy, punky, sexy young Japanese teen. And I found their lair! A pic of the PACKED street is to the right. I mean PACKED to the gills with hip young girls. There was even a Claire’s cheap jewelry store!!!
I also passed a myriad of *bing, bop, bing!* video game/ slot machine arcade halls stuffed silly with businessmen letting loose. Rumor on the street is some Japanese folks have let their electronic life utterly take over their existence. Thank heaven that never happens in the U.S. 
Bottom line: Rainbow glorious photo ops all around. Woo hoo!
WOW! The idea of just wandering around seems scary, dangerous, exciting, and fun! I will take my dad wandering in Japan this summer!
If you were hungry how come you didn’t ask another tourist or a business person to help you order food? Also, how many stops are on Japan’s train system? I plan on going to Japan one day, and your pictures make it look as awesome as it seems.
I can never go around the world by myself, it is impossible for me. Were you ever afraid when you went to new place?.
Indeed, sometimes I was nervous, but often I was just really excited and curious! And in the words of a wise person: “Courage is not about the absence of fear– it’s about going forward even though there is fear!”
This is really cool wandering around Japan. I like to see famous things but from the pictures it looks like I’d be way too lost walking around there. I’d love to go to Japan because we played them in baseball this summer too. You’re right because they’re very polite and have great manners.
Luddy Sr. said…
Wandering is the best.
December 5, 2009 12:48 AM
This is how I always travel. I can't really imagine doing it any other way, as it's also the way I traveled with my family as a child.