Tokyo, first impressions

Second full day in Tokio and already the old feet-ache is again hunting me.. It seems my feet can't take walking anymore that much.

Tokyoites appear to be very polite, respectful and a bit shy maybe, like Finnish people..you know, keeping their distance, respecting other people's private space and so on. Cleanliness has been taken to whole another level, at least when compared to other countries at these latitudes. Tap water is drinkable and you can get it anywhere in the city easily. Littering is forbidden under fine penalty, which makes the city extremely clean (in China people collect the trash because most of them are worth something, well every country seems to have its way around this problem). What I did not understand was the fact that it is hard to find trash bins anywhere, and as soon as I did, I faced the problem of choosing to which recycle-category my waste would go.

Apart from few bikes they are absent from the city picture. As in Finland. Personal car traffic was a) very quiet and b) very little. I would say that it is incomprehensibly small-scale business around here, when compared to e.g. Helsinki, where everybody are driving in their SUVs alone to and from work (or anywhere actually). This big city one would imagine it'd be filled with crazy Japanese white-striped businessmen in their cars driving like mad to do their 12 hour workday, after which it's either dinner or seppuku. But no, the businessmen are sitting with us in the subway, looking at us while we are on our way to our next tourist destination and they are going for work. Life is full of choices.

The cuisine here is quite basic, if one is as cheapskate as I am. Noodles (Sudo or Udon) with different stuff (Egg, beef, tempura) or maybe ramen-soup. At the Tsukiji fish market this morning I saw lots of odd deceased sea animals, after which I ate them in the form of Sushi. If I was diligent enough, I'd check out what it was I was eating, but I'm too lazy now. I remember that in one norimaki-zushi there was some sea urchin ("merisiili") inside, so now I've tasted it. And the clams were better that in Rainbow-cans!

Other places today included museum of emerging science & innovations (e.g. Asimo-robot was there to show off his / her ability to kick ball, dance or run) and Roppongi hills. It was very good exhibition both for me and for the hundreds of Japanese adolescents, who were there with some school class I guess. The best thing there was that the exhibition was really trying to show (in a very practical and funny way) how clean environment is of the utmost importance and how the current actions towards nature can only lead to something that is bad (through dialogues and such). Roppongi hills was quite oversplurge complex of all-too-expensive places, so we withdraw from there quickly.

Yesterday we went to see the Meiji shrine, which is built to commemorate emperor Meiji and his better half. Luckily, we also got to witness some kind of wedding ceremony at the shrine. Very traditional looking and dignified outlook was all over the ceremony, with costumes and all. Shinjuku ward to the north of the shrine was "the Japan i've seen from the TV". Too much signs and neon lights and noise coming from the massive arcades of some funny ball game (anyone care to tell me what they are?=). Therein stood also the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, whose 45th floor was dedicated for observing the city below. Up we went and ascertained the vastness of teh Tokyo in its dusk.