Japan Man

I was reading the Japan Times Online again today and I unfortunately came across another article about Tokyo. Foreigners seems to have a fascination with the megacity despite the existance of vastly superior cities like Kyoto, Kobe, Hamamatsu, and even Nara. While these cities might not be as large as Tokyo, the citizens are authentic (not so much in Kyoto but it’s a college city) and environment is naturally beautiful.

My main problem with Tokyo is that most of the people who live there are from somewhere else which is usually the country side. While Tokyo has some very fashionable residents who know how to navigate the city, I feel like they are few and far between. New York also has this problem as thousands of yuppies migrate to the city and make it worst each year. At least New York has yuppies though. Tokyo just seems to have massive influxes of clerical workers and people doing temp jobs.

There is no rhyme or reason to Tokyo’s neighborhoods besides Harajuku, Ebisu, Akiba, and Ginza. Everywhere else in Tokyo is a sprawling continuation of buildings and streets in every direction possible without any parks or trees. Chiba, Saitama, and Yokohama are not Tokyo so they don’t count. I am only talking about Tokyo city and not the greater Tokyo area.  If I came to Japan for the first time and I had to live or stay in Tokyo, I would definitely have a negative impression about Japan.

Tokyo does not disappoint when it comes to shopping, but you won’t find anything exclusive. Shibuya is the best place to shop in Tokyo hands down. It has about 4-5 large malls packed tight in one area. You can spend all day shopping for expensive brand name crap, but you won’t find anything you can’t get in Osaka or Kobe. Yokohama and Yokosuka have cheap military base stores, but you have to know an army dude to get on  the base. Shibuya definitely disappoints when it comes to variety. It might have a bunch of malls and shops, but what is the point if they all sell the same shit? Everyone I saw was walking around with the same gear on. It is like that in NYC too, but there are way more shopping districts in NYC.

The only reason I would live in Tokyo is for the massive amounts of anime/manga paraphanalia in Akiba and the unlimited amount of Japanese girls you can have sex with. Based on those two criteria alone, Tokyo is a ultra deal for otaku and sex tourists.  If you can’t get laid in Tokyo you need serious help. The only drawback is that the girls will be pretty ugly. Only the dudes with the serious money or connections get the beautiful girls in Tokyo. Trust me on this. When I was in Shibuya, the best girl that I saw all day was this girl I used to mess with in Kyoto who is really from Nagano (read my Shibuya Never Sleeps post) If you don’t care about how girls look, then it is no problem. 5 or 6 women taking care of your every need is much better than 1 good looking girl who can’t do anything.

At the end of the day a Tokyo trip is a must for anybody. Just don’t get too excited because you will definitely be let down. If you have already been to Tokyo, what did you think about it? Were you disappointed or satistied and why?