Yokohama
So, Sunday morning - Lets go to Yokohama. First we walked down to Shibuya's Hachiko statue to meet the group. Now this was interesting enough:
(Politics) There was a propoganda style speaker truck shouting at the crowd, accompanied by a cadre of penguin and frog mascots. Now, what this is about is their Constitution's Article 9. In the Article they totally renounce war, and are forbidden from having any military force whatsoever. Its only an arguable loophole that lets them keep the Self-Defence Force. On another day when I didn't have my camera the right-wing party was out. There vans were pitch black, and the speakers dressed black with red arm bands with a backdrop of the old Rising Sun flag. I think you get the idea. The right wing party also has sects that range from totally militarist dissidents (I'm not kidding - they have made assassination attempts) and the standard conservatives.
This all revolves around Article 9. The right-wing wants the return of a free sovereign military - and aren't quite wrong to say that Article 9 was imposed by McArthur after the War. Their problem with it makes a lot of sense when you look at it in action. Japan sent some SDF units and civilians to help logistics in Iraq, but they weren't permitted to sortie. From what I've heard - their rules of engagment were this - they had weapons and amunition - but couldn't so much as load the weapon until fired upon. Basically they were in a warzone with their hands tied. Then when some civilians were kidnapped - Japan was constitutionally forbidden from rescuing them - and didn't. (they secured their release through other means) That along with being in a DPRK / PRC sandwich, one can kind of see what they are on about.
Despite certainly having this limited undertone of miliarism - Pacificism, whether or not originating from Article 9, is definitely a huge movement, and a big part of the public conciousness here. Thats what this group was advocating. These are the pacificsts, going more for the Blue's Clues appeal, than the "Winston Smith report to the Ministry of Information" visuals of their opponents. They were passing around leaflets with an alternate Article 9 draft that was overtly pacificist (and badly translated). (/Politics)
Anyway - there we waited. Then phone calls started rolling in regarding people bailing. Aparently most were out drinking last night, and a noon meeting time was (sarcasm) just too ambitious (/sacrcasm). We were waiting for others, so went to the underground shopping complex (thats right - that ridiculous intersection has a ridiculous complex under it). We saw Tokyo food show - which is ridiculous - but I'll save that for a dedicated "ZOMG FOOD" entry. There is also a video game store. Johnny wanted some Gundam games; there is no shortage of choice - but sorry, region coding. He's probably more interested in this:
Yeah - somebody in my program has a JP spec Wii, so I'll be trying that soon enough.
Finally, we gathered the remnance of our party and were off. Yokohama is like Tokyo's Newark.....no wait - bad example. Suffice to say its close. We figured an hour, turns out it was a about 15 minutes. Preliminary observation: awesome.
It was VERY laid back - in stark contrast to Tokyo. It really had the feel of a seaside town. Everything is white concrete and blue glass and you could smell the sea. It felt night and day different. Everything here moved slowed, sidewalks were only sparsely populated, in opposed to Tokyo mobs. Roads were empty. It was pretty much quiet but for the wind. It had the feel of Cape May, but had that Florida on a cold day feel with all of the bright white concrete against the blue sky.
People here are different too. They dress casually in opposed to designer Tokyo. They are also more friendly and gregarious. We had some very nice interactions, they liked and welcomed us, in opposed to the cold detached front we were more used to as gaijin in Tokyo. Part of this was probably because they took the time. (including two very nice newly-weds who waved to us and said hi from a convertable Rolls Royce) Everything here is much more laid back. People here stroll instead of the Tokyo hustle.
We wound up doing the full walking tour - seeing pretty much everything (except the Ramen Museum, and the Traditional Japanese park) So we walked around a bit in the Complex around that big building.
Keep in mind there are two more floors below that I couldn't frame in this shot. Pokemon store was absolutely mobbed by the way. Anyway from there we headed to the Landmark Tower (cue choral music when something awe inspiring apears):
THIS was the tallest building in Japan. Tokyo metro goverment, Big sky, warm ups. We took the elevator to the 69th floor - the smoothest elevator ever, that slowly accelerates and decelerates at each end and covers floor 1 to 69 in (no joke) about 30 seconds. The view was even more epic. I have a lot of pictures and none of them do it any justice, this goes on the top 5 list of the most incredible places I've EVER been. I ranted and raved about it endlessly when I was up there. Looking West, I saw a body of water, that if it wasn't another bay to the southwest, could be the China Sea. I'll let the views speak for themselves:
Even from here I can't get Tokyo in one frame:
From there we wanted to walk to Chinatown. That was actually the big selling point of Yokohama. (History) Historically, this used to be the area of amnesty for foriengers, and that kind of shows. (/History) That said, walking around it is just like an American city. The population density is more what we would be used to, roads were just as wide, buildings were more regular, just as big, and as far apart as we would be used to. If I were walking down a street with no Japanese signs, I could think I was in Manhattan.
Hence, it has the biggest, most well known Chinatown in Japan and we had hoped to catch the tail end of the Chinese New Years celebration. It was pretty sweet:
It was big, and it was fun, but it wasn't that substantially different from other Chinatowns. Same food, same trinkets, same focus towards tourists on the main drags. It seems here its treated with similar novelty as it is in the states - red everywhere, big wooden dragons, Bruce Lee memorabilia, fireworks, and lots of red tasles. Still, quite the good meal, and we went on our way after stopping for some Moon cake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake).
Then a pretty and painless walk home.
(Politics) There was a propoganda style speaker truck shouting at the crowd, accompanied by a cadre of penguin and frog mascots. Now, what this is about is their Constitution's Article 9. In the Article they totally renounce war, and are forbidden from having any military force whatsoever. Its only an arguable loophole that lets them keep the Self-Defence Force. On another day when I didn't have my camera the right-wing party was out. There vans were pitch black, and the speakers dressed black with red arm bands with a backdrop of the old Rising Sun flag. I think you get the idea. The right wing party also has sects that range from totally militarist dissidents (I'm not kidding - they have made assassination attempts) and the standard conservatives.
This all revolves around Article 9. The right-wing wants the return of a free sovereign military - and aren't quite wrong to say that Article 9 was imposed by McArthur after the War. Their problem with it makes a lot of sense when you look at it in action. Japan sent some SDF units and civilians to help logistics in Iraq, but they weren't permitted to sortie. From what I've heard - their rules of engagment were this - they had weapons and amunition - but couldn't so much as load the weapon until fired upon. Basically they were in a warzone with their hands tied. Then when some civilians were kidnapped - Japan was constitutionally forbidden from rescuing them - and didn't. (they secured their release through other means) That along with being in a DPRK / PRC sandwich, one can kind of see what they are on about.
Despite certainly having this limited undertone of miliarism - Pacificism, whether or not originating from Article 9, is definitely a huge movement, and a big part of the public conciousness here. Thats what this group was advocating. These are the pacificsts, going more for the Blue's Clues appeal, than the "Winston Smith report to the Ministry of Information" visuals of their opponents. They were passing around leaflets with an alternate Article 9 draft that was overtly pacificist (and badly translated). (/Politics)
Anyway - there we waited. Then phone calls started rolling in regarding people bailing. Aparently most were out drinking last night, and a noon meeting time was (sarcasm) just too ambitious (/sacrcasm). We were waiting for others, so went to the underground shopping complex (thats right - that ridiculous intersection has a ridiculous complex under it). We saw Tokyo food show - which is ridiculous - but I'll save that for a dedicated "ZOMG FOOD" entry. There is also a video game store. Johnny wanted some Gundam games; there is no shortage of choice - but sorry, region coding. He's probably more interested in this:
Yeah - somebody in my program has a JP spec Wii, so I'll be trying that soon enough.
Finally, we gathered the remnance of our party and were off. Yokohama is like Tokyo's Newark.....no wait - bad example. Suffice to say its close. We figured an hour, turns out it was a about 15 minutes. Preliminary observation: awesome.
It was VERY laid back - in stark contrast to Tokyo. It really had the feel of a seaside town. Everything is white concrete and blue glass and you could smell the sea. It felt night and day different. Everything here moved slowed, sidewalks were only sparsely populated, in opposed to Tokyo mobs. Roads were empty. It was pretty much quiet but for the wind. It had the feel of Cape May, but had that Florida on a cold day feel with all of the bright white concrete against the blue sky.
People here are different too. They dress casually in opposed to designer Tokyo. They are also more friendly and gregarious. We had some very nice interactions, they liked and welcomed us, in opposed to the cold detached front we were more used to as gaijin in Tokyo. Part of this was probably because they took the time. (including two very nice newly-weds who waved to us and said hi from a convertable Rolls Royce) Everything here is much more laid back. People here stroll instead of the Tokyo hustle.
We wound up doing the full walking tour - seeing pretty much everything (except the Ramen Museum, and the Traditional Japanese park) So we walked around a bit in the Complex around that big building.
Keep in mind there are two more floors below that I couldn't frame in this shot. Pokemon store was absolutely mobbed by the way. Anyway from there we headed to the Landmark Tower (cue choral music when something awe inspiring apears):
THIS was the tallest building in Japan. Tokyo metro goverment, Big sky, warm ups. We took the elevator to the 69th floor - the smoothest elevator ever, that slowly accelerates and decelerates at each end and covers floor 1 to 69 in (no joke) about 30 seconds. The view was even more epic. I have a lot of pictures and none of them do it any justice, this goes on the top 5 list of the most incredible places I've EVER been. I ranted and raved about it endlessly when I was up there. Looking West, I saw a body of water, that if it wasn't another bay to the southwest, could be the China Sea. I'll let the views speak for themselves:
Even from here I can't get Tokyo in one frame:
From there we wanted to walk to Chinatown. That was actually the big selling point of Yokohama. (History) Historically, this used to be the area of amnesty for foriengers, and that kind of shows. (/History) That said, walking around it is just like an American city. The population density is more what we would be used to, roads were just as wide, buildings were more regular, just as big, and as far apart as we would be used to. If I were walking down a street with no Japanese signs, I could think I was in Manhattan.
Hence, it has the biggest, most well known Chinatown in Japan and we had hoped to catch the tail end of the Chinese New Years celebration. It was pretty sweet:
It was big, and it was fun, but it wasn't that substantially different from other Chinatowns. Same food, same trinkets, same focus towards tourists on the main drags. It seems here its treated with similar novelty as it is in the states - red everywhere, big wooden dragons, Bruce Lee memorabilia, fireworks, and lots of red tasles. Still, quite the good meal, and we went on our way after stopping for some Moon cake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake).
Then a pretty and painless walk home.