tokyo

i'd hate to admit this but i didn't enjoy myself in tokyo as much as i wish i did. it was fun, no doubt, but it wasn't enjoyable. tokyo was or is, in fact and unfortunately, rather depressing.

sure, the food was glorious, the shrines were enigmatic and the streets were buzzing with activity. i can't speak for all of japan but tokyo is at the fore front of technology, modernity and trends, yet somehow manages to retain its past and its culture, all in perfect harmony with each other. just a stone's throw away from harajuku, where teenagers hang out when dressed up in their cosplay or lolita outfits, is the austere meiji-jingu shrine. the toilets are extremely high-tech if you haven't heard already, and people are so polite and courteous that going into a department store makes you feel like queen.

the sad part is that, underneath it all is a sad, sad society. the akihabara mass killing pretty much encapsulates the state of society (and just on the news today, the grandfather who killed his entire immediate family). but also, tokyodites smoke alot and drink alot. in fact, they go to bars everyday after work. that, to me, is rather unhealthy. they hang out at pachinko parlours, slipping in 1000yen bills every 5minutes. they drink themselves silly all night until the trains start running again in the morning. there are streets and buildings dedicated to porn and various sexual fetishes. people read porn openly on trains. host clubs and hostess clubs are rampant. bums seek shelter in the subway stations and in cardboard boxes along the road at night, and lurk in the corners, abashed of their stench and unkempt looks among the young and trendy crowd, during the day.

i had a conversation with a colleague from the tokyo office, who said that tokyodites work long hours (testimony to this, i was on the train at around 11pm the first night and the trains were chokablock full of salarymen) and hardly earn enough to bring the bacon home. the traditional japanese culture of loyalty to employers and employees seem to have been thrown out of the window and there is hardly any job security since companies hire and fire without any qualms whatsoever.

every city has its fair share of problems. but the situation in tokyo seems more dire to me than in say, new york city, partly because i had held japan in such high regard in terms of social development. and walking around the streets, i was more overwhelmed by consumerism and commercialisation than culture. and i felt that all the bright lights and loud noises were merely a cover up.