Restoring my faith in the city

After my last post or two, it may seem like I’ve lost a bit of faith in Tokyo. Fair enough, you know? I mean, it almost seems like this whole experience is just one insult to foreigners after another, right? It almost seems like all you can do is to just go along with it and not pay too much mind. Well, I have to be fair and say that Japanese people are really friendly. I think any misgivings that arise are really as a result of a few things. First, there’s a great deal of shyness that the locals have when communicating with someone that speaks English. As much they’ve been trained, there’s not much practical time when it comes to putting the language to good use. So, the result is that a lot of people are just plain afraid to try for fear of making a mistake. Frankly, I’m pretty much the same way when I try out my Japanese–I’m painfully shy! I can make the effort, but I’m also hung up on whether I was using polite language, or maybe whether I was using the correct inflections or vocabulary, etc etc. Lately I’ve been getting better at making the effort, but it’s still a struggle.

Anyway, despite all of this it’s easy to fall into a state of dislike for the place if you’re caught off guard. Today I did a few things that really helped me restore my faith in the city. First, thing I did was to find a RC church with and English mass and attend. I found one in Roppongi which makes sense due to it being considered a foreigner hangout. Due to an error in time adjustment instead of arriving half an hour early like I’d wanted, I actually arrived half an hour late. Anyway, despite that I felt quite at home in there. I mean, wow, I’ve never seen so many foreigners gathered in one place in Tokyo–not even in the airport. Seriously, I felt like I was back in Canada. So many of them were Filipinos too. It was mind boggling. I don’t know what happened, but for that mass in particular I was really moved. At the end, they asked people new and visiting to introduce themselves to the congregation. After each introduction there was a round of applause. I got to do my introduction, and wow, that was a good feeling. At the end, the announcer said something to the effect that they were happy to be people’s “spiritual home away from home,” I seriously nearly lost it. I was so deeply affected by it that I needed to take a few moments to regather my thoughts just to not start bawling. It’s so easy to feel isolated and lonely here: that’s why the warm welcome really got to me. After the mass, a parishioner came up to me and asked if I was Filipino in Tagalog. I replied that I was. We had a nice mini-chat after which she wished me a nice stay. I felt so good coming out of that place.

Well, after mass, I had a few hours to kill before my friend became available, so I decided on his suggestion to wander around the city and take in the people and the sites. So that’s what I did. I started wandering around Roppongi. I had intentions of going west over to the Meiji shrine and Harajuku on foot, but I got side-tracked and saw a familiar hospital that I passed by in the 2006 tour. Since it was familiar, I decided to see if I could somehow end up seeing any other familiar places. Somehow made it over to Azabu-Jūban. I think only one reader out there knows the significance of this place . Anyway, I bought a Pocari Sweat and drank it on Patio Jūban. Everyone in that district looks so posh! I continued to wander and ended up at Daimon and the area around Shiba Park–both places that I’d seen before. I decided to just keep going and I ended up at district after district. Shinbashi, Ginza, Nihonbashi, Akihabara, Ueno… I was surprised when I got to Ginza. The main artery through the shopping district was closed to cars and only allowed pedestrian traffic. Apparently this only happens on Sundays. Holy crap, why can’t we do that more often in Toronto? Seriously, if Tokyo can do that on what seems to be a major road, why can’t we? It was a popular area–so many people crowded the place. After four hours of straight walking I got tired and ended up stopping at Ueno park. I hit that fatigue point where I just needed to drink something sugary to get my glycogen levels back to normal.

From there, my friend called me to say that he was done with his business and asked me to meet him at Nihonbashi station on the subway. As I was on the subway, I was thinking that on the subway it took only a few minutes to get someplace it took me an hour or two to get from. Crazy. We went over to Yoyogi park and took in a random rave party. Don’t ask me. There was a lot of drunk naked people stumbling openly in daylight. There were kids running around with incense sticks. It’s not normally my scene, but damn, it was interesting to watch the general debauchery. I got a good laugh out of it.

From there, my friend, his friend and I walked all the way back through Roppongi to Azabu-Jūban. That was basically another 45 minute walk–honestly it felt like an eternity. We went there for some really great thin pizza at a place called Savoy. It’s a small place, but damn the food was awesome. The three of us finished off 4 small pizzas–well worth it. From there, we walked from Azabu to Roppongi to get some frozen yogurt.

That’s been my day. I can honestly say that the long walk helped me absorb more of the character of the city. I’m feeling a bit better about being here. It’s like…the city really only reveals its true nuances to those that are willing to explore a bit. All of the walking has wiped me out. I’m going to get a good night’s sleep. I have to be up early tomorrow to start the 7 day tour all over the country. It’s going to be fantastic!

Possibly related posts:

1. Transit city, tolerant city
2. Bright lights, big city
3. The size of the city