Lost in Translation

One of my favorite movies of all time is Lost in Translation.  For those of you who have never seen it, please watch it as soon as possible.  It's a beautiful film by Sofia Coppola starring Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray.  David and I share a love of this movie for many reasons.  It's about finding yourself in Japan and getting lost along the way.  It's about cultural and generational differences and similarities.  It's also a beautiful portrait of an amazing city.  David and I spent last weekend in Tokyo and it was everything Lost in Translation led me to believe it would be.  Fast paced and energetic, slow and meditative, enormous and exciting.  Tokyo was everything a city can be.  Suffice to say, David and I had a wonderful time.  Unfortunately, I forgot my SD card for my camera, so I was only able to take pictures after a stop to Akihabara to get a new one.  However, the pictures I did get turned out pretty well.  Click here for all the photos from the trip.  Of all the wonderful things we did on the trip, the best was discovering how close we are to Tokyo, how cheap it is to get there and realizing we would be back soon and often. A 90 minute train ride from Utsunomiya found us in Ueno Terminal in the north of Tokyo.  A short subway ride later we were at our hotel in Akasaka, a trendy upscale neighborhood.  We spent most of our first day lamenting the missing SD card and looking for a camera shop. We were mostly unsuccessful in finding a camera shop, but wandered around the side streets of various neighborhoods and ended up stumbling on what looked like the entrance to a magical forest in the middle of the largest city in the world.  It ended up being just that.  Meiji Shrine is one of the largest shrines in Tokyo and is located at the heart of a densely wooded are of Yoyogi Park.  The Canopy of the trees blocked out the sun and gave a chill to the air.  The path was wide enough for a crowds of thousands to make their way to the shrine, which the occasionally do.  However, there were very few people in the shrine grounds on the day we were there.  Yet, as open as the path before us was, the enormity of the trees around us gave the forest an intimate feeling.  Rays of sun would occasionally peek through the branches and leaves, making me swear I had seen something out of the corner of my eye. In the very center of the park, two paths cross and there are no trees for a hundred feet, letting you see the sky for a moment before walking back into the cool darkness of the forest on the other side.  The entrances and exits of the shrine grounds are marked by torii gates, traditional Japanese Shinto gates like this one.

This is a torii in Utsunomiya.  The torii at the Meiji Shrine, however, were hundreds of feet tall.  Passing through these massive gateways truly made it feel as though were entering another world. At the other end of the park, we left the forest to find ourselves in the middle of Harajuku, the fashion capital of Japan.  Going from this natural sanctuary to the hustle and bustle of a busy urban street was jarring, but is the essence of Tokyo.  High rises and shrines nestled side by side.  Women in suits ride the subway sitting next to women in kimonos.  

After our adventures wandering through Yoyogi and Harajuku, we decided to head to Akihabara where we would be sure to find an SD card.  Akihabara, also known as Electric Town, was once the post-WWII black market for radio parts.  It has now become THE place to buy any kind of electronics.  From huge department stores to tiny shops down side alleys, you can buy anything you need to build your own computer, robot or anything electronic you can think of. Akihabara is also the otaku district.  Otaku is the Japanese word for nerd or shut-in.  Here in Japan, just as in America, the word nerd has been reclaimed - people are proud to be geeky.  So, you can also find any anime or video game related item you can think of.  There are even themed cafes centered around various shows and games.

The next day in Tokyo saw my dreams of seeing traditional Japanese theatre come true.  David and I saw two Kabuki plays at the National Theatre of Japan.  It was fascinating and beautiful.  We were greatly helped by our earphone translator which let us know what exactly was happening. We were not the only ones wearing them, though.  As well as the handful of other tourists in audience, many Japanese audience members were wearing translators as well.  The language in kabuki is often archaic, similar to Shakespeare in English.  The acting style also involves intense intonation and rhythmic stylization, rendering much of the Japanese difficult for even native Japanese speakers to understand. Kabuki is a style of theatre focusing on the visual poetry of performance.  It is a presentational form of theatre rather than a representational one.  In Western theatre, we strive to represent reality or tell a particular story.  Kabuki mostly uses stories incredibly well-known to their Japanese audiences. People don't come to have a story told to them, they already know the ending.  They come to see the representation of the story.  The beautiful costumes, the skill of the actors voicing melodramatic moments in time and the magic of theatre special effects.  Thus, it is very difficult for Western audiences to understand and appreciate Kabuki. However, as a theatre history geek and perpetual academic, I was in heaven!

After four hours of theatre, which is exhausting for even the seasoned theatre veteran, we were ready for some sightseeing before we had dinner and headed home.  We made a quick stop at Tokyo Tower.  Once the tallest structure in the city, Tokyo Tower is now being replaced by the Tokyo Sky Tree (not yet completed). It is no longer tall enough to get a TV signal over the high rises of Tokyo.   However, it is still really tall and pretty spectacular to see.  Exactly 13 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower, it seems to exist only to out do other attractions.  And to broadcast TV and Radio signals.   A friend told us make sure we saw it at night, and I'm glad we stayed until it got dark.

I'm pretty proud of the night photo - David called it "postcard-worthy."

We finished our weekend at a kaiten sushi restaurant that had been recommended on the internet. Kaiten sushi is conveyor belt sushi, where sushi chefs stand around making sushi and placing it on a conveyor belt that circles the restaurant.  You just grab what looks good and at the end of the meal they count the number of plates you have.  Different colored plates cost different amounts, which are posted on a wall somewhere.  If you don't see the exact kind of sushi you want you can also yell out the kind of sushi you would like and the sushi chef will make it right away and hand it to you over the counter.  The sushi was delicious, and with our bellies full we paid the bill - less than 20 dollars each.  The joys of living in Japan!

We caught a a train home and were back in friendly Utsunomiya in 104 minutes (we got the slow train). The trip was great, but coming home was also pretty wonderful.  Arriving at the apartment and taking off our shoes, we felt like we were back home - which I suppose means we are finally settled in.  I hope everyone is well wherever you happen to be in the world!

さよなら！

(sayonara!)

Sarah