Although I had had several holidays in Western cities like London, Paris, New York and Berlin, I had never got any opportunity to visit a city in the Eastern Hemisphere. I had always been enthusiastic to have fabulous time in major cities of the world in the Eastern Hemisphere like Tokyo. I felt most enthusiastic about Tokyo because it is considered the capital of the Eastern Hemisphere. Tokyo is one of Japan’s 47 prefectures, and it functions as both the largest city and the capital of Japan. During the last summer, I decided to have an 11 day holiday in the city together with my friend Drew. We thus decided to take advantages of free zero promos flights to Tokyo by Air Asia. Finally, the day arrived!!! Drew and I flew from Manchester to Tokyo on Friday. We decided to take the airport transfer to Asakusa because we knew that it will be much convenient to book a hotel there in the evening. Drew was much familiar with the place, so I did not worry much. The transfer to Asakusa from Haneda Airport cost us about ¥490. However, we managed to get vacant rooms at Hotel Unizo where we stayed for the 11 days.
At the ambassadorial residence too, it was easier to learn how the whole of Japan and specifically the Tokyo Metropolis is governed. Tokyo was a bigger metropolis and it had a very prosperous and functioning government. Given that it had 23 special words, 26 more cities, five towns and eight villages, the Tokyo metropolitan governance was much complex and sterling. Particularly, I really needed to study the composition of the Tokyo Metropolitan area’s population by nationality, age and ethnicity (Topik & Pomeranz, 2014). Although there were some clusters of people from western and some Asian countries, their propositions were quite insignificant compared to that of nationals. It was important to note that, together with New York and London, Tokyo is one of the three command centers of capitalism economy in the world (Samuels, 2014). Amazingly, I noticed that the country’s economy was also driven by agriculture, forestry and fishing, apart from industrial manufacturing (Dawson, 2015). Nonetheless, the place is increasingly becoming a magnet for tourism in the eastern frontier (Mulgan, 2013).
On the third day, we decided to go to the National Diet Library. Since Tokyo is the country’s capital city, we really expected to learn much about the whole country from there. This included how the word “Nihon” changed through alterations in old Malay dialect of Chinese, Portuguese from Malacca and English to become “Japan”. It was also easy to learn the whole history of Japan from the feudal period to the current period authentically from friends who were found in the Library (Topik & Pomeranz, 2014). The amazing part of the story was how Japanese people, through interaction and adoption of western culture, underwent westernization to the point of looking profoundly western. Given that Japan is a constitutional monarch, similar to the UK constitutional monarch where the monarch is left with limited executive powers, it was much interesting to compare and contrast the two governments (Rothenberg, 2014). We noted that like the UK too, the country is governed by an electable prime minister. The country also has a bicameral parliament: the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors. However, the Japanese prime minister is usually chosen by the Emperor, after being voted by the parliament. Although the Japanese judicial system and the general legal framework have roots from the Chinese legal system, it has evolved to become more western (Steiner, Krauss & Flanagan, 2014). Demographically, although Japanese were the majority, the country had minority communities too. We realized that the country was a major centre of Shintoism, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism (Ryang, 2013). New religious movement in Japan has seen religions such as Sihism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity being accepted. During Obon, Tanabata and Christmas festivals, there are usually decorations in cities. Popular Japanese cuisine included Japanese rice or noodles, tofu and okazu (Han, 2014).
On the fourth day, we decided to visit several of the many museums that are found in Tokyo. In Ueno Park, it was grateful to visit the country’s largest museum of Tokyo National Museum. By this visit, we got a chance to explore all of the Japanese arts. Just there, we had the National Museum of Western Art and the Ueno Zoo. The National Museum of Western Art is the premier public art gallery that specializes in showcasing western traditions and arts in Japan (Topik & Pomeranz, 2014). It was therefore important for us to easily make comparisons between western prints, paintings, drawings and other collections against those of authentic traditional Japanese collections in same categories. The Ueno Zoo seems to be such a fabulous place for new visitors. Located in the Ueno Park too, it was important in experiencing how animal menagerie is done in Japan (Rothenberg, 2014). Otherwise, the whole of Ueno Park was important in learning many cultural habits of people in main demographical segments. Ueno Park is the largest urban park in the country, and it is the home of many amusement sites, museums and other attraction sites. In Tokyo too, one cannot miss to experience the modern tests of life in museums. There are museums that are solely dedicated to science and innovation: the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Odiba and the National Diet Library. The National Museum of Modern Art of Tokyo is the foremost museum that majorly collects and showcases modern arts from contemporary Japanese artists. Collections include craft galleries and films (MacWilliams, 2014). This museum is just near the Tokyo Imperial Palace. The Imperial Place is the official residence of the Emperor of Japan. Being also one of the main cultural and historical sites in the country of Japan, it houses museums, archives and administrative offices. The museum has beautiful gardens, bridges and music halls that one can visit (Han, 2014).
On the fifth day, without forgetting, we got the first opportunity to watch the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome. Despite the Yomiuri Giants, Tokyo has other baseball clubs that include the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, housed at the Meiji-Jingu Stadium. I happened to buy some films on what usually happen in the Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo arena. I was told that major sumo sporting events are held in January, May, and September. The other interesting sports were the Japanese versions of martial arts called judo and karate (Han, 2014).
On the sixth day, there were a lot of costume plays (Cosplay) in the Harajuku neighborhoods, and so we decided to go there. Youths were displaying both western and local costumes and fashion accessories, while representing certain characters like those found in films (Currid-Halkett, & Scott, 2013). Current internet explosion has resulted in the blossoming of the average number of people participating in such festivals. Tokyo has a fair test and appreciation of western culture. It is noted that since the city is one of three major world cities, there are some internationally acclaimed cuisines like French and Italian Cosines (Germer, Mackie & Wöhr, 2014). By checking on movies, television shows and comic books, the pace of general popular culture in the city was faster than it is expected. In fact I saw some Hollywood movies that have been set in Japan (Craig, 2015).
On the seventh day, we decided to have some tours to some of the city’s top learning institutions. The Greater Tokyo has many junior colleges, universities and vocational schools. The country’s system of education begins with kindergarten, through elementary schools, primary schools and public secondary schools to the university (Nishi, 2013).
On the eighth day, we decided to attend a concert at the National Noh Theatre. The City as the capital of the country has many theatres. These include both private and national theatres for performing Japanese drama. The most noteworthy mentioned are those of Kabuki-za and National Noh Theatre. Symphony orchestras are also evident in the city. Despite traditional music, Tokyo has a host of international rock and pop music, which are hosted in internationally known arenas such as the Nippon Budokan (Rothenberg, 2014). Although one may not be there when major festivals are occurring in Tokyo, he can get a chance to learn about them. Major events such as Sanja at the Asakusa Shrine, Sanno at the Hie Shrine, and the Kanda Festivals are no worth to be missed. Despite firework festivals, when cherry blossoms, Japanese people have habits of gathering in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, Inokashira Park and Ueno Park (Craig, 2015).
On the ninth day, we decided to rest at the Drew’s relative because it was a national holiday. However, on the next day, we were pretty lucky to see a traditional Japanese wedding. Having stayed at the wedding for the whole day, we had to pass by the stores to by some drinks, because they usually open at 8 am and close at 22 pm (Sato, 2003). Since we had a free return ticket, we had to return back on the eleventh day.
References
Craig, T. J. (2015). Japan Pop: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. New York: Routledge.
Currid-Halkett, E., & Scott, A. J. (2013). The geography of celebrity and glamour: Reflections on economy, culture, and desire in the city. City, Culture and Society, 4(1), 2-11.
Dawson, A. H. (2015). The Land Problem in the Developed Economy (Routledge Revivals). New York: Routledge.
Germer, A., Mackie, V., & Wöhr, U. (2014). Gender, Nation and State in Modern Japan. New York: Routledge.
Han, J. S. (2014). Japan in the public culture of South Korea, 1945–2000s: The making and remaking of colonial sites and memories 1945-200 年代韓国公共文化における日本 植民地的場と記憶の生産と再生産. The Asia-Pacific Journal, 12(15).
Horne, J., & Manzenreiter, W. (Eds.). (2013). Japan, Korea and the 2002 World Cup. New York: Routledge.
MacWilliams, M. W. (2014). Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime. New York: Routledge.
Mulgan, A. G. (2013). The Politics of Agriculture in Japan. New York: Routledge.
Nishi, T. (2013). Unconditional Democracy: Education and Politics in Occupied Japan, 1945-1952. New York: Hoover Press.
Rothenberg, R., Weaver, S. R., Dai, D., Stauber, C., Prasad, A., & Kano, M. (2014). A flexible urban health index for small area disparities. Journal of Urban Health, 91(5), pp. 823-835.
Ryang, S. (2013). Koreans in Japan: Critical Voices from the Margin. New York: Routledge.
Samuels, R. J. (2014). The Politics of Regional Policy in Japan: Localities Incorporated? Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sato, B.(2003).The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan. London: Duke University Press.
Steiner, K., Krauss, E. S., & Flanagan, S. E. (Eds.). (2014). Political Opposition and Local Politics in Japan. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Topik, S., & Pomeranz, K. (2014). The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present. New York: Routledge.
