Random Ranting and Wandering in Trendy Tokyo

Saturday May 1, 2010

Lately, I'm having crazy cravings, like the kind you hear about women getting when they're pregnant (I'm not, don't laugh, it's not something funny, and never something to joke about).  Right this second, I would be willing to die for: cottage cheese, a really good salad, and caramel, the hot liquid kind you'd put on ice cream, though I really just want the caramel, though maybe with some whipped cream and peanuts in my mouth at the same time.

I really want to go running again, and I think the weather would finally be nice for it, but I'm afraid that I'll hurt my ankle.  I twisted it on my most recent all-nighter in Osaka at some point, but barely, it really didn't hurt much, just bruised and swelled up a bit.  It doesn't hurt at all anymore, but it still feels weak and I don't want to push it because then I'm afraid I'll really hurt it and I won't be able to run, or even walk long distances, for ages.  Actually, I seem to twist my ankle a fair bit, though it's usually (including currently) no big deal, though it was pretty bad once when I nearly broke it.  Anyway, irrelevant.

Tonight, while uploading pictures, I realized that I only have four pictures of me in Japan and two of those are at the Sapporo factory; good thing I've got my priorities straight.

I can't believe it's May already!  How the hell did that happen?!  That means I've been traveling for just under two months (8 weeks on Monday).

In all that time, and in all my time staying in the hostel upon my arrival in Oz, I have yet to meet a single American female traveler (in the way of doing what I'm doing).  I've met single American male travelers, single female travelers from other countries (including Sweden, the U.K., Germany and France,) I've met American couples traveling and two or more American females traveling together, I've even met single American females traveling within a country in which they were based (by which I primarily mean, English teachers in Korea and Japan) but I have yet to meet any other single American female traveler backpacking around countries.  This makes me really sad.  I know I'm not so unusual or special, so why aren't more American women doing this type of thing?

What it really makes me wonder is if we don't have (additional) sexism in the U.S. that we're unaware of.  I don't think I've spoken about it much here, but in Australia, there is extreme sexism (more than I saw in Western Europe in my time there, or in Japan, now) but Australians barely seem to notice.  It's a difficult type of sexism to explain; quite subtle, but very obvious if you come from somewhere, like the U.S. that doesn't have it (at least in that way).  Most of it is the judgmental views of women (especially, as is true everywhere I've ever been, in regards to their sexuality) that are so totally different from the views on men, but additionally, it is the type of subtle sexism, that if you saw it in the U.S. you'd think, "Huh, that's weird that they'd say that/ That's kind of offensive/ rude/ I wonder how they get away with that," but you don't think too much of it, because it happens so rarely.  In Australia, it's still those little things, but they occur constantly.  Constantly.

Anyway, that's all in Australia.  My point here is that perhaps it exists much more than we realize in the U.S. in a way that we don't recognize, much as they don't recognize it in Oz.  About two years ago, I read a book called After (P.S. shout out here to Google for knowing the name of it when I could only remember a few random details).  It's meant for teenagers, but is an excellent book that feeds into all my paranoia about privacy and rights.  In it, the school slowly becomes more and more restricted and controlled; with extraordinarily harsh punishments, metal detectors and, if I remember right, nationalism in the form of high school rivalry.  Throughout, the parents are kept "informed" by emails explaining the additional dangers facing teens and why the restrictions and privacy invasions were so important, essentially brainwashing them (the parents).

I'm not some conspiracy theorist, and I don't really think we need to seriously worry about high schools being controlled, and parent brain washing anytime soon, but I do worry about the effects of what we see and hear, particularly with the recent passing of a law that allows lobbyists greater access and input than ever before.

Again, I'm getting away from my original point, and this really isn't supposed to be political, but what I mean is that perhaps in the U.S., we've convinced women that they are in so much danger, that we are restricting them and their freedom in a way that we simply don't restrict male freedom.

This also isn't to say that women don't face a greater danger than men do.  We do.  We shouldn't have to, but, shouldn'ts don't really matter in the real world do they?  I know I take a risk, and yes, it is a bit of a greater risk than most women take.  I'm not denying that in of itself.  I'm suggesting that the actual risk has been overblown and that the rewards we miss out on, may be worth it.  They certainly are for me.

*This entire post is discussing sexism outside of the spectrum we obviously know it exists in: wages, promotions, reproductive rights, etc.

Quick Note: The above was all actually written on 5/1 and is mostly rambling.  The long sexism rant was partially inspired by Marybeth, who you'll meet below.  The rest of this entry was written later and actually tells what I did that day.

I finished Lucy this morning, had a very slow lunch at the Cafe that was part of the hostel (margarita pizza that was obviously not really margarita pizza but more edible than I expected upon ordering) and wrote for a while.

I met Marybeth, an American woman teaching English in Japan, about my age.  She was pretty interesting to talk to, and very interested in me, which the narcissist in me adores.  It had been a while since I'd really spoken to pretty much anyone so I had a fairly long conversation with her.  One of the most interesting things she told me was that she had a boyfriend back in the U.S. even though she'd been in Japan since last August!  She said that he had been in Japan for three months too, but that still leaves six months, which to me is just insane, but then I'm not a believer in long distance relationships.  I told her maybe I'd go out with her that night.

Since I had a few days in Tokyo, I slowed down a bit and decided that today I just wanted to read some magazines at a bookstore and look at a guidebook for Taiwan.  Of course, it's not as simple as running out to Barnes and Noble and picking out a comfy chair.

First, I had to look up a place with English books and magazines in my guidebook, then I had to buy a pass, take the subway, transfer once, and then wander for about an hour looking for the right place.  I happened to be wandering in a very nice and interesting area: Shibuya up to Harajuku.  Shibuya is full of several small boutiques and restaurants in side alleys and huge designer stores on the main Omote-sando street so it was fun to look around.  As it was a Saturday it was fairly busy but I didn't feel crushed by the crowd or anything like that.  I didn't get too far into Harajuku but what I saw was surprisingly ordinary and trendy/fashionable only in a boring, overdone way, like hipsters.  It wasn't nearly as interesting as I had hoped/expected. 

I finally found the bookstore on my way back towards Shibuya since I'd missed it on the way up and read Cosmopolitan and Saveur almost front to cover, sitting on a stool I found in the Childrens section.  Sitting there for at least two hours, I also skimmed: Food and Wine, Marie Claire, Vogue, Lucky and glanced at a few others.  Food and Wine recommended a beer place in Tokyo, while Saveur recommended a particular area to eat.  I walked out, much happier, into the semi-darkness.  Night had come while I was reading, but the lights, everywhere, were so bright that it would be misleading to actually call it dark.

And now I could feel the crush of people and density of Tokyo.  There was particular point when I was right before a large intersection, like a smaller Oxford Circus as the light changed. 

In Sydney, at the huge intersection of George St. and the street Woolworths and one end of the QVB is on, people walk in straight, bulging cords as the cars stop.  All at the same moment, people walk either way on each four sides of the square and diagonally across, forming a human square with an X in the middle.  Though it's a large rush of people, and every once in a while a straggler swerves into one of the four triangles of concrete created in between the X and the square, the crowd always retains this structure.  Somehow, the rivers never burst from their path.

This intersection in Shibuya reminded me of that one in Sydney, but with three times the people and none of the order.  It was like a fishing net in the open sea where some fish are visible and then, instantly, something changes, and all the fish are caught wildly squirming in the net.  It was a vibrating block of people, with nothing below them.  I took a picture because it so perfectly captured the idea we sometimes have of Tokyo, as a big city totally filled with people, but of course, lost that picture when I lost my camera in Taiwan (which is why there are no pictures from this point until 5/23).

It was a nice afternoon and I enjoyed my wandering and seeing areas of Tokyo I had wanted to see on the way, but I was tired so I got some ramen and beers at 7-11 and went back to the hostel.  I went to bed at around 12 and Marybeth told me that was about the time she'd come back looking for me but we'd somehow missed each other.  After how busy I'd been lately, I really didn't mind missing out and getting some extra sleep.