This is the first full day after having met up with Nikesh, Alex, and Marina. We will be with the first two for the remainder of the trip but Marina will be leaving in a week.

Tokyo is the busiest city I have yet to see. The sidewalks and streets of certain areas like Shibiya, Shinjuku, and Harajuku flow like a two giant Asian dragons, one in either direction. The pace of movement is slower than in NYC but never ending. Moving against or trough the flow feels like a fools errand. Everywhere there are shops and restaurants and bars each vying for attention. Lighted signs rise multiple stories above the street and shop owners are constantly droning the ubiquitous “いらしゃいます”.

The day was mostly filled with near aimless wandering punctuated by the Tokyo sword museum and the Meiji shine in Harajuku. There were several Shinto wedding ceremonies going on with the bride and grooms in traditional kimono. The entrance to the shrine had an area to ritually cleanse your hands and mouth before entering the grounds.

We ate at two notable places. The first is memorable because ordering was done entirely via touch screens at each table. The latter because it was arguably the best tempura in the city. We learned to think twice about sitting at a traditional tatami mat table after walking for 10 hours.

Even on a Sunday night the city pulses with activity. Returning to Harajuku in the evening allowed us to see at least some of the crazy garb worn by the citiy’s younger generation, although not as much as we hoped. As the night wore on the smells and sounds of the
city turned notably to those of booze, sweat, and sex. Tokyo is a very clean city and no where were we greeted by the sour types of smells I have often noticed in NYC.

Before retiring for the evening we had to check out an area of the city called Golden Gai renowned for its tiny walking streets with bars wedged into every dark shadow. Each one seated at most six people and seemed a true one man show with the bar tender as the star. Near there is located the red light district and while prostitution is illegal, the Yakuza gets the law to look
the other way. A ban on photography in the area is strictly enforced by men in black suits with in-ear radios. Each strip club or more rigorous place of business seemed to have a South African immigrant aggressively pulling customers inside.