5 Things to do in Tokyo

        

           Half a century ago Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, travelled to Tokyo and wrote of ‘appalling over-crowding’ and ‘endless and very depressing suburbs’. Not much has changed in those respects. Japan’s capital remains exceptionally busy and pretty ugly. It’s not a place that is going to win the average tourist over in a heartbeat. Still, Tokyo does have some great things to offer the traveller. Here is a small selection.  

          The lovely and extensive Hama-rikyu Gardens (300 yen) are situated near the high-end shopping district of Ginza and the celebrated Tsukiji fish market, the world’s largest. While the environs (a dirty moat, busy roads and skyscrapers in all directions) are not promising, the park itself is beautiful. There is a large tidal pond, which is supposedly frequented by green crabs, goby and other exotic fish, although you may be hard pressed to spot them in the murky green water. 

        Wooden bridges traverse the waterways, and the lawns and pine trees are painstakingly manicured. A cool breeze blows in off the nearby Sumida River, bringing with it the smell of the sea, and you can relax on benches in the shade or crash out beneath an arbour. In June, blue hydrangea flowers blossom. Ulysses S. Grant, the legendary U.S. civil war commander and rather less successful president, stayed here in 1879, in a building that was sadly demolished ten years later. 

          The best way to travel to the Hama-rikyu Gardens is by the Suijo water bus (740 yen), which departs from the heavily touristed district of Asakusa. This journey down the Sumida River is an absolute joy if your usual means of transportation in Tokyo is the train at rush hour. The best place to sit is at the back in the open air. From this vantage point you can study the city’s many bridges (‘of great individuality’, according to the tourist hype), and look out for Tokyo Tower as you near your destination. You might also want to try a glass of the excellent Downtown Ale (‘Recommend!’). 

          Down a long avenue shaded by sloping trees and featuring three handsome wooden torii gates lies Meiji-jingu (no entrance fee), a most attractive shrine that commemorates Emperor Meiji (1852-1912) and his wife. The approach is notable for a wall of sake barrels and a thoroughly out-of-place collection of sixty wooden wine barrels gifted by winemakers in Burgundy. For 500 yen you can write a wish or message of thanks to the enshrined deities on a small wooden plaque, or ema; a magnificent tree before the shrine is surrounded by hundreds of these. 

          There is also a shady and appealingly overgrown garden (500 yen), whose white, purple and blue irises are irresistible to camera-wielding Japanese visitors. Turtles and huge carp swim in a small pond at the southern end. Admire the beautiful surroundings and ignore the misleading tributes to the Emperor, who we read spent his life ‘earnestly praying for… peace with other countries’, when in fact his reign saw the annexation of Korea and other acts of expansionism. 

          Even if you don’t feel like hitting the bottle, you ought still to pay a visit to the nightlife centre of Roppongi. The scene that plays out at night in this famous hive of sleaze and drunkenness has to be seen to be believed. You may encounter besuited and apparently respectable Japanese businessmen passed out on the floor of the metro station, while the streets above are filled with Turkish restaurants, faux British pubs, ‘snack’ bars and smoky nightclubs throbbing with house music. A staggering number of black African men loiter on the sidewalks, desperately (and illegally) seeking to persuade booze hounds to enter establishments of ill-repute.

          It’s hard to believe, but you can go kayaking in the heart of Tokyo. Although the city’s rivers and canals are not very easy on the eye, it has to be a more rewarding way of burning calories than working out in a hotel gym. You need to be in some sort of shape to undertake the two to three hour journey with the Tokyo Great Kayaking Tour (6000 yen), for it’s a pretty exhausting Sunday morning endeavour. 

          Starting from Kayabacho, you cross the busy Sumida River, avoiding water buses and young thrill seekers, before entering the narrow and deserted waterways to the east. Here you are likely to come across small kids waving at you from bridges and hardy jellyfish that have somehow adapted to life in the city’s polluted rivers. It’s invigorating, and you’ll get a free beer or chu-hai at the end. 

Roppongi

            A lone white-haired Japanese man in a shiny grey suit reels across the station concourse, somehow contriving to stay upright. This impressive display of drunkenness is in keeping with the action above ground. In Matsuya, a 24 hour restaurant specializing in dirt-cheap bowls of gyudon (beef, rice and onion) one boozehound has passed out with his head on the table, while another irritably barks ‘nani sore?’ (what’s that?) when the waitress brings him the food he ordered three minutes before. 

          This is Roppongi, Tokyo’s famous entertainment district, at one in the morning. Visit during the day, and it seems fairly normal. On a hill a short distance away stands Tokyo Tower, the city’s appealing red and white Eiffel Tower clone. An elevated road emblazoned with the word Roppongi divides the famous road crossing. There are the usual convenience stores, coffee shops and fast food joints, and the pedestrians are largely Japanese. Yellow taxis pass with customary frequency and you can hear subway trains below the road as you walk over vents in the sidewalk. 

          Scratch the surface just a little, however, and you get hints of the metamorphosis that occurs at night. You might find yourself wondering why a shoe has been abandoned beside a giant flower pot, or what goes on at enigmatically named places such as ‘Night Kiosk’ and ‘Mask’. Then are the establishments that leave nothing to the imagination: ‘Badd Girls’ and ‘Seventh Heaven’, for instance.

          At night the streets branching off the Roppongi crossing are jammed with foreigners and Japanese heading to Turkish restaurants, faux British pubs, ‘snack’ bars and smoky, 1970s style nightclubs throbbing with god-awful house music. Asian women of uncertain origin hang around on the sidewalk selling massages, the really persistent ones grabbing you by the arm or following you down the street. There are also a staggering number of black African men, who ‘know what you’re looking for’ and promise to ‘hook you up’. The slightest display of interest leads to offers of inexpensive bathroom time with ‘clean’ Japanese girls.

          These approaches are, not surprisingly, illegal. Lampposts and railings feature messages from the police, complete with childish cartoons, advising revellers to beware of these nuisances and warning you that you might end up losing a whole lot of cash should you do business with them. Still, you get the feeling that the police don’t take the matter overly seriously, for the officers standing outside the local police station merely look bored. 

            As dawn arrives the station attracts the exhausted and the utterly inebriated. People are sprawled on the platforms, and there’s an immobile man who’s adopted a variant of the brace position, his head and knees planted firmly against the floor. There are barriers protecting the subway lines at Roppongi Station, with good reason. You get the feeling that without them appalling accidents would be commonplace.