Tokyo.
Like ecstacy fueled hardcore porn for your senses, the gyrating mashup of sound, sight, taste and smell will leave you bewildered if you grace its shores.
It is simply impossible to not feel like you are in some sort of a incandecently morbid and promiscuous video game as you walk around this giant metropolis.
Impossible.
And there is only one place in the world where you could fuse hardcore metal with the pure melody of a female pop singer and make it top the charts. The Japanese take hold of anything even remotely original and turn it into something that makes you go - 'what the f#%k was that?' And they do it convincingly.
It is a stark contrast to their history which proudly sits behind the now and the future. You can walk only minutes from the bright lights and tall buildings to find yourself in a beautiful park filled with cherry blossoms. Inside this park you will note an old building with bizarre sounds emitting from it. You stroll closer for a look and notice that the strange noises are coming from a group of Karate students locked in a fierce battle with their Sensei.
The old world sits idly by watching the development take place in rapid fashion.
A short underground rail trip is like a game of Super Luigi or whatever it is called. Every time the doors open its like you have won a prize. Your prize is the next neighborhood which is bound to be somewhere shockingly different to what your psyche can comprehend.
Tokyo is big. Not just big. Insanely big. From the top floor of my hotel which is one of the tallest in the city, I can not see the end of the CBD. Most places you go they have tall buildings and then they have some really tall buildings. The town planners in Tokyo didn't bother with the tall buildings. Really tall buildings are the blueprint around here. A four storey shopping complex is shadowed by a neck breaking monstrosity of an office building. Or in some precincts they just use up the first six levels for shopping and the rest is either residential or office space. You walk around this city in a weird, wonderful and surreal daze and it is addictive I can tell you.
Not surprisingly, many Tokyo residents have never seen anything but the city. More astonishingly, many have never even seen a sunset.
My father does business in Japan and recently one of their engineers had to come out to Australia to fix a problem. Not only did they have to come to Australia, but they had to go straight from the airport to a small regional town called Echuca, on the Victoria/New South Wales border. This guy had never seen anything but city and on the drive out he was glued to the window. In awe of the scenery we take for granted. At sunset he thought he was in a dream.
Anyway, back to Tokyo.
This is the city of sin. Forget Vegas, forget Amsterdam. Tokyo residents make the most open minded and freaky westerners look like frigid housewives. What do you expect from a population that gets off on octopus tentacle cartoon porn? Bestiality is just the tip of the iceberg. There isn't much that would make these people uncomfortable. And it blends into society like we are the weird ones. Like - 'what you don't tie up your wife in leather straps on a Sunday evening? What's wrong with you?'
If your sinful pleasures are sex it is guaranteed you will find everything you need to fill your urge in Tokyo. The word 'taboo' doesn't seem to exist here.
While the nighttime dress ups are leather and gags, daytime doesn't get much tamer in places such as Harajuku. Arriving at the station you think - what's all the fuss about? Its a small older above ground station and nothing seems amiss. Nothing strange about this.
Until you walk outside where your eyes almost pop out of your head. If every single cartoon and science fiction character you had ever witnessed decided to pack up and move to a neighborhood you might think you were there. It is astonishingly surreal feeling like you are walking through a theme park of characters from different worlds. The fantastically unbelievable feeling of being foreign has never felt so true than right now. Groups of teens who look like they have spent 4 hours in the morning dressing up like Manga cartoon characters look at you like - nice jeans weirdo... Again, I am the weird one... They make me look like Mike Brady and I have tattoos and piercings!
Each distinct area of Tokyo has a theme and a purpose.
If you are in the stylish Roppongi area you're most likely a tourist looking for quick western style food, shopping or possibly a kinky hook up with your travelling companion.
Shinjuku seems more like the business district in the west exit, more shopping in the east exit while still keeping up with the bright flashing lights theme. Shinjuku station is somewhat of a hub transiting more passengers than any other in Tokyo daily.
The Ginza is all about shopping shopping and more shopping with a diverse range from high end 'Fifth Ave' or Oxford Street fashion to electronic gizmos that you thought were only conceptual in a scientists mind.
Harajuku along with Shibuya is the weird and wonderful youth precinct predominately and Akasuka is where old meets new.
I urge you to take in Tokyo on your travels. The diversity is out of this world and I can promise you that an hour will not go by without you being wowed by something or other.
note - The Obsessed Traveller does not condone sex tourism, he is purely highlighting a sector of modern Japanese culture for the interest of those who wish to travel here.
Like ecstacy fueled hardcore porn for your senses, the gyrating mashup of sound, sight, taste and smell will leave you bewildered if you grace its shores.
It is simply impossible to not feel like you are in some sort of a incandecently morbid and promiscuous video game as you walk around this giant metropolis.
Impossible.
And there is only one place in the world where you could fuse hardcore metal with the pure melody of a female pop singer and make it top the charts. The Japanese take hold of anything even remotely original and turn it into something that makes you go - 'what the f#%k was that?' And they do it convincingly.
It is a stark contrast to their history which proudly sits behind the now and the future. You can walk only minutes from the bright lights and tall buildings to find yourself in a beautiful park filled with cherry blossoms. Inside this park you will note an old building with bizarre sounds emitting from it. You stroll closer for a look and notice that the strange noises are coming from a group of Karate students locked in a fierce battle with their Sensei.
The old world sits idly by watching the development take place in rapid fashion.
A short underground rail trip is like a game of Super Luigi or whatever it is called. Every time the doors open its like you have won a prize. Your prize is the next neighborhood which is bound to be somewhere shockingly different to what your psyche can comprehend.
Tokyo is big. Not just big. Insanely big. From the top floor of my hotel which is one of the tallest in the city, I can not see the end of the CBD. Most places you go they have tall buildings and then they have some really tall buildings. The town planners in Tokyo didn't bother with the tall buildings. Really tall buildings are the blueprint around here. A four storey shopping complex is shadowed by a neck breaking monstrosity of an office building. Or in some precincts they just use up the first six levels for shopping and the rest is either residential or office space. You walk around this city in a weird, wonderful and surreal daze and it is addictive I can tell you.
Not surprisingly, many Tokyo residents have never seen anything but the city. More astonishingly, many have never even seen a sunset.
My father does business in Japan and recently one of their engineers had to come out to Australia to fix a problem. Not only did they have to come to Australia, but they had to go straight from the airport to a small regional town called Echuca, on the Victoria/New South Wales border. This guy had never seen anything but city and on the drive out he was glued to the window. In awe of the scenery we take for granted. At sunset he thought he was in a dream.
Anyway, back to Tokyo.
This is the city of sin. Forget Vegas, forget Amsterdam. Tokyo residents make the most open minded and freaky westerners look like frigid housewives. What do you expect from a population that gets off on octopus tentacle cartoon porn? Bestiality is just the tip of the iceberg. There isn't much that would make these people uncomfortable. And it blends into society like we are the weird ones. Like - 'what you don't tie up your wife in leather straps on a Sunday evening? What's wrong with you?'
If your sinful pleasures are sex it is guaranteed you will find everything you need to fill your urge in Tokyo. The word 'taboo' doesn't seem to exist here.
While the nighttime dress ups are leather and gags, daytime doesn't get much tamer in places such as Harajuku. Arriving at the station you think - what's all the fuss about? Its a small older above ground station and nothing seems amiss. Nothing strange about this.
Until you walk outside where your eyes almost pop out of your head. If every single cartoon and science fiction character you had ever witnessed decided to pack up and move to a neighborhood you might think you were there. It is astonishingly surreal feeling like you are walking through a theme park of characters from different worlds. The fantastically unbelievable feeling of being foreign has never felt so true than right now. Groups of teens who look like they have spent 4 hours in the morning dressing up like Manga cartoon characters look at you like - nice jeans weirdo... Again, I am the weird one... They make me look like Mike Brady and I have tattoos and piercings!
Each distinct area of Tokyo has a theme and a purpose.
If you are in the stylish Roppongi area you're most likely a tourist looking for quick western style food, shopping or possibly a kinky hook up with your travelling companion.
Shinjuku seems more like the business district in the west exit, more shopping in the east exit while still keeping up with the bright flashing lights theme. Shinjuku station is somewhat of a hub transiting more passengers than any other in Tokyo daily.
The Ginza is all about shopping shopping and more shopping with a diverse range from high end 'Fifth Ave' or Oxford Street fashion to electronic gizmos that you thought were only conceptual in a scientists mind.
Harajuku along with Shibuya is the weird and wonderful youth precinct predominately and Akasuka is where old meets new.
I urge you to take in Tokyo on your travels. The diversity is out of this world and I can promise you that an hour will not go by without you being wowed by something or other.
note - The Obsessed Traveller does not condone sex tourism, he is purely highlighting a sector of modern Japanese culture for the interest of those who wish to travel here.