Tokyo House in Taito City
Some months before we left, we had a look at the Airbnb website for places to stay. The main criteria was to be near a subway line and to have a comfortable place to call home. We didn’t really know what a “good” neighbourhood would be so we just chose something more or less central with subway access. This Taito City airbnb was exactly what we were hoping for. I would definitely stay here again. In case you are interested, here is the listing.
This is our home base in Tokyo. It is small but has everything you could possibly need including a bathtub and laundry machine. My camera doesn’t have a wide angle lens so it is a little tight to photograph. Two of us fit comfortably in here. It is clean and bright and well organized. Anytime I return after living in one of these compact places, I wonder why we seem to need so much space. This is also my first experience with a tatami room and futons like this. But they are comfortable and warm, better than any hotel bed where the sheets are screwed down under the mattress. Lots of windows make it bright and cheerful so it is a nice place to wake up in. I think enough natural light can make any small space liveable for me. I like it here. Iriya is a few minutes walk and has lots of good food, grocery stores and coffee. High quality inexpensive sushi and sashimi is available everywhere. I am eating it everyday, sometimes twice!
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Tokyo Subway Sounds
Today was our first day out in Tokyo and I was excited to ride the subway and make a test recording of some of the station sounds along the way. I wired up my backpack and we went out to explore.
It seems like every station has it’s own music..listen with headphones or earbuds if you can.
I was inspired to try “field recording” city sounds when I saw Hou Hsiao Hsien’s film Cafe Lumiere. The famous Taiwanese director made this film in Japan. The main character is Yoko. Her close friend Hajime runs a bookstore and is also working on a sound based art project. He travels all over Tokyo collecting train station sounds with a field recorder. Hajime uses the sounds to make an interactive computer map of the Tokyo subway system and links the sound of each station to its location. It is a quiet and relaxed film with beautiful photography of Tokyo.
This one:
For anyone traveling to Tokyo, here is a good website about the metro system . Google/Apple maps also seem to be a pretty reliable source of information for getting around Tokyo. In contrast, Google is much less useful in Korea..as you will see later.
Toronto to Tokyo: 30 hours
Traveling from Toronto to Tokyo including flight delay took almost 30 hours. I take these long flights pretty often so I am used to the 15 hour plane ride. This time around though, we added 3 hours sitting motionless in a broken plane before being kicked off, followed by a delay of almost 8 hours before we got onboard a new plane. On any 15 hour route, I eventually lose track of time and can hardly remember who I am by the time the flight is half over. But this time, I experienced a whole new level of disorientation. For my daughter’s first flight to Asia, it was a challenging one. But, by the time we got through it all and were horizontal on our futons in Tokyo, we just felt grateful to have made it. We were both looking forward to the next days’ adventures.
We got to go to the de-icing bay. I have only seen this once before. It looks like aliens are attacking the plane from all sides. The crews working in the snow all day had a much rougher time than we did.
Inside the spaceship….blue glow of television light
In flight sounds
A few hours after we took off from Pearson in Toronto, Delta 4819 crashed while landing at the snow covered airport. Thankfully no one lost their lives although there were some serious injuries. The airport closed for a day following the accident. As frustrating and exhausting as air travel can be, arriving safely at your destination is the most important thing. I think we were quite lucky to even get here today.
This morning I wake up and open the blinds, and this is the very first thing I saw in Japan:
They are construction security guards. I love the uniforms : ) It is so beautiful and sunny here.
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