Sunday, February 4, 2007





I guess I'll just cover a few parts of Tokyo, where we spent the most time on this trip. Pictured here is the visual monstrosity of Shinjuku, home of our boring Century Hyatt hotel. The whole of Tokyo is a cross between Las Vegas and Times Square, but it reaches its pinnacle in Shinjuku. Which is strange, because most of this area is taken up by boring government buildings. Shinjuku is considered to be the strongest foundation of any part of Tokyo, meaning it falls apart most slowly in an earthquake. For that reason, it's the only part of the city where high rise buildings are allowed. It's also home to Shinjuku's main train station. If you're feeling ambitious and staying at either of the Hyatts in Shinjuku, you can take the train from the airport into Shinjuku station. Just remember that 2 million people enter and exit that same station every day, and it's an enormous maze that ultimately leads to over one hundred exits where you can emerge into the city. But so long as you can read Japanese, you may stand a chance at finding your hotel.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sooooo, if it's most ugly, why is it one of your most favorite?

maybe you want to cover that in one of your posts.

Somchai and Brian said...

That's an excellent question. One point of clarification, I didn't say it's the most ugly, just one of the most ugly. But agree I haven't explained myself. I don't have very good material on this trip to do so, but will try to explain its attraction next time Tokyo comes up.