Realizing You are There

Whenever you arrive to a brand new place, you have that feeling for a while that everything is new, every experience is unique, behind every corner is the unknown. It’s also in this period where the worst culture clashes happen, those moments when something seems absolutely insane, but the people around you treat it like something completely normal and commonplace.

After a while things change. Roads, names of different places and people around you seize being all cluttered in your head, and you start to feel up to speed with whats happening again. It’s  like you have landed with both feet on the ground again. You start to feel at home.

In a couple of days I will have been living in Tokyo for a month, and only these last few days I have started to get that feeling of “being here”. These first weeks have been so filled with all the things that are part of moving to a new country to study. Not only all the new experiences, but also going through countless bureaucratic processes (Japan is especially fond of these) and getting up and running with all the things at the university.

But I have also had time for some fun, exploring Tokyo and getting to know my surroundings. Today I walked around for hours in Shibuya, just looking around in stores and at people. Sitting in Starbucks at Shibuya Crossing (one of the busiest crossings in the world), looking down on the massive sea of people moving in every direction, has become one of my favorite pastime activities in Tokyo.

Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo

Oh yeah, and while I was in Shibuya today I couldn’t help myself from trying the Japan-exclusive Burger King “Meat Monster” burger. This 1160 calories monster has to be the most awesome hangover food ever invented. Since I was not hungover, it was mostly just insane. One of those “only in Japan” things.

The Meat Monster

The disaster

As everyone is aware by now Japan was struck by a terrible disaster on March 11, now known as the “Great East Japan Earthquake”. I arrived here on April 3rd, just under one month after the disaster struck. I still get frequent questions from people back home about the situation in Japan and especially Tokyo, so I want to make some things clear.

First, there is very little signs of the disaster here in Tokyo now. Store shelves have been for the most part restocked, and trains are all running as normal. Water was on short supply the first week I arrived here, but now that is no longer an issue. The only clear effects in Tokyo that still linger is that the city is a bit darker than usual. Many companies have turned off their neon signs to save power after the problems in the nuclear plants.  I heard this (combined with other efforts to save power) has lead to Tokyo using up to 25-30% less power, which is actually really impressive. I hope they keep the signs dark, we can live without them.

What we do still have is frequent aftershocks, some quite large, and from what I can tell this is what is keeping people most on edge. Every time a big one comes I hear pledges of “please leave us in peace”, “please let the quakes stop”. Which is understandable given what just happened.

Second, there is no trouble with radiation in Tokyo. None. The radiation levels here are the same as in Stockholm, and lower still than many big cities around the world.

So much of what I read in swedish media before leaving to Japan I have found to be blown completely out of proportion, or simply untrue. I visited the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo yesterday, and people there were also very troubled about how swedish media had covered the disaster.

Golden Week

Starting from today I have one week of vacation, the so called “Golden Week” has started in Japan. Several Japanese public holidays happen under this week, which means vacation time!

The plan is to visit Disneyland (the kid inside is jumping with excitement!) in the beginning of next week, and if possible I will take a trip to Kyoto to see some different aspects of Japan.

I’ll get back with some updates and pictures during the week.