Tokyo is not a city, it is a multiverse of infinite possibilities, an immense territory inhabited by tribes of metropolitan nomads. Young Tokyoites are used to living 24 hours a day with short irregular stops to sleep or eat, they move quickly for work but almost never by car, they walk fast in crowds but always with respect for others, they do not know petty crime ( here no one steals bags from passers-by, for example) and they lead a style crossing life in which the digital future merges with ancient cultures. In Japan, to understand modernity it is essential to know the traditions.
The young people who work in hi-tech and design new robots are in fact the same ones who on January 22 – the day of the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit in the Japanese zodiacal calendar – practiced the traditional rite of hatsumode by going to pray to the spirits of imperial family in the most important Shinto temple, the Meiji Jingu. Since the end of the Second World War – when the Americans rewrote the Japanese Constitution – the emperor is no longer a Shinto deity, but people still pray in the Meiji Jingu: after all the Japanese imperial dynasty is the oldest on the planet, having over 1500 years of history, and history is not erased easily.
The Meiji Jingu, a must for any traveler to Tokyo, is located in the Harajuku areanot far from the popest, most colorful and funniest street in the capital: Takeshita Dori, which is to Tokyo what Carnaby Street once was to London. Takeshita Dori is full of little costume shops and make-up shops for shocking pink-haired teenagers looking for the craziest outfits to show off or to invent. Outfits that sometimes become trends, inspiration for the great fashion and beauty gurus.
Discover Tokyo by train
Greater Tokyo has the largest urban rail network in the world: 938 stations, including subway lines and national railways. (IPA)
To understand Tokyo, its proportions and its complexity, go down to the underground city – where there are hotels, restaurants, shops of all kinds – and take its legendary subway. The Japanese capital has 12 million inhabitants; Greater Tokyo, which includes the nearby satellite cities, reaches 38 million: yet one does not feel oppressed by the people. Because the Japanese are a respectful and kind people, by tradition and by education. And Tokyo is also a kind city with the environment: it is the only metropolis in the world that sees a constant decrease in urban traffic. Every year there are fewer cars circulating in the city, less noise, less smog, now almost zero traffic jams and no double-row parking.
How do they do it? Simple: Greater Tokyo has the largest urban railway network in the world – 938 stations, including subway lines and national railways – and also the most used, with 40 million passengers a day. And this explains why fewer and fewer cars are circulating: if you have efficient, frequent, safe, fast and clean public transport… the car stays in the garage (and, therefore, it can be done).
Architecture and fashion: the winning combination
Tokyo is a puzzle of neighborhoods, each with its own soul: impossible to see them all in one trip. So choose “your” Tokyo. There are those who go in search of curiosities, such as the Tokyo Tower inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris. And those who immediately focus on the fashion districts. We start from Ginza, where there is all the world’s fashion and beauty that counts, in masterpiece-boutiques created by archistars: Renzo Piano for Maison Hermes, Massimiliano Fuksas for Armani Ginza Tower, Jun Aoki for Louis Vuitton, Ricardo Bofill for Ginza Shiseido Building, Toyo Ito for Mikimoto Perle, and many others. Voted for fashion is also the area of Aoyama: there is for example the Prada Building by Herzog & De Meuron.
Shimbashi Ward and Tokyo Tower (Getty Images)
It’s a short step from fashion to art: go to an exhibition of contemporary artists in one of the vibrant cultural foundations of Roppongi Hillswhere to welcome you in a square you will find a huge bronze spider created by the extraordinary Louise Bourgeois, who gave her spider the name of “Mother”. Curious stop at the Tsukiji Outer Fish Market, to buy fresh fish to cook on site and packs of dried seaweed to give to friends (both seaweed soup and friends are good for your health); extraordinary quality kitchen knives, heirs of the samurai blades, are also on sale here. Those who instead enjoy the frivolous pleasure of “having the next model that others don’t have” must go shopping for electronic devices of all kinds in the district of Akihabara, not surprisingly called Electric Town.
Another important stop: follow the many Tokyoites who go to the Senso-ji Buddhist temple (Asakusa area) to ask Goddess Kannon about her future, a bodhisattva (i.e. symbol) of Universal Compassion who in Japan and China is a woman, while in India and Tibet she is a man, because in Buddhism the Gods have no problem changing type.
Tokyo by night
And the evening? Take the Yamanote subway line and get off at Shibuya. Tokyo at night looks like a pop painter’s digital dream: it is dotted with thousands of venues with colorful neon signs and advertising videos that loop images of comics (manga) and cartoons (anime) “nephews” of the fantastic characters created by painters and woodcuts of the past. Leaving Shibuya station you will find yourself at the center of the painter’s palette, where colors mix and videos go crazy. Let yourself be enveloped by all this when you walk in the busiest pedestrian quadrilateral in the world, with crosswalks even diagonally: Shibuya looks like a mass art installation, which comes alive when the green lights go off and thousands of pedestrians suddenly move in all directions . This is Tokyo and Shibuya is its electronic soul, an interactive theater in which Tokyo residents are spectators and actors.
Beauty to be seized in every season
But whatever “your” Tokyo is, take advantage of the first day of gray weather to shut yourself up in the Tokyo National Museumwhich contains the largest collection of Japanese arts in the world: one hundred and ten thousand works, from fine ceramics to silk kimonos, from ancient Buddhist sculptures to samurai armor to Kabuki theater costumes. The Museum is in the Ueno area, very popular in spring because there is also Ueno park with its famous cherry blossoms: wait for a gust of wind to lift a cloud of thousands of petals, and you will be happy to be there. So are the Japanese who in all the parks celebrate the hanami, the ritual of “looking at the flowers” and in particular the cherry blossoms, so beautiful and so ephemeral, a vision of life as a “fleeing moment” that refers to the Buddhist concept of the impermanence of everything. Much loved for its harmony also the Rikugi garden, in the Bunkyo district. “The allure of hanami has made spring become the peak season for tourism in Japan, but it would be a mistake to think that spring is the only good time to go to this country,” he notes. Michele Serra, president of Quality Group (brand that brings together several tour operators, qualitygroup.it) and a great visitor to the Far East. «In many parts of Japan the autumn foliage – especially the reddening of the maple trees – is a great sightand winter is no less: the Zen gardens highlighted by a thread of snow, the hot springs of Nagano where they bathing macaques in cold weather, the majestic forests of the island of Hokkaido, they are all places that sparkle in winter. Furthermore, traveling outside the busiest season also guarantees a quieter, more intimate and thoughtful experience» continues Michele Serra.
Rikugi Garden, in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. (Getty Images)
The little house that keeps company with the skyscraper
And here is one of the charms of Tokyo: it offers quiet moments and silent places even where you would least expect them. Even in Shibuya: behind the busiest pedestrian quadrilateral in the world there are a couple of alleys that look like country lanes, with tiny inns with three tables. Intimate places to live with friends or boyfriends, eating well and spending a few yen. How can you find corners of rural Japan in Tokyo? Everything is possible in the city that invented pet houses. They are not pet houses. They are pets of the urban landscape. They are houses of one or two floors, which keep the skyscrapers company. It’s a very Japanese vision: the skyscraper alone would feel… too lonely. The one-story house next to him pampers him. Just like the dogs and cats with us.
A word of advice: don’t expect to understand Japan on your first trip. Just love him.
Where to sleep in Tokyo
Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel
In a high-rise building, from 19th to 37th floor, in the heart of Shibuya. Great view over the metropolis and possibility to book a traditional style room with wooden bathroom. Exclusive detail: the hotel contains a Double Nō Theater in B&B from 230 €. ceruleantower.com
Hotel Niwa
In Chiyoda, near the Imperial Palace, a hotel with a beautiful Japanese garden and massage chairs on the top floor. Modern rooms but with Japanese influences, sliding panels in rice paper, restaurant with refined kaiseki cuisine. Double in B&B from €150. hotelniwa.jp
Where to eat
Gonpachi
In the lively district of Roppongi, a restaurant for cinephiles: here Quentin Tarantino filmed the famous fight scene between Uma Thurman and the 88 Madmen in Kill Bill Volume 1. Specialties: meat skewers, shrimp tempura and sushi. Popular prices. gonpachi.jp
Ningyocho Imahan
Imahan is a chain, Ningyocho district restaurant shines with professionalism. Since 1895 the house has been making only exquisite beef dishes: sukiyaki, shabu-shabu, teppanyaki. The meat is wagyu beef, of excellent quality. Medium to high prices. imahan.com
INFO
Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO): japan.travel/en/
Tokyo Tourist Information Center: gotokyo.org/en
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