Thursday, July 27, 2006

Brent's Unofficial Tokyo Adventure Club

I don't quite know when it happened, but somewhere along the way I have become an urbanite. For a boy that loves to canoe, ski and avoid designer labels, I have somehow been transformed into a tried and true city boy.

I love living with easy access to "downtown" - its a wonderful, exciting and rather convienent thing. It also appeals to me on an environmental level. As counterintuitive as it seems that I would find my earth-bug in one of the most crowded, consumption oriented metropolises in the world. Of course, I think I've said this before. Oh well. It's still true.

In any case, I realized a little while ago that I have managed to plot out a wonderful day to explore Tokyo - especially for the new arrival (or a long time resident who has spent lots of their time NOT exploring Tokyo for whatever reason ... you know who you are).

Anyway, I love this particular adventure becuase it really has some great examples of what makes Tokyo such a fun place: juxtiposition.

Only in Tokyo will you have an old shrine nestled beside a glass office tower. Only here can you walk from the world's most crowded intersection, through a bunch of amateur musicians trying to make it in the big leagues (and by "big leagues", I mean a coffee shop or open mic night) and end up in a glorious shrine in the middle of a huge park. You can manage that entire walk in less than 30 minutes at a decent pace, or you can stretch it out for most of the day.

I've decided to try my hand at being johnny adventure guide, so stay tuned for some "stealable anecdotes."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

yeah, i know who i am. let's adventuring!