Advice

Found by the escalators up to the train platforms.

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Daikaiju

There is a gigantic, glowing Godzilla statue looming over the buildings of Shinjuku.

Which reminds me of my favorite paraphrase of a line from Patriot Games:

There has never been a daikaiju attack on American soil.

Think about it.  

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Jaeger

Went to an insane robot restaurant/dinner show in Shinjuku.  Found this photo of Guillermo hanging by the ticket line.

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Careers

Saw this shop by our hotel in Shinagawa.  So many questions…

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Cubic

If dwarves carved lion statues they would look like this.  

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Asimov

You order your sushi on a personal touchscreen.  Your sushi zips to you on robot trolleys.  This is the future, people:

“A robot must not harm sushi or through inaction allow sushi to come to harm.”

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Shibuya



DAVID:  I think I’m the oldest person on this street. 

ELI:  We’d never be able to tell.

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Drift

The iconic Shibuya crosswalk (sans Tokyo drifting and endangerment of human life.)

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Moat 



Moat around the Imperial Garden.  You’d think a “no trespassing” sign would’ve sufficed, but you’d be wrong.

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Escape



Had to push through throngs of teenage girls who were all waiting for (what we gathered was) some sort of boy band festival.  An incident I shall henceforth refer to as “David & Eli’s Escape from Budokan”.

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South

Had trouble orienting myself to this map.

Get your shit together, Tokyo. 

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Demento

Saw this and instantly started singing the song.  

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Tsujiki

Lunch at the famed Tsujiki fish market.  Freshest. sushi. EVER.

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Talisker

William Gibson always said that the Japanese always excelled at lovingly replicating artifacts from the West — down to all the flawed, wabi-sabi details — but improving everything just a little.

This dim, basement whiskey bar was perfectly Gibsonian.

 

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Miniatures

First impressions of Tokyo were that everything looked like a miniature set.  Like the Tokyo establishing shot from Kill Bill Part I.  Or a tilt-shifted photograph.

Only after several hours did I realize that it was an effect of the crisp, clean air.  There’s no gradient to hint at distance.  (Shanghai has especially warped me in this respect.)

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