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The thousand-person line of Japanese nationalists shouted fierce anti-foreigner diatribes through
megaphones and loudspeaker-mounted black trucks marched as they marched in protest through Akihabara’s electric city district,.
“Chinese, Koreans, go home,” yelled an older man into my camera, fogging the lens.
“We will not let you forget about Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said another.
There has always existed a contingency of Japanese who remain loyal to the Emperor and shun foreign influence, but the global recession has incensed these right-wing groups to accuse foreigners of stealing their jobs. It reminded me of the rhetoric I would hear on Fox News back in the states. Ignorance must be a universal language.
The nationalists had interrupted what I had hoped to be a good will trip to Akihabara, a neighborhood that is notorious for being a Mecca for geeks and technology aficionados. If it is related in any way to a video game, anime series, or an electronic device built within the last 30 years, it can be found in excess at Akihabara. Tokyo’s electric city is also a hive for the most dedicated of otaku who dress up as their favorite video characters in a phenomenon known as cos-play.
So, as I have always sought the most authentic Japanese experience in my travels abroad, it seemed logical that I too should don a cape and create my own American superhero persona to befriend the army of costumed nerds who I presumed would be littering Akihabara’s streets.
Instead I found the nationalist anti-foreigner demonstration. Still the protestors showed a strange politeness towards myself, the foreigner, crouched inches away from their parade of rising sun flags and agitated bodies, despite my American flag cape and rainbow bell bottoms. Many even smiled at the camera and flashed peace signs.
If Akihabara is the motherboard of Tokyo’s technology fetish, Shibuya is the glittering disco ball for entertainment, shopping and nightlife. An estimated one to three million people scramble from the four subway lines of Shibuya station and then flood the ward’s main intersection in clockwork waves. A short walk from Shibuya is Harajuku, the fashion capital of Tokyo, where almost every young Tokyoite looks like they strutted from the pages of a fashion catalogue. Shibuya offers both international themed cuisine and traditional sushi bars and noodle shops. And there are enough swanky bars, multi-level video game and entertainment complexes, love hotels and dance clubs to keep one busy all night, every night. Incredibly, all of Shibuya is stacked within 5.8 square miles.
For my next column I dive into the early morning auction at the world’s largest fish market in Tsukiji, and travel somewhere outside of Tokyo again. That I have no idea where I will visit yet shows the wealth of options the country offers.
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