TOKYO ... BIG ...

It’s actually Thursday, here, nearing noon. I suppose I could try to set the time on this blog to match the time where we are—but when I reset my iPod calendar it recalibrated all the dates already in it and now I no longer know for sure when I see the peridontist at home … Our Seoul colleagues, Carrie and Jeremy ran into the same problem, with near disastrous consequences, since their flights out shifted to a day later than they actually were booked.

We’ve had a day and a half in Tokyo so far and mostly it leaves me pretty speechless. Yesterday we went to the Roppongi Hills shopping complex, which includes theatres and galleries and the Mori Art Museum, as well as Tokyo View—an enclosed lookout some 52 storeys high where you can walk around and see the city in all directions. It lies thick in all directions and stretches as far as you can see, with only the tiniest of interruptions by the sea.

I was bowled over (not quite literally) and Peter had to lean against the wall away from the floor-to-ceiling glass expanses once or twice. The longer we walked around staring out the windows and taking pictures the more unreal it all seemed. I’ve never been in a place this big, never imagined such a city. It defies adjectives, it just is.

The Art Museum currently hosts a dinosaur show that we didn’t go to see. But the Star Wars/Jurassic Park music spilling out from its entrance into the hallways added to the odd dreamlike ambience of the place. In a couple of weeks a show on Japanese perceptions of nature will open there, so my timing isn’t so good. But at least I know about the show and can check to see if they publish a catalogue.

Peter pointed out we could see our hotel from one window. It's the hollow-square building below just beyond the two orange cranes. (all photo mine)