Ginza – September 25, 2007

Our first day off after beginning work was Tuesday. Since we work on Saturday and Sunday, we call Tuesday and Wednesday our weekend. Some people may not understand why we should work on Saturday and Sunday. The reason is that we work for a private school, which takes students whenever they can. It makes sense, then, that a lot of students would come when they don’t have other obligations, such as work or school. Therefore, a lot of people come to take English classes in the evening after work (thus my late hours on three days), or on the weekend (the proper Saturday – Sunday weekend). So it makes sense, then, that we, being new instructors, would have to work during the proper weekend, and have our days off during the week.

One of the main reasons that we decided to take the job out here in Japan we so that we could travel, and see different things. That being the case, we have tried to go into Tokyo on each of our days off (I think that there was one day when we were too tired to go out). So today, we woke up and decided that we would go to a different neighborhood in Tokyo, Ginza, in central Tokyo.

I had read somewhere that Ginza seems like the Times Square of Tokyo. Although there are a lot of lights, and flashy television screens that cover the buildings, the similarities stop there (remember that it seems like every major area of Tokyo has flashing neon lights and television screens covering the buildings). One thing that I noticed right away was that there were high-end expensive clothing and jewelry shops all around. It seems like the Japanese really like to shop, and that they like to spend a lot of money, since there are a lot of stores that I have seen like this since we arrived.

So Ginza actually reminded me more of 5th Avenue than Times Square, except that 5th Avenue is a street (I suppose that you can count Madison Avenue as part of the 5th Avenue area), but Ginza is at least three or four avenues down, and six or seven blocks up. It was fun to wind up and down the streets of Ginza, and see some of the smaller shops and art galleries that lined the streets (although the art didn’t really interest me, and seemed unimportant). Also, the people who walked the streets in Ginza were very different from the dressed up kids in Shinjuku or Shibuya, and although there were flashing lights and television screens at the main intersections, it seemed a lot more relaxed and normal while walking around.

We also found the other Apple Store, which is even bigger than the ones in New York City (with five floors). That was cool for me, and another place where we could use free internet, this time inside the store instead of sitting outside on a planter. That was cool.

From the main intersection of Ginza, it was just a couple of blocks down to see the Kabuki-za theater. It was a pretty neat building, being the main Kabuki theater venue in Tokyo. It was one of the few traditional buildings that we have seen so far in Tokyo, and it was impressive. Apparently, they have shows everyday, and I would like to see at least one show before we leave, but we’ll see.