Surreal Escapes

Kaiten–sushi, literally rotation–raw fish. Rotating sushi? Well, in a way. A kaitenzushi is a sushi bar that uses a conveyor belt to transport the sushi plates. I went to one for the first time while I was in Tokyo. It was an intriguing experience. And delicious…well, mostly.

Normally when I walk into a restaurant, the first thing I worry about is getting a seat. Here though, I had to take a few moments to observe the many little plates of fish as they twisted and turned all around the room, almost as if they were alive and swimming. I soon realized that my friends were walking ahead of me, so I hurried to catch up to them as they sat down at the bar near the center of the large room where several chefs were preparing the sushi.

The way a kaitenzushi works is simple. There are differently designed plates, and each plate has a price associated with it. At the end of the meal, the waitress tallies up the plates; in this case, using RFID. The meal was fun and adventurous. Each plate of sushi was its own little piece of art to be admired as it drifted by. A few plates that I picked I should have done just that, admire them, and not eat them as the textures weren’t quite appetizing, particularly the squid. Overall, it was enjoyable, if a little on the expensive side. We need to Americanize these…kaiten-cheese cake anyone?

Before coming to Japan, I sought advice from many people who had experienced this foreign land. There was one common statement among them all: Japan is safe. I got the impression that this stemmed from an inherent honesty and respect in Japanese society. This may very well be true, but while in Tokyo, I witnessed something that may be another reason for the lack of crime.

The police are vicious and should be feared.

One day as we were walking around Tokyo as a class, we stopped while sensei explained the significance of a building. Nearby was a parked car with two policemen holding a man to its hood. Shortly, sirens approached and a van rolled up. Police climbed out, as if they were clowns from a clown car, and descended on the man. Trouble was obviously brewing, so we thought it best to move along. As we walked away, several more officers barreled down the sidewalk past us. All counted, there were nearly thirty police on the scene. You have to wonder, was this guy especially evil, or is this how all crime is treated in Japan? What could he have done? Maybe he was just trying to transform reality in a way that it didn’t want to be changed.

The word city is a surprisingly difficult to define, but there is at least one word that should be in any definition. Concrete. As a substance, it plays an integral role in the construction of a city. As a state of being it is antonymous to a city’s nature. A city’s borders’ are vaguely defined and change with time. Inside its borders, buildings are razed, built, and remodeled. The inhabitants create a living, breathing beast with as many varied locales as there are varied emotions in the people who walk its streets. To put it abstractly, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart would recognize a city.

And so would I. When I arrived in Japan, I was swallowed whole by the largest city I have ever seen. Tokyo is a city so large that it has multiple skylines. So large that from the 48^th floor of the Metropolitan Government Building near the center of the city only a sea of endless buildings can be seen. So large that in the two weeks I was there, I feel like I only scratched the surface of this incredibly complex place. A quick glance at the multicolored spider web train and subway maps alludes to this complexity. Traveling these lines leads to a variety of experiences. The strange electronic world of Akihabara; the eccentric night life of Roppongi; the high class shops of Ginza; the peacefulness of one of the many parks; the beauty of a Shinto shrine. Tokyo is certainly an interesting world.