Sunday in Tokyo

Yesterday, we did our Japan man-on-the-street interviews. We talked to 25 people and visited four different parts of the city. We started in Sugamo, known as Grandma’s Harajuku. It’s a shopping center where most of the people are elderly and middle-aged women. Sugamo is also known for the Togenuki Jizo temple which is believed to remove the cause of many illnesses. Kenichi and Nanako thought this would be a good place to start as many people come here to seek help with their health issues. They were right. We talked to five people in this part of town, and ALL of them had a connection to cancer. Everyone was really lovely. We had a traditional Japanese lunch in Sugamo before moving on to our next location. It was delicious.

After lunch, we moved to Akihabara, also known as “Electric City.” There were so many people here, mostly in their early 20s, shopping and visiting electronic shops. Our next stop was Ginza, a very upscale shopping center. Everyone was dressed to the nines – in western garb and gorgeous traditional kimonos. Our last location was Shibuya. We went there at night to get the full experience. In two words – mind blowing! There were people everywhere, bathed in light and noise from huge multimedia screens and advertisements. It was like Times Square on crack. Nuts, sensory overload…but so cool! This is also the site of a famous scene from Lost in Translation. There is a six-way intersection in the center of Shibuya that alternates between cars and a sea of people crossing. Wilson got some awesome timelapse of people crossing the street and got up in the middle of the chaos.  We also did a few more man-on-the street interviews here.

It was a great day – the city has so many different looks and feels and we got a really good sampling. Here are some photos from our second day in Tokyo.

Entrance to Sugamo

Golden Girls of Sugamo

Lunch in Sugamo

Wilson in Slippers

Anne’s Lunch

Interview in Akihabara

Interview with Lovely Ladies in Kimonos

Anne Looking Like a Slob

Shibuya

Ozowa, Wilson, & Anne

Today, we spend the day at the Wellness Community. We’ll be filming some of their programs and interviewing several cancer survivors.

Saturday in Tokyo

On Saturday, we met with our Tokyo contacts: Ozawa (our fixer) as well as Kenichi (Program Director at the Wellness Community) and Nanako (Kenichi’s wife). We started our day with a meeting at the hotel to talk through our time in Japan. Then, they took us out for a sushi lunch followed by a tour of Tokyo. The sushi was amazing! Apparently, I use too much soy sauce. Kenichi, Nanako and our sushi chef found it quite amusing. “You just need a little,” they said.

From there, we took the subway to Asakusa. It’s an area of Tokyo most famous for the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. It was very cool. The site of the temple has been there for over 1000 years (though there has been some rebuilding since WWII). It was founded in 628, one of Tokyo’s oldest and most significant temples. Asakusa is also a huge open air market. There were tons of people walking around. We did the same – got some great b-roll and sampled some Japanese sweets. They were pretty good – two little pancakes with sweet red bean paste in the middle. Sadly, I dropped mine after the first bite. 

After Asakusa, we took a boat tour of Tokyo in this crazy space-age looking vessel. We later learned that it was designed by an artist/animator who created a cartoon about three space travelers. The boat looked like it would submerge any minute. It also had a pretty goo replica of the Saturday Night Fever dance floor – complete with changing lights. Here are some photos from our first official day in the city. 

Sensō-ji Temple in Asakusa

Space Boat

Wilson Enters The Unknown

Anne & The Space Travelers