Since Tokyo is just a 45 minute Shinkansen ride from J-List’s home prefecture of Gunma, it’s quite convenient for us to go down for shopping, concerts or just to hang around for a few hours. Whenever I’m in the city I like walking through its immaculate streets, visiting random shops or perhaps hitting my favorite toy store, Yamashiroya in Ueno. In Tokyo you never know when you’ll come across a “guerilla live,” which is when a band sets up its instruments and gives an impromptu performance at random locations, or encounter some unique Japanese marketing, like the time I ran into a column of about fifty attractive Japanese girls all wearing Swatch T-shirts and fashionable watches as they marched military-style through Shinjuku, saying nothing but making everyone aware of the company’s brand. I like it when I turn a corner and suddenly find myself face-to-face with a sumo wrestler, which happens with surprisingly regularity depending on what part of Tokyo you’re in. There’s nothing that makes me say, “Woah, I’m in Japan!” more than that.
Running into real live sumo wrestlers in Tokyo is fun.
