Tripping in Tokyo!

Jumpin' in!

Japan conjures up visions of the mystic east, full of diminutive people bowing all the time, and tittering behind their hands in embarrassed amusement. We think also of bullet trains whizzing by and houses made of paper and bamboo. Actually, it is all of this, and lots more! Tokyo is one of the most expensive places to live in, and easily the most crowded. Though our very own Kolkota is a bit on the overpopulated side, Tokyo beats it hands down. Greater Tokyo occupies 1/30th of the total area of Japan but has a population of 25% of the total population! There are more people per square inch in Tokyo than anywhere else in the world and everyone wants a bit of the cake. Which makes for very little cake going around! Everything is expensive. Very expensive!

This land of sushi, karate and the rising sun is home to virtually every kind of luxury except space. It is the Asian miracle that rose from a battered ruin in 1945 to spread its wings as the economic superpower that bought up large chunks of America including the Empire State Building! As all these whiz- biz geniuses need to live somewhere, they chose Tokyo and hence the congestion!

Tripping in!

Getting to Tokyo is easy. You fly in from wherever into a reasonably efficient airport called Narita. Getting from here to the city is something that cannot be accomplished in a hurry. The fastest is the Skyliner that takes you to Keisei Ueno Station and will take about an hour to reach. It will also set you back by about %1880. The nice thing about Japan is that you are always connected so you can call up your parents from carriage number 3 and complain about the cost of travel! If you arrive after 1730 hrs, too bad, look for alternate transport because the Skyliner is grounded thereafter! At % 840 you can take a train, which will help you to kill an hour and a half of your day getting into the city. If you are loaded try using the Narita Express, but you have to book in advance, it will cost you % 6000 for green class seats. The Sobu Rapid train also makes the journey without reservations. Please understand that though Japan is orderly and neat, for foreigners it is a crazy mess. All trains are part of something called JR or Japan Rail but the whole network is privatised with different lines run by different companies! But more of this later!

You can also take the Airport Limousine bus that will drop you off at a convenient point or at any of the major hotels, which no self-respecting job seeker can possibly afford. It costs the earth and will take anything up to three hours to reach, which is about the same time it would have taken you to walk it! Taxis are rarely seen and are quite easily the most senseless things to waste your money on as there are constant traffic jams and getting from place to place in the city is best on foot or, at a pinch (or a punch) by the subway. Here you need to generally stand somewhere near where you think your particular train is expected to arrive. When it does, you don't have to do anything. The entire mass of humanity will move as a single entity into the doors. Resistance is futile; you will be carried in whether you want to or not. There's no way you can change your mind at the last moment, because you'll be swept in! JR kindly provides uniformed `pushers' to push any recalcitrant parts of you into the train before it leaves. In typical Japanese style the `pushers' will politely apologise while using their white-gloved hands to rupture your spleen!

Having gotten into town and settled down, try and find yourself a place to stay.

Living it up!

I've said it before but I'll say it again. Tokyo is expensive! Housing of any kind will dent your paycheck severely! Some companies provide near-dormitory accommodation for their people. If that is the case for you, instantly fall on your knees and thank the Almighty, because it is a good solution. It blows a hole through privacy, but hey, it won't blow a hole in your pocket! It will cost you about % 35,000 for a simple 4-6 mat accommodation. That's right, I said `mat'. This refers to a typical tatami mat, which is roughly 1.66 sq metres. Talk about tiny! I suspect this is why most Japanese are so small... they have no room to grow! And it is significant that miniaturisation first happened in Japan! So, a 4-mat place will allow you a vast acreage of about 7.5 sq.metres! This will include a kitch-ett (which is about one-tenth the size of a kitchenette!) no toilet and no bathroom. You shouldn't pay more than about % 18000 for it. A six-mat place (9.7sq.mt) with the same facilities will set you back about % 22-25,000 and one with an toilet will cost about %50,000 while one of the same size with a bathroom as well will set you back by about % 70-75,000! One can, if you don't mind a longer daily commute of 90 minutes, find a 2 bed- roomed deluxe (in comparison) apartment for around % 80000. The bare minimum to survive in Tokyo, if you decide to remain there is about %15,0000 every month. This includes food, lodging, transport and recreation. You may actually be able to send home a small little something every now and again. Strangely, it is cheaper to eat out than cook at home. A filling meal at a healthful place is about %800, which a bit less than what you shell out every time you cook your one meal! Remember six slices of bread costs %220, an apple %175 a glass of water % 50!

Trotters in the trough!

Eating out is never a problem and every kind of food is available in plenty and fairly cheaply. If you go in for local specialities it is even cheaper. Only don't get carried away and start gorging yourself of Fugu fish. This single delicacy causes more deaths in Japan than any other single catastrophe except an earthquake! In fact a Fugu cook has to obtain a special license to cook the dish. In other parts of the world this is known as the license to kill!

Pernickety people

The people are very nice and overtly hospitable and polite. Actually, you get the feeling that they are laughing at you all the time. They probably are! Practically anything you do will be wrong and barbaric! The Japanese are truly masters of politeness. They can kill with one polite lash of their tongues! There used to be a time when it was possible to see a lot of traditional Japanese costumes on the streets. Not so today. The kimono is more often seen in movies than on the roads of Tokyo. I cannot say it is a step in the right direction!

Addressing doubts

One of the most disconcerting things about this city is that they don't think they have to name every one of their roads. They would never demean themselves by giving their roads numbers as they do in New York which has cryptic addresses like 45th and 3rd, which can be upsetting to those of us who are used to having several names to every road! Those of you from Malleshwaram, Bangalore can take heart, because their house numbering is just like home! They follow no order, #5 will not precede #6, but may be followed by #647! I suspect that they were numbered as they were built!

Crime doesn't pay!

I think there is crime in Tokyo, but as it all in the super big league, you will be relatively safe. People may argue that the biggest thief of your hard-earned resources is your landlord, and they wouldn't be far wrong. You will be expected to pay a deposit that could amount to six month's rental. Then you pay your broker a month's rent as his fee. Then, oddly, you pay your landlord up to three months non-refundable rent as `key money', which he takes as a bonus for letting you have the honour of renting his house! This is probably the reason why muggings in Tokyo are so rare. Muggers know that you wont have any money left anyway!

Whoppin' shoppin'!

You'll move into this new place of yours to be greeted by empty rooms and echoing walls. Furnishing it could cost you your entire year's rental if you were to buy everything new. So don't! Buy what you must at second-hand places that abound all around town. You'll be able to furnish your six-mat place for the equivalent of one month's rent! Tokyo is weird. It's the only place I know where shops selling the same kind of stuff are all located at one spot! At Akihabara for instance you'll see all the consumer electronics you'll ever want, while at Shinjuku you'll fall over every camera you'll ever want to click! Jimboukou is the place where literary types gather because it is the place for books of every description! Ginza and Akasaka are where the high and mighty go shopping, but as these are the people who mint all the money perhaps you'll find yourself a little strained in keeping up with the Yasuokas!

Peace and quiet

It is interesting to know that a people so gentle and so cultured and so refined can be so un-religious! The state religion is Shinto. Buddhism is prevalent and churches abound. There are a couple of mosques and there is a Hindu temple. I have passed a synagogue, but the Japanese do not seem to notice these at all and go about their business uncaring. Though they don't spend too much time on religion, they do visit their temples often. They do this because they are peaceful and serene. They go there and think deep thoughts, gazing blankly at nothing. They go out on a limb when it is Cherry Blossom day, in fact as a new recruit in an office you may be asked to go, first thing in the morning and reserve a place for the rest of the office to come and enjoy the sight of the trees in bloom. This is an honour, which you must not, on any account turn down. Your career and your future treatment in the company (if it is a Japanese one) will depend on it. This tradition called `Ohanami' requires you go out to the park with a big sheet (or sheets) large enough for the whole office to sit on. Naturally drinks and refreshment needs to be catered to so beer and snacks will be a good idea. Seem easy? Not quite. Usually this happens in April and it can get bitter cold with a wind-chill factor of about 5 or 8 degrees Celsius! Also you can't go anywhere, even to the toilet incase somebody comes along and borrows the refreshments, the sheets or occupies the place. Your colleagues will come and go throughout the day, with you as the only permanent fixture. If you survive, you will have made it!

Working in Japan is daunting, but it instills such incredible discipline in one that I do honestly recommend it to anybody who is qualified and is starting out in his (or her) career. Later on in life, it may be difficult to reconcile oneself with the privations of Japanese lifestyle, unless that is you earn the equivalent of about $185,000 per annum, which is % 18500000! This is rather like leading a lifestyle that is similar to earning about $100,000 in the US! In short it is 85% more expensive! Behaviour in Japan is another complicated ritual better described in another installment!

ABHIMANYU ACHARYA

abhi.hyd@cnkonline.com