Kon'nichi wa!

Hello, how are you?

A cloudy day—the first I've seen since I left Ireland. Still, the temperature is forecast to be 25 degrees today. The view from the hotel window showed rows of grey buildings, like they were tossed higgledy-piggledy together. Lots of re-enforced concrete, obviously the favourite building material. I read somewhere that Japan, which is 4% of the size of the US, produces more concrete than the US does. The telephone and power cables, (and lots of other cables that don't have an obvious function) are suspended all over the side streets and alleyways, to keep the unsightly mess off the main streets. On a roof top opposite a group of men were doing aerobic exercises.

As I came down to reception the two chaps at reception snapped to attention. I almost felt I needed to say "at ease, men". Extremely polite, though. Every second word is "hai!" (yes), spit out short and sharp, with the same mannerism that a German soldier would say "Jawohl" to his commanding officer (later on I found myself saying this all the time—even to other gaijin (foreigners)!).

Ueno

First item on today's agenda was to explore the surrounding area, Ueno. According to my guidebook, this district retains some of the shopping ambience of old Tokyo, in particular the Ameyayokocho arcade. But the tangle of walkways in front of the station, and the expressway cutting a swathe through the district do a lot to eliminate any traditional atmosphere—the city planner must have had an off day when this place was planned. Behind my hotel is Ueno Park, which has the highest concentration of museums and galleries anywhere in Japan (and probably the highest number of homeless people!). Ueno station is one of the main stations in Tokyo and contains shops of all sorts, cafes and restaurants, and even has its own Irish Pub!

Ameyayokocho Arcade

Hoping to catch some of the old-time Japan ambience, I headed down the Ameyayokocho arcade, a long narrow street full of little shops with large displays out front. The first thing that struck me was the amazing variety of fish on sale, every size and shape, plus squid, cuttlefish, shellfish, you name it. I believe that no meat was eaten in Japan for over a thousand years, until around the 1880's.

Then there were lots of clothes shops specializing in different things, camping gear, ex-military gear, etc. Every so often the raucous jangling of a Pachinko parlour rang out, louder than any amusement arcade. Pachinko is a sort of vertical pinball, very popular here obviously. Fine if you don't mind the noise of several dozen pinball machines banging away at the same time.

Maybe it's just the prevailing fashion, but lots of people around here are wearing black or dark clothes. Almost all the men wear dark suits, and the women too wear a lot of black. The businessmen (they're called salarymen) pass by tightly clutching their briefcases, as if holding on for dear life. The older ones look tired—leading lives of quiet desperation?

Everywhere there are groups of schoolgirls in sailor uniforms (seifuku). This became one of the commonest sights I came across all over Japan (and judging from the amount that has been written about this phenomenon, and the school-girl eye-candy mags available in every convenience store, these uniforms must be a real turn-on, and the girls know it!).

Every female has a tiny mobile phone, usually with something hanging from it, like Hello Kitty objects (which are everywhere here!) for decoration but also supposedly to prevent brain cancer occuring through use of the phone.

A peculiar feature I came across was loudspeakers, built into the street barriers (ie, the metal rails at the edge of the footpath), blaring out loud pop music.

At most corners people were handing out free tissues in little packets with advertizing on them. This being a quite formal society, I didn't like to refuse, so ended up with all my pockets stuffed with the damn things. I later dumped the lot, and only found out when I went to the public toilet what they are useful for! Some tissues have the number of a Teleclub, where you can phone a schoolgirl and arrange a date—this is how some of them used to finance their expensive shopping habits, though new laws are supposed to prohibit this.

The streets are spotless, but I couldn't find a trash can, when I wanted to get rid of receipts, etc.

By mid-morning the clouds had disappeared and the sun was shining brightly. Had breakfast at cafe Solare di Pronto, a little cafe opposite the entrance to Ueno Park. I think the usual Japanese breakfast is something like fish, soup and pickles, but I forewent that pleasure for a bacon and egg salad for 480 yen. It took me a few minutes to get used to the chopsticks again (by the end of the trip it took me about five seconds!).

Ueno Park

Then across the road and up the steps to Ueno Park, which is packed full of museums, temples and homeless people (and supposedly drug dealers, though no-one came slouching up to me offering anything). This hill was the scene of a battle in 1868, when the Shogun forces made a last-stand defense against the Emperor, before being duly dispatched (don't know whether they took prisoners in those days...). The tombs of some of the combatants—the shogi-tai soldiers—are nearby. After the battle the victorious Meiji government decreed that Ueno Hill would be transformed into Tokyo's first public park.

The first sight that greets you after entering the park at the top of the steps is the statue of the great samurai Saigo Takamori walking his dog, shortly before he disembowelled himself (the samurai, that is, not the dog—history doesn't record the fate of the poor auld dog!). He had supported the emperor in the war against the Shogun, but then the new government withdrew the powers of the class to which he belonged.

Nearby is the Kiyomizu Buddhist temple to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603. The two dragons carved on the front gate are said to be so lifelike they go drink at the pond every night. There are several other shrines dotted around the park, including a pagoda. From somewhere a bell chimed out twelve noon, which I took as the signal to move on.

As I strolled around the park I came across lots of homeless. They build shacks in the corners of parks and keep their sites clean; only the laundry hung on fences draws attention to those who live there. During the day they lounge around on the park benches. To get by, many scrounge for cans or scrap to sell to recyclers, or take occasional day jobs. It appears that the country's social safety net, designed to help families with homes for only short periods, has failed to catch these new homeless. However, an American, Ritchie, wrote: "The homeless are not housed because the family always looked after its own but now it doesn't."

Also evident are lots of crows, with large wicked-looking beaks and raucous caws. I was told that these birds (jungle crows) attack people at certain times of the year, and they make a huge mess of the piles of garbage on streets waiting for pickup.

Gallery of Eastern Antiquities

This is part of the Tokyo National Museum, but is located in a separate building. It contains art and other object from Asian countries east of Egypt. Unfortunately there is not much from South Central Asia, although I found the Buddhist/Hindu objects from pre-Islamic Afghanistan and Pakistan particularly interesting.

Tokyo National Museum

Entrance to the museum was free to foreigners attending the world cup—I just had to show my passport (good job I had it with me!). The museum has a huge number of objects, including the world's largest collection of Japanese art. I spent several hours here, and still didn't manage to get everything in.

Most interesting, I found, was the Ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world," which flourished during the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868) (wordplay on the original Buddhist expression "ukiyo," signifying "sorrowful world," came to mean "floating world," implying rapidly changing fads and fashions, and a devil-may-care attitude to life). These pictures, mainly woodblock prints, depicted the vibrant life and culture in the "nightless cities" or licenced entertainment quarters of the major urban centres with their restaurants, baths, theatres and brothels. There, the merchants, shopkeepers and artisans, surreptitiously joined by members of the ruling samurai or warrior elite, indulged themselves relatively free of the rigid rules and regulations of a highly stratified feudal society.

Asakusa

That evening I walked via Asakusa-Dori to nearby Asakusa, the heart of old downtown Tokyo. It used to be a major entertainment centre, and I believe it still has its share of up-market hostess bars, but nowadays it's best known to visitors for its famous Senso-ji Buddhist temple. The temple, which dates from the Kamakura Period (1188 to 1333), was once the center of Buddhist worship in Tokyo. Surrounding it are lots of little shops with religious trinkets and nick-nacks, walking around which made for an interesting end to the day. The temple as well as the entire Asakusa district was burned to the ground following the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 and again during the Second World War. After the war the entertainment area never recovered its former attraction, but the temple was rebuilt in 1958.

The Beautiful Game

The Roy Keane saga: the BBC site headline said it all: No World Cup for Keane, based on a statement released by Keane. In another story, Niall Quinn indicated that Keane's failure to apologise to manager Mick McCarthy "left the players with no other option but to reject his return." This was "the worst week of my life" said McCarthy.