the first week of may in japan brings several days of consecutive public holidays, hence that week is known as golden week. golden week means that almost everyone goes on holiday, and flights overseas double in price and popular tourist destinations are packed with tourists. since going overseas wasnt an option, we decided to go to tokyo instead, figuring that since it's going to be crowded at any time of the year, golden week is as good a time as any to head there.
tokyo however was surprisingly less crowded than i'd expected. probably because offices and businesses were closed, so less people poured into the city, and whoever lives in the city had escaped to the countryside or something. anyhow, it wasnt any more crowded than osaka, and we didnt have trouble sightseeing or getting into places of interest.
there's a rivalry between tokyo and osaka, and having now visited tokyo in person for 5 days, i can say that, based on personal experience (albeit as a tourist), that osaka is better :)
tokyo is nice in that it's cleaner, better planned and more spacious. osaka, in comparison, is grittier and grimier; the trains and subways are older, as are the buildings. tokyo is like singapore, with its gleaming and shiny high-rise buildings, whereas you certainly get the sense that osaka is a bit more rundown, and that buildings developed haphazardly, this way and that. the roads and pavements in tokyo are wider too, which means that you can see more of the sky between buildings, hence feel less like you're being closed in by the city.
however, despite all that, tokyo annoyed me more than osaka does. it could be because tokyo is a sprawling metropolis, but despite its maze of subway and train lines, there wasnt always a direct, straight route to get from one place to another (and sometimes the trains were late too! trains in osaka are NEVER late, unless an accident has occurred). we often found ourselves having to go around on the JR yamanote line or the ginza line, even though, looking at the map, it seemed like there ought to be a shorter route to where we wanted to go.
in addition, the sheer number of train lines made deciphering the transport map difficult. furthermore, there's the tokyo metro AND the toei subway lines, but they werent clearly distinguishable from each other on the map, the importance being that there's an all-day-ticket for the tokyo metro lines, but NOT the toei subway lines. we ended up not using the all-day-ticket though, cos the best way to travel, as we discovered, was using both the subway lines AND the JR line.
signage in tokyo was frustrating too, as we often spent a fair bit of time trying to figure out which exit we should use to get to our location. a sign might point you in this direction to the central exit, but as you follow the arrows, signs might disappear along the way just where there are 3 directions you might take, so we had to amble down each of those to find out where exactly we ought to be going. or, as it was more often the case, we might be told to exit at A1, but after walking a long way to A1, the map at that exit informs us that we ought to use exit C3 instead, which was sometimes further ahead (just when you thought you had reached your destination!), or somewhere behind, having passed it on the way to A1, or somewhere in the opposite direction from the spot where you were wrongly informed that you ought to be getting out from A1.
you get the sense too, that osakans are friendlier and easier-going than tokyoites. we encountered some rather rude train staff, which is a rather stark contrast to what we're used to because train staff here are always polite, and sometimes friendly too. politeness is more obvious when you're speaking in japanese, as unlike english, there are set forms, words and patterns of speech when you're speaking politely, as compared to when you're using more casual or informal language. in addition, there's honourific language in japanese too, which service staff always use (and train staff often use it too), and the absence of it can be very glaring. in tokyo, we encountered train staff who didnt use the ~desu/masu form, didnt apologise (much less go 'moushiwakenai') and spoke in a rough, curt tone to us. it was all very shocking, especially since you'd think that the sheer number of tourists in tokyo means that staff would be politer so that they'll project a good image.
our surmise was that it's probably cos they're miserable - being the guy who guards the ticket gates isnt really the most awesome job around - but their job cant be any worse than those guys in osaka, so the only reason why they're so rude must be because they're sad tokyoites, whereas osakans take things a bit more easy and try to make the best of their situations and have more fun.
we also hypothesised that the lack of alcoholic drinks in convenience stores is linked to the happiness level of people in tokyo. any convenience store in osaka would stock a fairly decent - ie largish - amount of alcohol in its various forms and brands. you'll always get a range of brands and types of beer, as well as a good selection of sweet, tasty drinks similar to barcadi breezer - those are the type that i favour. tokyo, however, not only has fewer convenience stores (or at least they werent in convenient locations cos it wasnt all that easy to find a convenience store at times), but has a smaller alcohol section with fewer selections. quite a few didnt even stock any sweet alcoholic drinks, while the rest had only a few types. even their non-alcoholic drinks didnt come in many varieties, which was somewhat disappointing cos i ended up drinking the same type of tea (i was looking for sweet fruity tea) twice in two days.
i think i also prefer osaka because it's smaller and thus feels cosier.. tokyo is quite a lot bigger, and its underground complexes are sprawling. i think i also like the down-to-earthness of the place, and the fact that its a bit old and a bit dirty makes it rather comfortable to live in.
the thought of this, however, leaves me a little concerned - if tokyo somewhat reminds me of singapore, might this mean that i could find home a little too clean and shiny the next time i'm back??
