Andy in Tokyo

Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo

Continuing with our birthday tradition of spending a night in a fancy Tokyo hotel (see last year’s post on The Peninsula), this weekend my better half and myself stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in Nihonbashi.

Rooms are very spacious. Starting from 50m2:

The bed is a decent size:

As is the TV (a 42 incher). You can watch both Wowow and Star Channel movies in full HD, which is ace:

If it’s your birthday the hotel provides a free bowl of strawberries, which is nice. You can see the bathroom through the vertical blinds in the background. The bathroom mirror is on rails so you can move it out of the way when you want to see Tokyo from the bath:

The bathroom itself has a solid granite sink:

All the knobs and handles are polished to within an inch of their lives:

The bath is a solid granite affair. Easily big enough for two:

I filled our bath with hydrochloric acid. It cleans the pores, deep down (to the bone):

The toilet is, as you would expect, a high-tech Toto super-loo:

Features abound:

The shower has a selection of free stuff by Aromatherapy Associates. My wife assures me that their stuff is the business:

Back in the bedroom, we have a yoga mat and brolly in the cupboard:

More views of the room. Wifey can be seen sat on the sofa, exasperated by my photo-taking antics:

Rooms come fully-loaded with booze:

Snacks:

More booze:

And, erm, stationery:

Oh and you also get a pair of yukata’s and fan for poncing about the room in, feeling all imbued with the spirit of the samurai and all that guff:

We thought “Bollocks to it!” and ordered a room-service breakfast:

Green tea pancakes with maple syrup. Very nice:

And an omelette with assorted fried bits and bobs:

Finally, the view. Our room was on the 30th floor, which is the lowest. Bizarrely, the front desk is on the 38th floor, which means to get outside you have to take one lift from the 30th to the 38th floor, then get in another lift that takes you to the ground floor. Our room was facing east, towards Asakusa. There were a few cranes in the way as they’re building something next door:

Construction of Tokyo Sky Tree is well and truly in progress. The finished article will be 634 metres tall, falling some way behind the awesome Burj Khalifa:

The sumo joint:

Looking left:

Looking right:

The same view at night reveals a fancy ferris wheel:

And some very bright crane lights:

Oh and one more thing before we wrap this little photo tour up. The customer toilets on the 38th floor have a “pee on the plebs” feature which I had to take a video of (I don’t normally take videos in toilets, you understand, but this one was special):

All in all, the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo is a top-class hotel with a fantastic view, and I highly recommend it.

View Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo in a larger map

ANA’s ‘Mohican’ jet returns

Japan’s second airline, All Nippon Airways (ANA), has decided to go back to the future by reintroducing this funky ‘Mohican’ livery, which was last seen in the skies twenty years ago:

Unfortunately only one plane – a Boeing 767 now operating between Tokyo and Kyushu – has been given the new (or should I say old) paint job. I think it looks fantastic, especially when compared with ANA’s current bland, identikit early-90s branding. Perhaps a concerted on-line campaign will encourage them to repaint more of their fleet.

More infomation: ANA’s offical press release

Shibuya’s Hachiko Crossing comes to London

Well, that might be overstating it somewhat, but I was interested to see that design agency Atkins has revamped Oxford Circus with a very Shibuya-esque spin. Now all that’s needed is people. Lots of people:

Some neon lighting wouldn’t go amiss, either:

Tokyo: The Imperial Palace and Marunouchi

Here, ladies and gentlemen, we have Tokyo’s Imperial Palace complex. In the late 1980s some (very optimistic) calculations made this 3.5km² patch of land worth more than all the property in California:

It is said that from this castle’s windows the emperor likes to shout obscenities at passers-by. It is also believed that he is fond of throwing milk bottles at geese:

People walking towards Marunouchi from Yurakucho. The woman in the bottom right corner seems to have spotted me. She must have hawk-like eyesight:

Marunouchi by day. The elliptical structure in the centre-right is the Tokyo International Forum:

The same view by night:

Tokyo’s Rush-Hour Rudeness

It’s been a couple of years since my last Tokyo rush-hour post, but something happened recently that I have to moan about:

I was on a fairly busy train to work yesterday morning. As usual the seats were all taken so I stood towards the middle of the carriage. At one stop a woman boarded the train and stood next to me. Despite the fact that she was obviously heavily pregnant not a single person offered to give up their seat for her. It was only when a few people got off the train at Shinjuku that I was able to offer her the now-vacated seat in front of me, which she gladly accepted.

This kind of behaviour absolutely infuriates me. Surely any physically fit adult with a smidgeon of human decency would give up their seat for a pregnant woman?

Kuruma banare (車離れ): de-motorisation

While car companies are currently in a terrible financial situation, with sales having slumped in developed countries, most do see light at the end of the tunnel and anticipate a recovery. In Japan, however, the decline may be much harder to reverse.

In 2009 it is predicted that 4.86 million new cars will be sold in Japan, which would be the first time in 30 years that sales have fallen below five million. What is even more worrying for Japanese car makers is that young people – men especially – are far less interested in cars than they used to be.

While owning a car used to be a status symbol, Japanese youngsters these days are more likely to be spending their money on the latest mobile phones, MP3 players and other electronic gadgetry than on their first car. The convenience of public transport in urban areas also leaves childless 20- and 30-somethings with little reason to buy one.

So how can car manufacturers make their products more appealing to young Japanese? Perhaps one way forward is for companies to generate more revenue from car-related services than from car sales. A car-sharing scheme could prove popular, especially when coupled with an online “car booking” service that can be accessed from mobile phones. All for a monthly fee, of course.

What do you think will happen to the Japanese car industry?

Related: “Japan auto sales plunge as young lose interest” – The Detroit News

The Peninsula Tokyo

For the missus’ birthday we decided to try out The Peninsula Hotel in Yurakucho. We opted for a Park View room, which is a little bit bigger than the standard room:

Nice big bed and sofa:

Very spacious for a hotel in Tokyo:

Big TV. Crucially important for watching J Sports:

The TV had one of those “interactive” menus, which was absolutely rubbish. It was glacially slow and totally unresponsive at times:

Nice selection of magazines under the coffee table. Japanese Esquire is surprisingly good:

Lots of input options for the TV, including memory card slots:

The hotel room comes with a mobile phone (DoCoMo), which means you won’t miss any calls while you’re wandering about town. Very clever:

There’s also a fax machine/printer/copier hidden away:

And an espresso maker:

The bathroom is a very solid-looking affair. Note the eye-catching rock “feature” above the bath:

Two sinks, just in case:

There’s a small LCD TV mounted on the wall. You can also push a “spa” button on the wall next to the bath to automatically dim the lights and turn on some relaxing (sort of) music:

The dressing room has a valet box:

Put whatever you need to be cleaned in the box, press the button and it will be dealt with for you. Your morning papers also mysteriously appear in here every morning:

For the ladies there’s a nail dryer built in to the dressing table:

The view is quite impressive. Our room was on the 20th floor:

The view from the left-hand window:

The big green building in the centre is Shiodome City Center (I think!):

Shinbashi is a bit further down:

The view from the right-hand window. Beautiful clear blue skies in Tokyo in January. Lip-chappingly dry though:

And let’s not forget the free chocolates:

The Peninsula is very handily located. It’s just a short walk to the shops of Ginza and Marunouchi:

View The Peninsula Tokyo in a larger map

The end of humanity

You have to be as calm as a Hindu cow to survive some train journeys in Tokyo. Do you think you could put up with this kind of treatment on a daily basis without going mental?

Universe for Rent

While the image above may typify the tourist image of Japanese homes, the reality for most Japanese is very different. Writer, editor and photographer Tsuzuki Kyoichi’s two-volume title Universe for Rent (賃貸宇宙 in Japanese) provides a voyeuristic peek into the living spaces of ordinary folk living in and around Tokyo:

Photo: Tsuzuki Kyoichi

Photo: Tsuzuki Kyoichi

Photo: Tsuzuki Kyoichi

Unfortunately this title isn’t readily available outside Japan. Luckily, Amazon.co.jp do deliver overseas. Volumes one and two are available for JPY1,785 each (here and here). Both come highly recommended by yours truly.

Back home

Currently enjoying a well-earned break back in the mother country, but will be returning to Tokyo very soon.

Is Japan Expensive? Part 1: Travel

Is the UK more expensive than Japan these days? Over the next few posts I’ll be exploring just how much things cost in both countries. Let’s start with travel:

Travel by car:

First off, we’ll need to buy a car to get around in. I’ve chosen two examples here: the VW Golf R32, which is a beast of a machine; and a Honda Civic, which is your general pootling-about vehicle.

Japanese road tax varies from ¥10-50,000 (approx. £50-250) depending on engine size; in the UK road tax can be anything from £35 to £400. Our sample cars would probably fall into the higher and medium-range tax brackets, respectively:

Golf R32 (Same model in both countries – 3-door MT)

• UK price: £24,950
• JP price: £19,610 (¥4,114,286)

Honda Civic (Japan – 1.8G, 5-door MT; UK – Civic 1.4S, 3-door MT. Both were the cheapest possible models I could find)

• JP price: £9,231 (¥1,937,250)
• UK price: £13,410

So for a simple purchase, Japan wins on both counts. Of course, Japan’s motorways are tolled, whereas the UK is – with one or two exceptions – free, which is something to take into account when thinking about travelling long distances. And there’s the added cost of a parking space, which would probably cost somewhere in the region of ¥30,000 (approx. £150) per month around where I live (western Tokyo).

Fuel prices are easy to compare. I’ve chosen a representative suburb of London and Tokyo from which to work on: Southgate in North London and Kichijoji in Western Tokyo. Both are around the same distance from the political and financial centres of their respective cities:

Petrol (regular unleaded, per litre):

• UK price: £1.13
• JP price: £0.83 (¥164)

Blimey, that’s quite a huge difference!

Commuting:

First off, I should point out that most (95%+) Japanese companies pay for the cost of their employees’ commute to work, which is usually by train. This may happen with some companies in the UK, but is far less common.

For our sample journey, I’m again going to use Southgate (London) and Kichijoji (Tokyo) as our representative suburbs. I’ve picked Southgate to Westminster and Kichijoji to Ichigaya as our routes (the latter because that’s my route to work, and therefore have a pass handy!). Both take approximately the same length of time and cover the same distance, travelling from the outer suburbs to the centre of their respective cities. Let’s start with a monthly rail pass:

• UK price: £132.90 – Southgate to Westminster, Zones 1-4
• JP price £42.01 (¥8,890) – Kichijoji to Ichigaya

The big difference with both of these passes, apart from the huge gulf in price, is that with a pass in London you would be able to travel anywhere within Zones 1-4. With the Tokyo pass you would be able to travel anywhere between Kichijoji and Ichigaya for free, provided you use the same train line (in this case the JR Chuo-Sobu line). That’s good if you want to travel to, say, Shinjuku, but for the other “centres” of Tokyo you’d have to pay a little bit extra each time.

To make it a bit fairer, let’s compare the price of a one-way journey along the same routes:

• UK price: £2.50 – Southgate to Westminster
• JP price: £1.38 (¥290) – Kichijoji to Ichigaya

Tokyo still comes out on top, but the price difference isn’t quite as enormous.

Long-distance rail travel:

Japan is famous for their shinkansen (bullet trains), so I couldn’t write a post about travel without mentioning them at some point, could I? I’ve personally never had that much trouble with high-speed trains in the UK, but I’m sure there are millions who have, and who would be more than happy to recount their horror stories.

For high-speed trains, I’ve chosen London-Newcastle (270 miles) for the UK, and Tokyo-Osaka (343 miles) for Japan. Despite the extra 130 miles covered by our Japanese train it still manages to reach its destination more than 20 minutes ahead of its British counterpart (2hrs 36mins for Tokyo-Osaka and 2hrs 59mins for London-Newcastle).

Pricing is a bit different for both countries. In the UK it’s possible to get hugely discounted high-speed train tickets provided you book well in advance; in Japan shinkansen tickets are – in general – the same no matter how far in advance you book. To make it fair, I’ve compared the price for an open-single ticket for both (travel at any time of the day, on any train):

• UK price: £124.50 – London King’s Cross to Newcastle, standard open single ticket
• JP price: £66.07 (¥13,850) – Tokyo to Shin Osaka, reserved seat

The shinkansen looks much cheaper here, but bearing in mind the booking-in-advance rule in the UK, it really isn’t: I could get a return ticket from London to Newcastle for £66 provided I sorted it out a week or two in advance.

That’s all for this post. Look out for “Part 2: Household Goods”, where I’ll be comparing the price of TVs, sofas and other assorted gubbins!

(Prices based on 11th June 2008 exchange rates: 1GBP = 209.55JPY)