Editor's note: Patrick Galbraith, a senior in print journalism at the University of Montana, is spending this academic year studying in Japan and will be sending occasional observations of life there.

UM student explores 'playgrounds' of Tokyo

By Patrick Galbraith

TOKYO - Greetings from Japan, where a pronounced cleft chin like mine is known as "ketsu-ago," literally meaning "butt-chin."

There’s an awful lot for a gaijin (foreigner) to adjust to in the teeming megalopolis of the greater Tokyo area, with a population of around 12 million people. If you include Kawasaki and Yokohama and the prefectures of Chiba and Saitama, it grows to 33 million. A quarter of all Japanese live within 60 miles of Tokyo, making it by far the most influential part of the country.

After shuffling through customs at Narita International Airport, I took a multi-hour crash course in Tokyo via a rush-hour trip on the efficient and convenient local train systems called densha, or electric train, and chikatetsu, the subway. Japan also has the fastest trains in the world, shinkansen, or super-liners, that deliver passengers across the country quickly and in plush comfort.

My map introduced me to the famous "playgrounds" of Tokyo’s inner neighborhoods along the Yamanote Line loop. Fellow passengers included hordes of tired, sailor-suited high-school girls and red-faced salarymen, or office workers. Most Japanese share a gene that makes their faces flush when they consume alcohol.

Harajuku, with its hip shops and chic young people, came up first. Even during the late afternoon, people dressed in Gothic and Lolita outfits flooded the train while "pushers" stuffed the overflowing mass of humanity into the car.

Next came Shibuya and its famous Hachiko exit. Hachiko was a faithful dog that waited at the station for 10 years for his master to return, unaware that the old man had died. A statue of the loyal canine is a popular station meeting spot. Even though I couldn’t exit for fear of getting lost, the feel and energy from the lights, massive TV screens, street musicians and cool restaurants was incredibly potent.

I’d later visit Shinjuku, a similar district with roots in the Edo Period (1600-1868) and the chonin (merchant)-class culture of excess and pleasure seeking. It’s still a nighttime favorite of thrill seekers looking to buy a pound of flesh—or play pachinko, a noisy gambling game that entails guiding falling steel balls into holes in a vertical console. It is illegal to gamble for money in Japan. Luckily one can trade the prizes from the pachinko parlor for money at stores next door.

The Yakuza, Japan’s organized crime group, rules Shinjuku by night, but all I saw in the day was something akin to Times Square, with towering television screens, neon and monolithic stores. However, up close, the Japanese flavor is visible in the small, traditional shops, the colorful street-vending carts and the shopkeepers calling "Irashaimase!" to entice visitors.

Not far away lies Roppungi, famous for its bars, Hard Rock Cafe and "image" clubs, where one can purchase beautiful girls dressed in costume as companions to poor drinks. The girls smile and pretend to be fascinated by drunken babble. Ostensibly it goes no further than that.

You always know when you’ve stopped in Akihabara because all the gaijin get off. Akihabara, the electronics Mecca of Japan with hundreds of large and small electronics stores. It’s also one of the best places in the world to find Japanese animation, called anime, and assorted animemorabilia. Some scholars even consider anime to be Japan’s No. 1 cultural export.

I finally made it to my destination, but not before my curiosity over this amazing land was piqued. How can one not be fascinated by the differences? Here, a lady kindly informs a man, when pointing to his gaping fly, that his "shakai no mado," literally "window of society," is open.