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BACK TO THE FUTURE

Before I came to Tokyo, all I knew of Japan were stereotypical images of geisha and sumo, of packed commuter trains and city streets drenched in neon, of overworked and overly formal sarariman (salaryman). Eyes wide in the awe of discovering a new city, Tokyo didn’t disappoint. The first time I had to squeeze onto a rush-hour train was chaos, elbows flying and umbrellas swishing around like modern-day samurai swords. A few days later, my first encounter with Shinjuku was like being thrown into a future dreamed up by Isaac Asimov or Philip K. Dick. There were flashing lights, buildings blocking out the sky, sirens, shoulder bumps from the crowds, and blasts of noise and air-conditioning from every shop front I passed. Everything was new. Most things were incomprehensible. I’d become illiterate overnight. It was fantastic.

Once the initial shock and awe had begun to subside, however, it wasn’t long before I started to find that there was so much more to Japan than I’d seen in guidebooks and travel documentaries. Yes, the Japanese bow, but they don’t spend half their time doing it. And yes, they eat raw fish, but it’s only a small part of a marvelous and varied culinary heritage. Despite the high-rise, neon-lit images in guidebooks, for most Japanese this is a country of low-rise suburbs and rural communities. For all the talk of Japanese as staid and reserved, spend a night in a local izakaya (pub-cum-restaurant) and you’ll soon learn they can crack a risqué joke as well as anybody. If there’s anything I’ve learned in over a decade in Tokyo, it’s that there’s a lot more to almost every aspect of Japan and Tokyo than initially meets the eye. I hope this book will you help discover that there’s more to Japan and its capital, too. Happy travels!