tokyo, oh tokyo

i suppose its not surprising to find out that Tokyo is pretty similar to other major first-world cities (even in the exotic "orient"), at least on the surface. people seem to look pretty normal, busy and going about their business just like anywhere else (although the concept of "business casual" is notably slow in arriving). today i spent wandering around mostly aimlessly with another hotel guest, seeing a few of tokyo's relatively dismal "tourist sites." the experience was not dissimilar to wandering aimlessly around new york, except that the streets were cleaner, the men are shorter, and the per capita concentration of pornography is much higher (tokyo, where is your rudy guliani?) i had my one "silly american tourist" faux pas at a ramen house, when i accidentally used an ashtray to concoct a delicious dumpling dipping sauce (it had no notches to rest the cigarrette - it could have happened to the best of us, i swear). our waitress covered her mouth daintily and was all a-giggles; i hope i've given her a funny american story to share with friends and family. one unusual thing i've noticed is the extreme death of "westerners" - given that a significant proportion of the signs are also in english i would have expected a reasonably sized expat/tourist population. but i probably saw all of 5 or 6 the entire day (and gave them the "you're white?! i'm white!" nod). maybe they hole them up in another part of the city and slap them with a white man curfew. another surprise is that a lot of japanese food and japanese architecture in the united states is surprisingly accurate to the "real" thing - the "real" thing being the parts of the city made up of post 1940s-firebombing architecture and featuring prominently in tourist guides. maybe (hopefully) this will change when i move out of the capital , but i will say the temple in the japanese imperial gardens looks suspiciously like "samurai restaurant" in solana beach, minus a hibachi grill. going to see if i can make my way to kyoto tomorrow. unfortunately i was too cheap to buy a japan guide book, so i will be relying on the kindness of strangers (speaking at best rudimentary english) to get me from point A to point B.