Just an American Girl in the Tokyo Streets

Some of you may know I recently flew 14 hours to the other side of the world to get some soba. The plane ride was successful after 2 Valium and a cocktail of Aspirin, Benedryll and Juicy Juice. You could've flown my ass to Antarctica and I would've been thrilled. Nonetheless, I landed, 14 hours later and completely wasted, at Narita Airport- Woozy, but for the most part alive.
I feel like you can determine the awsomeness of your trip based on the airport you land in. Everyone ignored me in Paris, the roof was made of straw in the Dominican Republic and Disney Posters inevitably line Orlando International. Three distinctly memorable vacations...
Narita International is clean. Like, robots come in the middle of the night, there are not trash-cans, because there is no trash clean. And there were signs in English brightly proclaiming "Welcome to Japan!". God Bless the Japanese.
There are approximately 2,345,424,824 subway lines in Tokyo... And each is owned by a different company- like if I owned the A line and you owned the 6 Train...or something like that. And there isn't much in English once you get past customs apparently... tricksy little hobbits.  So getting on the train from the airport to the station our hotel was near was, well, interesting. Did I mention the station our hotel was near is the largest subway station in the WORLD? You think you've seen a lot of people in NYC, then take a trip to Shinjuku. Everything about this city is completely overwhelming. Getting off the train is like walking into a literal sea of people. And there is no 5- foot-radius rule in Tokyo. If you're in the way you will get run over. End of story. I suppose they feel that any inch of a building not covered in neon or forty foot television screens or posters of Ken Watanabe vs. Darth Vadar (yes, that was a real poster) is an inch wasted. It's like being drunk, getting thrown in a ball pit filled with glitter and rainbow paint , then shaken and spit out onto a sidewalk where you're not allowed to throw up...only pleasant.. am I making sense?
We found our hotel, checked into our tiny room, took pictures of the view and promptly passed out. We woke up at 12am Tokyo time starving and ready to hunt for food, sake and cheap business men to sing karaoke with. Mission accomplished on all accounts.
The food is unbelievable, if a little repetitive. We ate soba noodle soup for breakfast, gem colored sushi off conveyor belts that was probably caught that morning, fancy pants scallion pancakes we cooked ourselves on open table top grills and shabu shabu- essentially tastier-than-American fondue.I'm not even going to get into the crepes they sell on the corners, or the Japanese Coldstone or Chocolate Koalas- but let me just say the trip was worth it for the food alone. Everything was colorful and fresh and delicious- including the copious amounts of sake we drank with very nice businessmen at the Izakaya on the corner... anyway...
We saw the sights, beautiful temples built before our country was even a thought, paintings glazing the ceilings, shrines and pagodas 5 stories high, when all you can think is how the hell did they build this?! Tokyo tower, (a larger stolen Eiffel Tower with better lighting), the beer building, the giant Japanese Lantern and the techno Ferris Wheel at Odiba- a raver kids dream. The parks are covered in bonsai trees, there really are zen sand gardens and every time you turn around you seem to bump into a shrine of some sort. It's unbelievably amazing and breathtakingly beautiful in a historical way Americans can't even comprehend.
But I digress... what did I really go to Tokyo for? The shopping of course! Shinkuku and Harajuku and Shibuya, just to name a few. Department stores packed 6 floors deep with ridiculously cute neon pink shoes, jackets and lingerie covered in fur, mini skirts (I mean MINI skirts), cable knit sweaters with skulls and fur pom poms to hang on your expensive leather handbag. Everything is one-size-fits all. And that seems to work for Japanese women, because well, they are one size fits all... But every bubbly salesgirl was just dying to try and stuff my 36E chest into their sweaters, jackets, t-shirt and button downs. Then they would giggle hysterically as the zipper slid to a halt just beneath my underwire. I heard a lot of "Oh, you lucky guuuuul, you so big!" Haha, it never got old to them.
Their are rules so foreign to us but clockwork to them. They recycle everything, to the point that each component of your garbage is broken down, from your left over coke to the straw you were using it in. They don't eat on the streets - not even ice cream. Ever. They take stairs when there are escalators (very FEW escalators) and stand up when there are seats on the subway (what!?). They're polite to you even when you don't speak their language. They're beautiful and dark eyed and sexy but try so hard to look American. Men were obsessed with my hair and women were obsessed with my chest.... In America it's the other way around... They're really good at drinking, and even better at singing American songs at Karaoke. The sidewalks are so packed with people you can hardly move but the flow of the city is consistent and powerful.
And it makes you simply want to be there to look at it all and try to take it in, in the very few hours you have there. The overwhelming intricacy of their everyday life would make most Americans faint, but its like going on a new adventure every time you step outside.
If you can, go to Tokyo. You need to see the fashion, and walk in the quiet of the shrines and taste the unbelievable flavors of the food. You need to meet the people and draw pictures on cocktail napkins to communicate and walk around the parks in the rain.
Tokyo has a surprisingly romantic, intense feeling that was so apparent once you were there... all I could think was Why have I never come here before?
The 14 hour flight was worth it and I was surprised by how sad I was to board the plane back to my most favorite city in the whole world. The organized chaos will stay with me forever.

You should go to Tokyo.