A walk through Ikebukuro

Dr. Pepper = awesome
see all photos »

I was wandering around Ikebukuro tonight to learn the area and have made a few observations.

Firstly, I found a reason I could possibly live here forever: they have Dr. Pepper. Ok so that's going overboard but Dr. Pepper is awesome, and they have it. However, they're advertising seems to have taken a different direction than it did in Australia. Hey, whatever works.

There is 1 vending machine for every 5 people in Tokyo

A somewhat different marketing campaign for Dr. Pepper
see all photos »

Tokyo is a ridiculously lonely place. There is so much geared towards single people, and very little to help people socialise. For example, there are heaps of eateries for single men (and business men too) where you eat standing up, and then leave. The problem is there's no bars, at least in the Australian sense of the place. The closest thing is a sit down bar (Japanese word pending), where you eat at a table with people you came there with and you order drinks to the table. Even the billiard halls, which do serve alcohol (but not billiard balls incedently, only pool balls), force you to book a table for a time period. This means there are no interactions between tables from table challenges and therefore social interactions outside your circles is difficult. Maybe its simply a culture difference, but it seems a shame to make it so hard to socialise.

Kirin Ichiban Beer - one of the many items found in vending machines on the streets of Ikebukuro
see all photos »

I'm going to invent a statistic right here: there is 1 vending machine for every 5 people in Tokyo. If you look down a main road, there are 3-4 vending machines in a row every 20 metres. On top of that, any (and I mean ANY) alley you look down will have a group of vending machines, no matter how dark and otherwise devoid of movement/light. It's insane, why would you possibly refuse to walk 20 metres out of a dark alley to get a drink? I just don't get it.

The other thing I noticed is that almost every store I see is a restaurant. There are more restaurants in this area (I walked around a 9 or 10 block square) than any other type of store combined.

The "Old New" Italian Bar.
see all photos »

This post seems more like a rant than an observation on Tokyo, which is crazy cause I love the place. Anyway, "end rant".