Spur of the Moment Trip to Tokyo

My cat is too dumb for entry to Japan

I spent half of 2014 thinking about visiting Japan on a nice long vacation. I've always been a fan of the country, from 85% of the video games I've played, to the small selection of Japanese anime and films I've watched.

More importantly, the culture.

Tokyo itself, from afar, has always seemed like a vague hint of the future, at least from the perspective of the '80's. From crazy urinal video games, to excessively neon-lit signs, to multiple vending machines on every corner, it seems like the past perspective of an inevitable future of consumer culture in America, today.

A retro-future.

That's not really quite where consumer culture ultimately went in America, as online ventures killed the brick and mortar business while ecological and health concerns overtook a number of other conveniences. A major Japanese recession in the '90's probably didn't help.

In contrast to the craziness of Tokyo, Japan is a culture with much deeper roots than that of the United States. Japan houses the oldest wooden building in the world, the temple of Houryuji, dating back to a reconstruction in 600AD after being burnt down by lightning. This is about a thousand years after Japan's first emperor, Emperor Jimmu in 660BC.

The Emperor, including the current Emperor, is the head of Japan's shinto religion. The gods in Japan aren't so much thought of as conscious figures, but more as just aspects of nature. Not many Japanese are overtly religious, yet they all seem to attend the Shinto shrines. They pull what they feel makes sense to them from other cultures, coming with uniquely Japanese takes on anything from Christianity to crepes.

I have to greater point to make.

I'm visiting Japan.