Tokyo is big and fast and intense and it’ll make you tired. And, many months of the year, hot and sweaty too. Fortunately, it offers a solution for these problems.
Here’s how big:
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The solution: more or less everywhere you go, there are vending machines. In every vending machine, you can, for ¥100 ± ¥20, buy iced coffee. It is really strong and really cold and really sweet and has a whole lot of caffeine. If they took the vending machines away, Tokyo would grind to a halt, I’m convinced.
On another subject, those impressive views of Tokyo are from Sun’s big Tokyo office, which is at a subway station named Yoga, full address 4-10-1 Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, but I can’t convince either Yahoo! or Google maps to show it to me. It’s a little bit further than you’d like from downtown, but is the view ever wonderful.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: Emanuel Carnevale (Jun 19 2007, at 03:16)
Having been in Tokyo for more than a year I really enjoy your last posts. (well, I also enjoy the others ;) )
here is the google maps link
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC+%E4%B8%96%E7%94%B0%E8%B0%B7%E5%8C%BA%E3%80%804-10-1+&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1
Emanuel
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From: Dervala (Jun 19 2007, at 09:16)
I've been working on Japanese iced coffee for a while now. Glad to see we've captured the target Canadian Salaryman demographic.
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From: Mark W (Jun 19 2007, at 10:52)
Thanks for the Tokyo entries, Tim. I worked in Tokyo about from 91-93. Funny how certain words just rings out when I was reading your entry. I didn't live around the Hanzomon live but the word Setagaya and the surround stations around Yoga does bring back memories. Keep posting more pictures. Tokyo is a very interesting and unique city.
And I wrote apps on the Sun Workstation those days too. C, Sybase and Sun Openview...
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From: David Smith (Jun 19 2007, at 15:23)
A major memory of my R&R trip to Tokyo around Christmas, 1972 was the saki and beer vending machines around my ryokan in Shinjuku-ju. 100 yen ($.30 US) for a cold can of beer or an old-fashioned-size glass of saki. Heated the saki on the little gas burner in my room.
I enjoyed them so much that's almost my only memory of the visit, that and eating at a cart on the street in the Ginza one night - ducking under a canvas curtain, hot dumplings, bent over because I was too tall for everything there.
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From: Oliver (Jun 20 2007, at 01:24)
and the machines serve piping hot coffee in winter too ;)
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