2001-08-05 - 1:14 p.m.
all that you can't leave behind (v)

gonna set my soul on fire

Since we hopped on an early train, we get to Tokyo in midafternoon. We get a big-ass taxi that can hold all four of us and our Metric Buttload[tm] of stuff. Our hotel is huge, air-conditioned, and staffed with very helpful, friendly people who have a functional amount of English. I don:t know (and don:t have the time to go back and check) whether I:ve emphasized just how excellent the service has been here in almost every place and context. (Remind me to tell you how I found out where the Kamo River got its name.)

The rooms are what you:d expect in a nice, modern hotel. We get some lunch at the "Coffee Shop" downstairs. We will do this as infrequently as possible, because everything in this hotel is astoundingly expensive. It is not the place I would have chosen to stay if it were just me. My brother notes that our actual hotel room is basically what you:d get at a Best Western. I:ve stayed at a few Best Westerns, and I:m inclined to agree.

Tokyo is... a teeming mass of humanity. Downtown Tokyo is chock full of gaijin on business and pleasure trips (and local girls who, for reasons I will never fully understand, are trying their damndest to look like gaijin instead of the beautiful young Japanese women they are). There are huge department stores by the hotel. There:s a shopping complex called "MYLORD," and a hobby shop called "Yellow Submarine." In Kyoto, most people were of a similar build; that's not to say that they looked the same, far from it, but simply that most people had a slender, healthy, small-town look. Here, I see more variety in shapes and sizes. Many of the businessmen have a look that I think is best described as "well-fed." America has introduced the more cutting-edge parts of this country to fatty foods and sedentary lifestyles, and Tokyo is as sharp as the cutting edge gets.

This is, depending on who you ask, the biggest city in the world.

The view from our window reminds me a little, only conceptually, of Reno. The buildings here were thrown up without thought for how they fit in with each other, with the landscape. As a result, during the day, from the 22nd story, it can be a very ugly place. But at night, the lights are stunning. My brother looks out the window at night with the curtain pulled behind him to keep out the reflections of the room. "Wow," he says when he:s done. "Bright light city." Then he sings, "Bright light city gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire..."

the only baggage you can bring

I'm in my parents' room later that night. We talk about all the books we:re reading--my mom wants to borrow my book on Zazen. I tell them I:m trying to read so many things at one time that my head will explode. C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, history of Tokyo, practice of Zazen, George Orwell, and Ram Dass.

My mom says, "Doesn't reading Ram Dass make you want to get up and go out and do things?"

"Yeah," I say. It's a pretty good description.

She nods. "That's why I can't read him."

[Notes: Most headings are lyrics copyright R.E.M. from their album "New Adventures in Hi-Fi." "Someone you can lend..." and the final quotation are from U2's "All That You Can't Leave Behind." "Setting out on the path of service" is the subtitle of Compassion in Action. Matthew 5:23-24 reads, "So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift" (RSV). Lyrics to "Viva Las Vegas" (c) Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman.]

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