The walk from the Sensoji temple in Asakusa to the modern
railway station in Ueno is a walk through the post-war history of Tokyo, but
also through some of the worst tourist traps in the city. And through the heart
of the Japanese people.
Tokyo is, mentally and culturally, two different cities. In
the other big city of Japan, the Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe complex, the dictomy is the
same but it is geographically polarized. In Osaka, the physical separation from
the old capital of Kyoto makes it easier to maintain a lifestyle and culture
which is defined by the contrast to the refinement and high culture of the
former imperial and cultural capital. Being the opposite of rich and refined,
the Osaka culture is about the small comforts of life. A full stomach instead
of grinning and bearing it; a drink with good friends instead of a cup of tea
with a master of the tea ceremony. Osaka defines itself as the opposite of
Kyoto.
In Tokyo, the difference is not between the city proper and
some other place; the difference is in the city itself. The cultural difference
is between the upper city, where the nobility lived, and the lower city of the
working class has defined the lives of the people in Tokyo since the beginning
of the city. But today, they have a different meaning.
The contrast between the lower and upper cities defines the
culture and daily life of the people in Tokyo. The rich and powerful live their
lives in a different part of the city from the working and middle class, in
villas with gardens, among restaurants with Michelin stars and internationally
known patisseries. But it is the working class which has captured the hearts of
the people of Tokyo.
And it is on the narrow streets of Asakusa where the hearts
of the people in Tokyo live. Walking from the old temple of Senso-ji in Asakusa
to the train station of Ueno, one of the biggest in the world, is a travel
through the heart and mind of Tokyo. The real soul of Japan is where
neighborhood patrols walk the streets at night, watching out for fires that
could burn through the small, tightly packed wooden houses and destroy the
city. It is where people walk to the bathhouse in wooden clogs, carrying the
soap wrapped in their towels. It is where people go to the neighborhood ramen
restaurants with growling stomachs after a long working day, having a beer or a
glass of the schochu, the Japanese vodka, on the rocks or with hot water and a
pickled Japanese plum. It is where the working classes get together to relax
and live their lives. Mention “shitamachi” to Japanese, and they will think
about a lost age, when people helped each other, the Saturday pleasure was
going to the bathhouse, life were simpler and people wore their heart on their
sleeves.
Strange to think, this was a burned-out wasteland after the
second world war. Nothing was left after the American bombings towards the end
of the fighting. The Japanese rebuilding after the war was really a total rebuilding,
and cleaning up the mess took several years. The dream of a refrigerator, a
car, and a TV set that drove the Japanese consumption during the 50’s came from
a real need.
Much of the rubble from the war was dumped in the swamps at
the mouth of the Sumida river, becoming the foundation for the eastern parts of
Tokyo. Today this is where the modern Tokyo has grown up, most of the modern
attractions growing out of the city where the working class settled.
