1. Virtual visits: to the museum and then to Mount Fuji
Few countries embrace technology more enthusiastically than Japan. And few cities are as avant-garde as Tokyo. For this reason, the capital of the country of the rising sun offers a multitude of virtual trips that in these confined times allow you to visit some of its main tourist attractions without leaving your home. Of course, almost all of these proposals are in Japanese and English.
The magnificent Tokyo National Museum, for example, displays much of its catalog of works both on its website (emuseum.jp) and through a mobile app that includes a 30-minute walk through the Horyuji Treasure Gallery . The iconic Tokyo Tower - built in 1958 and whose shape is similar to that of the Eiffel Tower in Paris - has a virtual tour of its viewpoint thanks to the Google Arts & Culture platform. In addition, some places in the city have installed cameras that broadcast in real time through YouTube: the WebcamTaxi page (webcamtaxi.com/en/japan/tokyo) collects a good number of them. They highlight the connection that allows you to see the cherry blossoms of the Chidorigafuchi park, another focused on the spectacular skylinewhich is drawn behind the Rainbow Bridge and another installed inside the Ikegami Honmon-ji temple. But no place is capable of making us travel as much through a screen as Mount Fuji, which can be seen in all its magnificence thanks to live broadcasts from eight different angles on the Fujisan Watcher website (yamanashi-kankou.jp/fujisanwatcher / live).
2. A movie: Lost in Translation
No western film has been able to portray the different faces of Tokyo with the precision with which Sofia Coppola Lost in Translation (2003) shot. The bucolic walks of Scarlett Johannson and her escapades with Bill Murray take from the asepsis of the Park Hyatt hotel and the futuristic atmosphere of the motley Shinjuku and Shibuya (with its famous zebra crossing) to the intimate atmosphere of the Jouganji temple. Not forgetting the crazy karaokes of the Udagawacho area and the neon streets of Kabukicho. The film is an emotional tour of the megalopolis. But the most interesting thing about the film is that the filmmaker approaches the Japanese capital without prejudice and portrays with respectful humor the culture clash that often occurs between East and West, and that is extensible to countries such as China or South Korea.
However, those who prefer to see Tokyo without the filter inherent in a western gaze will do well to discover Tokyo Sonata (2008), in which Kiyoshi Kurosawa delves into the life of a local family affected by the designs of globalization, and the most Light Train Man (2005), in which Shosuke Murakami dives through the most youthful and eccentric side of the Japanese capital.
3. A dish: always sushi
Delighting in the flavors of Japan's cuisine without leaving home is easier than it sounds. There are few more Japanese dishes than sushi, and its preparation is relatively easy and we are satisfied with products that are in almost all supermarkets. Both the nigiri (fish slices on a bed of rice) and the maki (stuffed rice rolls) are entertaining recipes that invite collaboration in the kitchen, and one should not look for the sublimation of Jiro Ono, three-star Michelin chef and protagonist of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, on Netflix.
This is how you do it:
- Most Japanese cook the cereal with an electric rice cooker, but it can also be done in a saucepan. It should be washed thoroughly, leave a centimeter and a half of water on top, and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. A tablespoon of vinegar improves the flavor, but it is not essential. Let cool 8-10 minutes.
- The maki nori seaweed covered plugs are rolled with a bamboo mat .
- The long nigiri mounds are made by hand and a little wasabi is placed under the fish in the rice .
- Those who are apprehensive about the raw can make vegetable maki and use cooked shrimp or octopus slices in the nigiri .
- Finally, it is dipped (a little) in soy sauce.
4. A typical house: maximum use
With more than 30 million inhabitants, Tokyo and its satellite cities are the most populated metropolitan area in the world and one of the most expensive. Without a doubt, space is a luxury, and capsule hotels are the greatest exponent of this. In 2017, only 0.9% of new homes exceeded 100 square meters, and the average was 60. And apartments less than 15 are rented. Here it is essential to sharpen the ingenuity to take advantage of every inch. Although the houses are tiny, they are perfectly organized: each corner has a use, multifunctional furniture and built-in wardrobes, miniature kitchens and futons on the floor reign. But what is most striking is the bathrooms. Both in homes and hotels, they are prefabricated plastic modules that resemble those of airplanes. They have everything you need in the smallest possible space, such as the everlasting intelligent toilet in which you have to be able to understand Japanese characters.
5. A musical style: J-pop
Ayumi Hamasaki is the soundtrack of contemporary Japan. Born in Fukuoka in 1978, the singer moved to Tokyo at age 13. She has been one of the great forerunners of J-pop, the eclectic musical genre that has conquered the world and has been adding techno and trance chords to continue connecting with young audiences. In two decades of her career, she has made 13 of her albums consecutively number one, and no one in this Asian archipelago has sold as many albums as she has: almost 85 million.
But, in the generation Z era, it has been overshadowed by a growing list of youth groups whose sound is hardly distinguishable from each other. As in neighboring South Korea, their strength is in the number: they are made up of dozens of handsome young singers (they androgynous, they with kawaii - sweet aesthetics ). Its maximum exponent is AKB48, a young women's band that has its own theater in the Akihabara neighborhood, from which it takes its name, and which has surpassed the 48 members with whom it was born to act continuously in a peculiar system rotary.
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