{"id":84,"date":"2009-01-11T21:43:19","date_gmt":"2009-01-11T12:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/2009\/01\/11\/84\/"},"modified":"2009-01-11T21:44:18","modified_gmt":"2009-01-11T12:44:18","slug":"84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/2009\/01\/11\/84\/","title":{"rendered":"Killing time in Tokyo &#8211; musings on mixed use developments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sitting in a Starbucks in Akasaka in Tokyo, and have been for a while, killing time while Tomo guides Chaka Khan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s band members through a flea market, Ometesando, and Harajaku.  This wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really part of the weekend plan but I knew it could be a possibility.  I have a good book to read, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.barclayagency.com\/chabon.html\">Michael Chabon<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0345502078\/ref=s9subs_c2_14_img1-rfc_g1_si1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&#038;pf_rd_s=center-2&#038;pf_rd_r=1M7BXP0XH7AXBETND3C0&#038;pf_rd_t=101&#038;pf_rd_p=463383371&#038;pf_rd_i=507846\">Gentlemen of the Road<\/a>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  It has been a very long time since I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to actually use a dictionary to look up words while reading, but this is one of those books.  I find it refreshing actually, to relearn words.  For example, one page contains the words ostler, caravansary, mezair, caprioles.  All words I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know off the top of my head.  Good thing for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dictionary.com\">online dictionaries<\/a> when you are sitting in a Starbucks armed only with a BlackBerry (I still am not happy carrying a &#8220;BlechBerry&#8221; but it does serve a purpose at times).<\/p>\n<p>It is a little strange to be sitting in this particular Starbucks, because I spent many Sunday mornings here when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been in Tokyo on business trips as this is the location of the preferred hotel of my colleague who was in charge of the trip.  I stayed in a business hotel just down the street last night and discovered more areas and developments that I had not seen in all the previous times I had been here.<\/p>\n<p>I definitely feel much more at home in Tokyo compared to Nagoya.  I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t decide though whether I love or hate the multiple mixed-use developments of Tokyo.  There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.roppongihills.com\/en\/\">Roppongi Hills<\/a> (hate), <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tokyo-midtown.com\/en\/\">Tokyo Midtown<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mori.co.jp\/en\/projects\/arkhills\/\">Ark Hills<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sumitomo-rd.co.jp\/izumi_garden\/english\/areaguide.html\">Izumi Garden<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mori-trust.co.jp\/english\/redevelopment\/shiro_top.html\">Shiroyama Garden<\/a> to name a few all in this general area.  You can move from one to the other, and they have shops, restaurants, offices, apartments, hotels, everything.  Is that good?  Is that bad?  I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know.  But it feels like Tokyo to me.<\/p>\n<p>Well, Tomo called and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ditching the band so it is time to meet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sitting in a Starbucks in Akasaka in Tokyo, and have been for a while, killing time while Tomo guides Chaka Khan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s band members through a flea market, Ometesando, and Harajaku. This wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really part of the weekend plan but I knew it could be a possibility. I have a good book to read, Michael &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/2009\/01\/11\/84\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Killing time in Tokyo &#8211; musings on mixed use developments&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-experiences","category-general-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.triplefstudio.com\/yokoso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}