Tokyo MidTown

Avoiding the huge crowd since the opening on March 30 of Tokyo MidTown, a new sprawling complex of shops, restaurants, museums, and Tokyo's first Ritz Carlton Hotel, my partner and I finally visited the site on late Friday night, when the shops had just closed. Access to certain floors was still permitted, so we took a quick walk along two floors. First impression: warm and spacious, an antithesis to the cold and cramped Omotesando Hills (although to be fair, the latter had a very limited space to begin with).

We also went up to the 45th floor of the MidTown Tower to the lobby of the Ritz Carlton Hotel. All of the hotel's dining experiences (the Lobby Lounge & Bar, "Forty-Five" restaurant, Hinokizaka, and labels) could be found on this floor, while the lone Ritz Carlton Café and Deli stayed at the ground floor, near the alternative entrance to the hotel and close to the main portal of the shopping complex. Cover charge for the Lounge is currently at ¥2500 per person. High tea is served between 12:00 and 17:00, and offers two main set menus at ¥3900 and ¥8900. All of the dining experiences are non-smoking except for the Bar (just at the Bar, not at the Lounge), which allows it.

Tokyo MidTown is located at Akasaka-9-chome, and is a quick walk from the Roppongi Hills complex, and like the latter, it is also served by the Hibiya, the Oedo, and the Chiyoda lines. Click HERE for Tokyo Metro information.

More on Tokyo MidTown.
More on Ritz Carlton Hotel Tokyo.

Old Romantics

Please watch until the very end to see this romantic couple!

Taspo, Schmaspo

Edy, Suica, iD, Pasmo, and coming soon, ladies and gentlemen, TASPO!

The Tobacco Institute of Japan, an association of tobacco retailers, in its effort to curb underage smoking in Japan, will introduce the Taspo cards, which will bear photo, name, membership number and expiration date. The cards also have an embedded chip that allows customers to pay electronically, much like a Suica and a Pasmo. By the end of 2008, more than 600,000 cigarette vending machines will be installed with an electronic age-verification device. In the near future, buyers will have to flash this card on a vending machine's reader to verify a legal age of 20 and over.

So far, it has been extremely easy for underage smokers (the legal age for smoking is 20 years old) to purchase ¥300 (300-yen) cigarette packs through these vending machines, much like buying a soft drink. A survey taken among high schoolers in 2004 revealed that 42% of the boys and 27% of the girls had either tried smoking or had become regular smokers. The card, as predicted, however, will not completely eliminate underage smoking as those wily smokers would buy them from stores (why the stores do not verify age I do not understand . . . ) or simply get a sympathetic adult to swipe his or her card.

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Speaking of cigarette and smoking habit, one more district is joining in the ban in public smoking: Shinjuku. Recent visitors to Tokyo and locals may realize that there are now banners in Shinjuku, as well as painted signs on sidewalks in the district that remind people not to smoke in outdoor public spaces. Funny enough, the ban, which could be found in different wards such as Chiyoda and Shinagawa, was not really intended to foster a healthier lifestyle, but rather, to keep the outdoor public spaces free from cigarette butts.

So now all the smokers are pushed indoors . . . Jeez!!!

You can read the original article at the REUTERS.

Pasmo is Here!!!

Once upon a time, yours truly arrived in Tokyo to find his wallet filled with not only hundreds of stores point cards but also a multitudes of transportation cards: one for Japan Rail (mostly train over the ground), one for Tokyo Metro (underground), and one for the Tokyo Bus. Many a time Bloompy wondered to himself why the three different proprietors had not developed one electronic card that could be read by the three different modes of transportations.

Well, either Bloompy's suggestion and perhaps hundreds of other people's complaints were heard OR the three institutions finally decided to create a pass that could be read by all, but at any rate, PASMO finally made its debut in March 2007.

Suica, the Japan Rail's Integrated Circuit Card (IC-card), had been in circulation for some years, but now it too can be used interchangeably with the Tokyo Metro and the Bus systems. Just as Suica is accepted by vendors within the JR-system, Pasmo can be used to make purchases at any locations that display the Pasmo Logo, as well as at all Suica-accepting shops.

For more information, click HERE.

Panda Sneeze

This is unrelated to anything about Japan or travels, but did I have a lot of fun watching the surprised Mama Panda!