MAY 2018 | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA 63
JAPAN3.13 p.m.
Robots
Rising
...Tokyo’s National
Museum of Emerging
Science and Innovation
is where Honda’s ASIMO
demonstrates its talents
four times daily. The
four-foot-three robot
runs into the pavilion
at full speed. He waves
to the crowd, which is
frankly the creepiest
thing I’ve ever seen—
until he flat-out kicks a
soccer ball. “Robots may
change your life,” says
the announcer. Which is
what I’m afraid of. I ask
one of the museum’s
resident nerds, Matt
Escobar, Ph.D.: “When
will the robots take
over?” He doesn’t laugh.
“Hopefully never. But I
think in 20 or 30 years
they will be very smart.”Indie shops
fill Takeshita
Street, in
Harajuku,
ground zero for
youthful kawaii
(cute) fashion.
Midnight
Yes , That Bar
Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation is a perfect movie
about a special kind of loneliness one experiences in
Tokyo, a gorgeous anonymity in a city where people
are stacked on top of each other. In the film, Scarlett
Johansson follows her photographer husband to Tokyo,
and while he’s busy working, she wanders around town,
ultimately meeting Bill Murray at the New York Bar on
the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt hotel, which is where
I go tonight. Looking out the window at the insane
views of Tokyo’s endless skyscape, I also spy a dozen
tourists glued to their iPhones—which makes the film
even more of a perfect time capsule. Would Scarlett’s
character have met Bill if she’d soothed her loneliness
with an iPhone?6.32 p.m.
Cocktail
Culture
Star Bar and High Five
are both killer temples of
mixology, but I’m partial to
Gen Yamamoto—which is
the name for both the bar-
tender and his eight-seat,
one-room space, where
he mixes up sake and soju
cocktails with seasonal
ingredients picked daily at
the market. For one drink,
muddled fresh tomatoes
mix with Japanese Nikka
Coffey gin, local citrus,
and peppercorns. It’s
maybe the most delightful
summer sip I’ve ever had.