Well, I’m back from Tokyo. I got back late two days ago. Yesterday was a simple recovery day and today got off to a good start and has been rolling along at a decent pace ever since. I woke up and skyped with my girlfriend, ate a decent breakfast, cleaned the room really well (it was getting out of control, especially since I left for Tokyo in a hurry with things unneeded thrown all over the bed), caught up on emails, and rearranged the stuff I brought back. I should have put some laundry into the washer before it got this late but it’s already dusk so I think I’ll save it for tomorrow. Maybe it’s the humidity, maybe it’s the dryers themselves but the main thing is nothing dries if you use the dryer. It takes probably 3 runs thru the dryer and then hanging the clothes up somewhere in the room; which would cost about 500 yen a load and only a very uptight individual would be willing to pay that much just to keep from hanging their clothes up outside. But for 100 a load you can wash it and air dry it which in this heat does not take long. If the humidity is high enough it goes a little slow but one can surely manage to wash and dry a load in a day and get another out to dry overnight before it gets dark. I need to do laundry and clean the bedsheets/towels so that will be happening soon.
As for the Tokyo trip, it was fun, laid back, and educational. I think I was able to really makes use of my status as a temporary resident. Because i wasn’t on a vacation and I can pretty much come back at any time I decided to really take it easy and enjoy the sights in the city sectors I checked out. This way you never feel rushed or late and you can do anything without worrying about the schedule. The only rule was to make sure not to miss the last trains which finish running at 12. Another surprising fact about Tokyo: despite there being many people crowding the streets in several sectors at 2 am most standard businesses close by 8 or 9. On the other hand this gives rise to an interesting nightlife, as clubs have the dual purpose of being fun places to go as well as housing people until the trains start running again at 5 or 6 am. There are other options as well like 24 hour internet and manga cafes, which not only have no problem with but also expect some of their customers to spend the night at their facility. It’s much cheaper than a hotel, but I imagine one wouldn’t feel very rested. I plan to try it out sometime though; it seems like an interesting experience and it’s a good way to sample alot of manga (since new manga in stores is shrink wrapped and you can’t thumb thru anything before buying). Anyway, here’s the Tokyo lowdown. I must warn you I don’t plan to make this in a high level of detail.
I got there at night, Bob wasn’t around and after waiting about 15 or 20 minutes I called him. Something had distracted him and he was definitely going to be late. My options were to wait for him another 20 or 30 minutes or he could give me some directions and I could try something out; meeting him at a station closer to where we were both heading. Naturally I opted to hear the directions and give it a shot; besides it makes it a fun adventure, much more so than sitting around watching people meet friends at the bus stop. I was at Shinjuku station and I needed to be at the Hachiko exit of Shibuya. Looking back it was an easy thing to do but for a first time it could have been complicated. Fortunately the Tokyo subway line is well organized with good information and signs. I bought a Suica card, only the best subway invention ever, and proceeded to Shibuya. It was easy since everything on and off the trains was written in both English and Japanese. I quickly memorized the latter half of Shibuya’s kanji and got off at the proper stop. The Hachiko exit was also fairly easy to find; just follow the signs.
The Hachiko exit has an interesting story behind it. Hachiko was a dog born in about 1923, brought to Tokyo one year later. He and his owner, Mr. Eisaburo Uyeno, shared a close bond and really enjoyed one another’s company.Through the week Hachiko would accompany his owner to the station as he commuted to his work; the Imperial University. Every evening when the professor would return his dog would still be patiently waiting for him. This went on for some time and other commuters began to recognize the dog who was always waiting at the same entrance/exit to the station. This pattern continued for about a year until one day when the professor fell ill at work and surprisingly died before he could return home. Hachiko, not understanding why his master hadn’t yet returned, would wait every day at the station. Sometimes it is said he would wait for several days on end. Hachiko became well known to everyone who commuted to or from Shibuya station and continued to wait there for ten years until he finally was able to be with his owner; passing away at the last spot he had seen his owner alive. People were so touched by Hachiko’s story that they decided to have a statue erected to honor his memory. Famous artist Ando Teru was commissioned for the life-size bronze monument. Unfortunately the statue was melted down during the war. After the war a group was formed to try to have the statue rebuilt. In 1948 they commissioned Ando Tekeshi, son of the original artist who had since passed away, to complete the second and final memorial.
In any case, I arrived at the statue and like clockwork Bob emerged from the crowd with near perfect timing. He led me back to the apartment where I’d be crashing for those several days and I met the residents he knew. We watched a movie; The Last King of Scotland, and then went to bed. It was an intense movie that got graphic at the end so it made it a little hard to sleep. Also being in Tokyo every 5 minutes one could hear the trains pass by from 5 or 6 am until midnight everyday. What a thing to get used to. Fortunately I could sleep through it as long as the window was shut. It didn’t seem to be much if any cooler in Tokyo, but if it was I’d blame it on shade from the tall buildings.
Day 1 I walked around Shibuya the entire time. Shibuya is where the private train connected my impromptu hotel to the JR line, so I’d be going through there often. Bob came with me and showed me an anime shop that’s managed to achieve some internet fame…I forget the name though since I’m not obsessed. It was a cool shop and had all kinds of stuff, even super oldschool manga…which was awesome. (because it was so old and I’d never seen anything like it) All manner of models, soundtracks, DVDs and such as well. We were hungry for breakfast so we headed to Wendy’s! I was so pumped up for some of my favorite fast food. Wendy’s and Subway; I was looking forward to them. Just as we arrived Bob got a call and had to meet his friend who forgot something and so I was on my own. I said I’d be back by the last train, around midnight and ate my yummy food. The burgers tasted a little different but it was still pretty darn good.
After that I simply wandered around to any place of interest until the end of the day. I came across many nice clothing shops, and some super expensive ones. I took a break from walking at a park in Shibuya and was inspired by some beautiful graffiti under a pedestrian walkway. People were playing…not kids, but young adults, which was nice. Jumping rope, and impromptu bands were performing quite alot as well. There was even a stage where a full band was doing numbers. They had no audience or anything; just a well organized but unknown band doing their thing. I stayed around for 3 of their songs while resting. They wrapped up and I got back to my walking.
Eventually I went down a huge line of clothing stores and managed to get lost. I ended up walking to Roppongi and back to Shibuya, which by this point my feet were hurting so I wasn’t in a great mood. Things cleared up when I got back to familiar territory and had some Subway. Yay Subway. Yay Subway for having only 6 subs? What? That’s right kiddies…Japanese subway does not understand BMT / Italian / Meatball / Pizza sub…or my tears. So I had a club which was good, but still left me with the lingering memory of the goodness that is hot subs with more meat and sauce. Meaty. Saucy. Just like this blog.
I was headed back and called Bob again. They’d be late getting back again which meant I wouldn’t be able to get inside the dormroom aka ‘hotel’. I did however, have a key for the main entrance so I could sit in the lobby. He did say I could look for Joey and let him inside. Joey was a buddy of his who, like us, had recently shown up in Tokyo. It was really cool though as he turned out to be a graphic designer as well. We had at least 30 minutes to sit and talk before Bob and the gang returned, but it was great. I hadn’t had much graphic design style conversation / thought going on up until this point of the trip so it was really good to talk design with someone. We talked about the differences between our programs and where we were at in them. He’d already done an internship but aside from that wasn’t too far ahead of me. It was a great refresher. I want to study design in the classroom again. Remembering it….it’s going to be good to get back to it. I hope I don’t forget all my skills while I’m here haha. Eventually everyone got back and we called it a night.
Day 2 I walked around Akihabara (Akiba for short). It was a Saturday so there were girls dressed in all manner of cosplay outfits (maids, nurses, cheerleaders, etc.) advertising for their respective shops. There was also a large guy in a pikachu outfit that I found amusing. Seeing a grown man in a pikachu outfit isn’t exactly new but it still makes me grin inside for some reason. Apparently he’s there in full gear often, as Bob knew straight away who he was when I mentioned him later that night. I went solo all of day 2 as well, just looking around at the electronics and wares in the area. It seemed alot smaller than Shibuya and wasn’t as fun to look around in. Because all they have is electronics you quickly start walking around comparing the prices on certain things you want; even if you can’t afford them or don’t plan on buying them. There isn’t the variety that Shibuya has, so it wasn’t quite as interesting. Or maybe it’s just because it was the second day and I wasn’t so impressed with the city in general?
The evening of Day 2 was the highlight of the trip. Dev and the crew…which ended up being about 8 people, plus myself went clubbing in Roppongi; easily one of the most happening / nightlife infused city sections. We had a motley crew as well; Dev is Indian, I’m American, a Japanese guy, and a host of Caucasian and Chinese Australians. Dev is Aussie as well. It was fun to be the odd man out in terms of nationality instead of skin color for a change. And funny to hear the American jokes since you don’t hear those as much in the US (duh). If you can’t laugh at yourself you can’t enjoy life, so it was no problem. We hit up a few different bars. These weren’t dance clubs; there was no dance floor yet people were breaking it down with dancing pretty much all over the place. Hence ‘dance bars’ or so I shall call them. At several of them shots were free for ladies and we had a female dominated group so of course we stopped at them. Drinks for guys were excessive at roughly $9-13 per shot/drink. The guys didn’t drink and we hopped around to a few more bars. On the upside, the music they had at these dance bars was awesome. Mid 90’s dance…stuff you’d hear at your middle and high school proms and dances…it was sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. Stuff that you knew and could bust a move to; yet stuff that was old enough it was a really pleasant surprise to hear and took you back to good memories. I say good memories even though I didn’t dance at many of the proms I went to. Still, it was nice. These other dance bars were too packed with people though. It was was taking 2 or 3 minutes to get from the door to the bar where if it was empty it would have taken about 10 seconds. We finally got into one that had kickin’ music and was just empty enough that we could get our groove on. I hit up the bar and ordered Coronas for Dev and myself and then returned to the group to help cut up the makeshift dancefloor. After the beer and 20 minutes of dancing to their excellent tracks, Dev, the Japanese guy, 2 ladies and myself headed out for some air. Drinks were more reasonable here but we still wanted to save money. I made a suggestion and it won by majority vote: we popped into a convenience store, bought a fifth of Malibu, a liter of coke, some paper cups and strolled into some seedy dark alley where we proceeded to empty both bottles of their contents in about a 30 minute period. With the fires adequately stoked we proceeded back into the bar, but not before some crazy streetside antics.
Now that everyone’s dance engines were fueled we tore up the place, busting all sorts of moves. I made full use of the new stuff I’d come up with from my school’s breakdance club. I didn’t do any breaking (I would have to work out and practice alot more) but I did but out some great standing moves I cam up with. It was excellent. I bought a nice shirt and hat earlier in Shibuya, and everyone was having a blast. At one point some dude dancing pushed up with his back against the back of one of the guys from our crew by mistake, and the guy from our crew just sort of pushed him back with his back. This happened, seemingly by accident, a few more times and the fight was on. This all broke out right next to me and Dev got pulled into it for a moment but escaped to the other side of the sidelines. I hear a bottle break and made sure it was on the floor and not in someone’s hands as I watched carefully from the sidelines. This was a full on barfight. Mainly a 1 on 1, but the guy’s women tried to help. I tossed our guy’s chick to the sidelines also cause she weighed like…a pound and I didn’t want her to get crushed. Now let me tell you a little something about Japanese bars in Roppongi. They don’t have metal detectors, they don’t have ID checks, they don’t even have security. If and when a fight breaks out, the crowd and waiters have the sole responsibility to diffuse it. I guess the Japanese are well behaved…but this honesty system and naivety about how harsh people can get….sometimes it’s a little worrisome. I’m sure a few decent criminals could take this country for all it’s worth, but I’m really glad that it’s still rare enough that they’re open. It’s like what the US could be if there was almost no crime. Very awesome *and* not obsessed with lawsuits, rules, disclaimers, and stuff like that.
So anyway, there’s this fight going on which I’m like…a foot from since it’s so crowded. I’ve put myself between the fight and the girls from our group, Dev’s escaped to the opposite side, and eventually the brawlers get drug out and we go back to dancing without a second thought. Even though the guy was from our original crew none of the dancing people knew him so, oh well more room for us haha. About 3 minutes later another fight broke out…this one actually brushed against me but is pushed them back out towards the center of the floor and they stayed there until they were ejected as well. After moving those two I spied a pair of eyeglasses on the floor and rushed to pick them up before they were trampled by everyone. Being a person who wears glasses I knew someone’s night would be ruined if they got destroyed. I waited a few seconds and sure enough I saw a Japanese guy about my age looking around in quite a state of worry. I asked him if he’d lost his glasses and handed them back. He was really grateful but like I said. If your eyes are as bad as mine you can appreciate how essential they are for you to function in society let alone the dance floor. I tossed out the Japanese ‘be careful / stay spirited’ and went back to the dancing. With the new space opened up from 4 people going outside we had room to truly cut up. Also some random Japanese guy sort of butted into our group. Not rudely, but he joined in our circle of dancing. He was also clearly using a breakdancing based style and since he was only a person or so from we we quickly engaged in an impromptu battle. It was under cover as well, but it was obvious to me that he’d do some additionally cool moves and then chill back out so then I’d throw out some of my own moves and go back to a standard level to see what he’d do. We pretty much kept up a little rivalry until my crew decided to call it a night.
So we called it a night, it was around 5:00 or so I think. It was daylight when we came out of the club and Roppongi was only slightly less lively than before. As we made our way towards the station we were propositioned by club employees standing outside the entrance to their club saying “The club’s still hoppin’, the party’s still going” and things to that effect. That’s one of the things that was a little annoying about Roppongian clubs; the guys who are outside trying to pull customers would try a little too aggressively sometimes. Like, I would want to push them away if they started talking to my girlfriend like she was single even though I was walking right beside her…but they’ll try to be all smooth with the ladies and convince them to go into their club. I don’t know, I ignored it when we came in but it seemed alot more annoying at the end of the day when we were just trying to leave. We decided to have a bite before taking a train back to the dorm. We stopped at one of those small restaurants where you buy a meal ticket from a vending machine and then just bring the ticket to the counter. I had some curry rice for about $4 and we sat and ate. I was wearing nice looking uncomfortable shoes so I was really happy to be sitting after all that. I turned to Dev and said “Dude, I may never walk again.” He cracked up for some reason; must have been the timing.
After that our groups said goodnight and we headed back to the ‘hotel’ where we crashed from about 6 or 6:30 until probably 5pm the next day. On the upside, g=considering how expensive it could have been our antics ensured a legendary clubbing experience at the cost of only about 10 bucks.
Day 3 was, predictably, a waste. I got up and decided that today was the day. I was going to treat myself to some Outback Steakhouse; which I found in Shibuya. It’s where the train connected to anyway so I was gong there for sure. I walked by and found out I was in luck! Sometimes employees stand out front to promote their store by exclaiming it’s greatness to the crowd and also giving out some kind of coupon or promotional material. In this case I received a 1,000 yen off coupon, good for awhile but I could use it that very day so after speaking in Japanese and English with the worker (whose English was quite natural) I went on in. I was seated, it was strange to be asked smoking or non but that’s life in Japan, and ordered a ‘typhoon bloom’ straight away. No, it’s not a bloomin’ onion. It’s a typhoon bloom. Cute. Unfortunately it was also built differently and harder/more messy to eat. They cut it differently and it ends up as a mound of onion rings all laying on top of one another when put into the frying oil, which means that the whole thing is one great mass of rings, connected by the fried batter. They’re still rings, but they don’t come apart easily like the USA version, and they’re alot messier because you have to just grab the mass somewhere and start pulling rings loose to eat it. :/ It still tasted good though! I also ordered my staple chicken on the barbie which to my surprise was also different. The chicken breast was thinner and not quite as yummy….partly because it was very spicy. It was too hot for me to enjoy eating, and after eating a fair portion of the onion rings I ate the veggie side and got a to-go box for the fries and chicken.
After that, I thought I wanted to look for something more specific at Akihabara, but arrived there about the time the stores were closing. I explored the remaining few stores which were open. Played some ID:4, which was actually cheaper in Tokyo, and eventually headed back to Shibuya. I screwed around there as well. Since I still had plenty of energy I thought about hitting up a manga cafe for an hour or so before the last train ran, but the smallest amount of time they sold was a 3 hour block. :( A manga cafe is a 24 business where you pay a little money to spend x number of hours there. Inside you can order snacks and drinks from the cafe, play video games (depending on the cafe) and read countless shelves of comic books. It’s something I think would be neat to do sometime, but not for 3 hours. All that’s included in the initial price save for the food/drink btw.
I called Bob to see if he wanted to stay up late and check it out, as spending the 5 or so hours the train isn’t running there would have been agreeable to me ( going back to the dorm felt like a stifling idea since I felt I had only recently woken up) but he had gotten sick with some kind of sore throat and cough so he wasn’t up to it. I caught the last trains back and I lucked out because he and Dev were up for at least watching some TV before crashing. I would have regretted not going to the manga cafe if it were different; I felt stir crazy. We watched some Gundam Seed Bob had on his laptop and eventually crashed.
I got up at a more normal time today. It was my last day there and Bob was skipping the thing he came for because he was feeling very crappy and also he was planning to meet some friends and mess around with them. So I decided to go with Bob for company’s sake; I didn’t want to make the 2+ hour bus ride back by myself. While I waited for him to get up I decided to heat up the rest of my Outback food and had a fairly satisfying spicy chicken breast for breakfast.
Finally Bob was ready to go, we were late to meet them. We met up and screwed around in Akiba most of the day. I bought the latest (and final) swap disc set for Japanese PS2’s…I may buy one while I’m here to replace my pretty much dead US PS2. Then I can use the swap discs to play my US games and naturally play the Japanese goodness which abounds here. Good study chance? pfft. Maybe. In any case I didn’t buy one this time around.
They stayed in Akiba too long and I was getting worried we’d miss our bus out so I finally got everyone to head back to Shibuya. I split from their group and met up with Dev to get my stuff from the dorm and move out. We had already bought our tickets (I was holding everyone’s but we bought them when I was with Bob earlier) but because of earlier we really might miss our train. We ran through the stations and finally arrived in Shinjuku where all the buses and trains connect in Tokyo. We got there just in the nick of time and asked a bus driver if the bus had left yet. He told us we were fine and to just wait where we were. That the bus hadn’t come yet. He moved out and the next bus rolled in. Not a Kofu bus. We then found out that the bus we should have been on had already left as well. He told us to wait when our bus was the next one up. I think he was just in a hurry and didn’t want to be bothered, but either way…NIHONJIN SMASH? -_-;
We were lucky enough to get our tickets changed to the next bus without having to buy new ones. It was said to be a one-time only thing though. Whew! I thought we were in a pinch but instead we had to wait an hour. We mostly just sat around the bus terminals talking but eventually various people ran off to grab food and come back. We hopped aboard out bus and started the long process of sitting for 2+hours and being bored.
Let me clarify….One of the guys I had been hanging out with that day with Bob was coming to Kofu for a little bit as part of his summer vacation. Also Dev, from Roppongi clubbing, was on board. Since all those guys went to the same University back in Australia they took Japanese together and wanted to catch up. Also Harshini’s birthday was coming up the next day or that night so they were going to surprise her for that.
Nothing exciting happened on the bus trip. We got back and I really wanted a shower after the running to catch / miss the bus earlier. We celebrated Harshini’s birthday with a surprise attack and had some yummy cake, then I took a shower and threw all my bags, luggage, and clothes in a corner next to the fridge. Little did I know this would give birth to what would eventually become a junk pile of mid-thigh proportions, and so I went to sleep.
In hindsight, Tokyo was fun, easy to get around in, but if you don’t have specific locales to go to walking around can only be fun for so many days. Also the most exciting thing for me in getting to eat at some of my favorite restaurants from the US. I saw TGI Friday’s, Outback steakhouse, KFC, Subway, McD’s, Wendy’s, more but I don’t remember. I want some TGI Friday’s dessert just thinking about it. And a cute girl I happen to be dating to eat it with me. Mmm. It’s all my girlfriend’s fault that I like dessert more. All her fault.
~fin~
