Toast To Tokyo

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It's Monday 26/03/12 today it's been a while since I put up a new blog, well pretty much the whole time I was in Tokyo and there's a reason for that. Tokyo rocks and it seems I didn't have a spare moment to myself and the times I did I colloapsed asleep which on some nights didn't even happen either.



I'll start with when I left Nozawa-Onsen which was a week ago today 19/03/12. Packed my bag and it feels like it's picked up another ton somewhere along the way or maybe it was just my legs, because I think snowboarding every day for 15 days was pushing it on my body especial for the first time in 5 years. Leaving the lodge I jumped on the local bus to the train station. This was a sad time for me, I really love Nozawa, such a great place full of good hearted people that just seem to find there spot in life and sync with everything and everyone around them. The transport I had to take to get to my Hostel in Tokyo was bus, train, shinkansen followed by another train then try and find the back street it was on. You can imagine I was thinking I was going to get lost for sure, but to my surprise everything went smoothly even buying the shinkansen ticket and finding the back street the hostel was on. I'm glad it went smoothly thought because by the time I got there I was so tired and possibly a little hung over from the last night in Nozawa. Not wasting any time I dropped my bags got changed and headed out to meet a friend I made in Nozawa, Shibuya here I come.. That night was pretty cool, we went to this little underground budha restaurant/bar that had little rooms everywhere, kind of reminded me of the Ninja restaurant I went to in Roppongi Last time I visited Japan. With not eating much there it was off to a cheap sushi train bar to fill our bellies. This place was simple but just flat out busy and had a good vibe from all the happenings that was around us plus the sushi was great considering everything was around 100-300Y.



Next day came and so did the first real 24hrs to myself in Tokyo, ohh and it was a public holiday, though that does mean much in Tokyo this place never really stops, it's just the offices that are closed for the day. I mainly just walked around Asakusa which is classed as the old part of Tokyo and where my hostel was so I thought I better get familiar with the area. 20 Meters up the road from my hostel you can see "Sky Tree" a broadcasting and observation tower in Tokyo and stands at 634 meters high making it the tallest tower in the world and in the person it's believable it’s HUGE. One of the hostel workers was telling me that in winter ice was building up on the top and cracking with big chucks of ice falling and hitting the ground!!! Something you don't really want when there's houses around that area, though they think they've fixed it by putting heating wires around the top to melt the ice, fingers crossed it works. After taking a few snaps of the tower and randomly talking to people along the way I headed over to Asakusa temple. This place was packed, being public holiday and all there was people everywhere. I didn't spend much time there as I had already visited last time I was in Japan, so I pretty much got my fortune which is when you shake a box full of stick, pull one out and match it to one of the many little draws that have pieces of paper in them with your fortune on it. Glad it's got a translated bit in English otherwise there's no one I'd understand it. It read:



"Some damage will come into your family, so you have to take care to defend it, That branches grows separate, means everything does not meet together. When hard winter is over, those things may get better in the middle of spring. All family members get along well, and they can get all filled by fortune"



Not 100% what it all means but I don't think it's bad or good, so yeah just keep doing what I'm doing I think. Once that was out of the way I got some Takoyaki (octopus in a savory ball) which are awesome, Google it. Walked through the markets and wanted to buy everything but thinking to myself I've got to save what little room I have in the ruck sack not to mention weight restrictions with flying. It was getting late in the afternoon and my legs were starting to feel it again so I headed to the local supermarket to stock up on food then head back to the hostel. Food is so cheap in Japan if you buy from the supermarket, I pretty much lived off microwaved packed rice and curry sauce you heat up then pour over the ride, meal total cost was $2.50AUD woohoo!! and tasty. With till recovering from my snowboarding adventures I called it an early night and stayed in.



Next day it was off to Tokyo Tower, it's like the Eiffel Tower, well actual Tokyo Tower is taller. Going up to the top presented itself with a nice view, being able to see everything from Roppongi tower to Sky Tree and Tokyo bay. With doing the tourist thing and snapping a few photos I headed to the ground and went for a walk finding a nice park which gave a few good spots to take photos of Tokyo Tower. I pretty much put the map away this day and just walked around trying to take in the real Tokyo and see how the people went about their day. Might sound boring in a blog but the experience and all the little things that happened were cool. Doesn't sound like much on paper but really has a deeper effect when in person.



Night time come in quick and I had organised to meet up with Remi in Shibuya, a Japanese friend of mine I met last time I was in Tokyo. Of course me being me I was incredibly late and having no phone reception meant I couldn't let her know where I was, sorry Remi. I eventually made it and went out for a drink on the 5th level of a building right next to Shibuya crossing. This had a great view but the only problem was the window was set high and you had to stand up to look out of it, which really wasn't possible because everyone was sitting down at each of their tables, so I got up just to take a few pictures then joined the table again. We talked about what each other had been up to and about all the fun we had last visit. Remi rang one of her friends trying to find out if there were any big party’s on that night but being a Wednesday night we were out of luck so the next best thing was an Irish bar. This was strange to say the least, being in Tokyo, Japan sitting in a full Irish bar hearing Irish accents... Felt like I was back in Perth… With Remi having to work the next day we called it quits for the night so after.



Thursday arrived and so did it an email from a friend of a friend of Remi's, Nobuko. Remi had taken a sneaky photo of me the night before and sent it to her friend that pasted it on. Nobuko and I organized to meet up in Akihbara which is Tokyo electronics super suburb, after I was finished doing my tourist thing and looked at the Imperial palace in Tokyo centre. Imperial palace was ok but nowhere near as good as what I saw in Kyoto last time, I guess if you want to look at temples and palaces Tokyo has nothing on Kyoto. With that out of the way and 4pm close I headed to Akihbara to meet Nobuko, I was a little worried I wouldn't find our meeting spot as I had never been there before and was only going off a very rough map I had on my phone. To my surprise I found our meeting spot straight away which kind of worked against me as I had given myself "getting lost time" and Nobuko was running a little late. With the spare time I had I went into Yodobashi building which is a 7 level high build full of all electronics from laptops to phones to headphones to electric toothbrushes. These shops are so intense with people everywhere and just so much choice of product it's simply impossible to choose. Lucky for me Nobuko arrived and very easily spotted me because I had no idea what she looked like, but really how hard would it be to spot the tallest person there wearing a green jacket and not Japanese... We headed to Starbucks for a coffee; these Starbucks shops are very common in Tokyo though I still don't think the Japanese know how to really make a good coffee. We talked about all the normal things you do when you meet someone for the first time and had a few laughs. After coffee it was time to find some food so with that in mind we found a place that had Korean food and beer so that ticked all the boxes for me. Trying a few dishes Nobuko picked out for me, they were delicious and for the life of me can't remember what they were... Nobuko had plans for later on the evening so we said our goodbyes and headed our own ways. I decided to head to the train station to head home as it was 8:30pm by this time, but take the long way and see if I could take some good night photos. I'm slowly getting better with the camera and the only way to learn is practise. The amount of electronic superstores and massive buildings full of arcade games was amazing. Couple of photos taken it was time to call it a night again.



Friday it was and I was back in Akihbara to see how this place operated in the day time with all the shop open. What a different place this was, I found shops that were purely for old time anime characters and figurines, seeing old toys of Optimums Prime and Star Scream I remember from being a kid. Other shops had model cars, bikes, trains, etc. and were anything up for 6 levels high each full dedicated to a type of transport. Thinking I had to buy something from here I decided I needed a set of good headphones that could fold up to travel easier with and I’m sure I found the best shop in the world to do this. Dynamic Audio is was call and was purely headphones only and the great thing was every set on the shelf had a testing pair which was lucky because the Pioneer headphones I was looking at sounded shithouse and ended up getting a set of Audio Technica. That being a raging success it was time to find a maid cafe, these are cafe's where the girls are dressed in maid/custom anime characters and serve you food and drinks. Finding a girl in custom of the street we walked to the cafe which was in a back street, this was already starting to feel weird but something that had to be done, when in Rome. Taking an elevator and walking in the place was small with pink painted wall and anime pictures everywhere and only 4 maids and 4 guys sitting down. It was strange to say the least and I think everyone there thought it was strange to see a foreigner inside there too. With very small amount of English and I not knowing much Japanese is was a bit hard but worked out I had to sing along with the girls when I first arrive, embarrassing enough I had to do it in Japanese too!!! Strange strange place this was. Staying for a bite to eat and a beer the girls got up on this little stage and started singing theme songs to Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z, etc. See I told ya it was strange. With my hour up, getting charged an hourly rate too it was time for me to go. Saying goodbye I and the girls had an experience I think we will never forget!! From there I was my mission to play some arcade games, something I believe would be a crime if you left Japan not doing and what better place to do it then a Sega building that had 6 levels full of games each floor being divided up into fight, racing, toys, etc. Playing a few games and watching a few games it kind of felt like I was in a Casino though there was no money to be won. Walking back out onto the street I had a little bit more fun people watching then headed back to my hostel to get changed to party that night.



That night I met up with Nobuko in Roppongi, this time I was late and it was raining, sorry Nobuko. Hitting a couple of bars I was amazed how many foreigners there were here. I had been told this is where they all were but it was till strange to see as most of my time in Japan I've been the only one around. This was a fun night meeting people and missing my last train of the night meaning I had to stay up all night till the first train at 5:30am.



Saturday and what a day it was, Tokyo Motorcycle Show and Anime Fair at Tokyo Big Sight. This was amazing!!! I first went to the bikes and couldn't believe how big it was, it took me 4 hours to walk through and that was with no English, I’d hate to think how long it would of taken me if I could read everything!! The bikes were the same as every show, that being said there was a couple of stand outs being the Kawasaki zx14 having a 10m waiting lining just to sit on the bike and of course to Ducati 1199 first world public display, this bike is SEX. Bikes themselves aside the stores there covered everything from boots to helmets to gloves, bike trailers etc. Everything you could ever be looking for was here. Along the bikes and stored were the promo girls and at times it felt like I was at a promo fair with the bikes being on the side lines. With everyone having a camera from a point and shoot to full blown SLR's as soon as a girl stood for a photo at least 100 cameras appeared flashing away, this was a sight in itself. Even I think I took more photos of girls then bikes!!! Motorcycle down and only 2 hours left I headed to the anime fair. This was cool, strange, exciting and embarrassing all in one. Most of the stands I had no idea what shows they were for but some I did with Transformers and Shaun the Sheep making an appearance. I can't even begin to explain in full what it was like and I'm not even going to try because writing it is just not going to do it justice so a couple of photos should give you the picture.



Well it's take me while to write this so I'll post it and write a part two later. Time to get some food and another beer.

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