Asakusa

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We are writing this from Asakusa, or old Shitimachi, or the old city of Tokyo, Japan. We are currently in what was once the nighttime entertaiment capital of Tokyo, and is now mostly pochinko (gambling) and video game parlors. We are hanging out in an internet cafe that has all private booths and overnight rates and "semi-sleeping" areas with computers, beanbags and blankets, and offers free drinks and magna comic books. We have enjoyed Asakusa more than any other part of the city, so we have come back here after the Fuji Rock Festival for one more night before we head back to California. From what we have seen and read Asakusa still has more of the old personality of Tokyo than most of the city, and it is mostly narrow streets and small buildings which are all extremely clean and bursting with energy. It's also one of the cheaper areas of Tokyo. We have been staying in a nice, traditional style Ryokan with really nice owners. We have spent our time here hanging out at the Buddhist and Shinto spiritual areas which are free and open all of the time, eating great food at small eateries that specialize in udon, ramen, katsu, tempura, curry, or sushi (and we are defintely not sick of the food yet), and purusing stores that specialize in drums, plastic food displays, mochi, or rice crackers. Nearby, we visited Ueno, with a huge park that was the site of the famous battle of the last samuries, and a street that is the electronics capital of Tokyo with 5 story buildings with whole floors devoted to the many versions of video games such as Street Fighter. We also visited Shinjuku, currently the nighttime entertainment capital, Harajuku, the fashion capital with tons of shopping teenagers, some of them done up fully in goth-lolita costumes, and Shibuya, another high fashion area that also has tons of record shops. We also checked out the somewhat boring to visit but historical Imperial Palace and center of Tokyo, still the home of the imperial family, where we walked around the public gardens, the site of the old palace, and saw some of the old guardhouses, gates, and some of the imperial collection of art. After 3.5 jam packed days in Tokyo, we took an hour bullet train ride to Naeba, in the Niigata province, site of the Fuji Rock Festival. This was awesome, with 100,000 people and 3.5 days of music from 11am till 5am. The site itself was great, at the base of a ski resort, and we got a nice camping spot in the trees. The mostly Japanese crowd was really into the music acts, with more yelling, clapping, and dancing than I (Jeff) see at most shows. We especially liked Praxis (with no Buckethead, but Toshinori Kondo, Brain, Laswell and a Japanese DJ), the Foo Fighters, Adrian Belew, a japanese blues band the West Road Blues Band, and the Dresden Dolls. There was a ton of rain but it mostly came in showers, and it was really hot. They also had a Japanese style public bath that I (Jeff) thoroughly enjoyed on the last day. (Kaley's schedule didn't fit in with the time that the women were allowed to use the bath, after midnight, or before eight). Before Tokyo we were in Shanghai, which was the least interesting city we visited in China, and which we enjoyed the least. It was somewhat interesting to see the showcase of China, and we did see some amazing buildings. It was also kind of fun to see the flocking tourists from all over China, seeking modernity to the fullest. However, generally, most of the buildings, malls, food and sites had less substance and more showiness than what we found in the rest of the country, and the outstanding odes to modernity were few. The Shanghai version of dim sum, however, was excellent. For breakfast we had great pork steamed buns fried pot sticker style and won ton soup. 　Also, the new magnetic levitation train to the airport had us speeding along at 431 (about 267mph) km an hour! That was definitely a highlight. Tomorrow we head home, and we will post some pics asap. Any requests will be considered. Thanks to all participants of the blog; the interface made the trip even more fun. Sayonara, Kaley and Jeff

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