Redemption, Disappointment, and the X-Bowl!!!

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Before leaving Kyoto, we went back for some more udon. No sign of Japanese Ali G., so I guess he doesn't spend all of his time there.

We also took a quick walk through a Yodobashi Camera store to see some electronics (Yodobashi Camera is a chain of electronics department stores). The closest thing to a robot that we saw was a robot vacuum cleaner. So we're definitely going to have to find some in Tokyo. There wasn't really much in there that was a window to the future though. I think the cameras had a couple extra megapixels, but that's it. I think you have to go to the showrooms to really experience the future of technology, like the Sony store in Tokyo. Also, I'm thinking that companies are quicker about releasing their new tech to the whole world now, and not just in Japan. Still, you have to believe that Japan is the best market for testing new tech.

That's it for Kyoto. Oh, in case you are wondering only Geisha's we saw while we were in Kyoto were on postcards. We didn't really go looking for them though, assuming that we wouldn't find them. But apparently they're out there, and you can see them, if that excites you.

Oh well, I guess that leaves something to do next time. But for now, we had to head back to Tokyo for our last couple of days in Japan. We were looking for some redemption, and hopefully we'd find some robots, go to the fish market when it was actually open, and find out what exactly "ice cream burgers" are. So we headed to the train station to catch the bullet train.

We bought our tickets and headed to the platform. The train was leaving soon, and we had a little trouble finding our way to the right platform. We had to run once we figured it out. And when we finally got to the platform, it was pretty clear that this train was moments from leaving. There were voices talking, and train music playing, the doors were about to close. So we ran to the first door we saw and jumped on.

I got on first, followed by Mike... and then Mitch made it about half way inside before the door closed on him and pinned his backpack. He was stuck. My first thought was that if Mitch just took off his backpack, he'd be inside no problem. My second thought was that if he dropped his bag he'd probably never see it again... and so he wisely waited for the doors to be opened, which didn't happen automatically. It wasn't until the conductor came by to release the door that Mitch was freed.

We were given a short (and very polite) lecture from the conductor about not running into the train like that, and that we should have waited for the next train in 10 minutes.

10 minutes? Yeah, if we'd known trains came every 10 minutes, we would have waited for sure. If only we could speak Japanese or read Kanji, we might have been aware of that. But that's pretty nuts that there's enough people moving between Tokyo and Osaka that there can be a bullet train every 10 minutes. I'll bet each train holds 400 people or so, so that's a lot of people.

So we broke the bullet train. We probably caused a one minute delay, and they probably made some announcements about the stupid tourists that got stuck in the door. We did not get arrested though, so we are safe from our fortunes from the temple so far.

And we learned a couple of things. First, there's a bullet train every ten minutes. Second, when the doors of a bullet train close, they close. They don't bounce open when they hit something, like a backpack, or a person, a small child, or a puppy. You know, for example...

After that though, it was a pretty speedy and uneventful trip to Tokyo. We'd decided to try a different hostel and headed over to Anne Hostel. It was in Asakusa, which is the same the same neighbourhood as our other Tokyo hostel (K's House), so it was pretty straightforward for us to find it. And while Anne House isn't as new and modern as K's House, it has a leg up in the atmosphere department, I think. It has a small common area with two long tables side by side. The small size is actually an asset, because it keeps everyone together, and interaction is inevitable. So we ended up hanging out in the common area for a bit to send some emails, look up some info on the internet. And the conversation flowed easily between us and the other guests.

The conversation included current events, or rather the most current of events: The death of Kim Jong Il. The TV in the lounge had the 24 hour news channel on, and it was being talked about nonstop. This is huge news in the world, but even bigger in Japan given its proximity to North Korea and the idle threat that I expect it constantly poses. It's definitely an interesting place to be for this event. I guess we'll see what's next for North Korea, and who takes over, and if they end up opening things up or maintain an iron fisted ruling. It's hard to imagine things getting much worse for the North Koreans though, so I have some hope.

The evening began with the purchase of some Suntory whisky. When I had watched Lost in Translation, I assumed that the whisky brand was made up. But nope. It's real! And it's actually very good. "For relaxing times, make it Suntory time." No sign of Bill Murray anywhere though, unlike the ubiquitous Tommy Lee Jones and his Boss drink ads.

So some whisky kicked things off, and then we set out with some people we met at the hostel to find a bar. Which is easier said than done in the area we were in, it seemed. Not sure if we went in the wrong direction or what, but we couldn't find anything. We did find a nearly empty and overstaffed restaurant, so we went in there to ask if they had any beer. One of the cooks figured out what we were after, and said, "You want beer, very cheap?" Our eyes lit up. "Yes! That's exactly what we want!" He then led us out of the restaurant and down the street, and pointed us up a staircase to the promised land. We thanked him, and he went back to work at the restaurant.

Now that's some next level customer service. And we weren't even his customers...

We went up to a bar and found a big table suitable for our big group, and ordered some drinks. We ended up making some conversation with a couple of young Japanese people at the next table. This was aided by the fact that one of the people at our table had actually bothered to learn some Japanese, and the two young Japanese people actually knew some English. Even with that, it was still pretty rare for us to have had any interactions with any Japanese people. It's a fairly closed culture from what we can tell.

So we had a bunch of fun, enjoyed some cheap beer, snuck some shots of Suntory whisky when the wait staff wasn't looking, and had some good conversation.

Eventually, things had gotten good and fuzzy, and it was time to leave. We got our bill and left our money on the table. Fatal mistake.

On our way at the door, the staff asked us to pay our bill at the register, and we indicated that we'd already paid at the table. When they went to check, the money was gone. So either one of the wait staff pocketed it, or the two Japanese people we were hanging out with took it. We were pretty dejected, having never really had money stolen from us before. And in Japan of all places, the land of honesty. We eventually came to the realization that we were going to have to pay again, and there was nothing we could do about it.

So don't leave money on the table in Japan. You pay at the register. We should probably have realized that by now, since that's how every other place in Japan has been so far.

The next morning, we paid for our mistake again with pretty wicked hangovers. Not much happened for us in the morning, and by the time we got going, we didn't have a lot of hours left in the day. Even then, we moved very slowly.

And we finally got some redemption in the form of ice cream burgers. Oh man, we had waited so long to try them, and the ice cream burger stand was finally open! But our building anticipation was met with disappointment when what we got were tiny macaroon type snacks with a bit of ice cream in the middle. Not exactly a "burger". Not even a "sandwich". Just sad, really. They were ok, I guess.

But at least we were on a bit of a role as far as achieving some of our unfinished goals in Japan. So we went to tick another box before days end: robots.

And what place would have robots if not a place called the National Science Museum? Robots are science for sure. They're like the pinnacle of scientific achievement, right?

Well, the National Science Museum was pretty well done. It was a lot of natural history displays; animals and the like. But they had a whole floor dedicated to interactive technological displays. This is where we definitely would have found robots, had there been any in the museum... No robots. What a disappointment. We were pretty led on by the whole "science" theme of the place.

It wasn't a total loss though. Besides being a pretty well done museum in its own right, they also had a Nobel Prize on display that you could hold and take your picture with. Mitch and Mike are both scientists, so this was a pretty big opportunity for them to actually hold a Nobel Prize. I advised them not to do it though. It's probably like the Stanley Cup, where if you touch it before you've actually won it, you jinx yourself from ever winning one in real life. Mitch and Mike didn't listen, so I guess that's it for their Nobel Prize hopes. And they had such promise too... I didn't touch it, so it's still a possibility for me... but not being a scientist is a pretty big handicap.

And then it was night time. And we were out of steam thanks to the lingering effects of our previous night. So we called it a day with the intent of making the next day a full day of important sightseeing. This would also be our last full day in Japan, so it was our last chance to find robots or get on a Japanese game show.

But we decided to start the day with the fish market. This had eluded us earlier in our trip, thanks to it being the second Wednesday of the month, or some damn thing. So we checked a dozen times online to make sure that everything we found suggested that the Fish Market was going to be open, and that it wasn't some weird holiday. You definitely want to be as sure as you can before waking up at 4:30 am. Fool me once....

But we would get our redemption today. After waking up another guest who wanted to join us (it's pretty hard not to feel like a jerk waking anyone up at 4:30 am) we set out on the subway to the market.

And finally, the wonders of the Tsukiji Fish Market were ours to behold! And what a beehive of activity it is! There are things happening everywhere all the time. It's kind of amazing they allow tourists in, given everything that's going on, but I suppose it's a public market so you can't really keep us out (except when it's closed... ahem...). Even before getting in, there is a constant parade of mini trucks buzzing around, shuttling styrofoam boxes and goods around. Inside the market is a seemingly endless grid of stalls a processing areas where people are busy working to sell the days catch. And everything you can imagine that lives in the sea is available for sale, it seems.

The volume of fish products available at 5 am sure must mean there's a lot of fishing activity going on in the middle of the night. And it's quite a sight to see it all laid out on display, or to watch people using a bandsaw to cut open giant tuna. It surprisingly doesn't seem to have an overpowering fishy smell either.

Speaking of tuna, there is a tuna auction that's supposed to be pretty intense, but it isn't going on this time of year. We did catch a vegetable auction, but... I mean, it's vegetables. So the level of enthusiasm from everyone is probably a lot lower.

After spending about an hour taking it all in, the group of us realized it was time for some breakfast sushi. And since there are lots of kiosks and shops just outside the market, we had no problem finding a sushi restaurant with the freshest sushi I will ever eat. It was pretty darn good. A bit of switch not having it come around on a conveyor belt, but we made the adjustment.

But since we had to get up so early, we followed this up with a nap back at the hostel. After getting up, we regrouped and tried to figure out what we'd do on our last full day in Japan. I had a singular mission: try to get on a Japanese game show. Mitch didn't quite share my enthusiasm, so he decided to set off elsewhere and look for gifts for his family. But Mike and another guy from the hostel decided to join me. This guy had actually met someone from FujiTV that had offered to give him a tour, so we even had an in! This was looking like it might happen!

I read that game shows recruit contestants (including foreigners) on or near the Rainbow Bridge, and the FujiTV headquarters was just on the other side of the bridge in Odaiba. So that was working out perfectly. We took the subway to the station where it connected to a driver-less train that took us across the bridge to the island of Odaiba. There's a nice beach area here, but not too crowded in December. Actually, it got warm enough that we took our sweaters off at one point. Not bad for winter!

In the FujiTV headquarters, well, I'm going to cut to the chase here. We didn't find any game show recruiters, nor did anyone seem to really understand what we were looking for. I'm sure they get annoying requests from tourists all the time, so it's understandable. Still, it's a very cool building, and the island is really quite nice with lots of trees and open space. A stroll along the waterfront was a nice consolation.

I wanted to walk back across the Rainbow Bridge, but the footpath was closed on Mondays. I don't know how or why a footpath, which is a fancy word I'm using for a sidewalk would have hours, or ever be closed. But there you have it. Shut down once again in Tokyo.

That's ok. We had big plans for the evening anyway. Something we had been looking forward to for days: The X-Bowl!

The X-Bowl is the championship of the Japanese league of American football. I found out about it only because I was trying to see if we could go catch a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome while we were here. There's no baseball this time of year, but I saw the "X-Bowl" on the Tokyo Dome's schedule of events. Once I looked up what that was, it sounded intriguing. And it's also on our last night in Japan, so that's fate. We expected it to be a pretty silly time.

And so did just about everyone we told about it back at the hostel. We rallied quite a group to go see some Japanese football. It was going to be pretty ridiculous.

But you can't go to a football game without tailgating first. But there's no parking lot, hence no tailgates. I'm not sure if there really is a big tailgating culture in Japan. So we got some beers at a convenience store and drank them out front of the stadium by ourselves. Like champs.

We were trying to finish our beers as quick as possible, since kickoff was going to be soon. One guy decided he couldn't quite finish, so he was still drinking it when the security line.

When he got just inside, the security guard waved his finger, indicating "no". This is exactly what you'd expect when bringing open liquor into a sporting event. What you would not expect is for that security guard to take the beer and pour it into a plastic cup and hand it back, which is exactly what happened!

Wow! So hang on a minute.... You can bring your own alcohol into the stadium? How do they even make money here? This is an unusual business model. One that we are going to exploit big time... Mike went on a beer run back to the convenience store and stocked up for us. What a country!

The football itself was somewhere below the level of the CFL, but it was pretty fun to watch. The stadium was not very full. It was general admission, and we got in about five minutes before kickoff and sat front row on the 50 yard line. There was quite a few people there none the less, but they were spread out around the lower bowl. For some reason, these prime seats were open.

The crowd was separated into two halfs depending on which team you were supporting. We sat in the Obic Seagulls section. But Japanese language does not have all the sounds to say Seagulls, so it sounds more like "She-Gulls". That would be our team for the night. They were handing out noise makers at the door, so we helped ourselves.

At half time we were expecting a pretty incredible half-time show, because Japan is just like that. There were about 200 cheerleaders on the field from all the teams in the league doing a choreographed routine. We were hoping for some pyrotechnics or a lightshow, but we never got it.

The game was pretty close in the end, but the Fujitsu Frontiers held the lead the entire time. In the end, it came down to the last play of the game, and if the Seagulls had gotten a touchdown from the 15 yard line, they would have won. It wasn't meant to be I guess. If we wanted to cheer for winners, we should have sat on the other side of the stadium.

That was our X-Bowl experience. It was pretty fun. I'm sure a baseball game in that stadium would be even better.

We had one more thing to try to check off our list before leaving Japan, and that was a capsule hotel experience. There's a big one in Asakusa where we've been staying, so we headed over there and checked in. If you've ever wanted to pay for a night in a hotel using a vending machine, this would be your opportunity. We put our money in and were given a receipt which we exchanged at the front desk for a key, a towel, sheets, and a bathrobe/kimono. Then we were off to find our pods.

Really, a capsule hotel is like a fancy hostel... sort of... in some ways... The capsules are basically bunk beds with walls. And the walls are insulated to keep noise out. They also have their own TV's, radios, alarm clocks, and plug ins. Other than a bathroom, it truly is a self contained room.

The bathrooms are shared, and more like bathrooms at University dorms. Outside the bathrooms were lockers where we put our bags. We donned our kimonos, which I think are meant to be one size fits all. They were not, and being 6'2", they were barely long enough to hide my thunder.

All in all, it was pretty great time in the capsule hotel. Nice to have some privacy. Well, not entirely I guess. The "showers" which are on the top floor... well they're not showers exactly.

We used the bathing facility the next morning. It's a big bath that you share, and you can sit on a tiny plastic stool and use a bucket to rinse yourself off. It's something, but that water sure doesn't look too good after all the other guests have been in it. We stayed out of it, and stuck to the tiny plastic stools instead.

We were also given toothbrushes that pasted themselves with toothpaste when you run them under water! The future is now!

It was a pretty cool experience at the capsule hotel, and something I'd do again. As Mitch noted, it's got everything you really need.

We woke up the next day with about half a day at our disposal for one last adventure. And we decided to check out the Toyota Showroom. It was full of Toyota cars and racecars both past and present. And there were a couple of interactive displays that we returned to a couple of times... because they were pretty much video games. One had a motion simulator component, and the object seemed to be to drive as fast as you could through the windy countryside without crashing. It wasn't easy. The other one seemed to want you to obey the law, but still drive through the streets of Tokyo in the minimum time possible. Every mistake cost you points. Mitch set a pretty high score on that one.

And that was it. We took our bags and headed to the airport. And there was one last surprise waiting for us: David Suzuki. He was on our flight back to Vancouver, and a lot of other passengers took that opportunity to have a chat with him in the boarding area before the flight, and have their picture taken. He seems like a really nice guy.

So we saw David Suzuki, but that didn't make up for not seeing any robots. I think we did Japan wrong.

We also didn't see any Tokyo drifting, nor did we ever unravel the mystery of how the vending machine style parkades actually work. So there are some reasons to come back to Japan. But mostly robots.

So that's it! Japan is in the books.

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Photos

Our New Best Friend
He helped us find a bar

Our Other Other New Japanese Friend
Who later probably stole our money off the table...

Our Traditional 7-Eleven Breakfast Picnic
Like Homeless People...

Finally, Some Baseball
Only a few people playing pickup, but still, it counts.

Mitch Holds a Nobel Prize
Which obviously jinxes him from ever actually winning his own...

Full Crosswalk Mode
Thousands of People..