Japan

On Friday my friend Ian and I left Texas and arrived in Tokyo Saturday. I had two goals for this trip, my first outside of the country. The first goal was to be shown around Japan by my friend Rob. The second was to eat some god damned amazing food.

I regard Japan as almost Rob's playground, a country that Rob has already explored and been dazzled by. He has already been living in his current location for six months teaching English and had previously been an exchange student there for another six months -- enough time for the new to become the familiar. Our friendship has gone back many years, and I trust his opinion as much as I trust mine. Rob was to show us the very best.

This was my first trip outside of the States. I haven't even been to Mexico. And I was going to Japan before Vietnam! It was all so exciting.

Flight

The flight was uneventful... more long than anything else. 12 hours on the plane plus Japan's 14 hour ahead time, it tripped me out leaving at 9 AM Friday Texas time and arriving at 5 PM Saturday Japanese time. I passed time listening to music, reading, and studying a few Japanese phrases.

They would randomly flash this screen, and that plane moved so god damned slow. It was agonizing watching it go. But we made it.

Guess who else was there to meet us?!?

The airport was about an hour's train ride away from our hotel in the Ueno district. While in Japan, I kept getting the train and subway mixed up even though we spent so much time just going to and fro. I've never really had the subway experience before, so it was very curious. There is always someone sleeping, and in general it's pretty quiet. It's the same type of air that you feel when you are in a cramped elevator shoulder-to-shoulder and no one's saying anything.




Our hotel rooms were small but nicely furnished and comfortable. I didn't get much of a chance to look around because we were to meet Rob's friend Sayaka in Shibuya district at the Starbucks (hah). We dropped off our bags and left 3 minutes later. I knew Shibuya was the hip place to be but seeing it in person was incredible.






I have never seen so much people just going places. Just going. And such well presented people, too. Fur lined parkas, short skirts, immaculately tussled hair, and of course, they wearing plenty of black. It was impressive to see the life of human traffic underneath all that neon.

Sayaka came, and we were off once again to go eat Yakiniku (Korean BBQ), the first of many delicious meals. There was pork, cow's tongue (the texture made me think of my own tongue), beef intestine (pretty good actually), and assorted vegetables.






We were off once again.




We got hustled in by some loud dude yelling on the street about his izakaya, Toro bar. Izakayas differ from regular bars in the cheap fare and the beer food (sometimes free!).




I was introduced to umeshu, Japanese plum wine, and Calpis, a sweet milky looking carbonated drink. Both recommended. At this point, the lack of sleep, the disorientation of the planes and train, and the alcohol caught up with me. Our train back to the subway station stopped running after a certain time, and we were right up against that deadline. They decided to run. Note that I didn't decide anything at all. I played the game of catch up, out of breath all the way, and we eventually made it on the train. I had to vomit, but thankfully held it in until we jumped off the train. Another guy wasn't so lucky, he puked on himself TWICE - once inside the train and then again on the station platform.

I felt fine after that, and we walked home, stopping by a convenience store.


The porn section impressed me. There was also an aisle dedicated solely to cheap, noodle soup.



We also got something from the vending machines. The blue labels are cold drinks, and the red labels are hot drinks. Why can't we have that in America?



2nd day (Saturday)

Waking up I had some time to actually look around the room.




Pretty standard, except tea instead of coffee and an area to put your shoes.



On the left are slippers provided by the hotel.



I also found the toilet illustration useful.




The view on the balcony was pretty nice too.

I liked the area around the hotel. It has a gray, almost cold, urban look to it, and it's moderately populated. We were to meet up with Ian's friend Yuri at Ueno's subway station.



We saw the police telling these bums to GTFO. The homeless were actually mostly kept out of sight, so I took pictures whenever I could.



At Ueno station.


If you are out in public, it is 100 percent likely you will see someone with one of these masks. At first I thought it was some paranoia Michael Jackson type fear, but when I asked I learned that it was actually the opposite fear - when people are sick, they don't want to infect others. I wasn't sick, but it did help keep my face warm.

We met up with Yuri, who's a very animated person with a cartoonish personality. She's pretty funny. Ian knows her from the States, and she was back in Japan visiting her parents. We walked through this closely packed market alley called Ameyayokocho.



Small shops like this lined up both sides of the street. It reminded me of Chinatowns and Little Saigons.



Today was especially crowded, as it was New Years Eve. Rob explained to me that New Years in Japan is like Christmas in America. People get work off for a few days to spend time with their families, and the banks were even closed until the 4th. Christmas in Japan is celebrated, but few people get vacation time for that.

We were getting hungry, so we headed off to this famous restaurant involving some lady on Japanese currency.




This was not the place, but this looked neat anyways.

Once at the restaurant we ordered soba and udon noodles, a staple in Japanese cuisine. It's nothing too exotic, just noodles, broth, and other stuff. It's good and toasty, perfect for coming in from cold Tokyo weather. I had shrimp tempura soba. (No pictures.)

We then headed off to get some Japanese ice cream.


Vanilla on the right, green tea on the right. Green tea ice cream is pretty good, a pretty mild and subtle flavor. I really like the stuff the Japanese serve with ice cream. The dark stuff is red bean. The chalky texture really complements the smoothness of the ice cream. There's also oranges, soft doughy rice balls, and gelatinous cubes (mostly tasteless). I think I noticed a parallel with Vietnamese desserts in that there is nothing too sweet without something else (usually red bean) to balance it out.

Then we were off to see Sensoji Temple, the oldest temple in Tokyo. Everyone in Japan visits temples the day before New Years, so it was going to be packed.

We saw these buildings on the way. The left one is supposed to be a beer glass, and the right... ?




Being raised Buddhist, I was interested in seeing how temples differed here. I have visited quite a few temples in my life. I found out, even in Japan, once you've seen one Buddhist temple you've seen them all.


The alley leading up to the temple was neat though, similar Ameyayokocho. Tons of ridiculously cheap goods and little food vendors.







People wrote their fortunes and tied them to this.



People came up to this burning incense, bowed, and wafted the smoke up onto their heads. Yuri did it to me and chanted "Intelligent! Intelligent!".

I think I gained about 50 IQ points.

There was also a well of holy water where you rinsed your hands in and be 'cleansed' I suppose, but the water looked dirty to me.

Here is my reaction to all of this:



What cemented my attitude was the final ritual/superstition: throwing coins as some sort of good fortune. Coins in Japan are not like coins in America either, people were throwing tons of 100 yen and 500 yen coins (approximately one dollar/five dollars). This was the end, this was the last thing you see in the temple. You walk through the alley, the entrance, the other fortune rituals, and you get to this! You see the back of three monks praying with a steel grate separating you, you stand there in a crowd, and you're supposed to throw money into the plastic tarp!


Is this religion?

Rob told me a friend of his who works at a restaurant says Buddhist monks come in and run up huge tabs all the time. Ah well, I hoped to see a Zen Buddhist temple as a reaction to all of this, but we didn't find one in time.

We left the temple to goto Tokyo's tech district, Akihabra. Unfortunately my camera started to die, so there's no pictures from here. What you would have seen: lots of towering buildings with neon, and lots of nerds. Actually, the variety of attractiveness of people reminded me more of America. Not ugly, but odd - in Akihabra. It definitely wasn't as glamorous as I thought it would be, and the stores were just like huge Best Buys. There was nothing amazing or any gee-whiz technology. Just retail. As always for me though, the lights and the crowds were still interesting to see, even though the area felt dirty and grim.

We did visit a Sega arcade building. I kept seeing these near the bigger city centers, which makes the gamer geek in me happy. I kept hearing the "Seeegaaaa" sound in my head every time I saw one. Inside was a different story though. I wish I had taken pictures, but basically it was a bunch of dorks zombied out in front of machines.

Then we were off to meet up with Sayaka and her friend, Miyu. Pictures on the way:



This was like a flash mob for dancing. These kids were running place to place in public and then would perform a choreographed synchonised dance to a boombox. What the hell? Very entertaining regardless.

Then the camera completely died. We met up with the two and all six of us went to Karaokekan, the same karaoke chain featured in Lost in Translation. The girls were serious and were great singers, and we sang shit like James Brown - Get Up (Sex Machine). Afterwards, the two had to leave to spend New Years Eve with their families, and we went to go eat, then back home to our hotel to rest for a bit.

That night, Ian and Yuri to visit more temples, and Rob and I went to the club Air, also featured in Lost in Translation. They played house music, and it wasn't too bad. It was more nice to dance than anything else, even crowded as it was.



One thing I noticed - the Japanese aren't good dancers. There was really no bodily expression, but you literally had to elbow and push people to dance at all, so maybe that was it.



Here we are with more of other people's sweat on us than our own.



Someone sleeping in the photo booth.


Something interesting happened on the way back that shed some light on to the Japanese public psyche for me. For some reason, once we got off the subway train we weren't allowed to exit. Areas were taped off, gates were shut, doors were locked. I saw people wandering around the station, looking for a way out. Most were standing in the area that would lead to an exit, with a confused stare into space. Then I noticed, no one was asking each other for help, at all. If they made eye contact, it was brief, and maybe there was acknowledgment of confusion, but no real communication happened. It was as if they were waiting to see what others would do, but no one did anything, so nobody did anything. It was very odd. In America in that situation, you'd expect to hear someone say "Whut in thuh hell?" and people chiming in asking what was going on and trying to help each other. Nothing of that sort at all happened. It's as if in a collectivist society such as Japan, it's way more accepted to help people than to show that you need help. To this foreigner's eyes though, the people were standing around like cows.

Eventually, someone opened up an exit, and we left for home, exhausted. It was a whirlwind of a fucking two days. After this the summaries of the days will be more condensed, as the pace slowed down dramatically (thank god).


3rd day (Monday)

Today we were going to fly to Sapporo, where Rob lives. We had to kill some time, so we walked around Ueno a bit and visited the park which had shrines scattered about.





The line of bums sleeping extends further than the picture shows. They had also set up tents inside the park.


You buy these plaques and write what your well wishes on them to hang. I like this fellow's wish:


Here is a mean ass looking cat:






We then made our way to the airport. I took this delicious bento box with me, which ended up being one of the better meals I had in Japan.



Stupid analogy: Bento boxes are like Japanese Lunchables.




At the airport:



All of us, very very tired:




I like all the cutesy illustrations in Japan:


Out of our six flights total, I didn't once get a window seat.



And what seems like is the case for everywhere, the airport is an hour away from the city.






But we made it!


And there is fucking snow!! And it's fucking beautiful! But we are so exhausted we end up crashing for 12 something hours.


4th day (Tuesday)

In the morning:



Tokyo was cold, but Sapporo is cold as shit. I enjoyed the weather.

Today we decided to hike up Maruyama mountain, which literally means "round mountain". The fact was once again confirmed that I am a puny weakling. I am completely out of shape, but it made hiking that much more fun.

Snow is beautiful.

About midway:




Rob made a snow mowhawk.


This made Ian furious.



The top:


Once there we saw other hikers. One group of men opened a bunch of wine and sake. Those smart bastards.

Then we began our descent, which was more fun to me than hiking up. The way down was steep at some parts, so you couldn't really walk down, you just slid down. I busted ass a few times until I learned to crouch in a squat position and slide. Then I had a brilliant idea - I jumped in the snow and lay on my back sliding down the mountain head first. I went down a good portion of the mountain that way.



There were little shrines all around the mountain's path. Other hikers had the courtesy to keep the statues warm with knit scarves and caps.




That night we went to the club Precious Hall to see DJ Noriano. He played a mix of disco-flavored funky house, much better than the DJ we saw on New Years. As we got there and it was only moderately filled, I watched the dancing. My suspicions were confirmed, the Japanese are completely inexpressive dancers. They step from side to side, some not even moving their arms. But they got out on the dance floor and spaced themselves out in regular intervals from each other. It was like watching some weirdo aerobics class in a dark room. As the room got more crowded and the drinks started pouring the dancing got a little looser. Just a little. Some started to slowly turn around in circles doing the side to side step.

Another very odd thing: the bar served free GOOD food. One was crab soup, the other was tofu soup, and the third was spicy chicken. A strange food selection for a bar but the crab soup turned out to be one of my favorite meals from Japan.

Cool building we saw on the way to the club:



5th day (Wednesday)

Wednesday we walked around the malls. New Years seems to be the biggest shopping event for Japan. Rob then took us to go eat at a kaiten-zushi place, where the sushi rides around in a conveyer belt around the bar and you grab what you want, though you can also order something if you wish. It was damned good, the best raw fish I've had up to that point (until the next time we had sushi).



The top left dish is natto, which is fermented soybeans. It was fucking nasty.

We wanted to see a Japanese movie in a Japanese theater, so we chose the movie Komaneko. It is a cutesy kids film done in stop motion. I didn't like it as much as Rob and Ian, but it was still a nice watch.

The smallest theater ever:


It was a renowned independent movie theater, so directors and writers and animators would come and write on the walls. One of Komaneko's animators:




6th day (Thursday)



Today we went to an onsen, one thing that every one agreed that we should do in Japan. Onsens are hot springs with bath houses built around them, and in our case it was a bit resortish feeling. We chose Hoheiko Onsen, set amongst a backdrop of snow covered mountains. 17 dollars for a round trip hour bus ride and entry to the onsen!

Looking out the front:


Other pics around the onsen:




I wasn't able to take any pictures in the actual onsen. So, imagine those snow covered rocks and mountains pictured around you as you sit in a steaming hot bath. Your body is enveloped in two opposite extremes. It's an awesome experience. After you get used to it, it's extremely relaxing and meditative. I wish I spent more time there.

Hoheiko also had a restaurant where they served Japanese and Indian food (Curry seems to be really popular in Japan).


That is Yumi on the left, Rob's girlfriend.



We also ate Gengis Khan served with a delicious dipping sauce:









Here we are leaving. That sound is me sliding on the ice:


7th day (Friday)


For breakfast we had Japanese soup curry, positively one of the best meals EVER. Those are fried mushrooms on top, with a chicken leg on bottom. It was so tender the meat just fell right off the bone.


The place looked like a hole in the wall we would have completely passed over if not for Rob:



Later we visited a traditional tea shop:



It was very very good, but the dude kept pouring water and made me drink more than I wanted to.

That night we ate at an Asian fusion cuisine restaurant which had awesome music and awesome atmosphere:




8th Day (Saturday)

Today we walked around Napporo, a forest park, and played around in the snow.

An ominous looking tower:




What kind of tracks are these?








Some choice screen grabs:




Snow on the dance floor.


Then we were off to eat sushi.




Later we met up with Rob's friends Yuki and Alex at a beer fanatic old dude's bar. He had beers from all around the world, and we paid for it. 20 dollars for two beers!! But they were fantastic anyways. I had Duval and another Belgium beer.



At this point I don't know where the hell we went afterwards, some bar or something. I was tired as shit and we had an early flight back to Tokyo in the morning, but we kept on chugging.




Then we rented a karaoke room, at upon arriving I promptly passed out. It was told to me that I was singing along to The Beatles - Hey Jude asleep.

I got maybe 30 minutes of actual sleep that night before we had to leave for our train to the airport. It was sad leaving Rob and our new friends, but he showed us the good time I expected.


Phase 3: Tokyo again

The phase slowed down even more, but I took lotso pictures. Here are several from the next 3 days.


Soba with beef:


Chocolate bananas:


This was basically pancake batter around red bean:



Harajuku:


The fashions weren't as outlandish as I thought they would be, nor in the number I expected. The crowd seemed high school age. I tried taking pictures of the more interesting outfits, but most came out crappy. Here are some though.






This day was also Coming of Age day. If you're a 20 year old female, you wear a kimono and celebrate by drinking sake all day.



This one was a complete accident, I swear:


Peeking out the window from "Family Mart":


Ginza, a high class area:



The fashion there was much less interesting than other parts of Japan. Blacks and grays may be elegant, but too much elegance is boring.

I saw a woman moving bikes to be more closely packed together. Then I realized, no one locks up their bikes! Can you imagine that happening in downtown Dallas?




There are two kinds of toilets in Japan, the kind we know and this kind where you squat in.





On top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Shinjuku:







In a Tokyo police station:


Yumi told me that some people had posters just for illegally carrying guns.

Roppongi (known for catering to Western tastes):









Back in Shibuya:




They were all looking at porn:


The alley of Ian's cousin's apartment where we stayed at:



Leaving Japan:



At the airport, our last Japanese meals:



All in all, it was a fantastic trip. We did such a variety of things -- it was brain and sense candy. Did it live up to my expectations? Well, it wasn't as exotic as I hoped. Being around Asians and barely understanding anything is nothing new to me :) But Japan is awesome regardless.

Something I wrote when we got into Detroit Airport (our transfer) on the way back to America:

America... First thing that hits me is the wide range of skin colors, body types, and body odor (no one smells strongly in Japan, of even perfume or cologne). Similarly, there is a wide range in airport service, mostly veering to the rude. And the TV is on.. OMG BRITNEY IN THE NEWS!! If only it were in Japanese so I wouldn't be able to understand it. I appreciate the diversity of people though, it is definitely one thing I missed. People are interesting looking, and I like variety.

Another thing I noticed-- and this may be local only to Detroit -- all the restaurant workers are black. I miss seeing black people.

Americans - bigger faces, bigger bodies... bigger personalities. The American public arena is wide open at the cost of social-enforced politeness. People here are loud and boisterous, some obnoxious. I would like to say though, when Americans are polite and welcoming, it is more genuine, but Rob assures me that when Japanese strangers engage him it is out of genuine kindness.

Here are some more pics.

Graffiti:










Funny Text:

(No assgrabbery)

Eggplant?




Shine that Versace!