Tokyo

Good day.

This past week was great! Obama won! I haven't lost all of my faith in Americans now. I also went to Tokyo with Grahame last weekend for the 3-day weekend, which was amazingly awesome. I wish I could be there right now...Ah well. Here, let me tell you all about the weekend.

We took the Shinkansen on Friday at 7, and we arrived at Tokyo Station around 10. I actually just came from Seth's mini-birthday get-together at an izakaaya near the station. Anyways, in Tokyo, we somehow managed to get to Akihabara, aka geek-kingdom, and wandered to our capsule hotel.

Wait, capsule hotel? What is that, you may ask? It's a cheap hotel where your "room" is actually a 2x3 meter capsule. Coffin, if you like. I actually didn't quite fit, my legs were just a little too long for the capsule, but I managed to make it just fine. When you are ready for sleep, you pull down this little window shade at the entrance of your capsule. The capsule itself includes TV, Radio, and a fire alarm. The Japanese sure know how to make efficient use of space.

So after checking in, Grahame and I decide to go out on the town in Akihabara, see the sights, so to say. Well, the sights in Akihabara are all closed at night. (funny side note, they are also all closed in the morning, seriously, Akihabara must only be open between the hours of 3 and 4). So, instead of the electronic epileptic seizures I was expecting, we found a 24 hour ramen shop and called it a night.

The next day we got up bright and early to see all of the sights in Tokyo. We got our breakfast at a burger joint outside Akihabara station. Burgers in Japan, they’re like, well, burgers…made in Japan. They’re just not quite right ever. So, I’ll correct my first sentence, we had burger-like food for breakfast.

After breakfast, we met up with Mari near the Edo-Tokyo museum. It was great to see her again! It was also sort of weird, because I’m used to her in America, and now I’m seeing her as a Japanese person and my schema got all mixed up. Anyways, we walked around the area a little bit and went to…Mos Burger for lunch! Ok, so I’ve had “burgers” for 2 out of 3 meals so far.

After lunch, we went to the Edo-Tokyo museum, which was really cool. Old Japanese things (including swords) woohoo! If you check my pics on facebook, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

We had a great time there, and afterwards we took the train to Asakusa. Asakusa was wicked cool! There were huge Tori Gates and an even huger temple and shrine. But, between the gigantic tori and the temple were tons of street merchants and literally a sea of Japanese people. There was a cool machine that made azuki treats and you could buy them warm off the press. For those of you not in the know about Japanese desserts, azuki is crushed up beans. Yep. As they say in Japan, dericious. It’s actually surprisingly good, but I still lack the language to communicate that vegetables don’t constitute dessert.

So anyways, after literally swimming through Japanese people, we get to the temple, do a few little prayers (ok, how does it go again? Throw in money, clap twice, ring the bell, pray, clap again) and head out to walk around Asakusa.

There we ran into some ninjas!

We headed into a café to take a break and prepare ourselves for the night. It was good to recoup. It was also decided (thank you Grahame) that we would go to the one haven of America food, the one place in Tokyo where we knew we could get our cholesterol-laden, butter-covered, steaks with a side o’ bloomin’ onion: Outback. Yes, there exists one in Tokyo, in Shibuya (good nightlife-place) no less. So, up and at ‘em.

We got off at Shibuya, where we met up with Seth and Natasha (Mari’s friend who also happens to be a GW student. This is where Mari described to me the perils that await. “This one intersection, right here, see all of the people crowding around at the edge of each corner?”
“You mean the 5,000 people staring at us across the street?”
“Yeah, they want to be where we are standing, and we want to be where they are standing. This street is the human collision place.”
I stared across the street at the vast amount of black-haired people who, anytime now, were going to power-walk across the street, all aiming to get to where I was standing right now.

Gulp.

Then, the light changed! People were streaming everywhere! I tried dodging while taking pictures, my camera raised above my head like that over-eager student in your poli-sci class who won’t shut up. I bumped, smacked, and stumbled across the street. And then, it was over as quickly as it started.

We continued walking towards outback. And then I was told the dramatic story of the famous Docomo Dog (or Shibuya dog, I can’t remember).

“So, there was this dog that waited for his master everyday, and one day his master didn’t show up, and the dog still waited.” Thanks for the drama and the storytelling guys, I really feel the emotion.

Anyways, we made it to delicious Outback. I had the All-American half-rack of ribs and chicken; my two American compadres got steaks. Mari’s boyfriend, Toyo, met up with us there, and we had a great (American-sized portion, finally) meal.

With out bellies full, we headed out to see Shibuya nightlife. We were hustled on the street by some guy who told us he could get us all you can drink for 1300. So, we waited in the arcade 15 minutes and proceeded to the izakaaya for our nomihodai.

3,000? What? Nice try, izakaaya workers, we’re threatening to leave. Thanks for talking them down to 2,000, Mari. Ah, all you can drink for $20 for 2 hours, I can deal with that. Oh, and Dharma and Greg is playing (without sound) on all of the TVs around the izakaaya? Uh, sure.

So we had our fun at the izakaaya and called it a night. Seth and I planned on going to the fishmarket the next morning (it opens at 4:30 and closes at 8), but luckily it isn’t open on Sunday, which meant I could sleep in my capsule a little bit later.

Sunday, Grahame and I (Seth went to visit his grandfather) went to Harajuku, after our burger-breakfast, of course, to see all of the people dressed up. Sunday in particular, Japanese people dress up in crazy outfits in Harajuku. I wish I could explain why, but I can only tell you that I found the shops where they sell these outfits. I got a free hug from the people giving out free hugs, and then we had to go.

After some pictures, we headed to Tamanakobaba to see Waseda University’s school festival. Remember when I was writing earlier about Japan being really crowded. Yeah, this was the worst. I think it ceased to be people, and instead became some huge Nihonjin beast, and you had to edge your way over into the correct crowd of people moving in the correct direction in order to get anywhere. Grahame and I were suckered into buying some “tasty Japanese sweets.” Ok, remember a few paragraphs ago when I was writing that vegetables don’t count as desserts. Well, I haven’t spread the word far enough, because I had vegetable-mochi ball things with a small smattering of chocolate on top. We had a few funny looks from Japanese people considering we were all foreign and stuff, so we ate our candy and left.

We met up with Mari for a few minutes since she had a huge chorus concert she was part of. After watching some terrible, terrible hip-hop groups try and dance, Seth made it to the University and the 3 of us watched some traditional Japanese dances, the band, and some overly ecstatic male cheerleaders.

On our slow way out from the festival, we stopped by and bought Waseda beer. It was ok, but perhaps a little too pale ale-ish. We sat down on the steps of a closed store to drink our beer, and all of the Japanese people walking by gave us 1 of 2 looks. The surprised “wow, what are they doing? Drinking in public is legal here, but I am so confused.” Or the “oh foreigners…” look.

So, walking with our beers in hand to the Tamanakobaba (haha, say that 3 times fast) train station, we got on the train headed to Harajuku again. We were hoping to see the temple there before the sun set, but we didn’t quite make it. So instead, we walked around Harajuku, seeing funny posters, weird people, and taking in the sites.

We got dinner at some really awesome British pizza place (are you getting the “anything but Japanese food” theme we had?), and then went to this wicked awesome Docomo cell phone building. They had prototype cell phones that could fold into boxes, could turn into functional drumsticks, piano keys, and guitars. They also had a game where you sat down in a chair facing a partner, and the chair vibrated with that person’s heart-rate, and you had to click a button on your chair when their heart beat while they were doing the same thing. Then the machine rates the bond between you and that person. Seth and I got “best friends,” but I was more interested in to know about that woman behind the counter, maybe next time.

Unfortunately, Seth had to take the night-bus home, so we headed to Tokyo station and went to an Irish pub, got some food or drink, and, on our way back to the station, were asked if we wanted a massage. No massage, thank you, we’ll just keep walking.

Grahame and I then headed to Shinjuku to check out the nightlife there. We passed by our Orientation Hotel…ah good memories Keio Plaza Hotel. We passed by some familiar places, just as we hit the actual downtown, it was time to catch our last train. How did we know this? The mass exodus of Japanese people all heading in one direction.

I do have one gripe. On the way to downtown, we saw a few foreigners harassing Japanese people. This one guy had something in his hand and then he’d get in the way of Japanese people who were walking by and show it to them or something. What the hell? 1) Why would you do that? 2) Are you mentally challenged? 3) What’s your problem? 4) I’m gonna go with mentally challenged. Really though, that’s a great way to reinforce all of those negative foreigner stereotypes they have here. Thanks, guys.

Ok, that ended our night. Now we're at day 3. Phew, almost done typing this.

We woke up in the capsule hotel and sadly had to say goodbye. I enjoyed my time sleeping in a coffin, but alas, back to expansive beds and big rooms for me. I actually met a Japanese guy who was living in the capsule hotel- he didn’t have a job and said it was the cheapest thing for him.

So, Grahame and I went to Harajuku to check out that temple. It was the awe-inspiring. I wrote about it in my first post, and this second trip there was no less amazing. In the middle of Tokyo, it’s just this huge temple and forested area. So awesome. Again, check my pictures to get the full story.

After this, we made our way to Tokyo Station, got our Tokyo Banana omiyage, and headed on the Shinkansen back to Hachinohe.

BUT there’s a little bit more!

The bathroom on the shinkansen has a window in it. It’s a one person at a time bathroom, and people can look at you and pretty much see what you’re doing. Luckily for me, it’s just my back they are seeing, but still!

So, we made it home safe and sound, and I didn’t want the weekend to end. But it did, and now I’m back in Hach.

But there’s more!

Some random things, sure, I’ll call it Random Japan, that happened I forgot to write about:

I was getting my gas filled up at a small gas station halfway between by home and my schools. A woman knocks on my window, so I open my door, and she gives me a bag of apples and runs away! I didn’t have time to ask her “what?” or say “hi” or anything. I don’t think she knows me, I was far away from places where people know me, so I’m just really confused.

I also got the chance to harvest sweet-potatoes with my students. Yep, I borrowed some boots, and after lunch we went out with the whole school and harvested sweet potatoes. Alright.

Ok, I will hopefully add pictures to this to flesh out the story. Have a great week!