Things Done in Eastern Lands: Tokyo Trip

So last weekend I made it out to Tokyo with Johnny & Yuri. The city was not quite how I expected it to be considering it being one of the more densely populated places of this planet. The city was not as claustrophobic or devoid of plant life as I had imagined either. Parks, shrines, and full sized trees are scattered throughout the city and provide a nice break from the concrete jungle of modern architecture. I honestly was expecting something closer to NYC but encountered something like Kyoto and Osaka mixed and added together. These were just my first impressions though. I can't truly say what this city is actually like based on my weekend of tourism, all I can convey is last weekend's vision of Tokyo as seen through my eyes.

So I did take the night bus on Thursday night. I went to Kyoto early before leaving, and wound up seeing 'Resident Evil 4' in 3D to kill some time. I honestly enjoyed it. The opening scene took place in biggest crosswalk of Tokyo, and subsequently the entire city was destroyed by a self destruct mechanism activated in the base underneath the crosswalk. This is the first scene of the movie on the eve of my visiting the city for the first time.

As for the night buss, it was actually a great time. I had an assigned seat in the bus, and apparently whoever made the list decided to pair the only two foreigners together. Upon realizing this I introduced myself in English to someone I completely assumed spoke English. My assumption was correct, but it was clearly not his first language. His name is Timur, and we talked for awhile getting to know each other. He is from Azerbaijan, he is half Russian, and speaks collectively five languages. He is a really great guy, is an actual architect/graphic artist, and is studying Japanese in Kyoto. Timur wound up travelling with us Friday night and all of Saturday till he returned to Kansai. We actually accommodated him in our lodgings at the Tokyo Cozy House in Ichikawa. On Friday I spent the hours of 7:30AM to 4:30PM seeing the sights around Tokyo station on foot. It was peaceful and fun. I even managed to squeeze in an hour of pool at a billiards hall. (People only say Billiards here. Pool makes no sense.) Then at four I was off to check in.

The Cozy House was legitimately as cozy as the name entails. It was an old apartment building turned into a house for foreigners. Two of those foreigners were actually some fellow UMASS students, Gavin and Bumi (Burumi). I was surprised to find out that Johnny and I had actually been assigned the room next to theirs, since I was under the impression that Gavin was living somewhere else. It was a pleasant surprise, and made perfect sense. Gavin did suggest our lodgings after all. We got a great deal from Shichi-san the landlord. and stayed two nights. It was the perfect place for us to stay given our budget.

So, Gavin, Bumi, Yuri, Johnny, Timur and myself spent the better part of the weekend together. We went out to an izakaya and wound up missing the final train of the night. We were faced with hours of waiting, so we did Karaoke till 5AM and spent the time wisely. Mind you, Timur and I had been awake nearing 24hours at this point, but somehow I managed to make it through to the first train at 6:30AM on which I then passed out in the squatting position that is so very popular in this country.

Saturday we got up about 2pm, and it had been raining all day. It later rained very hard. We all hit up Akihabara (Akiba) and spent a while shopping around and visiting various establishments including a couple of erotic shops. For dinner we wound up going to a Maid Cafe, all of us first timers. It was interesting because we had to sing at our food with the maid before eating it, and periodically there would be cafe wide singing between the maids. Personal photos of the maids inside the cafe is strictly prohibited, but getting a picture with a maid was possible if included with your set meal. Timur had to catch a bus at Tokyo station while we were there so we all said farewell.

Sunday we went to Ueno and walked about a famous park that was littered with shrines, vendors, a zoo, and Japan's highest concentration of homeless in the country. It was beautiful. There was a street performer with a large crowd that everyone got caught up in watching. Johnny and I decided to split a Mango ice cream from a spectating vendor, and by the time we had finished that off, Gavin and I were volunteers for 'The Human Art Museum'. We apparently were depicting Picasso's Guerninca. I was the horse. It was a fun and interesting experience for all of us.

We then checked out the Ameyoko shopping arcade of Ueno that had some of the best shops I've ever seen in Japan. I definitely want to go here again someday. After some curry lunch we headed off to Harajuku, famous for it's shocking fashion scene. We split up, took it all in, and then headed to Tokyo dome area to ride the 'Thunder Dolphin' roller coaster. When we arrived at the area there were more than a hundred people cosplaying in the area around its beautiful fountain doing photo shoots. This was quite the stereotypical scene to be witnessing in Japan. We rode the coaster and it blew all of our minds! Seriously, an experience/feeling I will never forget. This roller coaster is like a giant middle finger directed explicitly at human basic instinct. What a triumph (there is a picture of it below). This was essentially the last great stop of for our trip. Yuri caught the shinkansen home thanks to her business travel expenses, and after dining with Gavin an Bumi at Akihabara, Johnny and I parted from them to face the long Journey home on the night bus. Though not before we each chugged a tall and strong chu-hi to mellow out enough for the bus.

The ride was smooth, we made it to the apartment by 7:30 am, and visited an Onsen later that day. The rest of this week I mostly spent recovering from our intense traveling and working on my Halloween mask. I plan to paint it soon, and there is an up to date picture of it at the bottom of this post. Also I managed to score an abandoned bike from the sports park in town. Apparently it's been sitting dilapidated there for a while, so I have a bike to fix up as a new project. Yay!

Anyway, Yuri, Johnny, and I ate at this burger restaurant called #23 JB cafe last night. Very American style. Apparently the 23 is for Michael Jordan. I ordered the special burger, and it was a bit bigger than my two fists. It had double patties with an over-easy egg and ham slapped into the middle. It was a 'really good burger'.

Today (sat. the 16th) JB and I attempted to get a court to play tennis on at the same sports park in town, but apparently a reservation is needed in order to play. So we essentially failed. Tonight though we will be hiking along with a boy scout troop led by one of Yuri's co-workers to Ibukiyama. We start hiking at night (around 11 or 12) so as to watch the stars and sunrise. I am relatively excited for this, and I'm sure Johnny is even more stoked since he is an Eagle Scout. Ok, thats is mostly what's been going on in my life this past week and a half, and I'm of to pack for our outing with the scouts. BAI. BAI.