Lightning striking twice

Went to Leeds on Saturday for the day to visit Sammy-boy and  I’d happened to catch a cold just a few days before.  The same thing happened last year when I visited Leeds with Jim-bob and company.

I arrived roughly an hour behind schedule due to setting off late from Birmingham, and coupled with severe roadworks on the M1 limiting traffic to 50mph, I hit Leeds at around 12:30pm.  I had a look around Sam’s new pad and boy is it gorgeous.  He’s living in an awesome studio apartment literally 2 minutes away from the Leeds Hilton, affording fantastic views of the surrounding area.  Rent is a bit steep he tells me but he’s got so much more free time now since he’s not having to do his previously ridiculous commute.  He does however have a ridiculous cupboard in his kitchen as you can see from the photo above.

We didn’t really have anything to do, though I did need to visit Maplins to pick up a few bits and pieces for my pending MacBook Pro upgrade.  Using Google maps on the iPhone, we got there swiftly and had a look around.  Sam had no idea a place like Maplins existed and was rather impressed by all the components available.  I picked up a precision screwdriver set, which happened to be on buy-one-get-one-free so I gave one set to Sam.  I also bought an external 2.5″ SATA hard drive caddy to recycle the hard drive I’m taking out of the Mac.

We had a wander around Leeds city centre, which I do prefer to Birmingham.  The sun was shining and the place seemed to have character, unlike Birmingham’s mish-mash of 70s and modern architecture.  We had lunch at Wagamama since Sam loves the place and none of his friends do, so I couldn’t deprive him of a visit. We’d noticed that Zavvi seem to have been bought out by a company called Head.  They had 25% off everything, meaning you could pick up a mainstream Blu-ray for just under £10!  This co-incides with the Zavvi on Oxford Street in London apparently reopening as a Virgin Megastore.

Due to the cold I had, I was drinking an inordinate amount of water so was pissing like a racehorse.  The huge Starbucks coffee I had below Sam’s apartment complex didn’t help either, though it had to be the quietest and plushest Starbucks I’ve ever seen.

We had a quick blast through a few chapters on Resi 5, and it’s clear that the game benefits from two co-op players.  Incidentally, I cleared the game again on veteran difficulty and unlocked the infinite ammo gatling gun.  Mowing down enemies in a hail of bullets has never been so fun.

It was now time to head back home since Sam had friends to meet up with and it would take over 2 hours to drive home.  I might get the train the next time I visit him again seeing as he lives virtually next to the train station.

When times are hard

The economy has imploded, fact.  Everybody’s affected and complacency will only get your ass made redundant.  Is there light at the end of the tunnel?  Analysts are predicting recession for well into 2009…

To help us through these bleak times, a local petrol station to me has an incredible meal deal offer, which they’ve creatively named “Credit crunch meal deal”, and consists of a can of fizzy pop, a chocolate bar, and a packet of crisps.  That’s not a meal, merely accompaniments to a meal!  OK, maybe a 5 year old child would rejoice and to be fair, that’s 33p for each item but still…  On the plus side, their petrol is cheap at 92.9p a litre for unleaded, which is cheaper than a year ago!

How not to eat sushi

Not sure if this one’s made the rounds yet but I found it to be a good giggle.

Tokyo – Day 8 & closing thoughts

Well, the end of my whirlwind trip had arrived.  My bags were packed and the check out was almost immediate. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay with the Tokyo Green Ochanomizu Hotel; the service was efficient, friendly, very reasonably priced, and based in a great location.  Consider this place if you’re travelling to Tokyo.

Since I had a suitcase to lug to Shinjuku station, I decided to use Akihabara station since it’s a complete flat walk as opposed to the uphill climb to Ochanomizu station.  Akihabara’s streets were more or less dead as expected for 7:30 in the morning, a stark contrast to how it normally is.  The station was fairly busy though, with all sorts of people using the line; there doesn’t seem to be a day where Tokyo switches off and as such, it’s always full of life.  There weren’t many seats on the express train so I decided to stand since it was only a short hop away.  Getting to Shinjuku, I had to work out where the Narita Limousine Bus station was and took a chance on it being next to the other bus stops and thankfully it was.  After lugging the suitcase up a flight of stairs, I realised there was an elevator to my left…

A coach had just pulled up and had a lengthy queue of people waiting for the service.  I quickly made my way to the counter to buy a ticket, but the guy said that the next two coaches were already fully booked and I’d have to wait until 8:45am for the next available service.  My flight was due to leave at 11am so I considered my options of either waiting or catching a train.  I could always go and have some breakfast and come back since I’d have a space reserved, or risk the trains with a large heavy suitcase.  I decided to go with the coach and bought a ticket.  Somebody up above liked me because there were a few no-shows and they were able to squeeze me on board, so away we went to Narita airport.

It was absolute mayhem trying to leave Tokyo and with it being the weekend, I assume everybody else had the same idea on their minds.  We passed by Roppongi but I didn’t recognise any other locations.  There was a really adorable Indian little girl sat in the seat in front of me, who I was making faces with back and forth for most of the journey.  Sat next to me was a white guy, not really sure of his nationality but he was from somewhere in Europe after I had a brief chat with him regarding Narita security.  We’d just arrived and security personnel boarded the coach, asking to look at everybody’s passports – all very strict.  There are only two terminals at Narita though they’re quite a distance from each other so make sure you’re at the right one and thankfully, I was!  I decided to have a quick smoke before entering since I wasn’t sure whether I’d have another chance until arriving at London Heathrow in Blighty.  Jimbo reassured me that there would be a smoking room of some sort inside the airport, since “it’s Japan, and people would be killing each other if there wasn’t”.  Check-in was largely empty, with two white guys rearranging and dumping luggage to try and get it within the weight limits.  I passed them by and checked myself in (in English) and then came something which threw me completely off.  The lady asked me if I had any lighters packed in my suitcase, and obviously I did, not wanting a repeat of my trip to Vegas with yet another limited edition Zippo.  The lady asked me to remove them and carry them on my person or in my hand luggage instead!  Not wanting to be refused on the flight, I obliged and did as she requested.  I was told I would have a window seat towards the rear of the plane which was nice since I like being able to see the outside world.

Moving on to security, it was very strict with me having to remove my laptop from the bag before x-ray, something I’ve never had to do before.  I always cringe when I have to go through airport security, though I had nothing iffy on me this time so nothing to fear!

On the other side, there was very little in the way of duty free or even places to eat or relax, compared to Britain’s larger airports.  I’ve found this to be a similar situation at most large airports around the world, with Hong Kong’s new one being an exception.  I still had about 30 minutes before the boarding gate opened so I took the opportunity to stock up on some cigarettes for myself and some sake for some people back at home.  It was only 2000 Yen (£10 or so) for 200 Mild Seven 6s, so I now had 600 coming back to the UK with me.  I bought some duty free special sake for 2000 Yen a bottle as well, which sorted me out souvenirs wise for friends and family.  Getting rather peckish, there was a McDonalds in the terminal serving breakfast so I bought myself a bacon & egg McMuffin and do you know what, it’s the best McMuffin I’ve had in years!  The bacon is the old, gammon style that we used to have in Blighty which I find much nicer than the gristley real style bacon they serve now.  Wolfing it down, I quickly made my way to the boarding gate which happened to be one of the last in the terminal.  Boarding had already begun but there was a conveniently located smoking room to the left so I took the chance to have a quick one.  Smoking rooms in Japan are horrible places, with little to no ventilation and it really is like the smoking facilities you see in movies from the 70s.  All stocked up on nicotine, I joined the queue to board where a security guy asked me how long I’d spent in Japan.  It was an odd question to be asked by security I thought and I wasn’t sure if he was making conversation or asking me a deadly serious question.  I told him I’d been in the country for 8 days on holiday and then he ushered me on my way.

Boarding, I found I was located near the rear of the plane and there was somebody sat in my seat!  The Japanese girl spoke American English and apologised, moving to her actual seat in front of me.  In hindsight, I regret making her move because the flight departed with quite a few empty seats, with one right next to her (one guy had an entire row of 4 to himself, allowing him to lie down to sleep).  I was sat next to an older lady, who kept herself to herself.  I was thankful for this because as much as I enjoyed Ged’s company on the flight into Japan, it left me absolutely fucked because I couldn’t sleep or get any rest.  The flight left a little late and the quoted time in the air was close to the 12 hours, with an arrival time of 3pm at Heathrow.  The stewardesses on the flight were much prettier compared to the one going into Japan, with one in particular standing out amongst the rest (I think her name was Naoko or something similar).  I didn’t do much on the flight apart from sleep and pen a few blog entries, which actually helped the time pass by very quickly.  The food was decent, but I can only remember the one meal I had which was a meatball pasta.  They had the bento again but I thought I’d mix it up a little.  There was a baby on the flight who was seriously testing out her lungs and did not let up for most of the journey; I can’t really complain because I was apparently a bad traveller as a baby too.  Flying into London afforded some fantastic views of the city, with the landmarks being clearly visible.

We pretty much landed at Heathrow on time but it was absolute chaos getting through passport control and that was with a British one!  Once through, I was officially back and simply had to wait for my luggage and Kiyomi.

Tadaimasu – I am home now.

Closing thoughts

Damn, I miss Tokyo.  I seriously miss Tokyo.

As one of the world’s supercities, it gets so many things right and so few things wrong.  It truly has a romanticised feel to it (for me at least) and feels like a living, breathing city.  Each area has its own flavour and feel and is something that I feel a lot of cities are slowly losing about them; London for example just feels the same everywhere bar a few unique parts like Camden, or Canary Wharf.  It’s very much a place designed for people and doesn’t feel like a rat race where ever you go, with an efficient rail infrastructure connecting it all.  Trains are reliable, clean, and relatively comfortable given the time of day you travel.

The people have to be the stars of the show for me.  Everybody was so accommodating in all aspects, and it was a pleasure to interact with such a gentle society.  Kiyomi and her friend Natsumi both asked me how Tokyo-ites treated me whilst I was out there and I had nothing but praise for them.  They were both quite surprised by this because people of Tokyo are known to be cold and ruthless, much like their counterparts in London or New York.  I never saw any sign of this and people had as much respect for each other as they did for me.  Regarding the English language thing, learn some phrases and words before you go and they will serve you well.  Few people speak decent English and the further you get from tourist areas, the worse it gets but even with that, they were all more than helpful with trying to get me to where I needed to go.  Those that did speak decent English really enjoyed the opportunity and if you want to really make their day, compliment them.  Japan is steeped with tradition and there are loads of societal taboos which you should be concious of.  If you’re ever unsure of what to do in a particular situation, do what others around you do because observation really is key.  Culture shock does exist and I saw so many Western tourists who just couldn’t get their heads around certain customs.  It’s not for everybody and having seen it first hand, it is easier to empathise with Bill Murray in Lost in Translation.

The food in Tokyo was fantastic and quite rightly so for a city which now boasts more Michelin stars than Paris.  I tried as much variety of food as possible, but my two favourite meals were ramen and curry rice.  I’m very much a comfort food kind of guy and these two warm, hearty dishes were like heaven for me.  Portions can err on the small side at times, with few opportunities to increase the size, even at fastfood places.  Tokyo has London beat on eating out for price, quality, and variety.  Try everything because you may never get the opportunity again.  Hygiene in Tokyo is fantastic and never did I once question whether I’d get food poisoning or not, even with the chicken sashimi.  Drinking in Tokyo is a bit of a mixed bag but then I didn’t do much of it to be fair.  It can be expensive and like food, portions tend to be smaller, but if you drink where the locals go then you shouldn’t be stung too badly.

I found shopping to be better in Hong Kong for prices, but you can’t beat Tokyo for variety.  There was too much choice at times, especially for electronics.  Clothes are typically more expensive if you go after the typical Western brands and designers, but there are some great Japanese brands to be had at decent prices and great quality.  With a more powerful Yen, bargain hunting will be a difficult task for the next few months at least.

Since coming back to the UK, I’ve not been able to stop thinking about Japan and Tokyo.  As bizarre as it may sound, my trip there was almost a pilgrimage of sorts, being able to experience all the sights, sounds, and tastes that I’ve only ever received third party accounts for.  People have asked me if I would ever consider going out to Japan alone again and now, it’s the only way I would consider doing it, unless I went with friends who could appreciate it as much as I do.  Yes, I am being an elitist snob but that’s just the way I’ve become about the nation which receives so much fascination from me.  For others, it’s merely an unusual novelty.  Could I ever live and work out there?  Jimothy and Keiko seem to think so.  The way the UK is heading, it would be the saner choice.  I’m not getting any younger either and I have no ties to keep me down right now.  A colleague of mine has always wanted to live and work in France or Italy and he had the chance when he was a lot younger.  He now has a family to look after and regrets not taking the opportunity when it was there.  All I need is one push…

Thank you all for checking my accounts.  I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them, even if it’s taken nearly a month after returning to complete it all!

Yokohama – Day 6

After a night of wanting to throw up due to the room spinning, I woke up with a stinking hangover.  Jim-bob was also suffering and definitely in a state far worse than me.  Keiko didn’t hear us return, thankfully, but did later comment that Jimothy’s snoring did wake her up and despite being pushed and prodded, he was dead to the world hehe.

The day was gorgeous by British standards (and probably by Japanese standards, given the days before), with blue skies and a temperature of around 25 degrees.  Since we were both feeling fragile, we took it easy that morning and went for a casual stroll around the neighbourhood. Being the geeks that we are, an arcade was our first port of call.  It was incredibly priced, with Initial D costing only 100 Yen (50p or so).  It was also incredibly dead so I continued to load the machine up with the monies until the ushii came home.  Jimbo played some Virtua Cop 3 and something else that I don’t recall.  We found another arcade where Jimothy showed me his music game skills and had a few goes on Drum Mania, Guitar Freaks, and Beat Mania; don’t ask me to tell you the versions, I have absolutely no idea.  We made our way to the station where somehow, we ended up talking about women’s underwear for some reason or another.

To Yokohama we ventured, where we had arranged to meet Chikara.  Sawa and Keiko were after new laptops and we were going to have a goosey-gander in Yodobashi Camera for some netbooks from Asus, Acer, and so on.  We waited around by the street level entrance, but the usually punctual Chikara was late (shock horror!), so we took some photos to pass the time.  I’m actually very impressed with Jim-bob’s composition work, and a few of his shots on my SLR have impressed me.  Chikara eventually turned up and we made our way to Sogo for lunch.  Sogo is one of my favourite department stores, with my first introduction to the chain in Hong Kong.  There was a store in London many, many years ago, but that was taken over by Virgin, and it’s now an empty shop lot.  Once again, the department stores in Japan are all very plush and full-fat affairs, with the restaurant section on the top floor resembling an outdoor water and rock garden of sorts – all very intricate.  Chikara took us to his favourite ramen restaurant where we all had the regular ramen, with Jimbo and Chikara opting for their salt soup base (a house special) and shoyu soup base for myself.  The ramen was superb and not badly priced at 3200 Yen (£16) for the 3 of us.

After lunch, we had a look at the rooftop where there was some astroturf for football and a view of Yokohama Bay, which wasn’t all that impressive.  We returned to Yodobashi Camera for a look around and it really is heaven on Earth for geeks.  Looking at the mobile phones, I was thoroughly impressed by the variety available.  I even saw the phone which inspired the look of Tony Stark’s phone in Iron Man (the flippy-swivelly one).  According to Jimbo, the reason why there are so many phones on the Japanese market is due to everybody wanting largely the same features, but in a certain colour or a certain style; on Softbank for example, the new Panna (?) was available in at least 10 different colours.  The floor of camera equipment was also a sight to behold, squeezing the Birmingham branch of Jessops (second largest in the UK) into what is an electronics department store, with far more on the shelves at that.  During our perusal of the store, the highly addictive Yodobashi Camera theme (reworked Battle Hymn of the Republic) was playing on a loop:

After our geek-out, we decided to do some touring of Yokohama and headed over to the Sea Bass (Sea Bus) station.  The Sea Bass is simply a boat which takes you across Yokohama Bay and affords some great photo opportunities of the Bay Bridge and Landmark Tower.  Out came the camera no less…

We were all diseased or injured, with Chikara suffering from a sore knee, Jimbo with a sore throat, and me with a sore ankle.  All day long, we were chanting “my foot”, “my throat”, “my knee”, trying to get sympathy from the public and each other.  I miss the banter…

We arrived on the other side of the bay which looked fantastically shiney and new.  Got some great views of the ferris wheel, made famous for me by the wonderful anime, “Honey & Clover”.  Leo would have loved it and it made me feel some nostalgia for the Summer of 2005.

The area was amass with shopping complexes, restaurants, conference halls, and sculptures.  In many ways, this particular part of Yokohama reminded me of the redeveloped parts of Manchester or the London Docklands as Jimothy’s already pointed out on his blog.  It was lovely to just walk around, taking in the sights and sounds.  Chikara mentioned that at Christmas, there is a massive tree indoors which is supposed to look absolutely stunning.  They don’t do things by halves in Japan it seems.  There was also a weird and whacky piece of installation art of a lad about to do the high dive…

I’ve already talked about having to pay to go to the top of Tokyo Tower in Roppongi and it’s no different for Landmark Tower, though at 1000 Yen a pop, we decided to give it a miss.  I kind of regret that decision now because it was such a nice day and it would have been a nice opportunity to take some photos which weren’t cloudy and overcast.  Apparently, there was also a Pokémon store inside the shopping complex for the tower; I know some folks who would have creamed themselves to have been able to set foot inside.

The 3 of us decided to make our way towards the Nippon Maru, which had opted to close in the next few minutes.  Due to meet Keiko after she finished work for the day, we headed in that direction, passing a baseball stadium (I forget the team) and entering a swanky looking part of town, with plenty of fancy western style cafes and restaurants.  Having some time to kill, we popped into a cafe for some drinks and a smoke for me.  The smoking and non-smoking sections of this cafe were laughable, with nothing more than some simple wood beams which were not even connected, separating the two areas.  We had a chat about possible places that Jimothy and Keiko could move to, making both of their commutes to work easier.  Since I’d been on my feet for most of the holiday, I didn’t really get much time to buy souvenirs for people back in Blighty.  For the folks back at work, I decided to get some Hi-Chus since they went down a treat the last time I brought some in.  We went to an Am Pm combini and I must have grabbed about 12 packs of strawberry and apple flavour which came to about 1200 Yen, which is still more reasonable than the £1.50 a pack in Covent Garden’s Cyber Candy (though the Japan Centre sells them for 78p each!).  We soon met up with Keiko and made our way to a station, somewhere in Yokohama…

We popped into an import food store on the way to meet Sawa, where they sold a decent variety of food stuffs from Europe and the US.  Prices were steep with a jar of Sharwoods curry sauce costing about 700 Yen (£3.50 or so).  They also had stuff which you could pick up in Lidl for less than a quid, but if you’re desperate…  There was a film crew shooting a scene for either a movie or drama of some sort, with 2 characters dressed up in Santa suits and surrounded in Christmas decorations.  How they were going to break the illusion of people walking past in t-shirts and shorts when it’s supposed to be Winter is anybody’s guess.  We eventually found Sawa who very kindly got me some pastries for my birthday (and delicious they were too).  The walk to the yakitori place took maybe 10 minutes, but involved walking inside a long and noisy tunnel, and nearly being mowed down by cyclists.

Chikara told us that he typically visits this particular yakitori place once or twice a year.  It looked fairly traditional and we were able to have an entire room to ourselves, so you can bet we were as noisy and silly as possible.  The food selection we chose from the menu was ecclectic, with such juicy morsels like yaki cheese (grilled/fried cheese), chicken heart, and yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls).  The most memorable dish for me though is without a doubt the chicken sashimi.  For those not in the know, it was essentially raw chicken.  Now having grown up in salmonela and E Coli infested Britain, this immediately raised alarm bells, but then you have to remember that Japan’s livestock are typically not raised or treated like they are in the West.  Everybody reassured me that it was perfectly safe to consume, though Jimbo commented that I might have a minor dicky tummy the next day (I didn’t in the end).  So, “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”, as the saying goes since I’d probably not get the opportunity again.  And how did it taste?  Oddly, I quite enjoyed it though I probably couldn’t have had more than a few mouth-fulls.  Rather strangely, it all tasted very familiar which raises the question of where have I had raw chicken before in the UK??  I had a wonderful time, and it was nice to just relax and chat with everybody, which is now a real luxury for me.  The bill came to about 20, 000 Yen for the 5 of us, which ain’t too bad at all really.

Sadly, it was time to leave but that did give me a chance to get a shot of the funky tunnel and Jimothy…  We all made our way towards the station and after a few stops, we soon had to say goodbye to Chikara and Sawa.  I do miss them, Chikara especially for his sense of humour.  He really is one of the funniest guys I’ve met in such a long time thanks to his rather unique sense of humour.  Hopefully I’ll be able to see them again in the Spring if I can get myself out to Japan again.  It was soon time to bid Jim-bob and Keiko goodnight also.  I would thankfully be seeing them again the following night for dinner at an izakaya, after the original plan of dinner and drinks at the New York Bar and Grill in the <insert version> Hyatt fell flat (next time!).

This day and the previous one were my favourites from my trip.  Yokohama is a lovely place and has real character where ever you go.  I will most definitely have to give the place a more thorough look on my next visit.

Photos of the day can be found here, here, and here.

Tomorrow would be my last day in Japan, as well as being my birthday.  I planned to visit Asakusa, and made repeat visits to Akihabara, Shibuya, Harajuku, Omottesando, and Shinjuku, as well as dining with Jimothy and Keiko which I’d decided to name “the last supper”.

Tokyo – Day 2

Being jet lagged to fuck, I had an awesome night’s sleep at Keiko and James’ place.  I also finally got to have a melon pan, which despite what Yakitate Japan has taught me, it doesn’t actually contain any or taste of melon in the slightest!  The name simply comes from the shape, which resembles a melon (clutching at melons if you ask me, or is that a different game?).

We had a busy day ahead of us and Jim-bob was quickly becoming quite ill with his sore throat.  Keiko was also worried about me (bless her) since I looked like an express train had hit me the night before, so we played it by ear.  I actually outlasted Jim-bob but that’s besides the point.

We headed out towards the station where I noticed that McDonalds serve some breakfast burgers on sesame seed buns, talk about bizarre!  We got on a train line, which I sadly can’t remember.  Anywhere that I went to with either James or Keiko, I can’t for the life of me remember names or directions to.  Our first destination was Yoyogi Park.  Jim-bob likened it to Hyde Park and it was your average central city park.  Visually, it looked a bit downtrodden and gloomy.  I also got to see one of these infamous Japanese crows which are truly huge, no doubt an inspiration for the abundance of zombie crows found in the Resident Evil games.  It was a Sunday morning and there were plenty of people up and about, mostly in yoga sessions and power walking.  There was also a large gathering of dog owners participating in what I can only call dog play groups.  I couldn’t stop laughing at this one massive dog which was constantly trying to hump every other dog in sight; some sort of dominance thing, or so Jim-bob tells me…  The variety of dogs was impressive, and you would struggle to find a wider selection of canines short of going to Crufts or some other dog specialist convention.

Jim-bob and I headed towards Meiji jingu for a moment of spirituality (and plenty of photos).  The day was overcast but warm, and pretty much held out until the early evening; pretty much ideal for a day’s worth of sightseeing.  There were tourists aplenty since it was a Sunday, and I’m not just talking gaijin here; Jim-bob explained that ever since the economy went bust in the early 90s for Japan, in-land tourism has increased significantly which makes sense.  I saw plenty of adverts and posters for such places like Hakone and Hokkaido, and living in a small town but visiting Tokyo would be no different to me visiting London for the weekend.

We did the motions before entering the shrine: washed our left hands first, then right, and take a sip of the water (optional).  It was an impressive sight to behold, and was immaculately well maintained.  What was interesting was that there were plenty of modern refurbishments to the shrine, such as new storm drains and flood lights.  I wonder if Japan has the same sort of protected historic building mantra as the UK does, or whether they sensibly make changes where they’re needed?  I saw a tree where you could write a wish or a prayer on a plaque for 500 Yen; I didn’t bother with it this time but on a repeat visit, I decided it would be worthwhile.  I settled on just a simple prayer and went through the ritual which involved throwing in a coin with a hole (not so sure about this since the free guide says “a few coins”), bowing twice, clapping twice, and making your prayer before you let your hands go from the second clap.  Did I feel any more spiritual or at ease with myself afterwards?  Not really since it was so busy, hence the repeat visit at the end of my trip.

Our next stop was to Shinjuku to visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building.  At the base of the tower was some sort of girl scouts meet.  There were plenty of stalls and girl scouts about, and even Ampan man made an appearance!

There are two towers at the TMG building and I believe we opted for the North tower. Admission is free, though bags are prone to search before you’re allowed to enter.  Going up to the observation deck, there is a cafe of some sort and a souvenir store which seems to sell everything remotely Japanese. The view from the deck is incredible; all you can see is urban sprawl right into the horizon.  On a clear day, it is apparently possible to see Mount Fuji.

I think we had lunch at this point.  We went to a chain ramen place in Shinjuku near the station and Yodobashi Camera.  Like most chain eateries, you go to the ticket vending machine near the entrance and insert your pennies, and make a selection from the menu.  It’s an efficient way to run a restaurant, and removes some of the problems with taking orders.  We both settled on a basic cha-siu ramen, which were indeed very good, which I found surprising for a chain.  Chikara later explained to me that ramen restaurants are a dime a dozen, and that they have to at least be decent to remain competitive and stay open, so there you go.

We decided to head back to Harajuku bridge to see some goths and rock-a-billies.  It was a bit crazy and there were tourists aplenty.  I enjoyed it but it’s the sort of thing that I’ll only ever need to experience once, Harajuku on a Sunday that is; any other day and it’s your normal shopping district.  Harajuku is one of the many youth fashion camps in Tokyo.  There are plenty of shops and stalls selling the sort of stuff most students rock most of the time.  I actually ended up buying a pair of jeans in Harajuku since my trusty pair of Ralph Lauren’s had given up on me.  The flies had broken and there were several large holes in the crotch area; I semi-flashed Keiko the night before haha…

We headed back to Yoyogi Park to see us some rock-a-billies.  There were only two gangs there, and both wouldn’t have looked a miss in a Grease musical.

Once we were done with Harajuku, we headed over to Akihabara.  I wanted to get a particular lens for my camera and this was the place to get it.  The one I wanted is simply a high-end version of the stock 18-55mm lens I was given, but with a bit more zoom and a bit wider (17-85mm).  We found a Laox discount store, which also offered duty free shopping (why it was discounted, I don’t know), and all in all, along with a protective filter, came to about 68,000 Yen (about £350).  The other bonus is that it’s definitely made in Japan, since there are rumours of some Canon lenses being made in Malaysia depending on the batch you end up with.  The customer service was also exemplary; the sales guy gave me the lens to test out on my camera and he tried his best to communicate with a few English words and phrases.  I’m also certain that he said that my lens was ideal for “gravure” photography…

According to Jimbo, Akihabara is no longer the place it used to be.  Despite only ever having seen Akihabara in pictures, film, and third person accounts, I did get the vibe that Jimbo described was lacking.  The place had become full of tourists and there were very few authentic otaku about; most had moved to the back streets or other locales.  It is still a great place to shop for electronics and other anime related goods, but don’t go expecting it to be as crazy as it once was.  There are still plenty of maids about though near the train station, though I did not visit a maid cafe sadIy.

Next up, we hit a few arcades on the main street.  I finally got to try my hands on Street Fighter 4 which isn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be.  The visuals are a lot nicer once they’re in motion and the jarring Westernised look isn’t quite so obnoxious.  The joystick was something I could not get along with though; it had an odd square gate as opposed to a regular circular one so it was very difficult to do smooth motions.  We also played Taiko no Tatsujin where we both got down with the Evangelion theme.  I got to play Initial D too so I was a happy bunny.  All of the arcades allowed smoking which was like heaven for me.  What is a bit odd is that it’s easier to find somewhere to smoke indoors in Tokyo than it is outdoors, due to various restrictions in place.

At this point, Jimbo’s throat got significantly worse so we headed to a very pretentious cafe at the station.  After a drink, he decided to head on home and we parted ways until the following Wednesday.  Leaving me alone in Akihabara is a dangerous thing to do…

I continued to do some solo exploration and ventured further up the main street.  I popped into a cool electronics department store called Sofmap because I needed a new camera bag since my old one no longer fit with the new lens.  Cutting a long story short, I bought the wrong one and needed to buy another one .

I checked out a few anime stores and found one in particular that was very good, they had their merchandise sorted by anime so it made it very easy to look for stuff.  Sadly, most of the merchandise was for the most recent of shows, leaving me out in the cold.

I was getting quite hungry at this point so I decided to hunt down the Mos Burger which Kiyomi had recommended.  I opted for the seafood rice burger which wasn’t bad, but it was very bland.  I had to douse the thing with so much salt just to give it a kick, which I found myself doing quite often whilst in Japan.  The food is good, but generally very flavour neutral so if you like your spices, I’d pack a travel bottle of Tobasco.  I ended up talking to a random German guy who was in Tokyo on business, who shared my thoughts on the food.

Conveniently, there was a smoking shelter next door to Mos Burger.  I don’t know about the rest of Japan, but in Tokyo, you can be fined for smoking on restricted streets (majority of Shinjuku falls into this category).  As I mentioned earlier, it is actually easier to pop inside somewhere for a smoke than it is to traipse around looking for a smoking shelter or an ashtray outside.  As a result of this, the streets of Tokyo are generally very clean.  I wear jeans which tend to drag on the floor a bit and after a day of walking around London, they would be ready for the wash, but in Tokyo, there was plenty of wear left in them.  One other perculiarity I noticed about smokers in Japan is that few ever smoked the cigarette to even remotely near the butt.  Most would get to about halfway or 2/3 and would then put the cigarette out.  They simply are that cheap out in Japan that it’s possible to do this, hence why I’ve come back to the UK with a fair few more cigarettes than I should have hehe…

At this point, the heavens began to open up so I decided to walk home.  On my way there, I passed a store which had a meaty looking queue outside so there must have been some sort of DVD, or game release at midnight on the Monday.  I’d had a hardcore, but thoroughly enjoyable day and felt enlightened.

Photos of the day can be found here and here.

Tomorrow, I will visit the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Shibuya for some fashion and music goodness, and Omotesando, where I would end up getting lost for the first of many occasions in Tokyo.

Let’s hit The Hut!

As discussed yesterday between James and I, I thought Pizza Hut was worthy of a blog entry.  When dining in a small to large group, Pizza Hut has proven to be exceptional value for money in their deals that they offer.

Last week, James, Leo, and I visited The Hut and had their “More for” deal which nets you a large pizza of your choice, a medium pizza of your choice, a combo sharer platter, and a large salad plate.  Between the three of us, it came to about a tenner each and we were absolutely stuffed.  Couple this with free refills on the drinks and we were quids in.

Yesterday, James, Keiko, Chikara, Sawa, and myself went to The Hut and had the same deal as above but we added another medium pizza on there to share around.  What we didn’t know was that they had accidentally cocked up our Super Supreme and made it a Supreme instead.  They gave us that one for free and brought out the correct one later which we all found quite amazing; most places would have just apologised for the delay and binned the incorrect one or kept it back for staff to consume.  So, we had absolutely shed-loads of food all over the table, all of which was very good.

So there you have it, if you’re dining with a group of friends and want table service but don’t want to pay through the nose, get yourself down to Pizza Hut.

The boys are back in town

I’m in agony today every time I walk up or down stairs today from yesterday’s activities. For those who didn’t know, it was Jim-Bob’s stag do and in the end, we settled on paintballing as our über masculine event of choice (there seriously were no women, even from the other groups at the site).

James, Chikara, Pedro, and Nori arrived fashionably late due to some confusion *ahem* and we finally got underway. Somebody had the bright idea of giving both teams green overalls and then to differentiate us, they gave some green tape to wrap around one team’s arms. It was so hard to identify a team member from the opposition and I know I very nearly shot a few of my team. The other thing we were slightly annoyed by was the amount of waiting we had to do between games; it did give us all a chance for a breather and it did help to conserve paintballs so it wasn’t totally bad. All in all, there were 8 rounds played and I think everybody had a good time so for anybody who’s looking for stag do ideas, paintballing gets two thumbs up from me. I do warn you now though that you will end up battered and bruised; my bruises drew blood whereas Jim-Bob’s looked more like bee stings. One poor lad on the other team had a massive red bloody bruise on his neck so beware of them paintballing vampires!

We all had Pizza Hut for lunch and then headed into Wellington for what did become a mini pub crawl. We got a few rounds of pool in and even a spot of karaoke. The conversation with everyone was what I enjoyed the most, learning a little bit more about everybody. I’ve never organised a stag do before (never had too many friends who have gotten married yet), nor have I ever been to one and I did spend a few months fretting about ideas and what to do but I think it turned out very well!

Thanks to everybody for such a good day!  A big shout-out to the weather too for being so kind to us!

Photos can be viewed here.