Japan Randomness Part Ni: After the tour ended, JC and I spent a Sunday taking the JR Yamanote line from our Keio Plaza hotel in Shinjuku to Harajuku. The purpose was to finally meet the world-famous Harajuku cos-play girls.
Cos-play is this subculture where these teenagers get dressed up in outrageous costumes every Sunday and hang out on the bridge next to the Harajuku station. Supposedly these are kids who've been bullied in school, and this is their rebellion. I guess it's sort of like the punks and goth kids in America, except it's taken to a very Japanese-centric level. It's like role-playing and anime come to real life...And then there is the whole rockabilly scene in nearby Yoyogi Park, where guys in motorcycle leather jackets and slicked-high hair and gals in poodle skirts dance to badly choreographed songs like Pineapple Princess, with pineapple props no less...Furthermore strolling thru Yoyogi Park, we encountered a row of rock bands, all set up about thirty feet from each others. They actually were really good. If I were a record exec, I would have signed a couple of them up on the spot...Finally we ended up somehow at a Sunday flea market. The young people there were so hip and cool I wanted to stay there and breathe in their vibe so I too can be cool...Our tour guide for the first day was named Junko. The next day her brother, our real tour guide, Akira Oka, took over. Our bus driver is Mr. Ishida. They were all terrific. Especially Akira - who has to be like the nicest, most informative tour guide ever. On the final morning, because we are leaving for the airport too early to have the hotel breakfast, Akira actually bought us buns and juice for the bus ride. I am not sure if that's part of what they are supposed to do, but man, that's service...My favorite stores in Tokyo are: Muji, Tokyu Hands, and BicCamera...
The food was amazing. I didn't have a single bad meal in the entire two weeks. Maybe my favorite was the Japanese banquet-style kaiseki dinner at either the New Akao in Atami or at the Biwako Hotel in Otsu...We went geisha hunting one night in the Gion district in Kyoto. It was more difficult than hunting for vampires. But Shawn did manage to snap one while she was getting in a taxi surrounded by her handlers. She tried covering her face with her hands - it was a very Britney Spears/Lindsay Lohan moment, with whiter make-up and no crotch shot...I met a few of JC's Japanese coworkers from his company's headquarter in Tokyo. They took us out to dinner one night. They are all very cool, nice people. I've exchanged a few emails with Kenya, who turns out to be a fine arts major and is an excellent painter, and Katsuhiro and hope to stay in touch...Regrettably JC and I didn't make like
Otakus and go to a maid cafe in Akihabara, the "Electric Town" district in Tokyo. Nor did we go to Ninja, a restaurant where the waiters dress like Ninjas and sneak up with your food...I didn't really care for castles and temples, but I did like the
nightingale floor at the Nijo Castle. The floors are constructed so that whenever people walk on them, they make a chirping noise so that no assassins can sneak in. That's pretty darn cool...And no, I did not partake in an oisen bath. That's a little too much nakedness for me...The most anti-climatic for me was the Tsukiji fish market for me. We woke up at four-something for it, and by the time we got there, we caught the tail end of the fish auction (haha - get it? tail end of fish auction?). When all was said and done, watching people sell fish is just not that fascinating. Fish is better on a plate, sashimi-style, not with fins and head and eyes and scales...In our tour group, there was this family from the Bay Area that actually was pretty annoying. I mean, generally they were fine with us, but one night, when we went to a restaurant for our tonkatsu dinner, they made a scene because the air-con in the room we were seated in wasn't working properly. The rest of us didn't make a big deal of it. Yes, it was hot but damn the tonkatsu was delicious (we had to grind our own sesame seeds and then add the tonkatsu sauce). They on the other hand demanded to be seated in another room and simply acted like jerky Americans. They waited forever to have their meal, while we ate and then went out and roamed the streets and enjoyed the rest of our free time. The lesson to be learned there is, don't be so demanding and expect things to be done only your way, try to enjoy the moment and the experience, and you are always better off for it.
Japan Randomness Part Ni: After the tour ended, JC and I spent a Sunday taking the JR Yamanote line from our Keio Plaza hotel in Shinjuku to Harajuku. The purpose was to finally meet the world-famous Harajuku cos-play girls. Cos-play is this subculture where these teenagers get dressed up in outrageous costumes every Sunday and hang out on the bridge next to the Harajuku station. Supposedly these are kids who've been bullied in school, and this is their rebellion. I guess it's sort of like the punks and goth kids in America, except it's taken to a very Japanese-centric level. It's like role-playing and anime come to real life...And then there is the whole rockabilly scene in nearby Yoyogi Park, where guys in motorcycle leather jackets and slicked-high hair and gals in poodle skirts dance to badly choreographed songs like Pineapple Princess, with pineapple props no less...Furthermore strolling thru Yoyogi Park, we encountered a row of rock bands, all set up about thirty feet from each others. They actually were really good. If I were a record exec, I would have signed a couple of them up on the spot...Finally we ended up somehow at a Sunday flea market. The young people there were so hip and cool I wanted to stay there and breathe in their vibe so I too can be cool...Our tour guide for the first day was named Junko. The next day her brother, our real tour guide, Akira Oka, took over. Our bus driver is Mr. Ishida. They were all terrific. Especially Akira - who has to be like the nicest, most informative tour guide ever. On the final morning, because we are leaving for the airport too early to have the hotel breakfast, Akira actually bought us buns and juice for the bus ride. I am not sure if that's part of what they are supposed to do, but man, that's service...My favorite stores in Tokyo are: Muji, Tokyu Hands, and BicCamera...
The food was amazing. I didn't have a single bad meal in the entire two weeks. Maybe my favorite was the Japanese banquet-style kaiseki dinner at either the New Akao in Atami or at the Biwako Hotel in Otsu...We went geisha hunting one night in the Gion district in Kyoto. It was more difficult than hunting for vampires. But Shawn did manage to snap one while she was getting in a taxi surrounded by her handlers. She tried covering her face with her hands - it was a very Britney Spears/Lindsay Lohan moment, with whiter make-up and no crotch shot...I met a few of JC's Japanese coworkers from his company's headquarter in Tokyo. They took us out to dinner one night. They are all very cool, nice people. I've exchanged a few emails with Kenya, who turns out to be a fine arts major and is an excellent painter, and Katsuhiro and hope to stay in touch...Regrettably JC and I didn't make like Otakus and go to a maid cafe in Akihabara, the "Electric Town" district in Tokyo. Nor did we go to Ninja, a restaurant where the waiters dress like Ninjas and sneak up with your food...I didn't really care for castles and temples, but I did like the nightingale floor at the Nijo Castle. The floors are constructed so that whenever people walk on them, they make a chirping noise so that no assassins can sneak in. That's pretty darn cool...And no, I did not partake in an oisen bath. That's a little too much nakedness for me...The most anti-climatic for me was the Tsukiji fish market for me. We woke up at four-something for it, and by the time we got there, we caught the tail end of the fish auction (haha - get it? tail end of fish auction?). When all was said and done, watching people sell fish is just not that fascinating. Fish is better on a plate, sashimi-style, not with fins and head and eyes and scales...In our tour group, there was this family from the Bay Area that actually was pretty annoying. I mean, generally they were fine with us, but one night, when we went to a restaurant for our tonkatsu dinner, they made a scene because the air-con in the room we were seated in wasn't working properly. The rest of us didn't make a big deal of it. Yes, it was hot but damn the tonkatsu was delicious (we had to grind our own sesame seeds and then add the tonkatsu sauce). They on the other hand demanded to be seated in another room and simply acted like jerky Americans. They waited forever to have their meal, while we ate and then went out and roamed the streets and enjoyed the rest of our free time. The lesson to be learned there is, don't be so demanding and expect things to be done only your way, try to enjoy the moment and the experience, and you are always better off for it.
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