Tuesday 9 December 2008

Nippon Ichi Ban

Konichiwa homeys! 

I've been meaning to write this blog post for a while, but between travelling (for business and pleasure) and writing up lists of things to do in Sydney for Phil to ignore, I've been pretty busy. Anyways, i was only in Tokyo for a week, and worked a lot of that week, and didn't take many pictures the rest of the time, so this is going to be a short post. 

As some of you know, I've always been fascinated with Japan, so i was amped to go there for a week, even if it was for work... After an overnight flight i ignored m bulging inbox, and headed out to check out some shops in Shibuya, which is the hipster district of Tokyo (this is a bit misleading because all of Tokyo is pretty hip).  It was at Shinagawa station, down the road from my hotel, where i had my first experience with the Tokyo public transport system, and i was blown away... I could write a whole blog post about how great the Tokyo metro is, but it still wouldn't do it justice. Tube be damned! The Japanese got it right. You have to be pretty mercenary though. If you get a seat, you don't give it up for anyone, 'specially not the aged who shouldn't be sitting anyway when there is work to be done somewhere. Shinagawa at night:

From Nippon

Anyway, witness Shibuya crossing below, apparently one of the largest in the world. Even if the Japanese had it in them to jaywalk, you wouldn't want to do it here...
From Nippon


I found some awesome record stores, and ate some super fresh soba noodles, and then headed back to the hotel to sit at the desk in my room looking busy when my manager Matt arrived. We then met our prehistoric agent Sawa-san who was a pretty cool old dude, but took us to a really bad restaurant for appetisers (only bad one we found the whole trip) and then apologised profusely, spitting as he explained that the owners were 'probably Chinese'. He then took us to a tempura restaurant that was pretty much the best meal of fried goodies I've ever had. During the meal, Sawa taught me that if you hold your chopsticks further back, then 'you don't have to put such a big piece in your mouth'. Jeebus, I was hungry!

Anyway, the next few days were a blur of meetings and trains (I almost got the white glove treatment in the morning rush hour) at huge Japanese corporations where all the identically dressed engineers stared meaningfully at my business card and exclaimed AH-SO! when i said i was from the Austerarian office - AH-SO Kangaroo? Interestingly, all the lead engineers looked like they were 15, but I'm guessing from their identical suits, they all loved school girls just the same. Between some meetings in Yokohama, we passed by Iron Chef Chinese, the Sichuan Sage, Chen Kenichis restaurant (for the Iron Chef fans out there) but sadly we didn't have time to go inside and sample his mapo-tofu:

From Nippon

Matts rad friend Steve - (who made this awesome website from a cycling trip he did from LONDON to TOKYO) took us out for two great meals, the last of which was at this great kind of Japanese pub/bistro kind of place (he said it was a yakitori restaurant i think) between tons of these pay-per-hour 'love hotels'. The menu was written all over the wall in Japanese, so thanks gott Steve and Sawa ordered for us. Sawa pointed out that this fine specimen was not on the menu :
From Nippon

Luckily this one was :
From Nippon

Those bright signboards are love hotels...

From Nippon

Anyway, i had Saturday to look around, so i headed over to the royal palace in the middle 0f the city. 

It was pretty peaceful, if a little boring, so i headed over to Akihabara, which is nicknamed 'electrictown' because of all the electronics shops. There are a fortune of electronics shops, selling everything from vintage synths, to classic Atari games, to strange electrical components, and everything in between (including a generous serving of Japanese soft porn - they love their big boobies, those Japanese!). 

From Nippon

Like the rest of Tokyo, there were vending machines EVERYWHERE, selling everything. Did you know that Tommy Lee Jones is the BOSS even though he sports some pretty gay colours? (yeah, that's Suntory from Lost in Translation, if you were wondering).

From Nippon

After that it was back to Shibuya to check out this famous comic book store (unbelievable, but pretty much nothing in Engrish) which also stocks lots of costumes for 'cosplay' which means dressing up like a comic book character and living out your fantasies on the forgiving streets of Tokyo. I've tried, but cant imagine someone getting away with this in a western city, you'd be wedgied to death within seconds of leaving the store. Anyway, this post is getting long and boring, so I'll skip my jeans buying experience (Edwins are the business) and just post some random pics from the trip.

Cambodia fisheye pics coming soon.

Aregato gazaimas!

Greg


1 comment:

Dr Phil said...

tokyo looks cool. the word kyo means something - something to do with capital I think. hence Kyoto and Tokyo are the two capitals, old and new. cool ne. cooler than sid-neh for sure.