Mom and Hitoshiojichan are watching a TV show, and while I wasn't paying attention, I heard what sounded like Evangelion music. I turned to look, and images of Eva toys were flashed on the screen. I felt like a big nerd for recognizing it.
I felt even worse when I saw what the topic of discussion was-- 引き篭り, "hikikomori," or "acute social withdrawal," something that afflicts many otaku.
Oh my.
Updates tomorrow on my Saturday trek into the typhoon that hit Tokyo, starring Brian and Athena, guest-starring a malfunctioning umbrella, foot-staining black shoes, and a creepy head-butting old man. Was he drunk? Was he ill? Was he just a creepy head-butting old man? FIND OUT NEXT TIME.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Don't Push the Red Button
I forgot to mention this little bit from my arrival back to Obaachan's on Saturday. From the lobby at Obaachan's apartment complex you have to use a keypad to call the apartment so they can unlock the door to get into the courtyard. When I did so, Mom answered the phone and said "Okay, I'll unlock it!" The door did not unlock, but rather an alarm began sounding. I heard some confused voices coming from the intercom that sounded like Obaachan telling Mom that she hit the wrong button, and the door was unlocked. The alarm continued to sound.
On the phone that connects to the lobby, there are three buttons: "Unlock," "Call Out," and a big red button that says "PUSH HARD." Naturally, Mom jammed on the only one with instructions clear enough that she could see without her glasses. "It said to push hard, so I did." I don't blame her as much as I blame the nondescript design of the phone, but it was amusing nonetheless.
I guess the alarm eventually stopped, and I imagine someone called at some point to inquire about the alarm. I am not entirely sure what happened next as I was bathing and sleeping within an hour of coming back.
On the phone that connects to the lobby, there are three buttons: "Unlock," "Call Out," and a big red button that says "PUSH HARD." Naturally, Mom jammed on the only one with instructions clear enough that she could see without her glasses. "It said to push hard, so I did." I don't blame her as much as I blame the nondescript design of the phone, but it was amusing nonetheless.
I guess the alarm eventually stopped, and I imagine someone called at some point to inquire about the alarm. I am not entirely sure what happened next as I was bathing and sleeping within an hour of coming back.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Wasted Day
I slept in until nearly 2:30 this afternoon, partly because I might have been tired after going for a run the previous evening, partly because I drank some coffee at around 10pm, partly because my right knee was sore and I had difficulty getting comfortable enough to sleep, and partly because the room I was sleeping in isn't very bright in the mornings so I am not bothered by the sun. It was quite annoying. I had no idea that I had slept that late. Nobody bothered to wake me up, so I blissfully traveled around Egypt in my dreams.
After a sanma and miso soup lunch, Mom and I trekked off to Yokota to run some errands. When we got back, it was already approaching 8 and Hitoshiojichan was cooking spaghetti for dinner. It was a little amusing to watch him and Obaachan eat it with chopsticks and slurp it up as they would any other noodle dish. Mom and I used forks. We were the odd ones.
Now that I wrote that, I am bothered as to why they are called "chopsticks," as that makes no sense to me. Wikipedia knows all, apparently, so 30 seconds after that thought I found this knowledge nugget:
The English word "chopstick" seems to have been derived from Chinese Pidgin English, a pidgin where "chop chop" meant quickly.
The Mandarin Chinese word for chopsticks is kuàizi (筷子) or kuài'er (筷儿/筷兒). 筷 is a semantic-phonetic (xíngshēng) compound with a phonetic part of "快", which means quick, and a semantic part, 竹, meaning bamboo.
My curiosity has been sated.
I did not mention that Gackt is on a samurai drama broadcast weekly here. It's weird. Mom says he looks foreign. I told her that he was born in Okinawa, which seemed to explain everything to her about his appearance. Beat Takeshi is also on some weird variety quiz shows. Mom says that he looks mean, and when I told her that I've only seen him in movies where he is either a Yakuza member or a sociopath, she nodded, knowingly. My limited knowledge of Japanese pop culture is less limited than hers, apparently.
I have decided that I need to start getting out more in these next couple weeks. I probably won't be getting out of the Tokyo area, but there are so many things to do that it doesn't even matter. Here are places that I've decided that need to visit:
Roppongi
Asakusa
Ueno
Akihabara (I didn't spend much time there last time)
Edogawa
Kanda
I also want to go back to Mt. Takao when it's a little cooler and the trees have turned colors. Suzukoobachan had a lovely calendar in her bathroom with a photo of Mt. Takao surrounded by beautiful orange and red trees. It's only about $6.40 round-trip, and I think it'd be worth it, especially to take a hike up the mountain trail for the fantastic view. And Ome is like $3.20, and there are neat things to see there, too. Maybe I should go tomorrow. I want to sightsee away from the city a little bit.
It's very late, and I didn't even realize it. I hope I don't oversleep tomorrow.
After a sanma and miso soup lunch, Mom and I trekked off to Yokota to run some errands. When we got back, it was already approaching 8 and Hitoshiojichan was cooking spaghetti for dinner. It was a little amusing to watch him and Obaachan eat it with chopsticks and slurp it up as they would any other noodle dish. Mom and I used forks. We were the odd ones.
Now that I wrote that, I am bothered as to why they are called "chopsticks," as that makes no sense to me. Wikipedia knows all, apparently, so 30 seconds after that thought I found this knowledge nugget:
The English word "chopstick" seems to have been derived from Chinese Pidgin English, a pidgin where "chop chop" meant quickly.
The Mandarin Chinese word for chopsticks is kuàizi (筷子) or kuài'er (筷儿/筷兒). 筷 is a semantic-phonetic (xíngshēng) compound with a phonetic part of "快", which means quick, and a semantic part, 竹, meaning bamboo.
My curiosity has been sated.
I did not mention that Gackt is on a samurai drama broadcast weekly here. It's weird. Mom says he looks foreign. I told her that he was born in Okinawa, which seemed to explain everything to her about his appearance. Beat Takeshi is also on some weird variety quiz shows. Mom says that he looks mean, and when I told her that I've only seen him in movies where he is either a Yakuza member or a sociopath, she nodded, knowingly. My limited knowledge of Japanese pop culture is less limited than hers, apparently.
I have decided that I need to start getting out more in these next couple weeks. I probably won't be getting out of the Tokyo area, but there are so many things to do that it doesn't even matter. Here are places that I've decided that need to visit:
Roppongi
Asakusa
Ueno
Akihabara (I didn't spend much time there last time)
Edogawa
Kanda
I also want to go back to Mt. Takao when it's a little cooler and the trees have turned colors. Suzukoobachan had a lovely calendar in her bathroom with a photo of Mt. Takao surrounded by beautiful orange and red trees. It's only about $6.40 round-trip, and I think it'd be worth it, especially to take a hike up the mountain trail for the fantastic view. And Ome is like $3.20, and there are neat things to see there, too. Maybe I should go tomorrow. I want to sightsee away from the city a little bit.
It's very late, and I didn't even realize it. I hope I don't oversleep tomorrow.
Monday, October 22, 2007
BRAIN TOWER
Tonight I watched the most amazing game show ever. I cannot recall the name, but it pitted two teams of five contestants against each other-- one team was made up of average joes, the other was made up of celebrities. The set seemed to be comprised entirely of green screens or possibly giant TVs, as large images and animations were crucial components. The teams each had to earn points by advancing through multi-part stages where each level increased the amount of points earned and the contestants in each team would answer in sequence.
The first stage was called BRAIN TOWER-- a picture would be shown on the screen and the contestant would have to answer within a couple seconds. Each level was a "floor," and if a contestant was unable to answer or answered incorrectly, the team would "drop" back to the first floor of the tower, their seats shaking as they dropped (this was all green screened, so they didn't actually go anywhere). Pictures shown included a stove, walrus, flowers, and butterflies. Neither team made it to the final floor, but the celeb team was especially sad, as the first guy on their team was unable to name any of his pictures, and thus they were unable to advance to even the second level.
The second stage involved answering a question or completing a song with each team member writing a character. For instance, one question was "うさぎ is to ラビット as きつね is to _ _ _ _ _" (usagi is to rabbit as kitsune is to) with the correct answer being "フォックス" (fox). Another one was a white guy saying "church" and they had to supply the Japanese equivalent, "きょうかい" (kyoukai). This was a less exciting but still fun stage.
The third stage was a little more stressful, as the contestants had to "ride" a boat down a river. In a similar fashion as The Typing of the Dead, an enemy would slash at the contestants and a kanji would pop up on the screen. The contestant at a kana keyboard would have to type its reading. The first levels of the stage were fairly easy, but towards the end of the stage they were literally just punching in any pronunciations they could think of.
The final stage was funny, and fairly difficult. A topic would appear, and each contestant had to supply the answer in 15 seconds, or else a "bomb" would drop on their head and end the stage. The topics included "Name 5 American states whose names start with "ア" (all of the "A" states, plus Iowa and Idaho); "Name 5 Japanese prime ministers whose names have had the character "田" (Ta, or Da)"; "Here are 5 world treasures-- name the country from where they originate" (this one was especially hard, as Cambodia was one of the answers).
My description doesn't do the show justice, but trust me-- it was a cool show. I sort of wish that America had similar game shows, as this one was really fun to watch, and the contestants all seemed to have a lot of fun. There was also a lot of friendly banter between the teams and amongst the contestants, and even though I didn't understand everything that was going on, it was quite engaging.
Other than that, today was a slow day. Mom and I went grocery shopping at Ozam, Inageya, and Seiyu. She headed to the Base to run a couple errands while I took the groceries back to Obaachan's and went for a 15-minute run. Except for the alarmingly narrow streets and speedy cars, Fussa is a nice place to have a jog as there is a lot to see and a lot of people have interesting yards full of fruit trees, gardens, and sometimes small farms. Dogs also seem to be popular, so I got to see a few dog walkers with their adorable pets.
Mom was excited because she found 8-piece nigirizushi sets for very cheap, but she got mad at me when I started taking pictures of it and ripped off the price tags (although you can't actually see the prices in the pictures, but never mind that).
I'll have to find something to do this week-- it's been pretty slow since we've been at Hitoshiojichan's, and I am starting to feel slightly stir-crazy (even though for the most part I don't mind hanging around the house, watching weird TV and eating food). At least I have an internet connection, so I can stay up-to-date with the world. I ask Mom what they're saying on the news, and she really has trouble translating for me. I at least understand enough to get the general gist of the broadcasts. I wish I could understand more, though.
Sometime I'll update from the first two weeks of being here. Not a whole lot happened, though, so I've been procrastinating. I'll get around to it soon. Hopefully :3
The first stage was called BRAIN TOWER-- a picture would be shown on the screen and the contestant would have to answer within a couple seconds. Each level was a "floor," and if a contestant was unable to answer or answered incorrectly, the team would "drop" back to the first floor of the tower, their seats shaking as they dropped (this was all green screened, so they didn't actually go anywhere). Pictures shown included a stove, walrus, flowers, and butterflies. Neither team made it to the final floor, but the celeb team was especially sad, as the first guy on their team was unable to name any of his pictures, and thus they were unable to advance to even the second level.
The second stage involved answering a question or completing a song with each team member writing a character. For instance, one question was "うさぎ is to ラビット as きつね is to _ _ _ _ _" (usagi is to rabbit as kitsune is to) with the correct answer being "フォックス" (fox). Another one was a white guy saying "church" and they had to supply the Japanese equivalent, "きょうかい" (kyoukai). This was a less exciting but still fun stage.
The third stage was a little more stressful, as the contestants had to "ride" a boat down a river. In a similar fashion as The Typing of the Dead, an enemy would slash at the contestants and a kanji would pop up on the screen. The contestant at a kana keyboard would have to type its reading. The first levels of the stage were fairly easy, but towards the end of the stage they were literally just punching in any pronunciations they could think of.
The final stage was funny, and fairly difficult. A topic would appear, and each contestant had to supply the answer in 15 seconds, or else a "bomb" would drop on their head and end the stage. The topics included "Name 5 American states whose names start with "ア" (all of the "A" states, plus Iowa and Idaho); "Name 5 Japanese prime ministers whose names have had the character "田" (Ta, or Da)"; "Here are 5 world treasures-- name the country from where they originate" (this one was especially hard, as Cambodia was one of the answers).
My description doesn't do the show justice, but trust me-- it was a cool show. I sort of wish that America had similar game shows, as this one was really fun to watch, and the contestants all seemed to have a lot of fun. There was also a lot of friendly banter between the teams and amongst the contestants, and even though I didn't understand everything that was going on, it was quite engaging.
Other than that, today was a slow day. Mom and I went grocery shopping at Ozam, Inageya, and Seiyu. She headed to the Base to run a couple errands while I took the groceries back to Obaachan's and went for a 15-minute run. Except for the alarmingly narrow streets and speedy cars, Fussa is a nice place to have a jog as there is a lot to see and a lot of people have interesting yards full of fruit trees, gardens, and sometimes small farms. Dogs also seem to be popular, so I got to see a few dog walkers with their adorable pets.
Mom was excited because she found 8-piece nigirizushi sets for very cheap, but she got mad at me when I started taking pictures of it and ripped off the price tags (although you can't actually see the prices in the pictures, but never mind that).
I'll have to find something to do this week-- it's been pretty slow since we've been at Hitoshiojichan's, and I am starting to feel slightly stir-crazy (even though for the most part I don't mind hanging around the house, watching weird TV and eating food). At least I have an internet connection, so I can stay up-to-date with the world. I ask Mom what they're saying on the news, and she really has trouble translating for me. I at least understand enough to get the general gist of the broadcasts. I wish I could understand more, though.
Sometime I'll update from the first two weeks of being here. Not a whole lot happened, though, so I've been procrastinating. I'll get around to it soon. Hopefully :3
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Harajuku Ginza Shinjuku Yaey!
I met up with my friend Athena, who lives in Saitama teaching English, yesterday for fun and frivolity in Tokyo. It was a nice escape from my normal routine, which has mostly consisted of hanging around the house or walking to the grocery store with Mom. I'm having a nice time here, but things are a lot slower when you're with your elderly family. I haven't gotten out much, except for the day when Mom and I went to downtown Tokyo to see the Imperial Palace and Diet Building, and when I went with Suzukoobachan to Tachikawa Station to shop.
Anyhow, we started in Harajuku, and were pretty much stuck there most of the day because I kept getting distracted on Takeshita Street (but that is a later minor detail).
We first met up at Snoopytown in Harajuku and decided to go forth and grab some lunch. We ate at Jonathan's, whose menu is a weird amalgamation of western-style foods mutated to make them palatable by the Japanese, yet rendering them into forms that may prove bizarre to the hapless traveler. I think we studied the menu for at least half an hour. We're both pretty indecisive, but I ended up with bibimbap and she got a club sandwich (which came out much much later than my food, surprisingly). She says my dish was small, but I actually had to work a little to finish it :3;;; Their drink selection was amazing-- hot coffee, cold coffee, hot teas, cold teas, sodas, juices, and Calpis. What the heck, meng. Veggie/fruit juice followed up with Calpis, hello yes.
After lunch we poked around the Uniqlo and marveled at the somewhat unfriendly touch-screen menu for their computerized shopping system. Not only was it unfriendly to use, but it seemed that anything we were remotely interested in browsing was out of stock. Lame. But the track jackets were adorable and they had cashmere sweaters in every color.
After more walking we ended up at Kiddy Land, which was full of cosplaying shop girls and sweaty fanboys with Naruto t-shirts. Weird American shoppers aside, Kiddy Land is stocked completely full of adorable things. It was hard to curb the urge to pet, squeeze, or poke about every single thing in the store.
After extracting ourselves from there, we headed to some super expensive Loli stores on the lowest floor of one of the large malls. The merchandise ranged from super-happiness-kawaii type things, like ice cream cone necklaces and bunny ear mufflers, to super-kill-myself-fack-you angst boots and faux Nazi-esque armbands. The shop girls were very cute. Every store had no-camera policies. Oh well :3
We headed down Takeshita Doori and we immediately got sucked into a wide array of shops. I had to majorly debate whether or not to get this one dress which, for $5, was an amazing find. I resisted temptation, though, but I did get a long-sleeved t-shirt detailed with lace (intended for young men, not women wth). For $3 I wasn't going to pass up something that would be useful for the chilly weather. I did feel a little silly, as it is olive green, like half the things in my wardrobe, but I needed another long sleeved shirt to get through the next few weeks. Athena bought one, too, as well as a gift for her friend.
Almost to the end of Takeshita we ducked into a puri-kura place for some fun! Unfortunately I was wearing a green t-shirt, which rendered my torso invisible to the camera. I was wearing a camisole underneath, which I had to hastily rip off before the machine started yammering at us in super-kawaii that it was going to start taking pictures. We managed to get some very non-fail pictures, but ran out of time decorating them. I was happy with the results, though.
By the time we extracted ourselves from the narrow, crowded Takeshita Doori, th sun was starting to dip and we had just enough time to speedwalk to the Meiji-Jingu, snap a few pictures of the wedding procession, and check out the multi-lingual wishes before a guard came and told us GATE CLOSING.
It was getting dark, so we hopped on the subway and headed into Ginza, where I was given the choice between super-happy-kawaii or dark-loli-gothy dinner. I picked the latter, so we went to the Alice in Wonderland-themed restaurant, 幻想の国のアリス (Fushigi no Kuni no Alice). All of the staff were dressed in some sort of costume, including Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts, and Mad Hatter (whose hat read, subversively, "420/69"). I was a little too self-conscious to ask anyone to take pictures of them, but I really should have. They were adorable. The 7-course dinner was fun, cute, and interesting, and we both got some delicious and very beautiful cocktails (I, of course, had to have the green one with gin in it). Since she footed the bill for it, I owe her an amazing vacation in Texas, should she ever decide to visit me. We spent a good amount of time there chatting and taking in the cute Halloween decor and the adorable costumes. The Queen of Hearts was particularly pretty, and the Cheshire Cat girl was just adorable, if not a little goofy. It was a lot of fun.
We strolled around Ginza just taking in the brightly lit buildings, and decided to try the Metropolitan Building in Shinjuku. They're open until like 10 or 11 or something and have a spectacular, free view of Tokyo from the observation deck on the 45th floor. Unfortunately, after all the trouble of figuring out to escape from the station and get over to the place, it ended up being closed for "an electrical facilities inspection." LAME. Dejected, but determined to visit at another time, we went into the more lively bits of Shinjuku.
The night was still somewhat young, so we decided to find a place to sit and chat for a little bit before we had to catch our trains back home. Sore and aching feet were relieved by a sit-down at the McDonald's near the station, which had a spectacular view of the area. After a few minutes we walked around the few stores that were open before heading back to the station. We made tentative plans to get together again on Sunday, and we have a definite date on the 4th for the Ghibli museum (which is just a few stops away on the train, in Mitaka).
On the way back to Obaachan's, I literally had to cram myself into the Takao-bound train as it was packed to the brim with people. When it reached Tachikawa, I (and another 20 people) sprinted up, over, and around to the platform next to us, where the Ome-bound train was waiting. I ran down the platform, looking for the least-crowded car. Finding that they were all about the same, I ducked into a random car about halfway down. I noticed that there was an entire bench completely empty, yet half the people in the car were still standing. Someone had gotten sick all over the floor in front of the bench, so nobody wanted to be near it. Since there was none on the seat and I was freaking tired, I plopped down on the bench anyway, despite the wrinkly noses of the Japanese still standing. A young and pimply Airman was sitting next to me, and he offered me a pack of Pocky. We talked until my stop, which was sort of nice because I might have fallen asleep otherwise. When I got back to Obaachan's, the tub was full of warm water so I got to soak after my shower, which was very nice indeed.
All in all, I had a wonderful day, and all thanks to the kindness and generosity of Athena. I just hope that one day I'll be able to repay her in a way that might come close to matching what she's done (and is continuing to do) for me. I don't have a lot of cash to throw around, and she's gone to great lengths to make sure that I have an enjoyable and memorable time while I'm here.
Debra will be coming in a couple weeks, and that will be exciting, as well. I haven't seen her in like 4 and a half years or something ridiculous like that, so I'm really looking forward to hanging out with her, too. Hah, maybe we can all get together sometime :3
Anyhow, we started in Harajuku, and were pretty much stuck there most of the day because I kept getting distracted on Takeshita Street (but that is a later minor detail).
We first met up at Snoopytown in Harajuku and decided to go forth and grab some lunch. We ate at Jonathan's, whose menu is a weird amalgamation of western-style foods mutated to make them palatable by the Japanese, yet rendering them into forms that may prove bizarre to the hapless traveler. I think we studied the menu for at least half an hour. We're both pretty indecisive, but I ended up with bibimbap and she got a club sandwich (which came out much much later than my food, surprisingly). She says my dish was small, but I actually had to work a little to finish it :3;;; Their drink selection was amazing-- hot coffee, cold coffee, hot teas, cold teas, sodas, juices, and Calpis. What the heck, meng. Veggie/fruit juice followed up with Calpis, hello yes.
After lunch we poked around the Uniqlo and marveled at the somewhat unfriendly touch-screen menu for their computerized shopping system. Not only was it unfriendly to use, but it seemed that anything we were remotely interested in browsing was out of stock. Lame. But the track jackets were adorable and they had cashmere sweaters in every color.
After more walking we ended up at Kiddy Land, which was full of cosplaying shop girls and sweaty fanboys with Naruto t-shirts. Weird American shoppers aside, Kiddy Land is stocked completely full of adorable things. It was hard to curb the urge to pet, squeeze, or poke about every single thing in the store.
After extracting ourselves from there, we headed to some super expensive Loli stores on the lowest floor of one of the large malls. The merchandise ranged from super-happiness-kawaii type things, like ice cream cone necklaces and bunny ear mufflers, to super-kill-myself-fack-you angst boots and faux Nazi-esque armbands. The shop girls were very cute. Every store had no-camera policies. Oh well :3
We headed down Takeshita Doori and we immediately got sucked into a wide array of shops. I had to majorly debate whether or not to get this one dress which, for $5, was an amazing find. I resisted temptation, though, but I did get a long-sleeved t-shirt detailed with lace (intended for young men, not women wth). For $3 I wasn't going to pass up something that would be useful for the chilly weather. I did feel a little silly, as it is olive green, like half the things in my wardrobe, but I needed another long sleeved shirt to get through the next few weeks. Athena bought one, too, as well as a gift for her friend.
Almost to the end of Takeshita we ducked into a puri-kura place for some fun! Unfortunately I was wearing a green t-shirt, which rendered my torso invisible to the camera. I was wearing a camisole underneath, which I had to hastily rip off before the machine started yammering at us in super-kawaii that it was going to start taking pictures. We managed to get some very non-fail pictures, but ran out of time decorating them. I was happy with the results, though.
By the time we extracted ourselves from the narrow, crowded Takeshita Doori, th sun was starting to dip and we had just enough time to speedwalk to the Meiji-Jingu, snap a few pictures of the wedding procession, and check out the multi-lingual wishes before a guard came and told us GATE CLOSING.
It was getting dark, so we hopped on the subway and headed into Ginza, where I was given the choice between super-happy-kawaii or dark-loli-gothy dinner. I picked the latter, so we went to the Alice in Wonderland-themed restaurant, 幻想の国のアリス (Fushigi no Kuni no Alice). All of the staff were dressed in some sort of costume, including Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts, and Mad Hatter (whose hat read, subversively, "420/69"). I was a little too self-conscious to ask anyone to take pictures of them, but I really should have. They were adorable. The 7-course dinner was fun, cute, and interesting, and we both got some delicious and very beautiful cocktails (I, of course, had to have the green one with gin in it). Since she footed the bill for it, I owe her an amazing vacation in Texas, should she ever decide to visit me. We spent a good amount of time there chatting and taking in the cute Halloween decor and the adorable costumes. The Queen of Hearts was particularly pretty, and the Cheshire Cat girl was just adorable, if not a little goofy. It was a lot of fun.
We strolled around Ginza just taking in the brightly lit buildings, and decided to try the Metropolitan Building in Shinjuku. They're open until like 10 or 11 or something and have a spectacular, free view of Tokyo from the observation deck on the 45th floor. Unfortunately, after all the trouble of figuring out to escape from the station and get over to the place, it ended up being closed for "an electrical facilities inspection." LAME. Dejected, but determined to visit at another time, we went into the more lively bits of Shinjuku.
The night was still somewhat young, so we decided to find a place to sit and chat for a little bit before we had to catch our trains back home. Sore and aching feet were relieved by a sit-down at the McDonald's near the station, which had a spectacular view of the area. After a few minutes we walked around the few stores that were open before heading back to the station. We made tentative plans to get together again on Sunday, and we have a definite date on the 4th for the Ghibli museum (which is just a few stops away on the train, in Mitaka).
On the way back to Obaachan's, I literally had to cram myself into the Takao-bound train as it was packed to the brim with people. When it reached Tachikawa, I (and another 20 people) sprinted up, over, and around to the platform next to us, where the Ome-bound train was waiting. I ran down the platform, looking for the least-crowded car. Finding that they were all about the same, I ducked into a random car about halfway down. I noticed that there was an entire bench completely empty, yet half the people in the car were still standing. Someone had gotten sick all over the floor in front of the bench, so nobody wanted to be near it. Since there was none on the seat and I was freaking tired, I plopped down on the bench anyway, despite the wrinkly noses of the Japanese still standing. A young and pimply Airman was sitting next to me, and he offered me a pack of Pocky. We talked until my stop, which was sort of nice because I might have fallen asleep otherwise. When I got back to Obaachan's, the tub was full of warm water so I got to soak after my shower, which was very nice indeed.
All in all, I had a wonderful day, and all thanks to the kindness and generosity of Athena. I just hope that one day I'll be able to repay her in a way that might come close to matching what she's done (and is continuing to do) for me. I don't have a lot of cash to throw around, and she's gone to great lengths to make sure that I have an enjoyable and memorable time while I'm here.
Debra will be coming in a couple weeks, and that will be exciting, as well. I haven't seen her in like 4 and a half years or something ridiculous like that, so I'm really looking forward to hanging out with her, too. Hah, maybe we can all get together sometime :3
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Time to go on a Diet. No, wait--to the Diet. Whatever.
I woke up feeling significantly better than before, so Mom and I decided to head into Tokyo to explore a little bit. We had no real plans, other than find something to eat and some places to take pictures. We bought the Tokunai Free Pass, which allows the ticket holder to ride around the Tokyo area all day for a flat fee. There is a train that goes from Ome all the way to Tokyo, so we hopped onto that and rode the hour or so it takes to get into the city. From Ushihama to Shinjuku, a sleepy boy sat next to me, his head drooping into his lap the entire ride. Every couple of minutes, he would wake up, blink, sit up, and then nod off again, head dangling just above his knees. I wanted to take a picture, but thought better of it.
When we arrived in Tokyo Station, we stopped quickly at the bathrooms. When we were washing our hands, Mom told me she was unable to flush the toilet no matter what she did, and she felt bad for the next person. I told her that she needed to hold her hand in front of a sensor, and it would flush after a couple seconds. She said that she didn't know you have to leave your hand there-- she thought she had to wave it or something. "Can't you read?" I cried, amused because I can't read the instructions, yet she can. She laughed, and we shook our hands dry, as there are no paper towels in train stations. We left the station and decided to walk to the Imperial Palace and explore the grounds. Mom told me brief histories of the palace, and how it was first used during the Meiji period, after the Shogun had given the power back to the Emperor. We saw many school children taking tours of the grounds and foreigners taking pictures.
After spending a good chunk of time taking pictures, we headed to the Diet building. Along the way, we passed about half a dozen taxis full of sleeping cabbies. I found it fairly amusing. When we reached the Diet, we asked the gate guards if they were doing tours. We signed up for the next tour, which would be in an hour, and walked to the Kensei Kinenkan (Parliamentary Museum) and poked around for about half an hour, checking out the historical exhibits. We were a little crunched for time, so we hurried back to the Diet building and waited in their lobby. The lady at the counter was kind enough to switch the video language to English, so I could understand it. I felt a little bad, though, as a few minutes into the video about 10 Japanese people came in. They didn't make a fuss-- I assumed they didn't mind, or were too polite to say anything.
The building is quite fantastic, but sadly un-Japanese. While the builders wanted to use mostly materials from Japan, they still fashioned it into a very European style, albeit adorned with chrysanthemum seals everywhere. There were intricate stained glass ceilings that were made of glass from America, England, and Germany; they were the only things specifically mentioned that were foreign in origin. Mom kept mentioning how much money was dropped on the construction of the building, and how much money goes into the rooms the Emperor and imperial family use (which they only visit maybe once or twice a year). "Tax payer money at work," she kept saying, as we walked past the empty, lavishly decorated rooms. Many of the people on the tour began to nod off when we sat in nosebleed seats of the assembly room, looking down onto the very Congressional house floor. A chipper female voice told us all about how parliament works and what the building was made of, but since I could barely understand anything, I found myself desperately trying to stay awake by focusing on the maintenance men performing electronics checks on the vote counters. When we got to walking again, our tour guide told us that they had recently replaced the cushy red carpet that lines the hallways, but somehow these giant, dark stains of mysterious origins appeared. I am not sure why he told us this.
Probably what fascinated me the most were the smoking stations. There are areas in the hallways for smoking, but they are obscured by glass walls and the smoker must stand next to an air intake fan, much like a fume hood, just sans hood. I watched half a dozen office workers hunched over these smoke boxes, desperately getting their nicotine fix in what I found to be a rather odd fashion.
The end of our tour led us through the garden at the front of the building where there is a walkway full of plants from all over Japan. The garden starts with plants from the southern islands, and as you progress the plant species become gradually more northernly, ending with cute pine trees from Hokkaido. We took a few pictures of the building itself, and headed back to the train station.
Mom was bent on catching a free bus that ran to Nihombashi, so we walked through the crowded Toky Station to the other side, where we could catch the bus. As we waited, a protest for what we assumed to be a hospital worker union marched by. The people were all dressed in white hospitalish clothing and waving flags, balloons, and signs. After about five minutes, the bus arrived. It was tiny-- smaller than the DASH in Los Angeles, and we decided that in the time it took for the little bus to fight through traffic we could have walked to Nihombashi twice.
By this time, we were starving. Desperate for anything that came along, we ducked into a small alley and found a little noodle shop with a ticket vending machine out front. We found those endearing, so we decided to eat there. The restaurant turned out to be quite good-- the food was cheap, and on the tables they offered wasabi, noodle water (if you decided you needed something to help you get all the bits out of the bottom of your bowl when you're done with your soup), and karikari umeboshi, which I discovered that I like quite a bit (I greatly dislike normal umeboshi). Their napkins also solved a mystery that had been bugging me in Japan. A lot of restaurants offer some very shiny paper napkins, and I could not understand why they were that way. Printed on the napkins in this shop was the explanation that they were made out of sugar cane fibers and were "tree-free" as they did not contain any wood products. I thought that was clever. I like these funny shiny napkins even more now.
After dinner, we headed to the Yamamotonoriten, which is a store specializing in seaweed and teas. We bought some hojicha and sat down for a complimentary cup of ocha. After that, we headed into the Mitsukoshi across the street. We poked around the ultra-expensive clothes before we went down to the grocery level, where all of the food vendors were more than happy to give us a second dinner in the form of samples ranging from crusty bread and gyoza to chocolate truffles and cheesecake. It was fun and delicious. We left Mitsukoshi and started heading back toward the station, ducking into the Takashimaya and doing much the same as we did in Mitsukoshi, albeit with less free food offerings.
We caught a train to Shinjuku so we could look out the observation deck on the 45th floor of the Metropolitan Building. I tell you what-- that is a FAST elevator. We were on the 45th floor in what felt like about 30 seconds or less. The view? AMAZING. I always knew Tokyo was huge, but it's difficult to really visualize the enormity of the city until you see it with your own eyes. Even though it was night and all the lights of the city were on, the city seemed to stretch farther than what I could see. I snapped some pictures that unfortunately did not come out as well as I wished.
After we left there, we went to Akihabara just to quickly poke around, get a feel for where things were, and get a few pictures. It's definitely got a high density of electronics stores, and I will be sure to hit it up when I need to burn some DVDs to distribute my pictures. I was amazed, not at how tall the stores were, but how narrow and claustrophobic they felt on the inside. It was pretty weird-- it felt like being in a town house or something.
From Akiba, we unwisely took a train back to Shinjuku as opposed to Tokyo, which in hindsight would have been a better choice as that is where the line starts and we would have been guaranteed a seat on the Chuo line back to Fussa. Instead, we had to stand for a painfully long time from Shinjuku back to Tachikawa. I was able to snag Mom a seat about halfway through, though. Surprisingly, the train from Tachikawa to Fussa was fairly crowded, too, and she was not able to get a seat until the stop before ours.
We wound down the evening by watching some TV and drinking tea. After a shower, I was ready to crash out hard core.
When we arrived in Tokyo Station, we stopped quickly at the bathrooms. When we were washing our hands, Mom told me she was unable to flush the toilet no matter what she did, and she felt bad for the next person. I told her that she needed to hold her hand in front of a sensor, and it would flush after a couple seconds. She said that she didn't know you have to leave your hand there-- she thought she had to wave it or something. "Can't you read?" I cried, amused because I can't read the instructions, yet she can. She laughed, and we shook our hands dry, as there are no paper towels in train stations. We left the station and decided to walk to the Imperial Palace and explore the grounds. Mom told me brief histories of the palace, and how it was first used during the Meiji period, after the Shogun had given the power back to the Emperor. We saw many school children taking tours of the grounds and foreigners taking pictures.
After spending a good chunk of time taking pictures, we headed to the Diet building. Along the way, we passed about half a dozen taxis full of sleeping cabbies. I found it fairly amusing. When we reached the Diet, we asked the gate guards if they were doing tours. We signed up for the next tour, which would be in an hour, and walked to the Kensei Kinenkan (Parliamentary Museum) and poked around for about half an hour, checking out the historical exhibits. We were a little crunched for time, so we hurried back to the Diet building and waited in their lobby. The lady at the counter was kind enough to switch the video language to English, so I could understand it. I felt a little bad, though, as a few minutes into the video about 10 Japanese people came in. They didn't make a fuss-- I assumed they didn't mind, or were too polite to say anything.
The building is quite fantastic, but sadly un-Japanese. While the builders wanted to use mostly materials from Japan, they still fashioned it into a very European style, albeit adorned with chrysanthemum seals everywhere. There were intricate stained glass ceilings that were made of glass from America, England, and Germany; they were the only things specifically mentioned that were foreign in origin. Mom kept mentioning how much money was dropped on the construction of the building, and how much money goes into the rooms the Emperor and imperial family use (which they only visit maybe once or twice a year). "Tax payer money at work," she kept saying, as we walked past the empty, lavishly decorated rooms. Many of the people on the tour began to nod off when we sat in nosebleed seats of the assembly room, looking down onto the very Congressional house floor. A chipper female voice told us all about how parliament works and what the building was made of, but since I could barely understand anything, I found myself desperately trying to stay awake by focusing on the maintenance men performing electronics checks on the vote counters. When we got to walking again, our tour guide told us that they had recently replaced the cushy red carpet that lines the hallways, but somehow these giant, dark stains of mysterious origins appeared. I am not sure why he told us this.
Probably what fascinated me the most were the smoking stations. There are areas in the hallways for smoking, but they are obscured by glass walls and the smoker must stand next to an air intake fan, much like a fume hood, just sans hood. I watched half a dozen office workers hunched over these smoke boxes, desperately getting their nicotine fix in what I found to be a rather odd fashion.
The end of our tour led us through the garden at the front of the building where there is a walkway full of plants from all over Japan. The garden starts with plants from the southern islands, and as you progress the plant species become gradually more northernly, ending with cute pine trees from Hokkaido. We took a few pictures of the building itself, and headed back to the train station.
Mom was bent on catching a free bus that ran to Nihombashi, so we walked through the crowded Toky Station to the other side, where we could catch the bus. As we waited, a protest for what we assumed to be a hospital worker union marched by. The people were all dressed in white hospitalish clothing and waving flags, balloons, and signs. After about five minutes, the bus arrived. It was tiny-- smaller than the DASH in Los Angeles, and we decided that in the time it took for the little bus to fight through traffic we could have walked to Nihombashi twice.
By this time, we were starving. Desperate for anything that came along, we ducked into a small alley and found a little noodle shop with a ticket vending machine out front. We found those endearing, so we decided to eat there. The restaurant turned out to be quite good-- the food was cheap, and on the tables they offered wasabi, noodle water (if you decided you needed something to help you get all the bits out of the bottom of your bowl when you're done with your soup), and karikari umeboshi, which I discovered that I like quite a bit (I greatly dislike normal umeboshi). Their napkins also solved a mystery that had been bugging me in Japan. A lot of restaurants offer some very shiny paper napkins, and I could not understand why they were that way. Printed on the napkins in this shop was the explanation that they were made out of sugar cane fibers and were "tree-free" as they did not contain any wood products. I thought that was clever. I like these funny shiny napkins even more now.
After dinner, we headed to the Yamamotonoriten, which is a store specializing in seaweed and teas. We bought some hojicha and sat down for a complimentary cup of ocha. After that, we headed into the Mitsukoshi across the street. We poked around the ultra-expensive clothes before we went down to the grocery level, where all of the food vendors were more than happy to give us a second dinner in the form of samples ranging from crusty bread and gyoza to chocolate truffles and cheesecake. It was fun and delicious. We left Mitsukoshi and started heading back toward the station, ducking into the Takashimaya and doing much the same as we did in Mitsukoshi, albeit with less free food offerings.
We caught a train to Shinjuku so we could look out the observation deck on the 45th floor of the Metropolitan Building. I tell you what-- that is a FAST elevator. We were on the 45th floor in what felt like about 30 seconds or less. The view? AMAZING. I always knew Tokyo was huge, but it's difficult to really visualize the enormity of the city until you see it with your own eyes. Even though it was night and all the lights of the city were on, the city seemed to stretch farther than what I could see. I snapped some pictures that unfortunately did not come out as well as I wished.
After we left there, we went to Akihabara just to quickly poke around, get a feel for where things were, and get a few pictures. It's definitely got a high density of electronics stores, and I will be sure to hit it up when I need to burn some DVDs to distribute my pictures. I was amazed, not at how tall the stores were, but how narrow and claustrophobic they felt on the inside. It was pretty weird-- it felt like being in a town house or something.
From Akiba, we unwisely took a train back to Shinjuku as opposed to Tokyo, which in hindsight would have been a better choice as that is where the line starts and we would have been guaranteed a seat on the Chuo line back to Fussa. Instead, we had to stand for a painfully long time from Shinjuku back to Tachikawa. I was able to snag Mom a seat about halfway through, though. Surprisingly, the train from Tachikawa to Fussa was fairly crowded, too, and she was not able to get a seat until the stop before ours.
We wound down the evening by watching some TV and drinking tea. After a shower, I was ready to crash out hard core.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)