Japan, Part 2 of 3

Going into Tokyo on the train from the west, you get a pretty great view of Mt Fuji. I did not expect it....seems kind of surreal thinking bacck on it now because I was half asleep. Anyway, I had had the idea of checking concert listings for Tokyo before going and this turned out to be one of my better ideas, because to my surprise, Billy Joel was playing at the Tokyo Dome the night of my arrival. Just him & his supporting band. No way there would be tickets left. Sarah had heard that you could buy concert tickets @ the 7/11. She took me to the 7/11 near their place in Nagoya. After much trial & error, and the clerk ultimately coming to our rescue, we figured out that there indeed some nose-bleed section seats left! I managed to buy one by credit card. A 3 hour train ride later, some scrambling for luggage storage at the Tokyo Metro Station, and I found myself in a sea of Japanese B.J. fans, inching my way to my seat down yonder. The show kicked arse. His encore songs were my 3 favorite too. Not much movement on the part of the crowd, other than my section in which there happened to be lots of foreigners belting out the lyrics. No cameras allowed apparently, as I was reprimanded for shooting some footage, but the memory of the show is still pertty vidid regardless.

Afterwards, I retreived my bag and caught a subway to "Electric City" where I had booked a room. I made a mental note of the rollercoaster outside the Tokyo Dome. After some help from the hotel crek via payphone, I finally found the Athabasca Capsule Inn. It's called a capsule inn because you sleep in a 1 person pod with a tv and a draw curtain for the hole you came in through. You leave your bags and clothing in the lockers downstairs. I was in a room with 29 other capsules, and there were 4 floors of this, men only. These places were intended for business men who couldn't return home that night for 1 reason or another, usually because they had to get plastered with their boss. At first, women weren't allowed, but since the capsule inn's have gained popularity, some now have special floors reserved for women, as did this one. So, 7 floors of capsules total. There was also a bathhouse style bathroom with a hottub. I stayed 2 nights, not because I enjoyed the place that much, but because I couldn't be bothered to track down another hostel. I regret this now because, for one, the capsule inn, counterintuitevly, was very pricey (but in Tokyo, what isn't), but also I would have liked to stay in a Ryakan, a traditional Japanese hotel. I will try to track one down in Vancvouer when I'm back in Canada.

Anyway for the next 2 full days, I explored different must see spots, like the famous intersection you see in movies where if you were to look a building above, you would be hard pressed to see any pavement beneath you. I also checked out a palace with a swedish dude I met at the Starbucks, then the Tokyo Tower (just at sunset, so I caught the daytime view, then got to enjoy the nighttime view again --> best time to go to these places in my opinion). I yet again enjoyed good music, like a Japanese easy rock duo in the tower, and an amazing jazz trio in the street. Not only is the music fantastic, but people there really appreciate it. They were dancing and shouting along with the jazz band.

The next day, I crossed paths with one of those munks who chime a bell and take 1 careful, calculated step at a time down the busy Tokyo sidewalks, in a straight line amidst the hurried people heading every which way. This was featured in the movie "Baraka", if anyone has seen it. I gave him some $ after watching him for a good 5 minutes.

Travelling around Japan, you notice and hear about a lot of crazy stuff. One such thing, one that I failed to witness, was a gathering of young people every Sunday in a certain part of Tokyo, who all dress up like Japanimation characters. Apparently the realism is astounding, and they walk around the streets. They also meet up in a park and just chase each other around, my guess is its for the tourists. Give it a gander on YouTube.

The 2nd morning of my visit, I forced myself out of bed at 4:30AM and dragged my ass to the fish market to catch the early morning hustle and bustle of the seafood sales. It trully is a madhouse, interlaced with streams of tourists. Kind of funny to complain about tourists when I'm one of them, but I try not to interfere too much at least. I had been told to try a sushi breakfast at 1 specific restaurant right on the fish market grounds. It was the most popular one, but apparently worth the wait. Standing in line, I met an Aussie couple, and the guy didn't want to try the raw fish, so he took a stroll and I hung out with the girl while we ated and eventually dined. The sushi bar only sat about 10 people, so it was tight, but the food was inredible. They serve it to you right on the wooden counters. We got an 11 piece set of fish that had only travelled a few meters from where it was actioned off. That's fresh. So fresh in fact, the he slapped down a piece of surf clam in front of us and said "Still arrrrivvveee!". He meant "Still alive", we realized as the piece curled its up tentacles towards us.

Coincidentally, after parting with her, I went for a walk in that Electric City section of Tokyo, thus called because of its endless supply of multi storey electronic stores selling the same stuff, and i ran into the girls boyfriend. In a city of over 12 million people, I ran into the same guy twice in 2 totally different parts of town. So we hung out for a while looking for the outdoor store section.

I caught a quick pint at an Irish pub for a little taste of home, and then had to leave to catch my train back to Nagoya, but not before riding that rollercoaster I had promised myself I'd conquer. It went up to the tops of the buildings, THROUGH a hole at the top of one of them, and dropped back down, a couple of times over. Glorious. I was the only one screaming out of my group of 8 year olds.

Japan to be continued...

Mike