So on that note, all this time I have been in Japan, I have not had chance to catch up with .Brian. Those of you who know me will remember him as the giant Dutch geezer (who clocks in at a colossal 6'11!) that I met first in Stockholm at the Eurowota event in 2008 and then again last time I was in Japan in 2010. Since then he has a lovely Japanese wife called Mika and lives over here permanently... That means having a job and since he lives some distance out of Tokyo, simply put we hadn't been able to sort something out! With it being my birthday today and he once again unavailable, we decided that it was gonna be a celebration night on saturday before it.
Thus Brian, Mika, Nino, Dean and myself had a slot booked at a place in shinjuku for food, beers... And karaoke! Well this was a recipe for... err... Superstardom. No, what's the opposite of that? lol Needless to say we had a lot of fun though it started badly as the PA wasn't quite setup and when Dean just started turning anything... He caused a great wave of feedback which literaly hurt my head! I was on the deck holding my right ear, I am one of those people who really gets badly affected by this, I think it is the aftershock of when I did live music promotion. Something in my body has an internal defence that just shuts down!
Fortunately Brian took over and got it sorted, now being the central focus I went first and did Kikka's "hapi rapi sunrise'... Badly! I honestly thought I knew this song but I just did absolutely shit on it, proper struggled, missed words and all that. There are two reasons for this, first one being most important... I am shit at karaoke! Second though, and this is a bit of a racing driver excuse... I actually find it very difficult to read Japanese in the same format that English is written! It is bizarre but I am possibly the only person in the western hemisphere who can read it the tradition way (top to bottom/right to left) and not the English way! all karaoke is done western style, so that didn't help... But reason one was the main reason!
Anyway Brian had a go and did a hilariously silly Beastie Boys track called 'ch-ch-check it out' ... I think! Nino and I pissed our pants because we weren't sure if this was meant to be a joke song or just a really shit hip-hop song! Look up the lyrics and you'll understand what I mean, kudos to Brian though, he actually did pretty damn good! Also Mika and Brian duetted some anime track which was very cool.
Dean and brian also did a duet of a backstreet boys song... Oh dear! Nino and I were in pain laughing at this, not only because vocally they were pretty toneless, but they decided to really go native and sing with the Japanese literal translation words XD I listened and laughed before I thought balls to it, hello youtube!
Brian and Dean murdering the art of karaoke
Still... They managed to have more character than the original group *ducks from garbage thrown by fangirls*. After this I decided to go old-school, brought the 1990's back with Aerosmith's "love in an elevator" I should say by this point I'd drank at least three beers and was onto the Whiskey highballs so feeling a little more loosened up! Did I do a Steve Tyler special? No, we don't do drugs! But I can't say I was really that good, though I did manage to actually sing the whole song this time so definite improvement.
Brian then decided to do a song just for shits due to the title, track called 'Risky' by a group called Suicide sports car... It was pretty bad, featured some sort of bizarre romance and funk crossover with blues music... Very much a headfuck, not what I was expecting!
After I crooned through whitesnake's 'here I go again' and kenny rogers 'The gambler' we had all imbibed quite a bit so decided to cut loose with some old fashioned sing along classics. Thus Toto's "Africa", Queen's "Bohemian rhapsody" and Elvis's "Hound dog" got an airing, and more accurately a butchering, before we got turfed out.
At this point I noticed how absolutely wrecked Brian was, guy was really swaying hard and his head was pretty much pounding. Nino, Dean and I were less affected, though I still managed to be a nuisance and nearly smack people with my umbrella whilst walking through Shinjuku. Yeah, penalty on me there! After stopping at a burger joint for the others to get some energy back (having probably devoured half of the food on my own I was curiously ok!) We all decided to call it an end there so went back to Nippori, stopped for beers in the 7/11, then sat down, satisfied and drinking until sleep claimed me!
So on to the 24th August! As this was a day off I said to myself that I wanted to do something, so thus I decided that today would be the day I go up Tokyo Tower. With its special observation deck being 250 metres, it is decidely lower than the tokyo skytree, but then it is cheaper, total cost for both decks is 1450 yen as opposed to 2000! Thus I decided I would do the top deck as well as I hadn't been up there before.
Before I got there I actually went through a Temple and this was where The Wolverine movie was shot! So yes, even though I came here in 2010, I can now say I have visited a movie set lol
Yeah was really nice to see this awesome place again, and it is equally impressive how they got permission to shoot here. Even with huge potential for tourist interest, it is still a holy place but very beautiful to take in none the less. After this headed over to Tokyo Tower. Unusually on the way in as I passed a group of Japanese looking people, I heard someone shout "excuse me!" Turning around, confused, as barely anyone has spoken english to me whilst over here, I see the group and they asked, in perfect english, if I would take their picture. I obliged out of courtesy but also for the excellent job on the English, don't know who you lot are, but you're much better at English than I am Japanese! So anyway, onwards to the tower I went.
Now what was cool is I literally went to the desk, waited a minute, paid my money, got the joint ticket and then headed straight for the lift up to the main deck... At Skytree I had to wait Three hours before I could even queue for a ticket, let alone the lift up there! So already a good reason to choose Tokyo Tower over Skytree if you only have the time for one!
Anyway, before going straight up to the top dek I decided to stick about and get some shots from the main deck first, thus here are a couple I have selected from the huge assignment that are on my photobucket account.
As said earlier, there is more on my photobucket, I just wanted to showcase the main shots here. After this I joined a queue to go up to the top, you see, after this there is just one lift, both up and down to the special deck which is 100 metres above the main deck. So had to queue here for around 20 minutes before being able to ascend an escalator and two flights of stairs, before another wait of about 15 minutes and I was up to the top deck. So in all my queuing time at Tokyo tower was approximate 20% of tokyo skytree! Not that I am saying you shouldn't go Tokyo Skytree but just be aware of the big difference in visitor numbers!
So eventually my lift ride begins and we ride up through the main girders at the heart of the tower and are then on the deck which is much narrower and lower than the main observation deck, but has a wonderful view of the other side of Tokyo, again, a few shots below.
Yeah pretty spectacular, as you can see the horizon fog was even thicker than when I went up the skytree, I half-expected to hear a siren and then see all the panels fall from the walls before babies with sewn-up mouths start to attack me with knives... (note: - This is not some sick story, it is a rather obvious reference before anyone starts reporting this blog!)
If you want to see the plethora of shots taken from up tokyo tower then simply go through this LINK
After hanging on the top deck for an hour or so, soaking in the view and generally enjoying the nice peaceful image, I joined the queue for the lift back down, spent some time on the first deck stopping for a beer in the tower cafe and watching the city again before I headed back to my room. All week I had noticed stalls up so it was obvious that this was the time of year for religious cultural celebration but it had been relatively quiet in general. So at around 8pm when I went out to get some food I got a really rather large shock.
That was the sight that greeted me in central Nippori! Oroboras, Dean, X5-2000, yewolewota and Brian will be able to tell you that Nippori is NEVER as busy as this! Totally threw me for a loop but the atmosphere was awesome, just the vast array of styles people wore, the obvious festival mood and the uplifting sight of everyone having fun was too much to ignore. Thus I decided to properly scout it out.
Went off onto the street with the stalls and was feeling hungry, this was my main reason for being out of the room in the first place! Took in some stalls of noodles and takoyaki but just didn't take my fancy, but in the end I saw some delicious looking chicken being made and decided I had to indulge.
Was bloody lovely! Really fresh tasting and the sort of soy based marinade just made it even nicer. I am not one for sauces on my food as anyone who knows personally will atest to, but this was just great spicy, tender and tasty! Far more than enough for me. Venturing further in I came across the grounds of the temple where an ancient stage was being used for some form of play.
I imagine this quite a traditional story but not being an expert on this aspect of Japan I won't try and detail everything, though it seemed to be a tale of some master who was having hair cut by a servant with a sword and the servant kept on making mistakes, cue the master repeatedly rebuking him. It was good entertainment and I wished I knew about the nature of it but ah well. After this walked back on to the main street when suddenly a huge herd of people was moving towards me carrying some form of religious sarcohpagus through the streets, I got a video to show what I mean!
Cultural festival errr... Sarcophagus?
Again sorry for the link but for some reason this account won't find my youtube videos despite being a linked account grr! But yes massively unusual sight to behold but awesome at the same time, truly an unexpected delight to be here when these events took place. Mainly because on this trip I have seen and done so much of Japan both new and old, and for me, that is what travelling is all about. Seeing and doing as much as feasibly possible! After this I chilled out for the night.
So on to 26th August, I decided to just enjoy the day really so started by returning to my stomping ground of Akihabara. Went and played some super hang on and outrun before I was contemplating coming back, on the way out of intrigue I went into another arcade right nearby, mainly to see what they had... Their second floor was an absolute treasure trove!!
I saw classic arcade cabinets and the titles just sent me rushing back to my youth once more. Final Fight, Puzzle Bobble, Ghosts & Goblins, R-Type II, Parodius, Super street fighter II... It was absolute heaven for anyone who has even a remote interest in retro gaming, I had to resist the urge to spend thousands of yen here playing the classics, but I think I am gonna come back and give it a go again, possibly even later today!
Having enjoyed that immensely I spent the day relaxing, caught up on the F1 as I wasn't able to watch it live. Then in the evening I was thinking on a whim of going to Yokohama, but when I got on board the train, it was gonna take 50 minutes just to get there, concerned I would have little time I just looked at the tracks and at random decided I would go to Shinagawa.
Once I got to this place it blew me away with how big it was, Shinjuku might be the busiest station in the world, but this was certainly one of the most grandiose! Huge arches, gigantic walkways, platforms galore. It was like a fusion of Kings cross and Shinjuku, I had been here in 2010 but was in a group and to deep in conversation to take it in, now though, travelling alone... I just thought it was awesome.
Afterwards I went through the east exist and found myself on the most peculiar thing, a walkway which meant you could theoretically come to work in Shinagawa and never strictly touch the street level. It was absolutely massive and I just thought I would stalk the walkways and see what I found, what I came across was this!
This was just awesome, sort of like a mini-central park in many ways. Literally right in the middle of the city, surrounded by giants of commerce, was this stunning park! It is the sort of thing I really like to find, much like when I came cross that lake by the highway in Atlanta, this has the same sort of appeal. It is that sense of how you could be doing all possible to impress your boss and colleagues, leave stressed to all hell and then sit in this sort of place and feel at peace again. I definitely was going to go down there, so I went immediately!
As it was a warm night I spent many a time just sat here enjoying the peace because even though it was right in the centre of a bustling city, even though a train station was barely a stones throw away... It was actually quiet! I imagine during the day it is full of workers lunching and smoking so be more bustle, but on this night, the odd walker but otherwise very quiet and very peaceful.
After this I wanted to eat but most places looked unappetising so I decided to head along the line to Shibuya. At first was looking for somewhere different but most were just burger joints, I was about the scarper for something when I saw a rather swanky looking place... I don't normally go for these places but since it was my last day being 30 and I had budgeted very well, I decided why not as I am on holiday? Thus I had a beer and a lovely steak dinner.
This was gorgeous, really juicy meat and the rareness of the meat just meant it was gloriously chewy and tasty. I sat in a room on my own, drinking beer and guzzling steak, not so bad. Ended up costing 2550 yen which is about £17:50 but to be honest that's really not bad, most places in Manchester that match this quality would be £20+ so very happy with that! Afterwards it had hit 10pm so I literally jumped on the trains, stopped for a couple of cans in 7/11 then chilled with friends online, saw in the midnight moment so said Happy birthday to myself, before I opened the cards from My mother and sister which were really nice and made me smile.
I also got an awesome surprise courtesy of the user Boinsie on www.jplop.com She, it turns out, went to Santa Clara for Kikka-sama. And from the pictures that she has posted in the Kikka thread there had an awesome time, as did everyone! I got a PM out of the blue asking for my physical address. Once it became clear why I was happy to give this information privately... Because it turns out there was an exclusive photocard of Kikka for this event and he not only got one, but does not collect them so is sending it to me! Now I have kept my birthdate out of my profile so she does not know it is my birthday, but I shall accept it! Be a nice thing to go back home to :-)
So on to today! Well later Nino, Dean, myself and a mystery friend of Nino's are going to venture back to Akihabara backstage pass to celebrate my day, before then? Final fight anybody? Haha! Until next time *sets sail*
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