So , we're all sitting in the bar/lounge downstairs in the Smile kinda of feeling a little worse for wear ...
Around the table...
Myself
Becky
Marty
Ezster
Ezster's sister
Marty and I decide to buy each other a drink , and we carry on chatting to the girls...
Suddenly , Becky says we should do drinking games... and the game we decide on...
"Ring of Death/Fire"
For those of you who are unsure of this games, or the rules , I have a link for you here. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_(drinking_game) )
Suffice to say , I lost... in a bad way. I was on FINE form. My god... I have no recollection of going to bed , how I got up 4 flights of stairs TO bed... or getting INTO bed.
What I DO know , is that I woke up , wrong way round ... in bed , fully clothed. ( Thanks Becky )
...
I peer out of my eyes , and realise... FUCK.... It's Monday!!! Since yesterday was lost due to drunken shenanigans, I decide to pull myself out of bed , get showered and brave Tokyo once again. Surprisingly , after a shower, I feel completely 100% ok. No hangover! Awesome.
I'm standing on the rooftop of my hostel , looking out over Asakusa... and I think to myself.. "Ah yes , this is why I left Auckland... no rain"... It's stunningly beautiful weather , and hotter than Jessica Alba naked covered in jelly beans ( and that's fairly darn hot! ). I was always under the impression Tokyo would be a smog covered dirty dirty city... it's not. It's just simply not. Yes, there is a very strong sense of humidity , but no worse than Auckland. And the good days... are well , just phenomenal.
A quick look in the ever trusty iTouch , I decide to tackle the Imperial Palace. I mean hell , the Emperor of Japan lives there, it MUST be good... right?
I stumble out of the Asasuka Smile , and head towards the station where I'm greeted by my first onslaught of vending machines for the day. I think to myself "Hell , I could do with a drink...". I reach into my pocket, and find some coins; some with holes in them , some without. I look at the machine, and I then find my next problem... what the HELL is actually IN this drink. I'm in Japan , all the labels are in Japanese... Nothing looks normal on these labels. I have a hankering for orange juice ( thanks to you Phloss ) .. but NOTHING looks like Orange Juice. I scan the machine, I see something called "Pompari Sweat" I decide to give that a wide berth. There's a couple of bottles of water , but that doesnt appeal... I want fruit juice! Ah ha... I found something! I looks likes Apple Juice. The label LOOKS like it has Apple Trees on it... well , trees at least. Surely it must be the thing I long for. I insert that 150yen... out it pops. I know have the bottle in my hand , and I no more confident in what I have purchased. I twist the top , and open it... I sniff it... smells ok , well... it didnt really HAVE a smell. Seemed safe , so I take a swig...
It's seaweed tea...
It's fucking seaweed tea!!!
Where was the warning on this thing. When I say it was the most heinous thing I've ever tasted.. I truly mean it. Worse than your mother-in-laws worst meatloaf... this stuff was pure horrid , in a bottle... labelled , and sold to the Jap's. My god...
After a short moment of coughing and spluttering , I enter the subway , purchase my ticket... and off to Tokyo Station I go.
I disembark at Tokyo Main Station... I check my iTouch and start walking in the general direction of the Imperial Palace. It's about 10mins into this 'little' walk, I start getting an actual sense of just how big Tokyo is. It's not describable the sense you get, but lets just say... at times you feel VERY small.
I've attached the map to TRY and illustrate just how big the Imperial Palace is. Now obviously , I'm not 100% sure on this , and I have no practical way of verifying it... but... I'm FAIRLY certain you could easily fit the entire Auckland CBD into the grounds of the Imperial Palace , and have ample room to spare. I came in from the right hand side ( heading from Maronouchi ) and the size of the outer lying grounds were huge... they seemed to go on for miles and miles... of just... grass.
Here is a little shot of looking up the "driveway" for use of a better word.... of the Palace.
Now why , would someone need such a large driveway? I mean really... what's he driving ??? A Hummer? I doubt it... This place was big... REAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally big.
I walk up the "driveway" ... which , in all seriousness was about a 10minute walk. ( Stuff fetching the mail every day )... and I see something which completely takes my breath away...
I'm in the heart of Tokyo , one of the busiest and built up cities in the world... and then there's this. For the first time in my life... I had an emmense sense of wonder. It looked unreal. This palace is 100's of years old , it's had 100's upon 1000's of soldiers pass through it gates at one time or another. It kind of gave you a very warm , 'buzzy' feeling... To my right...
an elderly Asian woman is painting. I couldnt think of a more picturesque and quaint image. This is a very large turning point for me...
I turn around and about to walk away , when a voice shouts... "Hey , can you take a picture for me please!?"
I'm greeted by Johnathan , an Australian tourist from Sydney. Really nice guy , and we subsequently get chatting.
Johnathan came to Tokyo on Friday night, so he's seen about as much as I have, we decide to combine forces ( ANZAC style ) and tackle Tokyo together.
We decide that we'll walk from the Imperial Palace to "Central Tokyo". Why it's called "CENTRAL Tokyo" , I'll never know... it's not... It's a fair walk , but... with my previously purchased Reebok Pumps. ( Yes, PUMPS baby!... in PINK no less!!! ) I can tackle this walk no problems. The route we picked was so that we could come across the Yasukuni Shrine. It is a shrine dedicated to those men and women who have died in combat serving the Emperor. One of the interesting parts to it tho is the controversy surrounding it... if you read here ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_surrounding_Yasukuni_Shrine ) it'll explain more. Basically, the jist is that the Japanese Prime Minister goes every year to mark his respect to this shrine , of which central people marked within it were convicted of heinous war crimes towards China in WWII... hence the Chinese aren't to happy about that.
No matter what though, it's a gorgeous place to visit , wrapped heavily in history...
One humourous thing we found , was the shrines to the "Horses , Dogs , and Birds killed in war. Interesting... but... upon research , there were some fairly horrendous things that animals were used for during times of medieval war.
Attached to the Shrine , is the Tokyo War Museum , we decide that a day spent walking round the War Museum looking at dead people , and reading about dead people who we have no idea who they are wasn't quite our thing. We do decide to go to the 1st floor ( it was free ya see ) , and have a look at the cool things..
LOOK ... DA PLANE , DA PLANE!!!
And some guns... Mmmmmmmm Guns!!!
Right... so we've had our fill of guns , planes and other boyish childhood dreams, we carry on wandering. We seem to tiki-tour round the houses , and come across what can only be described as a area filled with carpark buildings. Below one of them was FILLED with vending machines... ( not those of which I was warned about... sadly )
Aisles and aisles of vending machines... Soft drink, Tea , Green tea... Milk drinks... Cigarettes...
...
...
Dinner!... Dinner?! WTF!?
The hot noodles I could of MAYBE tried... but, the eggs and stuff that looks like plastic fish? No. We decided to pass and carry on...
Thank god.... Plastic Fish!?
( ps: Person in the photo is Johnathan , he's throwing the "Peace Sign" that he learnt from his Japanese Lady Friend he befriended on the first night... when I say "befriended" ... I actually mean , took back to the hotel and had his wicked way with...)
Lucky c&^t. ( Sorry Johnathan , I had to say it )
Throughout or walk around Tokyo , Johnathan was talking about Pachinco. Now I don't know about you , but to me... it sounded like some South American nut. But he assured me it was something I had to see... well, he was right.
Pachinco is KIND of like a slot machine , it's gambling , but in a whole new , bright, flashing , and DAMN loud way...
What I could gather , is that essentially , you get given 100's of little balls ( Ball bearings really ) ... you put them at the top, and they trickle down to the bottom. The closer to the middle you can get by aiding them with flippers and other contraptions , the more points/money you get. Obviously this is a lot harder than it looks though. What I couldn't get over, is how they sat there ... for hours looking like gormless zombies. Crazy!
From there , we walked up the streets of Tokyo Central , checking out the little shops and stalls, this was an area I kind of related to K-Road. It's a little out of the main shopping and business area, but it had some nice little nick-knack shops and more of a ethnic feel to some of the food shops.
We carry on walking and decide to check out Tokyo Dome. What comes next was easily the most crazy and nuts part of my trip...
If I say to you Kat-Tun... I guarantee 99.99% of you would have NO idea what I'm on about. Say the word "Kat-Tun" to any teenage or young Japanese female, and they'll scream / faint / hyperventilate or simply orgasm frantically in front of you.
Kat-Tun is the #1 Japanese Pop all boy band in the country. All 10 singles, 4 studio albums and 7 DVDs released by the group since their debut in 2006 have debuted at number one on the Oricon music and DVD charts. Pretty much describes just how big they are...
So big in fact, that they were doing 8 consecutive days of concerts at the Tokyo Dome ( an area seating 50,000 people , and standing room for 10,000 more ). Starting on May 15th
We had walked into the hoardes of screaming Japanese girls all waiting to get into the concert. This was madness. It reminded me of the end of a Big Day Out.. just all girls , all dressed crazy , and all Japanese. I did think the word "Mushu" to myself once or twice.
We wandered and ventured around the Tokyo Dome, finding more and more things to look at...
Imagine this, a sports arena/music arena with seating for 50,000+ people. A theme park with Roller Coaster , Ferris Wheel , Log Flume , and various other rides. A large shopping mall and food court. All within Auckland City... It's a fine thought , and a damn cool one at that. It'll never happen, I know this all too well. But this is what Tokyo has done. It's like an epicenter of youth activities.
Keep an eye out for more photos of the Tokyo Dome , I need to go back and get more... today did NOT do it justice.
Here are some more mushu pics for good measure tho...
After we had had our fill of Kat-Tun mad crazed fans and roller coastering, Johnathan and decide that as the sun is setting , it would be a good time to visit Akihibara , another known as "Electric Town".
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihibara )
Akihibara , or Electric Town... as I mentioned in my first post , this was electrical good central. Also geek central... every computer game you can think of. Nintendo/Sega/PS3/Xbox... everything!!!
What I HADN'T seen during the day... were the "Maids". Attractive Japanese girls , standing on the street sides beckoning you to come into their stores... WTF!? Seriously , Whitcoulls needs this stuff!!!
Unfortunately , once again... much like the Harajuku girls , we weren't really allowed to take pictures of these girls. So instead , we made do with looking at the Sex position figurines in the geek stores.. LOL.
Whilst walking from store to store, Johnathan starts asking questions about my camera. He's using a 350D with the kit lense , and is frustrated with the lack of zoom...
You guessed it... next thing you know, we're in a camera store. He's buying a 75mm-300mm zoom lense.
But wait...
I'm in a camera store... in Japan... in Tokyo... and they have cheap lenses...
I walk out with a 28-135mm f3.5mm US ISM. I couldn't say no... it was calling my name. I swear!
We decide it's best for us if we leave Akihibara and head home. Well, I know for my Credit Card balance it was better that way...
I board my Subway train, and hope out at my station, from here it's a 5minute walk across the red bridge and I'm home. One thing that I love , is that where-ever I had been in Tokyo so far, I felt safe. I had always had my camera with me , but I ALWAYS felt safe. And tonight was no exception. Crossing the Red Bridge , I did manage to capture these...
I did have to balance the camera on the hand rail , so they may not be perfect...
From here ... it was night night from the Asakusa Smile...
( Remember, only a handful of photos are put up here... check http://www.aflickion.com for the full set of photos "Tokyo Madness" is the set... )
Really enjoying this @ work, keep it up!
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