Notes from Japan, pt 1

I've been in Tokyo for about 30 hours so far and really haven't stopped except for a few hours of sleep I stole earlier this morning but I figured it was high time I posted a little about what I've been up to. Even though I've been dying to come here for about the last 15 years this is the first time I've actually it and it's all because of the help/pestering/encouragement of friends and it's already worth it. So yeah, I got in yesterday around 4pm Tokyo time. Joi met me at the airport and snapped this shot as I was clearing customs:

We hopped on a train and Joi caught me in total awe of the whole train thing. It was amazing. I can't even describe it in any way that makes any sense, but it was complete sensory overload on just about every level. It looked a bit like this:

We went and dropped off my bags and then turned right around and headed out for food. I was kind of starving since American Airlines totally screwed up my vegan meal on the way over. As we headed back out I was getting adjusted to everything and started noticing the advertising covering almost every inch of the trains, even hanging from the ceiling like this:

Before too long we got to a restaurant, the name of which I'm forgetting, in Naka-Meguro, where I had one of the best meals I've ever had in my life. Unstoppably fresh veggies prepared and grilled right in front of you, in this tiny little place. I can't imagine a better first meal in Japan.

(lots more after the jump)

Any way I try to describe that will just fall short and I'd been awake for a few days straight at that point so I'm sure that played into it a lot but needless to say, it was amazing. After that we went around to a handful of places all of which could be a blog post on their own but mostly at that point I was really ust enjoying walking around on the little streets and trying to take in everything. A lot of the night looked like this:

Which is exactly what I wanted. Hitting the streets with someone who knows all the secret back alley places is definitely the way to do it. Thanks Joi!!

After that, as it was about 3am by this point, we parted ways and I jumped in a cab and headed back to his lab where I'm crashing for the week. My room looks like this:

See those cables on the floor next to the bed? Power strip and ethernet. So awesome. I got some sleep but before too long I was back up and trying to figure out what the next adventure would be. I saw my old friend Matt Alt online and pinged him. He was headed over to a Nakano shopping mall and invited me along. He gave me some vague directions about which train to jump on and which station to change to another and told me to meet him outside the station in Nakano. I failed to mention that this was my first time in Japan and that I'd only been exposed to the trains about 12 hours earlier which could have been a problem, but in my current go-with-the-flow mindset I decide I'd just run with it and see what would happen.

I walked the few blocks from Joi's Lab to the station and caught the first train over to Shibuya where I had to change trains and get up to Shinjuku. I missed the first train because I was just marveling at the train station.

I did make it, only a little bit late, and right away headed over to the shopping mall to see what was up. This was the shopping area on the way to the shopping area:

At the same time I was talking to Joi about heading out to his place in the country and decided to touch base with him after we looked at toys and got coffee and then decide what to do. The mall was otaku insanity on all levels:

After that we took off and were confronted with signs for an Insect Hotel where you can take your pet insects and they will watch them while you are out of town or whatever. Yes, a kennel for your pet insects.

It was really starting to rain by this point and after talking to Joi decided that riding a train 2 hours out to his place to get there just in time for it to be dark and then have to turn right around and head back was probably not the hottest idea so I decided to stay in town and see his place later in the week, hopefully post-typhoon.

With the evening suddenly freed up Matt asked what I wanted to do and I told him about this crazy watch I'd seen on Tokyo Flash and asked if he knew where I might see one in person because I'd kinda been lusting over it but just couldn't bring myself to buy a watch over the internet that I'd never seen in person. Not to mention I haven't worn a watch since I was in 9th grade or so.

He knew just the place.

And... Success!

New watch in tow Matt dragged me even further west to Hachioji so we could eat at a place called Monk's Food which is all organic and since it's named after Thelonious Monk had some amazing jazz playing in the background while we ate. After dinner we checked out this super tiny whisky bar next door where they served drinks with hand carved baseball sized chunks of ice. It was unbelievable. On the way back to the train we saw this dude:

Which led me to ask about the rampant rumors in the US that in Japan they celebrate Christmas by having KFC because that what the marketing teams told them Americans do. Well, that was never really answered but I did get even better info. Obviously Christmas in Japan has nothing to do with Christianity (though it barely does in the US either at this point) and entirely about gifts and Santa. Although, leave it to the Japanese to take something cool and make it even cooler. How can you make a holiday about giving/getting presents even cooler you might ask? Just add sex. So, apparently in Japan Christmas is the prom night of holidays or something because if you have a girlfriend it's pretty much expected that on Christmas even you will have a hotel/love hotel room booked somewhere and be "consummating" the relationship sometime that evening. At least for teenagers. I guess this doesn't apply to old married folks, though I really think it should because why should the kids get to have all the fun? Not to mention it's one hell of a way to keep kids from sneaking out and opening up presents too early. Well, at least the presents under the tree. HEY-OH!

Oh, and apparently on Valentines day in Japan the girls are the ones who are expected to buy chocolate for the dudes. This sounds like my kind of place already. As if it didn't before.

Then we got on the train and eventually Matt took off leaving me on my own again in places like this:

and this:

and this:

That's Shibuya and if you look closely you can see the starbucks where many of the street scenes in Lost in Translation were filmed from. I'm pretty sure anyway.

By this point I was really enjoying listening to my iPod which was stocked full of My Bloody Valentine and Lush while riding trains around the city so I decided to miss my stop on purpose and just see where I ended up.

It was awesome.

when I left Matt he said I was about a half hour from home. I got in about 2 hours later. Riding the trains around alone without trying to get anywhere is one of my favorite things ever at this point. Followed closely by wandering streets alone.

Talk about a completely ideal situation to be in your own little world and be introspective and try to figure out the secrets of life. It's everything I hoped it would be. And I haven't even been here 2 full days yet. I can't wait to see what's next.