Computer guru, internet junkie, and gadget freak. I've been building solutions in education through technology since 1997. I am in the business of serving educators. I have many interests but I seldom write about it since I'm shy. I am not a writer, poet, scholar or artist so my writing is awful, wordy, long and full of grammar errors. I am a computer nerd, a gamer and more importantly a developer of ideas. This is my blog, raw and unedited.
Today was a much slower day, a day of rest, recuperation and relaxation and writing day 2 of my blog. Since we didn't do much exciting things today I will write about an interesting aspect of the culture here to keep up with my daily tidbit of something interesting in Japan piece.
As you walk the streets of Japan, one will notice yellow bricks with grooves in him on most all sidewalks.
No, this is not the yellow brick road to see the Wizard of Edo but a very cleaver way to serve a certain segment of their population in need.
This yellow brick path typically runs the entire length of sidewalks, train stations and even some private areas. When you walk on them they are grooved and some times you see parts that have dots instead of grooves. This yellow brick road serves the visually impaired population. As the blind walk the streets they use their walking stick to mark their path. They follow the grooves to know they are heading in the right direction and when they hit the spots they know there is an intersection of some sort. These paths are found just about everywhere we've been and many Gaijin don't understand its purpose. Pretty cool eh?
They don't have much in a way of ADA for people in wheelchairs that I've seen. Most buildings don't have ramps and if they do, it's used for other purposes than for people in wheelchairs since they can go as high as a 30 degree incline.
Waking up at 7 am, I started work and caught up with many e-mails. So the day started late for us as we went to lunch at an overpriced cafeteria. They food was good but not worth the money we spent. We then came back, did some more work and writing. It's laundry day today so we took a couple loads down to get it washed. Dinner consisted of an udon shop and we went to penguin city to shop at a "walmart" style shop looking for a battery charger for my camera.
Wow, what a normal day for the third say in Japan. Day 4 will prove to me more interesting as we get up early and travel to more distant destinations in Tokyo. Some by bike, some by bus, and some by train!
On my second day in Japan I got a chance to see how biking is the primary mode of transportation in Tokyo other than their superior public transit system. This is an area where bikers rule the roads and sidewalks. While riding through the streets, traffic cops would stop pedestrian traffic and wave their wands as we rode through.
On the street we ride with the cars on the left and cars stop for bikes as they ride through. Bikes weave in and out of traffic, sometimes cutting off cars turning as they ride through. This is amazing that they don't have many car bike accidents as no one wears helmets and it's not like their bikes here are top quality. Their common bikes are standard 3 speed and most all have baskets.
Most are manufactured the same as any bike with solid steel construction, not like what we are use to in the states. While on the road we follow car traffic laws, but if convenient we can switch to the sidewalks and follow pedestrian rules. People get out of your way while riding and bikes have the right of way. With so many bikes and pedestrians, it's amazing we don't see very many of those collisions and if that were to happen, both parties would apologize and get on with their day. Biking here is amazing and fun. I think throughout the day I biked nearly 50 miles! No wonder so many Japanese are in good shape.
On with the day's activities. We started the day with sleeping in. I have finally caught up in sleep and now woke up at 7 am to get some much needed work done. With a late start, we skipped breakfast (except eating some mochi cakes) and went to eat at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.
It was local and very cheap as the three of us filled our bellies and only spent $25.
We then proceeded to ride to the city capital building, Tokyo Metropolitan state building, which stands 48 stories tall. On the top floor there is an observation floor where you can have a 290 degree view of Tokyo. It was quite an amazing site to see as you can gain excellent perspective on how large this city is. It definitely lends to a new level of appreciation of how this urban mecca thrives with such a huge population base. It is truly a living breathing city.
One of the very cool aspects on the observation deck is the guided tours. I've been on tours where you get this nice little audio device and you type in the number of what you want to hear about but they took it to the next level. Up on they deck they hand you a pda with the tour loaded.
You can interact with the screen but the most amazing part of the device is that it knows what you are looking at and tells you! Actually, it doesn't know what you are exactly looking at but it does know what window you are standing in front of and starts reciting the items in that view for you!
SUPER CRAZY COOL!
Having been sufficiently wowed by the depth of the city we headed to the past and visited the Magi Temple.
It was nice seeing a very historic area for the Japanese people.
We drank from the fountain and saw their display of wishing blocks where people buy a plate of wood and write their wished or prayers on it for it to be fulfilled.
In the temple people toss coins and cash into a slitted crate and make their offerings. No pictures allowed :(
After walking through and expansive forest we headed to Harajuku to visit the famous Condomania, a store where they carry over a thousand varieties of condoms and other sex related nick knacks.
This however is NOT an adult toy store so most everything is PG since they are promoting safe sex for teens.
They had humorous gag gifts as well as a rely funny poster I took a picture of.
We were only passing through Harajuku since we will be spending more time on Sunday for the Okaku Cosplay orgy on Sunday so we proceeded on to our final destination, Shibuya.
One of the most famous places Japan is know for and probably more recognizable than Mt. Fuji, Shibuya is home to the world famous Shibuya square. If you've seen any moves that involve Tokyo, you've seen Shibuya square showing in one way or another. When the lights at the intersection turn red and the walk symbol activates, thousands of pedestrians cross the intersection all at once and have thirty seconds to make it. It is a literal zoo and we arrive on our bikes right when the madness began. Navigating the throngs of people was nearly impossible but we crossed without any serious injury to the natives. We parked our bikes and enjoyed the sight of the crowds. It was a Monday afternoon so the traffic was only 1/4 the usual on a weekend but it was still a site to see.
We proceeded to visit the famous landmark, the Hachiko dog.
If you don't know about the Hachiko dog at the Shibuya station, google it. In the world, it is the most famous meeting place, having over 1000 meetings there in one day. In summary there was a dog named Hachiko who waited at that train station for years for his master to return. The travels of this very busy train station took to taking care of this dog as it refuses to leave since his master died on the job. Hachiko represents undying loyalty and many draw inspiration from this true story.
We visited a bustling underground grocery store where exhausted workers stop in to buy their day's worth of groceries before heading home.
The store can only be compared to what I've experienced shopping on Black Friday after Thanksgiving. There were people everywhere in this very well organized clean asian market. They sold everything! I was so envious at the varieties of food they sold from meat to produce to pastries. It was a fresh goods market only so no canned or dry goods were sold here, or we just never made it to the dry good area since it was so HUGE!
Proceeding to the world famous fashion district, Shibuya 109 is 10 stories of clothing stores for women!
There you can buy clothes and accessories to suit any taste, from cute to goth to sporty, they have it all. It's a woman's wet dream to shop here and they girls here know how to dress in distinctive fashions. The dress here is so important to the Japanese that you rarely see someone wearing jeans and a T-Shirt, even when just going to grab a bite to eat.
You commonly see women dressed in super cute outfits complete with bows, frills and stuffed animals as accessories. They are walking incarnations of anime characters or is it the other way around, was anime inspired by real life? Hmmmm. We walked all ten floors with utter amusement.
After spending an hour in Shibuya we decided to take the long up hill ride back home but not before stopping in at a Krispy Cream.
Why go to Krispy Cream? Because we were told their donuts were better here than in America. That statement was only partially true. The donuts were the exact same artery clogging sugary fried pieces of dough but they did have a few unique flavors. Upon entering the order line we were greeted with a fresh hot free donut. We were then asked to choose from their selection. Having no desire to eat donuts we tried flavors that were unique. The green tea donut was delicious and should be sold in the US as well as banana filled, and soy cake donut. The coffee one was very good too.
Now that we were filled with carbs, sugar and fat, we are properly fueled for our hour trek back home. It was tough but a very good workout riding through rain and cars. Once we got back we headed out to satiate our now well earned hunger at a real Korean BBQ.
This place, right around the corner from where we were staying features a hot plate where they grill the food right in front of you. They provide you with paper bibs because the cooking process splatters a lot and that's because what they traditionally eat is huge ass thick half inch cuts of bacon and port bellies. 90% of the patrons were Korean so it was quite authentic. Every one of them were eating these fatty meals, wrapping their food with lettuce to make it healthier.
It was amazing that not one was overweight and many were petite. We looked at this display of fat with disgust and opted to get their seafood bowl, a super huge bowl of seafood in a spicy broth. It consisted of super jumbo shrimp, many crabs, muscles, scallops and octopus. The food was good and healthy. Although I wanted to try the bacon meal, I didn't want to eat just that, but they did offer a variety of veggies as sides in that meal. I would say that I typically don't shy away from meat dishes but that did not look appealing to me. Sure, you may call me closed minded but I can eat nearly any seafood that disgust some.
After a delicious seafood dinner I had a craving for some curry so we went to a 24 curry shop for some fast food curry. I ordered a small bowl of curry and it deliciously hit the spot.
What a good long day. Riding around Tokyo was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing that again and again while I'm staying here.
During the day with Lori and Ross we stopped in at at special place many Japanese visit, the Cat Cafe. What is a cat cafe? Well, it's a place where you can go and play with cats for an hour or so for $9 and have lunch there.
Many Japanese go there to play with the cats which may sound kinda weird from where we are standing but it makes perfect sense. For many here in Japan they don't have a chance to own a pet so the only experience they have is the occasional stray cat in the streets.
The pay this premium because they can't own pets here and their culture loves cats. They celebrate cats everywhere. Neko (cat in japanese) is everywhere and even their most popular shipping service has a mother cat carrying a baby cat as their logo. Lucky cat is the most popular cat in asia and Hello Kitty is the most favorite character among girls.
So what do you do in a culture that celebrates cats and every girls loves cute kittens, you have a Cat Cafe where you can play with cats. We entered the facility, one among half a dozen in Tokyo, and were greeted with instructions on how to properly behave among cats.
The place we went to was in the middle of Shinjuku and was located in a building and took up two floors.
There were cats everywhere, laying, sitting, standing, playing, they were relaxed, playful and spoiled.
We had one hour to spend with the cats.
As Gaijin, there was no reason we went there since we owned cats but the novelty of paying to play with cats and eat lunch was quite the novelty.
This didn't exist in the US so it was quite an unique experience.
It was quite the amazing time and no cats were harmed during our visit to their cafe.
They have names for every one of their three dozen cats but one in particular was the store favorite.
It has a puffy face and has quite the unique personality.
By the time we left the Cat Cafe, it was packed with Japanese, primarily girls, having fun and playing with cats.
Jet lag would be a proper excuse for waking up at 5:00 in the morning being that it was 9 pm back in the states but that wasn't the case. After three hours of sleep, I woke up from dreams of configuring the AdHoc network so I can connect my iPad to the internet. After laying there for nearly an hour, I got up and set my mind to rest. Pretty lame excuse, but I had to get it done and feed my addiction.
Today was unlike any other day here in Japan (not like I'm use to Japan already) because it just so happens that our good friends Lori and Ross are on a 10 day tour of Japan with a group and they had their free day today. After having a slow morning and eating some curry and rice for breakfast we met up with them at a local Starbucks in Shinjuku Station. Mind you that finding the proper star bucks was quite a feat because Shinkuku Station was no typical train station. With over 8 possible exits spanning nearly a mile and 5 Starbucks establishments to choose from, it puts any Manhattan Subway system to shame.
We met up with them at noon and proceeded to give them a tour of Shunjuku. Having a whole 2 hours of experience in Shinjuku, I intelligently gave them the tour of the "seedier side" of Japan and I quickly found out that in their tour of a dozen places they haven't seen any "adult" entertainment venues on prominent display and the night life here was much more active than other places. For the next three hours we showed them all the hot spots, ate fresh Takoyaki (fried octopus balls), the confidence club (japan's gay club), and a myriad of adult shops and ramen stores.
Next we took a train to Akihabara, the electronics mecca of Tokyo. The streets there were lined with stores and Japanese hustling to various shops. Besides a multitude of electronics stores we visited Don Kyjote a Japanese versions of Walmart where they have bargain basement items on nearly 10 floors of a super tiny building. Each floor was a department and was crammed with STUFF. If you were any bit claustrophobic then this was not the place for you.
It was unfortunate that I had to find this out. Considering that we haven't eaten anything besides a bowl of curry rice for breakfast we were hard pressed to find a street vendor selling fast food. Unfortunately 90% of shops were ones where you had to sit and eat at like ramen or curry shops.
I found out that unfortunately the McDonalds cheeseburger tastes exactly the same as it does in the US but we were desperate, starving and in need of something on the go. I won't make that mistake again. Next time it's KFC o_O.
Japan: Obsessed with Anime - Last stop in Akihabara was an adult mega store (mega in their sense). Four floor of adult stuff with each floor dedicated to something. First floor was costumes and R rated items. The second floor was women goods while the third and fourth floors was for men only (no women allowed). This store was much like any adult store you'd find in the US but unlike Fascinations or Castle Boutique is how they display the items. When you walk the streets of Japan you can sense the appreciation of Anime or Japanese cartoons infused into its culture. Women dressed up in anime outfits promoting their stores (not unlike a person dressed up in a gorilla outfit waving sign for today's sale) or humongous anime or manga stores everywhere, the culture would be as some would consider obsessed with Anime as it is infused into every part of their modern culture. Anime is indeed popular in Japan but that was clearly brought to light in the adult toy store.
In american stores the shelves are adorned with products that are advertised with women of various ethnicities in various poses trying to entice you to buy their item. Ocassionally you would see a porn star endorsing a product here and there but in this store about 2/3 of the advertisements were adorned with Anime characters. This is only startling if you were to translate that to the US. Imagine if we were obsessed with our cartoons, we would see products being advertised by Mini Mouse, Daisy Duck, Smurfette, She-Ra or a myriad of female characters in our animation history. Obviously it wouldn't work because our characters aren't a pretty to look at and doesn't have any appeal after a certain age and most aren't even human but still, their cartoons.
You walk in a store and see a popular Anime Evangelion advertising their super vibrator in various lewd poses or a Hello Kitty pocket massager. The apex was seeing "Personal Girlfriends" nearly life sized torsos looking like an anime character. The Japanese do appreciate their cartoons but one can see how many growing up with such an empahsis on such a medium have become obsessed with such a thing. That ends my little commentary.
After Akuhabara we headed to Lori and Ross's hotel at Shiba and visited a huge temple. They were very close to Tokyo Tower so I got some good contrasting photos of the temple with Tokyo Tower in the background. We met up with their tour group at 7 and proceeded to a restaurant the guide knew called Waru Waru. The food was sub par but the company was fun and it was good to socialize with english speaking persons after being here in Japan for so long (insert sarcastic smirk here). I did love the fact you can order your food from a touch screen computer! 14 of us ate tapas style sampling over 2 dozen different dishes throughout the night. The plans for Karaoke were canceled because dinner took too long. We were disappointed because it would be fun to Karaoke with a group of Gaijin. We took the trains back and road our bikes back home.
My first full day in Japan was fun as we traveled around to see various places. I look forward to my second day as I bike around Shinjuku, enjoy the hot humid and rainy weather and work on some articles for KP.
Please leave a comment if you actually read this. Pics will come as soon as I get some up on a server.
Begin, Nai's travel blog for a two week in Japan to visit Michi's father in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
I begin my trip by getting a good 5 hours of sleep and waking up at 2 am to start my packing for my trans continental flight to Japan at 10 am. Why so late? I spent most of my days at home getting the business ready for my two week absence and to establish communication protocols when I arrive. My wife has had a week head start on me and has done the leg work on getting familiar with the area. The real reason is that I'm not bringing much to Japan, a bag of electronics and a few sets of clothes. I was able to accomplish the two week trip with only a backpack and a small cary on roller. Amazing!
The flight there was very fast. First was a short hop to Salt Lake city. Our flight was delayed by half an hour to SLC and the flight was delayed by 1.5 hours to Tokyo Narita airport so I got a chance to hang out at the Delta lounge for an extra hour. Sitting near the front of the Airbus 200, I sat in the middle section next to an old Japanese nature filmographer who travels the world filming for the past 30 years. The flight was empty in the middle sections all the way back but I was unfortunate not to be able to get an aisle seat. No matter, the seat next to me was empty so the guy on the other aisle seat and I used it to hold our drinks and my iPad. The iPad made the 12 hour flight go really fast. Being able to read, watch TV and play games made the time go by very very fast. The free drinks helped to, so I believe I only slept for an hour on the entire flight.
Getting out of the airport, the customs process took seconds to get through. I was out in the airport lobby, exchanged $$$ for some Yen, hooked on to the internet, make a quick facebook post before I realized that the bus I needed to take to Shinjuku was leaving in 5 minutes. The fortuitous timing made it so that I didn't have a wait at the terminal. Within minutes I was on the bus for a two hour ride to Shinjuku. Traffic entering Tokyo was stop and go and extended the trip by an hour.
All that waiting was all worth it as the bus pulled up to the station and there was my wife smiling up at me, warming my heart and filling me with renewed energy. I greeted her father, whom I haven't seen in over three years, and off we went, walking to where we will be staying only about a mile away. The atmosphere was humid but bearable.
First stop, a ramen shop for some dinner. It was delicious and hit the spot. We then walked to the place we are staying. On the way there the streets were lined with tons of Japanese looking for a fun night out. Men played at Pachinco parlors, women dressed in their Saturday night best. Food establishments were bustling with hungry patrons and entertainment venues were out advertising in force for people who wanted to pay for a lucky night. The place reminded me of the las vegas strip mixed with the crowds of lower Manhattan. It was an amazing site to see. I was told that it's not just because it's Saturday night but Shinjuku is the city that never sleeps and has activity like this every night.
After dropping my bags off, we walked out to just soak in the sites for a couple more hours before I died of exhaustion from being up for 30 hours straight. We visited a tacoyaki shop, a super electronics 6 floor store, and McDonalds for a glass of water (I wouldn't eat there in Japan).
Day 0, travel to Tokyo ends with nice dreams of an active city full of a great culture of nice people.
Oh Yeah, be sure to leave me a comment after you read it. Too bad there isn't a like button here...
