Oz in Japan

[Oz]

@Kenshin: No, I'll be only in Tokyo for this trip.

@Muggy: No, although that's a tempting idea.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I met an interesting poet in Ueno Park. While I was strolling some middle-aged guy walked up to me and asked "Are you from Europe?". Apparently he has written quite a few books and even sold me a small collection of his poems for 200 yen. When he heard that I was from Finland he started to praise our education and told me that if a Finnish university invited him he would go right away, but wouldn't do the same for an American university ("they're bad nowadays"). All in all, an interesting encounter.

Today I will visit Tokyo Sky Tree and Asakusa.

[Trajan]

"they're bad nowadays"

He may be right about the public ones, but most Ivy League schools are still widely considered to be among the top 25 universities in the world. There's a reason about 30% of the students and faculty there are foreign nationals.

That said, there's a reason it was UT or bust for me.

[InstrumentalityOne]

When he heard that I was from Finland he started to praise our education and told me that if a Finnish university invited him he would go right away

You would be surprised how many people in europe feel the same way as the guy you met.

[Oz]

Tokyo Sky Tree was an interesting sight and even more interesting was to see the area around it that had clearly started to boom with the new attraction. Even the closest train station had changed its name to "Tokyo Sky Tree Station".

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A park near Tokyo Sky Tree:

After that, Kaminarimon, Asakusa. Nakamise Street was extremely worthwhile with all sorts of weird little shops and great atmosphere. I bought a few woodblock print postcards. However, the shop I was looking forward to the most was Marubell Do - a shop dedicated to photos of old idol, film stars, pro wrestlers and so on. It was simply amazing. I realized I should buy at least one photo there as a reminder. When the shopkeeper heard that I had come all the way to Finland and knew about this shop in particular she let me take pictures. I forgot to take one of the store's front, but I think these few interior shots tell a lot. Basically it was a very small shop with the walls full of pictures. The basement level had a small room with tons of small boxes stuffed with the pictures and that's where I found my choice: a picture of Momoe Yamaguchi (will take a picture of it for the haul thread after my trip is over).

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Pictures of Marubell Do:

Then it was time for Sanja matsuri and I got to see the parade of the first day. Too bad I won't be going back there for the other days which would be even more crowded and festive.

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Afterwards I wandered around Asakusa and went to see an awesome rakugo performance at Asakusa Engei Hall.

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The street leading to the hall was lined with photos of the famous performers.

Random pictures from Ueno Park:

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[drinian]

I remember going to the last day of the Sanja Matsuri in 2007. Asakusa was absolutely mobbed. It's almost better you didn't go that day.

[Oz]

^ That's probably true. The crowd was quite amazing even on a Friday so I can only imagine the terror of Sunday.

Today I went to Kichijoji for the Ghibli museum. Before I went to the museum I went to a Disk Union store, made stunning discoveries (in the end bought 5 CDs!), walked through Inokashira Park (which was beautiful) and then ended up at the museum.

The museum has to be one of the highlights of my whole trip - it's worth every bit of its great reputation. Lots of material from pre-production stage of the films, lots of models of places featured in the films and so forth. My favorite was probably the dark room with all sorts of weird items. The first one that caught my eye was a pillar with a miniature version of the robot from Laputa that made it look like there were animated birds flying around the robot. It simply has to be seen to understand how amazing it looked like. I stared at it for minutes. Then there was a lovely piece of animation next to it and other unbelievable items. I also went to the roof to take a picture of the statue. I will upload that picture later, but it's quite meaningless since I didn't take one with me in it (and I don't like to take such pictures in the first place).

EDIT:

I went to Harajuku today. Today being Sunday meant that there was a lot of people and it was quite a hassle to navigate through the crowds for hours.

Takeshita street is as fabulous as its reputation leads you to believe. Lots of shops and lots of customers in a tiny area with a lot to see. The most surprising aspect of the street was just how many black men were handing out flyers for fashion shops. At one short stretch of the street there was at least a dozen of them competiting against each other to get customers. I can't even remember how many times they approached me with a "Hey, man" or something like that.



The AKB shop on Takeshita street was much better than the one at Akihabara and I ended up making the most expensive haul of the trip so far there (over 7000 yen, thanks to a DVD). More spacy, but even then it was full of people and I had to constantly dodge the other customers. The worst part was when I was waiting in line to the cashier and some teenagers get pumping into me because some of the merchandise was lined up right next to the line. Even without a reservation to the more impressive floors of the shop it was a pleasant experience.



I went to the Eva Store, but didn't buy anything. It was probably the best organized and most neat store of the street with proper Eva-like design (I loved the stairs to the 2nd floor in particular). I also paid a visit to Gorakudoh, a shop famous for selling idol tickets and a small collection of photos. Even though the street was full of people there was no one in the store and even the shopkeeper was at the door waiting for customers. The photo collection was quite small so I just took a glance and left.



Apart from hanging around on Takeshita and Omotesando I paid a visit to Yoyogi Park. The very reason I chose Sunday for my Harajuku visit was because I wanted to see the dancing Elvises in Yoyogi Park. I couldn't get good pictures of them thanks to a sizable crowd and too bright sunlight, but there are tons of videos of them on YouTube so go check them out yourself. The park was full of interesting street performances ranging from manzai to comic pantomime.

[Kenshin Sephiroth]

That's an epic ass crack in that last pic. Seriously, thanks for posting all this, Oz, great stuff! How are you getting around Tokyo? Did you rent a hoverboard the first day, take public transportation, or do you simply pick a destination every morning and walk thataway?

[Oz]

For the first days I walked all the distances - mostly because I chose locations close enough to my hotel. Starting from Saturday I've started to use the trains which are absolutely awesome. With a Suica card it's ridiculously easy to get around in Tokyo.

Monday:

Today I stopped by at a Disk Union store in Shinjuku, bought 2 CDs and continued my journey to Nakano Broadway.



Nakano Broadway was quite spectacular. I think I prefer it to Akihabara thanks to the calmer atmosphere and more interesting output. The few idol stores I found there were amazing, but in the end I didn't buy anything in them even though I spent some time looking at all the photos. At Utahime Dome I decided to find a proper photo of AKB's Harukyan, but there were simply too many photos on the walls in an order too complicated (rather than organize them by the girl featured in the photo they were organized by the time and place of the photo). Recomints was a disappointment because they didn't have almost any used CDs in store so everything was ridiculously expensive and their selection wasn't too great either. There was also one curious idol store that had a shelf for Momoiro Clover Z photos, but I managed to leave that store without buying anything as well.

In the end, I didn't buy anything in Nakano Broadway even though it was a great place. Instead I went back to that same Disk Union store in Shinjuku and bought 2 CDs more because I remembered in Nakano that I forgot the single best discovery I made there (Tha Blue Herb's Stilling, Still Dreaming).

EDIT:

Tuesday:

It rained throughout the day today so I wasn't inspired to do much. I went to Shibuya for shopping. At first I visited the Hello! Project store in 109-2 which was sort of neat, but my decreasing interest in H!P made me go through the store's selection quite fast. Then I headed for second-hand CD stores Book Off and Disk Union (made a few discoveries at the latter) and finally went to Recofan. Recofan was simply stunning in scale and orderliness. In fact its used J-Pop selection was so huge that I had to stop midway through because I was so worn out that I couldn't concentrate on finding the right CDs. I ended up buying 4 CDs though since that's how many gems I already managed to find even though I explored only less than half of the selection. I'll be going back there later this week.

Originally I planned to pay a visit to Ikebukuro as well, but the bad weather made me leave it for a later date.

Wednesday:

Shinjuku and Ikebukuro. First up, I went to the observatory tower in Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. I was a bit surprised by the bag inspection because I had not read about it anywhere in advance, but it wasn't exactly thorough and didn't take much time so I had no problem with it. The view was great, though, and I took some pictures.

Afterwards I headed back to the station since I knew that some of the stores should be open by then. I remembered that I had seen some random idol store when I visited Shinjuku earlier on the trip and decided to go check it out. Turns out, it was one of Lammtarra's branch stores. I went in for a quick look and noticed that they had AKB48's brand new single on sale so I bought it there instead of doing so at Tower Records where I was supposed to go next. The cashier was incredibly friendly even by Japanese standards and I guess it was because I saw only one customer besides me and he didn't buy anything so the day must have been quite quiet for the store.

Next up, I went to a Books Kinokuniya store which mostly had magazines on sale, but I managed to find a copy of Nakayan's Hisenbatsu Idol from the shelves so I bought it and left.

At Ikebukuro I first visited a Junkudo bookstore quickly before I went to the Recofan store which was almost as huge as the one in Shibuya. After yet another huge CD haul I headed for the Disk Union store next door where I made one more discovery. By this time I was a bit worn out so I just took a quick glance at the famous Otome Road and didn't even go to Sunshine City even though I had planned to do so.

I had a weird experience in Ikebukuro. Even though I'm used to the sudden sight of dozens of high school students I was pretty confused when I suddenly saw hundreds of schoolgirls marching along the street. Imagine walking a long road and you see nothing but schoolgirls coming at you for many minutes. I knew the schools must have ended around that time, but the real answer waited for me once I reached the end of the road where I saw a school gate. Apparently there is a huge girls-only high school near Otome Road and even 10 minutes later the flood of schoolgirls hadn't stopped. I wonder just how many students there is in that one school.

[drinian]

BTW, if you want to have a "quirky Japan" experience in Tokyo, I just found out today that there's an indoor fishing pool in Sangenjaya. Less than five minutes' walk from my old house, and I never knew it was there. Must not be an English sign.

http://archive.metropolis.co.jp/tokyofeaturestories/383/tokyofeaturestoriesinc.htm

(#11)

Now I'm really regretting not going there.

[Oz]

On these last few days I've been exploring different areas of Tokyo at random.

On Thursday I visited Daikanyama, Shibuya (again) and Shimokitazawa. Daikanyama was as unique as I expected - no tall buildings, fashion shops everywhere and in general a very European (French-ish) atmosphere. Tsutaya Books store was pretty awesome - too bad their CD collection was only for rental. In Shibuya I went to explore the rest of the music stores that I skipped on an earlier visit. My visit to Shimokitazawa was much shorter than planned - in the end I had no interest in the many record stores in the area and only visited Recofan + Disk Union stores.

On Friday I spent the morning at the beautiful and peaceful Yanaka Cemetery. I also visited a certain cafe run by the parents of AKB48 member Minami Minegishi in Takashimadaira and afterwards went to re-explore Akihabara one more time.

Today was a more hectic day with lots of great memories. My first stop was Edo-Tokyo Museum which was incredibly huge and simply awesome. I could have spent even more time exploring the museum, but hunger beat me in the end. There was also a sumo museum (and a sumo arena) next to it so I got to see lots of sumo players hanging around (seeing them ride bicycles and visit konbinis was hilarious). Afterwards I went to Sunshine City for the brilliant aquarium, but I also stumbled upon this which will be one of the biggest highlights of my entire trip.

[User-iel]

Thank you for the effort invested in 'bringing us along' for your trip. I am thoroughly entertained. As a side note, have you tried to have any unique dining experiences? In a budget-minded itinerary, I have know about the various small lunch establishments with great reputation and small, fixed production. There are other very local experiences to be had while dining. I hope you choose some before you leave.

[drinian]

Seriously, I think you've seen more of Tokyo in two weeks than I have in the ~4 months I've spent there. Well done.

[Oz]

I'm not much of a culinarist so I went with cheap and easy choices for the most part.

Yesterday I visited Imperial Palace East Gardens and Kitanomaru Park. The latter has Nihon Budoukan which I took photos of. Judging from the noises coming from inside there was a kendo tournament going on as I passed by. I also went to see Ginza, but that was not the highlight of the day, though. In my earlier post I wrote about that surprise event I discovered in Sunshine City. I told about it to symbv who found out what the event was all about and that it would also be repeated on Sunday so I went there again. This time I went there early enough to be able stand in the center of the front row. Even though I went there way too early and thus had to wait a very long time it was worth it. Now that I have witnessed an AKB member from only a few meters' distance the next step is to visit the theater on my next trip to Japan.

Photos of the stage  SPOILER: Show

Saturday

Sunday

Today I will be leaving for Narita for my last night and my flight back to Finland departs on Tuesday morning.

EDIT: Someone else managed to sneak a picture of the event when she was on stage and you can see me in this photo: http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/yabya/imgs/0/0/00294eb4.jpg

In the front row, I'm close to the kid in a yellow shirt. I'm not the first to her left, but the second one in the dark-colored T-shirt. On my other side stands a woman and next to her that group of wotas with towels wrapped around their heads.

[child of Lilith]

You should have just said look for the white guy. It would have simplified things immensely.

[MugwumpHasNoLiver]

Not all of us have your eagle eye for spotting the subtle differences between Asians and Caucasians in the blurry pixels of crowd photos, Lil.

Though if Oz is the one with bright pink flesh, then yeah, that would have helped.

[User-iel]

Extreme zoom isn't your fault, so I'm happy to say that finding the photo has to be a 'Master's Level' souvenir worthy of your skill and interest. Great job. Enjoy the rest, and please travel safely.

[child of Lilith]

Not all of us have your eagle eye for spotting the subtle differences between Asians and Caucasians in the blurry pixels of crowd photos, Lil.

Though if Oz is the one with bright pink flesh, then yeah, that would have helped.

I suppose it was a bit presumptuous of me to assume everyone has the "eye of Lilith" like I do. My apologies.

[Oz]

Back at home now. Posted most of my haul in the haul thread: http://forum.evageeks.org/post/540476/Recent-Hauls-2/#540476

[gatotsu911]

Yeah, Japanese girls are easy unless you're Black, especially if you're tall and White.

I know a black dude who lives and got married in Japan, he seems to be having a pretty good time

[Xard]

Looks like it was really awesome trip Oz. I should meet you in person within few days, I think. :)

If you're home that is.

I'm not much of a culinarist so I went with cheap and easy choices for the most part.

What a mistake man, one of the things I most miss from Japan were all the delicious foods