Well, actually we made it Asahi and Black Nikka time. But it was good times. We left at around five in the morning and my voice was a couple octives lower and many grades more abrasive. From NKOTB to Tiffany to Marlyn Manson to GnR, we rocked our tiny room with terrible singing and plenty of reverb.
Oh yes, and there was a singing of “Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto”, of course.
After spending a nice day walking (and hobbling) around Tokyo we took the Shinkantsen (bullet train) up to Hamamatsu where we stayed with Andi & Kenn. As it had been over a week since we’ve played Guitar Hero, we promptly hobbled and walked over to the arcade, where we played the Japanese version of the game.
The next day we headed to Nagoya on the Shinkantsen to see the Robot Museum. At the station an extremely drunk Japanese man with copious slobber emanating from his face asked us several times, “where you?”. We didn’t feel threatened by him as there was a menacing cop watching over the scene from atop a box holding a large stick. Anyway eventually we discovered that he wanted to help us find our subway and he was indeed helpful. He bought our tickets and led us all the way to the turnstile. Most other places this would be cause for suspicion or he’d have expected a tip, but nope, he was just being helpful.
At the museum, we were drawn by a robot , learned about some of the history of robots, and got to play with robots - some plastic, some fuzzy, all cute.
Oh and by the way, robots in japan love to dance (dancebotdogbot).
Afterwards we rode a ferris wheel and got to watch rooftop tv, ate at an Italian restaurant that didn’t serve bread or salad with the meal, and had a drink at a very swanky bar that did “on the rocks” with one giant ice cube that had to be shaved down to fit into the glass.
Then we got home and sang karaoke. Really really badly. There is documentation, but I have to take some time to make the decision about whether or not to upload it. The decision isn’t around how embarrassing it will be, but around sparing anyone who might come across it.
We’ve been hanging out in Hamamatsu with Andi and Kenn since Sunday night. Hamamatsu is a small city for Japan, about 800,000 people. Andi and Kenn live there and teach english. The main reason we are here is to visit them.
So, we’ve been doing a lot of hanging out, went to the arcade, the electronics store, karaoke, etc. Kenn is an excellent cook and has made us several wonderful meals.
Yesterday Mike and I took the train up to Nagoya to visit the Robot Museum. The museum itself is pretty small, but fun. We got to play with some consumer robots. Afterwards we went for a ride on a big ferris wheel and ate dinner at an italian restaurant, then visited a swanky bar before heading back to Hamamatsu. Last night was Karaoke. We got home at four or five in the morning and are completely wiped out today.
After posting here on Sunday morning I left Mike to sleep more and ventured out to wander our neighborhood in search of morning hot beverages and food. The neighborhood is one of the oldest in Tokyo, and also very small and quiet, at least compared to the Tokyo we saw last time and you always see in movies.
I found a cafe and managed to order tea and some food, though it was a bit difficult seeing as I speak no Japanese and the woman at the counter spoke no english.
I really enjoyed wandering about. My favorite part of traveling is wandering aimlessly through places I don’t know. Having a sore ankle has made that difficult, but I’m still trying.
After breakfast I brought coffee and food to Mike and then we set out to explore the Tsukiji Market. According to our guidebook they have a big fish market, and then next to it is the “external” market with other goods. There was very little open when we got there, probably because it was Sunday. We wandered though, exploring the area and came upon this Shinto Shrine. It was difficult to understand what was going on because there was no english on the signs, but it was fascinating to watch everyone go about the rituals of hand washing, bell ringing, coin tossing, and I assume, praying.
After that long, arduous experience in first class travel we arrived in Japan around 6pm and made it to our hotel by 8pm. We both managed to not sleep very much on the plane, probably out of excitement over our cool little travel pods. Playing with the seat was way more interesting than sleeping…
Though pretty exhausted we had a date in Shinjuku to make it to. We met up with my dear friend from London days, Taiju. He brought us to an excellent restaurant that specialized in different forms of tofu. They had just closed, but he convinced them to stay open for us by telling them that these two Americans have come specially to try their food. Smooth.
I really would have liked to spend more time with Taiju, but we had to get home before the trains closed (can you believe the trains stop at midnight in Tokyo?) and we were getting pretty sleepy.
This morning I woke up at a respectable 7am. Here`s the view from our room.
Today we will try to explore a bit; I`m walking on a sprained ankle, so I don`t know how far we`ll make it. Our hotel has free bikes, I`m thinking one of those might extend my range.
