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Live From Tokyo: The Video Blog

Tokyo Diary Ichi: Getting to Edogawa

06.18.09 It’s just passed midnight here in Tokyo, which means I’ve survived the first night of my Far East adventure.

I left my house Wednesday morning at 6:30a.m, flew out of Pearson at approximately 8:30a.m. and landed in Tokyo at about 5:45p.m. on Thursday. After a total of 17 hours spent flying 38,000 feet in the air, two time zone changes, a 3 hour layover in Vancouver and a 1 hour bus ride from Narita to Kasai, I’ve never been so happy to arrive anywhere. I wish I could say the flights were hell but to be honest the worst part of either flight was spilling Coke Zero all over myself on the way to Japan. I got some good rest, watched The Iron Giant and got the greatest cross-country view of Canada possible.

After wandering around Kasai with my luggage in tow and looking like the biggest tool imaginable, I found Hotel Parklane Nishikasai and checked-in. I admit it, I was lost and for a minute there I wondered what the hell I had gotten myself into. But after a much neede    d shower [that many hours on a plane does not do a body good] I headed back out and grabbed a pretty good beef and rice dish from some local take-out shop. There are eateries literally everywhere and entertainment stores on every other corner. I even came across an arcade called Warehouse 17 that looked like a totally badass Military outpost from the outside. Walking the streets I noticed that everyone keeps to himself or herself and are pretty respectful of each other, which is pretty awesome. I’m excited to head into the main areas of Tokyo to see how much bigger and better things get up there.

Yosh. Gahn-bah-di-mus!

Listening to: Metric Fantasies

Tokyo Diary Ni: Far East Observations

06.19.09 Let me start off by saying the tall sweaty guy who works at Hotel Parklane’s front desk is awesome for helping me get to the soccer game tomorrow, and for his awesomeness he was rewarded with the delicious looking Watermelon beverage I had just purchased at Y’s Mart.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s some random observations I came across while exploring Shibuya and Akihabara today:

• I’ve seen literally no PDA on the streets of Tokyo. It’s almost as if it’s been outlawed or something. Which is totally possible.
• Handing out ad-adorned tissue packets is super-popular on the streets of Tokyo. Why you ask? I’ll give you a hint. Most public Japanese washrooms are missing one important item we take for granted.
• Sega might be known for crappy Sonic sequels and dead consoles in North America, but here in Tokyo they run awesome arcades in every district that matters. That also goes for Taito, who I’ve never known for anything other than Bust-a-Move and Bubble Bobble. They’re Game Stations are so pretty.
• Everyone in Tokyo rides a bike regardless of age, sex or sobriety. It could be the densest area of Shibuya and you’ll still see people zip by. While wandering around the streets at night I’ve come across lots filled with hundreds of bikes, and the awesome thing is that not a single one of them has a lock on it. Everyone just respects each other’s property, and since they wouldn’t want their shit stolen they’re not touching anybody else’s.
• Japanese girls can be incredibly hot and most of them wear incredibly short denim cutoffs or a skirt of equal shortness.
• Japanese people are paying way too much for the music and movies. DVD’s are still in the $20 range and Blu-rays are even more ridiculously expensive. I saw The Dark Knight on Blu-ray at several stores for about 49,50¥ as opposed to Toronto where you can get it for about $25. Even clothing and small toys in Akihabara where overpriced in comparison to typical North American prices.
• Japanese men can be complete and total horndogs. Seriously, this figure consists of everything but a head. They got the giant tits right, but forgot to include her entire head. And as for the figure on the left, I’m not sure if that green strip of tape is there for censorship or protection.
• Groups of young men dressed in tuxedos will stand outside of clubs at night trying to persuade other young men to come in for a drink. Some of these clubs will also go the extra mile and have a single black guy accompany these young Japanese guys; my guess is to add street cred.
• Kojira is still the man down under. Not even a terrible Hollywood re-imagining can stop the popularity of the big green guy in the Far East. Figures of ‘Zilla are everywhere and there was even an entire wall dedicated to rubber figures of him and his enemies in Yodabashi-Akiba.
• They can buy cigarettes and iced coffee out of vending machines on every corner, pornographic/sexually suggestive material is all over the place and last night I saw an eight-year-old girl riding the Tokyo Metro by herself while chatting on her cell phone. Japanese kids are going to grow up to be so badass.
• You keep worshiping those robots and one day you really will have to bow to them, Japan. FYI, they’re already planning the invasion.

Akihabara was a good start to the day but the shops can get quickly exhausting as most tend to sell the same things. There are only so many copies of Phoenix Wright you can look at before you want to move onto something else. Like many other districts of Tokyo, Akiba can get quickly confusing and the confusion only builds when you realize most of the shops look exactly alike. Also, I’m pretty sure I saw a bin full of cell phones for 100¥ each in one of those seedy back alleys. There’s a profit to be made there, I just can’t figure out what step two is.

Shibuya tends to get hyped a lot as Tokyo’s Times Square but it really is a sight that needs to be seen first hand. So many people moving fluidly without any issues is something I believe can only be achieved in Tokyo’s ‘You mind your business, I’ll mind mine’ community. I was hoping to see Han and DK come drifting by but no dice. I know a lot of people are trying to make Toronto’s Yonge & Dundas Square into something of a Shibuya/Times Square attraction, but there’s still a long way to go to even begin the comparisons.

Listening to: MSTRKRFT Fist of God