Shane Doyle and the Infinite Tiredness . . . And some steak.

The lack of sleep caught up with me today and felled me like a tree. My feet were sore, my back, even the hairs on my chinny-chi-chin were a bit worse for wears. Thank sweet baby Jesus, we found out hostel pretty easily because I think I might have died. We crashed straight down onto the couches in the lobby and the hotel staff, who were really lovely, gave us ice cold water, for which I will eternally love them. Getting on the internet proved from difficult to impossible here, but I did manage to get on Facebook just to let everyone know I hadn’t managed to injure myself over the couple of days.

After we changed and scrubbed slightly we headed into Osaka for a bit, to a Kiddyland, where the process of buying some presents for home began in earnest, not for me though, since I’m still ages from coming home and anything I got would most likely be in pieces by the time I get back to Ireland.

We tried to get into an internet café but it was for Japanese nationals only, and I had to explain to Sinead that that didn’t include her, she’s just a legal alien.

While we were in the hotel, we had asked them about getting some Kobe steak [wiki] somewhere. Kobe steak is that meat from the cows that they feed on beer and massage all day long. When I was in Dubai two years ago my dad had one, and I had a taste, and I’ve regretted not ordering it ever since. One of the goals of this trip was to finally put an end to that regret. We were booked into a restaurant for half 8 and at a quarter to 8 we went walking.

We only just about made it on time. It was so hard to find and no one in the area had ever heard of it . . . and I dunno if I mentioned but I was REALLY FUCKING tired.

But, it was so worth it. I think the girls may possibly have thought I was insane beforehand, but once we got there, things started to look up. Firstly it was a teppen-yaki (I think that’s right?) place, where they cook it in front of you, which Neena wanted to try. So really everyone got what they wanted; I got Kobe, Neena got that thing, and Sinead got food.

And food it was, and worth every last shiny Yen. There were two cooks, a guy and a girl from Kyoto and they may or may not have been going out – we’re still undecided about that. First up, the girl-cook made us scallop things, then some fried chilli and stuff to clear the palate. There were also mushrooms and beansprouts and garlic bread fried. They were all good craic and Sinead’s Japanese really helped because they were able to have a laugh with us. They loved Universal when they were there and told us we’d enjoy it too (which *spoiler alert* we totally did). So the boy-cook took over eventually, and came out with the steak . . .

That’s for the purple? That means it's real. Also the cert in the back!

So he cooked it, and we ate it and it was so so so so awesome. Melt in your mouth stuff. Nicest meat I’ve ever eaten in my life. Tired as I was, I was still so happy to be eating that. And, the girls were too, so finally they understood what I’d been going on about for so long, and why I’d been doing it. I was no longer the crazy steak guy.

After dinner I nearly refused the ice-cream, because I was so stuff, but I got it and ate it in about two seconds, causing Neena to laugh at me for not wanting it. I suppose it’s true – there really is always room for ice cream.

After that we went back to the hotel where I soaked in the bath and they got into bed and went into a deep coma. I reckon if the building had burned down right then, I wouldn’t have been able to get out of that bed, which was more of a futon on the floor than a bed, being honest.

But anyway, there’s another thing checked off the list and thoroughly enjoyed too. And I got a good sleep, leaving me very much primed to enjoy Universal the next day!

Signing off for now, miss you guys,
Shane!

Irish in Kyoto

Saturday 18th September

Broke my motherfucking glasses this morning! Aaarrgh!!!! The right leg snapped off. Fuck and double frak! Spent most of the day wearing my sunglasses, probably looking like a total knob, until I got a chance to dig out my contacts. Sigh, this shall be interesting. Or something to that affect.

Since the morning I’ve come up with a temporary solution, wrapping the leg to the frame with a plaster from my cleverly purchased first aid kit. Hasn’t saved anyone’s life yet, but I’m glad of it now!

Anyway, we got up to head to Kyoto, but not very quickly, and we missed the bus. Michiko gave us a lift to the train-station, and it was around here that the damn glasses broke. Somewhere between here and Hong Kong I should find somewhere to get replacement legs though, so no worries. I’ll probably need to replace both sides though, since they’re of a particular style that probably aren’t easy to replace. I’ll find something to do til I get home and then get them fixed properly.

Anyway, to add insult to injury, when we got to our first change of trains, we missed the second damn train. Clearly, why wouldn’t we? It was that kind of morning.

We were only an hour late though, which really isn’t that bad.

Here I’d like to take a moment to introduce the guest characters for this blog entry. These guys are all JETs from around Japan, most of them Irish and are totally awesome.

In no particular order:

Pamela (from Belfast)
Clodagh (born in Kerry, lives in Boston, has an American accent)
Karen (absolutely insane[link to woman in mental institution])
Lisa (used to live in Maynooth, went to Trinners coz she’s a winner)
David (teaching in Osaka, and returns for a second appearance later)
Simon (from London)

Also featuring cameos from – James and Cecile (both from Galway, I think)

So if the first part of the day went badly, part two was a vague improvement, in that it started with food and people. We went to what had better be Japan’s most touristy temple. It had vending machines inside it! Seriously.

And we walked forever to find it. And we were actually looking for Geishas. There was a really nice park there though, which we sat in and got about the business of figuring out if we were in good company or stranded with axe-murderers for the weekend. Thankfully, it seemed to work out.

We did spend an inordinate amount of time walking though, and we were already very tired, and we didn’t quite get the right subway back to the station, so there was more walking, and then I couldn’t find the locker I’d put my bag in for ages, and then the taxi driver had no idea where our hostel was . . .

But eventually, after an Age of Man seemed to have passed, we got there! And Face/Off was on in Japanese in the common area, how random! Me and the girls were sharing a room with David, Karen and Lisa while Clodagh and Simon and Pamela were in a different hostel.

Showers and drinking ensued. For some reason when I suggested that the boys should go first because we’d take less time, no one thought to argue, even though that is literally the stupidest way to do it. Later on, Sinead realised that and shouted at me, but at the time, woohoo for me! Also, while getting ready, Karen uttered the phrase, “Man alive!” which I once thought was exclusively copyrighted by Sandra, but I guess not.

Food followed, followed by walking and the meeting of people, which seemed like it was going to go badly, but then all of a sudden we found them, and just when I thought we were going to find a pub to go drinking in, it turned out we were “knackering drinking” because the most happening place in Kyoto on a Saturday night is actually the bank of the river, just beside this Lawson’s convenience store (shop to you and me). I should probably take this opportunity to tell you that in Japan, nearly everywhere sells some class of drink. There are vending machines that sell coke, water, coffee and beer all side by side. You have to be twenty to buy drink, but you don’t need anything special like a token or passcard to get the drink, it just works. Apparently they have no trouble with underage drinking. On the other hand, you need to sign up to special cards, or have an ID card to buy cigarettes from the cigarette vending machines . . . ???? Can’t get my head round that at all!

So we spent the night drinking by the river. Random people, some of whom some of the others knew, and others that just wandered over to the loud group of Irish, joined and left as the night wore on. This place is busy with young people drinking nearly every night, even Sunday, and we never saw the police or had any trouble, though Travis from Seattle did tell me he was there one night when some guy went off the wall and kick in another guy’s face. But it seems to be the exception. We certainly had a pleasant night. When I got hungry I was even able to go up to the shop and buy some hot chicken.

At one point we did leave the river, planning to go somewhere else. We got about five minutes walk, stopped, stood there chatting for about 45mins and then ended up going back to the river. Clearly. While there however I did see this totally awesome Impala!

Not big on classic cars myself, but I would actually drive that!

Sinead and Neena went home at this point, taking our map to the hostel with them. I took some photos of said map, in the hope that might do us, but you’ll see how that went . . . Sinead was a little worse for wears and Neena was tired though, so this wasn’t a problem. I bought another can in Lawson’s and settled down with the Irish, chatted with James and Cecile. At this point, I’ll mention that we had somehow procured a fake apple from outside a restaurant along the road, which James had hidden beneath his top. The entire rest of the time I was there, he kept it hidden, even though we were nowhere near the place at that point.

We talked about Craughwell, in Galway, for whatever reason and James informed me that it has more furniture shops than anywhere else in the world. I’m going to assume this is true until someone can prove otherwise. With diagrams. K?

This totally random Scottish guy also joined us at this point. We met him while sneaking into a restaurant to pee. He was wearing a suit, and genuinely looked like a Mormon. He was actually a research assistant. He was also very odd. I asked him where in Scotland he was from, casually like, not that I cared, but just coz. I asked the other Irish people that too. I’ve been to Scotland . . . could have been where he lived. He got really cagey and wouldn’t tell me and wanted to know why I wanted to know. I let it go at that!
Also, Lisa asked him if he was gay at one point (not out of meanness, he did seem that way inclined and some others in the group were, so clearly not an issue for anyone), to which we got the immortal reply, “I tried really hard to be, but I like vagina too much.”

Needless to say, we’re still laughing at that one!

Eventually it got on and the four of us left from our hostel decided to leg it. It was getting cold, and late and it had been a long day. There were taxis just up from the bank, and we had much more success this time. He knew the way to a hotel around the corner from the hostel and then it was just a case of communicating through grunts and wild gestures that we walked to go past the hotel, around the corner, as far as the bridge – for which Lisa summoned up the Japanese word “Hashi! Hashi!”
Thankfully Neena and Sinead were still awake so we didn’t wake them up as we fell abruptly into bed!

Sunday 19th September

We had ourselves a bit of a lie in, and then eventually got up, figuring it might be a good idea to do something cultural while we were in the city, so we figured why not hit up the Manga [link to manga wiki] Museum. If you’re not really bothered to read that link, manga is basically Japanese comic books, though it exists without the same stereotyping as we have at home. It would not be unusual for a 60yr old Japanese woman to be seen reading some kind of manga, though probably it wouldn’t be the same thing being read by a 14yr old boy.

Sinead, still feeling a bit rough from the night before, said, “Blarrarragararagh!” from her bed, which we took to mean, “I’ll see you guys later.”

There was an added bonus, since the museum is currently home to an exhibition on the history of figurines and toys associated with manga-comics and films. Anyone who’s been in my room may have noticed I really like Japanese manga figurines!

Afterward we fully explored the three floors of the museum we headed out to the green space outside, which was populated with dozens of people, from parents with kids to teenagers. I call it a green space because it turned out not to be real grass, but some kind of plastic crap that was still kinda comfortable to sit on. Grass would have been nicer though.

The museum also acts as a kind of library too, keeping copies of most mangas, including English-language copies. You can take them outside and read them, which we did. There was also a part of the museum where you could by little figures and paint them, but I declined to do so because I probably wouldn’t have left until it was perfect – last thing I need is to end up back on the Warhammer train. Lisa and Karen each got one though. Lisa painted a surrealist Don Quixote as a cultural commentary, though I can’t quite figure out about what in particular she was commenting on. Drugs? I’m gonna go with drugs. Karen painted a penguin black, then tried to paint it read, then black again, then silver, then black . . . and on and on for a good long while.

Eventually, it started to rain, and we had to leave and then we met up with Simon and his boyfriend (possibly too strong a word) Bowe. I’m not actually sure what was supposed to be happening here, but whatever it was I don’t think it happened; at various points we were heading in various different directions supposedly to meet various other people, none of whom we actually ever met. Bowe also made the mistake of taking us down some sort of market street into some sort of market area, so every few minutes someone was dropping off to see this stall or that shop (including me, so don’t think I’m bitching).

We came across this one place, led inside by the booming sound of the Star Wars theme and found some sort of concert thing in full progress. See video below – I missed the Star Wars one, but you’ll get the gist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpqPPl4ejPU

Somewhere along the way we lost Karen and Lisa, and then walked down some random fish market street for 15mins before Bowe brought us back along the same street, at which point I died inside. Someone had promised food an sitting at least an hour before and we were still walking! On the plus side we did find Karen and Lisa.

After another quarter of an hour or so, me and Neena, Pamela, Lisa, Karen and David literally just gave up and sat down outside the restaurant we were planning to have dinner in. We let the others go wander and pick up our stragglers, which actually turned out to be just Sinead, as the other people weren’t coming in til later now .

Finally Clodagh got back with Sinead and we got in the queue for the restaurant, and also went shopping a little as we waited. Sinead bought one of these fox tail things that Japanese kids seem to like wearing. Hers is attached to her bag.

A day or so later we started calling her Tails, because obvious jokes are the best kind of jokes. I then decided that Neena should be Sonic. She said, “I dunno, I could be Knuckles or something.”
I had to cut her off right there and then, “No, I’m Knuckles.” and made fists to demonstrate my Knuckleness!

Anyway, back to slightly further in the past. We ate in this sushi place, one of those conveyor belt ones, but they did have a cool extra feature. If you really wanted something and there wasn’t any left on the belt, you can order it off your electronic menu and it comes on a tiny Shinkansen!!!

After dinner we had to wait for Molly, from America, and then decide what to do about having fun – always a chore. However, while waiting and deciding we ended up standing outside this restaurant for ages and leaning against their sign until they came out and moved it. I also ended up being offered a herd of goats, two tureens of cream and two small white chocolate Toblerones to marry Karen. I have (strangely) yet to receive any of this.

When Molly finally turned up – the last great wait of our Kyoto experience – off we went to do all you-can-drink Karaoke!!! See Facebook for pictures. What can I say about this? Well it all went pretty smoothly once Karen and Lisa figured out how to use the machine and the rest of us figured out how to cancel the fifty California Girls that they accidently put on. One thing you really notice by the way, when you’re doing karaoke, is how completely ridiculous some song lyrics are. Like the rhyme “bikini, zucchini” for instance. What the fuck is that?

For a small taste of the experience, see this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHxvxIVENU8

Even if you're not gonna watch it, flick to the last 30 seconds for a laugh.

After that, most of us headed back to bed. Early start in the morning. But some of the others headed out to a hookah bar and to get some kebabs.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to crawl into bed (except that the next day, I was even more tired and even more happy to be in bed, but I didn’t know that yet.

Monday 20th September

In an unusual direction for this blog, I’m going to continue into part of a third day here. It’s been so long since I’ve had an internet connection that stories are kinda building up here. Some day soon I’ll probably get to put these up and you’ll all be like “Dude, what the fuck! I have a job that I have to pretend to do. I can’t be reading all this!” That’s actually fine, by the way. By the time I get home we’ll all have forgotten about it.
Karen and Lisa had to leave so early, and while I did kinda wake up, I think my goodbye was less “See ya now” and more “bleh-mumble-sleep”. Sorry girls, was very nice to meet ye.

What I really want to tell ye about though, isn’t the infinite sadness of their leaving, but instead about breakfast! We met up with Clodagh and Pamela at the train station and went looking for somewhere to have breakfast, and seeing somewhere across the street we decided to use the underground entrance into the station to cut under the road to get to it, whereupon (what? That’s a word) we stumbled across somewhere closer to have breakfast and went there instead. It wasn’t either the nicest, nor the worst place I’ve ever eaten, but it did have SUPER GIANT TOAST!!!

That is one slice of bread! At home that’d do sandwiches for the whole family or a few each for the parents if they don’t like their kids! It was very tasty though, totally a new bread option for Johnson, Mooney or O’Brien. They could break off and start their own giant slices business!

Or not, possibly. I dunno. I don’t really know much about the local bread market.

So that was Kyoto, and somehow we all managed to survive it, and even have some fun! Next up, Osaka!

See ye soon!

Knuckles.

Adventures in Odai

Bleh, so many days behind. It’s been ages since I’ve been able to get an interwebs connection.

Thursday 16th September

So Nagoya having been completely unseen, me and Neena headed off to Odai next, once again taking a Shinkansen (which is the best way to travel anywhere as far as I’m concerned).

We arrived about half-three, maybe four, I think, and were met at the trainstation by a lady named Michiko. A few words about this very, very awesome lady. She’s sort of like an unofficial mother for JETs in the Odai region, especially in the early days of their stay. She’s just a local person, but she’s very well travelled – she’s even been to Dublin and Kinsale – and has fluent English. She picked us up because Sinead was still in school and wouldn’t be able to meet us until about 5. Also, so we wouldn’t have to get the bus to Sinead’s place.

She was the only person in the train-station and even if we didn’t find her, I can guarantee she’d have found us. Odai is not the kind of place where two white people regularly just get off the train.

She brought us to a local shrine first, this time one dedicated just to Shinto, rather than a shared temple. The really fascinating thing about this place is that it is rebuilt every twenty years, and has been since the 7th century, in exactly the same way. So while the temple is only 19 years old at the moment, it is effectively the same as it was 1300 years ago. I have no pictures (obviously – since I can’t actually even articulate how rude it would be to just snap pictures of this place) but I’ll try to describe it.

Put away pictures of fantastic Japanese style buildings – this place is almost totally outdoors, bar the actual shrine itself. Most of the area is a sacred woodland. We started by walking down to a shallow river, the water nearly totally clear despite the rains the day before. Here we washed our hands, in a symbolic act of purification, a lot like where we got blessing with holy water I suppose. Then we walked up a small path, wet with the rain and moss, around some small wooden buildings, probably the homes of the caretakers or priests. We never saw anybody around them and Michiko never offered an explanation – and I never thought to wonder until now . . . sorry . . .
We walked down a pathway through the trees, lined with wooden lanterns, not lit but you could see it would have been quite beautiful at night. The shrine itself was only a short distance away. There’s a kind off a fenced off area and then the wooden structure of the shrine itself. You don’t actually go in, but walk up to the front, where you make your offering and then your prayer. In the modern day this offering is generally money, about a 100yen, which is a little less than a euro, but traditionally it might have been anything from part of a farmers crop, an animal or something more extravagant.
I asked Michiko if it was okay for us to pray, not thinking that it would be a problem but out of respect. She was actually a little surprised, apparently most of the people she brings aren’t actually that pushed about it.

I suppose, since this blog is about me, I should probably talk about why I wanted to. I will not pretend that I am not dismissive of organised religion, or priests and cults, but it also must be mentioned that on my more optimistic days I really do believe in an essential power beyond that experienced in the everyday. I could probably give you half a dozen stories off the top of my head that, for my at least, suggest that there is more to this whole show than the shuffle of some bag of bones from birth until death. Many of you reading this have told me your stories about why you believe, not necessarily in the Catholic faith, but in something, some greater truth. Those, however, are your stories, and I would have no right to repeat them here, even if I wanted to prove my point. Trust me when I say, I couldn’t care less whether you believe in this God, that God, or those Gods or what you think of my beliefs, so long as you keep your opinions to yourself.

I merely choose to believe that there is some essential power in the universe, be it God or Gods, anthropomorphic personifications of ideas or the forces of life and death. You are welcome to your own beliefs. As such, I have no particular interest in the ramblings of old men from opulent altars who have lost touch not merely with the world of today, the people of the now, but also with the tradition that they supposedly upheld. The question is simple, would Jesus approve of Rome? In his fucking hole he would.

Therefore I choose to find significance in a grove of trees instead of some stone building. I believe that the prayers said in either place or of equal value, if the person is honest and unselfish, but I choose to say them in one and not the other.

All that aside, let us return to Odai and this particular shrine. I cast in my hundred yen and said prayers for you, those I am not in a position to look after right now, especially my family.

Michiko then took us to a Japanese teahouse, where we had some coffee (irony or comedy, take your pick) and little curry cookie things! Which were very nice, to our collective surprise!

Then we headed up to this local waterfall, which was breathtakingly beautiful, in the middle of a secluded woodland, about fifteen minutes drive down dirt roads. I felt really awful for Michiko’s car! [some pics]
Afterwards, Sinead got in touch to say she’d be a little late, so Michiko took us to see her friend Cole and his dog Ben, at work restoring an old school building. It made me miss Lola. Also saw this really cool lectern made from a tree trunk!

Eventually we got to Sinead’s place – yay!

We weren’t here for long though, quick change or clothes and back into the car and out for dinner. This was our first real experience of Japanese food. Me and Neena let Sinead and Michiko do the ordering, being perfectly happy to eat whatever came out . . .

And eat we did! There was so much stuff I can’t even begin to tell you. That we managed to eat almost everything still stuns me. For a good ten minutes, the waitress just kept coming back with more and more food. I thought I might die! It was really great food though, and we were happy to eat it.

Unfortunately, then Michiko paid for the whole damn thing! Ruining our chance to pay for her, in thanks for looking after us all day.

Back in Sinead’s we didn’t do much, though I did begin to teach her how to download things on bit-torrent sites. No idea what I’m talking about? [People who do, skip down a little].

Well, here’s a brief crash course in how to download TV shows, films or music from the internet.

First, click here. [download.com] If that doesn’t work click here and type Bitcomet into the search.
It will download a file, don’t worry, this is what is supposed to happen. Install said file, perfectly safe though if possible have someone around who knows what they are doing. I will not be held responsible for downloaded viruses or malware. I recommend BitComet and nothing else. It’s always free so don’t pay for anything. After you have this all installed, go to http://www.isohunt.com/.

Type the name of the TV show, film or other file you want into the search bar and there you go. There will often be green numbers after the name, the more of these the better. If you see red numbers absolutely do not download this file. It’s a fake or a virus.

Remember, you do this at your own risk. Not my fault if you kill your computer. Also, if you’re with Eircom, they may actually cut you off after three warnings. Downloading music is illegal, etc bullshit blah blah . . .

So really that was it for that day! We were in bed by eleven because Sinead had to be up for school the next day. The girls slept in Sinead’s bedroom while I slept in the main room (which is clearly fine). I should point out that bedroom is actually a misnomer since there’s no bed. She sleeps on a futon mattress thing on the floor and we all did the same. It was our first time but more or less all Japanese people do this.

Friday 17th September – Shane and Neena go to school!

After a breakfast of rashers, hotdogs and toast, Michiko delivered myself and Neena to her school, where we were to assist in teaching her English class. We had some time to kill so we actually just said around for the first hour doing nothing but laughing and trying to get used to our guest slippers. We weren’t allowed to wear our own shoes inside the school. Sinead has a pair of sandals for the work day that have never been worn outside the school!

We met her supervisor, with whom she co-teaches the class, but his name escapes me. If I think to, I’ll ask her later. She’s asleep right now.

When the class started arriving, a very startled 14 year old girl reacted with utter shock to our presence, probably never seen three white people in the same room before in her life! Sinead really does live out in the sticks. She said something like “Gaikokujin? Why are there Gaikokujin?” Gaikokujin is a polite form of gaijin, which means “foreigner” and is a rather stereotypical thing for Japanese people to call Westerners. I found the whole thing totally hilarious by the way. Poor girl was practically in shock!

Things really did go up hill from there. We introduced ourselves, very simply, and slowly in English. Name, hometown, hobby (clearly they covered hobbies recently). “My name is Shane. I am from Dublin. I like writing stories.”

Eventually it came up that we had been in Harajuku in Tokyo and the kids literally fell over themselves to see Neena’s pictures of it. They found the rockabilly guys as funny as we did! All in all, I reckon we were a complete distraction, but we did do an exercise where we and Neena had to read a dialogue and they had to fill in blanks on their worksheets. I think the speed at which we spoke really threw them – thank God Sarah wasn’t around, she talks so fast people don’t think she speaks English!

On the way out, Gaikokujin-girl (again, will ask Sinead her name) asked me to talk some more in English (because I sound nice), to which I responded with the retarded, “Eh, what do you want me to say?” Her, having no idea what I’d just said, was completely happy with this and went off giggling! Job well done.
We repeated the whole thing with a second class, but these guys were way more boring, except for one guy who I thought was funny, but Sinead thinks is an idiot. We’ll agree to disagree. I think she just doesn’t understand him. Which clearly, I am in no position to judge at all. Having met him once, and spent about 4 seconds trying to converse with him. Shrug. I could still be right.

Afterwards, we headed back to Sinead’s for a bit and then got the bus to the next town to get dinner. On the way we met some kids, who said “hi” and “bye” to us, probably the extent of their English, but they seemed happy. We got some big stares on the bus, three white people getting on the local bus probably doesn’t happen too often – if it has ever happened before.

We ate in this ramen noodle place, which was grand, though I’m sure most of you reading this would realise that noodles are not my favourite food, but hey, when you’re hungry you’ll fucking eat. Trust me.
Back in Sinead’s later we firstly stared at the utterly clear sky. Once we’d been outside for a few minutes and gotten used to the dark you could see thousands of stars so bright and so clear. It was pretty cool.

Neena was awed, more than me, but only cause I’d already noticed it the night before while checking on my washing. (mother you’d be so proud, though I didn’t iron my jeans, which I know always pisses you off!).
Then the girls watched the first episode of the new season of America’s Next Top Model, or ANTM if you’re in the know. I wrote some blog and listened to the idiocy of America with a certain amount of glee. Tyra Banks must have gone to Horatio’s School of One-liners.

We were supposed to go to bed early, because we had to be up early, but Sinead decided they should watch the second episode instead. This worked out badly the following morning.

Eventually we did get to sleep, but not early, and not with enough hours left before we had to be up for our big day in Kyoto . . .

To find out what happens next, tune in next time on the Amazing Super Adventure of Mr Shane’s Crazy Ramblings! Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

15th September - Nagoya

So, Nagoya - not our most successful city/day . . .

Arrived in the train-station, and the hotel was upstairs - literally FIFTEEN storeys upstairs. Thank God there was a lift! My bag was giving me some trouble after the Capsule hotel because I packed it up in a super-small space and basically shoved everything in so it was literally all over the place. I repacked it though in Nagoya, changed around the straps and it's working better now!

Anyway, the hotel was really awesome. At least once I caught them looking at me as if to say, "What the fuck are you doing here!" It was a Marriott's, again provided by my mam, and our (suddenly appreciated) timeshare thingy. You get points every year and can use them all around the world, so this month, I'm getting all the benefits! Thanks mam! Without sounding like a spoiled brat, I'll admit it isn't the nicest place I've ever stayed, but it was the nicest place Neena ever stayed. We totally didn't look like we belonged there! Which is always awesome!

There was a pool in the place, but I wasn't allowed to use it because I have tattoos - I look like "yakuza" or "gangster". It's a big thing over here in some places, not in others. Nagoya is much less touristy than Tokyo (which probably seems fairly obvious).

Anyway, we had showers, got changed and stuff. We had the TV on while we were getting changed and I saw Ben 10 for the first time! It's not bad!

We genuinely could not afford to eat in the hotel so we headed out to find one of two places to eat. It was drizzling a bit, but then this happened . . .

In about 5 minutes, we were so wet, I might as well have been in the pool in the my clothes. We dived into the nearest McDonalds and then ran back to the hotel!!! We had to hang our clothes over the bath to dry off. Slightly ironic, given that I spent the five days before going, "Oh my God, stop raining!"

The room card was made of heavy paper, but it got destroyed, and the lady at the desk was pissing herself laughing at me while she changed it!

So, instead of sightseeing, I repacked my bag, while we watched Firewall in Japanese and then more Ben 10 and some of the Batman cartoon!

I read some too and learned that I really love Taylor Momsen's song, You!

Got up the next day, having slept til ten - the latest we've slept so far!

We're in Sinead's place in Odai tonight. We're getting the train to Kyoto tomorrow so should have some time to scribble so more then!

The Saga of The Imperial Palace!!!

Sup dawgs . . . or something!

So me and Neena are on our first Shinkansen (“bullet train”) right now. Pretty awesome! We have 14 day rail passes that run from today til the day we leave (the 28th). It’s quite cool, lots of space, my own little table and everything. I’ve Disturbed pumping out on my headphones right now, so it sounds kinda like we’re gonna die screaming. It’s all air raid sirens and explosions, in case you didn't click that link . It’d have cost us about 120 to get on the train and another 30 to reserve a seat if we didn’t have our rail passes, so between today and tomorrow we’ll have gotten our money’s worth from the rail pass. All the trains afterwards are technically free!

Anyway, in terms of your reading of my wonderful adventures, that’s in the future. You should know, there really are robots here!!! By which I mean, we’re planning to go to the robot museum in Nagoya later tonight or in the morning.

So, back to where we left off.

Monday 13th September

We met downstairs at 10 to check-out and then made our way to the next place, a proper backpackers hostel. It was only about five or ten minutes walk from one to the other, but even at ten, the heat was fairly fucking intense, especially with our bags. I wanted a shower and a change by the time we got there!

However, we couldn’t check in til one (which is perfectly normal just about everywhere, so don’t think that’s a complaint on my part). We were able to put our bags into storage, so we did and had a quick look around the place. Looked nice.

Two things immediately struck us. 1) it was a lot cleaner, bigger and more open than the last place 2) there was a big common space, where people were actually talking to each other. More or less exactly the kinda place we were looking for.

We decided to head out for the afternoon, until after one at least. A day that started *really* well, however, started to slide a little downward from here. Mostly it was the heat, coupled with a few unfortunate events. It was definitely the hottest day of the trip, if not my entire life, though Dubai would probably give it a bit of a run for its money. But I wasn’t walking around Dubai, I was sitting by a goddamn pool! Or in it!

We headed out to the Imperial Palace, most of which you can never go into, but the eastern Palace Gardens are open to the public – except that they aren’t on Mondays or Fridays . . . and if you’ll glance upwards a moment, you’ll notice what day this was.

Not only that, but the underground station we got off at was GIANT and we walked out on the wrong side, took us about ten minutes to get from the exit to the Palace and in the heat it felt more like an hour. We could have walked underground, in the air-conditioned niceness, but we were idiots.
Although, it should be noted we did buy a box of krispy kreme doughnuts for breakfast. We threw out one, because it had custard in it, but the rest went down a treat.
Then we got to the gates and realised it was closed, and we nearly cried!
But we weren’t so easily defeated, and vowed to return the following day, full of the fire of our touristness!

We then went back into the metro station, this time through an entrance conveniently located just across the road from the Palace gates and headed to Shibuya. Have you seen that Richard Gere film about the dog that meets him at the station every day? Well this is where that all actually happened. It’s also a big shopping district, so we wandered around.

Then we got lost, and eventually came across a love hotel . . . which offers rooms by the hour and they come with costumes!! We didn’t, however, avail of the facilities, we just legged it and tried to find our way back to a normal place.

Neena was looking for some runners so we found an Adidas shop. The way it works is a staff member will come over to you and ask you if you need help and then take you around the shop. The person we met was an Australian girl, who asked if we knew what we were looking for, which we didn’t really, other than runners. She was like, “Can I bring you up to the third floor and talk to you?” She seemed very happy to have English-speaking people to talk to. Can’t remember her name, but she was from the Gold Coast and she was pretty funny. Seemed very glad to be talking English for a while. She also told us that it was supposed to be the last day of the extremely superhot weather! We disbelieved, but hoped she was right all the same.  They didn’t have any decent runners though, so we had to leave.

We found another place, where Neena bought some new cons. We also noticed that Japan is already gearing up for Halloween, which at the time I found really really weird! Apparently it's only a recent thing that they celebrate it. We went to a good few places, including a three storey Disney shop. Steph, you’d have loved it, and possibly stolen things. They even had an Andy’s room!

Also, Stitch (of Lilo and Stitch) is really big here, probably because he’s a cute, destructive monster, which is more or less the definition of Japanese kids stuff . . .

Eventually we ended up in Tower Records. It had like ten floors, one of which was just books and magazines, including titles in English. They even had copies of Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader by Neil Gaiman in paperback, which you can’t even get at home yet.

By the time we got back to the hostel the only thing on our minds was showering and being clean! We checked in for two nights, although we’d actually only booked one and it turned out to be the best plan coz the place really was brilliant.

We also had another plan – get food and watch the very last episode of True Blood's season 3, which had only just been on. I know, we’re in Japan, and we watched TV! But meh, it was really fucking awesome and we were too wrecked to do anything else after being in the heat all day.

So what we did was, shower and get all scrubbed up and then headed out to KFC for dinner. I eat my first meal, realised I was still hungry and got the same again, after which I felt better. Then we headed back to the hostel and got started on True Blood. There were actually other people watching both True Blood and other things, so we didn’t feel too bad after we saw that! Although there was a moment of sheer panic when I looked at some guy's laptop screen and nearly saw something from late in the episode!!!

We watched that, which I will not discuss in case you haven’t seen it, and then watched the promo for the new HBO series of A Game of Thrones, based on George R.R Martin’s amazing A Song of Ice and Fire saga – Winter Is Coming! Should be starting around the time I get home too!

Neena went to bed to read/PSP shortly after that (though it was probably around eleven or twelve) while I blogged and Facebooked and got chatting to a few people around the place. A dude from Singapore (impressed that I knew where that was and had been there), a fella from Holland and the guy who had been watching True Blood, who turned out to be from Norway.

Then it started raining and we went outside to see! The Asian people in the hostel probably thought we were fucking lunatics, standing out in the rain, but it was only a shower really, slightly more than a drizzle, but still cool on the skin and nothing like you’d get at home and still walk in. The death-heat was finally breaking! Wahey!

Went to bed shortly after that, read for a bit, slept.

Tuesday 14th September

I woke up way before Neena, and so got dressed and headed up to the main area to chill, laptop and whatever. There were these people from a local radio station who had come down to do a survey about breakfast in other countries, so they were asking people about the stranger things from their home countries. While I was trying to explain black pudding to two Japanese people, this German girl was pissing herself laughing at the whole thing, since she knew what it was. The two Japanese people were just like, “You eat blood, eugh!” Except of course being Japanese they didn’t say that! But you could see it in their faces! It’s not like I even really eat it very often!

Anyway, that whole debacle got me talking to the German girl whose name is Anika (and probably isn’t spelled like that) and her Swiss friend Bridget (who definitely doesn’t spell her name like that). Bridget was very, very impressed that I first of all knew where Bern (she’s from Bern) was, and that we had stayed there. She actually knew the hostel where we stayed, as well as the pub where we met the infamous dancing lady! And for those reading this that don't know that story, I'm so not ever telling it, ever!

Anika is studying Japanese, and had been staying with a host family in Japan for the last five weeks, while Bridget had been visiting her brother in Seoul and popped over to Tokyo for a few weeks since she was in the area. Anika’s English is worth a mention too by the way – this is a German speaker, who had been speaking Japanese for the last 6 weeks, and was still able to carry on a perfectly intelligible conversation in English, even she thought she couldn’t. We, on the other hand, only speak one language, and it's not really English is it? They found "ye" quite confusing; as in, "what are ye doing later?"

I had been eating from the self-service breakfast all morning, and it wasn’t until Neena came down and was like, “Oh, I better pay for breakfast!” that I realised you were supposed to pay for it – although there’s a large sign in English that says how much it costs! Oops! Don’t worry, I did immediately go up and pay them at the front desk, where they laughed at me, though I’m not sure if it was for the mistake or for paying them after I’d already finished eating!

So anyway, Neena ate and then we headed off to the Palace for our second attempt! We also went to the bank to get out some money, which went fine for Neena and not well at all for me! The transaction wouldn’t go through with my bank card and the machine wouldn’t take my credit card because I’ve one of those “fancy” AIB student cards still with the curved corner bit. At least the machine gave it back, not like that time in Spain where my card got eaten! Anyway, tried a Citibank machine a few hours later and there was absolutely no bother getting money so no worries there.

So finally we got to the Palace (this time exiting the station through a sensible exit) and wandered the gardens and stuff. It was very beautiful, and the palace walls were quite impressive. Not much to say really. I’ll put the picture up on Facebook in a few (as you read this, they might actually already be up – you might even have seen them).

After that we headed back to Shinjuku for more wandering and to go back to the Dubliners because of the awesome chips and because I really wanted a pint of Guinness/not beer or spirits!

Headed back to the hostel where we did very little, ‘cept hang out, talked with Anika and Bridget for a few hours, messed around with laptops and facebook and blogs and stuff. It was fun, though I do realise it doesn’t exactly make for good reading! Sorry bout that! It was good craic for us though!

Then we obviously got up this morning, had breakfast (which I remembered to pay for), said goodbye to Anika (Bridget was gone for a walk) and Norwegian guy, and headed for the train!

Anyway, getting off the Shinkansen now, in Nagoya for the night.

There’s no internet in Sinead’s place though so it could be a little while before you hear from me!

Talk laters!

Shane!

Weekend of Sinead

So, where were we - Saturday 11th

Ah yes, once upon a time, in the strange land of Nippon, in the great city of Tokyo, two travellers were sleeping, awaiting the arrival of the One Who Had Gone Before, she who would prepare the way, so that upon the way they might walk . . .

Or -

Me and Neena were asleep and Sinead was on the way to Tokyo. Woke up around 6, because our sleeping patterns were still a bit fucked, and because of the heat. Sinead was supposed to get in around that time, but at a quarter to 7 she still hadn't arrived so I decided to get up and go down to the lobby to grab some free internets (did I mention I have a masters degree in English?) and e-mail her. When I walked out the door, I bent down to tie my lace, and as I got back up, I heard the room phone ringing and Neena mumbling something . . . so Sinead had arrived, had she? Yes, indeed she had!

I also noticed that the landing I was standing in was playing ambient bird noises from concealed speakers for no apparent reason.

I legged it downstairs anyway, where I found a waiting Sinead. I then proceeded to hug her, which she duely informed me was just not done in Japan! And I'm the reserved one? In Japan, Shane's an emotional rollercoaster!

So we moved to our new hostel, because that place was booked up for the weekend. Pity, would of been nice for Sinead to be in the nice place, but she did get to see it . . . that's good, right?

The next place was grand, not the worse place I've ever stayed, but certainly not the best. It was one of those Capsule hotels, which I suppose was nice to experience!

We got lost on the way, mostly because I forgot to write down the address . . . mostly. I think the girls would probably change that mostly to totally, but thankfully they aren't writing this. We couldn't check in til later, so we left our bags and went for a walk. The hostel is in the Asakusa region of Tokyo (which I realise means sweet fuck all to you). But of note is the local temple, Sensō-ji, which was very cool indeed. It's a Buddist Temple but also has a Shinto shrine . . . Think of it this way, we have seperate Protestant and Catholic churches to the same God at home, and these two seperate and different religions share the same place. I'm telling ya, we're doing it wrong.

To become significantly less serious for a moment - these guys, are the temple guardians - Raijin and Fujin.

They're also bosses in Devil May Cry 3 and I totally killed their asses back in 2007! They're probably the second toughest bosses in the game, but you get awesome swords for killing them, so well worth it!

Anyway, none of that is really relevant. We went to the temple, where we blessed ourselves with the "Breath of the Gods" and then went up to the shrine to pray and get our fortunes. It was actually quite nice in many ways, especially since there were no priests involved (though there are priests). For the most part however, prayer and interaction with the gods is on a personal level and prehaps that suits my own personal beliefs a lot more than praying to some tyrant in the sky. I asked the gods to bless my trip and left it at that for the moment, but I'll probably go back tomorrow (Tuesday) before we head on to Nagoya. We also got our fortunes, but that's none of yer business.

After that, we got some cold drinks in a local place and then headed back to the hotel to shower because it was so hot I reckon by the time I took three steps out of the cafe I'd already sweated out the drink I'd just had. Not actually exaggerating.

The hotel had a "traditional" bathroom, which is basically a bunch of communal showers and a shared bath . . . which just freaked me the fuck out, but since we got really lost on the way, and it was a billion degrees outside and my bag was heavy, I just didn't care and showered and bathed anyway.

As soon as I left it (and thank God I wasn't interrupted - actually, I'm not sure I'd have cared), I realised there was a second, normal, private shower room, which I used the rest of the times.

Sinead took us to a Japanese restaurant afterwards, where we ate a bunch of stuff, including roast bacon, octopus balls (not testicles, they're little dough balls with bits of octopus in them). We'd a good few drinks, each costing 270yen, which is in and around 2euro, maybe 2.50. Very reasonably priced anyway. Also, the menu was electronic, so you just press what you want and it orders it for you. If you order a drink you have to click a button that says you are neither driving, nor a minor! HA! That'd just never work at home!

Then we headed out to Tokyo Tower, which is a copy of the Eiffel Tower, but taller, and painted blue and white. I learned from watching QI that the Japanese are mad about France and particularly Paris, but when they visit can be so disappointed that they often go into shock or spiralling depression. There's even a government helpline and the Japanese government assists in repatriating afflicted individuals back to Japan! How fucking crazy is that?!

The Tower was grand, but not amazing or anything - I've been up high before. Some of the view were great, but unfortunately, the glass plating meant that pictures just turned out badly.

It was quite late by the time we were done, and we had to get back to Asakusa before the trains stopped. Unfortunately, Asakusa does really have many late night bars and they were all closed, but secretly we were all fairly happy to get back to the hotel and sleep.

Sunday 12th

We got some breakfast, but nothing big. In the heat it was just impossible to have an appetite and then headed out to Harajuku. You'll see the videos down below. Sunday is the best day to go to Harajuku, because Japanese teenagers head there in full cosplay (costume-play) gear. In other words, they dress up as characters they like from stuff.

It's not all teenagers either - there's several troupes of adults who do it too, most noticably looking like extras from West Side Story, Grease or the book the Outsiders. These guys were really awesome, and put on some show. You've seen the video below (or least you best have!). What you can't see is how bloody hot it was! I was standing watching them and I was sweating like I'd been running for an hour. These guys were dancing their arses off, even if they weren't exactly brilliant - though they were entertaining and dedicated, which counts a hell of a lot in my book.

All that said, our initial arrival didn't actually go so well, since we arrived at about 1 and there was almost no one around! We saw a few people in various get ups arriving however and realised that we were WAY too early!!! What kind of teenager gets up before 2 on a Sunday anyway? And then there's makeup and costume-putting on! Plus it was so hot that I'd say some of them were just like, not this week!

Anyway, we went to get ice cream and drinks and wander Harajuku for a bit. We also wanted to find this place called Kiddyland that Neena's friend told her about, a multi-story "toy" shop (I'm sticking by those quote marks by the way) with floors and floors of manga/anime/computer game stuff . . . AWESOME!!!

Except it's moving and is closed til next Friday. Me and Neena will go when we get back on the 26th though, so don't worry! The new shop is gonna be even bigger! SUPER MEGA HAPPY DELUX AWESOME!!!

So after an hour or two we wandered back to the park, where we found the Rockabilly dancers in full swing, as well as a few groups of dressed up people scattered around the place. There was also a huge ground in the middle of the park, under trees, dancing away without music. We were asked not to take pictures however, though Neena had snapped a few before they said anything. See Facebook. 

Not much to say really, other than it was all fascinatingly strange!

There was one group of little mini-rockers that might just have been some people who got lost on the way to Central Bank but bless em, it was nice to see something familiar!

Bit more effort put into the whole thing though.

Anyway, having wandered the park, seeing a play in Japanese and stuff, we then headed off to TGI Fridays for food because Sinead REALLY wanted a burger.

After that it was back to the hostel and another shower because I'd soaked through yet another t-shirt. Seriously, you can't understand how hot it has been over here. It's crazy. It broke last night though, and there's been rain today. It's so awesome! Not rain like we understand rain though, like, a bit more than a drizzle.

Sinead had to leave that night, which was sad, but that's okay because we'll see her soon. It's half one in the morning so technically we'll see her tomorrow! Yaybo!

We were wrecked, so we didn't really do anything else that night. Put up some pics on Facebook, wrote some blog and stuff, but after the heat and the lack of good sleeping over the few days before we just wanted our beds so off we went.

We were booked into a different place the next day, so we'd to be up at ten but since we've been waking up at 7 and 8 that wasn't really a problem. It was getting to sleep that was the problem but managed it okay that day.

One thing I may not have talked about yet is vending machines. They are literally everywhere, on every street, on every corner, in some shops, in all the metro stations - the phrase "we couldn't move for" literally applies. Not one of them if ever damaged, or defaced either. It's actually really, really amazing. Also very helpful in this heat. I think I've spent more on bottles of water than on anything else! But the other fantastic thing is that the drinks are the same price as they would be in shops! Seriously. I know you're thinking, nah - but I'm telling ya! It's fantastic!

Anyway, I think that covers just about everything for the weekend of Sinead's trip to Tokyo! And I'm getting quite caught up here! We've been lucky with the free interwebs so far, so don't expect me to be this blogative all the time. I'm spoiling ye because I'm spoiled (and not tired, while Neena is alseep)

Loving it all so far, and still nothing bad to report so that's good news!

Signing off, for the moment

Papa Beard!

Oh yeah . . .

So anyway, I totally forgot to mention this . . .

When I was getting on the plane the other day - literally as they called boarding, my mam rang me, saying "A letter just arrived, it's from Maynooth! Will I open it!"

So anyways, I passed, 2.1 (and a really really high one at that, almost nearly a first).

Sorry, let's do that again, with more ummph!

I'M A FUCKING MASTER BITCHES!!! HEED MY WORD OR THOU SHALT FEEL MY TERRIBLE WRATH OF WORDAGE!!! WOOHOO!!! AWESOME PASSAGE HAS OCCURRED!

So all those months of not seeing me that preceded all these months of not seeing me paid off. For the record I'd like to point out that I got on a flight to Tokyo as I was getting the news, and then was way to wrecked to do it. And then was over the screaming and jumping phase.

But anyway, you may now address me as Master.

Harajuku Videos

Hello there diligent readers,

Don't have time/amn't (that's for you Sarah) bothered to do a full post today, but I did take these really cool videos of some crazy people in the park yesterday. These guys are there every Sunday, in Harajuku and they are AWESOME!!!

For your consideration, I present, the Rockabilly dancers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW7D3VzEw9U

There were also these guys, who aren't particularly famous or anything, but they are kinda cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSFx-kakywc

I'll do a full post on the whole experience some other time, but for now, I hope you enjoy!

Shane.

Tokyo - the Land of the weird and the wonderful and the even weirder

Hello faithful readers, so here we are!

It's Sunday morning in Tokyo, just waiting for my sidekicks to wake up, so I finally have some time to scribble here. Hopefully you've seen the pictures on Facebook.

Where to begin? Hmmm . . .

Got up about half 6 on Wednesday, having only slept three hours (which kinda sucked). Then off to the airport and off to Heathrow, which is just ridiculously big. Seriously - what's up with that. I had to get two buses to get to my gate. BUSES!!!!

Anyway, it all went without a hitch, so I shouldn't complain. The flight to Tokyo was very long, though totally fine, and I couldn't sleep, so I was fucked by the time I got to Tokyo. And then I'd to wait two hours for Neena to arrive. On the plane I watched Iron Man 2 and Cemetery Junction, both of which were great, especially Cemetery Junction because I'd never seen it. The girl was pretty alright too. Also read a fuck load of Clive Barker's Imajica, which I'm really loving.

Neena arrived and we got the bus to the hotel, which took an hour or so, and since we were wrecked it really did feel like we'd flown the Ryanair route, but once the bus dropped us off, literally outside the fucking hotel's main door we felt WAY better!

The hotel, provided by my wonderful mammy, was the Courtyard Hotel Ginza and was totally awesome. I should probably have taken more (read: some) photos. It had free internets in the lobby but much MUCH more importantly, it had showers and it had beds!!!!

However, endevouring to defeat the jet-lag monster, we decided we'd stay up til 7 or 8 and thus showered, changed and went out for a walk. By half three I was nearly dead on my feet. We had a burger and chips and more or less headed straight back to the room, where I fell asleep by 6.

We learned little or nothing about Japan this particular day, but there are two things I'll tell you about.

1) Japanese toilets - there are two types, the traditional one (squatting over (sometimes quite a fancy) hole) which I have yet to use, and the bidet toilet which is actually from the future, where it's made by faeries.

[Oh sweet fucking baby Jesus, for a second there I thought I'd accidently deleted this whole page!!! Dear reader that coulda been a disaster!]

Anyway, yes, this toilet is literally made of awesome, some will even make a noise while your on it so no one can hear you going!

2) Japanese police cars: The sirens on these literally sound like the end of the world. We heard one and genuinely thought Godzilla was coming to destroy us all, or that the Americans were dropping another nuke. They're so loud you can hear them blocks away. They're not sirens, they're klaxons!

3) oh yeah, the other thing is the traffic lights. Almost no one crosses the road without the little green man. Quite seriously, the entire road could be devoid of anything resembling an automotive vehicle and still they wait for the man. We're getting into the habit, but it's still very amusing!

Day 2 - Friday 10th

You can probably see from the pictures that day 2 was both more productive and more amusing. First thing we did was get breakfast in Denny's, where I had the world's most amazing French toast - which is humorous and ironic because last Monday I was in town and went out of my way to get French Toast from Lemon on the basis that it'd be ages before I'd gt it again. Shane = 0, Japan = 1

Then we went on the Tokyo metro to a building with 7 or 8 floors of electronics stuff, including a huge section of toys and figures, where I shockingly bought nothing, but could easily have spent a couple of thousand (not hyperbole). I was lucky enough in that they didn't actually have two things I would have bought, except in the display case.

I did buy a sweet 14 megapixel camera though (you may have noticed). This is also where we first came across Japanese girls dressed up as (sexy) french maids, standing every few metres, handing out flyers and other things.

Neena has some better pictures, mostly because its just less weird for her to take them, if you know what I mean? What do you mean, you don't, please explain more Shane . . .

Well, Neena looks like a tourist when she does it, I look like a perv, see?

Also, same deal with the Japanese schoolgirls. I always just assumed that was just overly played up by western tv and stuff but I've come to realise, if anything, it's downplayed!

Also, we were in this one shop, that sold little anime knicknack stuff, until you just walked down one aisle and it was a porn-shop. Not anime porn (hentai), just regular naked Japanese girls smiling innocently off hundreds of DVD covers, out of fucking nowhere!!!!

So after a bit we jumped back on the metro (by far the best public transport network I've ever come across) and headed for Shinjuku, which is more downtowny, taller buildings and more neon. We walked past the Dubliner's pub and said we'd come back later for food.

Then we went looking for an internet cafe that the Good Book swore blindly was just right there, right there, but it wasn't. So we went into the building, looked on all the floors, walked up and down the street, swore blindly at the book, gave up and walked on, until Shane (that's me) stopped to point at a green frog face that looked like kermit, like one we'd seen the day before, and then we realised - clearly - that was exactly the place we were looking for, and so we were happy and booked a place to stay for the following night. Yay!!!

We then went back to the Dubliner's bar where I paid a tenner nearly, for a fucking bottle of Magners! Which is the second most I've ever paid for cider anywhere in the world. We did get some good chicken though, and really awesome chips!

Afterwards, we headed to Tower Records, but we didn't really plan on buying anything, because we'd already noticed earlier that Japanese DVDs are NOT cheap! We just wanted to see it. I'll skip over most of it, but there is one thing that requires a mention. Please look at the picture below.

I said LOOK AT IT!!!

I swear to god, if you're reading this and you didn't look at the picture, I'm gonna bitchslap you back to now when I get home. Those NINE [reasonably attractive] girls are ONE band. And before you ask, no, we really don't think they play instruments. They all just seem to dance. It's kinda like if Girls Aloud and the Sugababes joined forces and formed a band the likes of which has never been seen . . . Honestly, nine, what do they do? Do the fans even know all their names? . . . Maybe pop band member numbers are directly proportionate to home country population or something, who knows?

We also knocked into a guitar shop so Neena could oogle cool stuff that meant nothing to me.

Eventually, we moseyed home for the night, where Neena watched some QI, I read and then we went to bed because Sinead was arriving at 6 the next morning.

And because I'm so behind, I'm now writing this at night and Sinead has left for Odai again. But we'll see her on Thursday again.

I'll hopefully get time to catch up tomorrow, plenty to tell ye still, including hilarious Engrish and about Harajuku, and more, so tune in next time . . . whenever that might be!