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!