Ka-boom

As the ever increasing heat descends upon Japan, so too does the 5 week long summer vacation enjoyed by myself and the entire population of Japanese school students. It also brings the opportunity to indulge in one of Japans' favourite pastimes: eating drinking and being merry under one of the many fireworks displays taking place around the city. This is also known as Hanabi- but is not to be confused with Hanami (eating drinking and being merry under the cherry blossoms). On Sunday night I ventured to Yokohama for my first Hanabi. It was a pretty impressive display which lasted for about an hour, but I think the real highlight was seeing a lot girls dressed in the traditional Japanese Yukata in such a modern setting.






On Monday I attended a Yukata wearing lesson with some of the students from school. I learnt that the Yukata really should be left to Japanese girls because to be honest foreign girls just look kinda silly. Or perhaps that was just me.



And because one themed restaurant in a week is never enough….
Eiri decided to have her birthday dinner at Princess Heart in Ginza. Not sure I'd want to put myself through it again but it was kawaii (cute) enough. And my salad had a face. Awesome.

A medical prison theme?

You’ve probably heard it before, but I’m unsure if you can truly comprehend just how much the Japanese love food. They love talking about food, they love watching other people talking about food, they love eating, oh and they love watching other people eat. They are completely infatuated with new products and restaurants….for all of thirty seconds that it, until the next craze hits.

A fine example of this behaviour in Japan at the moment would be the arrival of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. The shop opened in Shibuya (along with other branches scattered throughout Tokyo) around the beginning of June. Now I can understand that with all the people in this city there’s bound be a bit of wait for these deep fried rings of dough. But we are now mid way through July and everytime I’ve passed a Krispy Kreme store there has been a wait of at least an hour. And this is every day. Day in day out. Crazy I tell you.

Anyway back to my point. Not only do the Japanese love food they’re also totally obsessed with any opportunity that arises for them to throw on a costume. So why not combine the two?
There are at least 5 themed restaurants in Tokyo, that I’ve heard of anyway. Ranging from Alice in Wonderland through to a Catholic church theme. I decided this was something I was going to have to experience first hand.

Which brings to my exciting Friday night out at the Alcatraz: Medical Prison Izakaya in Shibuya (an Izakaya is I guess the closest thing the Japanese have to pub, where the focus is on drinking and lots of small plates of food that everyone shares). This is how the night unfolded. It was a lot of fun and the waiters and waitresses really did a good job at getting into, um, character.












Following our meal there was really one thing left to do...
Take sticker photos to really capture the essence of the evening. Too bad I’m completely unjapanese and ruined almost all the photos…

I think the point this sign was trying to get across (according to Eiri) is that this infact is not the exit.



And on a similar food related topic, here are some photos of earlier in the week when my roommate (Eiri) and I dined at a 100 yen sushi train restaurant. Basically the equivalent of a $2 sushi shop. Mmm meat ball sushi….

Chapter one

I’ve been residing in this county for 3 months now. After toying with the idea of blogging for awhile it took a few persuasive people to finally convince me to put pen to paper. Or finger to keyboard if you will.

Much of the difficulties I have faced so far have to do with the fact that there is very much a ‘them and me’ kind thing going on. And no I’m not referring to any kind of racism I’ve encountered. I’m talking about my complete lack of understanding of the Japanese language. I’ll be the first to admit that the situation I’m in is entirely my own fault. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to sulk and complain about it any less.

That aside, my time in Japan thus far has been entertaining and enjoyable. And if only for those I left behind I shall try to keep you up to date with my discoveries…

This week things have been getting progressively hotter in Tokyo. I’m constantly told that I’ve yet to see the full force of the Japanese summer and I’m not quite sure I want to. With temperatures at the moment reaching 32 degrees not to mention the intense humidity I spend most my time feeling like I just got out of the shower or I am in desperate need of having a shower.

My weekend started on Friday night by heading into Ginza to meet my roommate and some friends for dinner and few drinks. The evening was fun, we went to an Italian restaurant and all was well as we headed to the station set to catch one of the last trains home. I especially was looking forward to the air-conditioned carriages. My excitement however was short lived as I was set to experience my first real ‘rush hour’ on the Tokyo subway. It’s difficult to explain unless you’ve really experienced it. I believe this video is the best way to help you to understand: (and no its not a joke)

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=BE35onlIySk&eurl=http://3dudesintokyo.com/

Saturday was another beautiful (aka so hot I may die) day. I made plans with some friends to go to China Town in Yokohama. It seems that no matter which country you visit in the world you are never very far from China. The place was mostly full of restaurants and Chinese souvenir shops. It was basically heaven for anyone with a panda fetish. Because of course pandas are the only thing you will ever find in China…that's right. The only thing. I guess if there’s one thing I’ve learned in Japan it’s that they really like to do one thing and do it well.
We also stumbled across an art type interactive exhibition while there. The pictures were painted in a 3-D way so that when you positioned yourself in front of them it often looked like you were part of the photo.

When I could no longer stand the Pandas or Holograms we decided to grab something to eat. We settled upon a buffet style all you can eat place with a set price of around NZ$30 and one hundred different items on the menu. This whole concept of all you can eat or all you can drink is very popular in Japan although usually it comes with a time limit which is why when we discovered this place didn't have one we really went all out. Around 30 plates later we decided it was time to admit defeat and headed home.

Sunday I woke up with an initial desire to do nothing more than spend the day alternating between lying on the couch and taking a series of cold showers. I decided this would be a waste of a day and an opportunity to gather some photos for this post. Today was to be the day I would make my second attempt at finding the American Apparel store in Shibuya. I say second because Japan does this thing where they don't really believe in having street names and sometimes when you’re not the best at reading maps you don't have the best luck in finding places. This time around I was successful and even managed to spend a fair bit of money.

I spent some time strolling the streets of Shibuya before making my way down to Omote-Sando (will definitely have to do a post on this place in the future, it’s possibly my favourite place I’ve discovered so far), then onto the craziness of Harajuku before calling it a day and returning to the safety of my air-conditioned subway. Again it really is hard to explain the overall feel of these places and sometimes I really dislike taking photos, as mine never really seem to capture what I want people to appreciate about a place or a situation. Regardless I will leave you with some of my pictures from the past few days.

Ginza- Friday night

ChinaTown- Yokohama

Sunday around Shibuya