For some reason, the day I left for Heathrow I had an attack of nerves about the trip. I think it was probably a mixture of not having much time to pack and the realisation that the maps I’d been screen-shooting would mean nothing out there because I cannot read the street signs! Luckily, my mother is a Godsend with stuff like that, so I was happy I was in Wales and not Brum.
After a night near Heathrow the whole pre-flight was really chilled out as I cannot be dealing with that same day travelling. On the way out I flew to Helsinki and then got a connecting flight through to Tokyo. The flight was pretty easy to be fair, although in true Kevin Rowe fashion, I maintained my unblemished record of not being able to sleep on transport. Japan Airlines provide an amazing Japanese lunch too which got me in Japan mode ready for the 5 weeks ahead.
As soon as we landed in Narita Airport, it was clear that humidity was crazy and it was boiling too. I had shorts on but a hoodie and this massive rucksack along with a smaller one. I was soon struggling and I hadn’t even made it to the train station inside the airport yet (not even been outside). I exchanged my 14 day JR Pass which enables me to travel around Japan on particular lines. You can only get a JR pass from outside of Japan and the best way for me was to get 1 x 14 day one and 1 x 7 day one after I come back from my chillout week in Miyakojima.
One thing did perk me up, even though I was knackered. A Brit who looked as knackered as me, had long hair and he was greeted in the JR ticket station as ‘m’aam’, this did not seem to help his current state but it did make me smile and wake me up a bit! I reserved a ticket for my journey to Shinjuku where I was staying and also my ticket for the 10th as we’re advised to reserve in advance.
I found the train station easy to negotiate which made me feel a lot better and the train was amazingly comfortable, nothing like the Valleys Arriva Trains Wales. I’d been awake for God knows how long but worst still, because of the time difference it was 9a.m so it was going to be a long day.
When I arrived in Shinjuku first thing I did way find my Capsule hotel. Capsule hotel if you don’t know are places where you have rows and rows of pods (1 lower and 1 upper) and it has powerpoint, light, TV but is just a bed really. Usually people do this as a one night off for the experience but I booked my 3 nights in Tokyo there (2nd night in, so far so good… good choice). By the time I found it (even though it was not far) I was dripping with sweat, absolute state.
Once the bags were down, the first thing on my nerdy itinerary was Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden which was relatively close-by. For some reason I had decided to keep the hoodie on with my smaller rucksack (laptop is always coming with me), so by the time I had got to this park (where I’d taken it off), I looked like a scumbag, absolutely dripping. I normally do not sweat at all and now I am not wearing hoodies I am fine but the humidity and the bad decisions absolutely killed me.
The park was pretty cool to be fair, the first of my many traditional Japanese gardens I will see on this trip. It was nice to walk around (minus the hoodie) and see all the different landscaped gardens (Japanese, English and French (whatever a French garden is)). I did experience my first weird Japanese snack there. I was desperate for something cool so played safe and went for an ice lolly… WRONG, it was a frozen pineapple stick with frozen cream all wrapped in like a pastry! It was weird but nice.
After the gardens I did stop to play some Pachi slot. I had been watching loads of YouTube videos for month in the run up to this trip and Tom (a guy from Wolverhampton who moved out here) produces a show where he takes foreigners around different cities of Japan doing all sorts of stuff. The show is sponsored by some Pachi Slot advertiser so each episode had Pachi Slot, and I was keen to try. Obviously arcade is hugely linked with Japan and Pachi slot and pachinko (and pachi parlous) are huge parts of that. The only was I can really describe it is, it is like a fruit machine but you put tokens in. If you win you win tokens and at the end you can exchange tokens for all kinds of things (fags, booze, toilet roll, toys, treats etc etc). The aim is to get big bonuses which wins you a lot of coins. The parlours are mental! They are unbelievably loud and crazy flashing lights everywhere.
I didn’t win on my first trip but I did win today (day 2), which got me 82 coins and I exchanged it for a load of random stuff because I was under pressure to hurry as a queue was forming and I was amazed how little coins you needed for some of the stuff, I was there for ages! I am pretty sure Pachinko and Pachi Slot will be a daily thing for me now but 1000 yen limit I have set myself (about a fiver).
Next up was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatory and that was a bit of a mission but I always prefer walking, good exercise, see more and tan! It was not the greatest view because no balcony but it was still cool to see the whole of Tokyo 360 like that.
Last up for the day was to have wander around Golden Gai in the day (and head back later in the night). I was pretty excited about the Golden gai because had read loads about it. It’s basically like a few lanes of loads (around 200) of tiny bars. I mean tiny too, some only hold 4 people. They charge a table charge to sit and then flat fee for all drinks. The intention of them is not primarily to make money, the owners like the company and providing hospitality. Some of the bars don’t allow tourists because they have their small group of regulars to take up the four seats. Loads of these bars have random themes. Death Match is one where they have 100’s of Death Match VHS’ you can play, Queen bar (paying homage to the band), Rock Bar and then the really weird like one is themed as a surgeons theatre and barmaid has bloody aprons and drinks are served in a operating apparatus tin.
After wandering around I went back to the Capsule for a kip and then it was up and out to try one of the Golden Gai pubs around. Given some refuse tourist entry I was nervous and wandered up and down a few times. It was a bit awkward because I was doing the same in opposite direction to these two lads. It got too weird on the 4th crossover so asked if they’d been brave enough to go in one, they were with a bigger group all from Bristol and they took me under their wing for the night.
We all ended up going to a bar where it was 2000 yen for 5 drinks (basically getting one free). It was a cool night and they were a great bunch, it was a laugh. Cheers again, Joe, Sam, Si, Mitch and Kat, enjoy the rest of your trip!
We got some food which was my first sampling of Japanese cuisine. I had Bakara noodles which was a meaty broth with onions and nice thick noodles. It was well nice, excellent first choice of many weird and wonderful Japanese dishes.
The Bristol guys had to head back to where they were staying so I called it a night and slipped into a coma in my cubicle after a long day. Day 1 though and I was buzzing for the rest of my trip.
Day 2 was much less sweatier because I obviously didn’t have a hoodie or my massive bag but it was proper humid and roasting again today. First up, was a visit to the Tokyo Imperial Palace which I had reserved a tour for ages ago.
The tour was really cool, couldn’t understand a word he was saying but I had one of those English headsets so I could play random recordings as I walked around. The grounds were pretty amazing, although the palace itself was massive, it wasn’t that impressive. I guess everybody always more associates the watch buildings with the Imperial Palace because they look much more traditional Japanese, where the Palace, from the outside, looks like a premier league footballers bungalow.
After walking around in that heat, it was time to have my second Japanese dish. I had Kemba Curry which was amazing! It was a vegetable curry (not too burny because I hate spicy food) and it came with rice which had a cold soft boiled egg on top. I had read about Keema curry before heading out so when I saw it was a daily special, I snapped it up.
Next up was Meiji Shrine which was meant to be pretty cool. It didn’t disappoint to be fair, I was lucky enough to see a prayer ceremony in full flight too. You cannot take photos during a prayer ceremony as there are obviously people there praying, but the signs were tiny and covered so you had a load of Japanese people praying while telling all us Western idiots to stop taking photos. The prayer is kind of weird, throw a coin in, then some clapping, praying and bowing. Everything about it was pretty classy and spiritual though. Before praying and entering the shine there was a water tank with little pots with long handles. You are meant to, fill the pot with it in both hands, rinse the left hand, then the right, then take some water in the left hand and rinse the mouth. After that, take the handle back in both hands and hold it upright so it washes the handle. You are then ready to enter and pray in the shrine. So a pretty cool experience all around, a nice walk to the shrine too with some cool stuff on the way like huge amounts of straw barrelled Sake from God knows how many centuries ago.
Japanese snack – another class Japanese snack tried here. I bought a bucket of shaved ice and then you can go and plough it with huge amounts of flavoured E numbers. This is definitely better than a slush puppie and should be over in the UK pronto!
I forgot to mention how mental the trains were at peak hour in the morning, sardines! Won’t be doing that time again if I can avoid it, although public holiday is coming soon which is meant to be utter carnage!
I then went to the Japanese Sword Museum which I was really keen to see, even if you couldn’t take photos because they are sacred items. It was small, and a lot of people would say a waste of 800 yen but I think it was worth it to see all the amazing blades from 12th and 13th Century swords which were a mix of culturally important swords, important swords from battle and artistic swords not used in battle but still important in the history of the Samurai Sword.
On the way back I’d got my big Pachi Slot win as mentioned then got my head down before tonight’s festivities… the Robot Restaurant.
I went for some lamb Teppanyaki for dinner, although with a slight twist because in your plate came a hot stone of some sorts so I could finish cooking the meat to how I liked. It was really good and even though I felt stupid having lamb in a sushi restaurant, I was in a rush.
So, now to try and describe the Robot Restaurant. For a start, it is not a restaurant, it is a show. Everything from the ticket office to the toilets is mentally bright and noisy. Going up the lift was like being inside a disco ball and the lounge was unreal, with neon flashing musical instruments for the band to a flashing bar. Once we had a drink and the show was ready to go we all were shown to our seats.
The show hall is weird, it is really small with like seating either side, almost like a 100m track but with seating either side. That’s the only space they have to play with, a small strip with seating either side.
The show starts with some really cool moving things and Japanese girls playing the drums amazingly. That is obviously with a load of random dancers as animals and weird jungle type things. This part of the show is really cool because of all the drummers (the big drums not the type in rock bands).
The second part of the show takes the mental up a few hundred notches. The land and sea were living peacefully with no war in the previous part of the show, but now robots are threatening to take over the land so the sea and the land come together to fight them. This involves massive, bright and noisy robots coming in from one end and the most random stuff coming from the other to fight them. For example, a panda riding a cow goes to fight a massive robot with about 5 guns and then a mermaid riding a shark has a go after the panda and cow have to retreat.
That amazingly mental part of the show was something you will not forget in a while, and the third part of the show is even more random. Japanese girl band singing Dream Girls, robots all dancing to Ave Maria and a massive roller disco with robots with us all in the crowd waving UV sticks singing oi oi oi oi oi.
It was pretty expensive for the ticket, even though I had a 21% discount for pre-ordering couple months ago. If it was £30 not 50 I’d say it’s a must not miss but you will definitely not see this show anywhere else in the world. A cool, bizarre night and that was me done!
So back to my capsule, where I am now, it’s 1:00a.m. Tomorrow holds more weirdness, because I am heading to Akihabara, which is the games/consoles/manga/weirdness central and I am going to try and pluck up the courage to go to a Maid Cafe where they’ll make me do cat noises and bless my food.
One more day and night left in Tokyo before I head to Nagoya (and more importantly… Kyoto (excited)).
