Last Day in Japan
Yesterday was my last full day in Japan.
Given that I was half broke and my Suica card money needed to be saved for the trip out I didn't really have a lot of opportunity to go much of anywhere, so I spent the morning doing laundry, as I mentioned in my post yesterday. The rest of the day I had a few missions of targeted shopping at the Kaminarimon. 1) I had to get a tote bag, and 2) I had to get a few gifts for folks before I flew out.
The tote bag was a necessity, because I had gotten enough small things that I required some kind of bag, but I also got that first volume of Akira and that wasn't going to carry itself. I remembered that there was a bag shop along the main strip leading up to Senso-Ji and that they had some nice canvas totes that would have been perfect. But it appears that that shop was closed yesterday. Damn. So I wound up getting a kind of convertible purse/tote instead. It's very nice, just the right size and only was about 500 Yen. Given that I don't exactly foresee buying a lot of other things in China it ought to do me just fine through Thailand, where I may have to buy another, slightly larger bag.
I also bought a few small gifts at the Kaminarimon for my boys, and one ultra tiny and very cute thing for the dean of the school where I will be teaching. Though I have to say that I probably looked a sight, because I was wearing a Sesame Street tee shirt and shorts and most everyone else was wearing long pants and coats. Such is life when it is laundry day. One thing that I saw going on at the Kaminarimon yesterday that I hadn't seen on previous days were the rickshaw tour guides. You get in the rickshaw and they run you around the market and tell you about things. Best part, they were all wearing tiny little hot-pants. I'm sure that this is a traditional form of dress, but it was new to me and I certainly wasn't complaining. And no I didn't go for a ride. No money.
When I got back I spent the remainder of the day pulling down the laundry and bagging things up as best as possible. I was able to successfully get all of the laundry into the back pack and all the gifts into the new tote and all was well!
The night ended with a party at the Hostel. Khaosan has like 4-5 hostels that are all in the same neighborhood in Tokyo, and they have a party pretty much every night of the week it seems, but the party moves between hostels. The party was at the Annex, my hostel, last night. It was great. I wore my "baka" tee shirt, and everyone thought it was hilarious. One guy said I was "American Idiot, like Green Day." I laughed.
They had out tons of snac
ks and they had multiple guys making Takoyaki. I'm now a big fan of this. Takoyaki is a kind of savory octopus filled doughnut. It's very soft and kind of gently fried. It starts by pouring a batter into the ball making pan like you see in the picture on the left. Then you add the filling, they did octopus, chives, and they also had hotdogs as well. Because the heat is so low on the Takoyaki pan the batter slowly starts to cook. So you have the chance to pull the batter in and around the sides to form a ball. You slowly spin each of the balls in the pan until they turn a kind of golden brown. Then you top it with a couple different kinds of sauce and bonito flakes.
You can't tell from the picture but there wound up being about 50 people in the room. About half of them were Japanese, many who work at Khaosan hostels. The other half were foreign tourists from different countries. I met a guy named Nuno from Portugal and a guy named Nick from Montreal. The guy from Montreal while we were talking discovered that there were other Quebecois people in the room just from the accent. There were about a half-dozen new ALT teachers, all of whom were staying at Khaosan Tokyo Annex until they got their apartments lined up. One of them, Rachel, was a huge K-Pop fan and they put on MTV and they were playing "Korea Hits" which basically meant it was an entire hour of Girls Generation. Which, I have to say I kind of liked. They're a fun group of girls and they can dance the hell out of things.
The party ran until about 10:00, and then everyone, but me, headed over the the Hostel Bar. I instead turned on Animax and slowly started to fall asleep. I was watching some older program about a murder plot involving cobras. It was a little convoluted to say the least. There was another program on after that, Boy Detective or something, but I kept passing out. So I headed up to bed.
This morning I did a little bit of repacking and got things to fit better by taking out my towel. I had to use it this morning so now I have a wet towel hanging on my backpack. I don't think people are going to appreciate this as I go through the airport, and if I have to ditch the towel it was only 300 yen in the first place. I can always get another one.
Getting ready to head out to the airport in about an hour. Got to pull out a few pictures for my lecture in China before I get stuck at an airport where I may have to pay for wireless access if there is even an option at all.
Given that I was half broke and my Suica card money needed to be saved for the trip out I didn't really have a lot of opportunity to go much of anywhere, so I spent the morning doing laundry, as I mentioned in my post yesterday. The rest of the day I had a few missions of targeted shopping at the Kaminarimon. 1) I had to get a tote bag, and 2) I had to get a few gifts for folks before I flew out.
The tote bag was a necessity, because I had gotten enough small things that I required some kind of bag, but I also got that first volume of Akira and that wasn't going to carry itself. I remembered that there was a bag shop along the main strip leading up to Senso-Ji and that they had some nice canvas totes that would have been perfect. But it appears that that shop was closed yesterday. Damn. So I wound up getting a kind of convertible purse/tote instead. It's very nice, just the right size and only was about 500 Yen. Given that I don't exactly foresee buying a lot of other things in China it ought to do me just fine through Thailand, where I may have to buy another, slightly larger bag.
I also bought a few small gifts at the Kaminarimon for my boys, and one ultra tiny and very cute thing for the dean of the school where I will be teaching. Though I have to say that I probably looked a sight, because I was wearing a Sesame Street tee shirt and shorts and most everyone else was wearing long pants and coats. Such is life when it is laundry day. One thing that I saw going on at the Kaminarimon yesterday that I hadn't seen on previous days were the rickshaw tour guides. You get in the rickshaw and they run you around the market and tell you about things. Best part, they were all wearing tiny little hot-pants. I'm sure that this is a traditional form of dress, but it was new to me and I certainly wasn't complaining. And no I didn't go for a ride. No money.
When I got back I spent the remainder of the day pulling down the laundry and bagging things up as best as possible. I was able to successfully get all of the laundry into the back pack and all the gifts into the new tote and all was well!
The night ended with a party at the Hostel. Khaosan has like 4-5 hostels that are all in the same neighborhood in Tokyo, and they have a party pretty much every night of the week it seems, but the party moves between hostels. The party was at the Annex, my hostel, last night. It was great. I wore my "baka" tee shirt, and everyone thought it was hilarious. One guy said I was "American Idiot, like Green Day." I laughed.
They had out tons of snac
ks and they had multiple guys making Takoyaki. I'm now a big fan of this. Takoyaki is a kind of savory octopus filled doughnut. It's very soft and kind of gently fried. It starts by pouring a batter into the ball making pan like you see in the picture on the left. Then you add the filling, they did octopus, chives, and they also had hotdogs as well. Because the heat is so low on the Takoyaki pan the batter slowly starts to cook. So you have the chance to pull the batter in and around the sides to form a ball. You slowly spin each of the balls in the pan until they turn a kind of golden brown. Then you top it with a couple different kinds of sauce and bonito flakes.
You can't tell from the picture but there wound up being about 50 people in the room. About half of them were Japanese, many who work at Khaosan hostels. The other half were foreign tourists from different countries. I met a guy named Nuno from Portugal and a guy named Nick from Montreal. The guy from Montreal while we were talking discovered that there were other Quebecois people in the room just from the accent. There were about a half-dozen new ALT teachers, all of whom were staying at Khaosan Tokyo Annex until they got their apartments lined up. One of them, Rachel, was a huge K-Pop fan and they put on MTV and they were playing "Korea Hits" which basically meant it was an entire hour of Girls Generation. Which, I have to say I kind of liked. They're a fun group of girls and they can dance the hell out of things.
The party ran until about 10:00, and then everyone, but me, headed over the the Hostel Bar. I instead turned on Animax and slowly started to fall asleep. I was watching some older program about a murder plot involving cobras. It was a little convoluted to say the least. There was another program on after that, Boy Detective or something, but I kept passing out. So I headed up to bed.
This morning I did a little bit of repacking and got things to fit better by taking out my towel. I had to use it this morning so now I have a wet towel hanging on my backpack. I don't think people are going to appreciate this as I go through the airport, and if I have to ditch the towel it was only 300 yen in the first place. I can always get another one.
Getting ready to head out to the airport in about an hour. Got to pull out a few pictures for my lecture in China before I get stuck at an airport where I may have to pay for wireless access if there is even an option at all.