Azn Abenteur
ok ok ok, so i know i was in china for a long time and i said i was going to update a bunch about that...and that day is still coming. ive got a long entry started, but its on my computer, which is sitting in TOKYO right now, asnd i wont be back there for another couple of days.
thats right, im in japan!!
after my chinese visa ran out, i still had some money left, so here i am spending two weeks in the land of bill murray, scarlett johanssen, and right..um...the japanese!
basically im doing my friend mark's trip backwards. the first step of that was taking a 48hour boat ride from shanghai to osaka.
after spending an afternoon and evening in osaka, i took an overnight bus ride to tokyo, where to my luck and sheer coincidence, i had friends waiting for me. reunited by way of berlin, chicago, and nyc, here they are, team tokyo!
most of my tokyo time was spent hanging out with these guys. man is that city big. it was really nice to have people to go around with there. here are some of my favorite things i saw there:
people shopping for microchips at akihabara
a great idea for a sandwich in 7-11.
(side note: the convenient stores here have GREAT food. its the place to go for eating cheap. you can buy sushi rolls, rice balls, tasty salads, whacky jap snacks, and clear umbrellas. when you check out, the people at the counter say TONS of stuff to you in japanese (none of which they seem to expect you to respond to). basically they are talking to you from the moment you walk up until the moment you take your bag and walk away. i assume its all "thank yous" and "pleases"...theres a lot of that here. i also assume that every japanese person thinks that i am horribly rude because i have NO IDEA how to participate in the serious system of etiquette they seem to have going here. oh well, im an american tourist after all.)
also, i finally found my golden snack.
ive tried to make it many times, and tried even harder to find it in china, but it just wasnt there in the exact for i wanted. at 7-11 (called "7-and i-holdings" here) i can buy a rice ball wrapped in seaweed paper. with nothing else inside! god i love plain food. i could stay here and eat those forever.
(i swear i think about other things besides food when im in foreign countries)
anyway
thats the big difference between china and japan. china is crazy and weird in a much different way. in china, my constant reaction to everything i see goes like: "what?! thats crazy! why would they do it that way??" in japan its more like "what?! thats crazy! what a good idea to do it that way!"
other examples include the warm seated toilets with bidets and a special fake flushing sound you can have play to cover the sound of your pee and poo. now thats civilized! ironically, the next stall over is often a squat toilet. japan is really about all or nothing. same goes for fashion:
the absolute coolest thing i saw in tokyo was mario at work.
mario is a really good friend of mine who i know from berlin. now he is living in tokyo and working as a BARTENDER. ok so maybe this isnt the coolest job to have say, in nyc, but being a bartender in JAPAN (or any foreign country) is pretty impressive. it requires serious language skills and cultural understanding. watching him chat up his customers (as bartenders do) in japanese is completely impressive and deserving of a place on this list of awesome things i saw in japan.
another thing i really like here is the sock culture.
i knew it was like this in japanese houses, but i didnt realize the extent of the "no shoes inside" policy in japan. not only do you take off your shoes when you go into someones house, but also for hotels, many restaurants, and even internet cafe cubicles! its really nice and keeps everything really clean. it is sort of a pain when you realize youve left something inside right after you put your shoes back on. especially when your shoes are high top converse (which mine are).
god there are so many things to write about. i dont feel eloquent at all!
you can see more pictures on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hampshireberlin/sets/72157604983247045/
ill add even more later
right now i am in an internet cafe. its where i will be sleeping tonight. this is really the best deal for places to stay. i am in a cubicle that is bed sized and soft(pillow included!). a computer is suspended above it and there is tons of manga outside that i can read (if i could read it). at the front there are free and unlimited soda, coffe, slushies, and ice cream. and there is a free shower and toilets which are warm and electronic and open their lids when i walk into the bathroom. its costing me$17 dollars to stay here all night, which is half the price of a typical shitty backpacker hostel. internet cafes are one of the sweeter things ive come across.
the specific one that i am in is located in okayama, a smallish city and hometown of this guy:
Click to viewtomorrow morning my friend mario is coming to meet me here and we are going to meet heita3! i am so excited. i want him to teach me to make an instrument out of vegetables! dont worry, im making a movie about it all, so you will see too.
ok, obviously this entry is imcomplete and there should be more and there should be some about CHINA (which i loved so much too!) but this is what i have time (but mostly focus) for, so this is what you get.
ill be in arkansas this summer.
heres me and mt. fuji
