I went to Tokyo!
I've been inspired by Japanese concert-planners to have a sense of dramatic timing, so I think I'll start with the least interesting parts of my weekend, in the usual random observation format. Of course, there wasn't that much that happened this weekend that was boring. But maybe to you it's boring. Anyway, to begin with, I didn't get lost ONCE all weekend! I went all the way from Gifu to Tokyo and all around Tokyo by shinkansen and bus and train and walking and didn't get lost at all! You should be really proud of me. I am. I think it's because the JR lines in Tokyo were clearly designed by very OCD people (that's a compliment, by the way). The trains were all painted to match the signs for the line they belonged to, always on time, and had lots of very easy-to-understand maps and timetables with romaji and/or hiragana. Inside the trains they had monitors rotating among showing a map of the whole line with times to each station and anything you might care to know about the next station in Japanese and in English. We mostly took the Yamanote line, which goes everywhere useful and which they blew up in X.
Our hotel was adorable and cheap. The cheap was because it had a curfew, 3-tatami rooms (small) (also very Japanese) and shared bathrooms. They had a big communal bath, though, which was nice and big and warm and unoccupied. We also helped a very lost and troubled other English-speaker not wander the streets all night. We made a friend! And forced her to watch L'Arc videos on Laura's ipod as payment for our help. ::tee hee::
This is my cozy hotel room.
Saturday afternoon, we met up with a fellow GEOS teacher we befriended at training in Vancouver. She lives near Tokyo, so she showed us around her interesting places in Shibuya (the 109 building they blew up in X! I like how I identify landmarks by whether or not they were blown up in X.....), Shinjuku, and Harajuku. Most of said interesting places involved lolita dresses, but I'm not complaining. They also involved tasty food and crepes and general fun and good company and not getting lost. Yay for not getting lost. Sunday morning we went to the shoe festival (a proper Shinto value.....apparently) next door to the hotel, then to Akihabara for a bit. I bought myself a shiny mouse.
Shiny.
Monday, (order of interestingness, remember? Not chronological!) we went to the Tokyo Tower. It's very tall and red. You can see lots of things from it. They play elevator music in it.
Look, I'm a giant!
Now, what else did I do this weekend again.....? ::tee hee:: Concertconcertconcert!
Lots of people waiting to be let in two hours early.
Some random girl took a picture of us because we were quite possibly the only foreigners in the entire concert. We made her take one for us, too.
Look how huge Tokyo Dome is! This was sold out two nights in a row. L'Arc~en~Ciel is very famous. Just thought I'd state the obvious.
Memorable moments! (I take no responsibility if any of this is completely unrelated to what they actually said and/or highly summarized! It was in Japanese! It was loud in there!)
*It being a 15th anniversary concert - Ken: We turned the Tokyo Dome into a time machine!
Audience: ::laughs::
Ken: You don't believe me? Go outside and look! It's 1994 right now! Oh, but you might get lost in time....so maybe you'd better stay here.
*Hyde: ::hands mic to Yukihiro between songs::
Yukihiro: ::looks like Hyde handed him a live snake::
Audience: Ganbare!!
Yukihiro: Um....thanks for coming to our concert!
Hyde: ::apologizes for making him talk::
*Tetsu: Tanoshindeiru? (Having fun?)
Audience: ::assent noises::
Tetsu: Tanoshii?
Audience: TANOSHII!!
......
Hyde: Tetsu, think of something more interesting to say!
Tetsu: Anything is interesting if you make the audience say it!
*And many more, but my entry is FAAAR too long already....
And FUN ANNOUNCEMENTS OF HAPPY:
*They played a new never-before-except-at-Saturday's-concert-heard song! Yay*special*us!
*They're releasing a new single sometime in the spring!
*Lots of other stuff that they're gonna sell that probably isn't as interesting as the rest of the announcements!
*All-Japan tour summer 2007! YA~~~Y*DANCE! June, July, and August! And look what's on the schedule! 8.7: 長良川国際会議場 While I imagine this means nothing to you, it says "Nagaragawa Kokusai Kaigiba" (Nagara is a river, the rest means international conference center). Wanna know where that is? Wanna know? GIFU!!
.....So, who wants to come visit me? ::grins::
Our hotel was adorable and cheap. The cheap was because it had a curfew, 3-tatami rooms (small) (also very Japanese) and shared bathrooms. They had a big communal bath, though, which was nice and big and warm and unoccupied. We also helped a very lost and troubled other English-speaker not wander the streets all night. We made a friend! And forced her to watch L'Arc videos on Laura's ipod as payment for our help. ::tee hee::
This is my cozy hotel room.
Saturday afternoon, we met up with a fellow GEOS teacher we befriended at training in Vancouver. She lives near Tokyo, so she showed us around her interesting places in Shibuya (the 109 building they blew up in X! I like how I identify landmarks by whether or not they were blown up in X.....), Shinjuku, and Harajuku. Most of said interesting places involved lolita dresses, but I'm not complaining. They also involved tasty food and crepes and general fun and good company and not getting lost. Yay for not getting lost. Sunday morning we went to the shoe festival (a proper Shinto value.....apparently) next door to the hotel, then to Akihabara for a bit. I bought myself a shiny mouse.
Shiny.
Monday, (order of interestingness, remember? Not chronological!) we went to the Tokyo Tower. It's very tall and red. You can see lots of things from it. They play elevator music in it.
Look, I'm a giant!
Now, what else did I do this weekend again.....? ::tee hee:: Concertconcertconcert!
Lots of people waiting to be let in two hours early.
Some random girl took a picture of us because we were quite possibly the only foreigners in the entire concert. We made her take one for us, too.
Look how huge Tokyo Dome is! This was sold out two nights in a row. L'Arc~en~Ciel is very famous. Just thought I'd state the obvious.
Memorable moments! (I take no responsibility if any of this is completely unrelated to what they actually said and/or highly summarized! It was in Japanese! It was loud in there!)
*It being a 15th anniversary concert - Ken: We turned the Tokyo Dome into a time machine!
Audience: ::laughs::
Ken: You don't believe me? Go outside and look! It's 1994 right now! Oh, but you might get lost in time....so maybe you'd better stay here.
*Hyde: ::hands mic to Yukihiro between songs::
Yukihiro: ::looks like Hyde handed him a live snake::
Audience: Ganbare!!
Yukihiro: Um....thanks for coming to our concert!
Hyde: ::apologizes for making him talk::
*Tetsu: Tanoshindeiru? (Having fun?)
Audience: ::assent noises::
Tetsu: Tanoshii?
Audience: TANOSHII!!
......
Hyde: Tetsu, think of something more interesting to say!
Tetsu: Anything is interesting if you make the audience say it!
*And many more, but my entry is FAAAR too long already....
And FUN ANNOUNCEMENTS OF HAPPY:
*They played a new never-before-except-at-Saturday's-concert-heard song! Yay*special*us!
*They're releasing a new single sometime in the spring!
*Lots of other stuff that they're gonna sell that probably isn't as interesting as the rest of the announcements!
*All-Japan tour summer 2007! YA~~~Y*DANCE! June, July, and August! And look what's on the schedule! 8.7: 長良川国際会議場 While I imagine this means nothing to you, it says "Nagaragawa Kokusai Kaigiba" (Nagara is a river, the rest means international conference center). Wanna know where that is? Wanna know? GIFU!!
.....So, who wants to come visit me? ::grins::