a day and a half in the life of
i woke up yesterday real late because the night before i'd met up with koni. we'd gone to odaiba, a place in tokyo on the coast, to go to a theme park set inside 3 floors of a department store. most of the rides were kind of the ones you get at carnivals, or virtual reality style ones, but the whole "i'm in a department store and we entered through an xmen style swooshy entrance" thing made it extra specially cool, the thing that took the biscuit was the half pipe ride which involved being strapped to a skateboard type ensemble, being swooshed around like you're actually skating a half pipe, and trying to turn as many times as possible whilst attempting not to be sick, in a bid to outdo each other. funfunfun. we won.
anyway, yesterday i met up with chieko at nanohara, and went to watch the first elvis dance of the season in yoyogi park. on the way to the train station in shimokitazawa, i was accosted by two students who wanted me to show them my apartment, because they were part of some interior design magazine. most of the japanese at the moment i get from context, so when two really excitable japs come bounding up to me and saying "what is the design of your room, can we see it?" i had to make them repeat it over and over again just to make sure i was understanding correctly. must have looked like a complete idiot. anyway, i entertained them with my direct foreign attitude (would've said "sorry, i haven't picked up my dirty knickers out the bathroom this morning" but i didn't know what the word for knickers was) before getting to the station in a rush, bypassing a man with flowing letterbox red hair, wearing a tight leather dress, stockings and over-the-knee whore boots. the worrying thing was, i only blinked once.
anyway... the elvises in action:
it was absolutely freezing but i sat in one of those camping chairs and occasionally one of them would come from dancing and ply me with hot sake, omiyage, octopus balls or cover me with another of their coats.
in the end it was getting kinda hard to see, i became some kind of sitting, human wardrobe/coathook. still, it was massively enjoyable, and afterwards, we all went back to the cafe where "big mama" (chieko's mum) cooked us all the niiiiicest food, and then we sat chatting till past midnight, and they all got slowly pissed as farts. (i didn't drink, getting a bit sick of hangovers). at one point in the night i was teaching an-chan (its like a cute name for "older brother"- he's the second elvis from the right in the top photo) how to make sexual advances in french, after he told me that he has a lot of attractive french customers whose house he has to visit as his other job- a gas man. ever tried to teach a japanese person french? its hilarious, it took us about 10 minutes to get a respectable "je" out of him.
anyway, yesterday i met up with chieko at nanohara, and went to watch the first elvis dance of the season in yoyogi park. on the way to the train station in shimokitazawa, i was accosted by two students who wanted me to show them my apartment, because they were part of some interior design magazine. most of the japanese at the moment i get from context, so when two really excitable japs come bounding up to me and saying "what is the design of your room, can we see it?" i had to make them repeat it over and over again just to make sure i was understanding correctly. must have looked like a complete idiot. anyway, i entertained them with my direct foreign attitude (would've said "sorry, i haven't picked up my dirty knickers out the bathroom this morning" but i didn't know what the word for knickers was) before getting to the station in a rush, bypassing a man with flowing letterbox red hair, wearing a tight leather dress, stockings and over-the-knee whore boots. the worrying thing was, i only blinked once.
anyway... the elvises in action:
it was absolutely freezing but i sat in one of those camping chairs and occasionally one of them would come from dancing and ply me with hot sake, omiyage, octopus balls or cover me with another of their coats.
in the end it was getting kinda hard to see, i became some kind of sitting, human wardrobe/coathook. still, it was massively enjoyable, and afterwards, we all went back to the cafe where "big mama" (chieko's mum) cooked us all the niiiiicest food, and then we sat chatting till past midnight, and they all got slowly pissed as farts. (i didn't drink, getting a bit sick of hangovers). at one point in the night i was teaching an-chan (its like a cute name for "older brother"- he's the second elvis from the right in the top photo) how to make sexual advances in french, after he told me that he has a lot of attractive french customers whose house he has to visit as his other job- a gas man. ever tried to teach a japanese person french? its hilarious, it took us about 10 minutes to get a respectable "je" out of him.