Life in Japan - Year 3 Day 159 (03-23-09)
I went to Tokyo and I went to the immigration bureau and I met people from the internets!
I woke up at 5:20 in the morning so I could catch the 6:50 train in Tateyama. I ended up getting to Tateyama just too late to catch the 6:30 train to Chiba - it pulled out of the station just as I got there. But that was okay! I'd just take the one I planned on and everything would be super okay.
And then the train arrived ten minutes late. And at several points on our trip up it stopped or slowed down in the middle of tracks. There was one point when we were at Soga station, two stops away from the station I needed, where we just sat there for five minutes, not going anywhere or doing anything. The end result of this was that by the time I got to Chiba station it was 9:10, instead of 8:45 like I'd planned on.
So I hustled off to the monorail station and I caught the next monorail to the city hall/city community center, which is where the regional immigration bureau is. I got there at around 9:25, almost half an hour after they'd opened. And there was a line. They have a number-giving machine that you get a piece of paper from, and as you do this, it informs you as to how many numbers are between the one being currently called, and the one you're about to take - 33. 33 people ahead of me in line. So I sat around and waited until about 10:45 when finally one of the two people (why do they only have four people working in the entire front? They were clearly busy enough to need more than that) working in the section I needed saw me. Changing my permission from the old book into the new one only took five minutes or so, thankfully. And there was no charge.
So I ended up leaving a little before eleven and I hustled back to Chiba station. I was supposed to meet people from the internets at Meiji Shrine in Harajuku, which required about an hour's worth of riding on trains to accomplish. I ended up getting to Meiji Shrine at 12:30, just as my phone went off - it was the people who were waiting for me, asking when I'd be in. I told them two minutes - it was closer to one. They spotted me fairly easily - I told them to look for the sideburns.
And so I met jaina, fanartist, utenatai, and utenatai's brother. I know that some people are iffy about using real names on the internet, so I'm just going to call them by their LJ-names.
They were all excited and happy to see me (those poor, deluded fools) and they gave me a bag of fresh tortillas! From California! They smelled heavenly. I put them in my bag and had to hope they'd survive the trip back home. We then went to ChocoCro, a restaurant devoted to croissants with chocolate baked in them. It was actually really nice. I got mine with an iced chai tea and it came with a liquid sugar and that confused me because chai is always sweet, right? Not this time, it really needed the gum syrup. It was weird. Anyway, the five of us ate our things and chatted about nerdly things, then we went to go see Meiji Shrine.
The shrine had very large grounds, and of course it cost 500 yen to see the gardens. They were nice gardens, though. Very lush and green. I'm sure when things are in flower, later in spring, it'd be even nicer. There was a well that we all took pictures at, as it was the source of a very large pond that was in the middle of the garden. And then we went to the main part of the shrine. When we got there, just as we got up to the veranda where you stand in front of the objects of veneration, a priest started hitting a massive taiko drum. And then two other priests came, across the veranda, to the actual part of the shrine with the objects of veneration. And they both, in turn, offered prayers. This was something I'd never seen before, so it was sort of nice to see it.
I should mention, the deities of the shrine are the Meiji Emperor and Empress Shouken. This is fairly common in shintoism, for the deity (or deities) of a shrine to be a historical person. So I suppose the prayers were directed to the former Emperor and his wife.
Anywho, Fanartist wanted to buy an ema, or a votive board. Generally you buy one and then write a wish or prayer on it, and then hang it up somewhere at the shrine. She bought one but didn't plan on writing anything on it, she wanted it as a souvenir. But then she decided to write something on it - she asked that an anime get better, and drew characters from said anime on it. It was the greatest thing ever. I took pictures. And actually, it was not the most . . . um. . . different ema up there. We found one that said, simply, "BIG MONEY" and it had a drawing of a tiny naked man (with his unmentionables obscured by his leg, thankfully) running along a beach. For reasons we couldn't understand.
So after this we had lunch at a place that specialized in donburi - things on top of rice. I had a rice bowl with shrimp and a sort of fried cake that included whole fish in it, and a tiny bowl of udon noodles. This can generally describe what most people had - the rice bowl, or udon noodles, with some variations. After luncheon we walked around and went into shops and things. We then decided to do karaoke. The first place we went to had a long line but as this was Tokyo there was another karaoke place like two blocks away. God bless Tokyo. That one only had a 15 minute wait, so we went there.
We had an adventure as we got the room. I read something about the room and a drink on the board. I could tell specifically it said something about one drink in the price. But the price was absurdly cheap, as it was the afternoon and karaoke places charge almost nothing during the day - they make all their money at night. The room was something like 40 yen per 30 minutes for each person. And that's just absurdly cheap for this sort of thing. And as we were making arrangements, the cashier asked us what drinks we wanted. Utenatai said she didn't want anything so I conveyed that and the girl insisted that she have a drink. So then I asked if the drinks were free, and she said no. And then she said that we needed a drink. And suddenly I understood the sign - the karaoke was that cheap because to get that price you had to buy a drink. So we all had to pony up 300 yen for a beverage - juice and tea and coke - so we could get the good rate. Oi.
But then we sang karaoke for an hour and a half and it went by really quickly. I'm no good at memorizing Japanese songs, but my companions were, so they sang several. I knew one or two so I'd sing along as best as I could, but for a lot of them the songs go too quickly for me to be able to read along well. But I sang my terrible 80s and 90s songs and that made me happy. And then I got the privilege of singing the last song - I had chosen to sing Ore Ska Band's Chuck, the English version. And let me tell you - that is impossible to sing on your own. In the real version, the lead singer trades verses with the other girl who does vocals. So that both of them have a chance to breathe. I had no such luxury. Since the lyrics are so beautiful I will share them with you now. Some of them anyway.I felt to happiness when I looked your smily face.
I nearly wept for joy that I heard your voice.
When I hear to your voice, my endure heart hard soon
somewhere for some reason or other.
The story makes me dance tonight.
You should be a happiness with me.
It is a wish. I'm selfless.
I couldn't say there.
Because in front of you, I can't give in.
You should be a happiness with me, yes indeed.
So as this song ended and it was just instrumental I said, "Everybody skank!" And everybody did. It was amazing - all five of us, sitting down in this tiny room, bobbing our heads and pumping our arms together. It was the most beautiful moment I've had in months.
And then I took leave of my newfound friends - they saw me off to the train station and I departed. It was only 5:30 but I wasn't going to get home until 9:30 as it was, so I needed to get out of there. I had a long wait at Tokyo station for my train to Tateyama - I paid extra for the express, as if I didn't I wouldn't be getting back into Tateyama until 10pm or so. But the express is at least comfortable and roomy. I got in to Tateyama at 9:30 and then I drove to McDonalds, as there was no way in the world I was cooking things at 10pm when I got home. I got a double cheeseburger set meal to go and I ate it when I got home. I was very, very, very tired. It had been a long day.
And now, some pictures, to cheer and lighten your souls.
This is the entrance to Meiji Shrine. As the torii are not painted, but rather just left undecorated, it seemed much more soothing and natural to me. I liked these gates.
This is the aforementioned well. There was a girl with a dog in her purse waiting there the entire time we were there. In the story we concocted up about her, she was waiting there for her boyfriend.
Then I took pictures of everyone I was with. This is Fanartist leaning on Jaina's back.
This is Utenatai and her fancy coat.
And this is Utenatai's brother and a really good (at least I think so) camera angle.
This is Fanartist's ema. It's beautiful. So beautiful.
Someone spotted this and when I saw it I nearly spasmed with delight. To most people this is just some place with an inappropriate word on it - but to those of us who have played Mother 3, this is so, so much more. To prove I am a huge fanboy, I had Jaina take a picture of me with the sign.
And finally, we saw a Mario in Harajuku. Seriously - he had the moustache and everything. And as soon as the light changed, he ran across the street. When we saw him he was running just like Mario always runs. Then we saw him come back ten minutes later carrying luggage behind him. I have no idea what that's about (ISLAND DELFINO REFERENCE????)
I woke up at 5:20 in the morning so I could catch the 6:50 train in Tateyama. I ended up getting to Tateyama just too late to catch the 6:30 train to Chiba - it pulled out of the station just as I got there. But that was okay! I'd just take the one I planned on and everything would be super okay.
And then the train arrived ten minutes late. And at several points on our trip up it stopped or slowed down in the middle of tracks. There was one point when we were at Soga station, two stops away from the station I needed, where we just sat there for five minutes, not going anywhere or doing anything. The end result of this was that by the time I got to Chiba station it was 9:10, instead of 8:45 like I'd planned on.
So I hustled off to the monorail station and I caught the next monorail to the city hall/city community center, which is where the regional immigration bureau is. I got there at around 9:25, almost half an hour after they'd opened. And there was a line. They have a number-giving machine that you get a piece of paper from, and as you do this, it informs you as to how many numbers are between the one being currently called, and the one you're about to take - 33. 33 people ahead of me in line. So I sat around and waited until about 10:45 when finally one of the two people (why do they only have four people working in the entire front? They were clearly busy enough to need more than that) working in the section I needed saw me. Changing my permission from the old book into the new one only took five minutes or so, thankfully. And there was no charge.
So I ended up leaving a little before eleven and I hustled back to Chiba station. I was supposed to meet people from the internets at Meiji Shrine in Harajuku, which required about an hour's worth of riding on trains to accomplish. I ended up getting to Meiji Shrine at 12:30, just as my phone went off - it was the people who were waiting for me, asking when I'd be in. I told them two minutes - it was closer to one. They spotted me fairly easily - I told them to look for the sideburns.
And so I met jaina, fanartist, utenatai, and utenatai's brother. I know that some people are iffy about using real names on the internet, so I'm just going to call them by their LJ-names.
They were all excited and happy to see me (those poor, deluded fools) and they gave me a bag of fresh tortillas! From California! They smelled heavenly. I put them in my bag and had to hope they'd survive the trip back home. We then went to ChocoCro, a restaurant devoted to croissants with chocolate baked in them. It was actually really nice. I got mine with an iced chai tea and it came with a liquid sugar and that confused me because chai is always sweet, right? Not this time, it really needed the gum syrup. It was weird. Anyway, the five of us ate our things and chatted about nerdly things, then we went to go see Meiji Shrine.
The shrine had very large grounds, and of course it cost 500 yen to see the gardens. They were nice gardens, though. Very lush and green. I'm sure when things are in flower, later in spring, it'd be even nicer. There was a well that we all took pictures at, as it was the source of a very large pond that was in the middle of the garden. And then we went to the main part of the shrine. When we got there, just as we got up to the veranda where you stand in front of the objects of veneration, a priest started hitting a massive taiko drum. And then two other priests came, across the veranda, to the actual part of the shrine with the objects of veneration. And they both, in turn, offered prayers. This was something I'd never seen before, so it was sort of nice to see it.
I should mention, the deities of the shrine are the Meiji Emperor and Empress Shouken. This is fairly common in shintoism, for the deity (or deities) of a shrine to be a historical person. So I suppose the prayers were directed to the former Emperor and his wife.
Anywho, Fanartist wanted to buy an ema, or a votive board. Generally you buy one and then write a wish or prayer on it, and then hang it up somewhere at the shrine. She bought one but didn't plan on writing anything on it, she wanted it as a souvenir. But then she decided to write something on it - she asked that an anime get better, and drew characters from said anime on it. It was the greatest thing ever. I took pictures. And actually, it was not the most . . . um. . . different ema up there. We found one that said, simply, "BIG MONEY" and it had a drawing of a tiny naked man (with his unmentionables obscured by his leg, thankfully) running along a beach. For reasons we couldn't understand.
So after this we had lunch at a place that specialized in donburi - things on top of rice. I had a rice bowl with shrimp and a sort of fried cake that included whole fish in it, and a tiny bowl of udon noodles. This can generally describe what most people had - the rice bowl, or udon noodles, with some variations. After luncheon we walked around and went into shops and things. We then decided to do karaoke. The first place we went to had a long line but as this was Tokyo there was another karaoke place like two blocks away. God bless Tokyo. That one only had a 15 minute wait, so we went there.
We had an adventure as we got the room. I read something about the room and a drink on the board. I could tell specifically it said something about one drink in the price. But the price was absurdly cheap, as it was the afternoon and karaoke places charge almost nothing during the day - they make all their money at night. The room was something like 40 yen per 30 minutes for each person. And that's just absurdly cheap for this sort of thing. And as we were making arrangements, the cashier asked us what drinks we wanted. Utenatai said she didn't want anything so I conveyed that and the girl insisted that she have a drink. So then I asked if the drinks were free, and she said no. And then she said that we needed a drink. And suddenly I understood the sign - the karaoke was that cheap because to get that price you had to buy a drink. So we all had to pony up 300 yen for a beverage - juice and tea and coke - so we could get the good rate. Oi.
But then we sang karaoke for an hour and a half and it went by really quickly. I'm no good at memorizing Japanese songs, but my companions were, so they sang several. I knew one or two so I'd sing along as best as I could, but for a lot of them the songs go too quickly for me to be able to read along well. But I sang my terrible 80s and 90s songs and that made me happy. And then I got the privilege of singing the last song - I had chosen to sing Ore Ska Band's Chuck, the English version. And let me tell you - that is impossible to sing on your own. In the real version, the lead singer trades verses with the other girl who does vocals. So that both of them have a chance to breathe. I had no such luxury. Since the lyrics are so beautiful I will share them with you now. Some of them anyway.I felt to happiness when I looked your smily face.
I nearly wept for joy that I heard your voice.
When I hear to your voice, my endure heart hard soon
somewhere for some reason or other.
The story makes me dance tonight.
You should be a happiness with me.
It is a wish. I'm selfless.
I couldn't say there.
Because in front of you, I can't give in.
You should be a happiness with me, yes indeed.
So as this song ended and it was just instrumental I said, "Everybody skank!" And everybody did. It was amazing - all five of us, sitting down in this tiny room, bobbing our heads and pumping our arms together. It was the most beautiful moment I've had in months.
And then I took leave of my newfound friends - they saw me off to the train station and I departed. It was only 5:30 but I wasn't going to get home until 9:30 as it was, so I needed to get out of there. I had a long wait at Tokyo station for my train to Tateyama - I paid extra for the express, as if I didn't I wouldn't be getting back into Tateyama until 10pm or so. But the express is at least comfortable and roomy. I got in to Tateyama at 9:30 and then I drove to McDonalds, as there was no way in the world I was cooking things at 10pm when I got home. I got a double cheeseburger set meal to go and I ate it when I got home. I was very, very, very tired. It had been a long day.
And now, some pictures, to cheer and lighten your souls.
This is the entrance to Meiji Shrine. As the torii are not painted, but rather just left undecorated, it seemed much more soothing and natural to me. I liked these gates.
This is the aforementioned well. There was a girl with a dog in her purse waiting there the entire time we were there. In the story we concocted up about her, she was waiting there for her boyfriend.
Then I took pictures of everyone I was with. This is Fanartist leaning on Jaina's back.
This is Utenatai and her fancy coat.
And this is Utenatai's brother and a really good (at least I think so) camera angle.
This is Fanartist's ema. It's beautiful. So beautiful.
Someone spotted this and when I saw it I nearly spasmed with delight. To most people this is just some place with an inappropriate word on it - but to those of us who have played Mother 3, this is so, so much more. To prove I am a huge fanboy, I had Jaina take a picture of me with the sign.
And finally, we saw a Mario in Harajuku. Seriously - he had the moustache and everything. And as soon as the light changed, he ran across the street. When we saw him he was running just like Mario always runs. Then we saw him come back ten minutes later carrying luggage behind him. I have no idea what that's about (ISLAND DELFINO REFERENCE????)