Laos Update

Coming to you live from Laos.  All is well, Laos is completely different than Thailand, the language, the people, the scenery and the food.  but so far it's been great and actually everything has turned out better than I had hoped for.  Unfortunately, we've decided to skip Vietnam because we're too short on time and getting from point A to point B has proven to be a slow and painful process sometimes.  Let's just say I think I've put in about 24 hours in bumpy twisty turny minivan rides and that's not including the planes, trains scooters, boats, tuk tuks and other crazy forms of transportation.  Anyways, that's all the time I have for now.  See you from Cambodia!

Thailand Update

Hey guys, just a real quick post on my situation so far.  I was in Bangkok for 2 days, saw all the major tourist attractions, got twisted and contorted by a small thai girl in a traditional thai massage, bought cheap clothes and ate very cheaply.  then i went to the city of Ayutthaya for a day, saw some awesome wats (temples) by bicycles - too hot, took a 13-hr night train to the next major city of Chiang Mai which is where I'm currently blogging from.  we plan to explore here for 1 day, go to Pai for 1 day, return and go on a mountain trek which includes seeing some hill tribes, maybe some humungous spiders *shiver*, ride an elephant, raft, etc.  so anyways, i'm feeling fine, plenty of suntan lotion and bug spray has kept me alive so far.  oh yeah, and 7-11's, the last sign of civilization (at least the one i know).  although i just met a canadian today who said she got sick eating something from 7-11, but i've already had a little bit of street food and still no problems.  so far i've been lucky i guess.  okay, until next time, ja mata.

Onward... to Southeast Asia

Hello friends, family and fellow readers (bored enough to read my blog).  I will be taking an intermission from updating this blog for roughly 1 month.  In Japan, university schedules are split up between two long semesters and what we know as summer break in the states is a two month long spring break starting in February and lasting until April.  With this long break, I've decided to travel with my friend Baptiste to Southeast Asia for about 1 month.  Our plans are roughly set, round trip tickets to Bangkok and 2 nights of hostel booked but everything else afterward is to be determined.  The plan is simple though (in theory): 4 weeks, 4 countries, 1 backpack, 0 diseases (haha, hopefully).  We're planning to start in Thailand, then Laos, then Vietnam, then Cambodia, back to Thailand and back home.  This should prove to be an educational and exciting new experience.  Until my next post, sayonara!

Day 14: The Last Day

Jessica and I head out around lunchtime to the Imperial Palace because Jessica has been in Tokyo for about half a year and has not seen it yet.  This was my third visit.  We were going to go try a famous soba shop, but while walking through Shinjuku Station succumbed to the smells of freshly baked breads.  Eventually, we were so hungry we decided trying to make it to the soba shop was futile and just ate at a little café in the station.  It was quite good actually and I had something that I haven’t tasted in many months, a pesto chicken sandwich.  It was almost too good!

We strolled leisurely through the palace grounds snapping up a few good pictures of early blooming Sakura (cherry blossoms) and scenery.  The palace closes pretty early around 3-4 PM so afterwards we went to Roppongi Hills, a famous shopping plaza that was in our guidebooks and was a place neither of us had been to.  After admiring some strange spider sculpture and a few of the buildings we went up to the observation deck.  This was the fourth and best observation deck I had been to in Tokyo and is my personal favorite as far as observation decks go in Tokyo.  I frantically took pictures before the sunset, during and after the sunset to catch great views of the city, Tokyo Tower and Mount Fuji.  After the observation deck, we went to see a jewelry exhibit that was being featured in the same building.  Not that I have a particular interest in jewelry but it was a double ticket and actually it turned out to be pretty cool.

 

We decided to wait for Will to get off work to eat dinner together.  Jessica and I walked around street level and explored some of the plaza and found a great spot where lit up trees lined the street.  Just beyond in the distance stood Tokyo Tower just peaking over the horizon of the cityscape. 

We met up with Will in Shinjuku and decided (after extensively researching through 3 guidebooks) to eat at a Thai food restaurant.  Thai food is just one of the many foods that I miss and I took my chance while I was still in the international city of Tokyo to eat something I might not get a chance to eat in a while.  This will be a little ironic later.  Jessica ordered pad thai that didn’t really taste like any pad thai I’ve ever had.  It wasn’t bad, but it just had no familiar flavors or peanuts or sweet and sour sauce.  Will ordered a stew that was way too spicy for him and he decided to order a second dish.  I also ordered another dish with him so that he wouldn’t have to eat alone and because I still wanted more food.  We had a nice evening chatting, reacquainting myself with old and new friends alike and eventually said our goodbyes.  I went back to my hostel and had an interesting time catching my flight home.  That story is in the beginning in case you missed it. 

Conclusion:  These were definitely some of the best weeks of my trip to Japan, maybe of my life.  I’m lucky to have so many great friends to share many wonderful experiences with.  Tokyo is a fascinating city filled with thousands of new things to discover every day.  But its hectic fast-paced lifestyle is intense and a little too much for me to handle on a long term basis.  But it will always remain as one of my favorite cities to visit and tour.  I hope to come back to you soon, Tokyo.  

Day 13: Goodbye Owen and Mike, The Tokyo Edo Museum and Couch Surfing

We woke up, packed and rushed to check out and meet up with Jessica and Will to say goodbye.  They met us in the hotel lobby and we took one last group photo.  It was nice of Jess and Will to come meet us in the morning and it was nice to say goodbye since we missed them last night.  I took the guys to Shinjuku Station and helped them buy an express airport ticket and we said our goodbyes and thus concluded the Epic 2010 Tokyo Adventures of Owen, Mike and Eric.

I made my way back to my hostel to check in one more time.  On the way, I helped two American businessmen who were heading my way who seemed completely lost trying to buy a subway ticket.  I decided I would spend my day doing a few things I’d missed in Tokyo.  I decided to go back to the Tokyo Edo Museum that I saw the night I went to Sumo Town.  I learned a lot about Japanese history and culture. 

I learned the complex production system of making colored posters and other paper copies required a series of wood pallets that had only one color at a time and could one poster could take a dozen wood pallets.  I also learned that in the Edo Period of Tokyo, the firefighters of Japan would used to carry a large white decorated pole which was a symbol of fire and instead of putting out fires they merely contained the fire and let the house or building burn down.  Buildings were rebuilt all the time because all the buildings in this period were made of wood and paper.  Easiest firefighting job ever.  

The museum itself is somewhat noteworthy.  The whole museum’s exhibits are located on an elevated floor that leaves an enormous empty space and four large pillars holding up a large awkward structure.  The escalator also was one of the coolest part because it was open at the base during normal business hours, but after the museum closes, the security guard uses a hand crank to close the entrance entirely.

I decided to meet up with Jessica and Will for drinks after dinner.  We first ate a little at a local kaiten, then went to our favorite bar, Hub.  We get a call from one of Will’s friends who are in another Hub a few blocks away.  If you’re starting to notice that we go to Hub a lot or that there seems to be way too many Hubs in Tokyo, you are correct on both accounts.  Either way, we went, had more drinks there and I made the call to sleep over at Will’s place that had an extra bedroom instead of leaving early and catching the first train home.  Since I was planning to hang out with Jessica to do some sightseeing the next day/my last day in Tokyo anyways, it was easier just to be there in the first place.  Will’s roommate tried to awkwardly pick up a few Japanese girls in the bar again.  My friend once told me that the only white people you meet in Japan who are living here and aren’t students are essentially the rejects of Western Society.  I find that to be pretty true. 

Will's Totally Awesome Double Hinged Fridge (I wonder if you pull both at the same time if the whole door comes flying off)

Day 12: Back to Odaiba, The Museum of Future Technology and Innovation, Ninja Warrior, Shiodome Light Show and Fishing for Food

Miraikan Panorama

For the last full day of Mike and Owen’s stay, we went back to Odaiba to see some of the things we missed the last time we were there.  The thing we really wanted to see was called Miraikan: the Museum of Future Technology and Innovation.  I promised I would show Owen some robots and where better than the national museum of technology in Tokyo.  Sadly we missed the giant Gundam that was up less than a year ago:

Odaiba Last Summer

 

Giant Laputa Sentinel I still have to Visit in Tokyo

Giant Robot in Kobe I Still Have to Visit

Museum of Future Technology and Innovation

The museum had some interesting exhibits that are best represented in some of the following videos.  The first two shows a single strip of blinking LED lights that actually display a 2D image when you move your head (or camera) from side to side.  Other things like a video that records and plays your shadow back onto an opposing wall and changes the feedback time loop is a trippy party trick.  The best part was probably the virtual reality ride which was confusing at first.  But we just waited in line until we got to the front and the guy explained it to us in English.  There were two robots on a small platform.  There was a guy who would be positioned somewhere near or sometimes over the robot and he would seem to be talking to this little moving robot.  He would then wave a little stuffed animal in front of the robot and then a few minutes later new people would shuffle into the ride.  We learned that inside the capsule was a motion sensor ride with a full semicircle 3D screen that would relay images that the robot would see in real-time.  Michael controlled the left side controls of the small robot with one joystick and a young boy controlled the other side.  Together they could make the robot turn left, right, move forward or backward by coordinating their moves.  Inside, the small stuffed animals that could fit in the palm of a hand was now life sized 3D images attacking our command module.  Every step our little robot buddy took, we felt the shock, heard the thump of the step and experienced everything it felt and saw.  Now it didn’t seem so crazy the guy was talking to the robot, but still kind of a silly job.

We went once more to Venus Fort because Owen and Mike wanted to play more of their favorite coin games in the casino and I walked around taking pictures and videos like this:

 

Ninja Warrior

Afterwards we went to go to a place called Muscle Park which was originally recommended to us by Charlene (thank you Charlene).  She got our hopes us last time and told us there was a Ninja Warrior course there we could try but we ran out of time before we could try it for ourselves.  At first all the physical challenges seemed very childish or actually seemed geared towards just working out, but at the end of the building we found the Sasuke Challenge.  If you’re not familiar with Ninja Warrior, it’s essentially a Japanese TV show that is aired in the States that I (and my friends) enjoy watching that pit willing participants against 3 levels and one final test of physical challenges that is a full fledged obstacle course complete with muddy waters.  Each level increases in difficulty and culminates in a grueling test that only a few challengers have passed out of thousands of Japanese contestants, foreigners and even Olympic athletes who have attempted and failed. 

Does anybody else notice that chick checking Owen out?

These are our recorded attempts of only 4 such obstacles.  We didn’t get that far, but at least they replaced the muddy waters with soft pads in this course.

These are some pictures we took at the dock of Joypolis which turned out to be better pictures of Rainbow Bridge and the bay than any of the others we had previously taken.

Shiodome Light Show

While changing trains at Shiodome Station, we meandered around the station slightly lost and randomly found ourselves at one of the coolest night displays we had ever seen.  Turns out this was one of the locations that Owen had looked up and wanted to see but we gave up trying to fit it into our schedule.  We were lucky to have just run into it and it was really awesome actually.  The light show featured lights choreographed to about half a dozen songs with any and every trick including: smoke, lasers and bubbles sometimes all at once and all for free!

Will Fish for Food - The Last Supper

This last one is a bit of repeat, but after enjoying the fishing restaurant so much my first visit, I had made sure that this was one place I would have to show Owen and Mike.  I didn’t know much about Tokyo, but this was one of the few tricks I had up my sleeve and I saved it for their last dinner so that it would be memorable.  We arrived late and almost missed the last call for food.  But Owen and Mike each caught a fish and we had it fried, sashimi-ed and grilled.  We ate everything that I made a note to memorize the last time I was here and went back up to our room to rest and pack for Owen and Mike’s return flight the next day.

Most Memorable Quote: YEAH!  Aw, dude I feel kind of bad.  I just killed a fish... all right now what?

Day 11: Tokyo Imperial Palace – the 2nd Time, Tokyo Tower, Shibuya to Omote-sando & Clubbing in Roppongi

Tokyo Imperial Palace has its garden grounds open to the public year round, but only two times a year does it open the gates to the palace and allows visitors to come and wave to the emperor.  The emperor of Japan doesn’t hold any real political power anymore, but he’s mostly a public figurehead and one of his main responsibilities is waiving to the public on Dec. 23^rd and Jan. 2^nd.  So I took Owen and Mike to the Imperial Palace on the 2^nd and since I arrived too late on the 23^rd to get in, I was excited to see the inside of the Palace too.  But of course, as you guessed it, a story like this can’t go off without an ironic hitch and we’re late, and for the 2^nd time, I miss going inside the palace.  But it’s alright because Mike and Owen were pretty impressed with the Palace grounds itself and took a few nice pictures from the outside.  

We had no plans afterwards until we had to meet Jess and Will to go clubbing later that night so we decided to try to walk to Tokyo Tower.  Things are always farther than they appear and after a mile or so, we decided we either needed to find a bus or give up.  Luckily we found a subway station and it took us right to the station of Tokyo Tower.  When we came out of the station we decided to stop off at a 7-11 to try their ATM to see if I could withdraw out of my Fukuoka Bank account.  Note that I’ve tried dozens of other ATMs at this point and had no success withdrawing money.  Apparently Fukuoka Bank is the equivalent of getting some random bank nobody’s heard of.  But luckily for us, this time it worked and we rejoiced in having money again.  We jumped around 7-11 yelling “we’re saved!”  

Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower is strange because some of you (like I) might mistake it for the Eiffel Tower because of its similar structure.  Tokyo Tower is in fact inspired by the Eiffel Tower and is 13 meters or 42 feet taller than the Eiffel Tower.  (Way to go Japan for the douche move.)  This is the third of four total observation decks I went to on my trip and actually in hindsight the least impressive.  If I had to make a recommendation, I would say skip Tokyo Tower, it’s mostly a tourist trap, as you probably would have already guessed.  But we went only to the first observation tower which is only half way up the tower because there’s another separate additional fee to go to the second point which is almost twice as high up.  But by the time we got to the first observation deck we had lost the motivation to go any higher.  We mostly enjoyed the night views of Tokyo and could see as far out as Odaiba and Rainbow Bridge (as shown in my grainy not very good quality picture).  The best part may have been the glass bottomed floor on the observation deck, but it wasn’t anything great and was too scratched to really see anything or get the feeling like you were flying anyway.  So what’s the point?

We then made our way towards Omote-sando Dori to try some of the street food we saw the last time we were there.  We got off on Shibuya because I screwed up and didn’t know how far Shibuya was from Omote-sando.  We walked and found a kaiten (rotating) sushi joint that Owen was hankering for and picked up a quick bite to eat.  Owen nearly burned himself working the green tea tap (twice) after I showed him how to use it and then we were off again.  Eventually we arrived at Omote-sando, we saw a few interesting food stands (though a lot were closed by the time we arrived) including: spiraled potato chips, fried potatoes, and the usual takoyaki and okinomiyaki.  I ordered an okinomiyaki but sort of regretted it when I saw the guy take my money and add food with the same hand but by then it was too late.  

The whole time we were in Tokyo, we kept running into people who asked us if we had gone to Roppongi to club yet.  It had been so built up in our minds as an awesome clubbing Mecca that it was a bit unrealistic.  Either way, we were excited to finally see for ourselves what this legendary Roppongi was all about.  We met up with Jess and Will in Hub in Shinjuku, had drinks with her two girlfriends, and Will’s roommate who reminds me a bit of Jason from first year.  He was a 35 year old student who liked talking to me and telling me things I didn’t really want to know.  I got a weird feeling about him the first time I met him and afterwards when I spent a little more time with him, realized my instincts were correct.  He told me he only came to study his English teaching degree to pick of girls.  He was totally serious, with no hint of sarcasm or irony.  He then proceeded to tell me that all the Japanese he knew he learned from his girlfriend or while watching pornography.  Needless to say, he was a character.  When we left to catch the last train to Roppongi Will was reluctant to go because he had work early in the morning.  He argued with Jessica for a while and took a quick chance to dodge the argument by leaving without saying goodbye to Jess and the group.  This infuriated Jess who was left holding his backpack and she called him, exchanged some angry words, threatened to leave his backpack in the middle of a busy center, and ranted for a while when he refused to come get it.  She ended up locking it up in a locker in Shinjuku Station and we ran to catch the last train.  But now by the time we got to a station, we learned we had gone to the wrong station and had already missed the last train.  This only served to piss Jess off more and she apologized that we had to take a cab.  We arrived in Roppongi and we met up with more friends, Aki and Robby, who were best friends from the Bay Area.  They were chill guys and are here in Tokyo working as signed artists doing hip hop music, respect.

Feria

The club called Feria had 3 levels to dance.  We only stayed on the first floor because we forgot about the rest.  That night was 2 clubs for the price of one and though it was very expensive (3500 Yen) it was apparently a very good deal in Tokyo standards.  The music in Tokyo clubs I would say is just a few decibels louder than those in Fukuoka and other clubs.  The club was beautiful, packed and all that I was expecting.  We danced a bit with the group and had a few drinks.  I went with Michael to be his wingman to a group of Japanese girls and watched him tell them they were “kawaii” (cute).  I had dared him to say that to every cute girl he saw that night and he was more than willing to live up to the challenge.  After a while, we lost the girls in the group, and Michael, Owen, Aki, Robby and I went to the other club which was supposed to be a short walk away.  We got there and was very disappointed at the turnout since this was a much more chill and less crowded bar.  We decided we would make this trip worth it and got our two free drinks that came with our admission fee and just chilled in a side booth.  Apparently Robby went to UCI and was familiar with many of the same frats and people that Michael and Owen knew and they had a good chat.  After we finished our drinks, we had no reason to stay and moved back to Feria.  The club had thinned out by the time we got back and it was much easier to find the girls again.  We danced the rest of the night with them.  Jessica over drank and at one point kind of just wobbled around, tipped over and fell asleep.  We took care of her, the girls took her to the hospital to wash her face and she was fine in about an hour.  You don’t need to worry about Jess, she’s Korean, she can handle herself and her alcohol, generally speaking. 

We caught the first train back and split off from the group who was getting ramen to sober up.  We decided against it and just went back to sleep off the alcohol and fun of the night.

Day 10: New Years Day (Or Lack Thereof)

We wake up at 5:20 PM.  I don’t think I’ve ever woken up this late before.  I guess I was more tired from the night before than I thought.  The guys were apparently just as tired too.  In the time we were sleeping, Charlene had left (I’m sad and sorry that I missed saying goodbye) and the cleaning ladies had tried to come and left twice and given up for the day.  Charlene left early that morning for home and by now is happily (maybe?) back in Irvine again.  Thank you for spending time with us and sharing some wonderful times Charlene.  We went out to get some food and was a bit surprised at how empty the city was.  In Japan New Years takes on a different significance than it does in the states and other countries.  For Japan, Christmas is for spending with friends and New Years with family and spent at traditional temples.  So we found the city of Tokyo practically empty.  Well not empty, but empty compared to what it usually is.  The moral of the story is…

New Years in Japan is inconvenient.

I was out of money.  Michael was out of money.  Owen had about $200 left.  And all the banks were closed for the weekend (the next 3 days).  How were we supposed to live on $200 between the three of us in Tokyo for three days?  We had no idea.  But the most immediate problem was that there were no open restaurants.  We ended up eating dinner at McDonalds and we found the whole restaurant (so strange to describe McDonald’s as a restaurant) filled with people.  We had to wait to get seats and Owen and Mike got to try some Only-in-Japan burgers like the Mc-Pork. 

We found nothing else open and really nothing to do after we finished dinner.  But we had just woken up after a small coma and it seemed ridiculous to immediately go back to our cramped hotel room so we just wandered the streets of Shinjuku aimlessly.  Moving through the small streets felt so bizarre because for many of the smaller streets we were literally the only souls on the street.  These were the same streets that we had to fight for space to breathe on most normal days, but not today.  We passed by a place advertising pool and decided to play a game since we had no other ideas anyways.  I missed a good game of pool and was quite happy with the idea of a game anyways.  We called Jess and Will and they seemed to be trying to get back on a normal rhythm of sleep because they both had early engagements the next morning so we figured we would just hang out on our own for the night.  We ended up paying about $20 each for playing for an hour and a half.  That’s extremely expensive but considering we didn’t really understand the pricing and the club was pretty nice, we kind of understood.  Afterwards we walked back towards our hotel and stopped off at Yoshinoya.  Yes it’s the same Yoshinoya that we have in the States but the quality is much better in Japan.  Here, Yoshinoya is ubiquitous and is the Japanese equivalent of McDonalds, an easy cheap fast and (sometimes) satisfying meal.  Owen was happy with the food and we had a late second dinner.  We went back to the hotel afterwards and slept at a relatively reasonable hour.  The lazy day was a little frustrating but restful.

*Note no photos because nothing extraordinary happened.  Sorry*

Day 9: A Tokyo New Years Eve

Happy New Years 09-10!

Not surprisingly, the day was slow to start.  We saw Charlene off (actually, I think she was gone by the time I awoke) and we went out to find some food.  We ate lunch in the hotel because we were scared off by the cold outside and just ate a simple soba lunch.  Afterwards we went back to our room and took a nap to prepare the upcoming night since we knew weren’t going to get any sleep.  Actually, only Michael and I slept on the big bed because Owen didn’t want to sleep between us and he had no other place to sleep, so he stayed up, thanks for taking one for the team on that one buddy.  After we woke up around 4, we decided to actually get out of the hotel and I decided to show them closer sights, so I took them to Harajuku and Omote-sando-dori.  We had some fun marveling at the shops, the clothes and the people and started to think about someplace warm to get some grub.  We stopped off at a ramen shop that had interesting menus but was surprisingly delicious.  We found that Japanese fast food restaurants are infinitely better than the classic American burger joint and you can never beat a piping hot bowl of ramen anytime anywhere.

Sights of Harajuku and Ometesando Street

Yes I'll have a vigorous bowl of ramen with extra pain please.
 
We waited to meet Charlene who miraculously finished her essay, convinced her manager to let her stay a few more days in her dormitory and found her way to our hotel.  She was on a streak.  We she got to our hotel room around 10 PM and we took one celebratory shot before leaving, but not before shoving a bottle of absolute vodka in Charlene’s purse.  We took turns holding her purse because it was so heavy and she’s so tiny.  We were to meet Jessica, Will, Ai, Baptiste, and Charlene’s friend at Ebisu at 10:45.  Everybody was coming from a different direction and it was confusing to say the least to track everyone down.  We were the first to arrive, met up with Charlene’s friend, walked around aimlessly in Ebisu and waited for Jessica and Will to arrive who were the ones directing us where to go that night.  We opted against going clubbing because everyone jacked up the prices and most of the good ones were sold out anyways. 

Side Story: “Yeah... they just fall sometimes.”

As Owen, Mike, Charlene and I walked through the busy Shinjuku Station, we came down a flight of stairs and saw a man about 10 feet away freeze, lock up his limbs, tilt over slowly and slam into the ground violently.  There seemingly no cause for his sudden seizure but we rushed to help him up and ask if he was okay repeating over and over “Daijoubu? Daijoubu?” The people who were closest to him were understandably surprised by his fall and stood there helplessly looking at him like deer in the headlights.  They quickly moved away from him and kept walking while glancing backwards but offering no help.  He put his hand out to stop us when we reached to help him out.  He obviously did not want our help for whatever reason.  His eyes were the scariest part.  He stared blankly, bug-eyed and didn’t blink.  After a few moments, he slowly moved one arm under his body, propped himself up and got up off the ground slowly.  We were amazed, shocked and horrified as this man laid lifeless on the ground and nobody seemed to give a damn.  Tokyo can be a lonely place despite the millions of people who pass by every day.  Charlene later tried to comfort us and said “Yeah… they just fall sometimes.”  We were not comforted.

It was December 31^st, New Years Eve, 11:45 PM and we still had no place to go and didn’t know how to get there.  After trying to ask directions, wandering around and finally giving up, we decided to dodge into a small Irish bar so that we could at least toast to the new years.  Will and Jess came running in 5 minutes before 12 and just in the nick of time.  We all ordered a drink, they passed out Jell-O Shots and confetti poppers.  We said farewell to 2009 and drank our first drink of 2010!

The Legendary Picture (Pretty Nice Except for How Faded Owen Looks Already)

Zest Cantina

Next stop was our original stop, Zest Cantina Bar and Grill.  The restaurant was decorated inside with balloons all over and like a western style saloon inside.  There was a second floor that surrounded the center dance floor.  There was food in the back and a bar in the front.  Ai-chan and Baptiste eventually joined us and the gang was complete.  Halfway through dancing, the DJ changed to a slow song, everyone stopped dancing, started to clear out and a big circle formed in the middle of the dance floor.  We were pleasantly surprised to find it was intentional and a dancing/singing performance began that featured a girl singing electropop songs accompanied by two scantily clad (butterfaces, you can decide for yourself) girls and later by a rapper.  We danced, talked, joked, laughed and spent the night enjoying being fortunate, young and happy.  One of the best parts of the night for me was a short and seemingly unsubstantial conversation I had with Owen.  We talked about how far we’d come, thought about how long we’d been friends, all that we had experienced together and thanked whoever and whatever was responsible for letting us share this moment in Tokyo together.  I was just so thankful that he and Mike had come all the way out here to see me and that we were enjoying this together.  This would be one of those moments we would remember forever.

The rest of the night…

We left the cantina after the part died in the early part of the morning and headed for the Yamanote Line (that was running 24 hours just new years eve).  But not before “borrowing” a couple of unlocked low-rider bikes and taking it for a quick stroll around the street.  After Will, Owen and I had our fill of the bikes, we returned them unharmed back to their original locations and left.  We stayed at Shinjuku Station for roughly an hour talking with Ai, Owen, and Baptiste for some reason.  Which is why I was perplexed when Baptiste called me and asked me to explain to him why he woke up at his station in Tokyo without really knowing how he got there or why he was asleep against a column.  Apparently he spent the whole night partying and conversing but what really wasted.  He talked with us for an hour at the station in the morning and left on his train.  He arrived at his station and leaned up against a column presumably out of exhaustion and fell asleep for about 2 hours (math I’d figured between the time he work up and the time he left Shinjuku Station) only to wake up without knowing what he did for New Years 2009.  Hilarious.

Side Story:

Because Baptiste was very drunk (and very sorry) as he wanted me to make clear, when he went upstairs to ask Charlene to dance and found her sleeping, he had to take drastic drunk measures.  He tried lightly slapping her face and when that didn’t work he apparently stuck his finger up her nose… yes, he’s not sure if he did that, but Charlene said it happened and it freaked her out.  Baptiste’s only defense is that he does that to his younger brother sometimes and he was too drunk to realize what he was doing to Charlene.  He’s very sorry.  Good story though.

Charlene once again got sufficiently drunk and sleepy, but only after she danced with every guy she wanted to including one Rastafarian guy who was so ridiculously high, he was almost falling asleep while talking to me.  Mike took her home early and asked me to carry her purse home because she had to carry her home on his back.  Later I realized I should have at least given Mike Charlene’s cell phone that was in her purse.  Knowing Mike and his horrible sense of direction, Owen and I thought about what we would do to find two lost gaijin in Tokyo on New Years Day.  But they didn’t get lost and all was fine. 

Side Story: Mike the Rapist

On the way back on the train, a Japanese mad kept telling Charlene not to go back home with Mike because he thought Mike would rape her.  We’ve laughed at Mike countless times and his new nickname has permanently been solidified as “The Rapist”. 

Best Drunk Charlene Quotes:

*Talking about me sleeping with a sleeping bag in Owen and Mike’s hotel room.*

Charlene: “Damn, you’re like a homo.”  - She meant: Damn, you’re like a hobo.

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Owen: “Something bit me.” – Talking about a bug bite.

Charlene: “I didn’t do it.”

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Charlene : “Dude Japanese old ladies are fit. It’s like… damn they look good.” – Talking about checking out old ladies in a naked public bath.  Note: She was sober for this one.

Day 8: Asakusa, Odaiba and the Most Expensive Meal EVER

Today I wanted to show the guys the more traditional part of Japan (i.e. some traditional temples) to give them a taste of Japanese culture outside of robots and sushi.  We headed towards what is the most traditional part of Tokyo where most of the main temples are still found, Asakusa.  Once again, we got to a late start after waking up from the late and crazy night before.  The town of Asakusa is very different than the hustle and bustle sections of Tokyo and we walked along the large river bank enjoying the sights of strange looking beer breweries, funny sexually suggestive signs and awesome homeless towns.  The homeless in Japan are a fascinating rung of society unlike other homeless in other parts of the world.  Here in Japan, the destitute are not shunned by society like pesky rodents, they are simply in another sector of society.  They don’t bother people and people don’t bother them (for the most part).  They build their own little communities sometimes, a few cardboard houses in a row together in a small park fully equipped with little cut out cardboard windows, bikes, doors and even slippers outside.  Even the homeless respect and consider the inside of their homes sacred by taking off their shoes outside.  I thought was a fascinating difference that is pretty unique to Japanese society.  After buying some ice cream, seeing a pagoda and temple, and teaching Mike and Owen the traditional clap-bow-double clap bell ring, we did a little souvenir shopping and were on our way to Odiaba, a manmade island city that supposedly had some great Tokyo attractions.  

We didn’t even make it all the way to Odiaba however for lunch and stopped halfway as we succumbed to hunger pangs and looked for a place to eat while making a subway change.   We had some delicious curry soup and udon noodles, which I learned is a great combination (I cook it now at home sometimes).  

Odiaba really is a great part of Tokyo, though a little bit far from the center, it was well worth the trip.  The island has its own private subway system that connects to the public transportation that shuttles passengers around huge looping tracks, across Rainbow Bridge, and onto the island where there are tons of things to do.  Aside from the main shopping plazas along the western shore, the east side has the Tokyo Museum of Modern Technology and Innovation, the Fuji TV Building (designed in part by one of my professors at my Japanese University), and many other large and notable landmarks I did not have time to explore.  Unfortunately, when we got to our first destination of Odaiba, The Museum of Modern Technology and Innovation we found out it was closed due to a national holiday.  We were all terribly disappointed because this was where I was supposed to show the guys some decent robots and honestly, the museum looked pretty cool, even from the outside.  So we decided that we would make another trip out to Odaiba on another day so we could see the museum.  

We then walked back towards the monorail and came across a large plain rectangular building mysteriously named Venus Fort.  There was nothing but the title and it didn’t really tell us much of what would be inside.  The exterior was covered in unimpressive corrugated metal sheeting, but we decided to check it out anyway.  When we took the elevator up to the 2^nd floor we were shocked to find this…

Venus Fort Panorama

Would you ever guess that this building would house...

This 

Yes, somehow we had walked into the Cesar’s Palace of Tokyo complete with fake sky and awesome illuminated fountains and water shows.  Inside this building was a casino, normal stores on the 2^nd floor, outlet stores on the third and restaurants and smaller souvenirs on the first floor.  The stores were eccentric c and random as well as having some normal name brands sprinkled in between.  There was a store that sold stuffed animal heads mounted on headboards or a giant stuffed lion, and another that had huge life sized Barbie dolls in yes you guessed it, the Barbie store.  We hung there until Charlene came to meet us and the guys discovered the fun of giant mechanical colored machines.  I wish there was a better way to describe them, but really all they were, giant (sometimes spinning or rotating) machines that had lots of moving levers, arms, balls, lights, sounds and somehow incorporated losing money into the goal of the game.  

Connected beside the Venus Fort building was a giant Toyota Showcase Showroom that displayed some of Toyota’s newest innovations.  I saw some of the transforming single person transportation units I’d seen 4 years before in the World’s Fair in Japan as well as some new green cars and some new concept designs by Toyota.  I had found the small card in the hotel lobby before leaving for the day for a Ninja Restaurant.  I had heard about this before and thought that this was a great opportunity to try it for ourselves.  I called in and made a reservation for 9:30 but that meant we had a lot of time to kill until dinner.  So of course, we first padded our stomachs before the most expensive meal any of us had ever had with 3 dollar burgers from a fast food joint on the way after leaving the Toyota Showroom.

We then decided to go on the Ferris wheel right next to the Toyota Showroom since we passed up the chance the day before in Yokohama to ride the Ferris wheel.  We had a fun ride up to the top and took some blurry pictures from the dirty plastic Plexiglas of the carriage.  Michael made a convincing creaking sound that made Charlene think we were going to fall out of the sky to our untimely ends by tapping his finger on a metal bar without any of us noticing and playing along with the ensuing panic.  

Next we got off the ride and entered another large arcade center.  It’s an understatement to call this a large arcade.  It’s much more like a warehouse filled with random games and giant strange panda, pig and beetle scooters.  There Owen and Mike found their niche in a game which is a variation of the classic game found in America from Chuck-E-Cheeses to Dave and Busters.  The games objective is to shoot a coin towards a continually projecting and retracting metal arm that pushes coins close over the edge resulting in sometimes tickets, but in this case, just more coins.  They didn’t really know what they were doing but after a while, they started to notice patterns and started to understand how to capitalize on bonuses that gave them hundreds and thousands of coins at a time.  So after the guys won a huge jackpot and were reveling in their newfound fortune of metal coins and marveling at their own coin shooting prowess we went to find out what they had actually won in exchange for the coins.  We learned to their great disappointment that in fact the point of the game was simply to play the game.  The coins meant nothing which explained why we saw adults and children playing at the same time.  Well at least they were both really happy for a little while when they thought they had actually won money.

(The Legendary) Ninja Restaurant

The Restaurant Itself

The restaurant lives up to the name.  We had a hell of a time finding the restaurant itself even after we took a taxi and was dropped off right at the plaza where we were told it was located.  The façade of the restaurant is unostentatious and features just a small emblem and doorway.  Upon entering, we were unimpressed by the simple small dark room measuring about 6 ft x 6 ft with a single podium and a host waiting to confirm our reservations.  There seemed to be only one way into the small room, the way we had one in, but once the host had confirmed our table, he told us to wait just one moment.  He clapped his hands 3 times and a small hatch opened behind him at eye level and lo and behold a faithful ninja waitress swung out of the compartment and onto the ground landing in a classic Naruto stance.  She greeted us and walked to the solid wall to our left.  She then tapped the wall and revealed a secret door that swung open and led the way with a lantern into the dark tunnel.  We followed her into the winding corridor that changed elevations, widths, heights until we arrived at a giant gaping hole in the ground.  With nowhere to go, she said an enchanted prayer, summoned her chakra and pulled a secret switch that let down a drawn bridge and we stepped up and over the abyss.  The drawbridge closed behind us and we were in the belly of the ninja fortress.  Inside were narrow winding roads between classic looking Japanese buildings.  Everywhere were little touches of ambiance like small waterfalls, rock formations and of course ninja servers.  Everybody fit the part, stayed in character and were happy to take an embarrassing number of pictures with us.

I will split of the rest of this account into courses of the meal because it was just a better way to organize the many pictures and videos I took of the dinner.   Between the four of us: Owen, Mike, Charlene and I we decided to split the most expensive 10 course set meal on the menu which was 20,000 yen which is roughly $221+ and we each ordered a separate entrée and drinks.  This way, we would get to see the ultimate awesomeness of the best meal they had as well as get relatively fool on a student budget.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s no way of justify a meal this luxurious as a budget meal, but we really had not eaten any really expensive meals while we were in Tokyo and thought that this was an opportunity we wouldn’t get again and took it.  Sorry Mom and Dad in advance for spending such a ridiculous amount of money on this meal but look at all these pretty pictures!

The Drinks

We each ordered a special Ninja cocktail or mixed drink.  Owen and Charlene had a… Peach?  Mango? Or pineapple?  Some sort of random fruit Inspired mixed drink that was probably the best tasting of the drinks.  Mike ordered what looks like a strawberry daiquiri that was also quite good and I got a jasmine and rose with bird’s nest drink.  Yes they all look girly, but we didn’t care, we weren’t trying to impress anybody.  My drink specifically came in two parts and I added in the flower petals and bird’s nest into the champagne.  We also ordered water and accidentally forgot to specify we wanted the free tap water.  They instead brought us two bottles of VOSS water which ran us an extra 1600 yen or about 16 bucks.  They got us on that one.  >< We made sure our refills were with tap water.  

 The First Appetizer

You’ll notice that I don’t have a collage for every course of the meal.  That’s because at first, we were so excited we took hundreds of pictures of the first two courses.  Afterwards, we were just hungry and skipped the picture taking or took a lot fewer pictures.  The first appetizer however was ninja star/shuriken crackers with special spread on some sticks.  We had fun taking loads of pictures, playing with the ninja stars, being immature in general and after about 15 minutes each ate our half of our cracker.  

Charlene wasn’t sure whether or not the stick itself was eatable and took a bite.  It was just a stick, haha.

The Second Course & Owen’s Iced Sashimi

The second course is a row of sliced mangos, lobster, avocado and sashimi covered with a layer of sweet and jelly and a tangy sauce.  All the textures were complimentary and the flavors were light, playful and appetizing.  It built our appetites for the next series of entrees.  Owen’s Iced Sashimi Platter came next and it was underwhelming in portion but overwhelming in presentation.   His sashimi sat perched atop a large leaf that sat on a solid polished blog of ice that rested on a layer of crushed ice and more sashimi and the whole thing was lit up from inside and glowed a florescent blue.  

Hi There Owen

The Next Course…

was the long awaited floating fatty tuna sashimi known as toro.  This was what Owen was talking about wanting the whole time he was here and it had finally come and it couldn’t have been on a cooler plate.  The oversized bowl had dried ice on the bottom which made the leaf and the toro that sat upon it seem as if it was floating over the bowl in a foggy mist.  The toro was really truly amazingly delicious.  The marbled fat of the fish made it look more like beef than sashimi, but that’s when you know you got the real deal.

The Other Courses…

included a palette of sushi which I forgot to take a picture of before Owen massacred the salmon egg sushi.  Also, there was Mike’s lobster, Charlene’s salmon which was honestly not really anything special, sorry Charlene, special Miso Soup (I forget what was so special about it), a bowl of sharks fin soup, and foie gras on top of the most tender beef I can remember eating in a long time.  

Dessert

We ordered 4 separate desserts from the dessert menu which the waitress proceeded to incinerate and we watched at our table as the menu disappeared into thin air in a glorious flaming fireball.  The most interesting was definitely the Bonsai Tiramisu which was sweet crackers in the shape of Bonsai tree branches stuck into the soil which was delicious tiramisu.  And I forget who ordered a cup of coffee at the end which I accidentally added too much sugar into rendering it undrinkable, that was my bad.

The Dessert Menu that is No More

The Tricks

Of course I would be too late to actually catch the trick on camera, but there was one waitress who brought us our escargot with a mysterious white trail on the plate.  She then threw down a handful of powder and ignited the trail all the way to the snail shell.  

Escargo-d! She lit it on fire!

Our server near the end of the meal came and performed magic tricks personally for our table.  I’m sure this is a service they do for all their customers, but I’m just going to tell myself that they just liked our table.  The next series of magic tricks I actually caught on camera.  Enjoy the wonder.

Michael’s Invisible Purse

Follow the Stickman

This was definitely the most expensive meal we’ve all ever had.  Perhaps Owen’s had more expensive, but I think I can safely say that for the rest of us.  It was definitely an experience to be had, one that you can only get in Tokyo and I could not have been happier to share it with some of my closest friends.

Now You See It, Now You Don't - I'm Talking Both About the Ninja Waiter, and about our Money

Karaoke

After dinner, it was too late for Charlene to catch the last train so she decided to come and stay with us for the night.  But we decided that we would take a break for a night from drinking heavily seeing as how most of us could barely walk the night before and the next night would be New Years Eve, so we went karaokeing with Jess and Will.  Will showed us all up and Jessica kindly explained that he was in choir in high school and not too feel bad about our obviously inferior singing abilities.  Mike and Charlene both passed out around the 2^nd bottle of vodka and the rest of us sang the night away.  Around 5 or 6 AM, we strained out the last few notes with our now hoarse voices and began the job of waking Michael and Charlene up.  Michael was no problem but Charlene was very drunk and very feisty.  She’s not the worst drunk friend I’ve ever had to take care of, but definitely one that gave me a run for my money.  She leaned up against inflatable objects and fell in the street, talked to random businessmen, tried to talk to and hug homeless people and took every chance she got when I didn’t have both hands holding her to sprint towards absolutely nothing.  I wrangled ran after her and wrangled her long enough to get her back to our hotel room where she slept on Mike’s bed and would catch the earliest train back she could to write a paper she had due before the end of the year (which was the next night).  Thank you for giving me exercise Charlene.

Will and Jess Gettin' Their Jam On

Cute Aren't They?