Requiem, yopparaimashou & bureaucracy

(late entry, sorry) Friday was bittersweet. One of many great friends were going back to his home country, France, so we had a going-away party at a local Izakaya here in Matsudo. The bitter part was that he was leaving, the sweet part is the sheer awesomeness of that night. We (26 people from the guesthouse) had reserved a big section of the izakaya to be our domain for the evening. We all payed 1400 Yen each (80 SEK or 12 dollars) per 90-minutes to get unlimited amounts of beer, cocktails, drinks, soft drinks and sake at no additonal charge. Then there's the cheap, delicious japanese dishes which we of course also ordered from time to time =)

I love izakayas, we have absolutely NO equivalent place anywhere in Sweden. I just love the ambiance and 'closeness' of the eating and drinking experience. In izakayas, people at tables usually share the food, having only their own chopstix, soy sauce, etc, while sitting on cushins on the floor.

Anyway, after a while we all made short speeches about the guy leaving - Raphaël. You might remember him from a previous entry, he was the founding member of the Mr.PoPo cult and probably the only sane french guy here. Now when he's gone, I was tasked with the utmost privilage... I was to continue the legacy of Mr. Po Po! *Dun dun duuuun* (dramatic music cue) ...


After being in the izakaya the whole evening we went down to the river to continue the partying. Some people stopped by the 'kombini' stores to buy more beverage (mind you, at 2AM you can buy almost *anything* xD). Afterwards, we went back to the guesthouse to slow things down a little bit. Oh, and I met a cool korean singer there! She's been living in the guesthouse for quite some time but I never knew she was a musician! So the night ended with me, her and a japanese guy named Nobuo (another musician here) chatting about everything ranging from rave to old 'Hoven.

Raphaël will be missed by everyone, but this night was one great night alright! :) Okay, so on to the less exciting bureaucracy part...

Yesterday I dropped my phone somewhere. I really don't know where, because I noticed several hours after I got home that I was missing my cell. Anyway, I went to Softbank here in Matsudo, (Softbank being a japanese cell-operator) to explain my clumsiness to the clerks and ask them what to do now. They told me to wait, so I did. A few minutes later they handed me a telephone with an english-speaking woman on the other line, telling me that my phone was 700 metres from Abiko station, on a street called 我孫子に. First I thought they tried to call my cellphone in order to see if someone had stolen it, or better yet; found it and looking for its owner. But, instead this woman worked for the government, and they had *traced* my cellphone and pinpointed its exact location! To the swedish people complaining about the FRA-act: Fuck you ;P The swedish government will have the power of internet surveillance, sure, but the japanese government probably knows what my dog ate for breakfast three days ago, and consequently where the remains of the poo were dumped and buried.

Anyway, they gave me a new cellphone (a newer model!) since I didn't want to go chase after my phone on the other side of town =)

Nothing more to report for the time being, hm... Ah, I also have a few new nicknames here. My friends call me Christian or Chris, my teachers call me Kurisu-san or Kurisuchan-san, and some korean classmates call me Kuchan with a giggling suffix.

I'll try to update more frequently, but I never find the time to just sit down and write... if you have any requests about subjects, do tell.

Until then!

You know you're in Japan when...

’’　ライトがりゅうくにりんごをあげます。’’
"Raitou ga Ryuuku ni ringo wo agemasu."
"Light gives the apple to Ryuk."

’’　りゅうくはりんごが大好きですよ。’’
"Ryuuku wa ringo ga dai suki desu yo."
"Ryuk really loves apples."

’’　りゅうくは死神です。’’
"Ryuuku wa shinigami desu."
"Ryuk is a God of Death."

Yes, one of our teachers is a serious Death Notaholic. The next entry is coming up very soon, I'm currently gathering up pictures from Raphaël's going-away party last friday.

Stay tuned!

Japan rocks!

... a little too litterarly, actually. Yesterday a medium earthquake struck in north-eastern Japan, which we felt here in Tokyo as well. It's quite disturbing actually, regardless of its measure. You really come to realize how little control you have over the situation since everything around you starts shaking and moving. Seismologists worldwide claim that it takes only a 7.0 earhquake (the Indian Ocean tsunami was caused by a 9.2) to kill approximately 3 million people if it were to strike somewhere near or in Tokyo. If such an earthquake does occur (which is actually some 20-years overdue for us unlucky Tokyoites) there is simply no way that Tokyo would cope... I mean, it doesn't matter how earthquake-proof the buildings are - if the 'big one' comes, it's bye-bye. There are just too many buildings, too many subway systems and too much of... everything really.

Another blogger from Japan put it quite nicely in one of his older entries. He talked about the japanese mentality of earthquakes and stuff like that, and said that the japanese people have kind of a "buddhist" way of thinking. If it happens, it happens. Earthquakes don't target good or bad people, it kills everyone and is thus totally indiscriminating. That's why I don't really feel that safe anymore ;P It doesn't matter how many flashlights or boxes of conserved emergency food I have; if the roof comes crashing down on me it's over.

Also, you know Mt. Fuji? It's not really just a benign beautiful lump of rock and snow, it's also a quite active volcano. You can see it from my house during winter, and from any Tokyo skyscraper during the day (all year around). So yes, it's huge, since it's not really *that* near Tokyo but even I can view it (I live on the eastern side of Tokyo, while Fuji-san is on the far west from Tokyo). Anyway, Mt Fuji erupts every 300 years according to people who do this kind of stuff for a living, and.... the last eruption was, um, 298 years ago. O_____O;;,

Another thing that's kind of freaky is that some scientists believe that the entire japanese peninsula might sink into the ocean after a series of volcano eruptions following earthquakes, which then in turn would cause colossal tidal waves and tsunamis. There's a really cool japanese movie about just that; 日本沈没 (Sinking of Japan; english title) Check it out! http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=NeJ6Cftc-E8

So, all in all, the japanese peninsula is probably the worst place on Earth to found a country. Yet here I am, sitting in my tin can =]

Japan sucks

Today was supposed to be a good day. A whole bunch of people from the guesthouse were going to Shibuya for some karaoke and stuff, as well as a few korean people from my class. Here are the two main reasons why today sucked ass;

1) I lost one of my contact lenses somewhere around my room, and since they're made of like 95% water it dehydrates very quickly so even if I were to crawl around on my floor looking for the damn invisible thing, it would be in vain because when I against all odds find it; it would be destroyed already. So I spent my day with one contact lense, and here's the kicker: The eye with the contact lense absorbs light differently from my 'naked' eye, which in turn dilates my one eye more than the other. So I walked around looking like a freak with one blue eye with a small pupil and one darker blue eye with a large pupil.

2) Last time I was supposed to meet the korean girls from class, I was 30 minutes late for some reason. Tonight, I didn't want to disappoint them. Yet of course I managed to do so, but this time it really was not my fault! When we went for the station our lane was suspiciously empty. We stood and waited for the train (which has double lines going about every 5 minutes each) but we soon realized that there was something wrong. After waiting for about 15 minutes or so we found out that a FUCKING TYPHOON decided to swing by the southern Tokyo area, so it kinda wiped out some of the trainlines.

3) When we finally arrived in post-storm Shibuya it was still raining quite a lot, so naturally I lent my umbrella to the koreans who had been waiting for us for a reaaaally long time, but I couldn't explain why we were late in proper japanese. Then they stole my umbrella.

So yeah, today sucked some serious ass.

<__<

Sayounara Solitaire

Yesterday we had an honourary going-away party for Alexander, a fellow swede here. It all began with him bringing us delicious sweets from the motherland (This time though, from a japanese IKEA) which consisted of favourites like Ballerina, Estrella, Ahlgrens bilar etc. So we occupied a table in the guesthouse and gathered people from all nationalities to feast the swedish treats. All goodies were actually very well received by everone - with a notable exception - The salt liquorice...

Now this might seem weird, but japanese people are totally and utterly intolerant to salt liquourice. It's true! So far we've conducted tests with 100% positive results. Every single japanese person we've offered salt liquourice have shown extreme dislike towards it. They've all wanted to just spit it out without even swallowing it. I'll have to keep digging deeper in this matter!

Anyway, afterwards the Beijing 2008 Olympic opening ceremonies began so we all kind of camped in front of the TV for half an hour (The openings were actually some four hours long...). All seemed to be in awe of the skillfully conducted ceremony, especially the chinese girls here!

Later on we went to Shinjuku with around... thirteen people I think. Some new french girls who had just arrived tagged along as well. While the majority of people insisted on going to the gay district of Shinjuku, some of us decided to go to somewhere... straighter. Not that many of them were homosexual (two of them) but the gay district is actually not that exclusive as it sounds.

Me, Alexander, Alexandra and Malin (oh, and her newly aqcuired japanese boyfriend!) strayed towards a place called Mysterious. It was litterary like stumbling 150 years into the future! The bar was a narrow neon walk with cages both under ground, on the floor level and some elevated ones. The waitressess wore clothes resembling those of Blade Runner and StarWars, which was awesome! So we had a few beers and drinks and some complimentary snacks and decided to explore Shibuya. Oh, worth mentioning is that Alexandras drinks were blinking. Apparently the japanese can't find enough places to stick electronics into.

While in Shibuya we went to the same bar as a few weeks ago. Some of you may recall me telling about a certain bartender who was... well, in lack of a better word, crazy - and way too drunk to handle customers. Naturally we went there, and we found out that his birthday was coming up later this month, where he told us to come again and watch him play Iggy Pop! Won't miss that =)

Ah, I totally forgot! The picture in this entry is a T-shirt with kanji written on it. Loosely it translates "I want a japanese girlfriend". Although more correctly it says "I'm now accepting applications for japanese girls". This was Alexander's finale ode to Japan - to wear his T-shirt for the first time! And oh my God...

Y0u wouldn't believe how much attention it generated! Japanese girls on the train started giggling and taking pictures with their cellphones, japanese guys on the streets were going "Oooh nice!" and even some late-night homeless guys were ponting in shock! Apparently T-shirts like that are very uncommon here, while quite popular in Europe for instance. It was so funny to see women waving in delight from the other side of the station, like 50 metres away, hoping to grab his attention.

All in all, it was a good night. We got home around 7 in the morning, so I haven't had so much sleep (It's 1PM now). Today I'm going out with a few classmates again, namely korean people. Some japanese people who we met the last time are going too, so hopefully there will be lots and lots of practice for me!

Our planned scheme is fail-safe; Meet ---> Restaurant ---> Karaoke ---> Izakaya ---> Some weird place where we inevitably will end up in.

Can't go wrong.

Into the West

Today I went to Tokyo Bay with a few friends from the guesthouse. I've actually never been to the southern regions of Tokyo before so I gave it a go! The trip took almost two hours (Yes, Tokyo is bigger than the average rat hole) because we had to switch trains twice, as well as take two different boats to get there. We were going to "Odaiba" which is a fully artificial island built in the early 19th century for domestic defense. It even had a sand beach and a promenáde!

Some of you may know about "Tokyo Tower" already. It's Japan's tallest building and it's also a complete rip-off off the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It's actually taller than the "real" Eiffel Tower. The thinking behind it was some sort of post-WWII "fuck you" to the rest of the western world to symbolise Japan's economic ascendance.

The Tokyo Tower is not the only structure which is inspired by the western world. When we arrived in Odaiba we instantly saw an even more recognizable thing of the west; The Statue of Liberty. Right behind it lies the Rainbow Bridge, influenced by the Golden Gate bridge in San Fransisco. So what we have here is essentially some kind of Salvador Dali painting. No thing matching the other. An eiffel tower, a golden gate bridge, a statue of liberty and... the Fuji TV station? O__o; The Fuji TV-station is one of the strangest buildings I've seen.

Just wrong

Fuji TV headquarters. Eccentric and futuristic!

Yes... we went otaku shopping in Odaiba as well. You didn't think that only Akihabara sold otaku stuff, did you?

Death Note junk, Yay!

Looks like something from a Jules Verne novel or perhaps an underwater Batman vechicle, but no... just a Tokyo boat ;P

VIDEO

Train View + Statue of Liberty

Heaven, a.k.a, Akihabara

Followers of creationism will tell you that God created Earth in six days, resting on the seventh. That's not entirely true, because on the seventh day God created Akihabara.

I wasn't really planning on going to Akihabara today, but a sudden realization struck me when I was having breakfast this morning -- I don't have any nerdy useless video game/anime merchandise in my possession yet! Said and done, I went to Akihabara! For those of you unfamiliar with the name, it's a famous disctrict in Tokyo where you can get virtually ANY electronics regardless of size, colour, rarity, origin or purpose (and believe me, there are strange electronics made for bizarre purposes here... it is Japan after all). While most cities have long narrow market passages with fruit vendors, street kitchens and so forth, Akihabara has electronic markets. Those who apprently can't afford owning an own floor in this megapolis just do as the vendors do, open up on the street! The result is quite amazing.

Anyway, I went right for the main street to look up some otaku (lit. nerd) shops for me to browse. It bacame apparent right away that you don't really have to look for them, since "they" are huge colossal buildings that are basically everywhere. Apart from electronics, Akihabara is world-known for its otaku culture. This is *the* place to go when you want to be exposed to manga, anime, video games etc. This is also the main district of the famous 'maid cafés', which are cafes with japanese girls dressed as manga characters, "interracting" with the customers in various ways.

The first shop I visited was an 8-floor manga/anime/game shop. It's strange, nearly all shops I visited had exactly 8 floors. Most of them also had its hentai-floor on the 8th. The number 8 is a good number here in Japan. If I remember correctly it has to do with the chinese kanji which is supposed to be lucky. Anyway, the japanese like it. Hentai on the 8th... coincidence?

Photography is strictly forbidden in every shop it seems, so I had to us my cunning to get some pictures! Unfortunately, I was born with utter misfortune, so of course I was going to have trouble with the law...

I was thinking, "now here in the passage way between the floors there will be no one noticing me taking pictures. I might as well photograph the floor map and show my friends what they have on each floor!" aaaaand snap, a cop walks by the very fraction of the second in which I'm taking the god damn picture...

No harm no foul, I'm still here aren't I? Anyway, so I'm on the first floor. This section is exclusively Totoro. For those of you who don't know Totoro -- bless you. For those of you who do, well, don't spread the word because the world is not yet ready to be exposed to the weirdness of this anime. Totoro has been the major nuisance to me since I first arrived in Japan. The fact that everyone seems to love the show makes it even more annoying. The characters... oh God, the characters. They are so beyond creepy I can't begin to express my distaste for it. But you know the guy in the movie "Troy" who kissed the man who killed his son, just to be able to say that he has gone through the most impossible rite of passage? Well, I did a similiar thing (not kissing a guy though). I bought a mascot Totoro character! AAAARGH. It's sooooo creepy. But now I've truly climbed my Everest.

And voilá, here it is. Isn't it the most creepiest thing you've ever seen? It's a show for kids, what the hell! Even adult audiences would get traumatized for life just by glancing at it. Anyway... now this abomination is on my bed and I don't quite know what to do with it.

Okay, so leaving Totoro now. The floors 2 - 7 were divine! Again, it was forbidden to snap pictures but I managed to sneak off a few. One of these floors (I forget which) specialized in mecha toys. 'Mecha' is common tongue here for anything that's associated with huge robots with weapons. I mean, there were enough robots here to make my nephue Melvin stay awake for a month. Oh, and the first floor (apart from the creepy Totoro) had lots of Mickey Mouse stuff (which, in turn, would make my sister Krista sleepless for a week).

A typical mecha collector's item

When I had spent an hour or so at this otaku shop, I decided to try another one. Said and done -- I crossed the street and entered yet another 8-floor shop. Here they had more of a true otaku approach. Not much cuteness (read: weirdness) like the other shop, but more hardcore gaming/anime stuff. Of course they had a hentai floor too (8th). The first floor of this shop was retro-themed. I don't think I've ever seen so many NES games in my life, nor heard so many Super Mario sound effects simultaneously. The 5th floor housed stuff from... well, probably eve video game ever created. I actually ended up buying some Final Fantasy merchandise!

Here are the remaining pictures and videos that I shot on my adventure in Electric Town, enjoy!

It's the cactuar! From Final Fantasy! And it's mine!

This little fellow now serves as my mobile phone accessory! I'm truly becoming japanese...

Pictures of Jap-girls in synthesis

A less subtle sex shop in the iddle

Most buildings are anime-themed. Notice the (how can you miss it?) Code Geass poster -- they are everywhere in Akihabara!

No building matching the other, Tokyo in a nutshell.

Gundam floor. So many robots...

I can almost hear Sayam's warcry from the other side of the world

The clothed ones. I don't know if the general public wants to see the naked ones.

Metaru Gia

And of course the life-sized robots

Why so serious?

Still can't believe I bought this loathesome creature of the dark... I mean, this is not something sane people should find appealing!

VIDEOS

http://www.mediafire.com/?sekrufjdgtn

(Thanks David for uploading)

Meet Gregor Samsa

Today when I got home from my shopping craze (I needed shorts!) I really wanted to take a shower. Alberto stopped and warned me seconds before walking in, that there's a huge cockroach lurking inside one of the showering booths. There are over 20 shower rooms though, so my chances of picking the ill-fated one was one in twenty. Obviously with my luck I of course picked the one which housed the brown beast. Have in mind that this is not your typical roach; This little number was more like an upgraded japanese-mecha-ultimate-fighter kind of roach - the fucker could fly too!

Since I was unable to fight such a minion of the Anti-Christ I simply changed to another shower room.

Good thing is, I haven't really seen any roaches here besides this one yet. I try to keep my room free from garbage and seldom leave any food unsupervised. What I have seen here is a cat that lives around the block who resembles Hitler, but that's a story for another time.