School-night fever
30 September 2003, 14:03
Caught up with Kat (of Schoolgirl Sophistry fame) last night in Shinjuku.
As well as having excellent taste in Blogger templates, Kat’s gorgeous and one uber-cool chick (and not surprisingly, totally overwhelmed by Tokyo - just wait til we get her into a karaoke booth - that will change!). In the last couple of months I’ve caught up with two people who I’ve “met” through their websites - Kat and Martine. When you read a stranger’s blog, you get an image of what they’d be like in person, and I must say that both of them have been pretty much just as I expected . Except better looking.
When people put the words “stranger” and “internet” together, they usually get visions of Single White Female or the shower scene in Psycho, but so far, the internet has been very kind to me indeed. As Kat said to some worried colleagues today (or words to this effect), “Look, we’re meeting at Shinjuku station in a very public place - if Kim has been masquerading as a man this whole time, I think I should be safe.”
Permanent Link | Official Defeat
30 September 2003, 04:21
(and a side trip to Meiji Jingu)
Japan is, now, officially impossible. I searched high and low for my coveted DVDs but nothing. zip. nada. No subtitles anywhere to be found. Luckily my trusty sources have lead me to the mecca that is ebay, but I’m still miffed that I can’t buy internationally released Japanese films in Japan.
After my fruitless search, the yellow brick road lead me to Meiji Jingu in Harajuku. Meiji Jingu is probably one of the biggest “touristy” attractions in Tokyo, probably because large-scale urban shrines are a bit of a rarity.
However, I’ve been here a few times now and although its aesthetically pleasing and there are lots of cute monks and miko (shrine maidens) pottering about (I quite fancy their orange wrap-around skirts, wot), I find Meiji Jingu a bit, I don’t know, empty and unsatisfying. Don’t ask me why.
Upside down, inside out and round and round
29 September 2003, 19:36
As a foreigner in paradise, some days my whole little idyllic whole world seems all back-to-front and topsy-turvy (good reason to stay drunk, I suppose):
1. Books and writing
An obvious one, but worth a mention - Japanese writing is vertical and read from right to left. Likewise, books, magazines and manga porn are read from what we know as the back. Luckily this is how I read magazines anyway. It’s just the actual content I can’t read.
2. House doors
In Australia, our front doors open inwards. In Japan, the opposite is true; they open outwards. I recently found out that this is because an inward opening door would take out the delicate piles of shoes cluttering the entrance.
3. Toilet doors
Likewise, when you posit yourself in a toilet cubicle, we lock the door by twisting it into a vertical possie. A horizontal lock signifies an unlocked door. In Japan, the opposite is true (most of the time). I’ve had a few fillies accidentally walk in on me in a sake-f#$%ed stupor when I’ve forgotten which way is up (only discovered once my face hits the tiled floor).
4. Seibu and Tobu Department stores in Ikebukuro
Not cultural at all, but a pearler. The kanji for “Seibu” means West Style, the kanji for “Tobu” means East Style. Which would explain of course why Seibu is located at the east exit and Tobu located at the west exit of Ikebukuro station. Ah, the confusion!
Nightmare Corner
26 September 2003, 11:14
Warning: if you pulverise at the sight of “innocent” children with translucent whites for eyes or slouching, staccato-gaited dead chicks with white face paint and Kate Bush hair, don’t watch the following trailers…
Juon - The Grudge
Juon - The Grudge 2
Ringu
Voice (interestingly, distributed by “Toilet Pictures”)
Happy pant-wetting!
Singin' the Capitalist Blues
25 September 2003, 08:24
When people bitch and moan that Tokyo is sooooo expensive I will usually argue with them (and no, it’s not because I just like to argue…). If you know where to look and don’t succumb to the “must have brand labels at any cost” mentality, you can get away in Tokyo for a song (so long as its not Britney Spears, which can cost you a hell of a lot in this town, and I’m not talking money).
The exception to this is transport, a necessary evil that you can’t avoid and can’t shop around for. This became grossly apparent to us yesterday when we went for a day trip to Chichibu, the closest National Park to Tokyo.
We wanted to go up to the Mitsumine Shrine Complex and the cheapest way to get there (three trains, a bus and the cable car) takes 2 and a half hours from Ikebukuro and costs 3600 yen - thats about $A50 my friends, ONE WAY. As it turned out, when we got to Mitsumineguchi, Matt and I pooled our collective resources, and discovered we only had 3,000 yen between us. Ah, it felt like old times when we were poor and eating ramen off an upturned cardboard box…
We couldn’t afford the trip up to the Shrine complex so we just traipsed around Chichibu, quite a beautiful, but melancholy little farming and mountain community. We only spent about 4 hours there, but it whetted our appetite for the 2 day hike which starts just past the shrine complex and continues down to Oku-Tama.
Next time, we’ll remember to bring the piggie bank.
