Clubbing and Theme Parks

One of Cam’s uni friends, Diana, had come for a visit to Tokyo for a few days, so we all met up and went to UNIT in Daikanyama to see Sophi’s favourite DJ, High Contrast. We prepared ourselves for a night of banging drum n bass and we were definitely not let down. It had been a while between club nights for us, and our stamina proved to surprise us, with both of us dancing front and centre till the very end. We had to work the next morning, so by 5am when everyone wanted to kick on at an izakaya, we sadly had to call it a night.

Work the next day was extremely painful, our jobs involve talking one on one to people for 40mins at a time, and about 10 times a day. So, having had only a couple of hours sleep, and being really really hungover, is not a good combination.

Still feeling the effects of the weekend, we had organised to meet Chris Midlam’s brothers while they were in Tokyo for dinner and drinks. We took them to Shabu Shabu, and convinced them (they were reluctant) to have a karaoke session (very Japanese). We sang the standard songs, and the beer flowed like it always does. Quite a tame session really, but it was good to hang out with some Aussies again.

On Thurday we took the day off, and went to Tokyo Dome City. Tokyo Dome is the home ground for the baseball team, Tokyo Giants. Surrounding the stadium there is a shopping complex that is filled with rides and roller coasters. Cam stood up to his fear of roller coasters and thoroughly enjoyed the freefalling. It was a bit cold to go on some of the other rides, and most of them looked pretty crap anyway. We took a ride in the ferris wheel, but the view around Tokyo Dome is nothing special. We found a little café, and in the café everyone was sitting at their tables, and in one of the chairs there was a big soft toy having lunch with them. Weird. We later found out that this character is from Finland, and is hugely famous in Japan.

Weird Japanese Shit!

More Drunken Frivolity

Another of Sophis students, Haruhisa, wanted to meet up for dinner for some English conversation, so we met him and his friend at an Izakaya in Shibuya. Haruhisa works for UFJ bank as an international something or rather. He bought his friend who had lived in Australia for some years. It was a good meal….even with the experimentation of eating beef intestine….definitely not one for Sophi’s taste buds! Lots of drinks later and feeling rather boozed we said sayonara to our drunk and wobbly Japanese friend.

Then across the road outside 109 we reunited with Kumiko!! This first time we’d see her since she got back from Australia. Was sooooo good to see her!! We joined Kumi who was with Hana and Hanas work friends. We went to another izakaya …. some where in Shibuya (a bit blurry). The izakaya was nice and there were some amusing Japanese characters there. The most amusing of all is the fact that one of them kept saying that 2 of the guys there were ‘typical’ sexy Japanese men. Really doesn’t work for Sophi! Just a very different look!

Sexy?

Sexy!

Sexier!

Sexiest?

As a usual happening of late Cam of course passed out and Sophi guided him to a cab.

We joined at Takakos house for dinner to catch p with Kumi. Takako lives in a year old apartment (NB: Japanese apartment), it’s cute and new! A typical tiny Japanese kitchen, bedroom/lounge room. On this night we were aquianted with the gorgeous Totoro!! We had see him in the cartoon Ghibli movie “My Neighbour Totoro”. SO adorable!! The feast and lots of umechoo (the new favourite drink - potent plum wine) went down all to well, and we ended the night at 2am.

Mini playland and Kooky ice-creams!!

The next day we headed to Ikebukuro. On the other side of the city circle. We went to Sunshine city, which is meant to be greaqt for shopping etc. The most interesting thing in this building was Namba land! How crazy and soooo Japanese!

Everyone was running around with some gadgets playing some game, unfortunately we couldn’t play as it was all in Japanese. It was seriously like being in a mini Disney fun land…. Except it was on the top 2 floors of a shopping centre!

We also finally accounted with the famed ice-cream that we had heard so many rumours about. The ice cream of so many different and strange flavours, like curry and prawn!!

Sweet Heart Day

For Valentines Day a few days later, we headed to a new izakaya in Shibuya. On the other side of the tracks it wasn’t that different to any other izakaya. We had a set Valentines course which consisted of several small courses. Very Japanese style and size!

Kabuki and Lego

A week later we decided to hit up Ginza on our day off for some cultural sightseeing. This time we decided to check out the Kabuki theatre (one of Japan traditional type of theatre). As it is quite slow to watch (I’m sure if you get a very theatrical one with awesome costumes it would be much more entertaining) we only stayed for a little less than one scene. The advantage with this is that you can just pay to see one scene. Sophi would’ve happily sat there and watched the whole thing, but Cam was getting a little restless and it was soooo damn hot in there!!

Next stop was a gallery space in top of one of Shibuyas department stores. The Lego exhibition: ‘Piece of Peace’ – World Heritage Exhibit with Lego.

As gay as it sounds straight off the bat, it was actually great. There were huge Lego statues of famous landmarks from around the world. Amazing, the magnitude of each sculpture and the detail that was caught in each one.

Skiing with a panda

FEBRUARY WEEK 1:

February started in the best possible way. Still being a little disappointed that we didn’t manage to go skiing over the New Year period, we accepted an invitation from Eri to go skiing in Naeba, Niigata. It is actually the exact same place that we went to for Fuji Rock Festival last year.

Sophi hadn’t snowboarded for 9 years and Cam hadn’t been on the skis since 2002 (very briefly), so the excitement level was sky high. There was quite a large group of us; us, Eri, Andrew, Hana, Sebastian and his friend, and one of Eri’s high school friends.

The weather forecast had looked promising in Niigata, with snow expected up until the weekend, and the temperature in Tokyo was definitely cold. We left Tokyo quite late, and hence didn’t arrive in Niigata till about 2 or 3 in the morning after stopping off at Eri’s parents place in Saitama to get the car. We had a few welcoming beers at Eri’s house and packed it in for the night, everyone sleeping basically in the same room on futon mattresses.

The plan to be up and out of the house by 8.30 didn’t really eventuate with everyone being quite sleepy from the late night, but we did make it onto the mountain by about 11.30am. Sophi’s 9 year hiatus from the sport showed from the opening minute on the snowboard, so the rest of the guys headed off while we stayed on the beginners slopes. Sophi valiantly kept at it over the day and by the end of it, was managing to float down the mountain like a leaf falling to the ground in the wind, of course with the occasional face-plant or stack. Although it was cold, you couldn’t really notice once you got on the mountain, and the conditions for skiing were awesome. We have both only ever skied in Australia so the experience to ski in Japan was amazing.

Skiing in Japan has a very different feel to it than skiing in Australia. Instead of skiing all day and then drinking all night, the trip consisted of skiing all day and then going back to the apartment and taking a hot spring bath, and getting to bed at quite a reasonable hour.

UENO ZOO

Later that we week, we looked at the next thing on our “to do list” and decided on Ueno Zoo. It is the oldest zoo in Japan, and it shows. With an entrance fee of only 600yen, it is easy to see why some of the enclosures are as run down and small as they are. Oldness aside, it is quite a good zoo, with a good variety of animals to see. Visiting Ueno Zoo really makes you realise how good Taronga Zoo is.

It was cool to see a panda, which is the main attraction at the zoo, but unfortunately he was in a tiny little room, just sitting in a hollowed out section, looking very depressed.

The polar bears were probably the unhealthiest looking of all the animals; they just continually walked from one side of the enclosure to the other like some perpetual motion.

The most impressive animals were the flamingos, and the giant tortoise, which was 78 years old.

Around Ueno, there is an enormous market/shopping area. We strolled around but nothing really took our fancy.