a few minutes of shut-eye

It was so hot out today, in the end I went and sat in the shade by the river with all the Japanese pensioners. I think it may be because it’s Silver Week here in Japan, but the crowd around the shopping district was monstrous. I could barely stop and look at anything without creating a cluster fuck of people trying to walk with the flow of other people. Everyone just moving along in a semi-orderly fashion. Didn’t get any shopping done.

So besides sleeping for an hour at a really nice tranquil place, all I did was look around and try a few drinks from the vending machines.

I have absolutely no idea what this Fanta Charge is supposed to be, but there was an image of an orange shaking it furiously on the cover, so I did that. When I opened it and tried to drink it there was a little liquid and inside that a whole lot of slime. I don’t think it had gone bad, I think it was supposed to be that way, or I didn’t shake it enough or something, and the liquid tasted pretty good but the slime was horrendous. Took me half a bottle of water to get the taste out. I’m looking forward to that one coming out in a language I understand.

shake it like a polaroid

Mmm, sweat.

no stepping!

Pocari Sweat needs no introduction. Everyone that has ever read anything about Japan has heard of this one. Not bad either. It’s an ion drink, according to the packing. Tastes like an unflavoured sports drink, nothing else. Gets rid of thirst, so that’s good.

Asakusa is riddled with “Non-step” busses. I’m not sure what the difference is between non-step busses and regular ones, but I muse on the step-bus rather than the non-step bus. I’m sure it’s a creature from some legend.

Oh yeah, and rikshaws. Loads of rikshaws. See the guy out in the left corner of that picture?

Rikshaw nation

loitering is allowed

This guy right here. As far as I can tell, he is employed to enforce moral ethics. Specifically two laws are his to govern; “No bicycles” (I have yet to understand this one since they almost hit him with their bikes. I think you’re not allowed to lock your bike around his ankle.) and the “Don’t smoke while walking.” rule. This is a broadly enforced rule around here it seems. Supposedly you can only smoke around the designated smoking areas, but presumably because of the lack of any kind of numbers of these afforementioned places, you’re just told to smoke standing still.

My loitering didn’t seem to be a problem though.

Pods for travelers

For my first two days I’ve been living at a pod-hotel. It’s long enough for me to fully stretch out if I lay with my head in one corner and my feet in the opposite corner. I’m 185cm. But it’s cheap. 3000 yen a night is hard to beat. This really wouldn’t be a bad idea for any country. I don’t see why any kind of culture would be a hindrance. This place is loaded with foreigners, especially back packers on a limited budget.

~ I want it so bad, and I’m never gonna get it

Got on the flight for Japan and ended up next to what were probably the only other two swedes on the plane. I wasn’t planning on relying on people that knew a language I could speak, but to be fair, I’m pretty happy I did hook up with them as we just spent a pretty great night in Tokyo with their friends and I got myself some cheap accomodation in a pod-hotel in Asakusa.

obviously shit didn’t go down without problems. The hotel rented my room to some other guy while I was out getting drunk and after much misunderstanding I got a different one and I got my stuff back from the old locker.

nice streets.

I didn’t quite understand the fact that English is almost worthless here until I got here. I’m in Tokyo, so I’d think people would understand enough to get me by, but more often than not, being able to say even one or two words in Japanese has had to pull me by. I mean I’ve heard it said, but speaking to Japanese people online I thought it was an exaggeration. It really isn’t. Body language and guessing is going to have to get me far.

Daniele the Italian and Cyrus the Serbian (or something) were the other two swedes and they introduced me to their swedish friends in Asakusa. Together the five of us got denied entry to atleast 4 places, claiming to be closing, that were still open when we walked past on the way back. We weren’t rowdy or caused any trouble to the place that in the end wanted us to take a seat, but I get it. This sort of racism is sort of understandable. Maybe it’s more common than not that a band of 5 foreigners causes trouble. It’s really just a business decision to not let us in. The Japanese customers may leave, robbing them of business. I can’t really blame them for that.

The boy's back

We checked out some of the sights. A temple that was closed and a few pachinko parlours. Crazy places. People frequenting them must have serious damage to their hearing. They were loud.

Daniele won like 5 times his bet by being clueless at an arcade, hitting buttons at random, until we realised, after 15 minutes of trying to talk to the assistant, that the coins could not be exchanged for money.

the future boys

We also hit a karaoke-place for massive fun and screaming.

After all this we went to the hotel bath, had a wonderful bath, followed by a relaxing time in the sauna and then we took the balcony on the 9th floor, airdrying in the  nude, with a beer each. Probably one of the most manly moments of my life.

robe from the hotel

This little thing amused Daniele to no end. It was the cutest little toy ever, tied to a pole outside a combini-store, tirelessly walking around in circles, its only motivation being the unspoken promise that one day he would get to his destination. (that and 4 Alcaline tripple A batteries)

~Here come the future boys!