Ok, first things first: I now have a flickr account, so selected photos from the trip (including ones I'll refer to here) are over there [link]

So, what can I say about Tokyo? The short version: it rocks, I want to move there. For the slightly longer version, read on.

JetScared

I should first say that the only reason we, and by "we" I mean Matt, and myself, took the trip was that Jetstar had a sale on and we got cheap tickets, and it wasn't particularly well planned at all. What was concerning me more though was the prospect of being stuck on a Jetstar plane for nine hours solid. On the way over it was alright, we were excited, I did some sketcing and finally got around to watching "The Boat that Rocked". Seriously, I need Bill Nighty's entire wardrobe from that film. Less awesome were the loud, drunk snowboarders and "Tom" who spent most of the flight vomiting in the loo behind us.

A not insignificant amount of the flight was also spent wondering who the girl trying to suss out my sketchpad from across the isle was... which is how we met Hannah [link]

Landed at Narita airport and decided to catch the limo-bus (almost as cheap as the train, and less likely to get us lost) to Akasaka where we had accomodation booked... in the line for which we met Steve, from Rockhampton, who was also in the country to make the otaku pilgrimage.

We seemed to be making a habit of picking up random Australians around the place.

Accomodation was at Akasaka Weekly Mansions [link] I'd happily reccomend them to anyone staying in Tokyo for an extended period. Ok, so it's not the fanciest digs in town [link] . If I was being kind I'd say it had a sort of mid-century charm... if I wasn't I'd say it was a little run down and appeared to have been made by knocking the wall down between two small units (seriously, we had two kitchenettes and two doors... one of which had been expertly sealed with gaff). However the area it was in is AWESOME. It's a business district (about 10 mins walk from the Hie Shrine [link] ) and so is full of bars, places to eat, convenience stores and supermarkets. There's also an CitiBank close by with international ATMs (not all Japanese ATMs take foreign issue cards... even if they state they take Cirrus and so forth)... and the b-flat jazz club directly across the road. Sadly we never made it to the latter, but will next time. Yes, there will definately be a NEXT TIME.

The first day we'd set aside to scout the local area, pick up any warm clothes we needed and learn the metro system.

Tokyo's railway/metro system is possibly the most user-friendly public transport system I know of. The longest we waited for a train was 10 minutes and that was because there was a de-railment further up the line and we'd just missed the last train.

So, first stop... Ginza. First full day in Tokyo and what do I see? Emma Watson advertising Burberry [link] I have no issue as I like both. However clothes shopping turned out to be a futile exercise as the weather for the week was bloody lovely. Probs averaged around 12C, which was comfortable in what we brought. It did however signal our first encounter with Uniqlo [link] and Muji (mmm, homewares)... both of which would become recurring themes.

We also had our first encounter with a store-bought Bento box. Well, Smash and I did... Matt had aquired a minor bout of food poisoning courtesy a Jetstar pie. It we got the last two on the flight, all three of us wanted them so I did the noble thing and said the others could have the pies... and was handed free Wiess bars for my trouble. So a) I got free icecream and b) I didn't get sick, karma huh?


Ghibli and Prison

Day two, we were booked into the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka [link] but first we needed coffee, none of us functions without coffee... particularly Matt. So begun our initiation into Japanese coffee. Maybe we weren't looking hard enough but we just could not find a good one. Every damn shot seemed to have those nasty push-button machines rather than a proper espresso machine. Even harder was finding a shop with one that knew how to use it.

"Living in Tokyo, Business plan A" - open an Australian (Melbourne?) style cafe.

Ghibli was fantastic, well worth the effort and money to aquire tickets and the surrounding Mitaka area is beautiful. It very much reminded me of some places in England, except that no-one tried to mug me. Also, things I didn't expect to see in Japan: Citroen 2CV [link]

That night we were invited by Hannah and her friend to "Lockdown" a prison-themed restraunt in Shibuya. A significant portion of the preceeding time was used taking photos of Shibuya crossing [link] which is more than a little spectacular, the phrase "tides of humanity" comes to mind. Lockdown was an experience to say the least. First thing that happened? I got handcuffed to Hannah by a waitress in a VERY short police uniform... then they lit my meal on fire. That was cool to watch and also good because Smash, who didn't have his food lit on fire... got food poisoning.

Anyone noticing a recurring theme here?

That said: great night, sadly it closed early as we had to race back to the station before the trains stopped.


Here's Watching You

We'd only got a glimpse of Shibuya that night, so the next day we headed straight back there, to look around further before heading up to Shinjuku. This first led to a measured attack on Uniqlo. I wound up doing a fair bit of clothes shopping in Japan as it seems their sizings fit me better. Shibuya was awesome, but Shinjuku [link] we loved. We would wind up back there before the trip was over. Places in Shinjuku we stopped:

The "Awesome shop of awesome" [link] from where I wound up with a tie and tie-clip... and later on a Bill Nighty style velvet jacket.

Isetan - Seriously, SEVEN LEVELS of mensware that makes David Jones look like Target (walk in and the first thing I see? YSL jacket).

"Living in Tokyo, Business plan B" - open high end designer fashion outlet with own lable: wear the stock.

WATCH - Anything called "Watch" Matt and myself will be magnetically drawn to, this was not exception. Like a lot of Japanese stores it seemed to be vertically stacked with cheaper and "Designer" (Armani etc... non-watch makers making watches) brands on the lower floors, and going up in price the higher you went, culminating on the top floor with things like Rolex, Panerai, Audemars Piguet and Patek Phillip. It also notebly held there second hand watches... which included a vintage IWC Ocean 2000. I could have bought it, if I bankrupted myself, which was a tempting proposition. If it'd been the de-magnetised naval version I would have.

In that shop we also found watches by Furbo Design, which floored me. Someone had managed to make an automatic movement watch, with small seconds, date indicator, powerlevel indicator and display back, for under AU$100... so I promptly bought it out of curiosity. On closer inspection it does show the marks of it's price point. The saphire, well frankly, isn't, the winding weight doesn't move smoothly and I can only see a total of one jewel in the movement. More tellingly though from a manufacturing perspective, the "sharp" edges of the case are rounded off so I'd guess it's been die-cast rather than machined... just to name a few. Still, at that price point: excellent value.

The next day we had intended to go to Akiba for a geek-out, but it poured rain so we decided to find an indoors pursuit instead.

Cue Odaiba Island, out across the Rainbow Bridge by monorail and to the Toyota display. I also got a chance to try out the awesome umbrella I found at loft. It looks like a wine bottle and seals up so that you can put it in your bag without soaking everything.

The Toyota showroom itself was pretty impressive: a few concept vehicles, a display on Hybrids, Driving simulators and the cars which drove themselves around a track (eeriest feeling ever). However the major attraction was the Toyota History Museum. The first thing that greets you on the way in is a Dihatsu van and a Messerschmitt KR200 bubble car. Always kinda wanted one of those... now I REALLY want one. Inside were two Elans, Ferraris, Fiat, Porsche, Citroen, the restoration garage, F1 cars... and the best coffee we found in Tokyo [link] (GSG fans should get a laugh at the cafe name).

The day we finished at Miraika (the science centre effectively) where we were introduced to the internet [link] as well as the ultimate world domination accessory [link]


Otaku Paradise

The day in Akihabra I spent between two warring emotions. The Geek side had apparently died and gone to heaven... the Designer side was horrified. Completely and utterly horrified. It was also the day that I probs blew the most money as the whole day turned into a blur of electronics and anime stores.

Best bit about that day? I managed to complete my collection of Monthly Undine, with first-release copies no less. Also got hold of the GSG Henrietta Pinky:st character. Both these things I'd pretty much given up on aquiring as both give hen's teeth and rockinghorse shit a run for their money in the rarity stakes. In fact it was a big Kozue Amano day as added the list were the two volumes of her original short stories, the ARIA the Origination OST and the Cielo artbook. Also in there was the artbook for Kino's Beautiful World, which is just gorgeous. That one's doubly cool as Kino's bike is a Brough Superior SS100.

Needless to say the geek won that round.

The other big kicker that we found in Akiba (and Hannah's mob found this one too): the 5 story Nintendo store. Everything you could ever want from Famicon to gameboy to gameboy virtual, DS, Wii, Gamecube... you name it, it was there. AU$40 Famicons were very tempting indeed.

Ditched gear at Akasaka then headed for Tokyo tower... what a sight. The thing that struck me about the view was this: it's all buildings. As as far as the eye can see, just buildings, tall ones, no just suburbs. Coming from Brisbane (which is probably smaller than Shinjuku is) that's a little overawing.

Did I mention that by this stage we seemed to have been adopted by the local ramen joint? We'd been adopted by the local ramen joint, which suited us just fine. Great food, cheap and less than 5 minutes walk from the unit.


Saber in Ueno

Having spent a lot of time in city and shopping districts it seemed like a good plan to see a quieter end of Tokyo again, so we headed for Ueno and the park [link] there. The atmosphere there was great. The place was busy, but not crowded so it was relaxing but still felt lively (if that makes sense). Hard to explain, it felt a little bit like this [link] ... which probably actually makes less sense but hey, I tried.

Actually, that's another thing I found about Tokyo, particularly Ginza... it's all busy, but quiet. Sure there's the usual city sounds, but all the people sounds seemed to be absent. Everyone's quiet and polite, I loved it. Also no matter how busy it was it rarely felt like people were actually in your way, none of the dodging and weaving you have to do elsewhere...

...except in the market near the park we visited. There I kept getting cut up by little old ladies. There was also a games arcade. Now if Matt and I are magnetically drawn to watch shops, the same could be said for Smash and games arcades. Luckily, in there, besides "Elevator Death Parade" (which takes the award for "best game title ever") was "Fate Ultimate Alliance"... which gave me a good excuse to kick Smash's arse up between his ears with Saber Lilly (or at least Saber in white).

Honestly, by this stage after days spent walking we were all pretty rooted, so flaking for the evening seemed like a good idea. We did however manage to find a good "Japanese BBQ" place, which served us excellent shashimi (raw meat), which oddly enough, despite being raw didn't give anyone food poisoning. Most expensive meal we had, but definately the best too...

...next time we're taking Gourmet Traveller or the Michelin guide to Tokyo.

"Living in Tokyo, Business plan C" - become overseas gourmet food writer.


Final Daze and Riot Police

The last full day we had was spent re-visiting places we wanted too and buying things we initially weren't too sure we had the cash for... like fur-lined Cons for Matt.

Also managed to confuse I think an entire floor of Isetan trying to buy Mum's Christmas present. We'd been getting by on minimal Japanese, apologies and pointing... none of which were sufficient to buy an item that needed to be retrived from a storeroom. Grabbed a store assistant and pointed at what I wanted saying "doozo" as I did so. To which he motioned to stay where I was and ran off. Had no idea if he'd gone to get help or to get the item I wanted. Two minutes later one of the floor girls came over, was she being helpful or had the other bloke sent her? This question... I totally failed to explain, her English was only marginally better than my Japanese (not difficult to be honest), so she got her friend, who got another bloke... both of whom I also proceeded to confuse By which stage I figured the first assistant wasn't coming back so I returned to the original request. Long story short, I got what I wanted, everyone had a good laugh at our inability to understand each other and there were happy, genuine grins at the end so I notched it up as win... I think.

The final half day we spent just around the Akasaka area... and the Riot Police [link] were out in force around Hie Shrine and up the main drag. Edgy, armored, road-block manning, hitting-stick wielding riot Police. I've no idea why, though I'd hazard a guess it was something to do with the loud angry people driving around in vans shouting at the world in general (if anyone can shed some light?). Either way it didn't seem to be worrying the locals [link] so we stood around and rubber-necked with them. Well, Smash and I did, Matt ran away.

Our flight back was due out at 2030h, so we made tracks for the airport... litterally, where I disposed of the last of my Yen at the duty free buying a decent Congnac. Flight back, not so hot... but I've already complained about that.


Other observations on Tokyo?

Yes, I like it, yes I want to go back. I love the Japanese approach to bikes too. Here bikes are these things that lycra-clad-loons fly around on being a social nusiance. Japanese bike are commuter tools, move at a sociable pace, are ridden in normal clothes and a cool and retro. No ringing bells, cyclists just find their way around people. Oh, and no helmets... this I think is a brilliant idea. If you want to make more people take the green transport option you have to make it easy, make it as easy as walking. As soon as you have to do something out of ordinary (like wear a helmet or squeeze into lycra) cycling stops becoming a way to commute.

Besides, helmets mess up your hair.


There is probs more I wanted to write, but I can't think of it now. Please take some time to have a browse through the flickr stream [link] and let me know what you think... besides, photos can probably say a lot more than me writing can... a picture's worth a thousand words right?

Back from Japan, it was awesome... Jetstar however was less so, what with the four kids behind us screaming and kicking the seat.

Will write a proper entry once I've a) sorted all my photos and b) slept enough so that two and two start to equal something approximating to four again.

It's also going to take me awhile to sift through all the messages, journals and deviations that've arrived in my absence, bare with me.

In the meantime, have awesome Japanese Jazz ---> [link]

EDIT: fly out tomorrow, see you all in a week or so

Travel planning, Wes style: Earlier last semester "Jetstar's having a sale, LETS GO TO JAPAN!"

Flights booked, accomodation organised... at which point we promptly forgot all about it in order to focus on uni.

With uni over for the year it's now finally sunk in that, in just over a week I'll be sitting on a plane to Tokyo with Matt and Smash and... well to he honest I've done bugger all toward organising anything. Beyond the important stuff (passports, travel insurance) there's been very little thought put toward what we'll actually be doing.

We'll be staying in Akasaka, which is apparently a fairly business-focused area... which at least has the upside of presenting a selection of cocktail lounges, eating options and a Jazz lounge. It also seems to be central to the major areas of Tokyo that we're interested in.

So on the list of things to do so far (and a badly planned list it is too):

- Ghibli museum... this at least is booked and arranged.
- Akiba... mandatory pilgrimage to geek-central.
- Meguro... because it looks like Tokyo's version of West End/the designery end of Fortitude Valley.
- Odaiba... because the nice Japanese lady at the watch shop said it was worth checking out
- I also intend to find the Fred Perry and Blancpain stores... for laughs

Notably the first day is probably going to be spent clothes shopping because, well... it's summer here and winter there, which means that finding non-tourist winter clothes here, right now, is somewhat difficult. If anyone else has suggestions of stuff to do, things to see, places to eat/drink, handy Tokyo tips then I'd love to hear them. Note: none of us feel like having a rushed holiday... as we're only there for a week we'll not be trying to leave Tokyo.


In other news: The Jezabel's latest EP "She's So Hard" rocked up in the mail yesterday, pretty good as far as I can tell, not sure if it's better than "The Man is Dead" yet, give me a week.


Also I joined the darkside and now have an iPhone.

Quick shoutout to say: those in the Brisbane area, with nothing better to do tomorrow (Thursday) night at about 7pm, should come along to our Industrial Design end of year exhibition "opening" night.... opening defined as "been open since tuesday but everyone will finally have their shit together tomorrow".

It's at 13 Karuilpa Street, West End.

Otherwise it's also open to the public upto and including saturday, from 10am till 3pm.

Lemme know if you're interested.

Sorry for the short notice, my net's been out since monday... and now back to fighting with this Camtasia thing.

So, if someone gave me a million dollars, or if I won the lottery, or for some other unknown reason came into significant amounts of money for not apparent reason... what car would I buy?

A Caterham 7? Perhapse a Morgan... or maybe a Zonda?

or would I persue my dream car and buy a Stratos?

Well, I think this may be a shock to a lot of people who know me, but it'd probably be an Audi. Not even an R8... but an A4, an Allroad quattro estate, in diesel. Why? Because sometimes, generally when I'm tired, or need to drive a long way, or am going somewhere requireing ground clearance, then a practical car with all the modcons, leather seats and air-con looks horribly attractive.

Now don't get me wrong, 80% of the time the Alfetta suits me down to the ground. It's interesting, esciting, I love it and am unlikely to give it up anytime soon; and it does all the things I just mentioned quite competently. If I'm knackerd it'll do most things I ask for driving wise in fourth, cruises comfortably and (now that it's had the proper size tyres fitted) has more ground clearance than you'd credit it with, but there's always a raw edge. There's always that knowledge that this is a car you own because you love it, not because it's what you actually need. Usually this emotional attachment is something I'm more than happy with. However in those times where the little part of my brain that just wishes the world would fuck off and leave it the hell alone gets a louder voice that raw edge is just a little too raw.

Sometimes you just want to sink into a leather seat, put life in drive and get home without having to think too hard about it.

Which I guess is where the distinction starts to be made as to what we want, what we really want and what we actually need. To put a different spin on it: if you asked me what I wished my life was like, the first answer would probably involve guns, fast cars, beautiful women and giant deathrays on the moon. However, if I thought a bit harder about it the answer would probably change course to a busy but interesting design job that had be bouncing between continents: London one week, New York the next, Milan, Tokyo, Melbourne... however, if I then thought about what I really would NEED, then it'd be a steady, intersting job and a comfy place to live... which when you think about it is sort of the down to earth version of "REALLY want".

Umm, I was going somewhere with this, totally by accident, but going somewhere... now where was...

Oh. yeah.

I guess in some ways this decides what things become classics, what goes to landfill and what become quirks in history. Those things that are likely to become actual classics and live on probably fill the "really want" area. There are of course things that move between areas. Something utilitarian can have an emotional attachment formed to it, causing the owner to spend more money on it than it's worth. Or somthing in the "really want" category can go to landfill if it no-longer suits the buyer's taste. Or something in the just plain want sector can be held onto because people get used to it or it's picked up by the mass media (look, the 80's came back and thoser were atrocious). I still think though the original theory holds at least some water. I mean, I could buy that super-glitzy chandelier that looks oh so good in the showroom, and I might like like it for the first month... however I can gaurentee that after that it'll piss me off. What I really needed was a lamp from Kmart, but it'll break eventually and I'd never bother fixing it. What I really wanted was and Arco lamp...

...or possibly an Alfetta.


Sorry to have rambled, that was a car thing that got out of hand. Have a time-waster game as compensation ---> [link] Sent to me by one of our uni tutors who also notably has a blog ---> [link]


Oh, and what brought that whole thing on? It's end of semester, I'm tired and kinda wish the whole world would just go away.