Tourism is a Dancer

Posted on 29/09/2014 by Luke

Today I wake up to find that the hostel has been decorated with ‘Happy Halloween’ signs, spooky spiders, and multicoloured pumpkins and bats. Thinking the staff might have got the date wrong, I ask, “You do realise that Halloween isn’t for another month?”
The reply from the receptionists, “We know, but it looks so cute!” Fair enough.

I take two different trains to Koto, to the Tokyo International Exhibition Centre, nicknamed ‘Tokyo Big Sight.’ Today is an event oddly called ‘Japan Travel and Tourism Association Tourism EXPO Japan.’ The annual event is to increase awareness of tourism in Japan and to promote different countries and cultures from around the world. The exhibition centre is massive, looks like a spaceship, and is about to take off.

Tokyo Big Sight opened up in 1996, and will be the main broadcasting centre for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. The area outside is flourishing with well kept plants, perfectly cut lawns, benches, art pieces, and sculptures. The area inside contains an eight-storey conference tower, the East Exhibition Halls, and the West Exhibition Halls.

Today I head to the East Halls, six in total but merged to form two massive halls for the event today. Inside I am greeted by megaphones and mega queues. I arrive just after 1 p.m., queue for half an hour, before paying ¥1300 entry fee. I begin my tourism journey in East Hall One.

The exhibition includes booths from 150 nations and regions, all here to promote tourism in their respective countries. Additionally, booths from the 47 prefectures of Japan aim to raise awareness of local culture. Everywhere I go, I’m handed bags of souvenirs, each emphasising a specific country or prefecture. Mock passports are available, encouraging visitors to collect fake air travel stamps from the various countries represented here.

As I wander around, I spot two Japanese geisha. I haven’t previously seen a geisha in Japan, so this is a nice bonus. They even smile and let me take a photograph.

The geisha are here to promote the area of Nihonbashi. I am handed an envelope containing a fake boarding pass and loads of smaller flyers advertising their area. One of the flyers describes Nihonbashi as ‘The crossroad of past and present – diving into an array of unique Edo experiences.’ It also features advertisements for local food outlets in the area, coupons for tea ceremonies, and adverts for shops that sell traditional crafts and gifts.

East Hall Six contains a massive RV show, which is of no interest to me. East Hall Five is littered with stands from outside of Asia. East Hall four contains stands for the many Japanese airlines and corporate companies. I continue my wandering around, getting more and more free flyers and bags of promotional material. It seems every stand here has some form of entertainment or a weird mascot. The Okaniwa stand even has an aquarium showcasing many of their tropical fish.

There is a section promoting Japanese Traditional Crafts, along with another section commemorating the 400th anniversary of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s death. The Robot Restaurant even has a stand here, featuring robots and scantily clad women to attract business. Pocari Sweat is hosting a talk about their plans to land on the moon. Drums can be heard in the distance everywhere I walk.

In addition to the aquarium, Okinawa is hosting a live dance and drum show. Men from Kanazawa Prefecture are balancing on dangerous-looking ladders while wearing traditional robes. A renowned female vocalist is performing on stage, but photography is not permitted. The people of Switzerland are dancing, and a sign inviting to ‘Meet South Africa’ hosts a live percussion show.

Egyptians dance too. The Taiwanese perform a circus act. China showcases a folk dance. South Korea presents a performance from an all-female K-pop band, followed by a live talk show where, again, no photography is allowed. Many more stands are hosting talks. I have a nice chat with the people of Bhutan, a country I’ve been interested in visiting for quite some time. I also discuss Climate Change and their government’s decision to go carbon neutral with representatives from the Maldives. Additionally, I have a random chat with Brianna Acosta, better known as Miss Hawaii 2013.

I wander around a bit longer, enjoying the diverse dances, playful mascots, and individuals dressed as samurai. Overall, the exhibition is quite enjoyable; it provides an excellent opportunity for the people of Japan to engage firsthand with other cultures. Simultaneously, there is also plenty to discover and learn about Japan here.

Eventually, I tire and take the two trains back to Asakusa. Here, I dine at an Italian restaurant. The Japanese owner comes to talk to me after my meal, asking loads of questions. Apparently, he sees me almost every day and wants to know where I am from and what I am doing in Asakusa; he’s just curious, I suppose. When I go to pay, he randomly gives me a ten percent discount. “Grazie!” I say to him, but ironically, he doesn’t speak any Italian. Unbelievable.

Dance, Dance, Ambulance

Posted on 24/08/2014 by Luke

It is humid today, a cool 31°C with patches of rain, the perfect weather for dancing in the street. I head over to Tawaramachi Station for a train to Shibuya. From Shibuya Station, I head to Yoyogi Park, stopping off at the Tobacco and Salt Museum. The sign in the window reassures me that the museum will relocate to Sumida in spring 2015. It closed almost a year ago. I begin to wonder why it takes almost a full two years to move the contents of a museum.

I continue my walk, taking a detour through a ‘Shopping road that is nice to people’ before eventually arriving at Yoyogi Park. This weekend, there is a festival held at the Yoyogi Park event open space, the ‘Battle of the Udon.’

There are nine different television stations here. There are nineteen different udon stands, each selling their own local variety of udon noodles. Stalls also sell various non-noodle-based drinks and snacks. The best noodles from all over Japan have come here to compete in the nation’s biggest food competition. Every bowl of noodles is charged at a flat rate of ¥500. When you order food at the Battle of the Udon, you are given a vote card with the name of the stall. On the final day of the event, the votes are tallied up, and the best udon in Tokyo is crowned.

The noise here is deafening; every store has a banner, mascot, and a guy with a megaphone shouting at me to visit their store. Some of the mascots are better than others. I really like stall number 18’s mascot from Nagoya; they are promoting their Kishimen-style udon noodles.

I go to stall number 19 from Saitama Prefecture, offering Shoji-style udon noodles. As I approach the store, the guy at the counter shouts, “Welcome!” in English and literally welcomes me with open arms. When I arrive, he reaches out his hand to shake mine. He looks genuinely pleased that I chose his store; most likely, he is proud of the food he makes. “Udon!” I exclaim, my smile matched by his.

After food, I head back to Asakusa. I exit Tawaramachi Station to the sound of tourism and the sight of umbrellas. The rain has started now, but the show will go on. Today is the 33rd Asakusa Samba Carnival, and half a million people are expected to attend. The streets are packed on every side, and the roads are closed to vehicles. The carnival is just about to start.

This festival first began in 1981 when the mayor of Taito Ward invited the winning team of the Brazilian Rio Carnival to perform on the streets of Asakusa. Each of the teams has its own theme, but in effect, they compete to be crowned the winner of a dancing contest. The parade starts behind Senso-ji temple, where a display of the floats is free to inspect, and conveniently finishes close to Tawaramachi Station.

The teams vary in style. There is a ‘Puzzles & Dragons’ float, loads of marching bands, women dancing Samba dressed in traditional Brazilian garb. Some teams even have a comedy aspect, like women with fish on their heads or dancing clowns. For the rest of the afternoon, every inch of Asakusa is alive with the sound of drums and loud music.

At 5 p.m., I decide to eat some food from Seven Eleven before heading to Cafe Byron Bay to drink. Instead, the night takes a somewhat unexpected turn, and one of my friends from the cafe is in need of medical treatment. An ambulance is called, and we wait an age.

The owner of the cafe, our friend, and I sit in a parked ambulance for ten minutes. Here, her symptoms are explained, and the usual questions are answered. I think that this procedure could have been done during the journey to the hospital, but then again, I don’t have any medical training, so what do I know? Eventually, we are on the move. Something I have observed in the past is that ambulances in Japan move seemingly without any haste or purpose. They wait at traffic lights with sirens blazing. They move with absolutely no urgency.

We arrive at a small hospital in Ueno. Our friend is placed into the Emergency Room, and we wait outside. Sitting in the hospital, an overwhelming sense of exhaustion washes over me. The humming clock reads 20:20, but it’s boring, like the walls; once white, now stained yellow. We ask if there is any news on our friend, but we are politely told that they don’t know anything. Hospitals have a way of draining energy from people; sitting here any longer might just kill me. We decide to go for a walk.

We head to an Indian restaurant and eat some excellent food. I suggest to the cafe owner that she should serve similar food and rename her shop to Cafe Byron Bombay. Despite worrying about our friend in the hospital, we make the most of the situation and try to enjoy ourselves as much as we can. In the end, I don’t have such a terrible time.

After four hours, our friend is allowed to leave and is going to be alright; good news. We hop on the train at the nearby Ueno Station and head back to Tawaramachi Station before going our separate ways.

Gion with the Finned

Posted on 03/08/2014 by Luke

Today is my last day in Kyoto. Tomorrow I will go to Osaka for three days, before heading off to Nagoya. I still have one temple I want to see, a temple with a difference. I head through the arcade, the same French song is playing that I’ve heard about four other times this week. I know the song but can’t recall the name. There is a pachinko parlour with a picture of Rowan Atkinson on the advertising board. There is also a strange mascot wandering around the arcade, promoting a festival here this evening.

I start by walking through a district called Gion. Gion is the most famous place in Japan for spotting geisha, although here they use the local term ‘Geiko,’ which translates to mean a ‘person of the arts.’ Gion is filled with numerous traditional old streets lined with even older houses, alongside a mix of theatres and other traditional entertainment.

I head up the mountainside to my last Kyoto temple, Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the seventeen Historical Monuments of Ancient Kyoto. There are some very interesting things to do here. One of them is walking from one sacred stone to the other with your eyes closed. If you succeed, you will supposedly be lucky in love. Another, which is actually prohibited now, is the chance to jump from a 13-metre-high stage. Surviving would mean your wish would be granted. This tradition dates back to the Edo period, where the survival rate was 85.4%.

The main reason I came here, though, was to experience the ‘womb’ of Daizuigu Bosatsu. This occurs not in the main temple building but in the smaller Tainai-meguri Hall. It costs me ¥100 to enter. I take off my shoes and walk down a few steps, all the while holding onto the handrail made of prayer beads. Beyond the steps, I take a right turn and enter a room of complete darkness.

Daizuigu Bosatsu, a female Bodhisattva, possesses the mystical ability to fulfill any human wish. Alone, I navigate through a labyrinth of corridors shrouded in an abyss of blackness so consuming that it swallows all semblance of light. Oddly, it is somewhat peaceful, yet simultaneously horrifying. After an eternity of carefully navigating through the darkness, a distant glimmer pierces through the shadows—a radiant stone. It is at this stone that I make a wish.

Once outside, I continue to wander through this vast temple complex. Here, there’s a natural water spring available for ¥200, but I opt not to drink from it. After sufficient exploration, I decide it’s time to head back; the heat becomes a bit too overwhelming for me. As I descend the mountain, I catch sight of an incredible, bright red shrine: Yasaka Shrine.

My next destination today is along the Takase River, at The Birthplace of the Japanese Motion Pictures Industry. Inabata Katsutaro showcased the first experimental film in Japan. Following his visit to Paris in 1896 to attend the Paris Exposition, he returned to Japan with a cinematograph he acquired from the French inventor Auguste Lumière. In 1897, he screened the film in the garden of the building.

Unfortunately, the building is closed today.

I feel a little hungry and decide that today I’ll try grilled eel for the first time. After wandering for a while, I finally find the place and take a seat in the restaurant. There are probably eight or nine other people eating here. The restaurant plays no music, and there is absolutely no ambiance. Nobody talks either; everyone just sits in silence with their grilled eel, as if waiting for the end of the world.

The menu is a little pricey, so I opt for the small grilled eel on rice with pickles. It arrives with a teapot full of hot green tea. Had I known, I wouldn’t have ordered a beer. The dish, called ‘Unadon,’ is delicious. It’s not what I was expecting; the texture is somewhere between meat and fish, and the soy-based glaze is delicious. Even the rice is good; I savour every grain. In total, it costs me ¥2800, an expensive treat.

I head back to the hostel for a short while to write before heading out again for the Kyoto Tanabata Festival, which starts at 6 p.m.

The festival stretches all along the Kamo River, hosting around one hundred small stalls selling various Japanese snacks, little gifts, and the usual souvenirs. Dubbed the ‘Star Festival,’ it’s said that writing your wish on a special piece of paper here will magically make it come true. One side of the festival is adorned with paper lanterns, while the other side is lined with lanterns made of reflective coloured paper.

At the entrance to the festival, a female performer is essentially doing karaoke, while at the other end, people dance to music on a stage. For no apparent reason, one guy is dressed as a polar bear. As nothing particularly interests me about the festival, I walk its length and then leave.

I head back to the hostel, up to the roof terrace, to read my book.

The evening sky looks like the end of the world.

Moshimo Tours, Robots, Red-lights, Coming to Life

Posted on 21/06/2014 by Luke

I am blaming everything on the constant breathing in and out of air-conditioned air. Everywhere I go there is air-conditioning. In my room. Inside the train. Outside the train. It has destroyed my throat to the point that it is so dry, it hurts when I swallow. Clearly the magical cow didn’t work. Thanks to illness, I haven’t done as much these past few days; not enough for a whole post each day. Instead, I will summarise the last three days here:

Wednesday

Today I am filmed as part of a television show for Fuji Television. The show, called Moshimo Tours, is about Cafe Byron Bay. Presented, I think, by Airi Taira. There are eight western guests in the cafe including me. We chat amongst ourselves as the lighting equipment and tripods are set up. There is basically nowhere to move with all the crew. Cameras three times the size as TV Tokyo’s. A team of about fifteen staff members all wait around outside until it is eventually time to film.

With the crew in place, Airi Taira, four comedians and a Japanese pop idol enter the cafe. Udo Suzuki and Hiroyuki Amano are here, they are the famous comedy due Kyain. Sanpei is here too; a football shirt wearing Japanese comedian who’s catchphrase is saying his own name. I instantly recognise him from episode two of cult classic ‘Adam and Joe Go Tokyo’. I am now on the same television show as him, which is quite exciting. The name of the famous Japanese pop idol escapes me. I am told that the band he is in are the Japanese equivalent to One Direction.

My part in this show is in the background. I am a customer enjoying a drink, talking to my friends, and pretending I haven’t noticed the comedians, and idol, at the bar. Pretending I haven’t noticed the huge lighting rig, the cameras, the guy furiously hand-writing cards which he holds up for the comedians to read from or garner instruction from.

After filming for some fifty minutes, the comedians leave and we are interviewed on camera. Following the interviews we are each given a gift from the producer as a thank you for taking part; a Japanese hand fan. As a thank you for coming, the cafe owner gives the eight of us some money to buy dinner, although she didn’t need to; just being on television with famous Japanese comedians was thank you enough. The show will air on Saturday 5th July at 6:30 p.m. on Fuji TV.

I book another month in Asakusa for the middle of August. It really is beginning to feel like home. Between now and then I am going to travel across Japan like I had originally intended. I get talking to a Japanese guy in a bar, he asks of my plans. I tell him that I am thinking of travelling first to a place called Beppu; famous for its hot springs and various kinds of geothermal healing. It turns out that the Japanese guy in the bar is on vacation in Tokyo, and he actually works at a hostel in Beppu. The same hostel I am considering booking. Beppu is on the other side of Japan, some 496 miles from Tokyo. Yet another strange coincidence.

Thursday

It is another hot clear day. I have been here for three weeks now and it has only rained for three of the days. I go into Cafe Byron Bay to thank the owner for buying me lunch. It is very early and I am the only customer. I ask her to make me some eggs. We talk. She says out of the blue that when I come back in August, she will happily employ me. “Thank you,” I say, tucking into my happy free-range eggs and happy toast. After breakfast I hire a bike again and spot this random guy:

I spend about four hours just cycling around Taito, exploring side streets at not-so-great speeds. Even the policemen here have one speed bicycles. I cycle down the Sumida River and back again, looking for interesting things, mostly seeking odd signs, hilarious typographical errors, or ‘staff wanted’ notices. I see a woman in black face makeup and red eyes. She is holding a doll. I have no idea why.

At the hostel Daisuke and I talk about farmyard animal noises and phone sounds. Different in every language; my favourite is probably the Japanese frog sound. We hang out at the hostel bar for a while. Today is Thursday but the Jazz Club isn’t on tonight, instead there is live music from three staff members; a guitarist, a vocalist, and a violinist. They are playing an evening of music from Studio Ghibli films. For each song the lyrics are read out in English, then the song is performed in Japanese. I stay and watch both sets.

Friday

Luis Suárez is out of his wheelchair and scoring goals. Not worth getting up at 4 a.m. for. After the game I had planned to watch ‘Japan versus Greek’; or so the sign in my hostel says, however, I decide to give it a miss and I’m glad I did. After breakfast I take a few trains and end up in Shinjuku. Here I walk around. I see a typo on a McDonald’s sign and wonder how a company of this size could not employ just one person that can proofread English. I think about writing to McDonald’s but the moment passes.

I take a walk to Kabukicho, the red-light district in Shinjuku. Here I find the famous ‘Robot Restaurant’ that everyone keeps telling me about. The restaurant features a live Japanese cabaret show. The female performers wear neon and not a lot else. They dance around on giant robot tanks, robot samurai, robot dinosaurs, all to the sound of techno music. It costs ¥5000 for a sixty minute show. I suppose they have to charge a lot to make back the ¥10 billion they allegedly spent on the place when it opened last year. ¥10 billion! I decide to give it a miss.

Back in Asakusa, I go out for a tuna sashimi set meal. It is served with the usual suspects, rice, miso soup, wasabi, a selection of pickles, and some love in the style of heart shapes and flowers. It costs ¥1830 with a beer, which just happens to be the exact amount of change I have in my pocket. Yet another strange coincidence.

My night ends at Cafe Byron Bay for last orders where I impress with a couple of card tricks. “What’s your favourite playing card?” I ask a Japanese salaryman. He tells me the seven of clubs; he actually says ‘clover’ instead of ‘clubs’. I reveal the top card and he gives me a puzzled look before bursting into applause. The top card is of course the seven of clubs. The magic trick earns me a beer.

I pop to a late night supermarket called ‘Life’. Here I buy a couple of cans of Suntory whisky highball. As I leave the shop I notice this amazing sign:

Mascot, Mascot, Mascots

Posted on 11/06/2014 by Luke

The elevator stops at a random floor. I stick my head out, but there’s nobody there—very odd indeed. Outside, the rainy season has decided to take a day off; the weather forecast for Tokyo today is ‘scorchio!’ I am up quite early so I decide to do my laundry. I chill out in the ball bath for a while whilst waiting.

Once finished I leave the hostel and decide to check out Kappabashi Street; a road I have walked past at least thirty times since being here but have never bothered to venture down. It is a shopping street selling many specialty goods, mostly kitchen products. This street is littered with pink lanterns. It also has its own special mascot, the kappa, a Japanese river imp.

After walking the full length of Kitchen Street, I arrive at Ueno Station. Here I take a train to Ikebukuro.

I visit an art gallery, only to find a sign inside stating ‘closed today.’ I start to ponder if anything in Japan is ever open. Outside, I notice a sign reading ‘パフォーマンス中’, with ’12:15′ scribbled below it on a whiteboard. Translating the sign, I discern it means ‘performance at 12:15’. It feels like my Japanese learning is finally paying off.

I head across to a nearby McDonald’s to kill half an hour and to kill my healthy diet. I sit down in a private booth, there is a screen in front of me so nobody else can watch me eating. All very strange.

Back outside the performance is about to start. A man appears dressed as a type of Godzilla human statue. He walks slowly to the middle of a large open area and stands on a slightly raised platform. Here he remains perfectly still. Two minutes later someone puts a coin in his collection bucket. It is at this moment he comes back to life to give the person a ‘thumbs up’, before returning to his original position.

It is a hot day. The sun burning in the sky, but there is not a bead of sweat on the man. There is a moment of comedy when a woman poses next to the statue for a photograph, presumably she thinks the statue is real. The man steps off his raised platform and sneaks up on the lady; when she finally notices him she lets out a loud scream and everybody laughs. After a while of literally standing around, I decide to grab the train bound for Harajuku.

At Harajuku Station there is a sign with arrows pointing to nearby tourist attractions. Takeshita Street, Yoyogi Park, the NHK Building, and Meiji Shrine. All four are within five minute walking distance from the train station. I toss a coin and it lands in the gutter. I toss another and it directs me to the NHK Building.

NHK is Japan’s national public broadcasting organisation, its equivalent being the BBC. Inside I see everything from props and set locations, the history of NHK, quiz machines to test my knowledge of NHK, a machine that lets you be a nature cameraman, and my favourite activity, a mock up television studio.

At the mock up studio I am seated at a news desk and instructed to look at the camera. Next, I take part in a fake weather broadcast. I stand behind a Tokyo skyline and point at things which are being projected onto a large television screen. It is all very exciting.

I get the chance to witness a live broadcast. Behind a large glass screen, NHK is airing a television show called ‘Studio Park Kara Konnichiwa.’ It’s a live chat show featuring two hosts, a guest, a producer, and four cameramen. I stand and watch for a while, probably fifteen feet away from the show’s hosts, before eventually realising I can’t understand a word of what is being said. So much for my Japanese learning finally paying off.

Leaving the NHK media theme park, a statue of Domo-kun waves me goodbye. Domo-kun has been the broadcaster’s mascot since 1998, and is described as ‘a strange creature that hatched from an egg’. Goodbye Domo-kun! The exit leads out into Shibuya. I am surprised just how close together everything is in Japan and wonder why people waste so much time here on trains.

On the train, I see an advertisement for the FIFA World Cup; it shows the mascots for the Japanese National team. They are the Pokémon characters Bulbasaur, Charmander, Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie, Helioptile, Litleo, Meowth, Pancham, Pikachu, and Squirtle. I am looking forward to the World Cup and think Japan are worth a punt at 200/1. Back at the hostel I discover that England’s game against Uruguay is at 3 a.m. here. I am no longer looking forward to the World Cup.

I eat Wasabi flavoured crisps, watermelon, and my favourite food, Cheese Mushi Cake. I then head out to the English bar where I practice my teaching skills. Much to my delight, the English bar is playing Beatles Radio; a mix of original and cover versions of the Beatles songs. I stay until last orders and head back to the hostel to find a party going on and a guitar.

I play ‘Give up the Ghost’ by Radiohead. After I finish a man says that the way I play reminds him of Thom Yorke. His comment makes my day. Later, three ladies from Thailand who had heard me playing earlier approach me and start talking to me in Radiohead; the perfect end to an evening.

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