I sign up through Craigslist for an event in March 2015. Bach’s 330th birthday celebration. All day and all night the music of Bach will be played in subways and public spaces. The website specifically states that, ‘Solos, ensembles, flash mobs and Bach marathons are all encouraged.’

Outside, rainy season has started. The unexpected heat wave during my first week here has now stepped aside and the rain has taken over. It will not stop raining now until mid-July. I take a ‘free’ umbrella from the hostel and walk to the boat terminal. Here I take a ¥1580 boat ride down the Sumida River to Odaiba; an artificial island. The journey takes about forty minutes.

I see The Goddess of Liberty, a to-scale model of the Statue of Liberty. There is a giant Ferris wheel with no riders and a huge arcade with no customers. It is nearly lunch time and there is nobody else here. A Toyota theme park showcases new vehicles and offers driving lessons and ‘games’. A Shell museum offers not seashells but the history of petrol pumps and petroleum. I am very disappointed.

Japan are preparing for the 2020 Olympic games, and Odaiba, with its large areas of open space, is one of the venues that has been selected. I walk long distances in the rain trying to find the giant 1/1 scale statue of a Gundam robot. I never find it and there is nobody around to ask. I eventually give up and take the train back to Tokyo.

For lunch it’s another Cheese Mushi Cake. This one is from Family Mart and is sadly not as good as the one from Seven Eleven. I also have a natto wrap and a bag of the ‘best crisps’, or so I am told by a member of staff at the hostel.

Natto is fermented soy beans. It is a traditional food of Japan and is usually eaten for breakfast. I once read that most people in Japan eat natto but don’t like it, and that they only eat it for its excellent health benefits. My natto is wrapped in rice and seaweed. The smell is overpowering, and the taste is disappointing.

I spend the next hour or so in the hostel until I am in the right place at the right time. The hostel manager approaches me. He says a film crew for TV Tokyo are making a documentary, and are looking to film someone that is staying here for a while. I immediately agree and wait anxiously until the film crew are ready.

The director cannot speak any English but she has brought with her a language interpreter. I am asked to go to the reception so they can film the hostel staff recommending a strange place for me to visit. I already know that we are going to a bird cafe, so I have to pretend I don’t know where I am going; it is all very odd. The crew film me talking to Daisuke at reception. He recommends that I visit Asakusa’s Owl & Parakeet Cafe, before making me laugh with his chicken noises. We film the same scene again, without the chicken noises, and he marks the cafe on my map.

The film crew then follow me through Asakusa. I rely only on the instructions from the hostel; I am not allowed to ask the film crew for help. Daisuke’s directions are pretty good though, and I find the bird cafe with relative ease. Once inside I am asked to stroke the birds, play with the birds, feed the birds, and get bitten by the birds. They ask me some really random questions. I am not sure whether to direct my answers at the interpreter or the director, and I’m never really sure which parts they are filming.

Once we finish the interview, we head back to the hostel. Overall the experience was rather enjoyable and I am pleased to have been given the opportunity to be on television. I have no idea which footage they will use for their program, only that it will air at the end of the month.

At the hostel I meet with a few of the nice people that I have spent time with over the last few days; almost all of them will be leaving in the morning and I will once again be alone. A few hours of whisky and beer later and the Thursday night Jazz Club is in full swing. Five of us decide to head out through the soaking and somewhat flooded streets of Asakusa to get some food. Tempura again for the third time this week; I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of it though.

After food it’s back to the hostel to catch the end of the Jazz Club washed down with a few cans of Suntory Strong Zero 9%.