Monthly Archives: March 2010

Mito

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mito 300x225 Mito Mito Art Tower Mito Kenny Keisei Bird feeding Bernadette Alexis Aeon Department Store

Mito

Friday

After two and a half frantic days of bouncing around Tokyo, today is slow, and it’s not necessary a bad thing. My legs ached from walking and standing everywhere. I hadn’t talked to anyone (in any intelligible sense) since I arrived, and apart of my vacation was to come and visit my friends — that’s how this whole trip began in the first place. Although, admittedly, I was finding myself wishing I was in Tokyo, but it’s easy enough to navigate my way back there.

This whole trip began with an IM to my friend Bernadette. “How’s Japan?” I asked her.

“It’s great you should come out and visit,” she replied to me.

I figured that wasn’t a bad idea. I hadn’t gone anywhere in a long while. I spent the winter break at home. I had always wanted to go to Japan but the last time I tried to put together a trip with friends it made Japan feel like a daunting task. There was too much effort that went into planning the trip and this time I feel that it was the right amount — no planning at all. I would just wing it. I told Kenny to get ready because I was coming to Japan to sleep on his floor.

Bernadette’s children, Kenny and Alexis, are out here in Japan apart of the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) program. Alexis teaches in Toyama, but she’s visiting Mito because she’s sick and looking for a little comfort of home. Kenny lives in Mito and that’s where the four of us are staying. The apartment’s small, but I suppose for Japanese standards, for one person, it’s practically a mansion. The family would be sleeping together in the bedroom and I would be sleeping out in the living room on a mattress on the floor, which is pretty much what I expected and sure beat paying more for a hotel.

Friday started out quiet. I was quite content having seen Akiba at least once and having gone to the Ghibli museum. If there were two big things I wanted to do on this trip, I had done them. I had no other major plans really. I knew that there were things I wanted to see and wanted to eat, but I’d play all of that by ear in the coming days. I didn’t realize I’d also catch some of Alexis’ cold, but in the end, it didn’t slow me down — though as I write this I’ve still got a slight cough.

I did my laundry Friday morning. Since Kenny didn’t have a dryer we made a trek into Mito and I got to see the town for the first time. Instead of walking through a back alley we walked along the road leading to a bridge overlooking a huge swan lake. Bernadette and Alexis brought bread to feed the birds. We dropped off my things at the Soft Cream — you’d never think that it was a 24 laundry place — but it is. While my clothing spun dry we ventured over to the lake and fed the birds. A nursery of kids was also trying to chase the birds around so it was fun had by all.

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Feed the birds in Mito

I had never been that close to birds. As we dropped bread and rice cracker type treats they swarmed us — pigeons, swans, and ducks. The pigeons would eat anything even if it was too big for their beaks. The ducks tended to steal entire slices of bread and make off with them. The swans snipped at the other birds that got too close. It was fun to watch the entire eco-system of birds in play. As the birds swarmed the bread the kids swarmed the birds and we were eventually close enough to hold the animals in our hands. I had a pigeon eating out of my hands, something I had never done before. I’m sure Japanese pigeons are just as diseased as American ones and afterwards, I washed my hands a few times just for good measure. Still it was a nice slow start to the day.

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This is how close we were to the birds.

This picture is just cool:

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Alexis feeding birds.

This swan either hurt it’s leg or she just enjoys standing on one leg:

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Stand on one leg.

I continued my day in Mito with Alexis and Bernadette — Kenny was off teaching class. We went to walk along the main street. If you’re curious there’s an Animate! on the main road even here, although it’s only the size of a regular store and not an eight story behemoth. There’s a stationary store that we visited — and their stationary stores are not our stationary stories. Our stationary stores sell birthday cards, pens, and maybe, well, stationary. Japanese stationary stores sell all of that but then go on and encompass things that an art store would sell including water colors, copic pens, brushes, comic book paper, screen tones, different forms of paper hand made and prebound into a sketchbook, and the list goes on. I think I could have even made a personal seal there if I wanted too. I ended up getting a bunch of brush pens but there were plenty of temptations for the artist in me.

We went to the big department store in town, Keisei. It’s again, about eight stories high, and filled to the brim with stuff and we had lunch at a, get this, American-style Japanese restaurant. It was dressed up to look like a saloon from the wild west. The waitresses were dresses as cowgirls — nothing lewd mind you. As apart of the kitschy American decor there was a sign that said something akin to “keep your shit outside.” I can only remember that it used the word “shit” somewhere.

We ordered and while our waitress struggled through trying to understand Bernadette she kept glancing over to me, at which point I would shrug, because I may look Asian, but that doesn’t mean I can speak Japanese. I ended up getting steak with fried shrimp (as portrayed below). As par with everything I’ve had in Japan, it was really tasty.

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Steak and fried shrimp

I might have mentioned this before, but when you go to a Japanese restaurant you don’t tip. So the price at the end of the meal was the price of our three meals combined. I don’t mind tipping — I tend to overtip if anything, but I do like knowing how much I’m going to pay, it makes things a lot easier.

One of the highlights of this day was the Mito Art Tower.

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Mito Art Tower

It’s a tall geometric tower overlooking the city. Once you go to the top you can see for miles around you and supposedly, on a clear day you can see straight out to Fuji. Why, it looks something like this:

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Mt. Fuji

Unfortunately, it was too hazy to really see the actual Mt. Fuji. I was able to make out the silhouettes of some other mountain ranges off in the distance.

Plans in the evening were in flux, but eventually we settled on going to an Aeon Department store about two train stations away in Uchihara. I know this may not be that thrilling for you, dear reader. You may think that these things are mundane, but I was curious to see how everyone outside of Tokyo lives. Mito’s not a bad place to explore that. It’s nice to know that not everything is too foreign here — people still go to the mall. Their fast food still has a KFC and McDonalds but they’re next to a Takoyaki stand and ramen shop in the food court and the Udon noodles I had were delicious — but I could say that about any and all noodles I had in Japan compared to the States. Amazingly, there’s a Sports Authority here right next to the Jusco — I went to both to look for a new hoodie but instead found gems like this:

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Faddy toss out fixe ideas. Indeed.

Japanese fashion has a little too much e e cummings poetry on their shirts for me. Although I did get one:

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I am a new man in the sky. So please give me some.

Maybe I can start something new in the States.

There’s also a pretty sizable arcade where we spent part of the evening. Kenny and Alexis played Taiko Drum Master. I went off to explore the other cabinets. No Street Fighter but there definitely was a huge share of UFO catcher machines, a small Pachinko parlor, a horse betting game, and some arcade games including an arcade version of Tetris with comically large joysticks.

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Giant Tetris arcade game.

Sunday: White Day

Saturday I spent going back to Tokyo since we scrapped our plans for going to Sea Disney. Sunday I spent again in Mito. I was starting to get ill at this point, but not bad enough to keep me down. We saw Alexis off to the train station this morning — she was going back to Toyama. We were also going to look for a shipping company to send Bernadette’s luggage to the airport — so this is something you can do in Japan since shipping is pretty cheap within the country. The shipping companies were closed or couldn’t send the luggage to the airport in time for Bernadette to catch her plane which was unfortunate but I’d help her carry them to the train station.

As an aside, today, the 14th of March, also happened to be White Day. Valentine’s Day is a big deal. The girls give the guys gifts. On White Day, if the guy isn’t a total cad, he’d reciprocate and things end happily ever after. For the days leading up to White Day there have been a lot of stands selling candies and whatnot. Since I didn’t exchange gifts (obviously), that’s pretty much all I have to say about White Day.

“If your sick like Alexis, then you should head out to Kairakuen because tomorrow it might be worse,” was the omen Kenny gave me when we got back home. Good idea, I thought. If for whatever reason I couldn’t walk about tomorrow, at least I should enjoy today to its fullest even though I was feeling a bit under the weather. Kairakuen boasts 3000 plum blossom trees and is one of the largest gardens in Japan. Around this time of the year there’s also a Plum Blossom Festival held here.

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Plum Blossom Festival at Kairakuen

I made the trek from Kenny’s coughing and at times shaking from the cold, but dammit, I was going to see Kairakuen. My body can heal en route. To get there, I had to cross a bridge and then work my way down to the duck pond. From there it’s about a two kilometer hike around the track in the blustery wind until I reached an area full of paddle boats. I went across a bridge over the highway traffic and found myself standing at the gates of a festival and a massive forest of plum blossoms. I walked through gazing at the trees and the different food stands wishing my stomach were more up to the task.

I wasn’t feeling too good and so I walked through the trees as quickly as I could. I then went to the stalls and found a Takoyaki stand and ordered myself one. I’ve had takoyaki before, but now I could gorge myself silly on it. Sure I wasn’t entirely there, and fried foods wouldn’t really hit the spot, but takoyaki had been something I wanted to try since I got to Japan — since before I got to Japan. I got my fill and it was delicious. Damn the consequences.

I explored the plum blossoms as best I could and then went on my way. Around 5 pm or so I crossed back over the highway and took a different but similar route back to Kenny’s and ended up getting lost on the different bike/walk trails that go back to the bridge — I didn’t think that was possible, but it was. I had to walk a little extra but I made it home.

Mito’s no Tokyo, but being able to see my friends again, attend a festival, and enjoy some of the more suburban life of Japan was a great change of pace.

Japan: From Tsukiji to Mito in One Day

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Tsukiji Fish Market

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What's not to love about a giant fish head?

The Tsukiji Fish Market is the largest in the world. I’ve been told the best time to take a tour of the place is the day after you arrive. You’ll be ready to make the early morning journey to the market because of your jet lag. Early morning starts at 3:30 am. That’s when the fishermen auction off their tuna. I botched my first attempt to find the market after I arrived. I thought I had lost my window of opportunity, but I woke up at 6 am on Thursday morning ready to try again.

Like, Akihabara I thought it would be more significant to find, like their might be signs that pointed me towards the fish market. I walked past a lot of small wooden street stands selling fresh produce, newly packed-together onigiri, various pottery, and clothing. As soon as I saw this market, I knew that those were the stands I was looking for. When you get off the road where the Oedo Line meets the street and start exploring the streets perpendicular to it around the produce market, you’ll find the fish market. A football field’s length warehouse is hidden behind the produce market. Little gas powered carts — they look like oil drums with steering wheels and a large cargo platform in back — will be zipping in and out of the market alongside motorbikes, trucks, and bicycles. You will want to do everyone a favor and step aside and try and stay out of the way, which at times can be tough. When I entered the market, I drafted behind an older looking Japanese gentleman and just followed him where he went a couple of paces behind him. I figured that would be the best way to stay out of trouble. For the record, I only seemed to piss off one fisherman because I was too slow to move out of his way.

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One of the oil drum carts I saw.

By 7:30 in the morning, the auction is over and much of the fish is being carved up and prepared for shipping across the city — maybe across the country — I don’t know where the final destination for most of the fish is. I imagine though, it’s in people’s stomachs as some form of sushi or  another. I walked up and down the aisles glancing to my right and left. I caught glimpses of butchers putting their boning knives to the giant tuna carcasses. Other men were busy carrying the flash frozen bodies away. Fish heads oogled me from their butchering tables. Water and fish guts were strewn all over the floor and being washed across the cobblestone floor into drains — I’m glad I couldn’t smell the place, but I’m sure it would smell like fish and gas. The little motorized drum carts zipped up and down narrow streets created by each fisherman’s individual stall. Make sure you look both ways before you cross. I’m sure it won’t be their fault if they smack you.

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Mmmmm...Yumm-O.

I snapped photos of the fish and I even made a shaky-cam, low res movie with my Canon A480. I can tell what an octopus is from a fish. I know what clams and shrimps look like. I’m by no means an expert as to what type of fish was there. If there’s a plate of nigiri sushi, I’ll eat it, but I can’t explain to you each piece or explore those delicate and sublime mouth flavors that each piece conjures up. What’s the difference between a Yellowtail and a Red Snapper? Hell if I know. Or as Rachel Ray might put it, “Yumm-O!” And somehow she made a career on that and slapping together 30 minute meals.

I left the Fish Market content with the media I took and at least seeing it. Yes, I came away with one thing: If they say that’s the largest in the world, I believe them.

Afterwards, I had a sushi breakfast. I didn’t know the “proper” place to go to get my sushi. There’s some sushi stand where you’re supposed to get it dirt cheap, but I didn’t know where that was. I found a sit down sushi restaurant. They were barely open but they seemed pleased enough to serve me. I got a platter of nigiri and enjoyed devouring it. Towards the end a white couple rolled in for some breakfast of their own and I was on my way again.

To see more of my Tsukiji Fish Market photos on Flickr go here.

Sensoji Temple

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Sensoji Temple. This is a 5-story pagoda by the temple. It's not representative of the temple, but it's cool looking.

According to this guide to Japan, Sensoji Temple is the oldest one in Tokyo. It also turns out that it’s about a block away from Unizo Asakusa Hotel. I left the fish market about 9:30 am and got to the temple around 10 am after some walking and a few subways.  I saw a few girls on the subway dressed in kimonos and they were heading to Asakusa Station the terminal station on the Ginza line — I got off on Tawaramachi, the stop before, it to make a brief visit to my hotel.

With my cameras and HD camorder in hand I headed over to Sensoji. I believe a cherry blossom festival was being setup at the temple. I walked along some back alley roads where stalls were just being opened up and ended up on a road where people amassed. Someone was setting up lanterns. Stalls were open and selling knick-knacks and treats. School children were running around. Girls were gathered in gaggles wearing their kimonos. I walked along the road weaving through people and heading for my goal — the giant Sensoji temple gates.

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Festival at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa.

When you pass under the gates there’s a massive open concrete courtyard. I think the main temple is under some kind of reconstruction, because the whole thing was tented off. Out in front of it was a large incense cauldron. As I approached it I saw men and women wafting the fumes over their bodies and washing themselves clean with the smoke, and then they ventured off inside the temple.

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Sensoji Temple, the main temple is under that canopy.

I didn’t follow them inside. It just didn’t feel like it was the right thing for me to do. I didn’t mind sightseeing all the various temples I came across such as the one by Tokyo Tower, the one in Shinjuku-Chuo Park, and the one near Akiba, but I didn’t feel that it was my place to enter the temple and to pretend that I could honor their Buddhist or Shinto gods. It felt cheap to sight-see something like that, and I’m sure most Japanese people probably wouldn’t care. If you did anything wrong they might just think you were a dumb foreigner. I know the procedures — to enter the temple you first go to the washing station and take a ladle. You wash your hands and put the ladle back and approach the temple. Jingle the bell. Clap your hands twice and bow to the god housed there. I think sometimes you throw a coin, but for what reason, it eludes me, and without a Japanese friend to explain I decided it was better I observe. I guess you stand there and make a prayer and be on your way. I haven’t even stepped foot in a Christian church in years now. I’m not a very spiritual man, but I do believe that there is a force out there much greater than all of us maintaining the balance of the universe (i.e. all 10,000 things) and sometimes this force might leave you or me some discrete guidance, which can only be picked up with a bit of humility and a whole lot of hindsight.

To see more of my Asakusa pictures on Flickr you can go here.

Ghibli Museum

With Asakusa and the Fish Market behind me, I went to see the Ghibli Museum. Creativity is more apart of my soul. I enjoy creating something from nearly nothing and using my bare hands to do it — be it a story, drawing, or even just some programming. It’s a pleasurable thing that brings me immense joy. It gives me great pleasure to be able to see this museum becuase Miyazaki is, to me, one of the greatest creative minds that’s lived in this modern world and an influence for me.

As an aside, one of my personal projects is to write a novel. It was influenced by two books I had read: On Writing by Steven King, and Starting Point, which is a collection of interviews with Hayao Miyazaki. After reading both of those books I began to embark on my new novel writing adventure. Every morning from 7:30 to 9:00 am I would put down as many words as I could. I started back on August 13 2009. I have close to 280,000 words and some semblance of a very, very rough story. I’m on the road to finish it and I owe some thanks to Miyazaki. Reading his interviews helped solidify my own ideas about my work methodology. Just for the record, I didn’t get anything spiritual from reading his words but rather, he and Steven King’s book finally settled an issue I’d have been tossing around in my mind: do I write a novel by the seat of my pants or try to plan it out? Both authors basically said that they just wing it the first time. Miyazaki doesn’t have a script. He has a picture in mind and he builds his stories one picture at a time. The script exists when the animation is done. If you’re ever wondering why Howl’s Moving Castle seems to be all over the place, it’s because of that process. You can’t very well revise your rough draft if you just give it one go and have it animated. King goes a bit further in making second and third drafts, and I’m hoping to finish my first draft so I can do the same. So that’s why Miyazaki and Steven King are important to me since they started me down on this journey which I hope will see a conclusion in the not to distant future. I look forward to discussing it on this blog.

With Ghibli done, I returned back to Unizo Asakusa Hotel for the last time. I grabbed my things which they so nicely allowed me to stow behind their hotel desk and ventured off to Mito. So after a day that started off at 6 am in the morning I found myself standing in a packed JR train heading to Mito on the Joban rapid line. I stood for an hour with all of my luggage until around Tsuchiura when most people seemed to leave and I could blissfully sit down. I arrived around 9:30 pm in Mito Station.

To see more of my Ghibli photos on Flickr go here.

Mito

Mito Station was freezing. Most of the stores were closed down for the night except for one restaurant which I escaped into to grab a bite to eat. I called Kenny on the pay phone hoping that his number would work, otherwise, it would be a very interesting night. It took him ten minutes to walk down to meet me at the station. To use his words, “You’re much harder to pick out here.”  I had to smile. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, indeed. I didn’t mention it, but being a white guy with blonde hair, he’s incredibly easy to pick out.

I followed Kenny out of Mito Station and through some back alleys. We caught up as we walked along. He told me to watch out for the drivers in Ibaraki — they tend to be the worst kind. When they see a pedestrian stepping out onto the street to cross, they speed up. It becomes a challenge to beat the pedestrian — to zip by before they can take another step. If you’re ever in Mito let the light turn green first, wait a few beats, and then start walking — that’s his advice. I didn’t experience any near-misses, but I’ll take Kenny’s word for it since he bikes and walks through the city everyday.

Kenny’s apartment was the first time I ever stepped foot into a real Japanese apartment. It’s small, but he has rooms — a kitchen, bathroom with a washing machine, a separate room for the toilet, a small bedroom, and a living room. His kotatsu is the television stand. He has a school desk for his computer and chairs so he doesn’t have to sit on the ground. Bernadette and Alexis were already there too, so it was a Sterry reunion, and I got to see my friends from New York again. Another nice touch — he had electric heaters otherwise the freezing air outside would be inside too. The Japanese aren’t big on insulation and most of them just live in the cold. I was even told that most schools don’t have any heat in the corridors — who needs to heat the parts where people won’t be? It’s ruthlessly efficient sounding, but I like the heat and in the winter I’m willing to put up a couple extra bucks to keep the place warm.

My legs ached from two days of walking and standing and I was glad just to drop all my things and rest on the small sofa. We shot the breeze for a while and went to bed. My next day is entirely in Mito.

Japan: Riding Around in Trains

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Have I mentioned how awesome the train system is here?

If you plan to travel around Japan a JR Pass is useful. It costs 329 bucks for a 7-day pass — much more steeply priced than I remember, but since I last looked at JR passes the economy imploded on us. You can get one via a travel agency. I got mine from IACE and what you’re really getting is a voucher that you redeem when you get to Japan. After you land in Narita Airport look for the JR Travel Agency office at the airport — it’s right by the train gates — and go in and exchange your pass.

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JR East Travel Service Office at Narita Airport.

I may have mentioned this before, but I opted to start my pass the day after I arrived so I could have it available for me on my last day in the country — I was there for a total of 8 days.

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JR Rail Pass

To use the JR Pass you have to show it to the station manager. There’s a row of turnstyles where everyone else will use to slip their tickets through and enter into the JR terminal, but you’ll have to weave your way through the crowds to get to the far left or right and show your pass to the manager. For me, I was usually just waved through. Also keep this in mind about your JR Pass: you can get free reserved tickets. I did that when I rode the N’EX. If you read my “Akiba Round 2 Notes” you might recall I had a run-in with the Super Hitachi (this is before I rode the N’EX) — the 9 PM train is all reserved tickets only. I ended up buying a ticket for about 1300 yen, but that was a mistake made out of a moment of panic. When I read my JR Pass later — and something I should have done earlier, I would have known that I could get a reserved ticket. The station master there didn’t know that either even after I showed him my pass. So, yeah, no help there, but you live and learn, and I pass this knowledge onto you.

For the Tokyo subway system you want a Pasmo card.

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Pasmo

It’s similar to a metro card you might get when you pass through the NYC subway. The Pasmo is plastic like a credit card and issued at the subway itself. You don’t even have to deal with a station manager to get it. When you enter the subway terminal, find the kiosk that lets you get a Pasmo — not all of them allow you to. Most of the kiosks will let you buy the individual tickets, but only one machine is reserved for Pasmo. There will be a handy “English” button on the touch screen to make your life easier too. I figured out the interface fairly easily and put 1000 yen on my card the first time. The machine will churn for a bit and spit a gray card out. You can immediately take this card and just wave it over a special sensor at the front of the turnstyle to gain admittance into the subway. I believe the way it works is that you’re waved in and you don’t pay until you exit out of your destination terminal. Plus the turnstyle will show you how much yen you have left on your Pasmo. If you run out of money on the card you can refill it. Also if you don’t have enough to cover your fare the turnstyle will tell you and you can either use the fare adjustment machine or fill up your Pasmo and try to exit again.

You can also use your Pasmo card on buses. I used mine once on the bus to Ghibli. Also it seems like you can use the Pasmo at convenient stores, but I never tried it — it might be good for small purchases — like if you’re buying water or onigiri a lot.

I took the Keisei Skyliner from Narita to Tokyo — aside from the Super Hitachi ticket, I paid 1000 yen for the Skyliner, and I spent maybe 3000 yen on the Pasmo card. Otherwise I used my JR pass for most of my commutes between Mito and Tokyo (i.e. Ueno Station). I also used my JR Pass to ride along the various JR lines in and out of Tokyo such as the Yamanote Line or the Rapid Chou line that goes to Mitaka. I can’t say I totally recooperated the cost of the JR pass the way I traveled since I didn’t go cross country. Maybe if I visited my friend Alexis in Toyama, a 300 dollar trip, I would have easily justified the cost of one. I’m sure all the trips from Mito to Ueno Station added up though, but what I didn’t make up in terms of the JR Pass price, I made up for in time. I was just waved in and out of stations making travel a breeze. Maybe if you intend just to stay within Tokyo you can forgo the JR Pass — this means you’ll have to buy a ticket to and from Narita and you could do that with the Keisei Skyliner or the N’EX (4000 yen approx.) — depends if you want to be in a subway car or sit down in a train car. Keep in mind the subway will be crowded so if you have a lot of luggage you may have to stand. When I traveled for the first time from Tokyo to Mito I took the Joban express line — during rush hour, and yeah, I stood for about over an hour — and I had already been tired from walking since 6 am that morning to see the fish market, Asakusa, and Ghibli, but standing burns more calories, right? There’s your silver lining.

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Empty subway station in Japan. Taken during early morning.

You always know where you’re going in the station and in the trains. There are very clear, non-vandalized signs that point you to the right direction. The symbols they use on maps of the subway and JR lines match the ones used on the placards and the signs will even tell you the distance to that gate. You won’t have an issue getting around even in rush hour — if you keep your head on straight and your eyes peeled.

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Empty JR train car taken at the end of the line in Mito, Japan.

The trains are very well made and maintained. The floors are spotless. You wouldn’t want to eat off of them, but the cleanliness gives you some confidence about the system itself. The seats don’t look like they’ve been urinated on. In fact, in the trains have comfortable benches and your legs and seat are warmed as the train runs. I’d like to see NYC pull that off. There are usually LCD screens on the JR trains and they show you the train’s route. A woman’s voice will announce the next station in Japanese and English. You’ll see the Kanji, Hiragana, and English for the next station too. I never felt surprised or lost once I got used to the trains. The picture above is the train car I took from Tokyo back to Mito during one night. Myself and a few other people were the last folks on the train and I snapped that picture on my way out. After a whole day of wear and tear, that, my friends, is how clean a Japanese rail car is.

The other passengers are orderly. It’s weird. I was sitting on a subway train leading out of Asakusa Station and students, business men and women were getting on board. Everyone sat down and I counted at some point 26 or so people on the train car with me as we began to roll along the track. Not a word was uttered between them. They had their flip-phones open texting away, or they played DS, or read the newspaper. There was a cough here and there but the only noise came from the train itself as it rumbled down the track. You could hear the conductor announce the next station. Even when the bulk of the passengers from Ueno Station boarded the train and everyone crammed into every conceivable space possible, it was still pretty damn quiet. That’s something I never experienced here in the States even. I’ve ridden the NYC subway system and it’s filthy and lively. There’s music playing in the terminals. Homeless lie around. There’s trash on the floor. The signs are hard to follow.

BTW, when you ride in any Japanese train forget your “personal space” needs — that line of demarcation ends about 2mm from your face. You will be standing right smack against somebody whether you like it or not.

You may want to grab this book: The Little Tokyo Subway Guidebook. I got mine a in early 2009 at a Japanese bookstore in San Francisco. Unfortunately, it looks like Amazon doesn’t have it unless you’re willing to shell out 115 bucks for a 10 dollar book.

More on my travels to come…

Japan Day 7 Notes

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Day 7 — last day in Japan.

My day started out waking up at 7 am to Kenny’s alarm clock, but for whatever reason I was sweating like a pig. I’m sure it had to do with the fact that I took a shower before hitting the hay and then the heater’s right next to my head irradiating it. I was soaked. It was weird. When I got up I saw Kenny off and bid him a fond farewell — you know that is until I see him online again.

I hocked out a nasty bit of flem to start my day out. After that I hit the shower and did my laundry in the washing machine next to the bathroom. I walked down to Soft Creme after breaking my 5000 yen bill to get some 100 yen coins, got a bento for breakfast in the process and some water. I waited at Soft Cream for the whole 32 minutes to wait for my clothing to dry off and when it was good to go I headed back to Kenny’s and packed my things up. So to get to Kenny’s you got to walk through the back alleys of Mito — at least it was the only path I knew for sure that would take me from his apartment to the train station. It’s a somewhat downhill trek. It’s a narrow alley and cars like to pass by. So here I am with 3 suitcases — my laptop bag, my backpack that contains most of my wares from Japan, and my spinner suitcase. I’m trying my best to navigate and take it slow. Today is a good day to take it slow. My only goal is to reach the airport and go home. There’s no seeing Akiba. There’s no going to any nearby shrines in Narita. There’s no more shopping.

Sadly I lost my hoodie — it was on its last legs. The zipper snapped in the dryer and it’s no more. So I decided to ditch it at Kenny’s — it’s less weight for me to carry. I also stuffed a lot of my Ghibli toys into my spinner suitcase. Sorry Ponyo, I did just jam her in there next to Totoro and Jiji.

I made it to Mito just fine. I thought I wouldn’t bring my umbrella along — I really wanted to take it with me, but it was extra weight. I changed my mind when I stepped outside and saw the clouds in the sky. It it started raining that would be bad, so I snatched it and hooked it to my pocket and got going. I had no problem getting to Mito’s train station and getting on the Super Hatachi.

How to get to the airport.

For me I went from Mito to Ueno Station taking the Super Hitachi. There was only one stop and that was Ueno station. The rest of the passengers were business men and women.

I wanted to take the N’EX (Narita Express) to the airport and I learned there that I had to go to Tokyo Station to get on the N’EX. So it’s a couple of stations down via the Yamanote Line.

Funny thing — I was on the train and a bunch of Americans popped in. It’s so different how Japanese and Americans act. They were loud and talkative, but the Japanese weren’t and ignored them. I guess it was a family. One kid kept saying “It’s in two stops! It’s in two stops,” trying to get through to his dad where they were going. “How many stops?” “Two stops.”

At one point a whole bunch of people exited the station — I think for Ohachimachi and the mother turns to me and says “Do you want to sit down?” in the kind of tone you’d use when you think someone can’t understand you. I gazed at her and then turned away. I wasn’t interested in sitting down. They all eventually got off at (surprise, surprise) Akihabara. I hope they’re having a good time there.

I got off at Tokyo Station and found the N’EX line. I don’t know what it is, but when there’s a language barrier, even a perceived one, simple things are harder to understand. I asked the JR station manager for a reserve ticket for the N’EX. He blurted something out in Japanese and used the words “today” and “tomorrow” but I sat there staring at him. What was all that other moonspeak before hand? I shrugged. “Today? Tomorrow?” I got it. “Today,” I said and I was on my way. I carried all my luggage down to the Subo terminal boarded the N’EX which is a straight shot for Narita Terminal 1 and 2. I get off at Terminal 2, which comes before Terminal 1 (which is the end of the line).

I started this journey around 12:30 pm. I finally get to the airport around 3:29 pm. I got my board ticket. I went through customs. There’s no need to declare anything on this end I suppose. Once you’re in here its not their problem anymore — it becomes America’s problem of wherever you’re going. US customs inspection should be fun.

I played around with a massage chair — what a nice little thing to have in the airport for weary travelers. I had ramen at Blue Sky — a convenient store outside of gate 62. I have an hour left before my flight starts boarding. I’ll be leaving Tuesday evening at 6:15 and arriving Tuesday morning at 11 am.

If I don’t sleep tomorrow’s going to be not so fun. Not to mention I’m still sick. So I maybe coughing up a lung on the plane. Good times.

For the entire trip on the train to the airport, I’ve felt somewhat crappy, but it didn’t stop me from having ramen or this green tea Kit Kat bar — I need some food after all. Breathing causes my nose to burn, but that’s because I’ve rubbed it raw from it being runny. Not fun.

So my parting thoughts about Japan.

Things I liked:

* The train system. Both the subway and JR Lines are excellent. Get a JR Pass if you come — it’s 329 bucks for a week. It is damn expensive. If you’re staying in the city it might not be so necessary, but it was just nice going up to the station manager and waving my JR Pass and him letting me go through.  No fuss, no muss. Well except for the one thing with the Super Hatachi. If I didn’t panic it would have turned out better.

* No trash, it’s clean here. It’s so damn clean here. I feel bad for coughing, sniffling, blowing my nose, or making any sign that I will create trash or disease. I feel like I should be extra polite. Despite my best efforts, that didn’t pan out very well most of the time.

* Ramen is delicious here. I’ve gone to a meal ticket to get ramen. I’ve gone to Ippudo Ramen in Ebisu. I’ve eaten ramen here at the airport. I had it at an Aeon mall.

* Akibahara. Yeah I like it. I like the toys. I think I will miss the gaudy colors, the glitz, the noise and hustle and bustle of the entirety of Chou-dori.

* The toys are cheaper and more plentiful. So to buy Japanese toys such as PVC figures and whatnot, you have to order through various online sites. I’ve done that through hobbyfan and it’s taken them forever to honor my purchase. I kept being told that the manufacturer might slip it’s dates, so alright, that’s fine. The toys are also marked up because they have to include the international shipping and handling. So something that easily costs 20 bucks will cost closer to 30-40 bucks.  Plus the exchange rate is balls.

* No sales tax. Well… it’s built into the price, I believe, but I like just paying the price that I see.

* Walking. In addition to the public transportation walking is the other means to get around. Unless you get a bike. Yeah walking is good. Each day I must have logged 16000 steps at least — and that’s indeterminate of whatever I’m doing — shopping, exploring, getting to and from places.

* The sub-cultures. I find the Lolita thing fascinating and yeah I think a dolled up Lolita’s not bad looking either.

* The Ghibli Museum — I don’t think I need to explain this one.

* Convenient Stores. They really live up to their name here. They’re clean too.

* The food. Ramen. Takoyaki. Tempura. Udon. Sushi. I’ve had these things in America, even Takoyaki once. It’s good. I came home today and had some of the instant Sapporo ramen — I know, no comparison. I get that it’s not even in the same league for consideration against authentic Japanese ramen. Except when I never had ramen in Japan, the sapporo stuff wasn’t bad and Santa Ramen was really good, but really fatty. Himawari was good and in the middle, but whereas I used to be able to stand the Sapporo ramen it just tastes really salty now. I’ll still have it, but  I’ll definitely need to go back to the source. Even their airport ramen is better tasting. Of course when I watched the lady making it she dumped the broth from a package — it wasn’t some salt powder crap but a package of broth. How come we don’t do that? That could be leaps and bounds beyond the 99 cent packaged ramen.

Things I don’t like:

* What am I supposed to do with these tinny 1 yen coins? It’s really too many coins and it seems one of them should be phased out, otherwise I just end up with a boat load of them.

* Cog in the Machine Culture. I wouldn’t want to work in this country. I’m not interested in being a cog for some massive corporation. I don’t like the idea of rote memorization just to get to the point where you can get a high paying job. I like the idea that I can do what I’m interested in and have a choice (ultimately). If I were to ever live in Japan…I would want to be an entrepreneur. Better yet, for me, I would want to be a novelist or some kind of writer. I can work on my own schedule and technically I can live anywhere I would want. Actually if I were a writer I’d love to try living in all sorts of places for extended periods of times and try out doing all sorts of new things as fodder for writing and just for the experience of it. I like that plan.

* Standing room only. I think that says it all. I’m an american. I want my space and big blue sky.

* The food…when I’m sick. So the food in Japan, don’t get me wrong, is phenomenal. It’s tasty. I love Takoyaki and if were sick I would have eaten more stuff at that festival, but I had to have it before I left the country. So, when I got sick though, all these tasty foods didn’t look so tasty anymore. When I’m sick and maybe this is just me, I don’t feel like eating a deep fried pork cutlet or any of the sundry fried things they have. I don’t feel like eating raw fish either. I want things that are relatively grease free and things like fruits are expensive and they — for whatever reason — taste more like candy than fruit in Japan. The apple I got was about 400 yen and it was really sweet (damn tasty), but 400 yen? Damn expensive. I’m sure it’s because they had to import it here.