Finally made it out of Tokyo! Man its like that place has frickin laser beams attached to its head (Or should that be magnets?) Anywho in Nagoya now which is 2 hours on the bullet train from Tokyo. Sheeet, that train is fast. You can feel yourself being pushed into the chair! So I arrive not really knowing where my youth hostel is.
Turns out Japanese people are probably the friendliest, most helpful people in the world. Asked some random out side the station in pathetic Japanese where it was, he looked at my map for ages, then rang up the hostel on his mobile, then walked me there!!! I was ridiculously grateful I gave him plenty of bowing and Domo Arigato Gozaimus (Thank you very muches). However, wish I hadnt found it in the end. Lets just say it wasnt like the last place I was in and not up to standards Ive been used to!! A room with a table in. Thats it!! A view of a brick wall and a TV with a bloody coin slot! Japanese futons involve putting a duvet on the floor and lying on it. I was in a room with a strange Japanese bloke in his pants. Our conversation went something like this:
Him: I no Eng-english speak?
Me: Yeah, I cant speak a word of bloody Japanese either butt.
So we had a cup of tea in silence and went to bed (or should I say floor). A quite terrible nights sleep. Luckily Ive now met up with the Riddler (friend from uni living out here) and hes very kindly put me up for a few days. Ive met a few people on my travels in life who openly mutter and talk to themselves. Ive all met them in youth hostels. Maybe solitude has that effect on you. If I get back and you catch me doing it, do me a favour and slap me.
Ive actually been sight seeing these last few days and not getting drunk. Amazing huh? The Toyota museam (walking, trumpet playing robots anyone?), a Zoo (I counted 4 caged animals walking in constant figure of eights, another side effect of solitude I guess), Temples in Kyoto (You have to pay money to make a prayer, I aint payin and I aint prayin!) and Zen gardens (Howd they make those all those lines in the gravel without leaving footprints....?). Also, whilst on my travels Ive been compiling "Japanese Fact File" which Ill put in the next entry.
Thanks for all the comments. Didnt realise that you could do that so only read them all the other day!! As for the one about entries being to long then I really dont have anything to say except that if reeeeeeding all veeees wuuurrds is two mutch ven dont reeed it.
Keep it nice people.
Wednesday, 30 November 2005
Saturday, 26 November 2005
Tokyo, Japan
Firstly, good news. I managed to get a new rail card so no money wasted. Hooray! How I got it back is another matter completely (basically it involved a pair of scissors, a ruler, a pen, tippex a stapler and a colour photocopier ;) ).
So, karaoke. Thursday night met up with some guys in the hostel and piled into a place called Roppongi which is where all the ex-pats and westerners go to drink. Went to a bar called Gas Panic (little dodgy I thought considering the Tokyo subway attacks yeas ago). Got nicely lubed there and started some mi me mos ready for karaoke.
It appears that all karaoke bars have these african guys hustling you to go into them (theres a lot) so it was strangely like going to the bar strips in spanish tourist spots with all the touts going "Where you going to night guys". Anyway got in one and haggled a price which is set for the length of time you spend there but you can drink as much as you can (uh oh). You get ushered down a corridor into your cramped little room which has a load on sofas in, a table and a massive TV and Karaoke system. Type in your number and away you go. The video plays some cheesey american romance scene while the words are displayed.
As always the words never quite follow the rhythm of the song so unless you know the song really well youll stumble at some point. Meanwhile 2 jugs of beer and 2 jugs of Gin and Tonic get ordered in. As time goes on, the singing gets louder, more slurred and more off key but good fun. Its easy to get hooked on it and stay past your alotted time (which we did). When we were done we got the first subway home at 5am and promptly fell asleep. I got woken up by the Canadian girl next to me to tell me that she was gonna be sick. Which she was. All over me. How nice. I must have that effect on girls :(
Spent the next day asleep. On the Friday met some other guys from the hostel who were doing the same thing so I thought why the hell not? Turns out one of the guys has family in Pontypool and also knows some of the boys from back in Pontyclun (Camper, Peahead, Big Fol)!! Small world eh? Wouldnt like to paint it mind! So more karaoke anorchy was had however this time it seemed we were screaming into the mic rather than actually singing.
Had a little incident on the way home again. This time, I took a picture of the guy I was with sitting opposite me on the subway. Unfortunately he was sitting next to this big Afican American pimp guy who promptly snatched the camera off me and went off on a whole "God damn mother fucker!! Why you taking god damn mother fucking pictures of me!?! Did I say you could take my mother fucking photo!! Shit do you know who the fuck I am!!?!?" We all sat there litterally gob smacked but as he had pretty much stolen my camera it was time for some quick diplomacy. I slowly explained to him it was an accident and Ill delete the photo. After what seemed like ages I managed to calm him down and deleted the photo. He then literally walked to the other end of the carriage and sat down all crossed armed sulking!! What a looney!
The two bodyguards he had with him seemed a lot more chilled and chatted with us saying he'd had a bad night. Anyway, the whole carriage had some terrible vibrations going on so we got off at the next stop and wandered round. Got so completely lost and ended up riding all sorts of trains home. Eventually got home 4 hours later after going round and round in circles. Last night in Tokyo tonight so might go out for a few quiet ones but nothing too big as have to leave in the morning. Next stop, Nagoya to meet the Riddler!
Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:36 pm
So, karaoke. Thursday night met up with some guys in the hostel and piled into a place called Roppongi which is where all the ex-pats and westerners go to drink. Went to a bar called Gas Panic (little dodgy I thought considering the Tokyo subway attacks yeas ago). Got nicely lubed there and started some mi me mos ready for karaoke.
It appears that all karaoke bars have these african guys hustling you to go into them (theres a lot) so it was strangely like going to the bar strips in spanish tourist spots with all the touts going "Where you going to night guys". Anyway got in one and haggled a price which is set for the length of time you spend there but you can drink as much as you can (uh oh). You get ushered down a corridor into your cramped little room which has a load on sofas in, a table and a massive TV and Karaoke system. Type in your number and away you go. The video plays some cheesey american romance scene while the words are displayed.
As always the words never quite follow the rhythm of the song so unless you know the song really well youll stumble at some point. Meanwhile 2 jugs of beer and 2 jugs of Gin and Tonic get ordered in. As time goes on, the singing gets louder, more slurred and more off key but good fun. Its easy to get hooked on it and stay past your alotted time (which we did). When we were done we got the first subway home at 5am and promptly fell asleep. I got woken up by the Canadian girl next to me to tell me that she was gonna be sick. Which she was. All over me. How nice. I must have that effect on girls :(
Spent the next day asleep. On the Friday met some other guys from the hostel who were doing the same thing so I thought why the hell not? Turns out one of the guys has family in Pontypool and also knows some of the boys from back in Pontyclun (Camper, Peahead, Big Fol)!! Small world eh? Wouldnt like to paint it mind! So more karaoke anorchy was had however this time it seemed we were screaming into the mic rather than actually singing.
Had a little incident on the way home again. This time, I took a picture of the guy I was with sitting opposite me on the subway. Unfortunately he was sitting next to this big Afican American pimp guy who promptly snatched the camera off me and went off on a whole "God damn mother fucker!! Why you taking god damn mother fucking pictures of me!?! Did I say you could take my mother fucking photo!! Shit do you know who the fuck I am!!?!?" We all sat there litterally gob smacked but as he had pretty much stolen my camera it was time for some quick diplomacy. I slowly explained to him it was an accident and Ill delete the photo. After what seemed like ages I managed to calm him down and deleted the photo. He then literally walked to the other end of the carriage and sat down all crossed armed sulking!! What a looney!
The two bodyguards he had with him seemed a lot more chilled and chatted with us saying he'd had a bad night. Anyway, the whole carriage had some terrible vibrations going on so we got off at the next stop and wandered round. Got so completely lost and ended up riding all sorts of trains home. Eventually got home 4 hours later after going round and round in circles. Last night in Tokyo tonight so might go out for a few quiet ones but nothing too big as have to leave in the morning. Next stop, Nagoya to meet the Riddler!
Sat Nov 26, 2005 11:36 pm
Friday, 25 November 2005
Tokyo, Japan
You know, they say Tokyo is expensive. Rubbish. Its BLOODY expensive! Im heamoraging money out of a nasty wound in my wallet. Having a good crack though. Well it was bound to happen sooner or later (I was hoping later rather than sooner) but Ive done lost my Japanese Railpass which basically entitled me to travel round the country for free. 300 quid down the drain :( The club I was in returned my coat to me at the end of the night but they had basically checked the contents of my pockets and left them open! So as I went into the after party club I was carrying my coat around because it was hot and dropping everthing out of it!! Urk! It was only when some bloke came up to me saying "Is this yours?" and handing me my passport that I realised I was losing things!! At least I didnt lose the passport, right campers? To top it off I also lost the key to my locker in the hostel which had all my other stuff in so I was basically screwed for a day or two. Have now broken into my locker and my travel insurance covers me for my railpass so things are all ok now. Must have done something bad cos feels like Karma is having a pop at me.
So what have I been up to apart from making my own life more difficult? Well its been more celebrity spotting. Going back to the night where we met Oasis in the swanky hotel bar, we also met this pissed up old Japanese bloke at the end of the night who was blathering away to me in Japanese and rubbing my back a lot. Anyway he turns out to be this high profile pottery master (check http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/koie-ryoji-interview.html).
Went to this massive nightclub on Tuesday night which was awesome. It had robots buzzing round the bar offering drinks Metal Mickey style and there was this other big robot behind the main DJ giving it all, well, robot dancing. Very amusing. Was also a cool outdoor deck around a pool and ice sculpture which looked out onto the tokyo skyline. Was beautiful to watch the sun rising over the city raving away to some Rolling Stones! Finished up about 6am then off to the after party.
There was something horribly wrong about bumbling around the city streets of Tokyo in the blazing sun light watching all the suits off to work while your looking for the next night club! When we found it it was your classic dark dingy sweaty affair blaring out pumping techno music. Nice. Anyway, managed to bump into Sasha and Digweed who were just swanning round the club having a drink in the corner. Gotta stop meeting these damn celebs. Maybe their following me.
Finshed off there around 10am to go back to a bar for a few quiet drinks before heading off home to bed at 3pm. After being awake for about 40hours it was time for bed and spent all of Wednesday day and night snoozing away. Next up........Karaoke!!! I would go out tonight but I havent got a stitch to WEEEEAAAARRRRR.............
So what have I been up to apart from making my own life more difficult? Well its been more celebrity spotting. Going back to the night where we met Oasis in the swanky hotel bar, we also met this pissed up old Japanese bloke at the end of the night who was blathering away to me in Japanese and rubbing my back a lot. Anyway he turns out to be this high profile pottery master (check http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/koie-ryoji-interview.html).
Went to this massive nightclub on Tuesday night which was awesome. It had robots buzzing round the bar offering drinks Metal Mickey style and there was this other big robot behind the main DJ giving it all, well, robot dancing. Very amusing. Was also a cool outdoor deck around a pool and ice sculpture which looked out onto the tokyo skyline. Was beautiful to watch the sun rising over the city raving away to some Rolling Stones! Finished up about 6am then off to the after party.
There was something horribly wrong about bumbling around the city streets of Tokyo in the blazing sun light watching all the suits off to work while your looking for the next night club! When we found it it was your classic dark dingy sweaty affair blaring out pumping techno music. Nice. Anyway, managed to bump into Sasha and Digweed who were just swanning round the club having a drink in the corner. Gotta stop meeting these damn celebs. Maybe their following me.
Finshed off there around 10am to go back to a bar for a few quiet drinks before heading off home to bed at 3pm. After being awake for about 40hours it was time for bed and spent all of Wednesday day and night snoozing away. Next up........Karaoke!!! I would go out tonight but I havent got a stitch to WEEEEAAAARRRRR.............
Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Tokyo, Japan
I know a lot of people said they were jealous of me going away before I left. What happened the other night will make some of you reading this wish I was dead as it was kinda wasted on me. Following on from the last entry, the swanky bar we went to was the bar where they filmed Lost in Translation. 52nd floor of this hotel, swanky a golden badger. Think top of the World Trader Center for those of you who visted that bar before it was blown up. Surprisingly it was full of tourists as its done very good business after a film.
Beers averaged 6 quid a bottle so we didnt drink much. There was a 1949 whiskey on the menu that went for 350 quid a shot! I asked for the bottle. Yeah right. Anyway, who ended up sitting next to us on our table.....thats right Oasis. Haha! I was a real dufus cos this one guy walked in, full Manc swagger and all and I thought I bet hes a DJ. There was this other dude with a mop haircut and I thought he looks like hes in the music biz. Anyway they swanned around like they owned the place and were generally quite loud. We ended up chatting to them and they were alright in the end apart from their head of security who was officailly the worst person Ive met, rude, obnoxious, racist, arrogant, sexist (the whole works basically). The guy with the mop haircut turned out to be Gem (I knew i recognised him from somewhere) and the other guy was their warmup DJ who was a real nice guy. Ended up spending the night chatting to them and were the last people in the bar. Liam and Noel didnt turn up unfortunatley but it was still quite cool. Said they were playing Tokyo then off to Australia then Cardiff for the gig which I think a load of you have got tickets for. Anywho they put us on the guest list for the gig they played the next night which was the last in Japan and we got in for free with prime seats. Nice. Not a bad concert although i dont like the way Liam doesnt bother holding his notes at the end of the verse and just cuts it off (Lazy I reckon). Had the possible opportunity to blag backstage as we were sitting next to the ropie groupies from the night before as they were heading there after the gig but I was distracted by going to Roppongi for drinks in a shot bar (Sorry, like I said, wasted on me). Didnt get any photos of them in the bar as I didnt want to seem like a nob and just played it cool instead.
Other than that went to Mount Fuji today which was really beautiful and has a very relaxing and tranquil surrounding area by the lake. A complete contrast to Tokyo. Took some top boring photos. Its 10pm now and I'm off raving with some new friends I met at the Oasis gig. Starting at midnight so looks like Wednesday could be a right off. My hostel is being a bit crap at the moment as some dude was in my bed last night and the one of the girls Ive been hanging with had her camera pinched too. Might switch it and get somewhere more central where all the action is. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.....
Beers averaged 6 quid a bottle so we didnt drink much. There was a 1949 whiskey on the menu that went for 350 quid a shot! I asked for the bottle. Yeah right. Anyway, who ended up sitting next to us on our table.....thats right Oasis. Haha! I was a real dufus cos this one guy walked in, full Manc swagger and all and I thought I bet hes a DJ. There was this other dude with a mop haircut and I thought he looks like hes in the music biz. Anyway they swanned around like they owned the place and were generally quite loud. We ended up chatting to them and they were alright in the end apart from their head of security who was officailly the worst person Ive met, rude, obnoxious, racist, arrogant, sexist (the whole works basically). The guy with the mop haircut turned out to be Gem (I knew i recognised him from somewhere) and the other guy was their warmup DJ who was a real nice guy. Ended up spending the night chatting to them and were the last people in the bar. Liam and Noel didnt turn up unfortunatley but it was still quite cool. Said they were playing Tokyo then off to Australia then Cardiff for the gig which I think a load of you have got tickets for. Anywho they put us on the guest list for the gig they played the next night which was the last in Japan and we got in for free with prime seats. Nice. Not a bad concert although i dont like the way Liam doesnt bother holding his notes at the end of the verse and just cuts it off (Lazy I reckon). Had the possible opportunity to blag backstage as we were sitting next to the ropie groupies from the night before as they were heading there after the gig but I was distracted by going to Roppongi for drinks in a shot bar (Sorry, like I said, wasted on me). Didnt get any photos of them in the bar as I didnt want to seem like a nob and just played it cool instead.
Other than that went to Mount Fuji today which was really beautiful and has a very relaxing and tranquil surrounding area by the lake. A complete contrast to Tokyo. Took some top boring photos. Its 10pm now and I'm off raving with some new friends I met at the Oasis gig. Starting at midnight so looks like Wednesday could be a right off. My hostel is being a bit crap at the moment as some dude was in my bed last night and the one of the girls Ive been hanging with had her camera pinched too. Might switch it and get somewhere more central where all the action is. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.....
Sunday, 20 November 2005
Tokyo, Japan
Well well well. Firstly excuse the typos, having a mare with this japanese keyboard. Took me 5 mins to log into me hotmail cos I couldnt find an underscore! The flight in was lovely. Had my own slippers with a selection of dvds to watch and games to play on a fully reclinable seat. Had champagne and a dinner menu to select my meals from. Needless to say the flight was blissful and was in Tokyo in no time.
When I arrived i realised that the hostel i had booked into had relocated me to another hostel the other side of the city without telling me! I got there ok in the end though and checked in to my bunk bed. So much to say and its only been 24 hours! Firstly Ive never felt safer in a city. Theres no agro or dodgy looking people so you can be quite relaxed carrying round loads of stuff. Im currently in some wacky internet booth, shoes off slippers on, kneeling (of course!) Last night went out for a quick bite to eat and decided to go into a English pub for fish and chips and a Guiness. When I got there they wouldnt let me in cos I was a foreigner! Oh the irony. So settled for some soup and rice, very nice. Then back to the hostel to sleep off some jetlag.
Hostels are great arent they. Everyone snores. Not much sleep had apart from some crazy dreams about being on a rollercoaster with that crazy ozzy crocodile bloke (Steve Erwin is it?) Anyway woke up and met 2 girls who were off into Hirubku for sight seeing and a film festival which I have just got back from. It was a presentation about the technical aspects of the new sony high definition cameras all in Japanese. Needless to say I didnt understand a word but saw some cracking mental japanese pop videos and commercials. Before that we went to the corner of a park to take photos of the freaks. Basically a load of high school kids all get dressed up in a crazy fashion every week and hang out. Theyve been doing it for years but its now a mini tourist event. Havent worked out the photo upload yet but will sort it out soon so you can see for your self. Off out for a few beers later on in some bar at the top of a sky scraper so should be nice.
Sun Nov 20, 2005 12:18 am
When I arrived i realised that the hostel i had booked into had relocated me to another hostel the other side of the city without telling me! I got there ok in the end though and checked in to my bunk bed. So much to say and its only been 24 hours! Firstly Ive never felt safer in a city. Theres no agro or dodgy looking people so you can be quite relaxed carrying round loads of stuff. Im currently in some wacky internet booth, shoes off slippers on, kneeling (of course!) Last night went out for a quick bite to eat and decided to go into a English pub for fish and chips and a Guiness. When I got there they wouldnt let me in cos I was a foreigner! Oh the irony. So settled for some soup and rice, very nice. Then back to the hostel to sleep off some jetlag.
Hostels are great arent they. Everyone snores. Not much sleep had apart from some crazy dreams about being on a rollercoaster with that crazy ozzy crocodile bloke (Steve Erwin is it?) Anyway woke up and met 2 girls who were off into Hirubku for sight seeing and a film festival which I have just got back from. It was a presentation about the technical aspects of the new sony high definition cameras all in Japanese. Needless to say I didnt understand a word but saw some cracking mental japanese pop videos and commercials. Before that we went to the corner of a park to take photos of the freaks. Basically a load of high school kids all get dressed up in a crazy fashion every week and hang out. Theyve been doing it for years but its now a mini tourist event. Havent worked out the photo upload yet but will sort it out soon so you can see for your self. Off out for a few beers later on in some bar at the top of a sky scraper so should be nice.
Sun Nov 20, 2005 12:18 am
Friday, 18 November 2005
Heathrow Airport, London
Clever, clever. I have a big journey in front of me so what does brains decide to do the night before? Of course! Get drunk and go to bed as the suns coming up. Luckily not feeling too bad but pretty tired so will hopefully catch some Z's on the plane. Well I've made it to the airport way ahead of time and I'm now in a swanky little departure lounge away from the plebs and it's got free internet. Which is nice. The people are lovely and the food is nice. I think I'm going to like it here....
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