Well, as I am at LAX with a few hours to idle away (did “Prime Time Shuttle” misunderstand when we needed to be here by?) I thought I’d write a few lines about Japan and maybe LA if there is time and I have the motivation left. At least the laptop gives out some warmth to my lap.
I recently had my second trip to Japan. It went better than the first in some respects. I actually uttered a few thank yous and hellos in Japanese. Ordering food was slightly easier now I knew what I liked. I was generally less disorientated. But at the same time the working hours were worse (seven night shifts!) and my part of the experiment failed.
But I will talk on cheerier matters such as my weekend off. It wasn’t meant to be a whole weekend… I intended to do some work. But alas the road to ATF is paved with good intentions and what happened was I got dragged to Tokyo on Saturday and up a mountain on Sunday.
I was sitting with my back against the door of the ATF container for an hour on Saturday morning. I had woken up early as my body clock was confused by all the night shifts and had gone down to the container to check my emails, chat a little, visit the board. The usual. I may have considered doing work at some point. Alas, the container was locked and I didn’t feel up to attempting a break in as Glen did a few days later much to the surprise of the Japanese man standing inside (who subsequently littered Glen with apologies). So I pressed up against the door trying to get a good wireless connection.
Despite the glare on the laptop screen, I managed a good conversation with Rian and Susannah (mainly Angel and Buffy based…) and moved into the container once it opened an hour later. Within moments of settling down, Glen and Steve made a surprising appearance. Surprising as I imagined that they would be sleeping all day after a Friday night session at Corkheads, the first bar in Tsukuba. Indeed they were rather worse for wear but strangely eager to walk off their hangovers in Tokyo. And who was I to say no?
We took the train into Tokyo Ueno station. From there we aimed to walk to Asusaka (I think). A kindly Japanese man with masking tape on his feet introduced himself to us and offered to take us there (using a route that seemed to disagree with Steve’s memories) even though his destination was quite different. Steve was suspicious so we declined his help and set out on our own, stopping off at Starbucks on the way.
Which is, incidentally, where I am now sitting as I type. With a premium economy ticket in my bag… I wonder how I swindled that.
In the Japanese Starbucks, the staff were rather excitable and screeched the orders passing it down the line like Chinese Whispers at a hundred times the volume. The sizes included a small category and there was no sign of the venti. I realise it is poor form to go to an American chain whilst in Japan but apparently it is the only place to get what the western world perceives as proper coffee.
Suitably refreshed, we tackled the walk to Asusaka. A twenty minute stroll turned into an hour long hike so we got a little suspicious and unsure of Steve’s navigational expertise. We ended up in some electronics district where Glen utterly failed to buy a psp, no matter how much I encouraged him to. I guess not knowing the relationship between him and Denise well, I should not have encouraged him so much. Plus a 30 year old man with a family having a console habit is a little strange to me. But I get pushed into saying something, playing the game, being a proper person. Being the devil tempting him into a pricy purchase was the easiest route.
Anyway. After much back-tracking with the aid of the metro, we found our way to Asusaka. There was a large tourist market there that rivalled Pisa in terms of total tat. The entrance to the market was a gateway with statues of demons and warriors and gods. I think. In the market we passed a wondrous contraption that made cakes filled with some kind of goo. We saw the sponge mix being injected into the mould and then, under rotation of the contraption, the filling injected (and another mould gets filled in the meantime on this carousel of fresh sweetness). Another rotation and two halves were snapped together, rotation and bake, rotation and turn and bake some more. Rather ingenious.
At the end of the market was a large Buddhist temple. We passed through “cleansing” incense to get into it and saw various stalls with small wooden drawers. I am not sure what these are exactly (I should ask perhaps!) but it seems obvious that it was a way of praying. People would rattle a long jar, pull out a stick and go to the drawer as indicated by the end of the stick. Inside the drawer was a piece of paper with writing on it. This was folded and tied to a rack. You could see these strips of paper tied all over the place- on fences etc- in other less organised locations. Glen told the story of how Phil had taken one of the “prayers” home and framed it much to the horror of any Japanese visitor.
The temple was great but we were on a more noble mission- we were to find a t-shirt that was worthy of being sent to the Engrish website Glen and Steve were so fond of. We did find a rather great shop but personally the nonsensical ramblings on the t-shirts left me cold rather than amused. Glen and Steve got great enjoyment out of it and later Glen went back to buy one of the t-shirts (but was mysteriously unable to find the shop). Whilst Glen was off, Steve and I sat at a fountain and looked on some activity with large television cameras, screaming girls and three or four teenage boys. We guessed that the boys were part of a group and so we should have been in awe or something. We also got stopped by lots of young girls asking us to do a survey. They would ask questions in halting English along the lines of “where are you from?” and bizarrely “do you like rice or bread? Can you eat musabi? Have you seen this film called [Japanese]?”
From here we went to Shindoku. This looked like the Tokyo I expected. Neon signs and an aura of age mingled. Apparently this was the area were weird things happened… where people would dress up as Manga characters. We weren’t there at night so I missed out on all that but I saw enough “gentleman only” (and even “ladies only”) establishments to get an idea of the area.
As Steve’s hangover turned into a Migraine that even another Starbucks fix couldn’t help, we went back home to the KEK dorm. On the way we grabbed a “Wendy’s” (hmm…) and tried to find paracetamol or equivalent at some pharmacies but all Steve could see were herbal remedies. Apparently the drugs are there and they are stronger if you know what to ask for, but Steve was unable to find them. So I got another early night, thankfully and started the next day in much the same way, checking email in the (for once open) ATF container.
I didn’t get as far as I got on the Saturday before Marc Ross and Steve Smith entered. Steve Smith (who shall henceforth be called Steve risking confusion with the Real Steve). Steve said he was going to climb Mount Tsukuba and asked whether I wanted to join him. I really needed to work that day but he said it wouldn’t take long at all so I was persuaded into it. Hardly needed much persuasion… Going into the countryside while it was as verdant as it was in late May was something I was wanting to do all along. Tokyo seemed unimportant in comparison. I wanted to see the Real Japan. So I jumped up and grabbed my mochi, apple and water and joined the hike up Mount Tsukuba.
We started part of the way up (where’s the fun in walking the comparatively flat rise into the mountain?) at a large orange gate. Steve gave the option of two routes- the steep route and the not-so-steep route. We went not-so-steep though it was (as is logical) much longer. En route there were so many points of interest… so many shrines and great rock formations… I loved it so much. And the nature- the tall perfectly straight and unbranched trees as far as the eye could see… But back to the start. The start of the walk was marked by a Shinto temple. Under Steve’s direction I threw some money down a grate and bowed three times and clapped three times. Looking at other people do it, I think the required number of claps is in fact two but I hope no one took offence. There was also a large (obviously man-made) egg-shaped rock that Steve called “the egg from outer space” to divert our attention. Further up the trail there were rocks that made gateways and narrow passages for us to go through (and the coolness of the rocks was very welcome). We went off the path a few times to clamber up rocks to reach a shrine or get a view. It was fun though my work shoes were certainly not suitable. At most natural rock formations there would be a string or bit of rope. Steve said it signified the presence of spirits. One significant rock formation seemed to be the “frog” that sat between the two peaks of Mount Tsukuba (male and female peaks?). Steve couldn’t see the frog at first but the wide “mouth” said amphibian to me. People were throwing stones at it, trying to get them to land in the mouth. From the amount of dust produced, I daresay this frog won’t last very long. The views from the two peaks were astounding. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and although it was too muggy to see Fiji or the Pacific, we could see rather far. It was amazing to sit on the precipice of the peak and see KEK in the distance. I gave them a wave.
