Japan Trip 2009 #2 – not quite a travelogue
My original plan had been to write a diary every day I was in Japan but I returned home most nights completely knackered and didn’t think much of trying to writing coherent words at 2am in the morning. Besides, I wasn’t on a sightseeing trip, my camera was never really in action and my entries would probably read something terribly dull (I ate ramen. I ate Indonesian food. I tripped and fell on the streets of Shibuya etc etc). The map above (click for larger version) shows the places I went to this time, a lot fewer than on my previous trip in May when I went to Hokkaido. Oh and Saitama is somewhere off the map so that’s why it looks a bit weird up top.
I won’t bore you with lengthy descriptions of what I ate or details how much I spent on whatever this time. Just a few important points then.
10 things I did while I was in Japan:
1.Go karaoke
No pictures at all sadly. I should’ve known that attempting to sing Don’t say “lazy” was an impossible task. IIRC my highest scores were on Sakamoto Kyu’s Ue o Muite Arukou and er… Brian Hyland’s Sealed With A Kiss.
2.Watch Tamagawa Hanabi Taikai
This was one of the smaller-scale fireworks festivals but it was still a total blast (pardon the pun). Futako Tamagawa was packed to the max with people, it was really suffocating walking around the area and the train station was virtually in meltdown. I got a great view of the fireworks from the roof of my brother’s apartment block and didn’t have to suffer with the rest of the crowd, thankfully. Andddd…. there were loads of cute girls walking around in yukata the whole day XD
3.Watch animals roll around in a glass box
So you have all these ridiculous pet shops in Japan that sell accessories (clothes, collars etc) that cost more than the clothes on the pet owners’ backs. This particular one I went to happened to be holding ‘beginner classes’ to teach people how to get their dogs to poo in the proper places or something… and I was thinking ‘Don’t these guys have jobs? Why are they learning how to make Wan-chan not shit on their shoes at 10am in the morning?’
4.Attend gigs/lives
Standing gigs in cramped basement clubs are really cool, but very very bad for my legs. Very bad. Also very bad for my ears. The first gig I went to was seated so that was alright, but 3 1/2 hours of standing for the gig in Shimokitazawa’s Club Que was just a killer. More so than AniSama was, since I was rooted to the spot and didn’t move the whole night for fear of 1) stepping onto the shoes of the guy behind me 2) ramming my head into the armpit of the person in front of me. I thoroughly enjoyed myself at all the lives though, it’s hard for me to pick a favourite out of the three.
5.Tried to see if I could spot Tokyo Tower from Setagaya
NO I CAN’T. The kids in Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 are lying!!!!! Well actually, they lived in a different part of Setagaya (Seijo) which is closer to Minato-ku while I stayed in Futako Tamagawa (二子玉川, or Nikotama for short), which is closer to the Tama River bordering Kanagawa. Incidentally, Nikotama is the area that the fictitious Nikotama (二子魂) in Futakoi Alternative was based on.
6.Got sunburnt watching Shimokawa Mikuni
‘Photography Not Allowed’. Sue this baka gaijin then, Pony Canyon! Anyhow, managed to sneak a couple of shots of Mikuni during her performance in Kameido where she sang a bunch of songs from the Full Metal Panic! series including Karenai Hana and Minami Kaze. As one should always do, push your foreigner angle when you’re talking to Japanese celebs/singers! I chatted with Mikuni for 2-3 minutes while she was signing my CD and she kept shaking my hand and thanking me for coming all the way in the terrible heat….yeah. I got a sunburn for the privilege of shaking her hand!! She better be grateful!
7.Failed to find the Mega Tamago anywhere in Tokyo.
Instead, I ate the Cheese Tamago Double Mac twice. It looks kinda disgusting and gloppy here but I can assure you it’s very nice.
8.Bought more CDs than I should have
Um, yeah I got about twice as many CDs this time as I did on my last trip but in my defence, I did suspend all my July and August purchases to save on shipping costs. I think my worst mistake was not drawing up a shopping list beforehand (I normally do), which meant I ended up making all sorts of random/impulse purchases like a Japanese folk group singing covers of Oasis and Joni Mitchell. Somehow I still ended up forgetting to buy Shiina Ringo’s Sanmon Gossip… oh well, go figure.
9.Developed murderous intentions towards cicadas
ひぐらしのなく頃に、j1m0neが眠れない。I woke up at 4am every morning thanks to the bright lights and the noisy cicadas, damn them. Now slowly repaying my sleep debt, 30 minutes a day at a time.
10.Ran around terrorising little girls
Sneaking shots of cute little girls to feed the lecherous old man in me.
Oh well, I enjoyed myself as always although it doesn’t seem like I did much apart from stare at cute girls wearing yukata and overshoot my budget buying stuff I’m not sure I want. And I’ll get to repeat the process on my (three) planned Tokyo trips in 2010 
Cool.
Someday I will visit the promised land…
That is the cutest little loli I’ve seen in a long time~
…. That isn’t 2D, I mean.
what a momentous trip!
Gotta love the HUEG burgers in McDo Japan, I miss the shrimp burger too.
“…it doesn’t seem like I did much apart from stare at cute girls wearing yukata” — LOOL
People who learn about pets at 10 AM in the morning do not have jobs, period. Besides did you look to see if they were youngsters (who could be excused) or old folks?
Oh, and about the lolies…you are now in the Shin club. He will probably request privately from you all the loli pictures you took while there.
MEGAAAAA TAMAGOOOOOO
I wish I could have found out how good that tasted……..
I hope you stared my share of girls in yukata as well! Also, watching any sort of live show outdoors ANYWHERE in Asia is just…bad. I looked like a redneck for a week last time I stood in the sun for that long when I was over in HK.
well, j1mOne…. I’m actually going to Japan myself on 22 Sept till 3 Oct…. I need guidence on walking around Tokyo, Osaka n Kyoto cause i’m planing to buy a bunch of Figma’s n CDs there….
But really, I don’t have a clue on where to buy them… any ideas?
BTW, any good foods around there? oh, and is there any possiblity on seeing seiyuus walking around?
Totally am confuse….
I want hug that little girl.
Cute little girl is cute
.
That burger looks kind of tasty (is something wrong with me?). I don’t like eggs, however, so I wouldn’t even go near that thing. And you may have gotten a sunburn while talking to Mikuni, but it was worth it, right?
Someday I’ll go to Japan. If not, there’s always Little Tokyo in California.
Yeah, one of these days I’ll go there too; though maybe in winter, since Japanese summers sound like summers in the American South. (Speaking of which, kudzu, an invasive vine which has smothered the South, was imported from Japan.) Though it’s been hot enough lately here in Southern California.
Did you say your brother lives in Tokyo? Which ward?
Although if Minorin performs in SE Asia again sometime in the near future, I may have to spend my money on that.
Murderous intent? When the Cicadas Cry?
I’m heading over to Japan soon and I’m hoping to attend as many lives as I can. So far, all I have is a single ticket for Tacica’s live at Shibuya-AX. I’m planning to go for some indie lives in the various clubs, but I’m not too sure where’s good. Some places I’ve heard are Shibuya and Shimokitawaza.
Any specific places to recommend?
@Panther
A good chunk of the people who went to the training thing looked like married couples :/
@Andrew
Erm Setagaya-ku as I mentioned somewhere.
@double
I’ve never been to a gig at the AX, but that’s where most of the bigger acts play. Generally Shibuya live houses are a hole, soulless and have no atmosphere except maybe O-Nest (generally avoid the Quattro or Duo unless you’re desperate to see the bands).
The clubs I would recommend – definitely Club Que in Shimokitazawa which has a lot of great, more melodic bands playing, Shelter (also Shimokita) which is more hard rock & punk… also the Loft and Jam in Shinjuku. Those places, you can actually feel the music; yes they’re small and cramped but they have great history & you won’t get better atmosphere elsewhere.
And ooh Tacica… would love to catch them one day. Have fun!
Alright, I’ll check out Shinjuku and Shimokitazawa. Thanks!
Another question I have here. There’s this Polysics live at Club Que, but the tickets are sold out. Based on your experience, do you think it’s possible to hang around the area before the live starts and get a ticket?
I’ve heard from a friends that it’s easy to get a ticket that way for X Japan at larger venues. But Club Que is pretty small, isn’t it?
Ah if it’s sold out you’re probably out of luck. Que is really small (maybe 200 tops) and generally security is tight, the club people will be hanging around the venue 10-15 minutes before they open the doors. I certainly didn’t see anyone within the area offering tickets….
Actually, I just did a quick check on Yahoo Auction Japan and there are tickets for the gig up for bidding so depending on how desperate you are to go you could try that route.
Oh well, I’ll just give it a shot and hang around the area. I’ll have to pass on YJA since I got my Tacica ticket from YJA and it costs almost 6000 yen after all the shipping and middleman fees.
Anyway, you’re pretty lucky that you went in August. There are all the music festivals and most bands are active during the summer. Sucks for me that I’ve got school. Haha.
Hey what’s up. Been really lazy latey so haven’t hung around here.(so much to check/watch/listen…how do you guys do it without backlogs?…hehe) That trip sounds like a lot of fun. Wish I could attend it as well. Just saving up enough money again for my annual Tokyo trip which is about the same time as last year…^^; So far only few events are interesting. Ootsuka Kenji’s SZ concert looks good but want to wait to see if more interesting events pop up for that day. Also need to see what Payo Payo October’s gues would be. Kinda annnoying…hehe.
Oh yea, I need some help here, guys.^^; Animate tv seems to revamp their site again after not checking it for a week or two. It was bad enough I have to use proxy but now doesn’t seem to work for dl at all. Could you guys be kind to help me out here? Thanks in advance!
Call me an idiot, but I just noticed that the ward where Haneda Airport is located is “Ota-ku” in Japanese.