Well, first day back from Japan. Got back at 4pm CDT yestready.. still pretty jet lagged...
man, that country is interesting. Compared to america, the customer service is slow but much more polite (but much slower), everyone moves a fuck of a lot faster, and their breakfasts suck (though I thoroughly enjoyed the other meals). oh, and they have porn everywhere and really no kids clothing for sale.. very odd.
most of our nights were spent getting drunk with salarymen. we were a huge attraction. not a whole lot of non-asians there from what we saw.. I mean when you got near the tourist spots (imperial palace (which btw is the WORST TOURIST ATTRACTION EVER), tokyo tower, etc) there are plenty of non-Japanese people.. but just staying in the cities and whatnot.. not a whole lot. so we'd stroll into a bar or restaurant and would instantly become the attraction. everyone asking us abaout american culture, things we do or don't find rude, etc. We told everyone we were from chicago (because it is easier than trying to explain to them exactly what Wisconsin is) and they wanted to know about it and everything.. very interesting. It is safe to assume that most japanese people never leave the country the same as most americans who don't leave the country.
we did kabukicho, sort of... as I have said, I am happily married so had no interest in hooking anything up.. if I did though, apparently kabukicho is the RIGHT place to do it..
and a white guy walking through there, they weren't even subtle. we were propositioned everything from "sex massages" to straight up oral sex (in the form of the universal hand sign for BJ.. LOL!!) needless to say, we strolled through kabukicho, were offered all the way down to a girl for 19 minutes for like 3000y, and then left.. interesting but not really.
the ghibli museum was fucking awesome... it was the only time that the "little" kid got to come out in japan. just really amazing. the pixar stuff was cool in there as well (though took me by surprise).. I suppose they just don't have the level of pixcar saturation that we do over here... but the statue animation thingy at ghibli has to be seen to be believed. to see statues animated like frames of a cartoon is pretty fucking amazing. I've seen a lot and have never seen anything like that before.
My buddy was on a self-appointed quest to beat someone at Tekken 5 in the arcade.. Unfortunately his skills at Tekken have diminished over the years and was rusty, and got beat every single time. Until literally right before we left to catch the NEX to Narita the last day. He finally beat someone, we took a picture, and he left feeling triumphant (despite losing like 50+ times in a row before that win).
Nattou is fucking gross.. I vommited in my mouth, literally.. It stinks for shit, but I figured what the hell. ate it slowly, but decided I didn't really want to be eating this stuff for the next 6 hours so decided to try and take the remaining bit down in one last giant bite. after swishing it around in my mouth for a few seconds I decided I really didn't want to chew on all of this so I tried swallowing the rest down whole. it went partway down and then I through it back up. sitting in the middle of the hotel restaurant, I decided throwing up onto the table wouldn't be considered respectful or acceptable, so I swallowed it back down then and there, gagged, washed it down with the entire fucking rest of the bowl of rice, and just sucked it up.. never again..
met up with Dcharlie.. he showed us around Akihabara, took us to the BEST RAMEN SHOP EVER (god that place was delicious), and just showed us some of the smaller more eclectic shops there. thanks for that man.. good time.
tourist stuff.. umm.. tokyo tower, imperial palace.. shinjukugyoen garden, Ameyoko Street Market in Ueno, a virtual crap load of shrines..
but yeah, otherwise lots of drinking with locals, going to arcades, going shopping, etc..
great time.. when I go back to japan though, I'll probably stop into tokyo to say high to gaffers there but will probably next time head out to mainly other areas of the country instead. Tokyo was great, but I am not really a big city tourist guy.. I love living in big cities, which is probably the thing.. I want to vacation and tour smaller and more remote areas.. not really go from living in one big city to touring another big city... but still.. great time..
man, that country is interesting. Compared to america, the customer service is slow but much more polite (but much slower), everyone moves a fuck of a lot faster, and their breakfasts suck (though I thoroughly enjoyed the other meals). oh, and they have porn everywhere and really no kids clothing for sale.. very odd.
most of our nights were spent getting drunk with salarymen. we were a huge attraction. not a whole lot of non-asians there from what we saw.. I mean when you got near the tourist spots (imperial palace (which btw is the WORST TOURIST ATTRACTION EVER), tokyo tower, etc) there are plenty of non-Japanese people.. but just staying in the cities and whatnot.. not a whole lot. so we'd stroll into a bar or restaurant and would instantly become the attraction. everyone asking us abaout american culture, things we do or don't find rude, etc. We told everyone we were from chicago (because it is easier than trying to explain to them exactly what Wisconsin is) and they wanted to know about it and everything.. very interesting. It is safe to assume that most japanese people never leave the country the same as most americans who don't leave the country.
we did kabukicho, sort of... as I have said, I am happily married so had no interest in hooking anything up.. if I did though, apparently kabukicho is the RIGHT place to do it..
and a white guy walking through there, they weren't even subtle. we were propositioned everything from "sex massages" to straight up oral sex (in the form of the universal hand sign for BJ.. LOL!!) needless to say, we strolled through kabukicho, were offered all the way down to a girl for 19 minutes for like 3000y, and then left.. interesting but not really.the ghibli museum was fucking awesome... it was the only time that the "little" kid got to come out in japan. just really amazing. the pixar stuff was cool in there as well (though took me by surprise).. I suppose they just don't have the level of pixcar saturation that we do over here... but the statue animation thingy at ghibli has to be seen to be believed. to see statues animated like frames of a cartoon is pretty fucking amazing. I've seen a lot and have never seen anything like that before.
My buddy was on a self-appointed quest to beat someone at Tekken 5 in the arcade.. Unfortunately his skills at Tekken have diminished over the years and was rusty, and got beat every single time. Until literally right before we left to catch the NEX to Narita the last day. He finally beat someone, we took a picture, and he left feeling triumphant (despite losing like 50+ times in a row before that win).
Nattou is fucking gross.. I vommited in my mouth, literally.. It stinks for shit, but I figured what the hell. ate it slowly, but decided I didn't really want to be eating this stuff for the next 6 hours so decided to try and take the remaining bit down in one last giant bite. after swishing it around in my mouth for a few seconds I decided I really didn't want to chew on all of this so I tried swallowing the rest down whole. it went partway down and then I through it back up. sitting in the middle of the hotel restaurant, I decided throwing up onto the table wouldn't be considered respectful or acceptable, so I swallowed it back down then and there, gagged, washed it down with the entire fucking rest of the bowl of rice, and just sucked it up.. never again..
met up with Dcharlie.. he showed us around Akihabara, took us to the BEST RAMEN SHOP EVER (god that place was delicious), and just showed us some of the smaller more eclectic shops there. thanks for that man.. good time.
tourist stuff.. umm.. tokyo tower, imperial palace.. shinjukugyoen garden, Ameyoko Street Market in Ueno, a virtual crap load of shrines..
but yeah, otherwise lots of drinking with locals, going to arcades, going shopping, etc..
great time.. when I go back to japan though, I'll probably stop into tokyo to say high to gaffers there but will probably next time head out to mainly other areas of the country instead. Tokyo was great, but I am not really a big city tourist guy.. I love living in big cities, which is probably the thing.. I want to vacation and tour smaller and more remote areas.. not really go from living in one big city to touring another big city... but still.. great time..
