i finally upload all my photos from my trip to ofoto. so, for posterity's sake, here they are.
and if you want to ever look back and relive my glory days, here's an easy way to find my blog entries:
day one: orange county
day two: orange county
day three: orange county
day four: orange county
day five: guangzhou
day six: guangzhou
day seven: guangzhou
day eight: guangzhou ritz-carlton
day nine: tokyo
day ten: tokyo
day eleven: tokyo
day twelve: tokyo
day thirteen: tokyo
Showing posts with label tokyo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tokyo. Show all posts
Friday, June 13, 2008
Sunday, June 01, 2008
how to recap the final day of my trip (tokyo edition)
after checking out for a second time, we decided to spend our last free four fours in tokyo exploring other nearby parts of the city - and in the sun for the first time during our trip. we walked though shibuya to yoyogi park, which is much like central park - except you don't really see the city skyline anywhere in the distance. central park always gives you the idea that you're in a park surrounded by a large city. yoyogi was just a large, beautiful, immersive park in a large, beautiful, immersive city. it felt different, although the two parks are very similar.
we left there and visited harajuku, which is the fashion capital district of tokyo. the main road, takeshita street, was lined with teenaged kids making any sort of fashion statement or fitting into some sort of weird subculture, walking past endless clothing stores, from t-shirts to kicks to lingerie. and the t-shirts were hilarious, with strange translations of english sentences, stuff like "i will dream the dream of worlds", whatever that means. of course, nothing fit a godzilla like myself.
we ate some mcdonalds, just because it was there and it felt like something we had to do. i had a double big mac, which is two big macs on top of each other. it was actually quite good. the meat tasted fresher (probably due to japan's higher food standards), though the fries were nowhere near as good (and honestly, who beats mcdonald's fries). however, they had no orange drink. for that, i say "damn you to hell, mcdonald's harajuku!"
from there, we went back to yoyogi park to visit meiji shrine, which was spiritual even for a apathetic like myself. the custom is for people to wash their hands in cold water from a bamboo fountain, then walk in to pray silently and clap their hands once in unison. i didn't feel right to do that, so i just stood back and watched. there were also a bunch of japanese wedding ceremonies being performed in the shrine's outdoor square. simply put, it was just a very serene place to be on a gorgeous day.
also, it was at the shrine, which was full of tourists, where i saw the silliest t-shirt in japan. it said, "i believe in stanford football!" how silly! nobody believes in stanford football.
and with that, we returned to the hotel, and i boarded a shuttle to narita airport and left tokyo behind me.
writers love symmetry, especially when the opening and ending mirror each other exactly. that's why i really didn't get so mad when my trip ended exactly the way it began: with my bag ripping as soon as i walked into the airport. except this time, i bought some sake (the same i drank at shabu shabu) and got some new bags to replace the old ones. fate is my bitch. put that on a t-shirt, tokyo.
i'll have my photos up on the site, once i get the software loaded in.
until then, sayonara.
we left there and visited harajuku, which is the fashion capital district of tokyo. the main road, takeshita street, was lined with teenaged kids making any sort of fashion statement or fitting into some sort of weird subculture, walking past endless clothing stores, from t-shirts to kicks to lingerie. and the t-shirts were hilarious, with strange translations of english sentences, stuff like "i will dream the dream of worlds", whatever that means. of course, nothing fit a godzilla like myself.
we ate some mcdonalds, just because it was there and it felt like something we had to do. i had a double big mac, which is two big macs on top of each other. it was actually quite good. the meat tasted fresher (probably due to japan's higher food standards), though the fries were nowhere near as good (and honestly, who beats mcdonald's fries). however, they had no orange drink. for that, i say "damn you to hell, mcdonald's harajuku!"
from there, we went back to yoyogi park to visit meiji shrine, which was spiritual even for a apathetic like myself. the custom is for people to wash their hands in cold water from a bamboo fountain, then walk in to pray silently and clap their hands once in unison. i didn't feel right to do that, so i just stood back and watched. there were also a bunch of japanese wedding ceremonies being performed in the shrine's outdoor square. simply put, it was just a very serene place to be on a gorgeous day.
also, it was at the shrine, which was full of tourists, where i saw the silliest t-shirt in japan. it said, "i believe in stanford football!" how silly! nobody believes in stanford football.
and with that, we returned to the hotel, and i boarded a shuttle to narita airport and left tokyo behind me.
writers love symmetry, especially when the opening and ending mirror each other exactly. that's why i really didn't get so mad when my trip ended exactly the way it began: with my bag ripping as soon as i walked into the airport. except this time, i bought some sake (the same i drank at shabu shabu) and got some new bags to replace the old ones. fate is my bitch. put that on a t-shirt, tokyo.
i'll have my photos up on the site, once i get the software loaded in.
until then, sayonara.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
how to recap the twelfth day of my trip (tokyo edition)
it's very difficult for an american to comprehend how much of an ordered society japan is. everything has a correct way and reason, and that's it. in an example like the intersection in shibuya, it works wonders.
in other ways, it's completely inexplicable.
three examples of this, as how it affects me:
1. when preparing for our shoot, we wanted an outside exterior or court that screamed "japan!" and japanese athletes. so our japanese client presented us with one basketball court on a nike campus 90 minutes away from tokyo, and one athlete for each day. the basketball court was completely non-descript: white, clean, devoid of any markings. the athletes were tiny and looked more like fancylads than rugged competitors. if these were just one of many options, no problem. but when we asked for more (while being shocked there weren't any), we were responded with, "oh no. it cannot happen. it is impossible." impossible? really? there's a famous soccer pitch on a rooftop with the city's skyline in the background. did you even check that out? no, you did not. it was just a complete crock of shit - but in their ways of order, this is it because this is how we do things and how can you not be happy with it?
2. we shot on the nike campus on saturday, when most doors were locked closed both inside and out. during a break, we wanted to walk into the employee store, but just couldn't find a way except for a back door. we couldn't get anyone's attention until a store employee walked out. so we tried to walk in the door he left out from, but he said, "no! only entry in front. this is impossible!" but there was nothing impossible about it. we were practically in the store. yet he told us it was impossible for us to enter this way. so we begged him to show us the correct way to enter - and he walked us around the entire building to the proper front entrance, which is just like the back entrance. very little difference. weird.
and finally...
3. i'm writing this in the morning after because i packed up for my trip late last night and went to bed so i can sleep in. unfortunately, i got an early wake-up call, finished up packing and checked out - without ever checking the clock, which said 5:30 AM. we all planned to leave at 9:30. oops. four hours to kill, and i'm dead tired. however, i found this out after i checked out in the lobby and realized i was all alone. so i asked the girl at the front desk if i could just relax in my room for a couple of hours. "oh no, this is impossible!" i replied, "i'm not asking to get another day, just a place to sleep for a couple of hours. can't we make believe this didn't happen?" "oh, well...let's undo your checkout then. that way, it will be possible." does anyone else find this ridiculous? why should i have to undo my checkout just to relax in a room that otherwise wouldn't be used? but that's what i did, because that's the only way to do things.
when walking around the city, i've noticed and admired this rigidness to order and came to the conclusion that america could use a healthy dose of it. and i've come to realize that, sometimes, in just the right doses, japan could use a little "jerry springer".
we had dinner and drinks at the top floor of the hotel, which has a windowed 360 view of the city at night. as beautiful as the people are, they don't match up to the colors, lights and architecture of the city. the air is thinner this high up, but that wasn't the reason i wasn't catching my breath.
we're checking out more of the city tomorrow before we take off.
in other ways, it's completely inexplicable.
three examples of this, as how it affects me:
1. when preparing for our shoot, we wanted an outside exterior or court that screamed "japan!" and japanese athletes. so our japanese client presented us with one basketball court on a nike campus 90 minutes away from tokyo, and one athlete for each day. the basketball court was completely non-descript: white, clean, devoid of any markings. the athletes were tiny and looked more like fancylads than rugged competitors. if these were just one of many options, no problem. but when we asked for more (while being shocked there weren't any), we were responded with, "oh no. it cannot happen. it is impossible." impossible? really? there's a famous soccer pitch on a rooftop with the city's skyline in the background. did you even check that out? no, you did not. it was just a complete crock of shit - but in their ways of order, this is it because this is how we do things and how can you not be happy with it?
2. we shot on the nike campus on saturday, when most doors were locked closed both inside and out. during a break, we wanted to walk into the employee store, but just couldn't find a way except for a back door. we couldn't get anyone's attention until a store employee walked out. so we tried to walk in the door he left out from, but he said, "no! only entry in front. this is impossible!" but there was nothing impossible about it. we were practically in the store. yet he told us it was impossible for us to enter this way. so we begged him to show us the correct way to enter - and he walked us around the entire building to the proper front entrance, which is just like the back entrance. very little difference. weird.
and finally...
3. i'm writing this in the morning after because i packed up for my trip late last night and went to bed so i can sleep in. unfortunately, i got an early wake-up call, finished up packing and checked out - without ever checking the clock, which said 5:30 AM. we all planned to leave at 9:30. oops. four hours to kill, and i'm dead tired. however, i found this out after i checked out in the lobby and realized i was all alone. so i asked the girl at the front desk if i could just relax in my room for a couple of hours. "oh no, this is impossible!" i replied, "i'm not asking to get another day, just a place to sleep for a couple of hours. can't we make believe this didn't happen?" "oh, well...let's undo your checkout then. that way, it will be possible." does anyone else find this ridiculous? why should i have to undo my checkout just to relax in a room that otherwise wouldn't be used? but that's what i did, because that's the only way to do things.
when walking around the city, i've noticed and admired this rigidness to order and came to the conclusion that america could use a healthy dose of it. and i've come to realize that, sometimes, in just the right doses, japan could use a little "jerry springer".
we had dinner and drinks at the top floor of the hotel, which has a windowed 360 view of the city at night. as beautiful as the people are, they don't match up to the colors, lights and architecture of the city. the air is thinner this high up, but that wasn't the reason i wasn't catching my breath.
we're checking out more of the city tomorrow before we take off.
Friday, May 30, 2008
how to recap the eleventh day of my trip (tokyo edition)
each day i spend away from "the sickness" makes my body a little bit better. if i were at 15% on the day i was sick, i would say 50% the day after, then at 85% yesterday.
after all the sushi i ate yesterday, and after learning that my favorite roll was the one with foie gras, my body operated at about 63% today.
oh well.
still, we had the first day of our shoot today at the nike customer service center all the way out by the narita airport (about 90 minutes from tokyo). on the way, we passed the tokyo tower, which is pretty damn pretty. once outside of tokyo, however, there just isn't much to see.
while on the basketball court, i was shooting hoops with our trainer, who remarked that i have the perfect "white boy from the northeast" shooting form (it was a compliment). i thought that was a weird thing to say, but he mentioned that whenever he works with ballers from the midwest, they tend to bring the ball up from their center and shoot above their heads, whereas i (and my northeastern brethren) keep the ball on the side they're shooting with - and this is the correct way. he said it's just way too common for this to be a coincidence. so we walked about it on the bus, and this is how i broke it down: the midwest follows french licks' own larry bird's shooting form, but in the northeast, brooklyn's favorite son chris mullin was the man to emulate.
see? aren't i so observant? (especially when you ignore that bird played his whole career in boston, which is in the northeast)
anyways, it was a nice discussion that lead to many other tangents, writes the guy with the picture perfect form from the outside.
tonight's dinner specialty, the choice of our interpreter and dinner companion named taki, was shabu-shabu at a restaurant called...called...well, i can't read their business card. it's something in japanese.
anyways, the short version of the meal is this: there's two bowls on a hibachi in front of you (much like a korean BBQ). one pot is filled with a soup made from soy sauce, sugar and sake. the other is just water. once boiling, you toss in thinly-sliced raw meat into the bowls. after a couple of seconds, you pull it out and then dip it into a dish of sauce. then, you eat it. they keep on bringing you an unlimited supply of raw meat to eat.
it was frigging delicious, and a nice compliment to the sake we drank, which was named...named...yeah, i can't read that label either. sorry.
afterwards, in a search for a mcdonald's soft-serve ice cream, we walked around shibuya on a friday night amid the mass of the young, beautiful and stylish, mingling and mixing and crossing wherever you looked. no matter what street we walked down, there they were, and countless of them, but it was always ordered and never uncomfortable, writes the claustrophobe. i wrote this before and i'll write it again, but if i were young and beautiful and fashionable at a world-class level, i think i would give tokyo a shot, just to see what it would be like to fit in.
and hell yes, i'd bring my northeast jumpshot with me.
after all the sushi i ate yesterday, and after learning that my favorite roll was the one with foie gras, my body operated at about 63% today.
oh well.
still, we had the first day of our shoot today at the nike customer service center all the way out by the narita airport (about 90 minutes from tokyo). on the way, we passed the tokyo tower, which is pretty damn pretty. once outside of tokyo, however, there just isn't much to see.
while on the basketball court, i was shooting hoops with our trainer, who remarked that i have the perfect "white boy from the northeast" shooting form (it was a compliment). i thought that was a weird thing to say, but he mentioned that whenever he works with ballers from the midwest, they tend to bring the ball up from their center and shoot above their heads, whereas i (and my northeastern brethren) keep the ball on the side they're shooting with - and this is the correct way. he said it's just way too common for this to be a coincidence. so we walked about it on the bus, and this is how i broke it down: the midwest follows french licks' own larry bird's shooting form, but in the northeast, brooklyn's favorite son chris mullin was the man to emulate.
see? aren't i so observant? (especially when you ignore that bird played his whole career in boston, which is in the northeast)
anyways, it was a nice discussion that lead to many other tangents, writes the guy with the picture perfect form from the outside.
tonight's dinner specialty, the choice of our interpreter and dinner companion named taki, was shabu-shabu at a restaurant called...called...well, i can't read their business card. it's something in japanese.
anyways, the short version of the meal is this: there's two bowls on a hibachi in front of you (much like a korean BBQ). one pot is filled with a soup made from soy sauce, sugar and sake. the other is just water. once boiling, you toss in thinly-sliced raw meat into the bowls. after a couple of seconds, you pull it out and then dip it into a dish of sauce. then, you eat it. they keep on bringing you an unlimited supply of raw meat to eat.
it was frigging delicious, and a nice compliment to the sake we drank, which was named...named...yeah, i can't read that label either. sorry.
afterwards, in a search for a mcdonald's soft-serve ice cream, we walked around shibuya on a friday night amid the mass of the young, beautiful and stylish, mingling and mixing and crossing wherever you looked. no matter what street we walked down, there they were, and countless of them, but it was always ordered and never uncomfortable, writes the claustrophobe. i wrote this before and i'll write it again, but if i were young and beautiful and fashionable at a world-class level, i think i would give tokyo a shot, just to see what it would be like to fit in.
and hell yes, i'd bring my northeast jumpshot with me.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
how to recap the tenth day of my trip (tokyo edition)
tokyo has some weird shit going on.
first off, there's these things called love hotels, which are pretty much exactly what you'd think they are - except not. before you think bad of me, these things are listed in most tourist books as an area to check out, so we did, right after dinner. this is not out of first-hand experience.
if you travel up a hill in shibuya, you are led to this seemingly unending maze of roads with these love hotels. the concept is this: if you want or need a place to get laid, you can come to a love hotel, plunk down 4000 yen (or $40 US) and get a room for two hours. they call that a "rest". for an all night "stay", it costs about 7800 yen (or $78 US). here's the kicker: the architecture makes them look really nice. they fit with the surroundings. and the photos of the rooms that they have on the outside looked quaint enough too. it didn't seem like something a slumlord or a pimp would own. it doesn't feel like the tenderloin or a red light district. in fact, i don't think it's looked down upon. it just felt like a service, like a hot dog stand or a library.
i don't have any other information past that, all of which i found in a tourbook and a foot tour. but considering how young and attractive the people are here, and all the entertainment outlets that surround them, it's actually quite a good idea.
like i said, tokyo has some weird shit going on.
also weird is that the best looking women in this city walk pigeon-toed. in fact, they overdo it. that's how we picked that up. it's really overtly obvious. i don't know why they do it or how, but it happened too often to be a coincidence. of course, everyone will probably be walking pigeon-toed by 2011.
this is in contrast to guangzhou, where the best looking women just ate pigeon toes.
thank you. i'll be here all night.
other weird shit: there's porn on the first two channels on the tv set when you turn it on. meaning, if the tv resets to channel #1, you can find porn on channels #2 and #3.
and they sell porn in everyday convenience stores, like 7-11 (which are all over the place here). and they're not hidden. they're there to be seen.
weird enough for you?
it was plenty weird for me.
japan's into weird shit.
getting off that, i did some shopping this morning in a place called tokyu hands, which is like walmart if walmart were cool, edgy and creative. it's got eight floors, each with three different sections, with the 24 total areas selling different stuff, like housewares, travel equipment, design supplies and the like. but i'm talking the coolest japanese versions of each. explaining it doesn't do it justice.
also what i can't do justice is the sushi i had tonight at a restaurant called gonpachi. remember how i said tokyo was into weird shit? well, the best roll i had in a night full of world class rolls was the foie gras. yeah, you read that right. completely blew me away once i learned that was it.
we had our pre-pro today at nike (a 20 minute cab ride that took 45 minutes thanks to a lost cabbie and the ungridded tokyo city), and everything's gonna go great the next couple of days. we then hit the nike employee store, and they had my lebron "my game is made outside" videos playing on the tvs. nice.
also, i had something called a cold chocolate drink, which is like liquid chocolate pudding in glass. it's the best beverage ever. if you're ever in tokyo, check it out.
anyways, here's how i'll end this post: someone said tonight that tokyo reminded him of the best parts of new york city, minus the best parts of new york city. and it's true. there's no homeless, litter, crime or sewage smells. everything is in its proper place. it's a wonderful way of putting this place.
this weird, weird place that has its own weird shit going on.
first off, there's these things called love hotels, which are pretty much exactly what you'd think they are - except not. before you think bad of me, these things are listed in most tourist books as an area to check out, so we did, right after dinner. this is not out of first-hand experience.
if you travel up a hill in shibuya, you are led to this seemingly unending maze of roads with these love hotels. the concept is this: if you want or need a place to get laid, you can come to a love hotel, plunk down 4000 yen (or $40 US) and get a room for two hours. they call that a "rest". for an all night "stay", it costs about 7800 yen (or $78 US). here's the kicker: the architecture makes them look really nice. they fit with the surroundings. and the photos of the rooms that they have on the outside looked quaint enough too. it didn't seem like something a slumlord or a pimp would own. it doesn't feel like the tenderloin or a red light district. in fact, i don't think it's looked down upon. it just felt like a service, like a hot dog stand or a library.
i don't have any other information past that, all of which i found in a tourbook and a foot tour. but considering how young and attractive the people are here, and all the entertainment outlets that surround them, it's actually quite a good idea.
like i said, tokyo has some weird shit going on.
also weird is that the best looking women in this city walk pigeon-toed. in fact, they overdo it. that's how we picked that up. it's really overtly obvious. i don't know why they do it or how, but it happened too often to be a coincidence. of course, everyone will probably be walking pigeon-toed by 2011.
this is in contrast to guangzhou, where the best looking women just ate pigeon toes.
thank you. i'll be here all night.
other weird shit: there's porn on the first two channels on the tv set when you turn it on. meaning, if the tv resets to channel #1, you can find porn on channels #2 and #3.
and they sell porn in everyday convenience stores, like 7-11 (which are all over the place here). and they're not hidden. they're there to be seen.
weird enough for you?
it was plenty weird for me.
japan's into weird shit.
getting off that, i did some shopping this morning in a place called tokyu hands, which is like walmart if walmart were cool, edgy and creative. it's got eight floors, each with three different sections, with the 24 total areas selling different stuff, like housewares, travel equipment, design supplies and the like. but i'm talking the coolest japanese versions of each. explaining it doesn't do it justice.
also what i can't do justice is the sushi i had tonight at a restaurant called gonpachi. remember how i said tokyo was into weird shit? well, the best roll i had in a night full of world class rolls was the foie gras. yeah, you read that right. completely blew me away once i learned that was it.
we had our pre-pro today at nike (a 20 minute cab ride that took 45 minutes thanks to a lost cabbie and the ungridded tokyo city), and everything's gonna go great the next couple of days. we then hit the nike employee store, and they had my lebron "my game is made outside" videos playing on the tvs. nice.
also, i had something called a cold chocolate drink, which is like liquid chocolate pudding in glass. it's the best beverage ever. if you're ever in tokyo, check it out.
anyways, here's how i'll end this post: someone said tonight that tokyo reminded him of the best parts of new york city, minus the best parts of new york city. and it's true. there's no homeless, litter, crime or sewage smells. everything is in its proper place. it's a wonderful way of putting this place.
this weird, weird place that has its own weird shit going on.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
how to recap the ninth day of my trip (tokyo edition)
i'm alive. and in more ways than you realize.
i woke up without a headache, willed my tired body to get dressed, packed, checked out and dragged myself into a cab to the airport, and i couldn't be happier to get out of guangzhou. what didn't make me happy was learning that rich, my DP, contracted the same food poisoning that i had (except delayed by 18 hours). so as we drove to the airport, he was just starting the headache faze. poor dude.
anyways, four hours and countless rounds of video blackjack later, we landed in tokyo. narito airport is pretty far away from the city. as in, a $225 cab ride away far. but that's okay. that's why god created expense accounts.
we arrived to the cerulean towers, the most lavish and upscale hotel in tokyo. it's weird, though. yes, it's beautiful and yes, it's exclusive, but it's also rather cold and antiseptic. still, i can't complain. my room is nice, with a stunning view of the city. and my toilet features a heated seat. you read that right. go ahead. read that again. heated toilet seat. yessir, i ain't in guangzhou anymore. huzzah!
we had dinner in one of the twelve restaurants in the hotel - this one, a japanese restaurant. by the way, one thing that does stun me is that the employees in the restaurant barely spoke any english. not to play arrogant american, but wouldn't you think a world class hotel like this would only employ people who also spoke english? there are plenty of americans in this place. that's got to be a large portion of your clientele, right?
then again, why should they kowtow to my language? after all, i am the visitor.
i am the arrogant american.
anyways, this would be the first meal i would eat in 36 hours (outside of the three scoops of ice cream) and i felt that my stomach and digestive system would be up for it. we got sashimi, sushi and vegetable teriyaki for the table, and i ordered sliced beef for myself. and, with the first bite of the sashimi, i ate the best sashimi i've ever had in my life, and it wasn't close. and, with my first bite of sushi, same thing. i cannot put into words how soft, fresh and amazing the raw meat melted in my mouth, and how perfect the rice accentuated the taste. and the sliced beef was in another world. the whole meal was beyond tremendous, and i'm sure this isn't the best sushi restaurant in the city.
and trust me, i'll find it.
my stomach and digestive system were thankful.
we went out with rob (our trainer), getting to know him and he getting to know us. i told him that i wrote commercials for ea sports for four years. he then asks me, "i know this might be a weird question, but do you know the charles rogers commercial? i'm charles rogers, i had..."
"68 catches and 13 touchdowns? yeah, i know it. i wrote it."
"get the hell out of here! i love that commercial! i can quote that whole thing. holy crap, you're the guy who wrote that! i can't believe it!"
and then, he sang the whole thing, even quoting the tagline exactly.
how cool is that? and what's even cooler is that the commercial ran only on one single day five long years ago. that made my day, my month and this trip.
but i digress. after dinner, we went for a walk around shibuya, the shopping center of all japan, and it was just...just...i can't really describe it. it just was, is and forever will be.
i visited the hachikō, which is a statue of a dog and the ultimate symbol of loyalty. in fact, here's the story, from wikipedia:
Hachikō, an Akita dog, was born in 1923 and sold to a well to do family in Tokyo while still a puppy. The father of this family, Eisaburo Ueno, a Tokyo University professor in his 50's, loved Hachiko very much and doted on him constantly, taking him for long walks, always brushing him, and even taking baths with him inside the home. He treated him truly as one of the family.
Up until Hachiko was two years old, he always walked to the station with the father and after the father went through the stalls he would go home by himself. But, then he would return every day to wait outside the stalls to meet the father coming home. All the locals and train station people knew this man and this dog had a special bond.
One day however, the father died while he was teaching at the university. Hachiko went to pick him up but he never came. And, Hachiko never stopped waiting. Every day for about 10 or 11 years he went and waited. The story was picked up and popularized by Japanese newspapers, and Hachiko became a minor celebrity while he still lived, attending the inauguration of his own statue in 1934.
how much does that break your heart and lift your spirit?
we walked through the massive crossection of people in center-gai outside of shibuya station, where bill murray famously whispered something to scarlett johannson at the end of the brilliant "lost in translation". it's just like times square, but nothing like it at all. it's tamed, ordered and with nothing and nobody getting in your face. just absolutely beautiful, just the way it should be.
we walked around shibuya in the shadows of all the stores, each putting their own footprint of architecture on the neighborhood. high rises with neon lights, angles jutting in and out at just the right arcs, it's what vegas would look like if vegas had even a smidgen of design taste and still got lucky. the whole area just completely blew me away to no ends.
it's an area that caters to the young, and the japanese women here are just jaw-droppingly gorgeous and impeccably stylish. they make it work. and i hate to sound gay here, but the dudes have got it going on too. i feel so 2008 here, which would be great if everyone else weren't so 2011.
basically, it's a perfect confluence of beauty, from the people to the stores to the fashion to the vibe.
if i were younger, i would live here.
and this all happened from a thirty minute walk.
tomorrow morning, i'll have the chance to walk around some more and do a little shopping. needless to say, i'm incredibly looking forward to it.
this morning, i was just a body with a defeated spirit and a weakened system. and now, i can't wait to wake up for tomorrow.
what a difference a day makes.
i woke up without a headache, willed my tired body to get dressed, packed, checked out and dragged myself into a cab to the airport, and i couldn't be happier to get out of guangzhou. what didn't make me happy was learning that rich, my DP, contracted the same food poisoning that i had (except delayed by 18 hours). so as we drove to the airport, he was just starting the headache faze. poor dude.
anyways, four hours and countless rounds of video blackjack later, we landed in tokyo. narito airport is pretty far away from the city. as in, a $225 cab ride away far. but that's okay. that's why god created expense accounts.
we arrived to the cerulean towers, the most lavish and upscale hotel in tokyo. it's weird, though. yes, it's beautiful and yes, it's exclusive, but it's also rather cold and antiseptic. still, i can't complain. my room is nice, with a stunning view of the city. and my toilet features a heated seat. you read that right. go ahead. read that again. heated toilet seat. yessir, i ain't in guangzhou anymore. huzzah!
we had dinner in one of the twelve restaurants in the hotel - this one, a japanese restaurant. by the way, one thing that does stun me is that the employees in the restaurant barely spoke any english. not to play arrogant american, but wouldn't you think a world class hotel like this would only employ people who also spoke english? there are plenty of americans in this place. that's got to be a large portion of your clientele, right?
then again, why should they kowtow to my language? after all, i am the visitor.
i am the arrogant american.
anyways, this would be the first meal i would eat in 36 hours (outside of the three scoops of ice cream) and i felt that my stomach and digestive system would be up for it. we got sashimi, sushi and vegetable teriyaki for the table, and i ordered sliced beef for myself. and, with the first bite of the sashimi, i ate the best sashimi i've ever had in my life, and it wasn't close. and, with my first bite of sushi, same thing. i cannot put into words how soft, fresh and amazing the raw meat melted in my mouth, and how perfect the rice accentuated the taste. and the sliced beef was in another world. the whole meal was beyond tremendous, and i'm sure this isn't the best sushi restaurant in the city.
and trust me, i'll find it.
my stomach and digestive system were thankful.
we went out with rob (our trainer), getting to know him and he getting to know us. i told him that i wrote commercials for ea sports for four years. he then asks me, "i know this might be a weird question, but do you know the charles rogers commercial? i'm charles rogers, i had..."
"68 catches and 13 touchdowns? yeah, i know it. i wrote it."
"get the hell out of here! i love that commercial! i can quote that whole thing. holy crap, you're the guy who wrote that! i can't believe it!"
and then, he sang the whole thing, even quoting the tagline exactly.
how cool is that? and what's even cooler is that the commercial ran only on one single day five long years ago. that made my day, my month and this trip.
but i digress. after dinner, we went for a walk around shibuya, the shopping center of all japan, and it was just...just...i can't really describe it. it just was, is and forever will be.
i visited the hachikō, which is a statue of a dog and the ultimate symbol of loyalty. in fact, here's the story, from wikipedia:
Hachikō, an Akita dog, was born in 1923 and sold to a well to do family in Tokyo while still a puppy. The father of this family, Eisaburo Ueno, a Tokyo University professor in his 50's, loved Hachiko very much and doted on him constantly, taking him for long walks, always brushing him, and even taking baths with him inside the home. He treated him truly as one of the family.
Up until Hachiko was two years old, he always walked to the station with the father and after the father went through the stalls he would go home by himself. But, then he would return every day to wait outside the stalls to meet the father coming home. All the locals and train station people knew this man and this dog had a special bond.
One day however, the father died while he was teaching at the university. Hachiko went to pick him up but he never came. And, Hachiko never stopped waiting. Every day for about 10 or 11 years he went and waited. The story was picked up and popularized by Japanese newspapers, and Hachiko became a minor celebrity while he still lived, attending the inauguration of his own statue in 1934.
how much does that break your heart and lift your spirit?
we walked through the massive crossection of people in center-gai outside of shibuya station, where bill murray famously whispered something to scarlett johannson at the end of the brilliant "lost in translation". it's just like times square, but nothing like it at all. it's tamed, ordered and with nothing and nobody getting in your face. just absolutely beautiful, just the way it should be.
we walked around shibuya in the shadows of all the stores, each putting their own footprint of architecture on the neighborhood. high rises with neon lights, angles jutting in and out at just the right arcs, it's what vegas would look like if vegas had even a smidgen of design taste and still got lucky. the whole area just completely blew me away to no ends.
it's an area that caters to the young, and the japanese women here are just jaw-droppingly gorgeous and impeccably stylish. they make it work. and i hate to sound gay here, but the dudes have got it going on too. i feel so 2008 here, which would be great if everyone else weren't so 2011.
basically, it's a perfect confluence of beauty, from the people to the stores to the fashion to the vibe.
if i were younger, i would live here.
and this all happened from a thirty minute walk.
tomorrow morning, i'll have the chance to walk around some more and do a little shopping. needless to say, i'm incredibly looking forward to it.
this morning, i was just a body with a defeated spirit and a weakened system. and now, i can't wait to wake up for tomorrow.
what a difference a day makes.
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