On the Train
Originally uploaded by apes_abroad.

We saw our touriestiest thing yet today: Tokyo Tower. It was like… seven tourist activities in one, and we did as many of them as we could reasonably handle. It is kind of a cool structure, and the observatory had glass bits in the floor where you could look down onto all the red steel bars and whatnot. Also one of the tourist exhibits on the fourth floor was a hologram gallery and there’s no arguing with holograms.

We found a place with an exotic menu of Belgian beers, then headed back to Shinjuku for $3 udon tempura from our new favorite noodle place. It’s down a crowded alley near the station, and even at nine o’clock people were lined up to eat at one of the half dozen stools. We slurped down our meals in less than five minutes then wandered out in search of coffee.

After coffee we wandered into then got lost in a Donkihote. It’s a real shopping experience: narrow aisles wandering through a maze of neverending light and sound and product; little monitors everywhere playing demonstrations and/or bizarre music videos. Fridges, Gucci handbags, DS games, tents, sex toys, cat food, TVs, tazers and beer. It’s no wonder Wallmart hasn’t been successful here; Donkey’s has that niche filled buthow.

We stopped to look at the $2000 kittens in a pet shop next door, then wandered down a long street lined with what I gather were male host bars. They were all called “Lady’s” something and featured headshots of young gigolo-haired guys. We gawked some more until midnight and the last train approached, and we had to head back or prepare to sleep at a Manboo (an Internet Cafe with private cubicles and recliners – I hear some people live in them).

So, another typical Tokyo day. Yesterday we were visited by thunderstorms; tomorrow we’ll probably chill out here and do whatever. We’re down to just two ghostly roommates in this big quiet building, but it’s set to fill up again soon I think.

IMG_6940
Originally uploaded by apes_abroad.

Punchpunchpunch it’s three posts in a row!

We’re still going to the Magic group gatherings on Wednesdays, playing Time Spiral/Future Sight sealed decks. Time Spiral is probably the best set possible for me to get back into Magic, as it’s all about bringing back mechanics and flavour from oldschool sets. They even reprinted a bunch of cards with the old (better) card style. Future Sight on the other hand is full of cards with a new (also better) card style that are supposedly from sets yet to be released. Most of them are pretty lame: lots of tribal junk, silly new keywords and dumb mechanics like enchantments that are also creatures. At least they do seem to understand what we liked about past sets. In Time Spiral they even reprinted Merieke Ri Berit, one of my favorite cards from back in Ice Age.

At the last gathering I joined in on a four person draft of the WoW card game, which I’d never played before. It was pretty easy to catch on, as it’s a lot like Magic but simpler… too simple I think. The game revolves around your avatar or hero or whatever, who determines which side (Horde vs Alliance) all your creatures have to come from, and what subset (1 of ~6 classes) of other cards you can use. So, there seems to be much less flexibility in building decks. On the plus side it uses the mana system of letting you flip over any card to use as a land. You could more or less sum the rest up in a Magic card:

Wowize   –   Enchantment   –   3UUU
All creatures have: pay 0: this is unblockable except by walls.
All creatures gain Provoke.
When a creature is assigned as a blocker, tap it.
Every attack phase in which at least one creature attacks is followed by another attack phase.
Damage on creatures does not heal at end of turn.

Yeah, I know they aren’t called walls anymore, now they’re “creatures with Defender”. What was wrong with walls, guys?

Untitled-21
Originally uploaded by apes_abroad.

We’re staying at the Shrek Watta House in Musashi-Seki for one more month, because we’ve had a hard time finding monthly-rate places to stay in other cities, and travelling is damn expensive (the 2 hour round trip train to Kyoto cost $250 each). We’ve got more roommates now but things are still relatively peaceful and we’re happy to stay.

Tokyo isn’t really a city anyway, it’s more like thirty little ones strung together by train lines. I’ve gone on about “Electric Town” Akihabara and mentioned Shinjuku (the nexus, whose train station services 2-3 million people a day), but there are so many happy little places that feel more like downtown Victoria or Qualicum Beach. We visited a beautiful park in Kichijoji yesterday and saw the Ghibli museum there (well worth if not enhanced by the unbelievably complex ticket purchasing system). Two days ago we went to a Sumo match in Ryogoku Kokugikan, had beers at Popeye’s again and were gifted with a member’s card and cheers from all the staff. We’ve visited the Ueno Zoo twice (they have everything! gorillas! lions! pandas! monkeeees!). We’ve been to (or at least through) the Starbucks at the crazy pedestrian intersection at Shibuya Station.

Last weekend we visited Asakusa for the Shinto festival at Sensoji temple. Tens of thousands of people filled the streets and uncomfortable looking laborers lurched around with huge golden shrines. This is one of the few times Yakuza are allowed to show their body tattoos in public – totally the highlight of the day was the shrine with two almost naked tattoo covered guys riding on top of it, chanting and drumming and cheering the bearers on as it swayed back and forth.

Despite the sights, I guess we haven’t quite regained our enthusiasm from our first three weeks before the Kyoto trip. The crowded train trips do seem to take longer every time, and the language and culture barriers are starting to get frustrating. Today we tried to make a deposit to our next guesthouse via bank transfer (like most places, they don’t accept online payments or credit cards) and were rejected for not having a phone number we could be reached at (we would, if tourists could own cellphones here). There was a familiar moment where the bank teller looked as though her head might explode from the paradox, and even after she understood we didn’t have one, she just kept smiling and repeating “telephone number”. Wish I’d been more on the ball and just made something up; next time.

So, Osaka is next if we can find some way to make the payment.

Edo Style Dining
Originally uploaded by apes_abroad.

We’ve got some pictures up at last! So perhaps I should finally say something about our trip to Kyoto with Pierre:

It was pretty different from the Tokyo area; I’d recommend Kyoto to anyone coming for a short visit. All the shrines you can handle and nature is relatively accessible from the city. A week was more than enough time to see it all. My favorite days were the Philosopher’s Walk and somewhat-accidental scenic bus ride to the towns up in the hills west of the city.

We stayed in hostels near Kyoto Station; cheap for private rooms, but not by Canadian standards. $120/night for a room just big enough for the three of us to sleep side by side on the floor. The first place was a little bigger but had a 11:00pm curfew. Both hostels also had the questionable system of making you leave your room key at the front desk when you went out, then allowing you to retrieve it with nothing but the room number. Neither place had net access, but we found a Seattle’s Best down the street that could provide.

So, we saw temples and shrines and pagodas and castles and lots of old, old buildings surrounded by expansive gardens. None of it was physically very old due to Kyoto burning down every 100 years, but each time everything was rebuilt just as it was before. The tourist sites got pretty busy by the end of Golden Week (kind of like spring break or the easter long weekend) and we saw a lot of people wearing kimonos and looking all old-timey in the tea houses.

Yeah we haven’t poted in forever. Or posted any pictures of Japan. wtf? I have no idea wtf but there it is.

I am a little overwhelmed with the sheer enormity of pictures I now have. Some are even edited. I should really get to posting some. Although things are trickier now that I’ve gone to Linux. The ONLY thing that has given me any trouble with the linux switch is geting pictures off my camera. Thank you Canon.

What have we been up to? Alot.

We went to a day of a Sumo tourney two days ago. That was pretty cool. We stumbled accross the studio ghibli museum yesterday. That was way cooler than expected.

But I dunno. If we post all our good stories what will we have to talk about with you at the pub after?

So hopefully we’ll post more. But who knows. I do know I should get some picys up.