Adventures in Japan (Travel)

Posted on 21 April 2009

Back in 2004, I took a business trip to Japan.  While away for a total of 4 weeks I wrote this random collection of notes.  They were not meant to be much more than simple emails to my friends and family, so don’t expect fine art.  Some are pretty amusing, others are just odd, and still others are a bit sad.  It’s also fairly entertaining to see how little I knew about Japanese food at the time.  So pour yourself a glass of plum wine and read on.

Introduction:
Being that this was a business trip, I didn’t really get to much time to travel and look around.  However, on the weekends and a few nights we dashed off on one wacky adventure after another.

Tokyo. First Impression. Big 12-11-04
We had fun kicking around the Tokyo area.  Its a much more interesting area of Japan.  Kinda like Times square but a whole city.  We did the temples, which was neat.  I have lots of pics.  But we ended up spending most of the time just wondering around the big city.  We did lots of shopping and saw lots of interesting things.  So many people!  And the subway system is huge, I can’t make heads or tails of it.

We ended up at this huge mall complex, which I think it was made to confuse.  Its a massive 4  floor maze.  I’ve seen bigger malls, but none this baffling.  There was no store I had seen before (except star bucks damn you star bucks!), that was cool, but nothing that I could afford.  It was kinda like shopping at the short hills mall, but much more expensive.  I saw a set of scissors, 200 bucks.  A record player …15,000!  Not yen, American dollars.  It was nuts.   I spent 110 bucks on dinner.   Still it was interesting.  Very pretty at night.
So speaking of dinner.  I had squid, It’s not so bad, but you can’t look at it.  Looks really nasty.  Also had snow crab and this Korean dish.  Now the Korean dish was really good but we had to cook it ourselves!  Now I had to pay a lot for this meal, I would at least like it to be cooked.  They bring it on this big grill and you do it yourself.  Tasty but different.  It comes as this big stack of raw beef and onion.  Kind of like a tasty pyramid.     Also had Indian food for lunch.  Chicken curry and non (Nan?), it was nice to use a fork again.

The Arcade: A geeks home away from home 12-12-04
Finally after much searching I have found my first decent Japanese Arcade.  It was much more of challenge then I thought it would be.  Most “Arcades” here are mostly slot machines (pachislo and pachinko).  Lots and lots of slot machines.  Japanese people love them.  At least here in Yokohama.  Tokyo might be different.  The actually traditional arcade is a bit more rare, but they are still around.  They have a different look then the American ones.  They are sit down machines, not like a big fancy cabinet like San Fran Rush just a little bench.  And they all have ash trays, cause everyone here smokes like a fiend.
Anyway, here they have the normal rhythm games (guitar, drum, even turn table),Virtual Fighter, Guilty Gear XX, plus the latest street fighter vs (the one that just came out for ps2 like last month).  I did find some very cool old school shooters, but none of them had English names (or even some English characters) so I could tell what I played.  I did get to play Raiden Fighters 2 which is like 9 years old.  Still was a good time though.  Plus there’s some new Gundam game, which might be decent, if you can figure out the controls.  But they come in banks of 6 and you can play with a large group.  Vs games here are a bit different.  Instead of standing next to some one ,at say Street fighter, you sit directly across from them.  You have your own screen and everything.  I actually played some street fighter like this.  Took me a few moments to realize that I was actually playing a real person.  An interesting way to do it.  The coolest game I’ve seen so far is kinda like a 3d Diablo clone called the Quest of D.  4 people play it at once.  There’s a joy stick , 3 buttons , and a touch screen.  So when you kill a monster you have to tap the screen to pick up items and such it dropped.  Its also has a card system, so you can create a character and reuse it every time you play.  You can buy extra cards for upgraded weapons and such.  The kids I was watching had whole stacks of cards, it almost looked like they where playing magic.  The action though is all hack and slash.  It was very cool.  And if I could read Japanese I would certainly have tried to play.
So thats my report so far.  At least from the arcade front.  I probably wont get another chance to roam around looking for arcades again, since they keep trying to make me actually work.  Maybe on my next trip here, next month.  I need to bring more money though, Japan is crazy expensive.  Some things are literally twice as much as they are in the States.  Its nuts.

Shin Yokohama:  A day in the Rain (no date)
So this morning I over slept.  I mean by a lot.  It was past 10 when I finally woke up.   And past 11 by the time I got downstairs.  I guess I really needed the sleep since I didn’t wake up once.  The weather was miserable, so I decide to switch up my plans a bit.  Instead of doing the Bullet train thing I decided head off further into town on foot.  I’m not sure why I did this.  It was cold and damp.  But I did it anyway.  So I walked about 2 miles from the hotel, just generally checking out the area.  I found some cool shops along the way.   It was away from the Tourist centers so it was more normal Japanese.  Prices where much more reasonable, and I came very close to picking up a new digital camera.  Its was 4 mega pixel camera about the size of 3 of my fingers and it was just under 300 bucks.  Really just a neat little gadget, but I behaved.  I had MacDonald’s for lunch since it was simple.  I wanted a meal that was cooked and didn’t stare back at me.  It was ok, still a bit different from home.  They had a sandwich called the Grand royal.  It had this odd tangy ranch like dressing on it, but it was good and not as greasy as I thought it might be.  Also it was easy, cause I could just point to the picture.  In an interesting twist most people can read English here, just not speak it.  So there an interesting way to communicate if need be.  One of the Indian programmers let me in on that secret.  Very handy to know.  Anyway, I tried a few of the local coffee shops.  None where so interesting.  They seem to be trying to clone Starbucks (which is all over here like some disease)  and not doing a good job of it.  Your better off drinking the can coffee that comes out of the vending machines.  That doesn’t taste so great, but the amount of caffeine packed into is impressive.  I played some new and different stuff at the local arcade.  That was nice.  Pricey though, 100 yen per game (1.00 dollar).  So I didn’t play to much.  I did find the new version of street fighter to mess with.
After wandering all day, I ended up back at the hotel around 5:30 and had dinner there.  Not to bad.  Dinner was about 20 bucks (although it was very small) which include beer.  I wanted good old fashion red wine, but I got beer.  Ah well.  I’m beat now.
Japan is nice I suppose, but I’m starting to get home sick.

Yokohoma Harbor Area: Where Tourists Go 12-15-04
We were off wondering though the Harbor area of Yokohoma.  You know I went though 2 huge malls and not one toy store?  Yeeesh, what does a person have to do to buy toys around here.   But we did find some cool other stuff.  We ate at Hard Rock Yokohama (they all speak English there).  Remind me never to have my birthday there.  Cause not only do you have to hear the waiter announce your name over the loud speaker, your suppose to clap along with the rest of the place to this terrible rock version of happy birthday.  Yeesh.  No thanks.  The food was ok.  The beer was 10.50 and my dinner was 17 bucks (I had the shredded pork).  Harry actual ask me if I wanted another drink.  No thank you.  Course that was the only place we’ve seen that had American beer.

Anyway we found a cool train shop (600 bucks for a model engine!) and bunch of American chains.  We even went to Snoopy town.  Found some Charlie brown chop sticks.   Nice….  After that we wonder down by this really cool amusement park (which was closed, bummer) and then down to the harbor, where we saw “Ground Angel” .  Some Artist project that projects Art of angels in the middle of this giant court yard.  It seem kinda silly to me. But what ever. I did pick a CD (a steal for 25 bucks, no its not a double CD).  Mostly cause it had a cool ninja guy on the front.   And I felt I should bring something back from japan.   Anyway my feet are killing me.  And it’s late, so I gotta get me some sleep.

2009 Editors Note: That CD turned out to be a decent deal as I still listen to it on a regular basis.

Mt Fuji or bust 12-16-04

Harry and I are on a quest to see Mt Fuji before we leave.  We’ve failed every time so far.  We managed to get on to the roof of our hotel thinking that perhaps there at least, it would live up to the name Fuji view.  However many buildings have been built after the hotel and they completely block the view.  So we tried at the office.  Went to the top floor of the highest building in the complex.  But that again was block by massive buildings. So answer me this?  How the frell is some one suppose to see Godzilla coming?  I mean really…  Don’t people plan these things out?  Heck he could be taking a nap 4 blocks from here and I would never know.

Yokohama: Lands of Arcades, Toys shops, and strip joints 1-19-05
It had been a point of discussion at dinner for several days in a row.  What would we do for Saturdays site seeing?  The issue was Harry had been to pretty much all the site seeing spots that Hiro knew how to get too.   Plus the weather was suppose to be snowy and cold.  I guess as some point Hiro had decide to simply take up shopping.  Easier for him, and it would keep us some what out of the weather (thinking back on this we where actually outside in the rain and the snow a lot, so the plan didn’t work out so well). Hiro had notice the Gundam models I had pointed out at the Tokyo temples (yes they sell Gundam at temples, why wouldn’t they) and decided to take us to shop that specialized in plastic models.  A hobby shop if you well. Harry was excited about the idea.  This meant he could get a few more gifts for back home and a few new models to assemble.   This suited me fine. Considering that one of my original goals was to come home with new toys from Japan, that you couldn’t get in the US.  A fine goal.  One that had almost completely failed on the first trip.  So it was set, that for the lack of something better we would go toy shopping, I’m sorry, plastic model shopping in down town Yokohama.

Saturday morning came, and I woke up at a decent time.  I spent a few hours watching Japanese cartoons, most of which where sponsored by toy companies. So Takara sponsored the new Galaxy Force Transformers, Capcom sponsored Viewtiful Joe and Rock man Neo.  On every commercial break there was a constant stream of commercials from the company that sponsored the show. This was ok for Capcom, who has a bunch of products,  but Takara only had one, and they repeated it constantly.  I couldn’t understand a word that was being said, but that didn’t really matter.  Cartoons are generally pretty easy to understand in any language.  It’s part of their magic.

That day it was in fact snowing, and raining, and just being generally miserable out.   A perfect excuse to break out my new umbrella that I had gotten at the 100 yen store a few weeks back on the first journey to Japan.  Now as an aside, I never had an umbrella my entire adult life.  It was always just one more thing to carry, and I had my trusty rain coat.  Well here in Japan, I had no rain coat, and I was walking every where.  So I thought I would join the civilized world and get one of those new fangled umbrella inventions.  Progress!

Japan: It’s all about the trains 12-17-04
I have my express train ticket to the train station.  They have 3 speeds of train.  Normal (which is pretty fast, this comes in Local and Express versions), Express version, and super alpha express extreme (2).  So yes that means you have a Normal Express, Express, and Super Express.  The super express is the bullet train and can hit about 150 (we figure.  They don’t really work in MPH here).  Tomorrow we take the express train.  It will be interesting to see how that rates in the whole scheme of things.  It’s about an hour and half ride to the airport, which is a bit north of Tokyo.  Well kinda North west if I understand correctly. So if the bullet train can get us to Tokyo in 15 minutes (it can’t hit top speed due to noise restrictions in that area, an amazing thing, cause I’ve heard that thing pass, if that’s the quiet mode, I would hate to hear the normal mode) where does that put this train?  I’ll try and work out the math.  It should be pretty quick though.  Since the local trains seem faster then the ones back home.

SO no Mt. Fuji.  Its just impossible.  There are far far to many massive buildings in the way.  Oh and Godzilla, but I cant see him either.  I hear the area around Mt. Fuji is nice.  Its not a City like there, more like a suburb AKA like NJ.  So there is lots of buildings and people, just low to the ground.  Sounds nice…well nicer.  I can’t imagine living in the city like Yokohama.  The amount of people would drive me mad.  Even if it is WAY cleaner here

Adult Day (no its not that you perv) 1-10-05
So I found out all about Adult day yesterday.  I actually think it’s the holiday that takes place at the beginning of Mulan.  Kids in Japan are considered adults at age 20 (so they can drink, smoke, and vote).  So on adult day everyone one who is 20 years old dresses up (at least the girls all wear the tradition dress, I’m not sure what the boys do) and go through a special ceremony where they become adults.  When we where wandering around yesterday (train hoping) we saw many girls all dressed up in the traditional
Japanese Dress).  It was a bit like Halloween.