Me & Tiff in Japan!!!
8-9-06
This was my second time to Japan and I hoped that my woefully unprepared first trip gave me enough training and wisdom to allow for a nice smooth and problem free vacation. However, I was unpleasantly surprised to arrive at our Hostel in Asakusa to be told that we were a day late and our reservations for the ENTIRE stay in Japan were given away. A day late?!?! How did that happen. Oh yeah I guess it was because Japan is a day ahead of us Americans. Being jetlagged and VERY irritable, this was not good news. They were gracious enough to let us stay that night and the last couple nights of our trip, but we now had 3 days to scramble and find shelter. Which is not an easy thing to do unless you want to pay 100s of dollars a night.
8-10-06
After a nights sleep, we felt much better and was ready for our first adventure in Tokyo . Shinjuku was our first stop. But first, we had to accomplish the task of deciphering the whole subway system. Very daunting at first, since there's very little English and a multitude of graphs and routes to choose from. With a lot of pointing and saying the words Shinjuku very slowly, we were guided to the correct train.
Once in Shinjuku, we entered the HUGE underground labyrinth known as Shinjuku station. I usually never get lost and have an excellent sense of direction, but I recall Shinjuku station getting the better of me the last time I visited. It was no different this time around. Im surprised I don't see foreigners falling over dead endlessly walking these corridors. Amidst the thousands of Japanese constantly walking through here I imagined ghostly white people holding maps and huge backpacks doomed to wandering around here for eternity.
Once out of the station we had a very specific destination. Tiff researched where all the gothic Lolita boutiques are and in the midst of miles of towering buildings there lies a jackpot full of them. Last time I was in Japan , I couldn't find a single place that I researched before hand on the internet. This time, the internet revealed more info about how to get around. This included walking picture maps. Which is pretty much the ONLY way to find places here. Although we got lost, Ill spare you the details. Once there, I was amazed at how High-End these stores were. Some of these shops were very nice and decorated. Its interesting how these designer of alternative clothing are considered like High fashion here. There's definitely no equivalent in the states. What's the most high end alternative clothing company here?? Lip service?? Heh… The stores were also artistic creations in themselves with dark art and décor. Not cheesy shit, but very well done. The quality of the clothes can be seen in the $$$ per item. $150 bucks for like a sleeveless shirt?!?! Regardless heh we still spent a shitload of money…
These are pictures of the Storefronts in Shinjuku
Later that day, we go back to Asakusa and away from the stimulus overload of central Tokyo. Asakusa is known for retaining a lot of its traditional feel to it. A huge Buddhist shrine resides here, made in 628 when two brothers (fishermen) found a Buddhist statue in the Sumida River . The local chieftain saw this as not being a random event and decided this shrine must be built. Now, the shrine is still here, but the long entrance way has been made into a bazaar with many small shops. It was late when we got here, so the shops were closed at this time. We decided hat we really needed to come back here during the day.
With some advice from the nice hostel employees, I found a close hotel in Asakusa. It was a capsule hotel. A capsule hotel is a room the size of a comfy Coffin equipped with a small tv and radio alarm clock. All I kept thinking about was the scene from 5 th element when they were on the plane ride to Flauston Paradise. Except their capsule was twice as big as the ones we had! The shower..or lack of a shower was a traditional style bath with small places to sit and wash yourself around it. It was communal. Im not to shy about getting naked in front of other men, but in a foreign land where I obviously stand out it was a little uncomfortable. Since Im lacking of any body hair (I mean none!), I felt even more awkward to walk around in the buff. Mostly business men use capsule hotels for it's a cheap solution for staying in a district where they missed the last train home. However, these men just seemed like old Japanese perverts. Im not even going to mention all the old guys that keep dcoming out to where me and tiff were naked and then saying “Oh excuse me…”(In Japanese). I certainly wasn't interested in seeing old 2 inch Japanese ding a lings on this trip. Staring obviously was not considered rude here. In the lobby, some guys were gawking so hard at Tiff that I felt uncomfortable for her safety here. In the female bath rooms, Tiff said the elderly women just could not stop looking and talking about her…Not in a complimentary way either.
Capsule Hotel
I always wanted to stay at a capsule hotel, pretty much just to say that I have, but I think this will be the last time.
8-11-06
Today we set out to goto harajuku. The heat and humidity was beyond bearable. How the Japanese people can get all done up with corsets and everything and not even break a sweat is beyond me. Harajuku is supposed to be the center of alternative culture and fashion in Japan . On Sundays, all the kids get dressed up and hang out on the bridge. However it was Friday, so we didn't see much of that. Its very interesting to see the styles here. Even though I was just here a few years ago, the trends seem to have changed. The once dominating style of getting Uber tan and bleaching your hair and using white eyeliner seemed to be dying out and the semi gothic Lolita look started to be more common. Androgyny seemed to be common. Often there were two girls. One with the feminine Lolita look and the other with a masculine (not even sure what to call it) look. And of course there were many guys that dressed very feminine. The stores here weren't as impressive as the ones in Shinjuku, but the roots of these styles and subculture are here.
After being tired of walking, we just sat and people watched. We saw Goths getting their pictures taken by tourists and a some obnoxious Americans.. For example there was this guy that reminded me of Rex. You know the founder of Rex Kwan Do. Maybe at a younger age though.. He had shoulder length feathery hair, with a white headband with Japanese writing and a red sun in the middle. I guess he was going with the karate kid look. Maybe the chicks dig that where he is from. On top of all that, the finishing touch to this outfit was a wooden practice sword hanging off his belt. I said he was younger, but he was still in his 20s heh.
Near by is another grand temple/shrine. A huge contrast to whats basically across the street. The quietness was inviting and strangely peaceful. Tiff bout some charms that give good luck for her family and bought a prayer board to write her prayers and hang on this shrine. Its interesting to read all the prayers written in different languages from visitors from all over.
Right outside the temple area and around the corner is Yoyogi park. This reminds me of golden gate park for all types of people just hang out here. You can here drum circles, Goths, rockabillies, and lots of dog walkers. Did I mention Japan is obsessed with wiener dogs? They are everywhere. They even have stores for them where you can buy clothing for them. Tiff picked up a bunny eared hat just in case we ever adopt one. There were also a lot of seemingly random things we saw at the park, but maybe they are normal occurrences here. We saw people fighting with swords and a woman standing by herself chanting things over and over. Last time I was here I saw a guy with a pet squirrel which was on a leash!
In the evening we went to Shibuya. One of the busiest districts in the world. Right out the train station is this huge intersection where soo many people are walking around that when the light turns red (for four minutes) thousands of people fill up each 4 corners waiting for their turn to cross! Its seriously nuts.
We came to Shibuya to goto Love Hotel hill. In search of a love hotel for the night. In Tokyo , most people live with family because of lack of space. So when you want to ‘hook up' you can goto these hotels. They are themed and made to have secret entry ways where you can slip in and out unnoticed. You can rent them by 2 hour intervals or overnight if you check in at 11 or 12. We read about ones having hello kitty or gothic castle themes, but we couldn't find such cool ones. When you enter the lobbies, it is dark with a big board that has multiple images of the rooms. If they are lit up, they are available and you can give money to a person behind a dark glassed window through a small hole. We wanted to choose one with a crazy spa tub because weve been walking non-stop. The rooms were small, but were surprisingly cool. A big control panel by the bed controls everything in the room from crazy disco light to automated music control. The bed was a water bed straight out of the 70s. The spa was crazy. It also had a control panel that controlled the temp, jets, and lights that made it glow random colors from in the water. This was one of the nicest experiences of the trip….
8-12-06
This Saturday was the worst day of the trip, but ended up being the best evening. Tokyo was definitely beating us down on this day…
First thing we needed to do is find a hotel, so we wouldn't be stranded for the night. This turned in to the adventure from hell that lasted from morning till 4 pm ! We went to Shinjuku to find lodging for we were going to a club there that night. We walked endlessly in the heat carrying all our shit. We finally find what we think is a hotel district but realize these were all love hotels. We even got kicked out of a hotel by a guy that just held a sign up that said “We do not serve people that cannot speak Japanese” We couldn't stay in a love hotel because check in for those isn't until midnight ! During our search we were starving, so we went to starbucks to get a coffee and snack to find that my debit/credit card wasn't being accepted. Then later Tiff had the same problem. Panic set in and a lot of swearing…. We had about 30 dollars in cash with us and our cards were turned off. I had another credit card, but most things take cash only. We decided that we should refrain from eating since it requires cash until we sort this out before we get stranded. We continue looking for a hotel since I had another credit card. After a long walk and being starving, hot, sweaty, and holding a million bags, we finally find a place that let us stay. After putting our stuff away, I ask the desk clerk how to make international calls, so I can call my damn bank… He said I needed an international calling card and they can be purchased at markets. We goto the closest market and yay they had calling cards. However, the guy decided to sell us one with way more minutes then we needed, so he can make more money. I didn't have enough cash for it, so I asked to use a credit card. Untrusting of foreigners, like many places, he said no. GRRRR.. So we wandered until we found another market and they luckily sold us one with less minutes, but it still cost about 20 dollars leaving us with 10 bucks left in cash! We go back to the hotel to use a pay phone, to find I have no freakin clue how to use the phone or the damn card because it was all in Japanese. I went to go bug the desk clerk again and he spent 20 minutes trying to get it to work but I finally got through. Being on hold and verifying all our information took so long we almost ran out of time on our card (which would seriously have fucked us), but we managed to get everything working again. Now it was 4 o'clock and we still haven't eaten. We go out the hotel and now its raining like I've never seen it rain before. In an instant, the streets were rivers. We get drenched as If I just jumped in a swimming pool. We go into a couple food places, but we couldn't communicate to the workers, so he showed us the door. We goto a market and was ecstatically filling a basket with foods, pastries…etc to find out they wont take our cards again! I didn't want to spend the 10 bucks we had because we still needed to find either a post office or a Citibank (Only places to use our cards to get money) and we may have needed to take a train (cash only) to find one. So we leave the market (hungry) and walk towards the train station, to head to shibuya, where I KNOW there's a Citibank. We get on the train and it doesn't move. We sit and sit for a half hour. An announcement kept broadcasting on the speakers causing people to leave, but we had no idea. So I go up to this white guy that had a shirt that said I ‘heart' boobs and asked him if he knew what was up. He listened to the broadcast and said…”Suicide”. So someone jumped on the tracks and killed themselves, stopping the train we needed to take to get money! How inconsiderate! Unsure of what else can go wrong we were fearing that the citibanks and post offices would close soon. We asked the white dood if he knew of a Citibank near and he said there was one in Shinjuki, so we didn't need to take a train. He gave me some half ass directions and we left the train. Once in Shinjuku station * shudder * those directions didn't matter because we were so lost again. I asked 3-4 randoms about a Citibank and got semi-helpful responses like a guy pointing in a direction and saying “Go..1 meter!” Believe it or not, we eventually found it (it was definitely farther than a meter hehe) and I got a shitload of cash out so this wont happen again….But best of all we got to eat after this. I was already thinking of all those survivor stories where people had to resort to cannibalism.
Our spirits were pretty low at this time and we felt pretty beat down. I just kept thinking…”you know this is one of those experiences that will be really funny one day…”
I was right. I think its pretty funny.
Later that Evening we got all done up to goto Alamode Night, a special gothic/Industrial/Lolita event. I talked to Sisen on myspace and he suggested it. He was the host and DJ. We get there a little early and met this super nice Lolita chick named Miyu or something catlike. We couldn't say much to each other, but we became friends quick. We also met a couple Americans that lived there studying Japanese and fashion. Once the party began to line up waiting to enter, we met Sisen who then introduced us to everyone! They were all so nice. It seems him and his crew were all the large party promoters and DJs in Japan . They were definitely the rock stars there considering how everyone treated them. What I loved about them was that even with all that fame, they were the nicest people. No egos, No attitudes.. Loved them. Again we couldn't communicate much, he kept introducing us to people and the only words I recognize was Tiffany, Donyurl (How they pronounced my name) and San Francisco . Then a whole lot of giggling and smiling. In the party, there was a vending room where we met who I think is Asami who did make up for people for a fee. Tiff, who does make up for people as a career commented on how talented this girl was. Again, they were very nice. The music wasn't necessarily within my taste, but I wasn't expecting it to be. Very electronic based, which isn't bad, but I kinda got over that in early 2000s. I wouldn't expect anything different though from these cybery club kids. I had a great time and loved everyone there. I've always wanted to see the subculture in Japan , but couldn't find my way to it during my last visit. This was probably the funnest night here.
I was sad to leave the party though, for it was hard to explain to Sisen why we had to go. I felt that he misunderstood and thought I just didn't enjoy myself. I felt compelled to quickly write him as soon as I can to show how grateful I was and if he ever came to SF hed be taken care of. As a fellow DJ and Promoter, there was much I wanted to talk about, but the language barrier was to great…
8-13-06
We woke up early and yes, very sleep deprived. This was going to be a long day for we were heading out a couple hours away to goto Summer Sonic, Japans largest music festival. Tiff being good friends with all the AFI peeps (who was playing) was given free ticket for us. Yay! It took much longer then I thought to get there and a while to figure out how to get to the Guest entry. After asking many workers who sent us in circles (Seems to be a common thing in Japan ), we find the table for guestlists to discover they didn't have our name there. The woman was really rude, almost insinuating that we were lieing. Tiff calls Smith who was pretty angry about the ordeal, so he gets his translator and tell him to send someone to the table were at. 5 minutes later a guy shows up with a paper. It said the name “Sephanie”. The woman looked at the paper and then Tiff's ID and said. No. WTF!! Tiff calls smith again and now hes really pissed. He sends someone again and it has the right name, but does say to give a +1 which is me! One more call and another 10 minutes later were in the show. Oh…and after paying 20 bucks because I guess being on the guestlist still means you have to pay a small fee?!?!!? We get inside to see a billion people. Maybe not a billion, but close. Japanese people don't seem to party as hard as Americans. In fact, lots were just asleep on the floor! While I was stepping over them I couldn't help saying..”WTF I had 4 hours sleep, jetlagged as hell, been walking 20 miles a day and your sleeping?!?!” Plus I assumed they really liked those bands, since it was pretty expensive. I don't really know much of that music genre at all. Anyways, we make it to the AFI arena and went all the way to the front. The phone rings and its Smith. Tiff tells him were up front and he came over to find us. We got pulled out and up on stage. Yay again! Seeing all the people from there is a crazy site. Too bad they don't go nuts like the kids in the US do. Theres a navy base in Japan , so in the pit I spyed a few big white doods. They towered over the Japanese guys and during the pitting, one guy was grabbing Japanese guys and throwing them over his shoulder and spinning around! At one time he had one guy on each shoulder. And when he put them down they all hugged! Pretty funny shit. After this show we went to some restricted area I guess where “the cool people” hang out and they do interviews. We see a bunch of rockstars etc..but decide to just sit down. I never know what to say to people all famous like that anyways, because I don't believe in idolizing people unless they are famous for curing cancer or something. Sure they have great accomplishments. More so then I have done, but they are still people..
AFI 
Wierd MTV Interview
While sitting down, Fritch, the Tour manager/merch guy comes and hangs out with us. We were talking about how its funny that a lot of Japanese clothing make no sense and people wear a lot of stuff that they most likely have no idea what it says. He showed us this funny ass shirt he found. It was a shirt that had a picture of Bob Marley on it with the words “Sid Vicous Forever” underneath! Earlier that day I saw a conservative woman wearing a tight T-shirt that said Smile if your gay on it!
After all this we contemplated meeting up with the band in Shibuya, but things got too complex and our sleep deprivation was definetly on full force. So we headed back to our hostel we initially stayed at in Asakusa.
8-14-06
Today was going to be a more relaxing day, so we started by going back to Asakusa temple and explore. We wandered throught he marketplace, past the giant urns to burn your swastika incense..etc and through the temple and garden itself. We walk upon this scene that had police that were blocking an area off. There were all these tough guys in suits congregating. After watching so many Japanese movies, I first thought ‘oh shit yakuza (Japanese gangsters)'. Then I saw a big TV camera hah!. So we walked upon a scene of actors being yakuza for a movie!
Then we took the train to Oeno to find this building which is over 70 stories high and allows you to see a panoramic view of all of Tokyo . Also, on the 11 th floor hosts a huge aquarium. Youd figure that's a bad idea to have something like that on the 11th floor, but there it was. The line was too long for the aquarium, but I saw the one exhibit I really wanted to see. A 25 foot long preserved ‘mystery sea creature'. It was a long sea serpent that washed ashore and I wanted it for my warehouse. Too bad it wasn't for sale. We then went to the top floor and stared out the windows. Tokyo is such a huge metropolis that every direction you see, is still tall crazy buildings. Only in the farthest distances can you slightly make out silhouettes of mountains.
After wandering around more we got tired and decided to goto a random movie theater. Telling them which movie and what time we wanted was a challenge. We go in and I sit down. A few minutes later this guy came and was motioning for me to get out of the seat. I was confused and just about when I was ready to say what the @!#*^Y(@^, I realized the tickets were assigned seating. I guess things have to be that orderly in Japan that even movies seats are assigned. Tiff gets back with a bag full of stale popcorn they just sold us and the movie starts. I pretty much almost fall asleep, trying to figure out whats happened. It picks up later when Tokyo is under threat of sinking into the ocean because of a serious case of tectonic shifting. I don't know what it is about Japanese culture and their movie obsession of Japan being destroyed. I think it's a remnant of all the wars that caused them to rebuild. I couldn't understand any of the dialogue so I just made up my own. Well I cant really describe what my version was, but it ended up making a serious movie that elicited tears from the audience to making me laugh out loud.
movie of japan getting detroyed....
8-15-06
This was the last day for us in Japan . We had some time till we needed to catch a train to Narita airport, so we wandered Asakusa again and ate. We ate a lot. Then we went into the pachinko game parlors. After I spend a few dollars unsuccessfully trying to win this gothic stuff bear from a machine for Tiff, we went upstairs to the Picture taking booths where we took some really funny pictures. They need to get these kind of machines in the states! Then we went wandering through the markets and ate..again.
Dont laugh at my outfit! It was crazy hot and humid!!
*sniff* *sniff* Then at 5:40pm we were on the plane back to the states. This day ended up being the longest day in the world. We woke up at 8 am . Ran around till 5:40pm Was on a plane for 10 hours straight to arrive in SF on the same day but at 10 am in the morning! I was awake for freakin 30 hours.
Oh yah! I cant forget all the cool desserts!
