Sayonara Party With a Twist

Last night was my goodbye bash in Tokyo. My friend Kazutoshi put together a nice program, so thank you to him. Zishan did some planning that I know of, and he put together a song list and DJ'd a bit, so thanks to him too. The biggest crew of Ashikaga-area people that I've ever seen hit Tokyo was with me, so another thank you to everyone who came out. It was great.

The night began at a little place in Ebisu that was rented out. Wine and champagne were ever-flowing and the food was high quality if sometimes a bit far out (one dish was squid cooked in some kind of squid ink crust.. not my favorite). I appreciated the laid back European atmosphere of the place. We then proceeded to a little club that I've been to once before, and we know assorted DJs and staff at the place so we got some sort of ridiculous discount usually reserved for attractive girls. Several friends who couldn't make it to the first joint graciously attended the second. At the end of the night a group of the boys all crashed at a capsule hotel. I won't get more detailed than that on the party to protect the identities of the innocent and whatnot.

I don't wish for a second to detract from the awesomeness of the party, but what happened the next morning was quite unexpected. I've mentioned Odaiba once or twice before(post here), and it's one of my favorite Tokyo neighborhoods due to its well-planned, cleaner nature. Odaiba's newest attraction is an 18 meter tall Gundam statue(Mainichi Daily News article here). Gundam is sort of like Japan's version of Transformers I might say, except I think these giant robots have pilots inside. I'm out of my element in any case, so if you want to know more check out the wikipedia. So, we are wandering around marveling at this giant robot and I get separated from the group while milling around. When I meet back up with my friends, they have some sort of TV news employee with them asking if we would like to participate in a segment about the robot. Yes, yes I would.

Shaun and I were the only two that felt like wasting a couple of hours, so we signed up. The two of us and 10-15 Japanese people were taken near the statue by boat and asked various questions about Gundam and the meaning of life by tv personality Karube Shin-ichi. Apparently the segment will run on a morning show called Mezamashi TV this Tuesday. I must have a copy of this!! He asked the two of us a few questions but we didn't say anything profound.... so I wonder if we will even make it on screen. At one point we were all supposed to act touristy and take photos, however my camera was dead so I used my cell phone's camera. Better than nothing I guess.

Here is Karube with Tokyo Big Sight in the background.


Another shot of the man with some staff.


As I've mentioned before, daiba means gun battery, like a little fort. Well this little fort island wasn't developed and has grown wild. The big trees growing from behind the defensive stone walls look kinda cool.


And here is what the big robot looks like from the water with his back towards us.

It was pretty wild. We got a free boat ride at least. Hehe.


Today I got home and there was this huge beetle spazing around on its back. It's weird, because I've had several big beetles stuck like this right next to my apartment. I think that they try to climb up my one step and flip themselves over. Today's was especially large.

I threw a yen coin down to show the scale. I guess it's about the size of a penny.


He has some pretty serious headgear going on. I bet I could use him for a bottle opener.


Isn't this guy huge? He really had some weight to him.

In Japan I haven't seen any ant farms for sale. What seems to be popular instead is keeping these giant beetles as pets. Whole sections of pet stores are devoted to caring for the insects. I was tempted to try raising one for myself but I would probably kill the thing. I don't need that on my conscience. Hehe. Until next time!

Ebisuko Festival: Colorful!

Last Thursday I was treated to a festival that I hadn't ever heard of before. Ebisuko. It was enough of a departure from previous festivals I've been to that I made a little video about it. Enjoy.

Festilicious.

These plastic masks are a mainstay of the Japanese festival. They cost like 8 dollars a piece, which is a bit ambitious for something that probably cost a nickel to make.

These were pretty good. Just a grilled salted fish on a stick. Can't go wrong with that.

Here's another shot of the fishing guys. I wanted to be sure to show the cool little masks that they were wearing.

Another shot of the otakara.

I'm pretty sure that people tie bad fortunes here to make them go away.

This woman making jewelry was very mysterious.

Chrysanthemums.

I explained a bit about the god Ebisu in the video. Well, he is what the beer brand Yebisu is named after. I went to the Yebisu Beer Museum not too long ago, if you recall.

Tokyo: Beer Museum

Mike's friend Keeble was in Japan visiting, and that was really all the reason we needed to do some fun stuff. Last weekend we all headed to Tokyo to see what sort of unexpected things we might be able to make happen.

The thing about Tokyo is that it's huge, and without a perfect grasp of the language it can be a bit of a challenge to properly cover as a sightseer. So even after going to Tokyo several times, there are still a very large amount of experiences waiting to be had. Luckily we had a half-plan ahead of time, rather than just show up and wandering around in circles like we usually do. One thing that I had been wanting to check off of my wish list was a visit to the Beer Museum Yebisu in the Ebisu district of Tokyo. Yebisu is a brand produced by one of the big three beer makers in Japan, Sapporo Breweries Limited.

The museum was located in Yebisu Garden Place, a little collection of restaurants and stores. From what I've seen of the rest of Ebisu, this museum complex seems to be the only thing going on and, having covered the museum, I can't imagine returning back there anytime soon.

The museum's lobby was dominated by a large copper beer tank polished to a shine.

We may have gotten a bit overemotional with all the excitement.


"There's good times ahead".

I enjoyed a gallery that was devoted to the brand's marketing posters, some from as far back as the 1950's. It was interesting to see how the products seemed to be aimed at different groups over the years. Some of the older posters seem to show a fairly upper class crowd, while the contemporary pieces had a more accessible feel to them.

1963: This guy seems to be pretty spellbound.

1968


2008


Tung and Clarence critiquing.

The highlight of the museum was the Magic Vision Theater:

Here, a wondrous 3D "Magic Vision" cut will tell of the mysteries of the good taste of beer in an interesting manner. In this allegorical fantasy, Gambrinus, the king of beer, engages in a desperate contest of wits over the good taste of beer with The Evil One of the forest. To the victor goes the heart of the beautiful Beer Fairy.

Rather than try and describe in print how wondrous the magic was, I decided to let my trusty camera do the work for me. Take a look.





Other than the few highlights, my inability to read much made the historical and beer making facts from the rest of the museum little more than a picture book quickly flipped through. At the end of the museum was an unsurprising opportunity to sample all the wonderful products we had learned so much about. Unfortunately said products were not free.

Clarence glances at a case of glasses full of fake plastic beer. He then proceeded to buy a beer token from the vending machine and hand it to the bartender.

Learning is fun!

The gift shop was amusing. Out-of-the-ordinary offerings included beer soap and beer jell-o, both of which I purchased. I also picked up a few nice copies of vintage beer posters, including a trio of geisha loving some classy beer.

I waved a tearful goodbye to the beer museum, and then it was gone. We next headed to Akihabara, the geek capital of the world.

The good people at HotelTravel.com were nice enough to add this blog entry to their website describing the wonders of Japan. They linked to me here, about midway down the page under "Dining&Shopping". I do believe that means I'm famous.