"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." T. S. Eliot
Yesterday morning I got up really early in anticipation of my possible Japanese morning television debut. I looked around online for a good way of recording my appearance, but I didn't come up with much. The best thing I could find is a program called KeyHole TV. It's a magical little program that streams several Japanese TV channels. It only has a select number of channels available, but it feature Fuji TV, the one I needed. The program only provides a very small view screen which ruled it out for my purposes. You can download it if you want to check it out (on PC, Mac OSX, or Linux).
So after that waste of time, I figured I would just take a video with my camera straight from the TV screen. Very bad quality, but I couldn't come up with anything better on such short notice.
If you have a short attention span, or just happened to blink through my whole scene, you can see me at about 4:34. After a couple hours of time spent with/waiting on the TV crew and getting up early to watch, I have literally 3 seconds of on-air face time. All of the interviewing we did was cut. Curses!! I still wouldn't mind having a better copy of this however. At least I could pull one nice frame out of it and print it out.
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!
Angelica and I bought day passes on the Yurikamome line and then spent a whole day cruising around Odaiba, the man-made island in Tokyo Bay. The line is new and it's pretty cool because it is fully automated. It runs on an elevated track, which provides some nice views while traveling.
Daiba means fort or battery in Japanese, as this place was originally built in the 1800s to defend the bay.
I saw some Wicked ads and I inquired about show times. That interest was gone as soon as I realized the whole show was going to be in Japanese.
Me in front of the Fuji TV building. Wikitravel notes Odaiba's architecture as "hypermodern and just plain strange buildings memorably described as the result of an acid-soaked pre-schooler's architecture class". Zing!
We went up into the building to see the view. This shot came out pretty cool despite the windows. The bridge is the Rainbow Bridge. Its lights change color according to the season or something like that. Here you can see some of the smaller defensive islands, Tokyo Tower, and even a small blimp overhead.
We discovered a pretty cool place on the second floor of the Decks Tokyo Beach mall. It was still a mall setup, but modeled on an old street with lots of thematic additions. It was a lesser version of the excellent Ramen Museum we saw a few days earlier. A highlight not present at the ramen place was an old school arcade.
This place was memorable. For a few bucks we tried our skill at knocking rotating prizes off their bases with a little gun that shot tiny corks. It was one of those games where you still got a bad deal even if you won something, but it was super fun. I knocked a couple of little toys down before it happened. The conveyor belt rotating the prizes began having some mechanical stutters, causing a ton of un-won prizes to fall. The crowd went wild, and the flustered game operator ran around trying to collect everything before anyone ran off. He went behind the machine to fix it and the same thing happened again. It was hilarious.
By this time it was starting to get dark, so we probably only had time for one last thing. I think we made a good choice. We stopped at Megaweb, a Toyota exhibition hall. A good portion of everything was probably more for people who care about cars, but I found plenty to keep me occupied.
I don't know why, but I thought the marketing on these were interesting. They seemed to be talking as if someones car is an extension of their living room.
My favorite part of the whole thing was the concept car area.
All I care to read about this one is that it was made in collaboration with Sony and it's named Pod.
This one is called the Fine-X. These names are pretty pukey but the cars look cool. The gull doors and swivelling chairs are something I don't think I've seen before.
You might recall that I wrote a blog entry complaining about all of the rules concerning the handling of garbage. Well, those have officially become the good ol' days. The sorting is unchanged, but starting this month, all burnable(non-recyclable) trash must be put in a special pink bag designated by the city. These bags can be purchased at several stores in town. The biggest size, 45 liters, costs 600 yen(USD5.78) for a pack of ten. Curse you, garbage man!!
Look at his smug little pink face. Mocking me.
This past week began the first classes of the new year(Japan's school year starts in April). Some of the teachers are new, which is fun, plus a whole new class of first years is on the scene. I like to interact with them. They are cheerful and haven't yet become too cool for school, so they stretch the limit of their language ability to talk with me.
I was trying not to smile when I saw the way everyone planned out their schedules for the year. They moved around little plastic pieces with names written on them into slots corresponding to day and time. It felt like I was in a 1940s war room, or maybe playing a giant game of Battleship.
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Nothing too exciting happening this weekend, but last weekend we took a little trip to Tokyo. This time we checked out an entertainment district located on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay called.... Odaiba. Covered in convention centers, malls, and little theme park rides, the island's layout made me feel like I was in another country. The buildings seem to be taller than they are on the mainland, and the streets wider. I really felt like I was in the US.
Rainbow Bridge to the left, and fake Statue of Liberty to the right. Nothing says touristy class like a fake Lady Liberty.
