Friday, April 27, 2007

Tokyo part 1

There are two types of people here in Japan: the ones who prefer Kansai (type 1) and the ones who prefer Kanto (type 2). Kansai is the area I live in and it holds famous cities like Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Nara. It is the center of west-Japan and the Heimat of Japanese, traditional culture with Nara and Kyoto being the former capital respectively. An older, Kansai-dialect is something the people here pride themselves on. As the center of east-Japan (and of course of Japan in general) we have the Kanto-area with its main unit, the metropolitan city of Tokyo. The concentration of industry in Japan is the densest here and as such many Japanese flock to Tokyo in search for a job.
I used to be a type 1. This stems mainly from the fact that I have always lived in the Kansai-region. I had been to Tokyo once in May 2003, but I wasn't thoroughly impressed. "Yeah, Tokyo is alright", I used to say.

In my last post I talked about the trip to Tokyo my friends and I would embark on. We left my beloved Kansai with the 13:00 o'clock-Shinkansen on Thursday the 5th. We -that is Erez, Efrat, Natalie and I- were very excited to say the least.
After the usual business, like check-in at the hotel, we headed for Roppongi which is famous for its vibrant nightlife among other things to satisfy our primary need: hunger. We settled for a nice Indian restaurant located inside Roppongi Hills (in a complex adjacent to Mori Tower). I had already picked up a beer at the convenient store before even getting into the cab which brought us to Roppongi (to satisfy my personal primary need: alcohol), but nonetheless I was happy to discover it was happy hour at the restaurant. Then, I think it must have been around 19:00, we went up a couple of floors to enjoy the exquisite, nocturnal panorama. I started gazing out over Mori-park, the lit up TV Asahi-building that offered a beacon of light in the clear, nightly sky,... our German friend from Doshisha, Lalita, joined us up on the balcony. The cars twinkled with their white and red lights on the distant roads. "Wow, it's so beautiful here", I said to myself.


And that's when it hit me, Tokyo's superiority over a city like Osaka. I saw a glimpse of the allurement of Tokyo. Goosebumps covered my body.
Osaka is an enormous city with tons of restaurants, bars, places to go out etc. Just like Tokyo. But in se Osaka is quite unattractive. Ugly buildings connected to each other with endless wires and cables (in Belgium they've put that all underground). Osaka's amalgam of architecture is so vast it's certainly impressive, but it rarely is candy for the eye.
But here in Tokyo on my first night I had already found a view on par with the prettiest sites I've seen in Osaka. And the next couple of days this insight was reinforced. In Tokyo you have countless places that are aesthetically pleasing, buildings and skyscrapers that are so artfully constructed and attest of world-class ingenuity, that you stare at them in an awe of astonishment.

We finished off our night in The Hub, an English-styled pub. I used my usual joke to crack the ice with the bartender and get him to make my drink stronger than normal. "Look, I have a massive body, so I'm a pretty strong drinker. Therefore could you please make my drink a little bit stronger?" It's of course all in the way you deliver these lines, trying not to sound like a demanding asshole, but just like a jolly fella who is always smiling and will order a lot of drinks at the bar that night, IF you just provide him this little favor. Furthermore, I really can drink a little bit more than most people which always makes my wallet significantly lighter by the end of the night. The drink in question: Long Island Iced Tea, the king of all cocktails. The guy at The Hub was well-trained: 85% liquor, 15% coke. I approvingly laughed when he handed me over my Long Island and I told him it was perfect. Another satisfied customer. From the rest of the night I remember much laughter, amusing chatter et bien sûr, des boissons alcooliques.

The following day was broken in with coffee and sandwiches, followed by a soothing stroll in Yoyogi Park and some frisbeeing by Erez and I. What a wonderful atmosphere. People were having picnicks in the sun with the beautifully blooming sakura-trees offering comfort and shadow. The park was an oasis of peacefulness and greenery. But above the tree line you could see skyscrapers rising out to remind you that you're still in the middle of this juggernaut-city, never too far away from the next Starbucks or izakaya.
Harajuku with its outrageous fashion scene was interesting and I guess it motivated the girls to do some shopping, so we started walking to Shibuya, visiting stores along the way.
Around 16:30 I realized I still had to visit Yasukuni-shrine, more specifically the museum attached to the shrine, because the shrine itself I had already seen on my previous visit four years back. The shrine is famous around the world for its controversy due to the 12 convicted Class A war criminals who are enshrined there among ca. 2.5 million others who have given their life for Imperial Japan, especially in a time of war. In the museum WWII and Japan's motives are distorted, beautified and even glorified. In other words, it is worth a visit. I thought it was open until 18:00, so I was ecstatic to arrive there at 17:30, because I had hurried like my life depended on it. At the ticket counter of the museum I waited for someone to come and serve me, but nobody appeared from behind the counter. Cold sweat broke out. Had I... I asked one of the persons still roaming around on the ground floor entrance hall of the museum. The museum closes at 17:30 this time of year. Oh, the bitter taste of defeat.
No need to waste any more time, so I headed back to Shibuya to meet up with the girls if possible. Coming out of that station I got another taste of Tokyo's uniqueness: thousands of people crisscrossing each other on the spacious area in front of the station, while countless neon lights and video screens lit up the tall buildings in stark contrast with the nightly sky. For a minute I just stood in the middle of this hasty sea of people with a smile on my face at this incredible sight. It was just like Tokyo is said to be, like I wanted it to be. I called up Natalie and we were able to find a clear meeting point in this vast chaos of human beings: the Shibuya109-building.
Around 20:00-ish all of us met up at Yoyogi Koen-station after which we went to a FABULOUS restaurant, where an Israeli friend of Erez and Efrat called Shlomit who works in fashion was waiting for us with a couple of friends of her. Too bad haute cuisine equals muchos dolares. Subsequently the big event of the night followed: party. Shlomit had been able to use her connections in the fashion industry to put us all on the list of this exclusive club. Queue at the entrance, check. Two bouncers in black suits closing off the entrance by means of a velvet rope, check. Guest list, check. Influential-looking snobs, check. In one word: awesome ;)
The bartender seemed like a cool cat and I asked him to give me the strongest drink they had, which turned out to be whiskey-soda. In my merry state I tried out a new approach ordering my second drink. "If I'm still standing by the end of the night, that means you haven't done your job properly." He grinned and then started making the strongest Long Island Iced Tea I had drunk in a while. The club was excellent with many couches, a decent-sized dance area and dimmed lighting. I divided my time chatting, drinking and of course, shaking my behind. Arriving back from the dance floor to "our" comfy couches a shot of Jägermeister was forced into my hands accompanied by the simple order: "Drink!" Immediately after the girls handed me another one. And another one. At one point I was even drinking Champagne. In other words, it was a good night.

For reasons of length I'll finish up here and tell about my last day in my next post.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

"Falling with your ass in the butter."

This expression has invoked laughs and mocking by my international friends here. Sure it sounds kind of stupid in English and reminds some people of "Last Tango In Paris" among those who have seen this erotic Marlon Brandon-vehicle. But I assure you that we use this Dutch expression in Belgium ("met uw gat in de boter vallen") quite often, even though it might be rather colloquial ;) A better English equivalent than the aforementioned sexually suggestive one is "to catch a lucky break (unexpectedly)."
I'm boring enrichening you with this useless fascinating piece of trivia, because recently I have fallen with my ass in the butter: I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow for three days. Moreover, my Shinkansen-ticket and accommodation in the third most expensive capital of 2006 will be largely paid for!

On Sunday I was recovering from a drinking streak that lasted close to a week. This involved wandering the streets of Kyoto in the middle of the night stupifyingly drunk having absolutely no idea where the hell I was going, and falling in the bushes with my bike while intoxicated cutting my chin in the process. The reason, if there was any, for this embarrassing behavior is the fact that school started again this week. I guess I wanted to celebrate the last days of worriless splendor. Anyway, Kendall and I were taking it easy on Sunday, playing our newly favorite PS2-game "Winning Eleven 9" and watching multiple episodes on DVD of the politically educating series "The West Wing", which Kendall has gotten me hooked on.
Around 20:23 I got a phone call from my dear Australian friend Natalie. I was tired, but in the minute that would follow my heart rate reached new heights. "I have good news.", Natalie said excitedly after which she teasingly paused for a while, forcing me to inquire after what that good news might be then. As it turned out our mutual friends from the most disputed country on earth called Israel had two spare Shinkansen-tickets for Tokyo and back, and hotel largely paid for. Natalie and I could go with them! Heart rate: 120. Needless to say I immediately told her I'd be going with. Amazing! ;D Talk of parties and bars was being thrown around. The four of us would have the BEST time. But wait!... Next week I would have numerous procedures in order to fully complete my registration as a Master's student at Doshisha University. Did I have something important to do at uni which would prohibit me from taking this extraordinary opportunity?... I didn't think so... But then again, my memory on significant things, usually regarding administrative paperwork, is inexplicably short, not to say strongly deficient at times...
Afterwards I called up my tutor (a Korean Ph.D-student) to ask if I'd be able to go. I'm sure I would get locked up for murder, if someone at uni told me I couldn't go, because of some redundant, administrative formality. Luckily, I was and still am in the clear ;) Bring on the butter!

Thank you Efrat and Erez!

Some contemporary trivia:

I had my entrance ceremony for Graduate School yesterday. I've entered the Master's course of "Media Studies" and got inundated with books, papers and information. The speeches of the various sensei, some quite ominous, seemed endless and my hungry stomach got tested to its limits.

I think it must be some election soon. The Kyoto-streets are flooded with announcement cars polluting the spring-air with their noisy, political propaganda. Some of them have cute women inside with white gloves waving from the window and eager to make eye contact; do a man's sexual urges dominate his rational decision? Maybe for some of us...

The sakura (= Japanese cherry blossoms) are in full bloom at the moment leaving no Japanese unmoved. Parks are filled with picnicking crowds doing "hanami" (literally "flower-watching"), which is one of the much beloved past-time activities here and part of the core of Japanese culture. Only one question occupies me at the sight of this: Why do they always use a blue sail to sit on?

Speaking of this pink flower; Kendall was recently able to display some of his fine writing skills in "The Japan Times". Here's the online version of the article. But, wasn't I supposed to be the one studying journalism? Congratulations Kendall! ;)

And to finish off, I'll leave you with this video about the "candirú" which I happened to watch this morning. I'd rather have butter in my ass than a problem with this tiny fish.