Tokyo Vice

Kon ba wa! Watashi wa Lola des! Hajime Mashite!

Its rolling off my tongue like ramen drips off my lips. I am HUGE in Japan.

First things first...I LOOVE being a minority. I love being different. I love the attention. Although the Japanese are a very polite peoples. They dont stare or bother you, but there have been quite a few times that I stood, map in hand in the subway, and they come up to check on you. So sweet.

I love bowing. I love the manners. I love keeping to the left of the sidewalk or subway platform when walking. I love slurping my noodles. I love the vending machines. I love the school uniforms and men in suits. I love the how everything is so orderly and clean.

So...I arrived Wednesday afternoon and took the train in from the airport. I arrived at my hostel and immediatley starting rapping with kids in the common room. Rikki from Liverpool and Ryan from Austrailia have become my main wingmen. We made plans for the next day to see the Imperial Palace, The Senso Ji Shrine in Asakusa, The Ueno area and walk around. We ended up at this park where they have boats you can rent. We opted for the giant duck paddle boats and cracked up around the lake for awhile drinking cold sake.


Then last night we went to get conveyor belt sushi. There are these sushi restaurants that have these big square counters. You sit there and sushi plates pass in front of you on a conveyor belt. You are charged depending on the color of the plate. (160 yen for cheap plate and about 450yen for expensive stuff) So we we had out tuna and eel and crab plenty of misc. delicious unpronouncable sushi. You stack the plates between you as you finish. Drink your sake. Grab a plate. Eat and repeat. At the end of the meal...they waiter comes over with this handheld bar code type computerized reader!!! ....And he holds it next to the stack of plates and raises it to the top and then back down again. The fucking computer thing fucking can tell what color plate it is???!! It gives you a receipt. Not only super efficient but technologically kickass!

After sake and sushi..Austrailian Ryan and I decide to hit a Karaoke box. It looks like a hotel entrance. You take an elevator up to the top floor and get a private room. Everything seems second nature to me. Check the songlist book. Pick a song. Type in the number into the remote control thingee. Sing my guts out. Order drinks from the phone on the wall and they deliver them in like...seconds. We kept asking everyone if there were karaoke BARS not just boxes. (You KNOW how I like a crowd.) We heard of a few and will follow up our leads within the next few nights.


This morning, Rikki and Ryan and I got up at the crack of dawn to go to the Tsukiji Central Fish market. Why haul our cookies up at 6am to stand in fish guts? Cause its a friggin mind fuck. Imagine one third of all the fish sold in japan in one day moving through this market. Awesome. Simply awesome. We watched the Tuna auctions from the warehouse. Imagine thousands of frozen tuna fish, 7 feet long at least, all lined up and hundreds of japanese dudes bidding on these things like it was the floor of the NY stock exchange. The auctioner has this husky staccato voice that sing songs the auction. The place is HUGE. On the other side of the auction area is like a square mile or two of stalls selling everything from eels to octopus to shrimp, crab and every single type of fish available. Between the stalls are small passage ways and these little trucks...ummm...like super old school Segways with a dude driving while standing on this flat wagon. And they are driving at Mach 10 past you from every direction. It was like friggin Frogger. But organised chaos. Thousands of restaurant owners and chefs in suits or work clothes all wear knne high black Galoshes and carry big baskets to buy the fish for the days menu.


Then past all that are these stalls for knives and gear and food other than fish. And all these little counter restaurants side by side that are like 6 feet wide. Sushi for breakfast? Not for us. We hit Dennys. And No they dont have Moons over my Hammy.

Quick nap at the hostel and then back out to see some Kabuki Theatre. Didnt understand it as its in Japanesy but I culled the storyline. Someone loves someone else and the rich neighbor is nosy and then the little girl sings and then the mother paints on a screen and the other traveling dude laments. Or something like that. But they all wore beautiful kimonos. Which by the way...I will also be wearing. very very soon. Theres this used Kimono shop I went to yesterday. New ones are like thousands of dollars. These are like 50-300 bucks. I already picked mine out and they:re holding it for me for when I return from Kyoto and Nara.

Tonight I go drop off a bottleof unique and superior Bourbon to a very nice bartender that Rachael and Moss met while here. Friday night in Shibuya. Party time.

I love my life. Im so happy I did this. I am accliamating so well and my heart feels... not so heavy these days. More more more!