Tokyo Tales

While my first visit to Tokyo was exhaustively blogged, this last trip will be summarized more concisely...

I went to Tokyo with the express purpose of relaxing and getting away. I wanted to breathe clean air, walk a lot, and enjoy more of those yummy sandwiches in 7-11. I'm not being facetious; I really like them!

I left Hong Kong at approximately 2:00AM last Wednesday morning (Tuesday night?). The plane was late, but I had been mysteriously upgraded into a business class seat, so I said nothing.

I tried to sleep, but it was not easy. One thing I notice about flying in Asia is that the service is better. Which normally would be a great thing, especially if you are, like me, used to flying American air services like Southwest, colloquially known as Air Greyhound, after the bus line.

So how could better service be bad? I notice that whenever I fly in Asia, I get fed. They fed us at about 3:00AM. For what? Don't get me wrong, I ate it.

I managed to get some sleep, but I guess I'm getting old, because even with a business class seat, I was just not comfortable.

I got up around 5:30, just before we started our descent. I was glad I looked out the window, because I was incredibly lucky:Thank God for the zoom function:I remember thinking that Japanese people have a darn good reason to be proud of their country just for that spectacular mountain. Soon enough we landed at Haneda airport, and I had to get to Akasaka to drop my bag off at the hotel. I managed to buy a Suica card and take the monorail and subways to get where I was going. I also managed (since it was only about 7:30) to not get caught in rush hour.

Not that I cared, I just didn't want to be bothersome to other people, with my big @ss and rucksack (I knew I'd have to hump the damn thing from the station to the hotel, so it was easier than a regular bag).

Which I did. By 8:30, I had dropped it off at the hotel, the MaRRoad Inn, Akasaka (not a typo). It's a business hotel, kind of old-fashioned. The decor is a lot like the restaurants Tai Ping Koon or Sweetheart Garden, very 60s wood panelling style, and it's a smoker's hotel.

So between the decor and the smell of old smoke, it reminds me of my grandparents' homes.

I like it. The rooms are small, but I can hang my feet off the end of the bed and the practically square bathtub is pretty deep.

Peachey will be glad to know that I ate breakfast in a restaurant.

It's the one across the street from the hotel, but it's NOT 7-11, right?

So after I ate, I wondered what to do.

Because the guitar stores wouldn't open until 11:00 AM...

 My mother had asked for photos of the sakura(cherry blossoms) in Tokyo, and I figured that I ought to hurry up since the blossoms would be falling soon. So I set out for Ueno Park, which someone told me was probably the best 'one-stop' place for sakura.

Tokyo being Tokyo, and me being me, it wasn't so easy for me to get there. First, I got caught in some rush hour traffic. Second, that prevented me from getting out of the train at my intended stop. So I ended up going to a different station that looked close to Ueno park.

Once I figured out which way to go, it was. But I did a lot of walking around first...

But it was worth it. The air was cool and clean, and I was happy to be in it. I also found some hardware stores and discovered a tool I had been wanting to buy, a 'saw rasp':It was only Y1500, too!I'd been in Tokyo less than three hours and already achieved one of my goals for the trip!

Japanese efficiency, I guess...

So with a skip in my step, a song in my heart and a rasp in my bag (ouch), I toddled off down the street to...Ueno Park!!!I took about 100 pictures for my mother, because she won't make parole for another few years and needs things to keep her busy when she's not hitting the weight pile.

Stay strong on the yard and do your own time, Ma. I'll drop you some commisary later...

Here are a few of the better photos:

The sign says "Throw fish or I'll sh*t on your head" There were lots of ducks and khoi in the water. Which may explain this cat, who sat silently and immobile, either contemplating what to have for lunch ("Fish... or duck?") or just waiting to bust a can of whup-ass on anyone who f@#$ed with his bush, judging by his expression:"I wish a motherf@#$erwould..."So, 100 photos later, or 10:30 AM, I decided it was time to head for the places with the curvy bodies, sexy knobs and hot pickups.

Not Roppongi, you freak.

Ochanomizu! Shibuya! Shinjuku!

On my way there I saw a few interesting buildings: ""Excuse me, where are the Natsume Nana DVDs?"I went to Shibuya, where I saw this photo-worthy... thing:In this photo, you can see why I saw it:Key music sells guitars.Whenever I go to Tokyo, I feel compelled to worship at the altar of ESP. They make some of the most finely crafted guitars in the world, and their custom shop is amazing. They have shops in Shibuya and Ochanomizu (and I am sure in other places), and they are like museums/temples to me.    Summer school... Actually, it's a one or two year program, and it's (naturally) in Japanese. The woman working at the desk was kind enough to take me on a tour, and kept apologizing about how messy the (inordinately clean for a place where you make sawdust as part of the function of the place) school was. It was, of course, not messy at all. There was wood all over the place, so she didn't notice that I had some too. Someday, I want to study there.For excitement value, ESP does more for me than AV.ESP will build you whatever guitar you want. It won't be cheap, but it will be worth it. You can choose your own wood. The store in Ochanomizu has a corner for doing just that: Notice the purple, red and blue templates against the wall on the wood? That's so you can see what your guitar will look like on any specific pience of wood that you choose for a top. These guys rule.

This month's spotlight (I guess) is on Akira Takasaki, the guitar player in Loudness. This is one of his signature models: I just like the paint job.I saw Loudness, back in 1986, opening for AC/DC. Akira was one of ESP's first big endorsees. The shop in Shibuya had a big display of his guitars. I don't mean his signature models, I mean his guitars. I like this one best:You have to give credit to a guitar maker who can build a guitar body in two dimensions, and then paint it accurately in those dimensions:All I bought at ESP was this:It was about the only thing I could afford. Unfortunately, my big gaijinhand was too large for the opening.

You know what they say about men with big feet and big hands? Big shoes, big gloves.

So I had to perform what amounted to a flannel episiotomy (I think I had their live EP...) so my big stupid hand would fit in it so I can polish my guitars (that's not a euphemism) with it.

It's (sad but) true: this trip, I didn't buy any guitars. I was tempted once or twice, but I resisted.

I did, however, find a good deal on an effect pedal I've wanted for some time. I scored an MXR Eddie Van Halen signature model phaser for about 1/2 price. It's painted like Eddie's guitars (and overalls): "Dave's got his pecker out again!"See?I got it for half price because it had these markls on it that looked like someone had stepped on it: Of course, these pedals are operated by stepping on them.

The Japanese insistence on flawlessness is remarkable, but sometimes it works in my favor.

I bought these pickup rings and knobs too.They're for a guitar I am building and an AnD artist is helping me paint. You'll see; it will make sense.

I had dinner with Hashiguchi-san and Motoki at a restaurant owned by SOD, the AV company. It's a vegetable-centric place, popular with women. They don't mention the affiliation, but it's a very nice place in Ebisu and I recommend it for people who like vegetables. I'm not even being funny. It's very nice and the food is good. Hashiguchi-san said Nana was in Kyushu and couldn't join us. I was just glad that she would have otherwise.

I also had lunch with someone I met at Flimart. It was a lot of fun to talk to a fellow movie geek. It was a lot of fun to talk to someone in Tokyo, since I didn't do much of that.

She's a girl, too, but I think that had no bearing on the meal, if you know what I mean. Like I said, I was just glad for the company.

The only other thing I made apoint of doing was catching some movies. Crows Zero IIopened on Saturday, and I went to the 9:20 AM show. I wanted to see the print in its virgin state, and it was fun. I couldn't follow the story, so I dealt with  the film on a purely visual basis.

The advance ticket voucher was cool, too:So was the poster:"We'll kick your motherf@#$in' @ss..."I like how they use  these signs for the elevators to tell you which movie is on which floor: "All this p*ssy is wearing me out..." I also like the expression on this actor's face; apparently the cast attended a premiere screening where the whole film was inaudible because of the constant shrieks of admiration from girls in the theatre. Not for the film, just for the actors in the theatre God bless them for that. I'll never know what it's like, and I'm too old to handle it anyway.

I was very happy to see a Miike Takashi film in theatres in Japan. I had seen the trailer for this film when I was there in December, as well as a PSA Miike did with the cast, about being quiet in the theatre. Not that its an issue in Japan. People didn't even laugh at the funny parts.

Red Cliff 2 opened as well.

I didn't watch it again. Nana liked Part 1, especially the music duet scene. I assume she'll enjoy part 2.

I also went to seea  documentary by Hideo Nakata, director of Ringu, Dark Water, etc., about his experiences in Tinseltown called Foreign Filmmakers' Guide to Hollywood:It was hilarious, in that unintentional way, because some of the Hollyweird people think they're so deep and so smart and they're just shallow, transparent, stupid, self-centered idiots so convinced of their own superiority and yet blind to how f@#$ing stupid they sound to anyone with any sort of intellectual capacity (like misanthropic PhDs) that the film is howlingly funny. Catch it on DVD.

Speaking of films, and in a rare attempt to end on a high note, I saw this ad in the subway that features the actor who played the  benevolent Japanese cop in Shinjuku Incident:

Sorry for the crap photo, but it was crowded and I didn't want to be any more of a Sore White Thumb than I already was. But look; he's an otter!!!