Jordan Brock

I’d heard quite a bit about Harajuku before I went to Japan, about how young Japanese dress up in whacked out costumes and spend the day parading around, but believe me when I say there’s no preparation for the real thing.

!http://photos1.flickr.com/178115_e0f9e7646a_t.jpg So what goes on at Haraujuku? I’m sure there’s some deep thinking psychological analysis of the phenomenon, but I don’t think it would really explain it. Basically it’s a collection of young Japanese (I suppose somewhere between 15 and 25 … it’s very hard to tell), who dress up as characters from books and movies, dolls, goths, and any number of other things.

They all congregate on a bridge just around the corner from Harajuku Station, and stand there all day. They willingly stand for hours while people photograph and stare at them. They have their own little groups where they talk about whatever they talk about. The two girls in the pic above were posing with people for at least 4 hours. Quite happily standing there and staring at camera after camera. Looking like little dolls.

There were probably more tourists there than actual “exhibits”, but they just seemed to wander around, a little bewildered by the experience. A whole lot of head scratching going on.

So Saturday was Shoma’s (one of my nephews) School Sports Day. Most interesting.

Unlike most Australian school sports days which tend to be nothing but disorganised tedium, the Japanese school sports day is highly organised tedium sprinkled with moments of sheer craziness.

Exhibit A: The skipping rope game. All of the students in a particular year, in each of the three factions, are grouped in a line, bookended by 2 larger students with a large skipping rope between them. Then, each team in turn, they play jump rope, but with 25 students each jumping as one! And the team with the most jumps after 3 goes is the winner. Group participation at it’s best, with the objective apparently to create a feeling that “being part of the group, and doing things with that group, in the same way is the best that you can do.” HiveLogic.

Exhibit B: Each faction lines up, and bends at the waist. Another student clambers on to their backs, and runs along the line. As the kid on top runs over a student, they stand up, run around to the front of the line, and so the line moved forward. The objective being to get to the other end of the ground, and come back. The HiveLogic object probably being to show how working as a team can accomplish things that benefit all. Either that or they’re just having fun.

Sunday was Taylor’s (other nephew) sports day: for the younger kids. Pretty much the same sort of deal, but with different whacked out activities, including a massive group callesthenics and acrobatics display. This day also had some real sports. Running.

In Australia, it might take 30 minutes to get through 10×100m races. In Japan, it takes less than 3. Before each race is finished, the next lot are in the blocks. As soon as the previous race is finished, the starters gun fires and away they go. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

A day in the office, doing some of the stuff that I actually came up to Tokyo to do in the first place. The computer company delivered the server today, about 2 hours late, with four (!WTF?) guys coming along for the ride. They brought the box into the office, and then all stood around staring at each other and at me. I wasn’t sure if I was committing some serious social faux pas, but eventually Habu-san came along and saved us. Apparently they were just waiting for someone to take the initiative and probably would have waited for 20 minutes if someone didn’t tell them to set it up!

They had it set up within 5 minutes and then scarpered off to home base. I spent the rest of the day squashed up in the office, trying to setup the japanese version of Windows. I pretty much got there in the end, so it probably went better than I thought. Probably a couple of hours work over the next couple of days.

After work, I went into Harajuku and Shibuya with Imei-san and Habu-san to have a walk around, some dinner and drinks. Plenty of time gawking at all the buildings, and all the lights. Shibuya is extremely hard to describe: total chaos of people, buildings, cars and light is probably the best way. Times Square after a hard night on the tiles might be another.

It was quite an effort to find somewhere for dinner, but we eventually found an okonomiyaki restaurant. It’s a kind of pancake mixed with vegetables and meat and all sorts of stuff, which they cook on the hotplate that’s in the middle of the table. We had three different kinds, and they were all delicious.

A couple of beers with dinner on my ownsome, as neither of my companions drank! Which meant I was of course drinking for Australia. Don’t worry. I did us proud. Mostly.

Of course, the most interesting thing to do in Shibuya is to just walk around experiencing it. An astounding number of people, all going in seemingly random directions. It could take 1 minute to cross a 20 metre road because of the volume of people. I felt a little like a spawning salmon swimming upstream.

A fair bit of walking, and looking like a complete tourist snapping pictures of everything, and then we found a little bar that Habu-san had been to before. Of course, if you didn’t know it was there you’d have no chance because it was on the fourth floor of a building down a little alleyway up a hill. And then it only had about 8 seats. We walked in, and everyone in the bar had to rearrange themselves so that we could get in. But it was worth it because I had some of the best ginnantonix I’ve had in a long time (lime, not lemon), and a good translated conversation with the bar staff. Great feel to the place, and an astounding range of whiskey.

A great night out in chaos.

So, it’s finally happened, and on only my first full day in Japan. Karaoke!

But first I must tell you about the magnificent food that I’ve been eating here. All sorts of different stuff, and all magnificent. A Korean BBQ for lunch on Wednesday where we cooked our own meat on the hotplate built into the table; Yakitori that night (which is kind of like a Yum Cha, but less reliant on deep fried food, and actually includes vegetables); Noodles and fried rice at a little mum and pop noodlehouse where they could barely contain their glee at my ability to use chopsticks; and a more traditional Japanese meal last night with an array of interesting things, including deep fried chicken knuckles (tastier than they might sound), whole prawns, whole fish and of course, sake.

Then after the meal (and some beers), off to Karaoke. And as much as I resisted, it’s actually kind of fun. Though, I chose a song that was way out of my limited range and I sounded like a castrato who was actually being modified.

The Japanese seem to take it very seriously, and have their own songs that they practice (I presume on their own?) and the put on mini stage shows. Of course, it’s all liberally lubricated with sake, beer and gin, but it’s good fun.

It was my own little Lost in Translation moment. They had “More Than This” on the list, but I never got around to singing it. I am, however, as yet to see Scarlett Johanssen smiling at me in an elevator. Something that will disappoint me to the day I die.

So, here I am. Tokyo. Wow.

A pretty standard flight from Perth overnight, broken only with the captain waking everyone on the plane up to make sure they had their seatbelt on. Nice one. Of course, I was in the middle of a deep sleep, and struggled to return.

On the approach into Tokyo, Mt Fuji was visible on the horizon, poking up through the clouds. It was quite distant, but still spectacular. The actual approach into Tokyo was quite interesting, with an astonishing amount of golf courses underneath the flight path. It looked as though there were about 20 courses, all up against each other, with immaculately landscaping evident.

The bus ride from the airport was longer than expected, mainly because the airport is 70kms out of town, which makes me wonder how it can really be associated with Tokyo. Met a guy on the bus who travels the world helping telcos set up mobile phone networks. Relatively interesting, in a fairly nerdly way.

Once I got into town there was a mad rush through the office (whoah, it’s cramped!), and then to Melanies apartment, which is set back from the road in what feels like a little village all of it’s own. Very calming, and easy to forget that there’s 15 million people on the other side of the wall.

Didn’t really accomplish too much today. A quick bike ride around the area, some lunch, some dinner, a nap etc etc and back to the flat. The boys are cool. Little teenagers, with all of the appropriate features.

That’s it for day 0.5 of the trip.

I’m off to Japan! Melanie (my sister for those not in the know) is paying for me to go up there to set up her network. Now that could mean more pain than anything, but it’s a free trip to Tokyo, and in my experience that’s not something that rolls along every day.

With Caren due within 8 weeks, I am slightly apprehensive about going. Obviously I would be heartbroken if she went into labour and I wasn’t around. But, nothing’s going to happen.

This is ostensibly to try out the TypePad QuickPost feature, which no doubt is to try and replicate the “Blog It” button from GoogleToolbar. Not bad.

Sigh.

Siiting in the BA lounge in Heathrow Airport, waiting the interminable wait for our flight. We’ve got 7 hours here (only 4 to go) before our flight to Singapore, before we eventually get to Perth, in about 24 hours from now.

Prague was magnificent. A truly stunning city. A few downsides though. No doubt because they’ve only had a market economy for 13 years or so, a few things that you come to expect elsewhere have yet to filter through. Such as friendlyness and efficiency on the behalf of hospitality staff. The number of indifferent or downright exasperating waiters was phenomenal, with one gesticulating that we should sit at the piano if we couldn’t find a seat anywhere else in one restaurant/bar that we went to. But of course, that is supposed to be part of the charm of the place.

We didn’t accomplish too much in the last two days, other than walk around a lot, oohing and aahing appropriately, and sit in a sports bar watching the cricket. A went to a museum on Prague under communism, and as you could probably guess, it wasn’t too pretty an existence. The size of the secret police, the black market, and the need to earn foreign currency (girls were encouraged to give foreign business men a “night of lovemaking” – for a fee of course.)

It’s amazing how your mind starts turning thinking thoughts of home when the end of the trip is nigh. What we’re going to do this weekend (sleep), what foods we can eat (pepperoni from Torres and lots of real beef), and the omnipresent thoughts on work. Of course, you snap yourself out of that and marvel that you’ve only paid $1.30 for that pint of beer you’ve just downed.

Caren asked me last night what the highlight of the trip had been, and without thinking I said “The dogsled ride”, to which her stern reply was “Mine was the wedding.” After extricating my foot from my mouth, I hastily reconsidered my reply (but realistically, the dogsled ride was damn cool.)

Our time in Philadelphia was magnificent thanks to the hospitality of Carol, Marc and family, who made their house ours, and also because of the belated wedding reception put on by the whole family. Thanks to everyone who helped with that wonderful afternoon/night.

I’ll get around to putting some photos up when we get back into Perth, so that you can have a look at what we’ve seen, where we’ve been etc. But for now, it’s goodnight from me, and goodnight from Caren.

A magnificent day in Prague, both weatherwise and travellingwise. It was the first day of our trip that the sun came out with enough strength to make us want to actually sit down and feel the warmth. Of course, we still had our thermal underwear on, and it probably never got above 7 degrees, but it still felt wonderful.

Prague is a tourist operators dream coming to life. Astounding sights and vistas around every corner, all clumped together in a 4 square kilometre block, so there’s no real travelling time between them. And then when you get to where you’re going, wow.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon from Vienna, and after a few trifling issues with the hotel/guest house we managed to settle in. A quick trip around Prague to get our bearings and it was time for dinner. We stopped in a traditional Czech beer hall, about three rooms each of which sat about 15 people around sparse wooden benches and tables. Then they just start bringing the beer. Budweiser, which is originally a Czech beer, and has no shared characteristics with the American version. The main difference being that this one has taste and appeal. So a couple of downed pints and it was time for dinner. We both decided to give the traditional goulash and potato dumplings a go, mainly because it was only about $4. The goulash was wonderful, but we aren’t sure if they made a mistake and served us window putty instead of the dumplngs. Whoah. Talk about stick to your ribs. Yikes. So we had to wash that down with more beer.

Up relatively early this morning, primarily to see some of the sights in the early morning sun, but also to beat the crowds (which are pretty bad now, I dread to think what they will be like in the middle of summer.) We made it to Old Town Square, which is postcard city. A large square, surrounded on all sides by huge churches, town halls, splendid old buildings etc etc. Lots of photos, lots of people taking photos. A quick breakfast and we were off again. This time we crossed the river and headed towards the castle.

We’re not sure if this castle is less impressive than some of the other ones that we’ve seen, or if we are just castled out for the time being, but we were a little jaded as we wandered around. That said, the main cathedral in the castle was absolutely stunning, and definately bigger than Notre Dame. More gothic gargoyles and intricate carvings abound. Also some pretty impressive Stained Glass windows, one of which would have easily had 10 000 pieces of glass in it.

A quick refreshing nap back at the hotel (after walking up 10 flights of stairs …. no lift thank you very much) and it was off for dinner. There is a Beer Hall that everyone seems to talk about when they talk about Prague. It was famous 10 years ago when we were hostelling. A huge beer hall (it seats about 1200 people), and the beer used to cost a British penny a pint. There must have been some serious inflation in Czech over the past few years because it now cost about AUD$3 a pint. But it was still pretty impressive. And intoxicating.

A couple more days here, and then it’s onto the planes for the loooong flight home. We are kind of looking forward to it. Living out of a suitcase tends to wear thin after a while, but that is a nice problem to have at the moment. No doubt this time next week we will wish we were back here.