How they live in To-ki-yo

The 20th of July was my last proper day of work, giving me nearly two weeks before I headed off of Malaysia. What to do? Time to see those sites in Tokyo I kept missing. Before that was Shirahama for Pete's final House Party before heading home to NY. Three years of living in a massive house near Shirahama Beach had made it the ideal location, and now that chapter was coming to a close.

The next day I headed to the beach again to go underwater. It had been almost a year since I had dived, and I needed to get back in the water to refresh my memory before starting any advanced courses. Nothing much to see, bad conditions, but I felt a lot more confident about the coming trip.

Onward to Tokyo for some sightseeing with Erin. And to pick up a supply of crazy Malaria pills for the next few months: The Head of the International Clinic was a brilliant octogenarian Russian who entertained me tales of patients gone by, mostly musicians passing through the Hotels, and thought more of his photo of himself and Michael Jackson than he did of the one with Jacques Chirac.

The Tsukiji fish market is massive, serves the Tokyo area, and is best seen in all is chaotic glory just after the sun rise. We chanced our arm on New Years Day, and of course it was closed, so this time we sleep in he cheapest option in Tokyo (A very comfortable "love hotel"{charges by the hour}) and made our bleary-eyed way there.

It wasn't as crazy as I had hoped, but by Japanese standards, it made a good attempt.

I enjoyed wandering through it, seeing the different stages my Maguro goes through before entering my belly.

Then on to the justifiably controversial Yasukini War Shrine.

I'd heard so many terrible tales of how the Shrine blatantly lies about atrocities committed by he Japanese forces in China and elsewhere, I felt I needed to see it for myself before I could really believe it. I was angry. But not near as angry as a Korean may feel. I told the Vice-principal in my main school of my plans the week before. His reply was "Most Japanese don't like that place." Fortunately that seems true. Unfortunately, the Government and Department of Education don't fall into that category.

More from the fish market and Shrine here.

Drift, Drift, Drift!

I've started singing a new song from Teriyaki Boyz' Buddhist cousins.

"I wonder if they know,
how they live in Ki-Yo-To,
if you've seen it then you mean it, then you know you have to go.

SLOW AND ZEN LIKE!

Sweep, Sweep, Sweep!"

Coming soon to Music Station (Japanese pop music TV show).

Why I re-contracted

It's an exageration, but only just. There were a couple of events and places in Japan that I missed in my first year, and I was determined not to let that happen again! This was one of them.

In all it's glory, The Kawasaki Penis Festival.

A little tired after getting back from Okinawa just the day before, but a bloody good day out.

In the morning, the giant Pink Penis is carried around the neighbourhood before being brought back to the Shrine where music and dancing rule the grounds as everyone eats and drinks under cherry blossoms in full bloom. I sounds fun and beautiful, and it was.

I've been told that some of the pictures might not be considered 'worksafe' a first glance, so Click here for more photos

As always, there's a good story behind the fesival. A young Japanee woman was invaded by a Demon who had the habit of biting off he genitals of her husbands on their wedding nights. No one was very happy with this situation, least of all the prospective bride and future and former husbands, so the town decided that firm action must be taken.

Enter the blacksmith. We can all see where this is going so I'll skip to the end. The demon broke it's teeth, fled the woman, and they all lived happily ever after.

Except for her former husbands that is...

They went on to form Japanese Teen sensation SMAP

Since then? The shrine became an area where ladies of the night would pray for protection from STIs. More recently, those ladies have been replacd by Tokyos LGB scene and couples praying for ferility, making the Festival a fun day out for all the family, with a fine touch of PRIDE.

New Year's Sa-ke

New Year's in Tokyo was.... interesting.

A big group of us went to Roppongi, which is infamous for being about as dodgy as Japan can get. Before we had even left the Metro station, we had come across the first of many DUMB AS SHIT Marines. How did you SURVIVE growing up? And then 10 metres from the station, I started hearing voices.

"Hashish-Hashish"

But no bodies to accompany them....

Not even very pale little Japanese boys wearing eyeliner, or little girls crawling out of wells.

"The Grudge" and "The Ring" being documentaries in their original Japanese form.

There was Mexican food (Tokyo having surprisingly few Japanese restaurants. Does Dublin have many “Irish” restaurants?), and dancing, and watching "dancing" and lots of laughing at other people's expense. And a bizarre set up on one floor whereby the men and women had to sit on separate couches, only there was no couch for the men.

Just as it ended, Erin and I left the rest and took a chance. We really wanted to see the fish market in Tokyo at it's busiest time, 5 to 7 a.m. Apparently the sight of Multi-Tonne Tuna being tossed through the air as people argue on price is well worth the lack of sleep. What a way to go, being decapitated by a flying dead Tuna. I'm sure it's happened. So we took the metro there, but, as expected, it was closed for the National Holiday. The restaurants weren't, so we had some of the BEST sashimi (raw fish) EVER. The monster feed was stunningly gorgeous, as was the Knife Master who was preparing it right in front of us.

Maybe he was just stunning.

Desert was provided by a Buddhist Temple we stumbled upon on the return to the station. We joined the crowd for the New Year's ceremony, and were poured a bowl of Sake at the end. It was just after sunrise, but it's very hard to say no to a guy on his 34,567th incarnation who has just blessed the unpleasantly early alcohol for you.

Completely knackered, there was another site I wanted to see.

New Year's is THE big holiday in Japan, and the first visit to a Shrine of the New Year is a grand occasion. We took the Metro to The Meiji Shrine

(First Emperor, and former father figure for the Japanese state, after Imperial rule was restored at the end of the 19th century; Hirohito's grandfather)

the most important Shrine (Shinto, not a Buddhist Temple) in Tokyo to see the first visitors of the New Year. Some wore Kimono, many were with their whole family, and all were deep in thought and prayer for a prosperous coming year.

The police were there just as crowd control at the front of the Shrine where people pray, but had to wear visors to protect them from the offerings being thrown at the Shrine.

A couple of days later, just before the Tokyo stock exchange opened, the Shrine to the god of business was the place to be.

The Emperor's New Birthday.

I took an overnight bus to Tokyo after work that Friday (22nd). Erin and I met the next morning to have a look at the Imperial Palace. The grounds are a massive walled enclosure that take up a big chuck of the centre of Tokyo, and normally the entirety of the grounds are closed to the public. They open twice a year, and one of those times, the Emperors Birthday, was that Saturday. So we arrive at on of the massive gates, and there is security everywhere. No barriers here, just lines and lines of police, sometimes with their arms linked.

Bit like a Céilí really.

X-ray machines, frisks, etc. And then we're allowed to get within 200m of the walls. BIG ASS STONE WALLS. Although they looked fun to climb.


Next comes the "not so secret" service. Towards the entrance gate, the crowd is funneled through a series of barriers, lined with men, and a tiny number of of equally severe looking women, all uniformly dressed in black trench coats, all with the eyes and a look that let you
know that they are taking in EVERYTHING. There's a lot of talk in Japan about security, but that's it, just talk. Their security is a joke, but in this case I think they were working on
the principle that they all knew what the three most wanted people in the country look like: two men and a women accused of involvement in the sarin gas attacks 10 years ago.

Still at large.

And standing right behind you.

Eventually inside the gates, and I realise that the grounds are not, in fact, open. Just a courtyard below a balcony surrounded by suspiciously thick glass... We're handed some crappy paper flags, and some old men start yelling "BANZAI!!!" when the Emperor and his family appear on the Balcony.


He looked like a Teddy Bear! This tiny old man with his sons towering over him (they've stepped backward above), taking in the crowd (old Japanese, and young foreigners, no young Japanese...) and thanking us for our Birthday wishes. Then, as quickly as it started, it was over and we were politely asked to
leave...release the hounds.


Ninja hounds.

So well trained in the arts that I couldn't even see them. But they were there...

I was disappointed. Not at the spectacle, that was all very interesting, but by the lack of crying. I wanted to see old men and women cry. Is that too much to ask?

http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n267/davidlmorrison/JapanAug2006toJul2007/Christmas2006/

Remember now the rule of three.

Part 3.

In my best ST:NG computer voice, "And now the conclusion"

Got in at 11, and then up at 5 the next morning.

A Working Holiday to Tokyo. Essentially that's what the end of the week was for me. After a mixture of Cable cars, local, and Shinkansen Bullet Trains, I arrived in Tokyo along with Katherine for the Orientation of the Orientation. We would be helping out with the
babysitting of homesick culture shocked new JETs at the beginning of August, and had our own get together to prepare for the event on Monday and Tuesday.

This left me with Tuesday afternoon and Monday morning to get to know a city I had seen before only from a Hotel window and aeroport shuttle bus.

(Back when I first arrived, I was too busy on the phone to London, arranging for them to post over the money belt I had left behind, to enjoy the free evenings.)

Limited time, so I visited the one Shrine I could remember from photos, Asakusa, on the Wednesday and another, the Meiji Shrine, I discovered by accident while looking for a place to sit after finding runners in my size (I know, shock!) on the Tuesday. In between, there plenty of wandering and a lovely mattress to sleep on courtesy of Erin.


http://www.bebo.com/PhotoAlbum.jsp?PhotoAlbumId=1187737534


And just as I was about to get my train back to Osaka, a beautiful discovery:

The World Press Photo 2006 exhibit.


http://www.worldpressphoto.nl/

Beautifully humbling.

And absolutely worth not getting back, yet again, until 11.

Hannasake Primary School was the next day. Owww*.

So a weekend of rest was a damn nice change.

And if those links don't work, you can find them, as usual, at
davidmorrison2.bebo.com and in the Photos section.

Now I think it's time to go home,

amities

david

P.S. If I said I would send you photos, and haven't yet, remind me.
Clarence, did I send you that photograph from the cafe in Osaka?
Carlton, did I send you the ones of you in the Corcaigh jersy from that Friday Himmeji after the Kobe conference?
Everyone: Hey, what's the story? How you getting on?
Francsico, I'm not going home this time via Paris, so you are spared the sound of me destrying your language for a while. And Karima's address no longer works.

Como é você?

*I'm their soccer coach. See "Chocolate covered ....." for details...