Cat Street matsuri
Taken with my iPhone on Cat Street, the street that connects Shibuya to Omotesando. I'm pretty impressed by the picture quality of my iPhone, I should take more photos with it...
View from my new place
Last night was the first clear sky sunset I could catch since we moved in the new apartment in Ikebukuro. 梅雨 (the rainy season - literally rain like plums) is not over yet so it was a lucky day.
I can't wait until the typhoon season - after a typhoon, the skies are like washed from any cloud or fog - when I should be able to see the Fujisan clearly from my window.
Moving to the city
After a bit more than 1.5 years since moving to my current place in 志木, it's time to move again. I've set my mind on a tower mansion 2 minutes from Ikebukuro station in Tokyo and should get the keys by the end of June.
The view from the living room should be like the picture below on clear days (albeit from a lower vantage point but I should still be able to glimpse the Fujisan). Can't wait to be doing cool Tokyo timelapses from my own window.
fujisan view - the weird white triangular building is Nakano
This time, my company does not wish to rent it for me and take it out of my salary as I am a local contract employee. So this is my first foray into actually signing a rental contract and paying all the fees myself upfront. So lets break it down:
- 1st month of rent (you pay your rent in advance in Japan) = ¥220.000
- Moving in on 26th of June so 5 days worth of rent until 30th = ¥36.700
- 敷金 - deposit, 2 months of rent = ¥440.000
- 火災保険 - fire insurance = ¥25.000
- 鍵交換代 - lock change fee = ¥35.000 (that's a hell of a lot for a lock!)
- 町内会費 - neighborhood association membership fee for 2 months = ¥500
For a grand total of ¥757.200 or three quarters of a million yen... upfront... it hurts...
And actually, I should count myself lucky, this is rather cheap and most of it is the deposit which I'll mostly get back. Apartments here, especially new ones, often have a 礼金 which is also called key money and is a nice gift of 2 months of rent to the owner.
Thinking of all that money makes me a bit more partial to the idea of buying a place for myself...
Karting in Tokyo
Last Tuesday I went karting with some friends in Tokyo, around 北千住. The place is called City Kart, you can rent the course for ¥36.000/hour on weekdays with 5 200cc karts which I think is a pretty awesome pricetag considering the location.
It is right next to the 京成関屋 train station or 10min walk from 北千住. More photos in the flickr set.
Skull and Ice
Random shots I took lately while walking around Tokyo on the weekend with my trusty Nikon D60 50mm f/1.4.
A skull chariot sculpture in Marunouchi.
An abandoned ice-cream stand-sign in Koenji.
Otaku rush on the new Fukutoshin
Last Saturday morning I was leaving a party at 5 A.M. in Shibuya and decided it would be nice to come back home to Shiki with the new Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin line which was opening the very day and interfaces with my usual Tobu Tojo line for an almost direct trip to and from Shibuya (I just have to hop from one side of the platform to another at Wakoushi) in a breeze.
So my girlfriend and I arrived at 5:30 after being guided by cops that were all over the station for the opening and got there to climb in the first train to arrive at Shibuya station and reversing for the journey back to Saitama.
Ruiko said:
Do not under-estimate the Japanese Otaku...
Remembering this saying by a good friend of mine, I wasn't surprised when that first train came in Shibuya station packed full of weirdos with backpacks and cameras (the classic Otaku costume). They came out of the train clapping and cheering, taking photos of each other in front of the driving cabin and macroing on every little details of the new train and station.
After the flow ebbed, we climbed on the train and were followed by a dozen of guys who must've missed the very first train. Losers... One of them was recording the trip and announcements with a microphone, bobbing his head to each of the stations' distinctive music as if to music from heaven... One of them had long pommeled hair and wore a flowery dress...
I didn't take any photos of them as my girlfriend was afraid I would get shanked by one of the weirdos like what happened in Akihabara 2 weeks ago, but I do have some photos of the brand new piece of station in Shibuya.
Hanami 2008
3rd year in Japan and each year I was on a busines trip somewhere for early April: the time of the 花見 parties. This time I was home and got to drink myself silly on a tarp under the cherry blossoms.
On the border of the 目黒川, I got to take some nice photos with the president of the 写真倶楽部.
Omotesando Sunday
Walked around 表参道 yesterday visiting interior design shops, looking for cool lamps.
Nice shops to check out:
- The brand new MoMA store in the Gyre building (from which I took the photo) with lots of funny gadgets.
- hhstyle just down the road from there with very very nice and very very expensive furniture.
Shiodome Park Hotel – 33rd floor
Since my girlfriend is in town and I have tons of vacations to take before the end of my contract, I organized a special night out in Tokyo with her last week. I'm such a romantic guy...
First we went for drinks and dinner at her favorite restaurant: T.Y. Harbor Brewery in 天王洲アイル. It's a Californian cuisine restaurant in a sort of hangar (not the old crummy ones, the cool ones that they transform in loft apartments and hype designer offices) right on the canals of Shinagawa. The place also brews it's own beer in big vats behind the bar. Dinner is a bit expensive at 5-8,000￥ per person but the food is really delicious and the portions are big.
Then we headed to our hotel: the Park Hotel Tokyo in 汐留メディアタワー. I had booked a room with a special plan guaranteeing a window facing straight on the Tokyo Tower. We had a little scare as we came in the room at 12:05am and as I opened the curtains I couldn't find the tower: they had turned off the lights! I was really pissed... As my girlfriend had forgotten some cosmectics at home, we headed down to the combini at B2 level and as we came back we had the good surprise to see the Tokyo Tower had been lit back on. I took some cool shots of the view, check them out on my flickr page.
Preparing for snowboard season
Last week I took a day off work to go apply for my visa renewal in Shinagawa (hoping for 3 years this time). I love spending, every year, 2 1/2 hours listening to kids shout and cry, waiting for my number to come up, and 5 minutes of effective work with the immigration officer.
After that was done, I headed out to Jimbocho / Ochanomizu to meet my friend Germain who was going to help me out buying my first snowboard and related accessories. There is a street there that is lined with snowboard, ski and surf shops. I love this place...
Here's what I ended up buying:
- Snowboard from K2
- Flow bindings
- Boots from Burton
- Big snowboard bag with wheels for taking the plane to Hokkaido
All of that from last year's collection and between 50% and 65% off. ¥75.000 well spent, now I'll probably be on the slopes every weekend this season to make it worth my while...
You broke my watch!
Yesterday I went to Tokyo to buy back the sunglasses I had lost on a snowboarding trip some time back. On the way to Omotesando, I dropped by the Swatch store in Shibuya to get my watch bracelet widened - something about drinking too much beer and putting on weight...
So I show my watch to the chick at the counter, tell her it's too small and pull out the extra pieces I had brought with me. She takes the watch and starts disassembling the battery and checking the charge, showing me it's good. I think "ok, this must be standard practice" and watch her as she struggles to put back the battery, scraping the shit out of it with a mini-screwdriver. Once it's back together, she shows me the ticker that is not ticking any more and tells me proudly that it's broken and she can't repair it so I should buy a new one...
WTF? I start telling her that she fucked up, it was moving before, she broke it. After making a big ruckus, the store manager comes out and I have to explain again with my broken japanese. The girl is almost crying, the guy finally understand what happened and start apologizing profusely. Apparently, the chick didn't unserstand what I had asked her and thought I came because something was already wrong with the watch.
He ended up calling all the Swatch stores in Tokyo to find me the same watch, but since it would take at least a week to get there, I finally chose a new one on the spot and left with it for free with all the staff bowing and seeing me out with a few dozen 申し訳ございません.
Sumo beer cup
I went to see Sumo 2 weeks ago for the second time since I'm in Japan. This time around, I was sitting in the boxes on 1st floor (really just a tatami with 4 thin cushions) instead of far out in the poor people's late gaijins' cheaper seats on 2nd floor.
Of course, I had to take some stupid photos while I was there. Later we went to eat ちゃんこ鍋 close to the sumo stadium. This is the traditional food of sumo wrestlers, specifically designed to maximize protein intake, i.e. make you fat! I have to say it was quite good but eating this everyday is basically long-term suicide...
Yasukuni Black Suits
Last week was Golden Week, a bundle of national holidays all packed in the same week: Constitution day, Green day, Children's day and the new Showa day. This last one is in honor of the previous emperor's birthday and is a big hit among Japan's extremist population, which I like to call the Black Suits.
Last year I witnessed a huge delegation of black vans shouting propaganda in Shibuya. So this year I thought it'd be cool to go see what happens in Yasukuni Shrine on that day.
I was a bit disappointed, the shrine itself is a lot smaller than I thought and there were no black vans to be seen, nor threatening crowds. However, while waiting for a friend to arrive in front of the entrance, I finally spotted a group of a dozen black suits with their token buddhist bracelets. Two of the elder ones split up and came straight at me and my friend:
Old black suit: Do you speak english? Do you speak english? (with a more or less threatening tone)
Me: Yes I speak english, 日本語でも
Old black suit: 本当？？ (with a smile on his face)
They got much friendlier when I replied to them in japanese. They asked us why we came to 靖国神社 and I replied that it was very famous, hearing about it all the time on the news, so we wanted to see for ourselves. I didn't bring up the fact that we came just to see people like him though... They said "Have fun!" and left.
