Day 2 - Shibuya, SuperAutobacs

Day Two, we awaken to our first full day of Japan. Its quite sunny, and the weather is well great really. Our first stop was to buy myself a camera. I'd found out before I left one of the sure places that would have the X100s, and at a good price, and with an additional 10% off with my passport, making it just under 2/3 price of local. In Japan, a lot of places dont open till late, say between 10 and 11 am. Although that said, if you're a food place, you're probably going to stay open till well after midnight. When they say Tokyo never sleeps, its really not true, its more like Tokyo never stops eating or drinking. It was back to Shibuya, to MAP CAMERA. This place was 7 stories tall, and had a level devoted to each brand. They also had another store around the corner and was similar in size and only stocked high end film cameras, like hasselblad and leica and also Medium format digital. Big big dollar stuff. On the way we passed thru other electronics and camera stores, just to make sure of prices, and to ensure I get a good deal. This Yodobashi was one, though was about $150 more expensive. Even in Tokyo it pays to shop around.

We spent a lil while at Map Camera, and then headed back to the train again to go to Odaiba, which is just another burb in Tokyo really. You can't go very far in Japan without bumping into curious architecture, both ancient and new.

On the way we stopped off to get again some chicken Katsu curry. Something that we all knew matt would eat. The way the cheaper and heavily trafficked restauraunts work, is you have a vending machine either outside before you enter, or just inside. The usually have a picture of what you're getting. Suzuki pointed out which one was chicken Katsu, so you put your money in, pound the button, and you get a reciept and change. The order gets sent to the kitchen and while you wait inside at your seat, its cooked and brought out to you. In this case is was $5.50 for a medium serve. And tasted way better than your usual Katsu at Wagamama in bris, which is $15.

Speaking of architecture. Japan really like to have gardens that try to consume the otherwise concrete jungle. There always seems to be this constant struggle between nature, heritage and progress. Moss and vines are always left untouched, rising damp? deal with it.

So what is in Odaiba? Well Suzuki took us here for a couple of reasons, one being Autobacs, and the other being Ricoland. SuperAutobacs is a car place. You can buy all sorts of accessories for you car, be it little trinkets, to complete turbo systems and coilover suspension. You can choose to have it fitted and tuned there while you wait. So its like a drive in - drive out, upgrade shop. Its about half the size of your usual bunnings, however it is 3 stories, and has its own resturaunt. Also, a lot of modification brands showcase their new items outside in big marquees. This time it was Blitz, showcasing their new turbo kit and upgrades for the new Toyota FR86. the car wrapped in chrome of course.

Lets get inside the shop already! I havent said this so far, but vans, like the Nissan Elgrand and the Toyota Alphard and Vellfire are super popular in Japan, possibly more so than any other type of car. So its possibly not suprising to see a giant aftermarket for them, airbag suspension, even a variety of various types of tail lights to put on. All their displays are fully functional, so they will cycle through brakes indicators and reverse so you can see which one you might like best. The same with guages, the needles will constantly swoop around, warning lights will strobe, in some parts of the store its like walking into a discotech

Or how about some curtain tassels for your Pajero? or Van or sedan or anything running side curtains.

Anyway, its next on to Ricoland, which is right next door. Again about the same size. but just for bikes! And its a huge meeting spot for bikers to come in on some insane looking machinery, pop in 100 yen into a vending machine for a drink, and mill about the carpark looking at everyones bikes. Its really pretty cool.

Day 1 - Planes, Trains, Automobiles

Mum and Dad wanted the pics from my trip. Theres about 3200 in total, so I'll just put up ones which tell the story I guess. Also I think if I dont put it down in text soon, then I'll forget stuff, so this is a good way to remember. Day 1 - Well by the time we arrived at Narita Airport it was around 7pm from memory. The thing is with Narita airport, its nowhere near Tokyo. In fact its nowhere near anything. You get out of the plane, into a arrival section, which you then clear customs, and you load up into an automated Bus service, which then actually takes you to the terminal. This is a far cry from the last airport we stopped at which was Gold Coast. Narita Airport has its own railway station inside it. In fact, you step off the plane, into the auto-bus, and then into the trainstation. You never actually see the sky. The trainstation is 3 levels, and at this stage pretty imposing. Theres relatively few english signs, but we found the JR office to approve our passes, and also a Softbank phonestore to get a japanese SIM card. The woman at the JR office, sortof told us the train to catch. Sortof. The thing is, the tokyo train system, is so amazingly convuluted, even most of the locals cant work it out. So we ended up hoping on a train, which was more or less headed in the right direction, but we needed to change trains 3 times, to get to our destination. Also, the train we mistakenly hopped on, was a "stop all stations" train. We sort of made the right stops, and eventually discovered the correct trainline to get to our apartment. To give you an idea, the last train swap, was one line out of a possible 6. Turns out we hopped on a train that didnt stop at the station we wanted, so we hopped out at the next stop and caught a taxi. Eventually we got to the hotel. After 2.5 hours. We were to meet up with one of Chris's friends, Suzuki, at an izakaya, which is whats known as a traditional japanese bar. I cant remember the name of the place. So we dumped out stuff in the "Leaf Court" hotel room, and trudged back to our station. This is the road just outside our place, its about 11pm at night. We were to meet him just down the corner from the South exit of the Shibuya trainstation. Shibuya is a reasonably busy area, so uhh, this is the sort of foot traffic you will find, till dawn, when it gets busier.

Suzuki found us, then led us to the bar. The following picture, I will explain. The thing that looks like KFC, pretty much is. Its karage chicken, which we thought would be best for matt to try first., the thing in the middle of the table, is deep fried pasta, which, for whatever reason, matt and chris loved, and i thought the concoction was too odd for consumption. The plate just in front of me, is empty, but it was horse., the bowl in front, which turned out to be my face drinking food, is raw squid, in wasabi, and cucumber, and some leaf thing. Theres a bunch of stuff also eaten, which i can't remember. the box, with the 3 small dishes, is complementary, and contains, from left to right, (pink thing) no idea, tasted extremely fishy, (the white stuff) is sortof something in between potato salad, and mashed potato, and lastly sea urchin. All super tasty. The price, everything on the table, including the beer and stuff already eaten, would add up to about $25.

There was a lot more beers, I had my first ever sake, that didnt taste like jet fuel, Matt discovered Shochu, and Japan learned that an idiot white person wanted to mix coke with it. Then to top off, we "Return to the Forest". I've no idea what this cocktail is, other than it looks cool i guess, it has no alcoholic taste, yet, hits you really hard.

That pretty much slowed up the night, and instead of returning to the forest, we all just wanted to return to the hotel room.So we did, we tried walking, and got about half way, until chris decided he couldnt go on, and instead of leaving a man behind, we just all got a cab. Suzuki was I guess somewhat mis-informed of our arrangements, so, uhh, had to sleep in the small space between our beds, and the front door. What a champion. And so ended our first day.