1st Tokyo Trip

Okay, sorry I haven't updated for a while, this past week has been REALLY busy. First off, last weekend: my first Tokyo trip. (Note that since I forgot to bring my camera with me, I don't have any pictures to associate with this update. Next time I go to Tokyo, which is currently planned for next week, I definitely will take pictures.)

So last weekend three of us guy ryuugakusei went to Tokyo. I had really wanted to go clubbing in Tokyo, to see what the nightlife was like, and to go dance since it'd been a while. We got there midday Saturday and wandered around Shinjuku, a popular wakamono (young person) place. We somehow ended up in the red light district almost immediately (I forget the name of the place, but it was pretty obvious with the big "No Foreigners" signs). After jamming on a guitar game in an arcade we split up; one of us went to eastern Tokyo to go to the fencing institution there (he brought all his gear and was hoping to fence with them), while myself and the other ryuugakusei went off on our own adventure to the Tokyo Go Building (Go is a really popular Japanese boardgame).

When we got out of the eki (train station) we figured we'd ask one of the 7-11 workers how to get to the Go building. He showed us a map and gave us directions. It seemed really close by, maybe 5 minutes or so by foot. We thanked him and took our leave. As we were walking down the road he pointed us towards we came across two roads, one a smaller side road, and one a bigger road just a little farther up ahead. Now, some of you might remember how terrible I am at directions. John, the other ryuugakusei, thought we should hang the first left. "Oh no," I said, "I'm sure that the road on the map was this big one up here." Seemed reasonable enough. Long story short, we ended up making a left at the big road, then making a huge 25-minute circle to finally get to the Go building, which was about a little more than a minute up the side road John had wanted to go up. Oops.

After checking out the Go building we went to Ikebukuro's Sun Shine City promenade. I had wanted to go see the new Pokemon movie that was in theaters. When you see the movie you're able to receive a free rare Pokemon via Wi-Fi. One of my friends back in the States really wanted it, so I told him I'd try to get it for him. Sun Shine City is a little electric fun district of Ikebukuro that has various movie theaters, arcades, stores, and restaurants. So, we go to the movie theater and I see the times for the Pokemon movie: 9:30. "Weird," I thought, "it only plays once a day. Well, it's about 7 right now, we can get some dinner, go window shopping, come back and watch the movie, then go clubbing. Perfect." So I go up to the eigakanin (movie theater worker) and ask her for one for Pokemon ($15 for a movie ticket in Japan, to them $8.50 is cheap!). "Kujihangozendake," she responds, which translates into "9:30 AM only." I thought I had misunderstood her so I asked again. Nope, not wrong. The only movie showing of Pokemon was at 9:30. AM.

John and I decided to go ahead and get tickets anyways. We'd just spend the night someplace after clubbing, go see the Pokemon movie, then come back in time for parade practice (I'll talk more about the matsuri (festival) later). So we get our tickets, window shop (John buys a bunch of Hello Kitty apparel), then meet up with David for dinner at an udon shop. By now it's about the right time to go dancing, so we head down to Shibuya, a popular wakamono nightlife area.

The first club we go to ends up being the Sega Club, which just has a bunch of Sega arcade games :P After that we went to an actual dancing club. At this point in time I had changed into the clothes John was wearing that day. In my haste to wake up and pack I had forgot to bring a nicer set of clothes to go dancing in, so John let me wear his regular clothes (a pink polo and brown corduroy pants), a step up from my black Tee and shorts. They fit fine, if not a little snuggly, and the first thing John had said was "Wow, it looks better on you than it does me."

When we got to the first club I had a little bit of trouble getting in since my "ID" (my debit card) only had my picture and not a birthday. See, in Japan, 20 is the age you reach adulthood (18 you can drive and I think smoke cigarettes). Since I had to give the bouncer some kind of ID I figured my debit card would be good enough. Thankfully I don't think he really cared that it didn't have a birthday and just let us in. When we get in I immediately notice something strange; all the guys are out on the dance floor, with not girls to be seen whatsoever. I scan the area a bit more and finally find the women, standing against the wall or sitting down alone at the tables. "Huh??"

I ask one of the guys on the dance floor why this was. "The girls are too embarrassed to dance," he replied. Compared to American culture, this was quite ironic. Since those awkward Junior High one-step-above-sock-hop dances, American girls have always kept the main floor to themselves, with the guys crowding around the walls, staring, but never having enough guts to go out and dance with them. In Japan, it's the exact opposite; it's the girls who are way to shy and self-conscious to go out and dance, even if they're with a big group of just their girlfriends. Omoshiroi (interesting) indeed.

So we left that club and went to the next club over, Club Asia. This one had a better reputation than the other one, and thankfully it didn't disappoint. Although that Saturday night happened to be reggae night (seriously, any other music would have been fine other than reggae to dance to), it was still a lot of fun. After we had our fun we went to a capsule hotel and spent the night.

The next morning we got to the Pokemon movie. We were still tired after staying up late the previous night, so John slept through the entire thing while I dozed in and out. At the end of the movie it flashed a sign saying that you could receive the Pokemon now. So, I flipped open my DS, turned on Pokemon, and started to search for the Wi-Fi connection. Nada. I tried again. Nope, nothing. I asked the worker next to me why it's not working. She responded that my problem was that I had an American version, and that it only works with the Japanese versions. Bahhhh. The DS is region-free, meaning that it can play any videogame from anywhere in the world (most machines can only play videogames from the same country it's from). Also, you can trade Japanese Pokemon to the American version no problem, so it never occured to me that it wouldn't work.

After that we got up and left for back home. We were a little late to practice, but we were at least there for the second half. Apparently right when I walked in one of the other female ryuugakusei turned to another ryuugakusei and said "hey...those aren't Xander's clothes, are they?" Apparently John's clothing looked better on me than the clothes that I had brought. This sparked the first interest in getting a new set of clothes here in Japan, which I'll talk more about next update (note that I have yet to actually buy any new clothes, just that I have a plan to).

Next: Himatsuri (Fire Festival), climbing Fuji-tozan, and the Sept 1st masturi!