New Zealand Embassy

This reminded my of the Japanese lessons I watched at Nathan's place. Da, da da da da daaa "Oa... Neko ga i masu!".

Then I went to the New Zealand embassy for some help on visa information. It was just like from a movie. They spoke to me through an intercom asking me what is my business here. I said to get information on my visa. She asked if I was a New Zealander. I asked, can't you tell by my accent? (not knowing she was Japanese). She said no so I said yes I AM from New Zealand, is this some kind of "secret society" building. Then all the locks unlocked and the doors opened. There were cameras everywhere. The place was huge and unoccupied. There was a library, some leather couches and some business people walking past behind secured glass doors. We asked our question. Whats the procedure for us (Me and Hiromi) to get married. She said take a seat. 30 minutes passed so I asked again but before I could finish, she told me to please wait. A further hour passed, we were starting to get hungry then an old Japanese lady came out. She answered the question and gave me a form to fill out. It was only one page - name, address, parents address etc. I already downloaded and printed that page from the Internet. Just before I finished the form she said that she would come back in 5 minutes and so she hobbled off out the security door. Just under an hour later we're wondering where the hell? Did she die? So I went to reception, we're going to go now, but the reception said oh just one minute so she buzzed the old bag then about another 10 minutes later she pops her head out. I tell her - yeah we're going now. And so the reception unlocked the doors so we could leave. What a crock of shit. They gave me a crappy photocopy of what I already downloaded from the Internet and they couldn't answer simple questions cause their English wasn't good enough. That's the kind of help you can expect from your country if you're a New Zealander here. DON'T COME HERE. It's not in their best interest to help you.

On a lighter note, they had a real Kiwi in a glass box. The place out side was beautiful with a kind of Pa inviting you, if you make it through the fingerprint security door.

Looking for shoes

Today I was hunting for a decent pair of shoes. It's been a month now and I'm still wearing Jandels. First I tried Harajuku - the strange fashion center of Japan. There's a special street called Takeshi St and it harbours many strange and cool fashion shops. Next was Shibuya with the overcrowded crossing. After that was Nakano, my favourite place for getting odd tidbits and toys. Three great places to find strange and cool stuff. Today I was using an old digicam. It's old but it's still better than the cell phone. Enjoy.

Then to Shibuya:

Then to Nakano:

Thats an original frame used in the making of the movie Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke). It's going at ￥126,000 (about US$1260) and its your chance to own a piece of Ghibli history.

Flowers and a burger

Time was running short and we were on the desperate search for a house. For too long now I was bunking in a one person room on a single bed in a share house. There's nothing wrong with that except for the fact that I wasn't surposed to be living there :)

It's about a week till the monsoon rains arrive. This is what the Japanese call 'the Rainy Season' appropriately. Right now the weather still feels like winter but because of the lengthening of the day, the flowers are starting to come out. There are some alien like plants here.

After we wound up at a burger joint called Village Vanguard. Actually we planned it. I ate one of the best burgers I have ever eaten. It was the advocado burger. They had fancy names so I couldn't remember. Atmosphere was great. Yes those are layers of advocado under that egg.

Okonomiyaki

In Kugayama, Hiromi took me to one of the best okonomiyaki places around. Okonomiyaki is like a noodle pizza. Thye cook it on a giant heated plate right in front of where you sit. The put all sorts of ingredients in it like egg, veges, meat and others. It tastes damn good.



Later on that night we went to Yoyōgi park. There was a concert and we were dancing freely with some watchers. There was a little group in front of us rocking the pot. That was fun, no photos though sorry.

Earth Day - Tōkyō

Today was Earth day. Now I've been and helped organise one of these in Kyōtō. In Kyōtō there was a reason for the Earth Day. The whole event was self sufficient - meaning all the power, utilities and food was sourced independently without help from the government. They had people riding bikes hooked up to generators to make electricity for the concert and the movie about the Rokoshō village plea. In Tōkyō it was quite different. There were shops. Hundreds of them all hooked up to the main grid. Most of the shops were commercialised stores and even some chains that set up stalls selling their clarence stock. There was no element of "Earth" here what-so-ever. They even gave away free condoms for a donation with a lady who watches and gestured me to donate then checked the donation I made (30yen) followed with a 'displeased' look on her face. Apart from being with Hiromi and a friend, I didn't enjoy this Earth Day one bit. If you enjoy shopping then it may be worth coming here. If you enjoy the spirit that the Earth brings then don't bother with the Tōkyō version.

Back to Tōkyō

After cruising around and spending 10 hour trips on the local train travel system we finally made it back to Tōkyō. This is an idea of what it is like to catch the train:

These are people waiting for the train.

These are the people on the train.

At peak hour they have little guys wearing white gloves that stuff people in the train. There's a lot of people here. I heard in Shinjuku there's 4 million commuters a day. Thats the population of New Zealand... every day!

Later on Hiromi took me to one of her favourite resturants in Kichijoji. It's a Thai place with a great and natural atmosphere. They actually sold Thai food too. Thai food in New Zealand is usually New Zealand food with a Thai flavour.

Tsukinoniwa

This is possibly one of the best resturants in Japan. Of course that depends on your taste in food and atmosphere. It is definately to my liking. It is an organic resturant serving recipes from a famous chef, Kaori. Shunsuke, her close and faithful work is a master chef of Gordon Ramsay proportions who specialises in health and natural foods. If you pass by Kameyama, don't miss the chance to be here.

Kameyama

It was nice having Kaori taking us around again. She's like an auntie to me you know. We went to see a gallery out in Tea Land where there is tea growing as far as you can see. After that we visited an old junk shop with a whole lot of interesting things from the past. I could have spent hours here.


Shunsuke's house, Keijuan is the epitome of a Japanese home. It has Shōgi screen doors that slide, even the main door. Most of the home is made of wood and rice paper. The kitchen and bathroom uses gas. The toilet has an option to wash your bum and there is a deep tub to submerge yourself. The shower is a room, not the usual glass box. The bedroom floors are tatami mats, which looks like finely woven bamboo. It's soft to walk on. There are futons in the cupboard. I love this place.








Later on we went for a walk to see an old friend and gave him a big hug.


Then some girls showed up at Tsukinoniwa and took us out for drinks and a meal.

As usual I'm happy to tackle new foods. This time is was some kind of shell fish that looked like a small octopus tentacle covered in slime attached to a bit of fish gut. I've got it in the chopsticks right between that guys legs in the background.

I think this is my legitimate "I'm gonna be sick" face. What ever it was, that wiped the smile right off my face.