Lithiumstate

As anybody who’s at least been paying attention has noticed by now is that the Tokyo updates stopped at around day 9, whilst in fact I was over in Japan for alot longer than just nine days. I can already hear you guys say :” What gives – let us read about the other stuff you’ve seen and did !“  Well, time restraints !  I’m already back in Amsterdam; can’t say I’m happy about that since I prefer Tokyo any day of the week including the rainy ones and ever since i’ve gotten back I’ve been swamped with work off all kinds.

It was yet again an unforgettable trip, having met many interesting people and despite not expecting it; ended up with a few more new experiences under my belt than from the previous “Tokyo encounters“  And offcourse the music; there is an amazing amount of great talent bunched up in Tokyo that one can see a great performance no matter the day it is; just know where to look and you’re set. So what are my future plans ? Well I’m looking at going back to Japan in April, and this time I’m dragging along somebody that didn’t get to go this time (you know who you are) and after having read and heard all the things I had to say about Tokyo several other friends are in the talks to join. Good fun !
Even tough I know you guys are just leeching off of my past experience to get things done easily :-)

Things should be even more livelier in Tokyo during Hanami season, the season where the sakura blossom.
This only lasts for two weeks every year; so in all of Japan you can watch Sakura trees shedding lovely pink leaves with offcourse cheerfull banter from drunk people. For the Dutch it can be compared to the atmosphere of “konningendag” (or Queens day) but for a two week spree. That, and April is invested with alot more cultural activity compared to my usual November treks (hey it’s a cheap season :P) with all the local matsuri (festivals) going on.

Besides planning to go back in April, I’m also intriqued to try my hand at possibly living in Tokyo for a year and make that my base of operations to see the rest of Japan in my own pace. * I KNOW * that it isn’t as easy as “just going” to Japan to live and work there – many people have this dream and so few of those ever get to pull it off. But I’m well informed knowing several people, even Dutch that have lived and worked there. It’s do able for me and the expertise I have but I really need to stop being lazy, and properly learn the language. I’ve studied it several times, but everytime I stop after a few months in, I just need to continiously go at it for it to properly stick. So I’ll be looking at seriously studying Japanese on a daily basis and go for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proviciancy Test) at the end of the year and keep on increasing my proviciancy level.

Most people you hear that have the dream about living in Tokyo are Western Otaku’s. They wanna live in the source where all their precious anime comes from; understandable. But what are my reasons you ask ?
Well in general I love the culture, there are some bad things to modern day Japanese culture and society but then again ask yourself; are there any other places in the world where it’s all perfect ? The awnser is quite simply no.  Tokyo to me feels like it’s a city much more alive and vibrant than any other place that I’ve been to and I certainly do feel more alive; I know there’s a good reason for the above too. Aside from that, it’s a beautifull country with lots to see and do. Do I need more reason ? :-)

Well that’s future talk, and quite enough ranting for now. The pictures I’ve taken in Japan are mostly on my Flickr account, and some of them have made appearances on the blog before, if you wanna see more I suggest checking out my Flickr stream located HERE -  Pretty soon I am finally going to start editing the video footage taken in Japan together for a few compliations, offcourse I`ll post them up when they are ready which I hope is by next weekend.

I’ll leave you guys with several artists I’ve discovered and liked in Tokyo, hope you guys enjoy :-)

Today I’ve decided to go to the sea-side city of Yokohama for a day.
It is a 45 minute train ride away from Ueno’s JR station and you don’t have to switch lines to get there so just sit back and read a book. Yokohama is the 2^nd largest city in Japan and due to it’s sea-side location was the spot where Japan primarily traded with foreigners back in the old days. Due to the fact that a lot of foreign ships would dock there Yokohama thus became the spot where new sports quickly developed such as Tennis that was brought over by the British at the end of the 19^th century. To this very day you can see a lot of various styles of housing in some districts in Yokohama. Frence and British mansions; gardens that are a mix of European and Japanese styles. It’s all there. Even one of the biggest Chinatown districts outside of well; China can be found in Yokohama as a lot of Chinese immigrants have decided to stay and make their fortune in Japan.

Leisurely walking around, taking pictures and enjoying the weather; Yokohama is a complete change of pace from Tokyo; it’s still a big city and in the newer areas such as Minato Mirai you can find things like the 72 story tall and impressive looking landmark tower and some amazingly huge apartment complexes. Despite that it just isn’t as busy or crowded as Tokyo is.
In the case of the new Minato Mirai district; which has it’s own subway line (only compromised of 3 stations so far that you can easily walk . I think it’s a future expansion thing :P) you really get the impression they are trying to build more than there is a demand for; but hey again i`m not going to judge on local politics. My stroll took me trough Rinko park, a lovely park next to the water and then walking back trough the Minato mirai district and up to the bayside mall for some incredible seafood restaurants; after I’ve had my fill for lunch I headed off in the direction of China town. I lost count of all the Chinese restaurants they have there, but I did try an old Chinese dish that I never had before; cause it’s just unavailable at my country. The old lady in the store told me that that store had been doing business for the past 80 years and their still going strong.  The dish is made and served in the traditional style. What it is is basically a bowl of flavored rice with optional toppings and seasoning. It is made by cooking rice along with several ingredients for hours on end till the flavor of whatever their cooking it with is deeply seeped into the rice.
Having been cooked so long tough; the rice is really soft, sort of like oatmeal.  If you order any toppings such as shrimp ( I love shrimp)  it’ll just sink to the bottom of your bowl !  How does it taste you ask ? Very good ! I wish I had it back at home it’s quite inexpensive and fills you up real good.

After some souvenir shopping trough the rest of Chinatown it was time to head to Shin Yokohama for the Ramen museum (which is officially called Raumen Museum .. )  as the name implies the museum is all about the history of ramen. It’s not very tourist friendly cause all the historic stuff is depicted in Japanese Kanji. Seeing as I only know one of the three scripts used in Japan to convey written language (Hiragana) I just didn’t even bother. And yes there are three scripts to depict the written language in Japanese ! Hiragana, Katanka and Kanji. But I’m not going to bore you with those details. Google it if your interested; it doesn’t make things easier for a foreigner to learn the language tough that’s one thing I can tell you.

I skipped the historic stuff and went down the lower parts of the museum.
For there you can find a replica of what Tokyo used to look like in the Showa era.
It’s very surreal , with *really* early science fiction movie billboards that are as colorfull and imaginative as those found in the US back in the day to the primitive vending machines they had. The town square located in the center has a guy telling stories with the use of pictures and drums for the dramatic effect; this was done because there were many people that could not read.
Lined up across the storytellers were seats and tables with people happily enjoying a large beer. Interestingly enough my Japanese was provicient enough to follow the story without looking at the pictures which made me feel proud.
After catching several stories it was time to sample some ramen from every corner of Japan.

That’s another thing the Ramen museum is good for in that replica city. Namely there are twelve or so different ramen stores there that each serve a distinct style of ramen that’s made in various regions troughout Japan, much like the Okonomiyaki dish there are several variants depending on the region so this was a good excuse to do a ramen restaurant crawl ! Hooray ! Needless to say I left the restaurant rather stuffed.  Being night, I couldn’t help but take a few night time pictures of Yokohama before taking the train back to Tokyo.

Mamiya the spider statue. Popular meeting place. Mori art tower in the background

The most notable thing I did today was go to Roppongi hills for the beautifull illumination they have there. Also took a stroll trough the hills itself, outlined with incredibly expensive designer stores, and ended up going to the 52st floor of the mori art tower where you can get a panaromanic view of Tokyo and *FAR* beyond. Man I could even see planes landing at Narita airport; that’s sick !

In my country we don’t really have that high a building; so stepping in the elevator going up I was glad I was alone (less weight :P)
The elevator ride was pretty freaky to say the least. Normally when you go up in an elvator you feel the slight vibrations etc. movement. But in this elevator ? Nothing, nothing at all. You felt like you were standing on solid ground but then again it didn’t feel solid.More precisily if you were standing in a void (The speed of the elevator must be insane) and then there’s the feeling that your gut is trying to come out of your ass along with your ears popping due the different air pressure.

Zoomed in on my telescopic lens to 200 mm otherwise the angle is to wide to make out anything below

The trip back down was equally nerve wracking, entering the elevator you could feel a gush of hard wind blowing from underneath you as you step in coming from the threshold between the elevator and the 52st floor.  Quickly the elevator drops to the 49th floor.
And stays there ? For like 10 seconds ? Oh no, no trouble right ? I was crapping my pants and those were the l ongest 10 seconds ever.But luckily it went down quickly after that. Phew. Same weird void like feeling as if your standing on nothing. No vibrations, the elevator makes no sound what so ever. Really freaky.

There were lots of people around Roppongi hills, either going to the plush Virgin Toho cinema’s or holding hands as they were watching the xmas lighting.   Below are some more pictures.