We arrived in Shinjuku bit earlier than we had thought. Went for a quick drink in Dug (it's actually moved from last time, there used to be 2 of them but one closed) before on Shino's recommendation hitting a cool 70s-80s era izakaya. At first glance you might just think all the stuff in there is a bit old, but you slowly realise that the old chairs, anime on the screen (including the model of TV itself), posters, toys, uniforms, EVEYRTHING is carefully chosen to be from that era. Really cool place.
Next morning was all about Shibuya, (see The London Police from Amsterdam on the right) after a traditional Japanese breakfast at Yoshinoya. Ahem. Wandered round the shops for a while (sadly Jazzy Sport wasn't open, being so cool it only opens at 1pm.) In HMV tried to give j-pop another chance as they had M-flo's latest album on the stand, but it was woeful. Sad. Tried to wash it off with the Jazztronik listening post, but both his new album as Jazztronik and his solo one as Ryota Nozaki are miles off the standard of his previous work. On the next one along, Studio Apartment has a new 12" single out, a jazzy house version of 'Wonderful Tonight' which was similarly a let down. Sort it out Japan!
Anyway, Shino came to meet us in HMV and off we headed to look at the Obey Giant vs. WK Interact exhibition in Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya. Obey Giant will probably be familiar to most people, the sticker with the odd face and white on red logo is all over clothes, graffiti, skate shops, everywhere, but WK Interact was a new one for me, he's a French graffiti guy. The exhibition was really cool, but pretty small. Shino recommended the national art centre in Roppongi so off we went.
It's a really nice looking building and inside there was an exhibition on loan from the Louvre. A few minutes walk away is the new complex Tokyo Midtown, full of shops and restaurants which we had a look round. The design of the building is okay, nothing too special. It's a little bit soulless although to lump it in with shopping centres/malls would be a bit harsh. Out the back behind the garden is the 21_21 Design Sight, which is a very cool building designed by Tadao Ando, but the exhibition didn't look so interesting so just went for a coffee in the cafe. Went for Sushi after, which was great. Thankfully Shino was in charge of introducing this to Ray, otherwise I probably just would have picked up a pre made pack from the conbini or something and given it to him.
Went over to Roppongi Hills, up to the viewing deck at the top as the sun set and, wandered round. Miwa from Notts came too, and we found a little bar area, the 4 of us drinking sake and cocktails overlooking the metropolis of metropolii.
After going back to Shibuya, me and Ray went to The Room, tiny little club I've been wanting to go for since about maybe 3 or 4 years ago? People like Kyoto Jazz Massive, Hajime Yoshizawa (who even wrote a song about it), DJ Mitsu always name check it and it seemed like the holy grail. It was great, about the size of most people's living rooms. Was a hiphop night called Breakthrough, so it was the Jazzy Sport style deep rhodes drenched beats, before halway through the night a guest DJ jumped up and played all the classics from high school! Kweli's 'Manifesto' into Mos Def's 'Universal Magnetic' into The Roots into Bahamadia. Big fun.
Saturday lazed a bit. Went to Harajuku, looking for some clothes, but had baggy Carhartt jeans on so the stuff I wanted all looked a little odd with them. Explored cool shopping area for a while, then headed over to Shinjuku. Outside an opticians opposite Comme Ca, there was the guy below MCing to a little beatbox about the glasses inside! He was actually pretty good, dropping jewels on such topics as as the wide selection they have and the cheap cleaning service. I'm sure I read an article about him in the 'wacky' section of the news online, but I cant for the life of me find it. In his break from being Megane MC he went inside and just served customers as a normal assistant! What a dude. (EDIT: picture now with 100% more Run DMC) Had planned to go Odaiba but couldnt really be arsed, Ray's mate who we met later said it was a little bit tacky anyway so no loss it seems. Went for a bit of a sleep back in capsule as had had very little night before, before our get together meal.
Met up with Maho, Maya, Shino and Ray's travelling friend Laura and went up to a cool Izakaya. Wicked to catch up with everyone. The girls properly showed Ray about Japanese food (I think the week of conbini snacks and can coffee may have been giving him the wrong idea).
After a little Purikura (see Maya and Shino going at the decorating like professionals), me Shino and Ray did a little bit of Karaoke (more important Japanese culture for Ray), throwing up 'asian fingers' (as Fa and Ray call them) in a brief unguarded moment.
Sunday, walked round the triangle Shibuya-->Harajuku-->Aoyama then back to Shibuya (by which time the shops had opened). In Harajuku, saw a guy with this jacket, which I feel the programme should adopt as its motto and logo, be much better than the current one.
Dropped Ray on a train towards Yokohama, leaving him in the capable hands of Mahoko, before just having enough time to hang out with Shino in Yoyogi park for a bit (which looked more like Autumn than Spring) before getting on the Shinkansen back towards home.
(Nerdy point, the Shinkansen went through like a Shikansen 'car park' or 'siding' or something, with like 15 of them arranged in rows of 5 including loads of Nozomis. Looked amazing. I think I was densha-mania in a previous life.)
Back in the homeland of Kansai, got on the very familiar lonely 10.54 Fukuchiyama line from Osaka (which is the last train! Ha!) and rode for far too long back to my stop. And so ended the spring holiday. Felt like going home to see people in HK and Tokyo, feel really refreshed. (I guess home is people, rather than places. I felt the same when I saw my family in India at Christmas.) I've used up all but 2 days of my annual leave so it's back to the old staffroom for me pretty much every day til August. I'm going to spend this weekend here doing nothing in Aogaki (which will be only the second one since I arrived.) Might do this more from now on, save some money (I've been spending more than I'm earning... oops) and study some Japanese, think about things like CVs and the Future. Hmm.
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