I’m like, TOTALLY in Japan.
O.M.F.G.
Yep, it’s awesome.
NB: Crappy, internet-easy pics here, better versions, more carefully edited and vetted over at my tumblr.
But it’s been exhausting getting here – delayed flights, turbulence, early arrival + late check-in – and this is supposed to be a language thing. Good thing pictures are worth a thousand words… In a rebus fashion, partly because I’m lazy, and partly because it’s an anagram of Reubs.
I normally hate afternoon check-ins, but not when I get to crap on this –
I didn't know whether it would 'spirit away' my 'offerings' or make me an espresso.
- the toilet Enterprise, its five year misssion to etc etc boldly etc no turd has gone before. AND it championed Yacht Rock at the same time! Go toire.
Okay, it’s a cliche to be amused by Nihon’s amazing cyber-khazis, but yes, those really were the ‘controls’ for my loo. And at least I haven’t mentioned THAT Coppola-Jr flick. Hey, I had to start somewhere. Having ‘loosened my load’ (thanks, Eagles) and unpacked, filling my awesome but tiny room like so:
Note second awesome toilet in five minutes. It had a MOTION sensor. LOL.
… I ventured out. I wasn’t exactly encouraged about Akasaka’s reputation as being close to some hot nightlife when I saw the effort Bar River had put into their advertising.
I had serious doubts about Bar River's claims.
Leaving Akasaka rapidly for the electronics/camera heaven that is Akihabara, I encountered my first Pachinko parlour nearby the Granbell, where I’m holed up. At first, I naively hoped Jugglerworld was an intensive schooling institution for erstwhile clowns. Alas.
I wondered what this muscled dude was all about. Balls, as it happens.
He turned up again in Akihabara, too.
Pokies, but scarier - more addictive, and you win crap, not cash.
Suddenly I found (some of) what I’d come for – the showy neons pimping everything with an integrated circuit this side of the International Date Line.
If it conducts any kind of signal, you can buy it in Akiba.
It’s even pretty if you’re not completely inured to it.
Elizabeth's never looked this good.
And:
Best shot of day one, IMHO.
The maids high-pitched squealing was just annoying (pics to folllow in ensuing days). In fact, I think those Zen practitioners must have been prescient about what Tokyo would become… Sure, it’s clean, and efficient, and it’s hard to imagine just HOW a *city* with 1.5 times OUR TOTAL COUNTRY’S POPULATION can even function, let alone be so welcoming, easy to navigate etc etc, but why oh why is it so damn NOISY? Jebus. Still, pretty against a setting sun.
In fact, I was slightly disappointed with Yodobashi (7 floors of electronics, including photographica) – sure, the range and availability are amazing, but it’s new stuff only and, frankly, the pricing is not that competitive, seeing it’s all designed, manufactured and tested/released here first.
Actually, on the street where I am staying, there is a small used photo dealer whose window is LOADED with epic stuff. What’s uniformly stunning from one cam shop to another is not the items stocked, as much as the *condition*. It is like these cameras have barely been handled at all, and when they have, with utter love and reverence for their precision engineering.
A multi-storey gadget lovers wet dream - Yodobashi.
But I always felt like I was among my people – and then I saw why:
Voltron watching over his Otaku minions.
Our hero (well, one of them, anyway) watching over us. Voltron.
People: heated toilet seats. Do I really need to venture anything further in the case for Japan’s awesomenessitude? We should just submit now to our natural masters.
Turning Japanese? I really hope so.
