As you may know from my last blog entry, I found out on Friday morning that Ryan and I would be receiving free passes to the Japan VMAs from his manager. We originally scheduled to arrive in Saitama, a prefecture north of Tokyo where the event was held, meet Ryan's manager and his wife, and go together. Unfortunately plans changed last minute and Ryan and I had to go to Tamachi station in Tokyo to get our tickets because Ryan's manager and wife became unable to go.
The Saitama Super Arena
A glimpse of the Red Carpet Show
Exchanging our vouchers for passes
The business cards that Ryan and I made for entry into a party around a month ago have been extremely useful lately. When exchanging our vouchers for passes into the venue we unexpectedly were required to submit business cards. Luckily we came prepared! We also passed them out to a bunch of people we met at the show.
In the arena, ready for the show!
The show started at 6:00PM sharp to the sound of Green Day's drums. I will let the following video do the talking. This was my favorite show of the night, because I always wanted to see Green Day live!
There were also performances by Boa, The Black Eyed Peas, Ciara, and some Japanese bands. Having worked at countless concerts, I have a decent idea of what it takes to put on a show. This show, though, had an incredibly elaborate stage setup, film crew, pyrotechnics, and more, which made for the most impressive concert setting I had ever seen in my life. I kept wondering how much it must have cost!
Katy Perry's show and attire were very fun!
I was very pleased with an unscheduled, surprise lifetime achievement award given to the Beastie Boys, who I also have wanted to see live very much. The three of them appeared on stage, first as silhouettes on a big white screen, then the screen lifted to reveal that the three of them were actually there! They all had microphones turned on, and the beat for "Sabotage" was playing, but they didn't perform. The cultural and language barrier made their acceptance of the award a little funny and after a long silence one of the Beastie Boys blerted out "Awkwarrrrrrd." That was one of the funniest moments of the night.
Making an exit
Two-thousand or so people had standing room admission to the show Ryan and I looked down at them from our seating area as the show ended. I was jealous of them when the music was playing, but it was nice to have a seat to watch the show from. I ran into a former student of mine outside the venue who apparently watched the show from the standing area.
Ryan taking a picture for some girls who asked in English
We ended up not getting into any afterparties even after trying our best to contact Ryan's connection at MTV Japan. We ended up going out for drinks at an all-you-can-drink place which was only around $10 for an hour and a half. I unfortunately leave here in just over a week but luckily I am under budget overall for this trip.
Around 1:00AM this morning I came to realize that the extremely loud drops of rain I could hear outside were actually sounds of water dripping into my apartment! As you see, it was even all over my bed, and the tatami floor was drenched!
Video of the leakage
This led to a miserable night of sleep, even with my earplugs in. I kept thinking I was getting wet and having weird dreams.
My luck changed as dawn broke
It turns out that a friend of Ryan and I is generously giving us both tickets to the MTV Japan VMAs (video music awards) scheduled for tomorrow. Hmm, what on Earth am I going to wear? At events like that you either dress fancy, or "look cool" so I guess I only have one option being that I am a bum. I will let you know how it goes. Ryan was kissed by Courtney Love one time he was at the VMAs in the USA. I guess you really never know what tomorrow will bring in this crazy world!
A jam-packed, rainy Wednesday morning train from my place in the suburbs of Tokyo, to Tokyo Station started Sami and my trip to the southwest to stay in Osaka and Shirahama of Wakayama prefecture. We had avoided rush hour trains until this point of Sami's visit, and this ride was especially grueling because it was a warm rain storm so everyone was overheating in their damp suits. This was also the first day we used our seven-consecutive-day unlimited train pass. I just had a random memory from a few weeks ago when it was raining hard which causes backup in front of train stations as everyone carefully closes their umbrellas without getting themselves wet. However, as I closed my umbrella all of the water on it rushed down to the tip right into a woman's purse. Luckily she didn't notice. Oops!
The location of Shirahama. Osaka is right by it. (Click the "X" to close the information box in the map)
Our first stop: Osaka Castle
We were met in Osaka by our old friend Asami, and her mother who guided us around for the day.We were only to spend around twenty-four hours in Osaka, but I liked it and really got the feeling that it is not nearly as busy of a city as Tokyo is.
On a hill and surrounded by a moat
View from the castle: Park, hotels, and offices
More offices
Asami and her mother with us in Namba, Osaka
We stayed the night at Asami's house and were treated to some great hospitality and delicious food. I was happy that Sami got a chance to go inside a Japanese house while here. Japanese people don't have people over to their houses as often as Americans do so it is rare for foreigners to see exactly how people live here.
The town of Shirahama (meaning "white beach")
We left Osaka around noon the day after we arrived and went to the town of Shirahama for a night. Getting from Shirahama station to the coast requires a twenty-minute bus ride.
Empty Bus
The lacking of people in this bus illustrates how there were very few tourists in Shirahama being that it was the middle of the week. Thankfully, the public busses, which mainly cater to tourists, still were efficient and ran on time.
Shirahama's main beach
"What a pretty beach, Japan is full of natural wonders," you may ponder to yourself. Think more down the lines of "Japanese people do some crazy things to make money," because this sand was all brought in from Australia to compliment this hot-spring-rich area, and turn it to a tourist destination. I think they did a pretty good job!
A peaceful escape
Sakinoyu Hot Spring
(photo from WikiTravel)
Just out of view in second picture up from here is a very famous hot spring that Sami and I indulged in that evening. Men and women each had their own, seperate pools, and you are required to go naked. These springs are some of the few in Japan that are outdoors and right on the coast. They were very beautiful and relaxing, but I still like the springs on Shinkinejima more.
Befriending locals
We ate dinner at one of the only restaurants we could find that was open. These two girls were our waitresses and we could tell they were very interested in us, and were actually talking about us loud enough that I could understand everything they were saying. When they took our order I let them know what we wanted and as I did a man jumps out of the kitchen and says "Your Japanese is really good!" I thanked him and later on the two waitresses got less shy and started chatting with us, and at one point the whole staff surrounded us as we told them about ourselves. An older lady, probably one of the owners, gifted us a couple of oranges which we ate at our table after our meals. They liked us so much that I was pretty sure they were going to give us our meal for free, but alas we paid and went to our hotel. Oh ya, Sami was told she looks like "Britney".
Sami in her bath-robe
Our hotel was a very old, dirty, and somewhat creepy place. The staff were all old and slow, and seemingly unable to take care of this place effeciently. The lesson learned here was that you get what you pay for, because this is the cheapest place we could find.
Our morning walk
In the morning we walked to the main beach and took a paved, coastal path to view a famous, little island that Shirahama is known for. It was great weather that morning, but it started to get cool and breezy later that day.
View from the trail
Continuing on the trail
Arrival!
This beautiful landmark is seen on many postcards and travel brocheures. The coast at Shirahama is primarily sandstone and there are many caves and interesting sights, some of which I got pictures of so keep scrolling down!
A very unique, and free thing to do in Tokyo is go to the Tsukiji Fish Market. This is Japan's biggest fish market, and supplies a large portion of the nation with more edible sea life than you could find at Marine World. You have to arrive around 6AM if you want a chance to see the auctions, which is not too hard considering the sun rises here in the four o'clock hour.
Potential buyers checking the meat before bidding
My video of an auction
A couple other things for sale
Eating at a sashimi-only restaurant at 6:30AM
As Ryan points out, there are many delicious, fresh breakfast options to choose from in Tsukiji. None of the meat sold here is cooked, and there was no room for Sami to sit without ordering anything, so she sat outside the restaurant, feet wet with fish guts (her and Ryan wore sandals HAHA), until we finished our world class meals. I had the crab, it was incredible! And as for Sami, she had an Egg-McMuffin as Ryan and I endulged in McDonald's all you can drink coffee a little later.
Since I have had my sister here visiting me I have been reminded of what type of things catch the eye of people who don't know Japan very well. One of the first pictures taken with her camera here was this one of the Pizza Hut mopeds. Pizza Hut happens to be the nearest food to me, but I have yet to resist to it. Sami was tempted during her stay, but I assured her that it would not be satisfying and you have to be able to tolerate the occasional sauces with fishy tastes, and dashes of mayonnaise sprinkled on top like parmesan cheese.
Different genders, different prices
Keeping the subject of food, this picture is of an Italian buffet restaurant in Harajuku. The most eye-catching thing to me is how men cost 1155 yen, and women only cost 1050 yen! All-you-can-eat restaurants are known here as the English word "viking". Weird...
Trendy terrace
This is a picture of Sami eating lunch on a terrace at a cool restaurant in Harajuku. We requested the terrace, only to be told that they would seat us wherever the next open seats ended up being. Luckily for us our wish came true and we got to enjoy the great weather, and great meal at the same time.
Anime Obama
This is a poster for a foreign food event. No, Obama won't be there, but maybe his face can sell some extra foreign delicacies.
Love your mother
This was shot in Ginza just before Mother's Day.
Being blond in Tokyo
Sami really stuck out in most settings. Here is what it looks like with a blond on a busy subway. No wonder they stare!
Who needs clothes?
Lots of shops here have obscure names. This one just happens to have a picture of me by it.
A dog host club?
This was really confusing to me. A mall we went to had a dog area where you could hang out with random dogs. I don't know if they are owned by the mall, and used as way to attract customers to the nearby pet shop where some puppies go for $1500.
I'm not sure I want to see this Ren's "footprints"
This hostess club has very good taste in names for their ladies. I wonder if this is her stage name, or real name? I still would never enter one of these depressing, smoky, desperate cries for attention.
All blogs found on this site written before 2009 have been imported from MySpace. Some may not look too pretty, and some of the pictures won't enlarge, but it is a small price to pay to not have to deal with MySpace's primitive blog setup anymore!
I recently graduated San Francisco State University. I majored in Japanese and minored in International Relations, and spent a year studying at Tokyo's prestigious Waseda University. I grew up in a very rural area of Humboldt County California. That remote setting built up a lot of ambition in me to get out and chase my dreams. Thanks for reading!
As you may know from my last blog entry, I found out on Friday morning that Ryan and I would be receiving free passes to the Japan VMAs from his manager. We originally scheduled to arrive in Saitama, a prefecture north of Tokyo where the event was held, meet Ryan's manager and his wife, and go together. Unfortunately plans changed last minute and Ryan and I had to go to Tamachi station in Tokyo to get our tickets because Ryan's manager and wife became unable to go.
