かんぱい！

My fear of Tokyo has finally subsided, a side effect, I think, of finally figuring out how to have a good time in this city. Last night we went out-my Oklahoman roommate Jeran and I, as well as two Irishmen, Mark and Martin who wanted to buy digital cameras-to Akihibara. In case you’re not familiar with the area, it’s the electronics district (or, as the signs so interestingly put it “electric town”). Akihibara has the reputation of being the Promised Land for technology fetishists of all flavors, which it certainly lives up to. It was also the coolest place in Tokyo that I’ve seen so far. In Mark’s words “It’s everything you thought it’s going to be and more”.


We took the subway up there from Shinjuku (the busiest subway station in the world, apparently), which quickly confirmed basically every stereotype about the Japanese-it was unbelievably busy, torrents of people moved through the station at top speed, drunken businessmen staggered around blindly and one out of every five suited salary men returning from work had either a manga or gameboy in hand. It was a very confusing and intimidating place.


Well, we had some reception thing that ran until 8:00 (most shops and things in Japan generally close around 9:00 pm), so we really had to hurry to get to Akihibara in time. It was close to closing by the time we got there, so we ran into Softboy and quickly inquired as to where the camera department was located. This was a good experience for me because I was able to use my limited expertise of photographic equipment, as well as my Japanese to translate between the Irishmen and the store workers. Well, Martin bought a smallish Nikon camera on my recommendation, as it was just about the best thing I saw there within the price range that he was looking at. Well, once Mark saw it, he also decided that he wanted the same camera. Well, at this point it was about half an hour after closing (we had been making various inquiries for some time) and they were out of that model but still agreed to send a guy to the warehouse ten minutes away to get another one. Well, once they had actually produced the camera, Jeran decided he wanted the exact same one too. They were out of it, however, but sold him a higher model for a discount. Throughout the entire process I was amazed by how nice the people in the store were to this strange-looking group of gaijin, considering that we were probably the most annoying customers they had had all month. By the time we were finally ready to leave, it was raining heavily, so we all bought 200 yen, clear, girly umbrellas and caught the train back to Shinjuku. I’m sure we were quite a sight.


(Blue Ray discs are out? Notice that they cost at least 34 USD each and hold up to 50 GB)

Well, after dropping off the cameras at the hotel, the four of us set out again to see what Shinjuku had to offer at night. After encountering a drunk Matt Jong-San in the street (“Mehaaan, you gottta lemme buy you uh drinnk”) we ended up at an all you can drink establishment where we basically paid a flat rate of about $30 for as many drinks as we wanted within the span of two hours as well as a veritable cornucopia of various Japanese snack foods, all of which were very good. The place was set up in a very “traditional” Japanese style-we had to take our shoes off outside, the tables were low and various groups were divided by pull-down screens. It was a lot of fun, primarily because the Irishmen were entertaining to no end. Towards the end of our two-hour residency, some girl came over because she heard us speaking English and wanted to know if we were also JETs. Of course we were JETs. It turns out that she was from the unlikely town of Rockford, Wisconsin; it’s a small world after all.


(From left to right: Jaran, Martin, your humble narrator and Mark)

Well, on our way back to the hotel, we stuck our heads into a few more bars, only to find that most of them had rather exorbitant “sitting fees” (in Japan, it’s customary for a bar to give you a small, gross dish of something when you enter and then proceed to charge you anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand yen for it). Upon exiting one of these establishments we were offered “supa savisu” by a Chinese prostitute, which Mark declared was “heartbreakin” (although I think that Jeran nearly took her up on the offer). We eventually decided, in lieu of going to another bar, to simply pick up some beers at the am pm (one of many convenience stores in Japan where booze is available 24 hours) and drink them on the way back to the hotel.

Upon returning, we started talking to some dudes who were standing outside the hotel and I discovered that one of them just finished a MAPH at Chicago, so I ended up talking to him for probably a good half an hour or so about everything from Hegel to the obligatory aggressive undergraduate in every seminar. I’ve been surprised by the seemingly high percentage of people here who have actually heard of Chicago (such as one girl, who promptly declared me a “smart motherfucker”).

All said and done, your humble narrator managed to have quite the time last night and became more comfortable with Tokyo in the process. Matt Jong-San just invited me out again to go drinking with him tonight. I may have to take him up on this offer, as I probably won’t have another chance for some time. Adios, internet Muchachos.