Sons of Loki

I swear man, this is the only way to travel. Working my way back from Yokohama to Tokyo station, where I stopped off at the Travel Centre for a quick chat entirely in Japanese regarding the status of any Moonlight night trains (conclusion: nai) and then on to Ueno where I took my last remaining option; getting any train heading in a sort of northerly direction.

It was fantastic. I got to the platform and saw that I had a choice between somewhere called Koganei (same kanji as the one near where I live, but about two hours away from Tokyo) and a town called Takasaki, both of which I’d never even heard of. I pulled out my trusty map (which served me so well back in 2007). Where shall I go? I found Takasaki on the map and it looked to be in a good place (on the way to Niigata, Akita, and ultimately Sapporo) and the train was leaving in 15 minutes, so I hopped on and grabbed a seat.

Part of the fun of this ticket is the whole Hoffman transfer orbit system of getting around; bumping from station to station, it requires an intricate understanding of the train networks, and you really get a sense of how the railroads spread out throughout the country, interconnected and interchanging. I do find something so wonderfully romantic about trains, and though this ticket is very inconvenient for getting anywhere in a hurry you see a lot more of the country than you would otherwise.

The night is coming on. I’m listening to my recent purchase, Ali Farka Toure’s beautiful African blues on In The Heart of the Moon. I’m on a train bound for some place I never heard of and I think there’s hotels and stuff (it’s a stop for the Shinkansen at least) but I’m not sure if I’ll find one and man it’s all so terribly exciting!<

I’ve got a set of four seats to myself now, which is a welcome change from being cramped in with three others earlier. I’m reasonably confident I’ll have a room for the night. I don’t want to pay too much, but I’m looking at perhaps 4,000 and up. Tomorrow I should be able to make a good start on getting up to Sapporo, or if not at least Akita. Ah, the night scenery flashing past outside is so romantic…

Rolled into Takasaki and into a light drizzle, the traffic lights reflecting off the mostly empty boulevard. Takasaki is one of those nondescript Japanese towns, all grey featureless hotels and cars sluicing through the night. There were a few hotels dotted around, including one for 4,000, but I hoped that there might be a capsule hotel somewhere, so I asked in at a Lawson. There wasn’t one, but the guy at the desk asked the junior assistant and he recommended a little manga/internet café just down the street, next to a cinema. (I was going to go properly Holden Caulfield and catch a late flick, but the last showings had already started).

So, hopefully I should be able to get some sleep and internet there. In the meantime I’ve stopped in at a Gasuto diner, where I got things off to a great start by repeating “Irasshaimase!/Welcome!” to the waitress as I came in. Argh. Oh well, at least they’ll never see me in this town again. They are playing a orchestrated version of “Michelle” that took me a while to recognise.

It’s a little bit scary, though. I’m only two hours from Tokyo if anything goes wrong, but the further I get out, the longer it takes to get back … and if I really balls things up, it might take a shinkansen to get me home. But then in another way of looking at it, I’m already a continent away from my other home…

I’m at the place now, and it’s just far too awesome. Massive screened PC, big telly, PS2, every manga you could possibly want to read, a few DVDs and games, a big comfy sofa, and free drinks and ice cream for 1,500 yen. Although it’s hardly a proper hotel, it’s decent enough for me. I spent an hour or two trying to work out how, exactly, I am to get to Sapporo … and I don`t think I can, but I might be able to reach Hakodate. We will see.

Being a Japanese holiday yesterday, I resolved to take a trip to my old stomping grounds of Uguisudani, Taito-ku.
It seemed awfully like it used to. Had the ATOS pronunciation of Uguisudani on the train station announcement changed? Was that Doutor Coffee always there? Had those lockers been electronic for long?
I realised that for the first time in my life, I was returning to somewhere I used to live.

Old Sakura House Uguisudani-A remained, but I didn’t have much of a desire to see my old cockroach-ridden room, not that I’d even know if any of my old flatmates still lived there.

In a grim sign of the times, my beloved Shop 99 had ballooned to a Lawson 100. Nevertheless, I bought a few things for old times sake.
When I mention I used to live in Uguisudani to Tokyoites, they either nod in vague recognition or burst out laughing. I suspect it’s something to do with Uguisudani’s ridiculously large love hotel district, which went on for further than I remembered.

I stopped by a temple to light some incense. Louis Theroux was there, for some reason (or, uh, it may have just been a guy in glasses). The Ueno area is so peaceful.
I wandered down to Ueno station via the park, past Rodin:

and wandered down to a local Book Off, intending to see if I could get our kanji textbook, but instead I found a copy of Bar Lemon Hart, an obscure manga about the regulars at a Japanese bar and the sage-like barkeep.

Then a brief browse in Akihabara, where I was bemused to find that you can buy a Xbox 360 for the same price as a Wii, and that the PSP is cheaper than the DS.

Today, lessons began in earnest. Dan, Hattie and I started off in level 200, but it was reassuringly obvious that it wouldn’t be for us – we were studying stuff we’d covered back in January. So after the first period (a gruelling 90 minutes – have to get used to that) we upgraded to level 300, which was more challenging but definitely a good fit.
It’s good, because we now have an incentive to do well – having been given this opportunity, I’m determined not to show myself up, and I have to keep up with the others.
After lunch with my tutor, I wandered along to one of our ISEP modules (in these first couple of weeks, we can try out a few of the non-language modules before making a decision on which to take) – Topics of Contemporary Japan. The lecturer, Mir Monzurul Huq, stressed that the recent victory for the Democratic Party in the elections has meant he’s had to radically alter parts of the module, which sounded good – I’d rather learn cutting edge developments rather than stuff that’s out of date.
So, here it all begins. Hope it goes well.