Sons of Loki

It’s been a busy few weeks.

Before I write about the epic struggle of climbing Mt Fuji, I feel like I need to keep up with the stuff I’ve been doing in the last month. This will mostly be an dispassionate list of events, but the Fuji post will hopefully be a doozy.

So … On Tuesday 29th, back in June, I went to Sweets Paradise – a Japan staple, an all-you-can-eat cake bar. I mean, loads of cake. And ice cream. As if filling up on cake wasn’t bad enough, the following day we – Hime, Katy, Fran, Ella, Miles and I – went to Yokohama to visit Chinatown.

Yokohama is part of the enormous Chiba-Tokyo-Yokohama-Kawasaki conurbation, about 30 minutes south of Shinjuku by the Shonan-Shinjuku Line, and it’s quite famous for its Chinatown. It was a pretty surreal experience – it felt like London’s Chinatown, so in the end the overall feeling was something like having left Japan to visit London to visit Soho to visit Chinatown. Except, it was … a more real Chinatown?

We ate Chinese food – of course, there they just call it food – and it was pretty tasty, but … In all honestly, I’m not a huge fan of Chinese Chinese food. The tastes are a little too weird. I much prefer British Chinese food, as MSG- and fat-laden as it is. Still, the spring rolls and chicken soup was delish.

Then we took a walk down to the harbour, which was beautiful.

And then finally, a cup of “Relax Blend” tea in a charming little cafe. One of those tea/coffee houses that Japan does so well.

The day after that, I went on a ROAD TRIP. Rob’s been teaching English to this cool old dude called Abeshima-san, and he took us (Rob, Kanako and me) off to Fuji go-ko (Fuji Five Lakes), a popular tourist area to the north of Fuji, about two hours west of Tokyo. It was, as expected, very pretty, very picturesque.

We ate zaru soba, the dish of cold noodles served on a bamboo tray with a pot of sauce. I’d never eaten it before because it looked a bit … like cold, tasteless noodles, but my word, was it tasty! You pick up the noodles and dip them in the thin sauce, and they go down a treat. Later, we tried grass mochi, which were surprisingly nice.

We went to a few tourist-trappy places, like an expensive art museum (admittedly with some beautiful kimono dyed by a man called Itchiku Kubota) and the museum of – uh – music boxes.

But the coolest bit was the Bat Cave, a small cave in the infamous forest of Aokigahara (reputedly haunted, and sadly a top spot for suicides).

I love caves, but I’ve only been to a handful – the best being the famous Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. I’d really like to get into it properly – there’s something about clambering around in the pristine atmosphere of a rocky hollow somewhere deep underground.

OH SHIT WHAT IS THAT

Finally, we skipped stones down by the smallest of the lakes (the name of which escapes me).

The day after that (told you I was busy!) Rob, Kaz and I went to a little ramen shop called Ramen Jiro in Koganei to try out what I was told was a big, big bowl of ramen. I was pretty hungry, so I thought I’d get 大 (big) size rather than 小 (small), but Kaz warned me that “small” didn’t mean “small” here.

There was a big queue for such a tiny little ramen shop, but then ramen shops are serious business in Japan. After a while, we got seats and I got my bowl of ramen.

It was … Picture a big bowl of ramen. Then add the contents of another two bowls on top, until you have a massive tower of beansprouts, cabbage, and the juiciest, most tender pork you’ve ever tasted, layered on top of noodles and broth and – oh god, it was huge. I ate, and ate, and ate, and after thirty minutes I had a bowl of ramen that was still as big as the biggest portion you’d get anywhere else. So I ate some more. And I finished it – but only just.

After that, we went to the park with some drinks to just chill out. We chatted shit. Some cops stopped us because they thought we two big gaijin were menacing poor Kaz, but then we had a nice chat and everything was alright. (Ahaha, cops are so racist.) Our friend Risako turned out, and we stayed out in the park until dawn, just chatting and drinking. (Try doing that in England without getting stabbed or mugged.)

The day after, I went to Narita to pick up Jade, my old friend from Japanese class in Norwich. It’s her second trip to Japan after a week on an exchange trip to an art university in Asagaya, and she’s hoping to pick up a few contacts here for exhibitions and such. We went for delicious okonomiyaki at this little place near Tobitakyu station (seriously, what is it with Japan and tiny little restaurants that make the best food?). Sunday, we hit up my old hometown, Uguisudani (which hadn’t changed a bit since November) and walked through Ueno and the Ameyoko street market down to Akihabara, the place I will one day die in misery.

Monday we went for all-you-can-eat curry in Shinjuku (Tokyo seems to have as many curry houses as Britain, and the standard is generally pretty high) with Rob and a few friends, then stopped for coffee in Asagaya with Kanako and Risako as the rain battered the windows. Tuesday was my friend Miles’s leaving party – all-you-can-eat pizza (my stomach groans) and then karaoke. Man, I will miss karaoke.

Then Wednesday, Jade and I went with my friend Deky to see the Pokemon Store in Hamamatsucho. It was pretty cool, though largely just a standard merchandise store. No Nurse Joys or omnipresent Chanseys, though they did have the Pokemon Centre music. On. Continuous. Loop.


Then we went to the Miraikan, the MUSEUM OF THE FUTURE! in Odaiba. They had an exhibition of Doraemon and the real-life parallels in modern science. I love that kind of stuff.

One of the coolest exhibits was an actual honest-to-god Invisibility Cloak. It only worked from exactly the right angle (behind the projector that projected an image on to a cloak covered in retro-reflective material) but man, it looked cool.

Then we tackled another marvel of modern science, the Lotteria 10-story Tower Cheese Burger (タワーチーズバーガー). I saw this on a poster and thought it was just a photoshopped joke, but then I saw it on the menu, and knew I would try it one day.

It’s kind of disappointing.

It’s just a big, salty, cheesy burger with ten layers. We split it between us, and it was alright, I guess. Only 990 yen, too.

We saw the amazing razor-sharp edge of enormous ad agency Dentsu’s HQ (a clever optical illusion – the path leading up to it is precisely the angle of the (invisible) wall around the edge) in rainy Minato-ku.

Finally, we went down to Roppongi Hills (like, my fourth time?) to go up to their observation deck. I’ve been up the Tokyo Metropolitan Towers deck so often, it was nice to see a different perspective.


Man, I cannot get over this city.

The day after, we climbed Fuji.

June’s just flown by in a blur of routine. Indeed, there’s nothing like routine to make the days just fly by, is there? I wake up, go to lesson, get back, learn two chapters of Kanji in Context (I’ll hopefully have done all the ones on the official government-mandated “jouyou kanji” list by the time we leave … at least, all the old jouyou kanji), hit the flashcards for a bit, eat, go to the gym and do some weights and some pretty intensive stationary biking (stationary bikes are ace! You can exercise and read/do flashcards/listen to music/watch TV at the same time! Thinking of buying one next year), get back to my room, watch The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya with jury-rigged Japanese subtitles (excellent combined reading/listening practice), then if I’m feeling good, read a bit of Yotsuba or else switch my brain off and play Fallout 2. Then it’s time for bed.

Did I mention I passed? Yeah, that big ass Leeds exam. Obviously, I didn’t get a great mark – well, not even a good one – but it doesn’t bother me now. I am a changed man! I study most of the time. I’ve started using Khatzumoto’s 10,000 sentences method, wherein you find interesting and useful sentences in films/books/manga/daily life, pop them into an SRS flashcard system, and drill them daily until they are burned into the fabric of your brain. It seems to be starting to pay off, or at least I think it is.

Yesterday I went for a bit of a wander for no particular reason; starting in Ebisu, then walking through the quietly upmarket neighbourhoods of Shibuya towards Roppongi Hills and an iced tea outside Starbucks, overhearing a conversation in Australian next to me about how hot it was (and boy, it’s been 31°C – and humid).

Today, though, I went back to Nakano, a place just west of Shinjuku which I used to visit all the time when I lived here two years ago (shit, two and a half years ago. Nearly three years ago). I used to visit the Working Holiday Office there in hopes of finding teaching work (of course, when I arrived in 2007 it was literally mere days after the gigantic NOVA English school imploded, throwing thousands of desperate, highly-qualified, and suddenly unemployed English teachers out on to the streets of Japan, so work was practically non-existent). I’d also hit the Nakano Broadway nearby, because it had a handful of hobby shops and PC stores. And I honestly couldn’t remember why I used to trek halfway across the city when I had Akihabara practically on my doorstep, but wandering around the Broadway mall today, I was suffused with nostalgia, revisiting shops I hadn’t been to in two and a half years. I found the PC store where I bought a keyboard for some reason – and in ultimate proof that everything comes full circle, I bought almost exactly the same model of no-name Chinese-made 500 yen keyboard (the W and S and backspace on my laptop keyboard have stopped working and I stripped the fucking screw! so I can’t replace it until I get home and maybe try some specialist equipment).

There’s all these nice little indie stores – the main store of manga and doujin specialists Mandarake; a store full of weird old books (including Philip K Dick in translation, which I was tempted to buy until I realised that reading VALIS in Japanese would actually give me a brain haemorrhage); a shop selling model railway carriages and model railway carriages only, clearly a labour of love for the glasses-wearing owner (I like to think he worked as a salaryman for decades before deciding to throw it all away and pursue his dream of starting a shop selling sixty-two types of rolling stock); low ceilings, narrow corridors, and a sense of comfort.

Roppongi Hills (六本木ヒルズ) is a multipurpose entertainment, residential and commercial development located in the neighbourhood of Roppongi in Minato Ward, Tokyo. Designed by property tycoon Minoru Mori, construction started in 2000 and finished in 2003. Over a 27 acre lot, the complex incorporates offices, apartments, shops, restaurants, cafes, the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, an art gallery and observation deck, the headquarters of TV Asahi, and several parks.

Frustratingly, Roppongi Hills lacks an obvious street entrance approaching from the Oedo Line station. Visitors may be drawn towards the landmark 238m Mori Tower, but the cheesily-named Hollywood Beauty Salon building blocks the entrance and the entrance to Roppongi Hills’ central plaza is not obvious.

Rather, the grandest entrance is from the Hibiya Line station, with a enormous three-story escalator inside a central atrium.

The centrepiece of Roppongi Hills is Mori Tower (森タワー), a 54 story, 238m skyscraper that incorporates cafes and restaurants at the base, offices in the middle, and an art museum and observation deck at the top.

Before Mori Tower lies Roku-Roku Plaza (66プラザ, a reference to Roppongi Hills’ address in the sixth district of Roppongi (literally ‘six trees’)). Designed in modernist steel and glass, this side of the complex has a feel of some futuristic metropolis.

Tempering the glass facade of Mori Tower is the stonework incorporated in the more post-modernly designed surrounding buildings.

The layout allows vistas of nearby Tokyo Tower, which pops into view as you move about the complex.

Throughout, a fusion of various building styles creates an almost theme-park like ambience. Roppongi Hills is designed as a destination as much as a shopping mall, a place that in itself provides an enjoyable experience. Exploring the different zones helps to create a sense that this place is more than the sum of its parts.

The roads that cut through the complex are themselves part of the whole assembly, with a boulevard feel that is worlds away from Tokyo’s more dense, cramped areas.

Compared to the rest of Roppongi, the Hills area has a distinctly more upmarket feel. Beyond Roku-Roku Plaza are areas which feel like the backstreets of some quaint French town, lined with boutiques and restaurants.

One of the hearts of the complex is the Arena, where today a Sony 3D presentation was being held.

Trees and greenery can be found throughout.

Multiple levels provide expansive views and break up the structure of the outdoor areas.

Even the most remote corners have been designed with attention to detail.

The residential towers feature commercial spaces on the ground floor, with everything from upscale restaurants to dog-washing salons. Apartments range from 450,000 yen (£3,462) to 1,720,000 yen (£13,326) per month. (For comparison, most one bedroom apartments in Tokyo start at around 80,000 yen (£615).)

There’s even a Lutherian church on site.

The shopping side of the complex is expansive and sprawling, but easy to get lost in.

Each floor has a different layout to the others; escalators are separated, making it hard to ascend or descend several floors at a time.

However, the mixture of expansive and narrow spaces helps to give Roppongi Hills a different feel to most malls, and makes browsing with no particular intention a delight. Most of the stores sell fashion and accessories, including a shop dedicated to umbrellas.

Reflecting Roppongi’s large foreigner population and as a popular tourist attraction, all signage is in Japanese and well-translated English.

Art installations can be found across the streets, including a giant LED counter by the Gate Tower. In the Gate Tower itself, a branch of Tsutaya and Starbucks attracts browsers for its selection of arty magazines and books on design, including glossy coffee table books on Roppongi Hills itself.

Most shopping malls are rarely anything to get excited about. However, Roppongi Hills succeeds where others fall to mediocrity by imposing its own identity on the paradigm of recreational complexes, rather than simply being a venue for shops. Areas of natural beauty integrate with 21st century architecture; visitors congregate in beautifully-realised public spaces. Roppongi Hills is less like a mall and more like a self-contained city: a kind of arcology dropped into a Tokyo neighbourhood.

The day after USJ, Tuesday 23rd March, we went to Nara.

I think that morning, my free gift at the capsule hotel was a capsule hotel voucher. I rather like the idea that you could check in at the capsule hotel on Monday a penniless man and slowly rebuild your life through the loyalty points system. A pair of socks. A free beer. 500 yen off your next stay. Then, shoes. A hat. A pass for the subway.

On the train to Nara, from Osaka, I was reading Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar, which my mum had given to my sister to give to me but oh thanks sis why don’t you go ahead and read it first and give me it when you’re done, that’s fine, just like that time you bought me Obama’s autobiography and then decided you’d hang on to it for a while, oh when was that two Christmases ago you say? oh well it must be a pretty engrossing book I’m sure

and it was a good read, because he was writing about the Japanese train system (in 1975), and there I was on a Japanese train.

As a tourist, Theroux had a role in society, and he could play it out as he liked. It occurred to me that they say Japan is all about the role you play, and in Japan foreigners can have two roles; gaijin-san the Tourist

観光目当ての外人さん
カメラ片手に登る富士山
At tourist spots, the gaijin man
Climbs Mt Fuji, a camera in hand
– Teriyaki Boyz, “5th Element”

who goes to temples and wears backpacks and fumbles with the language and forgets to take her shoes off, and gaijin-san the Businessman, who is a teacher or businessman, invariably American and in his 30s or 40s, who is fluent and confident and married to a Japanese woman.

If you fit into those roles it’s fine – people excuse you for being a tourist, or they accept you for being a businessperson and leave you be. But as a young aimless student, I never can quite do either of those. I speak too much Japanese to let myself stoop to fumbling along in English and gestures like a tourist would, but I’m not at the level of proper ex-pats so I can’t really get anything done. I can’t wear a suit, but I can’t strap on a backpack, either. So I’m a kind of outlier, I guess.

Anyway, Nara was cool. They were celebrating their 1,300th anniversary. There were all these deer. We took a look in these old antique bricabrac shops, which I realised I an becoming enamoured with; it’s all old crap, but it’s interesting old crap. It was raining. I saw some temples. We visited a little tourist information place funded by the Okamura corporation, where I tried out their earthquake simulation and protection device. The old man was nice.

The day after, I went to see James and Eri in Kobe. It was a real shame, that it was raining; still, we got to see some of the old Western-style town, and there was a nice view from a small shrine.

Down by the port, the weather wasn’t any better. Katie and Chris peeled off for some shopping, so James, Eri and I went for karaoke and, later, an izakaya with Jayson and Simon. It was very pleasant to get a few drinks and just shoot the shit for a while with the guys.

That night, I wasn’t coming back to the capsule hotel. After inevitable panic, I got the right train back to Osaka, and found the night bus home. Contrary to what I’d heard, it wasn’t so bad; you’re not going to get an uninterrupted night’s sleep, but the dude next to me didn’t snore, and there was a little privacy cover to pull over your head. At one point I got out at one of the rest stops, just so I could have the experience of walking around a Japanese truck stop at 4am in the drizzling rain in the middle of nowhere, trucks as far as the eye could see.

Back in Shinjuku, at 8am, everybody was being miserable in the rain, but I was home.

So, Friday, Katie and Chris returned to Tokyo, and we met up for drinks at the hyper-prestigious New York Bar, which still boggles my mind whenever I visit. (I’ve been, what, four times now? Christ.)

The guy ahead of us, who could have almost been Hugh Grant, said he was with the Cameron Diaz group. (I swear that’s what he said, but she didn’t turn up.) We went in and sat down and I had a martini, the New York Bar special with Bombay Sapphire.

We were surrounded by foreigners in suits and expensive-looking couples and people who looked far more important than me. The thing is, I’d like to be those people. City bankers, top managers, assistants to movie stars; the people who come to the New York Bar and order something with no regards for cost and sit with a sense of calm detachment and not slack-jawed astonishment that they’re even allowed in.

And at the same time, I’d hate to be those people. And I’d hate to be around those people. I wanted to be enjoying a drink with the high-cheekboned blond-haired businessman at the bar, and simultaneously knew that talking to him would be deeply unpalatable.

One day I will be a fifty-something English professor in Tokyo, with hordes of cash and a long list of bestsellers and oodles of fans, and I will come to the New York Bar for a drink and still feel like a little man let into the big boy’s club for an hour or two.

I kind of got a similar feeling at the Roppongi Art Night, held at the incredible Roppongi Hills complex.

I shop til I drop in Roppongi Hills
But don’t follow shit, ain’t none free – chill
Pharrell, Teriyaki Boyz, “超 LARGE”

Roppongi Hills couldn’t be more different to sleazy old regular Roppongi; it’s a massive complex of boutiques and shops and cafes and restaurants, centered around the huge Mori Tower, where a 1BR apartment starts at 370,000 a month. (There’s also some kind of hackerspace called the Academy which I should check out.) This Art Night was a big art expo thingy. They had various acts and displays going on, though to tell the truth we were more just wandering around marvelling at the ultra-modern decor of the place. At an outdoor plaza, Verbal was doing a DJ set for a tiny crowd (though it was only 7:30pm), and I saw that RIP SLYME‘s DJ Fumiya and Ryo-Z would be turning up later. So kind of a big deal.

Everything looked so cool. We sat in Starbucks and thumbed through interior design magazines, while I thought about how I wanted my room to be next year. In a nearby Tsutaya, I flicked through some fashion magazines and checked out the graphic design books. I kind of want to do graphic design. And work in magazines. And be a writer. What do I do? Who do I talk to? Is it too late? Is it too early? What do I want to be?

Anyway, I said my goodbyes to Kate and Chris near the Hibiya line station. They would be flying back in the morning. I bid them farewell, and went off to get my train back home.