Methinks he doth protest too much..

Saw this on the back of a shirt on a guy in Shinjuku. Weirdly, the only straight men whose sexuality I'm absolutely sure of are those who have no issues around homosexuality at all. Why is that?

Onsen fall

Saw a side of the Japanese today I know exists but try to ignore.

Was at an onsen. This tall, thin guy got out of the really hot bath. He took a few steps, wobbled, and fainted, smacking his head hard against the tiled floor.

I wasn't the closest to him, but I moved the fastest. And because he weighed two pounds less than a piece of string, I could pick him and carry him over to a bench. There were about twenty other people around. The only two that came to help me was a very old half Japanese half non-Japanese guy and his clearly mentally challenged middle-aged son. Both could speak a little English. 

I got the older guy to go call the staff, and his son to get some cold water. The guy, frankly, looked dead. He woke up, his face completely gray and his body shaking like he was having a seizure. I asked the son to ask him if he was diabetic or had epilepsy but he was neither. He probably hadn't eaten enough and spent too long in the hot water.

Staff arrived and I backed off. They looked him over for about three minutes, then left. I asked the old guy where they were going. He said they believed the guy was just fine. He clearly wasn't. I went and bought the guy a cold sports drink with electrolytes and sat with him for about an hour. His head wasn't bleeding, but the shaking and gray skin made me worry about concussion. The twenty other people still just sat with empty looks on their faces.

When he had somewhat recovered, he was apologetic, showering me with "sorry" and bows. I tried to dismiss it. Not the point, dude. I asked the old guy to tell him he should go see a doctor. It was a mighty hard head butt against the tile floor. The guy said he would and apologized again.

Disappointing. Read Murakami's book "Underground" about the subway terrorist attacks in Tokyo and you'll read how people stepped over seriously injured victims and rushed out because they were already late for work. I've worked at gyms in both Australia and the US where people have been injured and staff actually had to ask people to back off because so many wanted to help. I know it's a cultural thing, but it still sucks. Wouldn't mind a little of their egregious politeness channeled into selfless decency.

I left not long afterward. It was raining outside and I walked very carefully lest I slip and break a leg and die waiting for a foreigner to come help me.

Jujo

Jujo has a serpentine covered shopping arcade that they call the Jujo Ginza. I so desperately wanted to find this place charming and a worthy alternative to the glitz of the "real Ginza", but it was just an ugly, awful craphole. No offense, of course.

Click here to see the video of my trip to Jujo Ginza.

Oh Jesus...

Someone in this apartment building is sharing their iTunes, and it's full of Gospel music. I'm listening to a song called "Jesus Alone", with lyrics such as: "Lord we fix our eyes on you, we had faith in mortal man but now we're returning to you, you're the mighty commander, king of the kings..." Again, I'm sorry if this costs me good friendships, but religious people are retarded. Seriously. I'm off to watch last night's Dexter.

Oh, and don't they see the sexual connotations in: Here I am ... Mercy Me ... Almost There!!!!!

Journey to Jimbocho

Jimbocho is the lively, thriving, energetic center of Tokyo's independent bookstore community. As you can tell by the above photo.

Click here to see the video of my trip to Jimbocho.

Stepping it up

According to my nike pedometer, I walked about 130,000 steps this week. 2,000 steps = 1 mile, so that's about 65 miles. I still think Tokyo is possibly the best walking city in the world. Can't wait for the week off work when I can do even better than this.

This may also explain why I've lost 12 pounds and one pants size since I've been here.

Coughing on the coffee

Saw this ad today. A new coffee brand. From Seattle. Seriously? For real? Starbucks, Tully's and Seattle's Best not enough? I live in Seattle and I'm just dumbfounded as to why we're the center of coffee distribution for the globe.

Love how it's a clear sky.

Sugamo

... not just a shopping area, but a state of mind.

Seriously, the locals call it "Harajuku for old ladies." It's quite a trip.

To check out my narrated guide to Sugamo, click here.

Hie-Jinja Shrine

Hard to find too much online info about this shrine, which is situated in Akasaka. It was utterly remarkable, as many of the shrines are. Managed to capture a little of it. Japanese people, however, are not generally happy with gaijin taking photos or videos of their holy places. Which peeves me a little considering how shutter-happy they are at our churches. Anywho, at one point, I got the evil eye from one of the shrine inhabitants:

Click here to take a look at the video of the shrine. (Crap, ID-lingo OSD has invaded my private life.)

Sunday in Shinjuku in 1 min

For the high-def video, click here.

Best way to spend a Saturday night

After six hours of asking, walking, hunting, I finally re-found sayanoyudokoro, a sento in the Tokyo suburbs. It's about 40 mins from Shinjuku with a couple of train changes, but well worth it. 1000 yen (about $10) gets you access to about 10 different indoor and 6 different outdoor types baths, from small tubs, jet tubs, black water hot springs, to an underground salt and steam stone sauna. I've been here twice now. Never saw another white person. The people who work there are super-friendly but don't speak a hint of a whisper of English, so it takes some time and patience. What I love most is that whole families come here (there's a restaurant attached), and it's such a nice way to spend a Saturday night.

Left and stopped at a nearby park to recoup. People walking their dogs. A wild park cat was stalking the dogs. I called out to the cat, wondering if it would come over to let me pet it. It attacked, leaped onto my lap and went into a deep purring sleep. People walking their dogs laughed with/at/because of me. When I tried to move the cat, it growled in warning. So I sat for an hour petting this feral cat who wouldn't leave the warmth of my lap.

Choice selects from today's meanderings

Hard to argue with this:

 

Huge billboard. Soooo cute! The Japanese understand cute better than anyone.

Interesting idea to market something by advertising its by-product.

I guess that's why the call it The Blue

Blue LED lights have been placed at the end of each railway station on the 8-million passengers per day Yamanote line to curb the rising number of suicides in Tokyo. It's expected more than 35,000 people will kill themselves in Japan this year.

The light is supposed to have a calming effect. To make you forget why you wanted to jump and feel better about your life. It's supposed to make you think of the sky and the beach. Needless to say, the light is freaking scary, something straight out of a Japanese horror movie. I stood under it for a few seconds and felt an overwhelming sense of dread.

Here's what it looks like when a train is coming through-

Feel happy and relaxed now? I can't help wonder if it all ties in with the Japanese understanding of what happiness is. Here's a print I saw on a kid's T-shirt in a store today:

If it's trivial not to be happy, why are those blue lights needed in the first place?

Tower records

I miss Tower Records. They're still going strong in Japan and I've visited a few times already. Going to Tower and listening to CDs on display was always the way I found most new music. Today I found Paloma Faith, another wonderful British pop/soul/jazz singer that puts the US young singers to shame. Love this track:

Bunka no hi

 

November 3 is a national public holiday in Japan. According to wikipedia it's "for the purpose of promoting culture, the arts, and academic endeavour." I asked the front desk people what this actually means and they have no idea. They said they're just grateful to have a holiday. I pointed out that they're all at work. Crickets. Statistically, it's the clearest weather day in Japan. It has only rained on November the third three times in the last 45 years. Amazingly, it rained yesterday and will tomorrow, but today is 100% clear. Could the combined brain power of the Japanese people affect the weather? 

Don't RIM us, we're Japanese

Interesting chat with English-speaking Apple worker today. I've seen a few iPhones around but not one RIM Blackberry. Assumed they hadn't come here yet. They have and failed. The guy speculated that the reason for failing was that you need two hands to use a blackberry and all the Japanese cell-phones (and to some extent the iPhone) can be used with one hand, which frees the other hand to hold on to a train handle. Anything requiring using two hands fails in a train culture. Kind of interesting example of understanding the market. Okay, I'll minimize the geek gadget posts.  

Grom-it

Only a few of you will know why this is interesting: Grom has just opened a store in Tokyo! I will try it out, but still have issues with waiting in line for more than four days for something, especially gelato. I know, it's more than gelato, it's grom, but what happens if someone in line tries to strike up a conversation while we're waiting?

Gallery-ef

Situated in Asakusa, not too far from the Shrine, this is one of the most amazing buildings I've ever seen. It is owned and run by an older woman and her 10,000 year old mother or grandmother. In addition to being a great cafe, it's a fascinating little art gallery. I had home-made "ome rice", just like my Japanese grandma used to make (if I had one) and was treated to a complimentary home-made zucchini cake. Really something special. To learn more, check out Gallery-ef.