August 2008 Archives

No neither did I up until a few days ago....

It`s basically a public bath and is a huge part of Japanese culture. Every man/woman from every walk of life in Tokyo comes to one of these a few times a week.

If you were under the assumption that bathing is a private time, well then an onsen is not for you. Some local Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) run these bath houses and watch every Gaijin (outsider, foreigner) like a hawk to make sure they clean every single part of themselves before letting them enter the hot tubs!

On Monday we met our friends Koji, Shimne and Hatamoshi- they all rock. Koji has been practising English for around the best part of a decade now and whilst the other two`s English skills aren`t brilliant, they still acted as if they had known us for years.

We visited a shrine that day also, I`m not so sure where it was but I had written a prayer for the monks to had to their wall of plaques.

Koji took us to this cheap-as-you-like, tradtional Japanese restuarant and Octopus, Horse and monkey nuts were the order of the day. The food just kept coming, as did the beer (and sake) and we were expecting a huge bill for the five of us. But it only came to 14,000 yen- that`s around 70 quid, not bad for a horse and an octopus.

Yesterday we visited Akihabara Electric Town, a heaven for gadget/Otaku fans like myself. The stores numbered in the hundreds and they each had at least 7 floors, and my task was to find a bargain pair of noise cancelling headphones. For a decent pair of Sony ones, you`re looking at naything between 10,000 and 30,000 yen- crazy money for headphones, but the sound quality is magic. I didn`t find any though and I gave up my search once this creepy sales person followed me around for half an hour.

The amount of anime/manga products on offer is unbelivable here. Things you`d pay through the nose for back in Scotland are as cheap as your standard action figures!

And today we made our way to the Ginza from Shinagawa. We attempted to walk it in the midday heat, but to no avail. After about halfway there we hopped on a train and found another Onsen where we cleaned ourselves up.

From the Ginza we made our way to the infamous Sony Building, which I must say I was really dissappointed at. It`s smaller than it seems and there isn`t much of their best technology on show- just some HD cams and no Robo dog!

We also scoped out Roppongi for nightclubs and to our dismay found an average entry price of 4000 yen for each club in Tokyo`s central nightlife area. As if that wasn`t bad enough you were looking at around 1000 yen a bottle of beer, that`s a fiver a beer!

Tokyo is an expensive city, but why do they insist on putting such a high price on what is supposed to be some of the world`s greatest nightlife?

��り��ん�
(I don`t get it!)

Rich

Goobergackered I believe is a fitting one word description of my physical state yesterday. The journey to Tokyo was absolutely tiring.

First Jimmy and I checked into Glasgow Airport at 7 30 am for our 9 30 flight to London, Heathrow. That flight flew in suprisingly quick and was topped off by some stunning views of the London Eye, Westminster, the Thames and the new Wembley Stadium.

The flight to Tokyo was at 13 45 pm and was to last just a little under 12 hours. I haven`t flown with British Airways in a long time and I`m glad we chose them for oue flights because you definitely get what you pay for. A choice of movies, tv programmes and a moving map are just some of things on offer at your seats touch screen TV.

The flight to Narita was absolutely draining. We flew from London to the top half of Scandanavia, then across the Northern coast of Russia and then cut across China, Beijing and then straight to Narita, Tokyo.

Even though it was rainy and smoggy, the heat hut me right away. It was clocked at 29 degrees yesterday and it is much similar today.

From Narita we got our Suica rail passes (a card much similar to the Oyster card employed in London) and boarded the N`ex service to Shinagawa station, a 70 minute journey.

We arrived at the hotel finally and our rooms weren`t ready so we had to kick about the massive Shinagawa Prince complex for a few hours before we could get any shut eye.

After getting to our rooms we crashed out and slept for a good 8 hours.

We went out that night at around 10 pm and couldn`t find anywhere to eat..or drink....

Apparently on a Sunday night, everything shuts down at 11 pm apart from McDonalds and a few supermarkets.

So what did we have for our first meals in Japan? A good ol` Mickey D`s and I must say it was great.

So we get a carry out of 6 Asashi super dry and make our way back to the room for a few hours of drunken banter and crazy Japanese Teleshopping, before hitting the hay at 3 am.

Here we are the ethnic minority. People do stare at your western stylings and everything is in Japanese. I can read some basic Kanji, but a lot of what is written here (especially in bars & restaurants) is in Katakanna and that is completely out of my understanding!

But alas, the grub is great and the hotel is smashing. There`s not much to say for the weather though, it has been nothing but smog and rain for the past two days.

For breakfast this morning I had Pork Ramen (seaweed, noodles, pork & broth) a long with pan fried dumplings.

Tasty.

Only in Tokyo...

So tomorrow I'm off to the land of the rising sun for a 10 day holiday. I'm staying in the Shinagawa district of Tokyo amongst many Yakuza and Samurai, so anyone who is there at that time, give us a shout!

I'll hopefully be blogging a little while I'm away, since I'm an Otaku fan and I've always wondered about the origins of Manga.

So while I'm away, look out for updates and try not to miss me too much.

Rich

Unless you've been living in a cave near the back o' beyond for the past century, chances are that you've probably heard about Batman.

Definitely this year Batman has been pushed to the marketing forefront by Warner Bros & DC with the release of The Dark Knight.

So everyone will at least have a grasp of Bruce Wayne as a character and what drove him to become the Caped Crusader.

Back in 1939 when writer Bob Kane and artist Bill Finger had first created the character, they knew right away that he was to be Batman, a dark vigilante- the antithesis of Superman.

But what was to be his civilian identity?

Finger used an amalgamation of two historical freedom fighters to create Bruce Wayne- The first being, Robert the Bruce and the second being Mad Anthony Wayne, a general from the American revolutionary war.

And there is a few similarities between the two..

First off both are recognised as a sort of vigilante by their respective government authorities. Bruce was a warrior seeking justice for the Scots against the English and Batman deals out his own brand of justice against evil for the innocent people of Gotham City.

Both have a knack for guerilla warfare tactics. Robert the Bruce is considered by many as the greatest guerilla combatant of all time and Batman too has employed the use of guerilla tactics (War Games, No Man's Land, Infinite Crisis etc.)

They both share a deep devotion to their wars. Robert the Bruce was deeply devoted to the Scottish Wars of Indpendence and Batman to his war on crime.

Both deal with themes of duality. The two live lives of rich, noble men, but are merciless on the field of battle (except Batman never kills).

Bruce Wayne lived a life of culture

Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille are a few films that come to mind when Pixar are mentioned.

Wall-E is their latest endeavour and will be remembered as one of their best.

Set in the far future where earth is a desolate, polluted planet, to toxic for humans to inhabit, we find Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class), our robot protagonist, cleaning up the world.

First thought up in 1995 as a kind of "R2D2 the movie", Wall-E, whilst a fun, family movie, does contain some more adult concepts.

The ideas of our planet being polluted beyond belief and society becoming so lazy that we rely on computers, for practically everything are both very real points in the modern world.

The first half hour of the movie is similar to the loneliness concepts of I Am Legend. Aldo during this time, there is little to no dialogue and this is pulled off very well.

The animation is intensively detailed- from the decaying rust on Wall-E to the shimmer of Eve, nothing is missed. Each of the non-human characters looks incredibly real and the backgrounds are also meticulously rendered.

Whilst the human characters are cartoon like, the film actually tries to explain the reasoning behind this- although hard to believe, it is a genuine attempt.

The themes of 'save the planet' and 'love conquers all' may seem difficult to fathom, but even the hardest, hearted cynic could be bubbling by the end of Wall-E.

Wall-E is out now in cinemas nationwide.

Hey there guys!

Hedwig dropped this off in my mail box this morning. Hope you like....and a full preview will follow later....