Trains in Japan are frankly pretty amazing. They're efficient, punctual (usually) and pretty much all around a great resource to have, especially in Tokyo. When I get around to thinking about it, the trains here and a marvel. At the time I'm writing this I'm sitting on a morning train. My morning trains are usually the ones leaving Tokyo so there's lots of space but the ones going into Tokyo in the morning are packed like sardines. A couple of minutes ago I saw the station staff pushing people into the train to get the doors closed (no photos but I'm working on that...). Crazy, right? What I find especially crazy is most of the population here has never experienced life without these amazing, usually punctual trains. The first line in Tokyo opened in 1872 (between Shimbashi--later Shiodome station--and Yokohama--present Sakuragichō station, but the line had no name). Holy crap.



What brought this to my attention was a recent set of advertisements. In September the Yamanote Line--the circular line that connects the main stations in Tokyo--celebrated 100 years of operations (and made a deal to allow one train to be completely wrapped in Meiji chocolate ads between 9/7 and 12/4/2009, apparently because the original trains were brown). I'm pretty sure it wasn't exactly as it is now but that's still light years ahead of most other places. When I think of trains I usually imagine Victorian people and steam engines. Now of course I think of Japanese commuter trains, but being from Michigan there's no public transportation in most places and shoddy transportation at best in a few places. And they're usually buses in college towns anyway.


(not my video)

In any case, these people have been using trains since their parents' or grandparents' times while Michiganders were getting into using cars...

Trains aren't always the fastest way to travel if there isn't a good route, but they usually beat the hell out of local traffic. I remember once in Shiga prefecture it took two hours to go to a place that took less than 30 minutes by train. But people still seem to love their cars here. Lots of my students have boasted about driving to work. From my view, the horrible Tokyo traffic combined with the exorbitant cost of getting a license (and then getting/maintaining a car) plus parking, toll roads, etc. make driving here completely not worth the effort. But I digress.

So, trains. They're quite handy and reliable and it's too bad most of Michigan [and most of the US] isn't structured in any way that could benefit from the installation of a train system like this. Any which way, I'm glad I have access to the Japanese train system now.


(photos courtesy of wikipedia since I lack my own at the moment...)

Had a photo shoot with Seventh Sin in Kawasaki. It was my first ever serious photo shoot, but Sin is an extremely talented photographer. The styles we chose were Elegant Gothic Lolita, Cybergoth and a more traditional Gothic look, as well as a few with a feathered mask. We also tried a bit of slow-exposure work but decided it didn't work too well in such a small studio.

It was an all-day shoot with lots of breaks. We still have over 1400 raw images from the day; these are my favorites (ask for password). Image-heavy under the cut.

Elegant Gothic Lolita

Little Gothic Lolita had a nice stroll through a mostly deserted shopping center.
( Little Miss Gothic Lolita... )

Cybergoth

The boots were about four sizes too large for me, but they made for a great effect. :o)
( Cybergoth in a box... )

Traditional Gothic

Satanic bride? Perhaps.
( Or is she the Black Widow...? )

Masquerade Goth

I love this photo so much.
( Vibrance... )

Long Exposure

The idea was to be ghostlike. It looks cool, but it didn't quite get the right effect.
( Ethereal... )

And there you have it. It was lots and lots and lots of fun. ^_^;

Traveling is always fun and traveling in Japan is no exception. This time I headed a bit more north than my summer travels and went up to Hokkaido.

I love silly hats.

Since you can't take the train to Hokkaido directly--you'll need to go to Aomori and then take the ferry--we decided to fly, which was cool because it was my first domestic flight here. For the most part domestic travel in Japan is the same as everywhere else I've been with a few minor differences. For starters, the captain of the plane won't usually talk on the intercom. He can, of course, but I guess they opt not to. Apparently they just don't. For two, this is JAPAN we're talking about! There are even TVs in the toilets at the airport!

I felt weird taking a photo in a toilet.

Upon arrival I noticed something strange. Apparently the plane went through a space/time warp and landed us in Michigan! The weather was the same, the plants were the same, even the--oh wait, nope. The Japanese text everywhere was a dead giveaway. But it was surprisingly similar and I couldn't stop saying it, much to the chagrin of my companion, Sushi.

Sapporo Brewery. Huge shopping mall next door.

But never fear, Hokkaido is a bit more interesting than Michigan. Or at least I think it is. Anyway, after getting a rental car we headed to Sapporo, home of a happy place known as the Sapporo Brewery. You can buy Sapporo beer in the US but now it's bottled in Canada (check the "Today" part of the history here to find out, or here) so it doesn't really count. We went there for dinner the first night because the one thing I wanted to do in Hokkaido was go to the beer garden, er, Bier Garten. At the restaurant you can have famous Jingisu Kan, a type of Hokkaido-style Mongolian Barbecue named after the historic fearless leader (Jingisu Kan is the Japanese pronunciation of Chingis Khan. Chingis Khan and Genghis Khan are both acceptable names for him, but the dish is called Jingisu Kan). Hokkaido is so well-known for this dish that even the pans were shaped like Hokkaido.

So kitschy. I wanted one like it was my job.

We ended up having mutton and lamb and sausage, obviously washed down with beer. It was cool. For souvenirs there's a large gift shop where you can buy the official beer mugs in many varieties; I got the Classic one and a Sapporo Bier Garten edition. And of course a strap for my phone too. Being female I'm practically obligated to have more charms hanging from my phone than actual phone.

Souvenirs for myself.

These keychains have a story. The Bier Garten one is because I of course I've loved Sapporo since before I came to Japan. The bunny is something my faithful readers will recognize. The green thing is Marimokkori. He's a personified version of a ball algae famously from Hokkaido (marimo), and yes he always has that bulge no matter what he's dressed as. Sushi and I were looking for this at every shop because I wanted to show it to him. Finally after looking at every shop we passed in Sapporo and Otaru we happened upon them at the airport just as we were leaving. We were both so happy we each bought one. I'm amused because Sushi's a [drunk] businessman and so is this Marimokkori.

Yay Sapporo!

Another thing Hokkaido is known for is soup curry. Soup curry is pretty much exactly what it sounds like--a soup that tastes like curry. It's really quite delicious and incidentally it's also a trendy food in Tokyo right now. If you tell people you had soup curry you automatically go up a notch on the Cool Scale. Off, right? Anyway, since Sushi went to school there he knew most of the restaurants and chose an old haunt. The place looked exactly like any college town restaurant should so it furthered my "I'm in Michigan!" feeling. The food was tasty and reasonable so I was happy. Here's a snip from the lunch menu...I had the first soup (ぐゎらチキ天).

Soup Curry. He's so hot right now. (Wait...what?)

While most of what I focus on is food, there's more than just that to Hokkaido. They also have their very own tower, much akin to Tokyo Tower, including the red and white paint job. This one's a bit smaller and had a clock on it though. And admittedly, the fountain programmed to frame it was cooler than Tokyo Tower. But since I have an oil painting of Tokyo Tower in my apartment I thought it a good idea to snap some photos.

Sapporo's TV Tower. Was skeptical of its coolness but it grew on me after dark.

Sapporo is also home to Hokkaido University, a strangely Western university started by a guy from Massachusetts for some obscure reason though he claimed it was for the advancement of Japan. Sushi and I compared notes about going to Agricultural universities while looking around. Walking around felt a lot like my time at MSU except there were notably fewer squirrels. And fewer students. It was nice too see and have a moment to reminisce a little. It even smelled like Michigan, which is a bit strange...

Hokkaido University, Michigan State but not really.

But you don't care about my silly-girl nostalgia, so let's get back to the hospitality! Two major natural-type things that Hokkaido boasts are great seafood and dairy. Both are shipped all over Japan, particularly dairy products. Before leaving we had milk floats, which were essentially unmixed milkshakes. If you don't like full-fat milk you'd have a hard time but they were amazing!

For the second day we went to Otaru, which isn't particularly special but has a canal that's kind of ｃharming and several music box and glass companies. More interestingly, there are hot springs as well. We stayed at a ryokan (Japanese-style hotel) for our night there. And the grounds were beautiful--to see some more images click here, here and here. I have tattoos so I'm not allowed into public hot springs so we got a room with a private hot spring bath (click the first link "momiji" to see the room). It was way awesome! And our dinner was served in the room.

So much food! Almost couldn't finish. Almost.

I can't begin to explain everything there but the sea urchin was fabulous! What isn't shown here is the corn ice cream for dessert and the extra sides that came a little after we started eating. Apparently if you want you can also catch sea urchin along the coasts and the quality definitely reflected that. I've never had seafood melt in my mouth before.

Bath, anyone?

If you've never experienced a hot spring bath I'd highly recommend it. This was my first time and I intend to seize every opportunity I have to go to one from now on. Something I said after the bath was things like this are enough to keep me in Japan forever. And I guess it's true. Hot springs and unworldly food could keep me almost anywhere.

And let's face it, the silly Pokémon jets (my ride back to Tokyo) don't hurt either.

Yes, I rode a PokéJet.

The trains in Tokyo are busy. Here are what the wickets look like around 8:30am on a Monday. And this isn't even one of the busier stations on the Yamanote line (it's Tamachi station). I couldn't get a video of Shinjuku if I wanted to because it's the busiest station in the world volume-wise. And it has something like 200 exits, all-told. So you can live with this version.

Trains in Japan are used much more than most places because of crowding. Also, the trains are exceptionally punctual. And reparations if you hit someone while driving or riding a bike is extremely expensive, as I found out when I was hit by a car back in May. Anyway, this little video explains it better than I could...



I haven't managed to get photos of the station employees pushing people to fit into the trains with their white gloves. Working on it. You'll get to see once I do.

So I was talking to a Japanese friend today and got a very strange shock. He said he saw my Goth Loli pic from yesterday and that he liked it. I practically shut down. Was he so naive that he didn't know what it was?

It looks nothing like Lolita fashion, let alone Gothic Lolita. How could he confuse that? Then I sent him a couple links and said it's not Goth Loli at all, in fact NOTHING LIKE IT! I sent him google searches of Goth Loli and something else, then asked whether he thought they looked the same. He couldn't figure out what it was called. He asked if it was Visual Kei (link posted for reference, it didn't come up in our conversation), being Japanese and unable to understand that there are fashion types outside of Japan and I'M NOT JAPANESE!

At this point I'm really frustrated. HOW CAN YOU NOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE?! Actually, after I explained in detail the differences (eg: Goth Loli is black and white with maybe a little red, blue or purple added in, but Cyber Goth is more typical gothic with bright colors added...Goth Loli NEVER has neon colors.

It's the snob in me, but I can't comprehend what happened. Maybe being Japanese prevents the brain from stretching to see it? I dunno. But it appears painfully obvious to me. Am I alone in that opinion?

EDIT: ***DISCLAIMER*** I don't really care that he didn't know what it was off the top of his head. All I wanted was recognition that it wasn't the same as Goth Loli and perhaps recognition that it's not Japanese fashion (Because I feel Japanese people sometimes tend to be...Japan-centric. Everything must come from Japan somehow.). The assumption that it was the same as Goth Loli (which he sees nearly every day in Tokyo) was what upset me. And then his inability to see the differences between Goth Loli and Cyber Goth without me pointing them out. It's an issue I have with the school system/society here...neither teach creativity/thinking outside of the box. It's something Japan recognizes is an issue too.

A little while ago I went to a fireworks show in Tokyo. Mind you I missed all the big ones for various reasons (mostly work) so I went to a rather small one to get my fix. It only lasted about 30 minutes which was a slight let-down, since most Japanese fireworks shows span over an hour or often two. These were in southern Saitama, near west Tokyo and were done every weekend in August. No wonder they were small.


Most Japanese fireworks festivals are during the summer, so fireworks are synonymous with summer. You'll see lots of people in yukata (cotton summer kimono) and happi coats (cotton jackets) wandering around long before scoping out seats, buying kaki goori (flavored shaved ice), takoyaki, yakisoba or ringo ame (candy apples) and fanning themselves with uchiwa (flat Japanese fans) while grumbling about the hear.


The fireworks themselves are quite lovely and unique at times. Sometimes you'll spot a well-known character like Hello Kitty or Doraemon among the typical round fireworks. It's a good reminder that they're much better at fireworks than we are in the US.

Anyway, this spryte approves of Japanese fireworks, no matter how long or short the show.

My vacation was awesome! One of the places I went was Itaga, which is quite close to Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture. One of my friends has a hostel he recently opened so I went up for a lovely weekend.

The trains to get to Nikko from Tokyo suck. A lot. At least the one I took was no good. It took the JR Utsunomiya and JR Nikko lines. I guess if you take the Tobu lines it's better but I was able to cheat the trains without any trouble and the whole fare was a staggering 290 yen (as compared to the cheapest fare, 4420). I don't normally recommend cheating the trains but in this case it took me about six hours to do a 2.5 hour (including travel to/from the stations) trip. There were heavy rains due to a typhoon that hi Okinawa and spiraled some rains our way. The trains were crowded, late and generally miserable. It sucked. On the plus side, because of this I didn't feel bad cheating on my train fare. My already light pocketbook (from moving) thanked me.

In any case it was beautiful up there. In my mind it was a lot like Michigan all over again. Lots of pretty scenery and lots of mosquitoes! I got no fewer than 30 bites over the few days I was there. It was worth it though. Check out the view from my bedroom window!

The view from my window the first morning.

There was a nice little river nearby as well that we went swimming in. The river was quite chilly however, so we also took time to follow a rivulet up the side of the mountain. Mountain climbing in your swimsuit is awesome, haha. My camera isn't waterproof so I didn't take it with me. Sorry.

Most of the time we just lounged and did nothing, which was good for a lazy vacation outside of Tokyo. It rained on the first day but it was mostly just a mist so it didn't prevent us from having a nice lunch at an amazing little shop next door. In retrospect I wish I'd tried the udon but the soba was also awesome (and also handmade). No idea what the broth was but it was tasty. Some mushroom, beef something. No idea. We also had some sort of grilled fish that we liked so much we had seconds. And in all it was very reasonably priced (don't say cheap in Japan; it has negative connotations).

The day after we had our lovely excursion into the wild (swimming and climbing) another typhoon must've rolled in because we had some crazy rains. The runoff from the mountains caused the river to swell so much it almost flooded over the barrier wall that kept it out of the hostel. The clear, cool crisp river became a raging, murky brown torrent that ate all the trees and most things besides. The rain also caused the trains to stop and put my return trip on indefinite hold. Although they did resume a bit later I waited a while to let the congestion clear up some. Once I was on my way it only took three hours to get home. Another example of the JR sucking again.

The view from my window the third morning.

All told the trip was great but I'd recommend taking the Tobu Nikko line instead if you value your time. Also, if you're looking for a nice hostel during peak times that's got reasonable prices, check out the Zen Hostel. But don't go if you don't like dogs; they have two pugs named Kowboy and Dune.

Kowboy (black) and Dune (light).

EDIT: And a photographer emailed these to me... I wasn't posing so much as just standing around.

I miss my Moo Cow. He's still in Okinawa.

That is all. XD

< / PSA >

Been working on a lot of stuff today, namely getting things up on my spreadshirt shop and making a bag design for the woot derby. I don't think either will be particularly successful but we'll see what I can do. ^_^;



All while enjoying the lovely view and fresh air of Tochigi prefecture (near Nikko) up north. Figures that I have to get away from the city to get things done on the computer...

Holy crap the cicadas are loud in Japan!

Moved in. And now to continue unpacking and reorganizing...

Just a little walk to the station one day.

In a large city there are a lot of famous things. There are traditional cultural places, local foods and celebrities, historic sites and more. Tokyo is of course no exception to this. I work twice a week in Ginza, a well-known and hyper-expensive shopping district. There are several awesome places in Ginza (I'll discuss this later when I start to outline some great places in Tokyo), but perhaps the most famous is the Sony building. Inside it's a great place to visit as a tourist or to kill some time if you're around and have a little, but my favorite is the outdoor display.

It's actually only a few buildings down from my work. Next to the building on the corner of a massive intersection is a display area where they set up all kinds of interesting outdoor stuff. It seems wholly incongruent that an electronics company would put nature displays up but I think that's part of the charm of Japanese culture. Here it isn't a mismatch.

In winter they imported a lot of snow from Hokkaido for the display. As I'm from Michigan it was unremarkable and I didn't take a photo, but the Tokyo-ites were all around the snow like they'd never seen it before. As a matter of fact, it does snow in Tokyo but the more recent increases in population have been affecting the local weather and snow has become infrequent. There's rarely any snow buildup anymore. Still, it was nice to see some imported snow.

Before the re-release of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children there were huge billboards in various places. I snapped a photo with my phone because I thought it was interesting.

Final Fantasy VII Re-release Advert

That was over ten feet tall. I think I got a photo on one of the last days. ^_^;

Over the next few months there were several displays there, ranging from live performers, advertisements for new product campaigns, a Christmas tree and others. I didn't take photos of them but they were exceptionally well-crafted.

In May there was a nice surprise waiting for me. When I turned the corner I saw a spray of sunflowers. I forget where they came from, but it was awesome.

Overall View

Signage

It's nice to see a little nature in the midst of the concrete sometimes.

And I think they believe so too. For June they brought in a garden complete with signs to please come up and enjoy it by walking through it.

Neat Garden

I didn't have the courage to go up an walk through since nobody else was, plus I was in a hurry to head somewhere.

Monday before work I noticed a UNICEF ad. Apparently there'll be people there this weekend, but this is the stage.

UNICEF Stage

Most of the displays are imported from somewhere kind of far away. It's almost gimmicky but I think it's great. Haven't figured out the schedule yet, but I think the displays are up for a week or two usually. The snow may have been around for less, but as I don't usually walk past the Sony building on a normal day I don't know. In any case it's a fun little addition when I do walk over there.

Ever since the first time I came here I knew the fruit in Japan wasn't like most fruit in the US. What you find at almost every market are super-ripe juicy specimens. Coming from the US and buying bargain items whenever possible to this is a huge change. Granted the difference is also apparent in price, but it's still a welcome change too.

Earlier this week Moo Cow and I bought some peaches. There was a guy who'd set up his booth at Moo Cow's station and on the way home we decided to pick them up because they were cheap...1000 yen ($10 or so) for 6 large peaches. The guy threw in a smaller--read: average size in the US--one as a thank you bonus. The glorious thing about peaches in Japan is most of them are white peaches; the yellow ones are much less common. And I love white peaches. And peaches here are HUGE. And they're so ripe that the pits inside are already split. It's crazy. Anyway, Moo Cow said he hadn't had fresh peaches in forever. He didn't know what a treat peaches are here though.

When we got them home I decided I wanted to nom one so I picked a large one to share. When I gave Moo Cow a bite the juice ran down his chin. It was that juicy. His exclamation made the purchase totally worth it. I was going to make a video but I don't think the camera quality can capture the awesomeness. So instead I took some photos this morning before I left for work. Here are the surviving two.

Two surviving peaches.

Those peaches are each about the size of a softball. And when I sliced another one to serve with the toast and *amazing* tofu I bought it was just perfect.

Maybe I'll make a video about the tofu I got later. Like, sometime in the next week. Be jealous of all the amazing food here. We have to pay for it, for sure, but it's still awesome.

Cried in the shower today. Been a long time since I've done that. It wasn't because I was upset or angry or anything like that (trust me, if it was this would be a locked post). Just needed to release some energy and it worked. I feel less...jittery now. Methinks it was just because I had a rotten group of kids today. It's not that they were bad kids, per se, just energetic and overheating and not sure how to act because of it. In any case, I feel much better now.

^_^;

I live in Tokyo. This is nothing new. Well, at the moment I don't actually live in Tokyo, but very close to it. In about two months I'll be living in Tokyo itself. But that's neither here nor there. This morning I looked out the window at Moo Cow's apartment and realized once again that yes, I live in Tokyo. This is the stuff dreams are made of and I'm doing it. There are people who would kill to be here (why aren't they here then?) and here I am. Granted, I worked to be here and I know it.

Last week I had two people comment on my YouTube that I'm so lucky to be here. Luck doesn't factor into it. I wanted to be here so I worked towards it and eventually achieved it. Not sure why people would call that lucky.

So as I looked out Moo Cow's window I decided to take a photo. This is what I see:

The view from Moo Cow's window.

From here it looks quite peaceful, don't you think? This is a residential street so there isn't much in the way of shops, but that's not important here. But if you need to know, the shops are on the other side of these buildings...the main street is just to the left of this photo behind the buildings. ;o)

And now I have to get to work. On my list for the next few days is to write up blog posts for all of the stuff I haven't blogged yet. You may be getting posts every couple days for a while until I catch up. Sorry for my absence. v(^_~);