Countdown Karaoke to Standing On The Sun

My next trip dawns ever closer, and I'm not even half way through this current blog. Which means you may see my little posts more regularly! Time in Tokyo was running out (not in a Godzilla kind of way) just that my time there was nearly up. What's the best way to celebrate your last night in Tokyo? That's right... Karaoke! But first food shopping, its a must. Even the food shops are odd here, although I think food companies would sell way more food if the packages here in England looked like this.

 

So after some more Sashimi to celecrate my last day we spend another day looking around the temple, bathing in the smoke from the well to cleanse our souls and waiting for night to fall.

We made our way to Shinjuku and crossed with the sea of people at the biggest crossing in the world which was weird, stood waiting with what could've been a thousand people. We found the Karaoke bar and if I'm honest it was different than what I was expecting. In my head I had picture a bar with a stage like what you would find here or any other country, but in Japan they do things a little different. We paid the fee and were shown up three flights of stairs and into a small room containing a TV, a phone, four microphones and a menu. I was still in awe from the weird art work on the way up the stairs.

See what I mean? Exactly. Face and Ass, such a classy piece. What came next was the most beautiful rendition of A Whole New World my ears have ever been punished with. Thank you once again for that Marcus, Sponge and Becky. Another unusual point was that you used the phone in your room to call the bar below to order and deliver your drinks!

My time was running out, my flight was at 00:30am and it was now pushing 11pm. I've left this too late! I had to say a quick goodbye to my friends, thank you once again for making my stay in Tokyo so much fun, and make my way back to the hostel to get my bags. I hailed a taxi outside and made my way to Narita Airport. The traffic was terrible, I had forgotten how busy this city was even this late. I was verging on missing my flight, it was getting down to the last half an hour now, and I was still stuck in traffic. I gave the taxi driver free rain to drive like a madman to get me there in time.

We arrived and I didn't have enough money for my fare... but, the driver let me off for making his shift exciting, apparently he didn't get to drive fast often! I ran through the airport straight to the desk, and made it to my gate as they were about to close. Thank God, made it aboard in time. I settled in for my trip back closer to home, closer in a sense anyway. I had nearly boarded the wrong flight due to a translation error on my part, but it goes both ways. A word of advice, make sure you're positive on what words say before you go ahead using it for directions or anything else...

 

We're landing.Time for a different climate. Don't get me wrong, Japan had its nice days but this next place was on another level. The surface of the sun to be precise... This place, was Bangkok.

 

As soon as the door of the plane opened I was hit by what felt like a literal wall of heat, I checked if my eyesbrows and beard were still there as I thought they'd been seared away. The first thing I saw there? A HUGE Manchester United logo. Am I home? Did I board the wrong plane? Those thoughts were quashed as I was suddenly, as if they popped into existence, in the presence of monks. Full orange robes and all, but talking on mobile phones. It was an unusual cross over of the new and old to be honest, like a pensioner sat playing an Xbox listing to Tiny Tempa or something.

I collected my things and made my way outside. Jesus Christ. It was even hotter outside, I found a taxi and climbed in. Onto leather seats which burnt and stuck you to them which was needed with this guys rally driving skills. Bangkok was an unusual city to see speeding by me, I saw again such a mix of old and new culture, my hostel was situated above a coffee shop which was perfect. I have never had such an amazing iced latte. After I checked in at 11am (I'd landed at 5am) I decided to take a little stroll and to see where I was. I was right next to a temple again!

 

Lovely as that was I was instantly almost mugged by a tiny hobo, more beardy and haired than myself! But I stood my ground. He was not having my money. I had had too little sleep to messed around. It was strange because as soon as I stood up for myself he went on his way, perhaps he expected for foreigners to hand out cash easily. This little triumph was soon dispersed as I was shot with a water gun, although to be quite honest it was extremely cooling! Then it dawned on me what I had read on the date I had landed, tomorrow was the begining of Songkran. The water festival.

 

 

The Electric City, Sailor Girls and Darth Vader

Sat by the river, at our hostels "Sakura Party" me and the other groups of travellers enjoy the sun and company of new people, our group especially who where also enjoying the freshest Sashimi I've ever tasted and witnessed being built. A fish flavoured masterpiece.

I met many people at this little party, our group had pretty much one person from every country, including a lovely Spanish girl called Victoria Lopez who was living in Tokyo and learning English (which I could help her brush up on). We hit it off and were instantly friends, she was great company for the day and I hope to see her again one day! On my next trip I may be returning to Tokyo so I will see her again soon! After this relaxing day it was time to see "The Electric City"

This whole city buzzes, I don't mean with electricity (which is suprising) but literally with life. Akihabara, the "Electric City". This district wouldn't be the one for the faint hearted, from the lively and unusual people to the huge neon buildings, which by night illuminate the streets like a UV painting. Marcus and I were now walking through the flashing streets mesmerized by the strange things and shops, we walked past around four six story comic shops and decided to stop for a look around. The first two floors were relatively normal with standard anime comics, but the same cannot be said for the rest... we continued up the building expecting it to change from pretty vivid "Hentai", but we were mistaken (for anyone who does not know what Hentai is, and to save you from google searching it, its pretty weird anime porn). Now for us Westerners it felt pretty uncomfortable to be around all this stuff, like the feeling of walking out of a cinema into broad daylight, just not quite right. But the Japanese people didn't seem to care that all the people around them could see blatantly what they were into, because most of the people around were into the same thing. After the eyeful adventure we quickly made our decent back to the street to continue along the electric streets. Some more unusual stuff we saw were for example a Cat Cafe, where you literally payed to sit with a ton of cats, a multi story toy store containing pretty much every toy there could be in the world which included I might add what looked like real hand grenades, more cat toys than is healthy and many eight story arcades filled with people who look like the finish work, go straight there until they have to work again. Also I'd like to mention, they had a fullsize Darth Vader!

Now by night this part of the city is even more lively than in the day, the shops do not close, and even more bars open. Now I'd like to clear up that the bars here cater to all the comic book fans and with that in mind have "themes". For a start I didn't know this, but Marcus took me to a bar after talking to a girl on the street dressed as a maid... yeah I know right. So we walked into a small bar which seemed again like someones flat turned into a bar, and to be honest actually had a very good time and I don't mean just the "Maid Waitresses" causing that! We decided to play some darts joined by two of the girls and eventually two local young guys dressed in suits, we had a laugh with them as they spoke a little English and Marcus speaks a little Japanese.
"Would you like to go more places, like this?" One of them asked looking very happy about being able to show us around, with that we accepted. Why the hell not! When we came to pay one of the waitresses she told us that the two guys had paid for us, this mean they had paid our entry which was about £30 and our drinks! We went to the next bar which was called The Mermaid Cafe, this place I actually quite liked, you paid to enter and to drink all you can in an hour for £30, which once again the guys refused us to pay for and took it on themselves to pay for us. The girls "theme" here was like sailor school girl outfits with coloured contact lenses, tails and animal ears. I know exactly what you're thinking. We got seated right at the bar and the drinks started flowing, and it was strong. Some kind of plum brandy was served and something over 40% should NOT be that easy to drink...

After our hour was up we decided to move to our next place, we said goodbye to everyone and made our way to a pool hall which again we were not aloud to pay for! And once again you pay for an amount of time on the table and get drinks included which if I'm being completely honest I rather like this method, who knows why.

It's getting late. Time to go. As the time past by tonight Marcus and I really got an insight into not just the city but the people who inhabit it, what we saw is amazing. We met two strangers who insisted on taking us around the city to show us a good time and when I tried to give them some money at the end of the night, I was met with a kind "No, welcome to Japan"

The city

 

 Cat Cafe

The Arcade Inhabitants

 

So much cats...

 

Me and Darth

 

 



Mayday Trials and Japan

If any of you do not know what Mayday is (English readers should), for anyone who doesn't allow me to explain. Mayday is supposed to mark the time of year when the weather here in England gets warmer, trees and flowers blossom and has been celebrated in England for around 2000 years! Parades walk down the little streets of my town, a fun fair fills the air with the smell of hot dogs, burgers and... petrol. Which is followed by a crowning of a "May Queen" and then a Maypole dance (not as sexy as it sounds). Being a barman I must say I did not enjoy the day as much as the other 9,000 people in our town, not including the other unlucky few working bars and restaurants too! It's common knowledge that us English like to drink, well I'll now confirm that as we sold our entire stock of vodka, lager and white wine. So as you can imagine me and my fellow Barmen rue that 17 hour shift. At least that one day put some serious cash in the bank and next week's paycheck should be good!
Here's a little snap of our little street as the parade begins.

The celebrations here in our little town are not too distant from the Sakura festival I was lucky enough to experience. This festival itself takes place when the blossom trees reach full flowering and is probably the most beautiful sights I have seen, take a look:

Where I left off previously (the taxi ride if you remember) was not the end to that night obviously the nocturnal adventure ended when I finally arrived at my hostel... which had closed. Luckily however I found after paying the taxi what would be £50, the lady was inside and hadn't left yet! She let me in, gave me my key and told me where my room was. I followed her instructions and came to quite a grimy looking corridor which seemed like an old block of flats.

My room however was not as bad, although when I walked in I was greated my four French guys who didnt speak a word of English who stared until I got into bed. And just to make it better the guy who had the bed next to mine had the worst smelling feet I. Have. Ever. Smelt. Mezanine was the album on the menu tonight, morning would be here soon.

Morning came very rapidly actually, when I woke the French guys were gone so I headed down to the Rec room for breakfast. I collected my food and sat down, but something caught my attention. A voice. The accent was what struck me most first, I turned around to find a man called Reuban Grant. Who I happened to have met back in England at a music festival called Download, who lives in Manchester. What are the chances here? I mean literally on the other side of the world, in some random hostel in one of the biggest cities in the world.

After breakfast I decided to take some air in around the city and walked out into the busy streets. Over some of the buildings I noticed a tall structure that stuck out as unusual. It turned out that my hostel was right next to the Sensoji Temple, and with the Cherry Blossoms being in bloom it was quite a sight.

Wandering around a place like this was amazing, I have never seen a temple before outside of the fake ones built in the Trafford Centre...

 Now I've got to say not all of Tokyo is so lovely, Reuban, Dan and I decided on going out for a few drinks in the Roppongi district. Now Roppongi is known for being the "drinking place for Gaijin", we stopped in one bar which had the biggest assortment of bras hung around the ceiling which I've ever seen fronted by a barman from New Zealand. After drinking for a while we decided to head back, but on the walk the heavens opened up and we got soaked. I mean really soaked. Although we did get an amazing picture thanks to Reubans camera.

Now what happened next was something that made me a little uncomfortable, on the walk back we were stopped by a huge Nigerian guy who asked if we wanted some drinks and somewhere dry to sit while we dried off. Me, Reuban and Dan followed the man into a building, took a lift to the top floor and were shown into a small club contained in one room. It was empty. We were sat down at a table and left for a few moments until three Russian women came over, it dawned on me. This was a Hostess Bar. Now a Hostess Bar is nothing sleazy luckily, but it did have an air off creepy and wrong! We were brought one free drink each which I must say I was slightly hesitant to drink as I didn't order one. The Russian girls I must say were actually very nice, well two of them anyway. The problem here was that they kept requestion that we buy Champagne which was close to £300 a bottle, so as you can imagine the answer everytime was no! Now after a good twenty minutes of asking they began to get a little aggitated and one of the Nigerian bouncers came over asking why we have not bought the women any drinks yet in a very aggressive way. Dan decided to leave, we thought he had just gone to the bathroom so we didn't follow, and we remained sat there like lemons waiting for him. With him not returning we reached a logical idea, THEY KILLED SPONGE!!! (I should clarify we called him sponge because of his Spongebob socks) But then the bouncer told us that he'd left so the panic was over. Time to leave. I stood up and told Reuban it was time to go so we made our way for the door, not before I might add the Russian woman asked me to meet her "after work". But as I was still soaked, now pretty drunk and it was pushing 2am already I gave the offer a miss.

Bra Bar

The nearby temple, what really struck me was the size!

The temple's golden room

Cherry Blossom

Money Worries and Extra Legroom

Living in America seemed like a different life style, either it was just because I was travelling or because it was genuinley more relaxed is yet to be known. I found personally that the American people have a polite and socialable nature aslong as you were not also American, hugely so if you were English. The little lake town of Lake Geneva was where I made my stop, the town where many Americans go for the summer to relax amoungst the lake itself.
Upon leaving I was made an "Honourary Lake Genevian", it really was an honour to live amoung such awesome people for the time I was there but it wasnt without problems. First off I was 20, and ten points to anyone who can tell me the drinking age in the USA, that's right... 21. So I went out with a plan, being a big eater I walked into town (a good 30-40mins I might add) getting funny looks from passing drivers and went between each bar and restaurant making friends with the barstaff and bouncers while eating in each place so when I went back later on they would welcome me in with open arms!

The next thing I had to deal with was something which happens often in the UK, problems with the bank. Before I left the UK I had been waiting for my money to move from one bank to another into an overseas worldwide account, sounds simple to me. Well it took them 6 weeks, so I had arrived in America with some cash I had run out pretty quickly, to much drinking at the bars I think.

 

 The nights I spent in Carvetti's (my favorite bar there) including Saint Patricks day with the new group of friends Matt Wingate, Stevie Michael, Muffin, April Fee, Tyler Shaitel, Eric Akuetteh plus loads of others were amazing, especially my leaving do which we all went back to Matt's for a party. Ever tried Everclear? Dont. 190 Proof Alcohol. You'll die.

Here's a photo of us all following ALOT of drunk guitar playing

Playing pool on a saddle:

 

The banks however told me, and I quote "There's nothing we can do". Luckily I could do chores for my Auntie to earn my keep. Eventually after another 2 weeks and one of the employees from the new bank I managed to get my money from the previous and I was ready for my next step, Japan.

 

$200 was all it costed from Chicago to Tokyo but what I saved in money I made up for in hours lost in changing timezones. Upon arriving in San Francisco I found myself wanting to run around the city but had to be constrained to the airport as I only had an hour before my flight. I found myself a nice suprise when checking in, the little Japanese lady behind the counter, tapping away on a computer, looked up at me, straining her neck. Smiled and looked back down. I took it as odd and thought she was ignoring me trying to check in.

"Excuse me, I'd like to check in?"

"One moment, please".

A few moments passed and then she looked up,

"Sir, I have given you an entire row of four seats in the middle so you can lie down, you're very tall" she smiled. I'd never been treated to like that by a stranger, it was a lovely gesture.

So I boarded the plane, sat in my four seats and settled down for a long journey. A sleepless night passed and I would not see the sun again for many hours as the night I crossed into had just begun, landing in Tokyo was fine, but the toilets, were not. I dont think my guitar pedal has as many buttons as a Japanese toilet. I stood staring for a while before taking what was the most daunting cross of what seemed like playing an Xbox while having a pee.

 

After getting the achievement for managing that trial, I made my way through the airport for the next, finding my way through the city. While on the plane I had searched which train I would need to get and learnt some phrases to try and help me. I asked the lady at the desk how to get to my train.

"I'm sorry, there is a problem on that line, the train is not running."

Oh God. Here we go.

"You'll have to take the underground, continue down there and you'll see it." she gestured.

"Ok, thank you."

 

I found the underground and stood feeling slightly stared at by the other passengers with my head gently rubbing the ceiling of the tram. I got off where I needed to be but not being able to read, I was lost. I found a map board, but to my dispair was not able to read it, suprising I know, but it was in Japanese. Not only that, but I didnt even know which station I was currently standing in!

This was the first stop on my travels where I was literally alone, there was no family here to comfort me or help me, it was midnight in one of the biggest cities in the world and I had no clue where I was and after a good twenty four hours of constant flying I was more than irritable. I forced my way through the crowds up to the heaving streets to look around for anything or anyone that could help. Taxis. Thats what I needed and luckily there they were, I lugged my bag to them and went to open one. Only to find it had no door handles. What? Are you kidding? I shit you not. Then the door opened as the driver had a remote, and I climbed in. He said something to me that I did not understand, and I tried my best to get across to him my point. I am lost. I had the name of my hostel and then district name Asakusa. He reached down onto the floor and pulled up a book, which he then passed to me. Upon inspection it was a book containing columns of writing next to other columns in five different languages. Thank you. He understood, kind of, where I wanted to go. I gave him the hostel name and we set off. It really struck me how this city, regardless of it being midnight, was incredibly busy, floods of busy people on their way to places. Im glad I was on my way.

 

 Never, drink this.

 Land Shark...

 I'd convinced these girls this was my personal saddle I had brought with me, although I'd let them have a photo on it. Fibs.