Darlo's World

To read the original entry, please click here ( http://www.darlosworld.co.uk/2011/12/25/on-why-im-a-crap-tourist-and-disneyland/ )

Well it’s Christmas Day here in Japan, and in UK (albeit the wee hours of the morning. Here that generally means its just another Sunday. Since I know that many people don’t celebrate and/or particularly care about Christmas, I’m going to steal a line from Bob ‘MovieBob’ Chipman. “Whatever you’re having, have a happy one.”

I’m writing this blog entry from a Starbucks in the Asakusa area of Tokyo, and I’m doing it from my iPhone. That means all the pictures you’ll see were added after I wrote this. Why my iPhone you ask? Well I’m actually lugging my laptop around and wanted to write using it, but this Starbucks doesn’t give any ‘consent’ (an in-joke for anyone who knows the Japanese word for plug socket).

Mr Incredible comes out to meet the fans.

So I’ve been in Tokyo for a few days now and on the whole I’ve done very little in terms of touristy things. I’ve got another week here and I am actually trying to be the camera wearing bumbag toting tourist, only without the camera around the neck, no bumbag and I’d sooner die before saying something along the lines of “Hey Mable, take a picture of me with this little guy in a suit, poor thing thinks he’s a big shot or something” (yes I did hear a loud American-accented man shout that across a road this morning).

My first night here was a bit of a bust, I’ll be honest. For my last week at work I was viciously fighting off a cold and it finally took control just as I left my house to go to the airport. So an early night followed by a late morning, though I still managed to go to a local coffee shop for coffee and curry.

Christmas Turkey at Disney?

My first full day in Tokyo was spent mainly wandering around my locality. I have a copy of Lonely Planet Japan, but when I tried to read it my non-tourist instincts kicked in. I thought to myself how if I wanted to get the best views of certain places (and also stay warm) I’d be better off just looking on Google Images. So I dart onto my social network accounts and appeal for places to go. Thankfully my friends came to the rescue, giving me a few ideas.

The reverse side of Kaminarimon. I was here, but doesn't this image I found on Google Images look way better than a pic I could have took? I aren't you still warm? This picture is by Reza187.

I’ve always been the first to admit that when it comes to ‘tourism’ I’m the worst. I don’t like crowds of people meandering from side to side, not knowing where they’re going, stopping suddenly to take a picture of a cat, to faff, or to just stare with a blank expression on their face. I hate it even more so when I’m actually a part of that crowd!

Whenever I go to a new city or a new place (note how I didn’t say country) I DO like to spend my time aimlessly wondering around. But there’s a difference between me and those groups. For one, as an individual I’m less likely to get in the way of anyone, and when I stop to gawk at something I think about moving to the side, where nobody’s trying to get through. I also try to see the non-marketed, and non-’idealised’ areas of places, in order to see what they’re really like. It’s all well and good saying you’ve been to Tokyo, then reeling off a list of places you’ve visited that anyone with the same guidebook would know. But for me that’s not good enough. By just doing that, I could never say comfortably that I’d been to Tokyo.

I prefer my translation of the Japanese, If you get wet, well, soz about that!

So Disneyland! Don’t get me wrong, there ARE some touristy areas I know and DO want to go to, as yesterday’s trip to Disneyland shows. I’d been to EuroDisney once when I was young (which involved a fun moment where I became king for the day after pulling the sword from the stone … true story!), so I thought a Disney trip with a friend would be a nice relaxing time, as well as a bit of a nostalgic moment. Tokyo Disney is much smaller than (I remember) it’s French equivalent (being), but we still had a great time. We managed to go on the three big ‘mountain’ rides (Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain) as well as some of the other smaller rides (which were still very good). Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet (or even see someone dressed up in full garb as) Mickey Mouse, nor did I find a stone with a sword to yank on. Innuendo, lol.

This being said, no one really goes to Disneyland for the rides, the attractions, or the shops and restaurants. You go for the queues! And being British, I certainly enjoyed that part! The three big rides each having lines of over two hours in length, and smaller ones with lines of between 25 and 40 minutes, ahh good times. Even the restaurant had a nice 45 minute line.

So while I still have some time left in Tokyo before going back to the countryside in Shimonoseki, I do have a few touristy spots that I want to go to, and am still trying to be touristy to a degree (I’m in Starbucks for petes sake), but I genuinely can’t think of many touristy spots that I ‘should’ see, or things I ‘should’ do. If you have any suggestions, please write them in the comments box below.

Shitsurei shimouse!

Update: Found a McDonalds with powerpoints in the smoking section, phew, *cough* *cough*!

Darlo on Splash Mountain, or is that Usain Bolt? Or even Hulk Hogan back in the day?

Well …

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to December. Yes, it’s a slightly late welcome I’ll admit that, but the truth is when you move home things generally get a little sidetracked … especially when it’s not in your native country. We (myself and some other exchange students) bid our farewells to Kamishinjyou on Saturday, leaving behind the place we first called home in Japan. This of course is not counting the hotel we stayed at for the first few days.

Everyone’s reasons for changing dorms varied. For me it was mainly because of the location of the other dorm that the university’s exchange students reside in. As some of you know I’m a fan of city life much more than town-esqueness. Kamishinjyou was fun to a degree but when you have to walk 10 minutes to get to the train station when sit for another 20 or so to get to the fun area of Umeda (admitadly Juso isn’t bad but … meh) and to top it all off you have to pay 150 yen to do so then I’d rather just stay in home and faff about, which in fact is how I ended up spending a lot of my weekends.

The move itself went really well. I’d made a few visits to the new dorm at Kita-Umeda beforehand so I could deliver some things and make the last day of moving much easier. This in turn saved me the embarrassment of having too much stuff to fit into the taxi on moving day, though I was still bringing a fair amount of stuff.

As a way of thanking our former dormitory manager I gave him a box of Earl Grey tea (though I really didn’t have the heart to tell him that I don’t know any British people who actually drink the stuff) and some flowers. My fellow movees also offered gifts. We had some staff members from the University come down to help out with the move, they also brought a gift of thanks. Though it was a simple handing over of the keys, it still seemed to be somewhats ceremonial … ish.

For the record, although my room was untidy for over 99% of my time at Kamishinjyou, I left it spotless ^_^.

As for my new room? Well … it was clean when I first came with my first load of things, then it became … um … personalised. It’s not that it’s intentionally untidy, I’m just still in the process of unpacking.

So what of my new area? I love it here. With Umeda a 15 minute walk away (compared to the 10 minute walk from Kamishinjyou dorm just to the station), I don’t feel as isolated here. Also the moment you step out of this dorm you’re right in a busy city atmosphere, and I love this kind of buzz. It’s exciting. I went into one shopping centre about 4 minutes walk away, and it was looooooong. Apparently it’s the longest in Japan, but I’ve not checked wikipedia yet to confirm that.

Unfortunately all of the above along with my usual load of work and attempts at preparing for the end of semester exams has left me with not much time to keep you guys in the loop.

The showing of the TV show that I was on went well. I wasn’t featured as much in it as a lot of people here thought and made it out to be, but you do see me screaming in the Room of Living Dolls. Scary as it is I do love that place. But yeah now that it’s been shown I could tell you what we did … but I’ll wait until it reaches YouTube first.

In creative news I’ve finally started to edit episode 2 of Gyamball, but because of the fact that next week’s pretty busy, it probably won’t be until New Year that it gets to be online.

Finally, remember my pointless 7 hour walk to blow off some steam? Well, I’m planning on going one better. One? Hmm … maybe 8 or 9 better actually. I’ve come to the realisation that I’m not going to be able to do the majority of my ‘When in Japan‘ list, so I might as well go all out and have a hell of a lot of fun doing just one thing.

On my list was a visit to the village of Shirakawa in Gufu prefecture. My reasoning was it was the village that Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni’s village (Hinamizawa) was based on. An odd reason as it may seem, but for me it’s worth walking the 190 miles to go there.

… *pauses for a moment so reader can get up off the floor* …

Yes, since I had no plans for Christmas and no familly to spend it with, I wanted to do something exciting. Why not get the train you say? Well, I’m planning to get the train on the way back, but I noticed on the walk from Okamoto to Juso that you can see so much more if you make the effort to travel manually. Yes it’s going to take much (MUCH) longer than the train, which normally takes 4-5 hours, and I’m estimating it will take around 10 days for me to get there. On route I’m planning on sleeping at hostels, so don’t worry I won’t be sleeping in bus stops and what-not. Also if things do get too tough, then the train awaits.

I realise in the end it’s going to cost me more going this way than getting the train, due to hotel fees and such, but since I’ve come to terms with the fact that I probably won’t be going to Tokyo and other things from The List during my time here I think it’s well justified.

And on that note, I’m off for a drink … of good ol’ cheap water.