eyeweiss http://www.eyeweiss.com Eyeweiss iBlog, third take... All rights reserved. Mon, 12 Apr 2004 17:00:19 +0900 Mon, 12 Apr 2004 17:01:14 +0900 iBlog 1.3.5 <![CDATA[Geisha parachute ]]>
What are those backpacks on the traditional japanese kimonos? Parachutes? Lunch-box containers? Wind-me-up strings?
]]> Mon, 12 Apr 2004 13:26:48 +0900 <![CDATA[Ring finger nail ]]>
Why does the ring finger's nail grow faster than the others?
]]> Mon, 12 Apr 2004 13:25:08 +0900 <![CDATA[Travel report day 10 - A short trip to Tokyo weekend madness and then some... ]]>
10:06h: At the Kyoto train station, I spot a young geisha (probably a maiko, an apprentice geisha), one of less than a thousand maiko and geisha left in Japan, but can't take a picture due to her having to board a train and also looking extremely scared as I ask. We take the Shinkansen to Tokyo, speeding there in two hours and feeling very relaxed. Here's a picture of an all-traditional family. Sorry for the back-shot.





13:30h As on every Sunday, Harajuku is crowded with tourists and kids posing for pictures. No further comments (@_@)




Funny enough, the two weirdoes from the Kimi Ryokan also showed up in one of the main roads. We still have no clue on where they are from, but London seems like a good guess. Check out the soda can the guy is holding for this japanese photographer (you can't see:). Plus some more from the train station:




A nearby building distracts the crowd from the dress-up kids, as a guy in rubber straps scores one dunk shot after the other on the roof tops. Donertime.com brings us a quick kebab snack. Since one of the salesmen at a clothing store recognizes my R* t-shirt and tells me that Grand Theft Auto is really famous in Tokyo, I decide to leave some greetings to the oh-so-western styled streets of Harajuku.




20:00h: The Kyoto train station is an incredible sight at night: The station itself, with it's 15 floors and Escher-esque architecture, makes you realize the amount of design and money that flows into the japanese railway system. We take the 8 escalators up to the sky garden, where I take a number of panorama shots. We'll head there tomorrow morning fur lunch!





Later that night, at our favorite onsen, we meet a north american piano player and teacher who has been living in the states and japan for the last 20 years. He simply flies back and forth every 2 weeks. Talk about commitment!

21:25h We enter the restaurant next to last night's izakaya and things start getting rather weird. The friendly, but overly big smiled master chef beckons us towards two seats at the counter. As we ask for the menu, he grinningly points at the hand-written menu.

Panic factor: 20%

Well. He then makes weird gestures towards the exit, which we falsely interpret as "go out look at picture" but actually means "follow him", directed at his young waiter. Who speaks english. A little. As does the local drunkard who invites us for a round of beer.

Panic factor: 50%

Sashimi and Tempura are good but rather expensive. Luckily, after a couple of minutes, a (supposedly) Onagata, a male kabuki performer that plays the female roles, joins our already close-to-panic party.

Panic factor: 70%

Mentioning that we're here for hanami doesn't really improve matters, as it dawns on me at the moment of uttering that hanami is something you do with your spouse.

Panic factor: 80%

Which immediately results in the question whether we were married.

Panic factor: 98%

Hysteria shields are nearly maxed out as we finally manage to pay (Important help: just cross your index fingers or hands at the waiter, everybody knows that sign here) and flee from this odd place.

]]> Mon, 12 Apr 2004 01:19:51 +0900 <![CDATA[Travel report day 9 - Kyoto, spiritual capital of Japan and cherry blossoms ]]>
08:42h: We get off the bus too late for the imperial palace, but find our ways to the Shijou-dori roofed markets of Kyoto. The place seems like a perfect mixture of everyday goods and tourist food. We buy some weird looking mochi, great sashimi and octopus.





10:00h: Finally, after seemingly endless walks through back-alleys and along dusty roads, we end up at the imperial palace. The place is packed with tourists, mainly japanese, and the sun is getting a good shot at my head.



The park has the most beautiful cherry blossoms up to date, and that's hard after having seen them every day. We take pics and speed of to find this great unagi (eel) restaurant close to central Kyoto.




15:30h: The bus takes us to Ginkakuji temple, where we start the philosophers walk. It's a stroll by a small river that takes you along a number of temples. The patch was littered with cherry blossoms once again, and although I was sure that this sight would not repeat itself too soon, I was getting a bit fed up with all the pink blossoms (*_*)




Time needed for philosophers walk: 2 hours, including temples (some)
Time temples close: 16:00h (which was bad for us)
Amount of cherry blossoms seen: approx. 9000 Gazillion
Status: Looking forward to apple trees back home...


22:00h: We arrive at the nearby izakaya, a classic japanese pub. They serve great yakitori, which is basically anything on a stick. Sake is fine and we have a great time with the owner and his staff, all going multilingual and laughing a lot. Red lantern = fun!


On the way home, swaying slightly, we meet an aussie and the guy from denmark who had been staying in out Tokyo ryokan. That is a coincidence, since our tani house is not part of the Lonely Planet tour guide. We have some beers and sway back to our room.
]]> Mon, 12 Apr 2004 01:14:20 +0900 <![CDATA[Travel report day 8 - Shinkansen action in the back section ]]>
11:03h: Another three minutes for our bullet train to leave for Kyoto. The personnel at Tokyo station was very friendly and able to speak english very well, apart from the guy at the ticket reservation who could not, or would not make a reservation on the right-hand side of the train, the side with a view to mount Fuji.



Time for the distance Tokyo - Kyoto: 2:36h
Listening to: Sascha giggling about winning every single match in Street Fighter Alpha GBA
Status: pissed off about the sloppy controls and Sascha winning every game


14:35h: The Tani House welcomes us with a modest but traditional architecture with, as Sascha soon finds out, low ceilings. Ms. Tani serves us green tea and helps us around regarding directions. We will probably rent bicycles tomorrow to see the local sights. Here's the room:




19:02h: Walking back from the Funa Oka Onsen, the supposedly best public bath in Kyoto. It has several different baths, from herbal to out door wooden panel style. We chat with two locals, a friendly elderly man and a shoulder - to - butt-cheeks tattooed boy of our age. Later the older one tells us he was an honest yakuza or 'street fighter' (the real kind). After the incredibly hot but refreshing bath, we chill out at the bath's TV room with some cold Kirins. A friendly japanese guy chats us up in fluent german and we watch the baseball game together: the Osaka Tigers, the local heros.

Time in the out door bathtub: 10 minutes
Number of tattooed visitors: 2 (hehe)


On the way, we stumble across a group of school kids with lanterns, pilgrims to a shrine on the way. We find out later that this might be due to Buddha's birthday, but we can't remember where we got that particular bit of information from.

I'm rather distracted by a) our swiss neighbors calling the trains 'Schimpansen'
and b) Sascha eating his Toenails.
Night shots from nearby Izakaya and shrine:

]]> Fri, 09 Apr 2004 11:05:45 +0900 <![CDATA[Blog troubles ]]>
Editing old entries is not so good if you have a slow connection, as iBlog needs to re-set the publish state in order to correctly publish edited entries....aRGL \(>o<)/
]]> Thu, 08 Apr 2004 15:55:50 +0900 <![CDATA[Travel report day 7 - Tsukiji fish market ]]>
14:05h: We just came back from Tsukiji fish market. Lots of fresh fish, we had a great sushi set and got some chopsticks. I also finally found some stationery and letter envelopes for dear Melanie (^o^)



Amount of stuffed mountain cats at fish market: 1
Cost for a huge sushi set: 2100¥
Status: Half blind due to incredibly persistent sand grain in my right eye

14:42h: An awkward hour in the cold wind later, I'm finally done linking all the so-far posted pictures. You should now be able to view the bigger versions of the blog pics.

1?:??h: I caught a glimpse of a familiar logo in the corner of my eye when riding the train to Asakusa: The Irem Corporation had their logo in japanese on a pink cube on top of a building. Upon closer inspection, we couldn't find an entrance or confirmation of the companies location. I'd still like to think that we were nearly at the makers of R-Type.


18:30h: Half an hour too late, we arrive at Kappabashi dori, the one street that contains dozens of shops dedicated to the interior decorations for upcoming restaurants. We figured that we should be able to get some of that amazing plastic food replicas that one can find in the windows everywhere. Unfortunately, we where too late. The travel guide didn't really state that some shops are only open until 6 p.m.


2?:??h: It has gotten rather late and we're hungry, so fugu (globe fish) or unagi (eel) sounds like an idea. Unfortunately, the only fugu restaurant we found is in the distant Shibuya-cho, so we decide to postpone the fugu until sunday after the weekend craze at Harajuku.

We descend into a nearby restaurant that has red meat slices on display, hoping to find a sukiyaki joint. The place is nice, and a friendly waitress in traditional outfit welcomes us to a table. Not understanding any part of the menu at all, we order the classic japanese tourist drink, biru. We utter some 'two sukiyaki please' at the woman, who promptly brings us two ceramic cans and two small bowls, each containing an egg. Calculating the possible variations of soup, vegetables, meat and egg, we settle for the 'apply hot food from soup bowl to egg'. Which seems to be the correct way.

Heat bowl


Stir eggs:


Pour soup while cooking to avoid catastrophe involving burnt noodle and hungry customers:



Later we are told by the kimi ryokan staff that one should first put the meat, then the vegetables into the soup, for whatever reason. Dinner was good and cost 4100¥ each.
]]> Thu, 08 Apr 2004 14:09:09 +0900 <![CDATA[Travel report day 6 - Hanami at the emperors palace and cool kids in Harajuku ]]>
12:00h: The Emperor's Palace come with a nice park to relax and watch the cherry blossoms fall (hanami)




15:00h: After an hour of Street Fighter gameboy action in the park, we leave for Harajuku. This is the fun place on weekends, but even today the kids look entertaining as they stroll down the main roads, showing off their western-punk-lolita looks. We hit a quite side-road that turns out to contain incredibly friendly people that chat you up in the middle of the road. I got a nice woolen hat, all the rage with the J-indie crowd.



Percentage of pics containing full frame frontal face portraits: 0%
Status: 15000¥ poorer but much happier due to a grey cyber - monk robe


17:30h: We take on Shibuya again, hunger kicking in hard, in search of the Fujiya Honten. It's a small place in the basement of a side-road that is filled with men in business suits. Everybody is delighted to spot gaijin in that joint, and we engage in a friendly conversation with one man at the bar. The food is great, and ordering was easy (you just need an index finger and a big smile ;) The entrance below, next to the coke bottle truck:




Afterwards, a quick mochi snack next to the station. The sticky rice - cake doesn't choke us, an accident that occurs to a couple of Japanese every year.




18:30h: We head up Shibuya crossing and eventually accidentally end up on the Love Hotel hill. I spot two great graffiti-pieces, which I will put into the graffiti section when I have time to stitch them next week.




19:30h: We are starting to feel a little tired. We get some DVD-R's and a copy of Puzzle Collection for Gupi, then hop into the Starbucks Café at Shibuya crossing. It's our second drift into western culture, but the place cries to be visited, as it has a huge window above the streets. You'll recognize the video walls from Sofia Coppola's 2nd movie:





We're really tired, slurping our flavored coffees at Starbucks
]]> Wed, 07 Apr 2004 22:46:04 +0900 <![CDATA[Travel report day 5 - godzilla attacks roppongi ]]>
11:00h: Great breakfast at the Tenka Ippin Ramen. The waiter even speaks english, and serves us a great ramen and rice bowl menu.

Time to finish a bowl of ramen: 15 minutes
Time to finish a bowl of ramen (slurping): 10 minutes
Time to finish a bowl of ramen if you are japanese: 3 minutes


14:30h: We stumble across Godzilla as he attacks two traditionally styled ladies.




21:30h: Roppongi is the name of the "amusement" district. We where rather little amused by the fact that every bouncer tries to get you into there strip joint. "Gas Panic" was the only party club recommended by this friendly japanese guy who recognized our accent from his stay in germany. So go there if you want to have fun. We didn't, but that's because Tuesday night is ill-fitted for Roppongi party time. An old saleman in a nice suit refuses to be photographed but sells me a pack of sweet chestnuts. A window shows young puppies in their glass boxes. Tokyo Tower on the horizon.




In the bustle of the main road, a lonely stone statue plays her guitar to the ongoing rhythm of the traffic light tunes.




We spent the rest of the evening in a Friday's beer joint, our only lapse so for from japanese gastronomy. But it worth the time, as the beer helped to forget the unfriendly in-your-face attitude of the bouncers, and sitting next to the window was great for watching the weird nightly crowd of customers and flesh-wares drifting by. Lamborghinis, double-length Rolls Royce Limousines, japanese businessmen with caucasian girls in both arms, a pair of extremely beautiful and tall south-east asian "girls" ...none of that on pictures, but impressive nonetheless.
]]> Wed, 07 Apr 2004 11:49:47 +0900 <![CDATA[New games and some old gadgets ]]>
I finally got my hands on a copy of Ippo - The fighting. A supposedly fun 1st person boxing game for the GBA, I just need to get my hands on the translated instructions.

Katamari Damacy for PS2 seems to be something of an insider hit. There's plenty of copies of the game in Akihabara, showing once more that the japanese prefer nothing more than original ideas. It looks good on the package screenshots already. I just need to get my hands on a PS2 now.

Last but not least, I found a Rez Trance Vibrator in one of the game shops in Akihabara for 650¥. Joy!
]]> Mon, 05 Apr 2004 08:08:55 +0900 <![CDATA[Travel report day 4 - early morning sunshine ]]>
07:55h: Wake up call from hell. Although we were up due to the Stress Family Syndicate from Hong Kong next door and the annoying iPod alarm, we're still rather dizzy from last night's Street Fighter Alpha match.
If you should ever rely on iPod alarm: be aware that the time of alarm will be independent to your daylight saving time. So if you are in a daylight saving time zone, set the alarm for non-DST time or you are in for a nasty surprise...
\ ( > o < ) / *yawn*

09:07: Found a great breakfast place. You buy tickets for your meal at a vending machine, then give it to the super friendly cooks, 2mins later you are set.



Time you should be finished eating up: 5 minutes later
Status: warm and sunny
Battery: 97%

13:43h: After an hour in Shinjuku Gyoen park, we're happily refilled with sun. The cherries are blooming and there's lots of companies having their semi-formal lunchbreak on the lawn. Pretty.





Money spent before coming to the park: 6500¥ for gifts
Status: Full with Moomin cookies
Battery: 68% due to burning and charging Trixter's mp3 stick


14:24h: Up the Metropolitan Government Building, we get an outlook over Tokyo. It's a bit hazy so we don't see mount Fuji.





21:00h: Jumping out of a train as the doors close results in your travel mate staying in the train. Apart from that, everything was nice.

Time until sascha come back with next train: 3 minutes
Status: alone and hungry
iPod: fed it a tokyo hardcore cd and a japan-only radiohead compilation. iPod is happy again
Battery: 55% I also found that buying an alternative battery for my ixus finally paid off.
]]> Mon, 05 Apr 2004 08:02:52 +0900 <![CDATA[Travel report day 3 - Cherry blossoms in Ueno park and gadgets from Akihabara ]]>
10:30: We met Trixter from the gameware forum in Ueno park. As it is cherry blossom season, people where hanging out and having picknicks or simply wearing cardboard boxes.






16:56: finally, found wireless access...in the apple store in ginza (you probably know it from the infamous store openning video...) Much to do, so no pics yet. Go to my .mac site for the high res versions of the other pics. Hot tea from a vending machine.



Time left for uploading pics: approximately 3 days on this network
Status: wet.
iPod: New panasonic inner ear headphones
Battery: 64%


LAter: Akihabara was a blast, of course. Millions of trashy looking stores selling the latest from iPods to rice cookers. We browsed through eight story software shops, the biggest shop for writeable media and 'hobby' collectors places. I bought collectible miniature food and games for the dudes at Rockstar.







00:25h: We decided to publish the calendar with all our endeavors to .mac. The items contain the page numbers for the 2003 edition of Lonely Planet Japan ISBN 1 - 74059 - 162 - 3
-d (^o^) b-

Time left until curfew: 35 minutes
Status: aching all over from running around all day long. Kirin beer is our friend.
iPod: is going to be our shopping list, as I sync all the iCal todos onto it.
Battery: 42%
]]> Sun, 04 Apr 2004 16:57:35 +0900 <![CDATA[Travel report day 2 - waking up and getting up has never been easy... ]]>
01:00-ish, now called 9:00 am: I just got spit out of whatever swallowed and chewed me for the last couple of hours. On time to take some shots of these amazing siberian rivers:

Started reading Computer and Video Games: Amazing, a whole world of journalism opened up before my eyes. Honestly a fun read (up to that bit where they describe ShellShock, the vietnam game by the makers of Killzone, as a game for S&M fanatics. Ouch!)
And it's called "SM" you wankers!

Flying time left: We're crossing Dzhugdzhur Mountains, so that means 2:33h left
Status: undead? Sunlight does no harm yet
iPod: listening to not much due to excellent Samsonite foam ear plugs
d (^o^) b
Battery: 57%

update: Played a quick game of Go and won by 3.5. Not much, but getting closer to japan seems to help!


12:13: Landing was smooth, so was immigration, customs and getting the Japan Rail Pass. This seems to work.
Right as I set my powerbook to Tokyo time, the train leaves. On time. Me, I'm in my car, in my seat. They even marked the numbers on my ticket. First cherry blossoms sighted!


Everybody is friendly and competent. Another 1:30h on the train, and I should arrive at Ikebukuro station, close to our Kimi-Ryokan.

Transit from Narita to Ikebukuro: 1:30h
Status: Super-confident. Genki des ka! (^ x ^)
Battery: 42%


14:24: It is happening. I have lost all means of communication.
The hotel was easy enough to find, thanks to japanese tourism-fool-proof easy usage happy customer pipapo map and description service. The problem was of course arriving way too early. So I bravely, and even more hungrily, set out to explore the district, Ikebukuro-cho or whatever it is called. Haha, lost after one crossroad. New record.

"rosa" cinema

Then, hunger strikes and I need to feed, so the thought of a big bowl of noodle soup pops up. But here, this is not tourist happy nest, this is very they live. So no engrish signs. Eventually I give up and venture into the only pub that has tables not at the counter. Here I am at "Salvia's", Kirin Ichiban beer and some battery left:


Time for beer and food to arrive: writing this passage (approx. 6 mins)
Status: Happy and hungry (^ ^0)
Audio track: Some weird bloke with a microphone outside the restaurant trying to sell something nobody apparently wants
Battery: 36%


16:43: I am clean. I had a shower which was like coming back from the dead. Our room is huge, compared to the innards of an average refrigerator.


The café at the trainstation had wireless lan, but I lacked the necessary WEP code. I'll have to buy that. Online. Haha. But there will be a way. Right now, I'm recharging my p'book and waiting for sasch, who will probably drop in around 10pm. Enough time to download and edit all the pictures you should be seeing already!

Time until シュニダーサん arrives: 5 hours
Status: (=_=' ) .oO(*busy bee*)
Listening to: the guy outside our room painting the stairway
Battery: ...charging...


On last beer before we finally hit the bed
]]> Sat, 03 Apr 2004 01:37:49 +0200 <![CDATA[Travel report day 1 - shifting to fast time ]]>
It's 14:49 hours, but they call it ten minutes to two here in London. As I pass Assembly Point A, it is beginning to dawn on me that things are turning different. All the cars have a tendency to drive on the wrong side, and I finally shift into hyper-perception mode: everything remained the same, yet everything looks different and interesting.


Heathrow's terminal 1 dislikes wireless networking, so this won't be posted before another 16 hours. The cable for my ixus conveniently rests in my luggage, which with some luck should also make it to tokyo by tomorrow morning. So no pictures until then.

update: Terminal 1 does like wireless networking, but thoroughly refuses to accept my credit card number...

Flying time left: 11.4 hours
Status: bored but not tired anymore... m (G_G) m
iPod: Plaid - Rakimou
Battery: 72%


21:08: Everybody is asleep, no idea how they pulled it off. We had Mystic River, which features excellent character development and multiple-angle exposition. It's about time we get started with that kind of narrative finesse in games as well. That, and in-game actors like Sean Penn. (^-^) .oO(might be tricky)

Flying time left: 7 or so hours<br>
Status: sobering up from lunch time wine again, boredom is creeping around the narrow 747 corners
iPod: Massive Attack - What Your Soul Sings
Battery: 66%
]]> Fri, 02 Apr 2004 14:52:30 +0200 <![CDATA[eyeweiss goes japan! ]]>
トビ　will try to post as soon as an adequate WLan hotspot is found....
This should be fun.

]]> Thu, 01 Apr 2004 15:05:23 +0200