Tokyo Blog

I’ve probably only ridden my bike about a dozen times, but I’ve been stopped by the police twice already in the space of about 2 weeks! They pull you over and talk politely before radioing in your bicycle’s registration number (most bikes have registration marks over here, just like cars do). Both times I was stopped by a policeman on foot, they carry their radio equipment around their necks. To begin with I thought this was due to a prejudice towards foreigners, stemming from an alledged culture of belief in Japan that they are responsible for much of the crime in the country, but having thought about it, the first time I was stopped I don’t think the policeman had had a very good look at me, because he addressed me very much like a native with a torrent of polite but colloquial Japanese. I suppose with my dark hair which has grown pretty long now, I can kind of blend in. From a distance. At night. If I’m kneeling down.

I was riding my bike to Asakusa the other day, when I passed the Japanese super-hero Ultraman and a large-scale Knocking Frog by Bandai on the side of the street. Needless to say, I pulled over and took a picture. I still don’t know what they were doing there.

I’ve found something new that Tokyo is good for: hair cuts. I got a cut yesterday in up-market Ginza at a Tony & Guy owned salon, and I was blown away by what the guy did for my barnet. Normally, it’s a bit uncontrollable, and so heavily doused in hair gunk, but after Torisu-san finished sorting it out for me, it was totally different to how it had ever been before. All the haircuts I’ve ever had in the UK have been no good, and I always thought it was because my hair was naturally bad and hard to cut, but it was just because they were crap at hairdressing! Nice one, Torisu.

Japan has some funny names for confectionery and soft drinks. I’m sure for people who have been over here for any amount of time, the novelty has worn off. Not for me.

A: I’m shooting down the combini, want anything getting?
B: Yeh, actually. Get me some ‘Country Ma’am’, ‘Crunky Pop Joy’, and a bottle of ‘Calpis’.
A: They don’t have ‘Calpis’ at this one.
B: Dammit. OK, get me a bottle of ‘Sweat’.

Doosh! Found Super Potato as planned. It’s amazing, but if you want to pick up some archaic silicon, you’d better be packing a full wallet (Japan, being a cash culture, is a place where shops don’t often accept credit cards). That said, you can just as easily treat it like a museum. They have every console I can remember with a seemingly hand-picked selection of all the best and rarest games for them. They also stock a massive range of game soundtracks, including 8-bit, that they play in the shop, and broadcast outside the shop to guide you in. My new favourite hangout though is up on the top floor. A smokey room full of arcade machines, cocktail tables, a life-sized model of Snake from Metal Gear Solid, and some one-armed bandits. The machines are by Tecmo, and alow you to select any game from the extensive library stored within. A bit like MAME, I guess. Thinking about it, they probably are using MAME; I can’t see how else those machines could work. It was also funny how the natives watched my screen out of the corners of their eyes as I started to play X-Men vs Street Fighter, and were shocked when I started stringing combos up. Didn’t they know we imported this stuff into England since the 70’s? As I remember it, Cornwall was where I played the most arcade machines. Back then I didn’t realise that all the good stuff came from Japan.

So it seemed to me I had landed in a sea of people when the Narita Express left me in Ikebukuro station. I was headed for Kimi Ryokan for my first 4 nights stay, but I’d overlooked the fact that it was going to be rush hour, and I was dragging all my worldly possessions behind me. It was hard work getting synchronised with the flow of traffic. You really knew when you weren’t in it, because moving became almost impossible; everyone was in a hurry.