Odaiba, VenusFort & Alice Nine

On the show-ride that is the yurikamome-train to Odaiba
Yesterday, on the 15th, we had a concert to go to at Odaiba city in Tokyo. It's an amusement-area placed on man-made islands, initially build as a fort (daiba means fort) during the Edo-period in the 1600rds, as a defence against attacks from the sea, mainly British attacks.
Now though it houses various different kinds of amusement: museums, shopping-malls, a Ferris-wheel and venues.

One of the most fascinating things about going to Odaiba though, is the ride there on the yurikamome. It's an elevated train that takes you through Tokyo, across the rainbow-bridge and to the odaiba city island and the view is absolutely magnificent!
You feel like you're floating among the skyscrapers as you travel and the train makes a little detour as it crosses the bridge so those riding it get a full view of the harbour, the replica of the statue of liberty and the towering ferris-wheel onm the island.

Even better is when you take the ride back in the dark and the city becomes a thousand pinpricks of shimmering lights on pitch-black background. The bridge becomes a shimmering string floating in empty space and you glide on through the world of artificial stars as you pass through skyscrapers and towers.

Odaiba City at night. We couldn't take pictures through the windows on the yurikamome, so this is found on google.

On eating at the VenusFort
Once at Odaiba, we made our way through the artfully crafted streets to a building called VenusFort. VenusFort is a shopping-centre designed to simulate a medieval fort-town, which means that the floors were made to look like cobbled stone, that every shop was embedded in tall 'buildings' made to look like white-washed stone, with each of their little, useless wooden door. There were street-lamps too and more park-benches inside that building than I've seen on actual streets here in Japan this far.

The most fascinating feature of that building though, was by far the ceiling. It was made to look like the outside sky and it changes so it can simulate morning, midday, evening and night.
This means that while we were inside the fort it looked and felt like night-time at a south-european city, even though the sun was still shining bright outside.

I'm not sure my companions were half as fascinated as I was, but I love stuff like that so I most certainly was enjoying our track through the 'streets' in VenusFort.  I think I looked more at the architecture than the goods in the shopsXD.
Inthere we went to a food-court serving everything from indian curry to ramen, we ate and then hurried on to find our concert-venue.

On rushing for Alice Nine

We found a venue called Zepp Tokyo, but after half an hour suddenly realized that was the wrong Zepp - we needed to go to DiverCity, which was somewhere else, though still in Odaiba which was our luck.
After a mad dash around the place it turned out to be near the Gundam 00 statue and we did get there in plenty of time for the concert to start, though some of my friends were probably a bit annoyed with the spot they got.
I was just pleased to have a seat, since Alice Nine, while pretty, really aren't my kind of music, but it was certainly enjoyable none the less:D
~A~

Akihabara and Harajuku

On the heavenly place that is Akihabara
I honestly didn't expect to get to this part of Tokyo this time around since I am hopelessly outnumbered as an Otaku in my group of friends, who are all music and goth-centered. There's nothing wrong with that of course, but it just means they would be exceptionally bored at the central area for otaku-culture in Tokyo.
We did go there in the end though and it was everything I could have imagined. Incredibly easy to reach from our area compared to some of our other destinations and comparably easy to navigate once we got there as well.

It is first and foremost an area for electronic equipment and so, to find the buildings that are centered around manga and anime you have to do a bit of looking around.
Luckily we went there on a Sunday and on Sundays they close off the road so that people can walk everywhere they please, which was a blessing, because there was a lot of people there!
Most shops in shopping-areas here in Tokyo are all very narrow as well, I've noticed, so patience definitely becomes a virtue. Luckily everyone is very polite around here, so there is no passive aggression going aroundXD.
Well, we arrived safely at Akihabara and we quickly found a shop stuffed with figurines of all sizes and shapes, though I didn't find any big ones I wanted. I did find some miniature ones, one of Yuuko from xxxHolic and Zack, Reno and Rude from FFVII<3

The most amazing shop on the street though, was a tall building called Mandrake, containing all kinds of otaku-goods, from anime and manga to doujinshi and fake guns.
The doujinshi (fancomics) floor was by far the most fantastic for me though, since I had resigned myself to not getting any doujins at all, given that I had opted not to attempt to go to the famous convention Comiket in Odiba. Some of the guys from our hostel went there, but they reported that it was completely stuffed with people so I chose not to do it.

That is why it was such a blessing for me to get to Mandrake and discover an entire floor full of doujinshi of all the possible pairings and fandoms I could imagine!
On the same floor was an area with drama-cds as well and I got hold of all the loveless-cds as well as kizuna, two manga-series which happen to be my absolute favourites, both in terms of the art and the stories!<3

Kizuna-cast

Loveless-cast

It was amazing to find all of those things in one place and I'm definitely going back there the next time I have a chance to go to Japan and Tokyo!

On Harajuku, reminiscence on Camden Town and Modern Pirates
I have had the impression, for a long time, that the area of Tokyo known as harajuku was a japaneese version of Camden in London, what with shops of alternative goods and strange fashion and I must say my opinion wasn't changed once we actually went there.

It is a long street, full of colours and pretty people on which you can find whatever you might want with regards to clothes and accessories.
I'm not big on shopping, to be honest, so to me it doesn't have the appeal it might to my friends, but I love looking at people and at strange, Gothic jewelry, so that is what i was doing while the others looked over clothes and shoes like proper girly girlsXD.

At the end of the street we found a shop the others had been looking for, Modern Pirates, owned by a guy who knows various jrockers. That made them plenty happy, which was a fine conclusion to the day:)
~A~
 

Sephiroth, Indian curry and Baileys

On trailing Sephiroth
Fast forward a handful of days. My last post was written while we were still in Kyoto, though I posted it after we arrived here in Tokyo, at the Khaosan Kabuki hostel, near the temple kaminari-mae.
I went to another concert before leaving Kyoto, but nice as it was, the most note-worthy thing was the amounts of fanservice, which is always appreciated, and the fact that one of the bands played the opening-song to Ghost in the shell, which is a song I personally love, as their intro.

Now we are finally settled in Tokyo after having gone on the Shinkansen, the 'super-train' that reaches around 500km am hour.

The confines of our room seem small at times, and four girls can create inordinate amounts of drama between them, but we have been to see the Shinjuku-district, mainly Visual Kei shops, and explored our nearby area, including the temple and the tourist-streets around it. Everything is very urban here, which is to be expected I suppose, and a bonus in that context, is the fact that everybody speaks English, unlike in Kyoto.

The people are nice and we've met several other foreigners here already, including a bunch of British guys with nice humour and good spirits^_~

Something I consider a particular achievement though, is the fact that we went to the Square Enix showroom yesterday. It's a place I've wanted to see since I learned of its existence about a year ago. I am a final fantasy fan, particularly FFVII, and I learned that in this merchandise-shop could be found a life-size figurine of the ultimate FF villain, Sephiroth. That is why, when I am actually in Tokyo and have the opportunity to go see it, and the store, I really wanted to do so.

Makes you feel like it's a good thing he's behind glass, doesn't he?~_^

We got off to a slow start, but once we got on our way it turned out to be surprisingly easy to get to the store (once we had untangled ourselves from the maze that is the Tokyo metro/subway).
I had some landmarks that I was supposed to find to be sure we were on the right track and I felt like the AVALANCHE-crew trying to trail Seph in the game, noting the arches and glass-pyramids marking our track. It was awesome.

Once there I spent an hour admiring thingamagigs and whatsits and we all agreed that Sephiroth is quite beautiful and breathtaking in real life as well as in pixelsXD I wanted to take him home with me, but I'm not so certain the General (ex-General? hmm, I wonder if ShinRa revokes your rank when you commit genocide and go crazy?) would appreciate thatXD.
Fact is he was impressively made, with individual strands of hair and eyelashes, eyes closed as if in peaceful sleep, though you never know when he might awaken!

So beautiful and serene when he's not on a murdering spree

My loot from the venture consist of a moogle<3, a t-shirt and a bag, things I am all rather pleased with, though I would have liked more figurines.

On Indian curry in Tokyo
On our way back home we got hungry and, passing by an indian restaurant, we went inside. I was eager to see if they make as good indian food in Japan as they do in London, which is where I've gotten the best indian food this far. They certainly do! I tend to forget how much I love indian food when I haven't had it for a while, but once I get it again, I just fall right back in love with it!

On Acid Black Cherry and Baileys
ABC isn't a drink, as one might be led to believe from the title, but a singer and we decided to finish off the day by drinking and watching one of his lives. The combination of that man's voice and the taste of chilled Baileys is quite delicious.
The common-room was full last night too and we got to taste the most expensive kind of beef  in Japan, proper kobe-beef, which one of the owners had bought and was quite psyched about, enough so that she was dancing in circles, squealing and taking enthusiastic pictures of the unassuming meat  in it's package. I love Japanese people<3

Today we're all pretty busted and lazy and we have no plans at the moment, maybe beyond actually cleaning up our room a bit, before the owners come to clean tomorrow.

~A~

AYABIE among others

On the vision that is AYABIE

When we arrived at the live-venue this afternoon, where we were supposed to see 6 bands (AYABIE, Kra, Kamereo, Duel Jewel, OZ and GUILD) preform, after having gone down a small, rural street with the curving frame of a forest-covered mountain  in front of us, my first thought was; how can the bands even fit in there at the same time? It was so tiny!
When we came inside it turned out to be every bit as small as it had looked from the outside, but who complains about small venues when all it means is that you get to see the artists up close?XD

We certainly did! AYABIE was on first and, oh sweet mother of god they were awesome! The vocalist Yumehito (the sassy blond with his hand on his hip in the pictureXD) was a bouncing, happy ball of energy and the way he looked, jumping around on stage like a maniac and screaming into his mic, while making us copy his elegant hand-gestures, I just wanted to kidnap him and bring him back home with me in a suitcase! Yume's voice is as bright as his mannerisms and even though it seemed a little strained he was still a marvel<3

Another who captured my attention a lot was Intetsu, the bassist, (on Yume's right side, furthest away  from the front) He has a very infectious smile and he is so graceful and androgynic in general that he was lots of fun to look at. He is also a really talented bassist, though I don't know much about bass-playing as it isXD.

Both Takehito on guitar (far left) and Kenzo on drums (far right) were great as well, though Kenzo looked much more relaxed at the concert, wearing glasses and little make-up, unlike this picture where he is really dolled up and pretty.

As for the other bands, Kamereo were pretty, flashy and showed plenty of skin, which is never a bad thing. They kept a high tempo too and they were heaps of fun. Kra was pretty good and their vocalist, Karyuu, is legendary for being the smallest jrocker of them all. He is adorable and impressive.
Oz was cool, but a bit noisy for my taste and Duel Jewel was primarily pretty. Guild didn't really do much for me, but seeing new bands uis always interesting.

Kra

OZ

Kamereo

Duel Jewel

GUILD

The Golden Pavilion, hosts & Nightmare

On seeing NIGHTMARE!

I'm not going to start this blogpost from a chronological direction onwards, because I have just been to see the visual kei-band Nightmare and they were far, far more awesome than I had expected!

I know Nightmare primarily for one song, which is one of the songs from the opening of the anime Death Note, called 'the world'. That song is admittedly awesome, but I had kind of shied away from their music because the vocalist, Yomi, (the tiny guy there in the middle<3) has a voice slightly too bombastic for my tasts and they are a heavy rock-band, so you need to be in the mood to listen to them in the first place - or at least I do.

But being at the concert, actually seeing them, and hearing Yomi use his voice exactly as brilliantly as he does on the albums is amazing. Here you really get the ROCK feel, the feeling of being blown away by the sound, the crowd moving around you like a living sea, and by the blinding light-show making you feel like you have reached some higher state of existence for just a moment.
I hurt my knee recently, so I couldn't bounce as much as the rest, but discomfort is forgotten in the face of the chaos that is a Nightmare-concert.

Aki says it's not half as wild as when she saw them the first time, or as some of the other concerts she's been to, but the chaos was still undeniably there!

Also, I have long complained that one of the guitarists, Sakito (to the far left), was too plain-looking for my tastes when I've been discussing their visual expression with Aki especially,even if I agree that he is a talented musician, but after the concert I had to take back my words and concede to her the fact that with make-up he is gorgeous and there is a grace to his movements when he preforms that leaves an impression on you, which lasts as long as the sheer power of Yomi's voice.

As for the others, Ruka, the drummer (guy with the hat), was a bit of a spoilsport, not looking up at all while he played and leaving as fast as possible when they were done, but at least he's prettyXD
Ni~ya, the bassist (beside Sakito in the picture) is not as imposing as Saki, but very talented and obviously good looking too^_~. Hitsugi, the other guitarist, just frightens the daylights out of me with his looks, but he is really very sweet and seems nice, despite the permanent scowl. And I have always been distracted by colours and pretty makeup, which he does have, even when it makes him look like a demonXD.

I feel it's only fair to mention as well that Nightmare played alongside another band, called Baroque, who, despite the name, didn't look at all baroque or particularly visual. The vocal was good and his appearance reminded me pleasantly of Mao, vocalist of SID that I have mentioned before. My problem with them though, was that their sound lacked a pattern, much of it was just noise to me. Aki and Ida don't agree, but I reserve the right to disagree on that topic.

On the existence of Hosts
No, we did not actually visit a hostclub when we were out frolicking in Osaka yesterday, but we did see groups of attractive guys, done up in good-looking outfits, more or less pouncing on groups of girls as they passed, chatting and talking, obviously bend on getting them to visit their club.

The host/hostess-phenomenon is an interesting one, but also a precarious one, as it balances on the edge of prostitution. Ideally hosts and hostesses do not sleep with their customer, just make conversation and entertain in exchange for the customer buying drinks at the club, but sometimes it happens anyway.

It was fascinating to actually see the guys around the place though and it is always an adventure to shop in Japan!
 

On visiting the Golden Pavilion and getting wounded in action
Several days ago now we, that is, me, Ida and Aki, went to see the temple of the Golden Pavilion.

It's a highly impressive place and when you see the two-story building entirely covered in gold you are struck speechless by the sheer amount of light it reflects. I also noted just how still the lake around it was. The reflection in the water was completely clear!

Even though it was a Zen temple, we also found a small shrine hidden away nearby - it seems shinto is ever-present and undisturbed in the flux of other religious influences in Japan and it's very interesting in my opinion.

At the temple-park was a lot of over-priced souvenir-shops and among them an icecream-palor in which i unlocked another culinary achivement: shaved ice. It is basically just snow with a bit of fruit-flavour poured over it. It's incredibly cooling in summer-heat and it tastes lovely.

 And while I was unlocking achievements and gaining XP like a pro, Aki was feeding pigeons.

Michael: I want it (my money) to feed the birds.

Mr. Dawes Sr: Fiddlesticks, boy. Feed the birds and what have you got? Fat birds

(from Mary Poppins)

It is seriously the tamest pigeon I have ever met (except for a couple of hundreds at st. Marks in Venice when I was a hapless seven-year old) - seriously, she ignored a purring, puffed up male to nibble at the pieces of cake in Aki's hand instead. When he got too close she told him off. Girl power!XD

Another, slightly more sofisticated bird, crossed our path at the Golden Pavilion as well:

We thought it was artificial until it elegantly curved its long neck and turned its stately head towards a fat koi-fish in the water. Herons are such beautiful birds and the japanese variant certainly is so as well in my opinion.

Most of the day thus passed with shenanigans, but on our way back I fell and scraped my shin, which in itself is manageable, but combined with heat and thus sweat, plus continuous walking everyday makes for some very uncomfortable movementT.T Sometimes it's hard to be on vacation tooXD

Other than that we saw another temple this week, the one by Aki's place and it turned out to be a big teaching-center with huge buildings and loads of finery in the inner halls.

 I could easily hang around such a place during the day to just read or relax or write<3

--oh and on our way there we found a torii-arch in stone and went exploring, expecting a small shrine of little importance or impressiveness. This is what we found:

Isn't it beautiful<3 I love shrines so very much. Also, we met a man on his way to prayer. He asked us if we were American, but since we had to answer no, he lost interest and went on his way to the main-shrine, tolling the bell like you're supposed to and finishing his business while we quietly left.

Loads has happened and I probably left out a lot more, but we are busy with concerts this week and then on we go to Tokyo for the last two weeks of the trip here in Japan.

~A~

Gion Matsuri and Ninjas

On crowds, heat and Asian tug o'war
On the seventeenth it was finally time for Gion Matsuri and the festive parade which marks the peak of the ritual cleansing of the city. It's a popular parade, everybody told us so, and for good reasons, given the time and effort put into every one of the many, many floats being pulled through the city's streets by rows and rows of men towing heavy ropes between them.

It is a very beautiful thing and, despite the popularity, a very local thing as well; it's something the city has been anticipating since the start of the month and we all revelled in the completion.
I don't know much about the details surrounding the people in the floats, but I know that a rich family paid to have their five-year old son ride in the front-float, dressed up in finery and enacting the part of 'blessed child'.

The poor kid must have been swelteringly hot in all that silk and make-up, but he had people fan him while he sat in the float among them. There must have been at least twenty people visible on the big floats - and there were more inside!

It's a fact that we were all sweaty and fanning ourselves madly as we pressed together in one big moving mass, trying to get the best angle to look from or take pictures from.
It was a very intense experience and one that had me thinking of the traditional ideas of Asian mysticism for the first time in this otherwise urban landscape, rituals like those you expect to find on Bali or in rural China.

It was a calm parade, with only the eerie sound of drumbeats and shrill flutes to accompany it, but standing in that mass of people under the beating sun, with humans who cheered when they saw the 'blessed child' and drew in a collective gasp as the first float was tugged forward, it did feel like something ritualistic and esoteric in nature.

After that we found shade and, for my part iced coffee, for a bit and then went shopping in the narrow streets nearby. I found myself a cheap kiseru, probably not real or usable, but looking the part and I lamented the fact that I saw so many katanas, but can't bring any of them home with me:(


On ninjas, train-rails and natural beauty
On the 20th we went to Iga, or more precisely Ueno Castle, an area which is famous for its former ninja-population and a castle of magnificent beauty.
The ride there was long, two hours by various different trains, but it was endlessly fascinating, especially since the trains got more and more outrageous the further out we got, until on our last stretch, we travelled in a green wagon with teddy-bears on the side, painted with cute expressions, frozen in eternal glee.
The floors inside were covered in a film resembling cobbled stone, so it would seem like you stepped unto a cobbled pathway as you got out.

It was hot as all hell once we got to Ueno, but the stretch to the castle-park was short and soon we were distracted by regretfully touristy shops and museums.
I was a bit sad to see how dull it all looked, but interested in the fact that it all felt so provincial and cosy, despite their best efforts to make it appealing to tourists interested solely in ninjas.
Their, the ninjas, history is interesting though and the museums had notes on their diet and training, what they wore and their weapons, which was interesting enough.

this thing in particular intrigued me, a tree illustrating the different modes of stealth and protection in Japanese warfare. The name Abe (no) Seimei on there made me particularly happy to see, since he is a legendary onmyoji and of interest to me because of that. 

 

 

The castle was, in my opinion, just as interesting though.
Before we got to it however, we saw this house, oddly shaped and mushroom-like, we agreed that it belongs in Super Mario more than anywhere elseXD

Ueno castle on the inside is not terribly impressive, but from the outside, perched on a high hill-top, surrounded by a deep moot, it makes an incredible picture, almost reminding me of sceneries from old Disney-movies.

It was a beautiful trip, but it was long and we were all exhausted when we came back home that day.

Today has been lazy and rainy, but Ida and I went to a flea-market at Toji, bought CDs and foodstuffs and then went back home to relax again:) 

For the next couple of days we will relax and then perhaps it is time to see the imperial palace and Abe no Seimei's shrine<3

~A~

Toji, Thunder and Nijo Castle

On Toji, the temple of Turtles
Remember I mentioned that Ida and I live close to a temple? On Thursday we went to visit it. First of all I was impressed by the size of it; the grounds had looked big from the outside, but getting inside, the twisting pathways and peaceful sakura-alleys seemed simply endless.
The sakura might not be blooming at the moment, but it is still a beautiful area even without the pink overhanging.

Toji Temple (East Temple) is apparently a very important temple, it was erected in the Heian era (around 700) just when Kyoto had become the new capital in Japan and it acted as one of two spiritual wards erected alongside a gate so as to protect the city. Toji is the only one of the two temple-wards to remain though.
At Toji is a five-story pagoda, which happens to be the tallest wooden structure in Japan. It burned down four times because it was struck by lightening, but the latest version was built in the 1600ds, so it is still rather old and it is very impressive.

Toji has national treasures, gold-statues of the Buddha and the bodhisattvas and it has sculptures as well, commemorating a famous monk who lived there, but what is most noticable is the fact that the place is covered in turtles! The first one we saw was this fellow:

Turtles symbolize longevity, good luck, and support  in Japanese culture, but this guy doesn't look like a good-luck charm so much as he looks like a sneaky trickster.

This guy, on the other hand, deserved to be taken home and cuddled, we all agreed. He wasn't at all the only turtle there, but the rest of them were lying on rocks in the water, sunbathing and looking like a bunch of lazy kappas. This one actually wanted to say hello. Aki was steadfast in wanting to name him 'Dude' - I don't think that's very considerate of her, what if it is a lady-turtle?XD

On Amewarashi overstaying her visit
in other news, the goddess of rain has not been kind to Japan. She's been hanging around here for a bit too long, creating floods, but Kyoto, thankfully, has only had the occasional showers and, yesterday night, a couple of hours of pelting rain and noisy thunder. It's impressive how much lightening and thunder happens around here and how quickly it disappears again; she is a fickle spirit that amewarashi.
Then again, Kyoto is known for having weather that changes quickly.

On Nijo Castle and 'nightingale'-floors
On Saturday we all went to visit Nijo Castle. It was started in 1601 and was intended as the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns. It's an impressive place for sure, with loads of immaculately cut greenery and fascinating exhibitions about fashions during that era, but admittedly I don't find the buildings as impressive as I do shrines and temples, because they are not as decorated. They are quite big on the inside though and one could definitely get  lost inside.
Nijo has an abundance of shoji-screens as well as silk-tapestries depicting cranes and trees in golds and greens. It's all very calming.

Another interesting detail are the 'nightingale-floors' inside, so called because they were designed to squeak specifically so that the shogun and his guards would be warned of any assassination-attempts. Only very skilled ninjas could hope to pass along those floors unheard.

 

 Here, have some samurai-fashion behind stupidly reflective glass.

Some ending remarks, I love vending-machines on every corner when it's swelteringly hot outside, a fan is a must in Japan in summer and I had my first proper ramen-noodles today<3

Also, our French house-mate, Geraldine, practices kendo and so I have inadvertently gotten to examine a kendo-uniform in detail, while she went on and on about the details of a match - I love kendo so that was utterly epic.

Gion Matsuri is in a couple of days and so you can already see people walking around in yukatas and kimonos on the street. It's going to be so pretty on the actual parade-night. I hope for pictures!

That's it for now!
 ~A~