Rikugien Garden

Hurrah, I'm fucked!

                                      
      
This morning began with Kris losing his passport. Now, see, this is kind of a big deal, since foreigners in Japan are mandated to carry their passports with them at all times. A police officer can totally decide to break your balls by randomly asking you if you have your passport, and kicking you 'round the curvature of the earth back into your country if you don't. Though I have not yet been inspected in such a way, it's happened to some of the other tenants of New Koyo before.

And so, Kris and Rodrigue and I spent a few hours this morning backtracking through Kris's steps to help find the big oaf's passport. Sure enough, we found it at the Western Union money exchange, where this tall alpha-asian, a rare specimen amongst his kind, handed Kris back his documents.


And so , everything was as normal, Kris was un-fucked, and we celebrated with dinner. A plate like the one on this picture costs the equivalent of four dollars. It's delicious; and healthy, too, I think.




Having made it out with his documents, Kris decided to retire back to base, leaving Rodrigue and I to ponder our next visit in Tokyo. We settled for Rikugien garden.
Now, realize that westerners and the Japanese have different concepts of the word, "garden". Rather than just a bunch of plantations with nice flowers, Rikugien is a picture-perfect patch of nature outlined by beautiful simplicity. It's a nice place to immerse yourself within a rare nature that isn't easily found in Tokyo.

It's a relaxing place in general with a number of turtles and koi and great ravens circulating in such a way that you'd forget that you're in the center of an enormous metropolis. Well, figuratively. Unless you have Alzheimer's, in which case it's more literal.







We must've spent three hours here. The garden (more like a park, really) is ridiculously large, and there are a number of scenic spots.

Also, Nephilia-family spiders! We spotted like, ten of these in the first twenty minutes in Rikugien. I hear these babies can go up to five inches, legs and all, but most of the ones we saw were around three or less; nothing like the candy-ass ones back home. The silk of these spiders can be used to produce bulletproof vests, though I don't know if it's these ones specifically or another spider of the same family.

Yeah, I know I ruined the whole garden for a bunch of you.

Making Friends

This morning I got acquainted with Rodrigue. Rodrigue is a frenchman who's been in Japan for the past three months. He's an avid photographer, a sucker for beautiful things, and a chivalrous guy in general, who hopes to one day gain citizenship in the motherland. This is he.

Visiting Asakusa

Today my squad of Gaijin Goons and I went to visit Asakusa. It's basically a small part of town where much of the traditional architecture has been preserved. It draws a lot of tourists, but also locals who just want to enjoy the sights without having to go too far.

Standing in the center of the area, you find yourself surrounded by pagodas and temples and shrines.Various booths sell local trinkets: bracelets, necklaces, masks, etc.











As Julien demonstrates on the picture to the right, it's also a great place to, like, punch yourself in the dick or whatever, while standing underneath Shinto statues representing mythical figures. Maybe it's a German thing. I wouldn't punch myself in the dick.

 There are also these quaint little booths where you can purchase a fortune for 100 yen (that's around a dollar.) You're supposed to shake up the tall tin can and draw a stick from
it, picked at random. Upon the stick is a number. Then, you open the drawer with the same number and pick a fortune paper.





Why, here I am, holding mine right now! Let's read what's on it, shall we?

Jesus Christ, that's bland. But hey, God knows my luck in general is terrible, so this is a step up! That's right, there's a silver lining behind every cloud. How clouds are supposed to help you in life, though, is a greater mystery.

At any rate, you're supposed to tie the fortunes here so that they can later on burn them; the fortune scrolls then go into the sky and supposedly come true. Why you would do this if you pick a bad fortune, I don't know. Foxboy here pulled a Regular Fortune too.

I'm an alien now

This is a blog.

 I'm going to be updating somewhat regularly and posting about my adventures and misadventures in glorious Japan.
 Maybe you'll learn something, but, if you know me, you're probably just waiting around for me to say something funny. I'm a clown like that.

 I arrived at New Koyo Hotel, Tokyo, on October 28th (though it was October 27th for you guys in North America. That's right. I'm in the future.)
 Here in my cheap (though lovable) hotel, I've met a few characters with intricate back-stories and shit. Here's the role-call.

*Note - As per Jon's own request, his picture has been removed from this blog.

This is Jon. He's Latvian. He's the hobo of the group, 'cause the guy is living off the equivalent of ten dollars a day. Latvia is an obscure country. I heard it has trains. At least there's that.

This is Julien. He's German. He's been here for a month already, so he's kind of like our tour guide. He doesn't mind the presence of jews, or so it appears. I made a politically incorrect joke, there.

This is Anton. He's British. He's here in Japan to study foxes and get laid. He's a fox-person, but he's not a furry. I didn't think it was possible either.

And of course, I'm Sean. I can speak basic Japanese and use chopsticks, but that's about it. The locals mistake me for a fellow Japanese. I disappoint them by not understanding most of what they say. And then they get embarrassed about not understanding what I answer in English. And then everything becomes awkward, but it's obviously more funny to me than it is to them. They don't find it funny. I don't take many pictures of myself. This one's a year old.