Blossoms on the River

The blossom season has come to Tokyo once again. As ever, the blooming of the cherry blossoms has drawn crowds to the parks, while also bestowing upon the populace the wonderful gift of hay fever. As much as I hate to admit it, even my eyes seem to be acting up when I walk under an area heavy in blossoms.

Having seen Ueno Park and Yoyogi Park in the previous years, I've decided this time around to focus on a different power spot - the romantic Meguro River. And as dirty and oily as the river is most of the year, the sakura trees lined up along its sides give it new life, whether it be with the help of the pink lanterns brought out during the blossom season or through the simple beauty of the river itself turning pink as the petals fall upon its surface. Against the backdrop of the river's scarlet bridges, though, it's hard not to admire the blooming flowers.

 It's my last hanami, and I think I'm going to miss this quite a bit. It takes a certain appreciation of beauty to enjoy the cherry blossoms, and for the whole population of Tokyo to be so taken by it says something about the Japanese people, and despite the crowds, it feels good to be part of that.

The Falconer's Cafe

 It seems I'm on a roll this month, when it comes to themed restaurants at least. But hey, I'm a sucker for gimmicks, and I have to eat at least twice a day anyhow, so why not try as many as I can, I figured.
 The theme this time? Birds of prey. Hawks and falcons, to be specific. And so, with only an address in mind and no idea quite what to expect, I made my way to the Falconer's Cafe in Mitaka - and entered to a falcon screaming at me from a meter or so away.

 The falconer's cafe is, for lack of a better word, much more humble than the majestic birds it showcases. The venue itself is quite small, with a few tables on one side and a small aviary on the other, effectively keeping the birds separated from customers without keeping them too far apart or out of sight. Now, having had no idea how the place operated before walking in, I was actually kind of expecting something similar to the amazing owl cafe I had been to a little more than a year ago. Which is to say, grab a bird, put him on your head, whatever floats your boat. Unfortunately for me (though it's probably better for the raptors,) customers are not allowed to touch them inside the Falconer's Cafe. Well, that's probably safer anyhow.
 But somehow, the novelty of sitting in a cafe in the presence of six hawks/falcons does kind of wear off after a short while. The raptors themselves are beautiful. I don't recall having ever been so close to one in the past, but they're truly awesome to behold, and it's hard not to admire them. But without any other incentive to stick around other than just looking at the birds from a safe distance, the Falconer's Cafe is effectively a zoo with one exhibit only.
Plus, it's a little hard to just sit down and have a conversation, because, you know, the birds tend to scream. Very loud.

This guy is straight out of a movie set.

 Of course, maybe that's not the point of Falconer's Cafe. From what I gather, real falconers are also allowed to bring their own birds to the venue, so maybe this place is more of a meeting place between raptor owners, and the whole cafe business is just what keeps the place running. The owner is a quiet, stern man who looks very much like a bird of prey himself, and his passion as a falconer was apparent, if for nothing other than the various pictures of him and his birds adorning the whole cafe. I can't imagine it's easy to make much money as an expert on birds of prey, so if this is how he pays the bills, then hey, I'm glad it's what's working out for him.
 I wonder how he carries the birds around, though, because it might be a little difficult to bring them on a train? I'll never really know, and that almost saddens me as much as not walking out of this place with a picture of me majestically posing with a falcon on my arm. Can't win them all!

The Italian Job

It was today, on March 23rd, that Dario left Japan, not to come back for another 8 months, which he's to spend in Italy for an important job. As understandable as that is, the underlying meaning would be that I wouldn't get to see him again before my own departure. Our last night out together was humble, but fun, and unfortunately went by much too fast. Though we had been on quite a few adventures together (Nokogiriyama, the Capsule Hotel, the Buddha of Ushiku all come to mind from the top of my head) there's no telling when we'll ever see each other again, so it was with a little regret and with a firm handshake that I said goodbye to Dario, one of my closest friends in Tokyo.

Goodbye Japan - The High Price of Living

Let me just make it clear that I love Japan, and I love Tokyo. This city's been so good to me, and over the years I've gotten to know it so well. I've made lasting friendships and been on incredible adventures, but I've known for a while now that I wouldn't be here forever. There are quite a few reasons for that, and I'd say most of them are career-related.
 Japan's safety and general quality of all-around services are without parallel. Japanese people are unobtrusive, polite, and masters at avoiding conflict whenever possible. And Tokyo is an incredible city where the possibility of getting bored is nonexistent - it's the ideal city for a young adult.
 But at the same time, Tokyo, and Japan, demand a high price in return: a price which is reflected by back-breaking working hours, and a society which privileges only those who give to it the entirety of their lives. It's no exaggeration to say that Japanese people work their lives away to
provide for a family in which they are unseen. The average Japanese working man is the king amongst modern-day hunter-gatherers, in the sense that making money for the family is the sole sink in which all their time goes. They work uncompensated overtime hours, are frowned upon for using paid vacations unless absolutely incapacitated. This is the standard condition of the working man, who must provide for a wife who most likely will stay at home after childbirth, not because of her own preferences, but because of a system that disinherits women of equal opportunities in the workplace. So, too, must money be provided for the future of a child whose career depends on being able to enter and graduate from a decent university - one which costs a fortune which can only be provided by the hard-working head of the household.
 This is the reality of day-to-day life in Japan - what I like to call the "High Price of Living."

There are those, of course, who live outside of the system. Very few of the friends I've made here are part of it, in truth. There are those who choose to work by their own means, and provide for themselves instead of under the umbrella of a company - which, in itself, is fine too. But I personally can't get myself to look away from the road ahead of me. I don't want to find myself down the road, unable to put my future children through college, and forcing them to live a life outside of the norms established by Japanese society. If they make the choice to live that way, that's entirely fine and up to them.
But what's important is that they have that choice. It's downright terrifying for me to picture a scenario in which I'm raising kids who go grow up alongside friends they make, making it through elementary, middle, and high school, and then suddenly reaching a roadblock and being unable to continue their education with said friends - and all because I'm unable to provide. So that's out of the question.

 Where I stand now, I still have a choice, though. Being a Canadian national is a wildcard. I can return to Quebec province and start a family there. I can pursue my own education easily. Hell, with the current tuition fees, I could put a kid through school with the money I have saved up now. And I'll never work a single uncompensated hour. I can work a 9 to 5 job and come home to a family. I can take holidays and come back to smiling workmates.
 But I have to get started now.
 I love Tokyo. I profoundly, from the deepest part of my heart, think that this is the best city in the world. But I have to go, and it breaks my heart to say that these carefree times are coming to an end, and I must head forward into real adulthood.
 So on August 31st, it's good bye, Tokyo.

Brief Note: Another Day, Another Dollar

What's going on?

It's been a tiring past few days, but I've been promoted at the company! Although at this point in time I had already been showing newbies the ropes, I'm now officially in charge of training newcomers to the company! It's a big step and one I'm quite happy with, but I haven't forgotten to update the blog and I'm eager to try some more new, cool things in and around Tokyo.
 One word: paragliding!

Zauo - Fishing Made Easier

I can't say I'm much of an angler, or that I ever tried to be. Though I can't pride myself on having catch the biggest fish of my group of friends, I could probably say that I once caught the smallest? It doesn't make for a boast-worthy statement, whatever the case. Never the less, I do enjoy fishing! And, the good news is, if you suck at it like I do, and want to experience the triumph of eating what you catch, well then there's Zauo.

It's actually a lot like apple bobbing.

 The idea is as simple as it is brilliant - an indoor fishing spot combined with a restaurant. And it's doing so good that they've recently opened a third branch. Entering Zauo is a little enchanting, really, and the mere act of walking through the different fishing spots as you're lead to your seat is oddly exciting. As soon as you're seated, you're given the option of what you want to fish for (if you want to fish at all.) You pick, you're given a fishing rod, and lead to the appropriate part of the restaurant. And you fish until you catch what it is you wanted. The Meguro branch Ty and Bryan (who's back for a visit) and I visited had horse mackerel, sea bream, flounder, lobster, and shellfish.

Since you can very easily see your fish swimming around the bottom of the tank, and since there's like 10 of them per square meter, it's not all that much of a challenge to pull one out, so much as it is about finding one that's hungry enough to take the bait.

 After catching our own two sea bream, which I was no help in at all, we were even given the choice as to how it would be cooked for us. The choices are numerous - sushi, sashimi, fried, steamed, in a soup, and the list goes on and on. The sashimi option, I'd say, isn't really for the squeamish, since it's given back to you still alive and struggling, but with the rest of the meat laid out on the plate for you. Between two sea breams and a serving of rice each, we were quite full though, and they even served us the remaining bones in a tasty miso soup.

Our choices!

 Zauo, in the end, was lots of fun, and worth every bit of hype I had heard about it! Though not exactly cheap, I'd think it would be kind of difficult not to have a good time here. I sure as hell did!

Rabbit Cafes - They Have That, Too

This shop sign really says it all.

I don't know much about rabbits, but for the facts that they're generally rumored to be unfriendly pets and that they're lagomorphs rather than rodents. Incidentally, that probably means I know a little more than the average person, but none the less, that doesn't leave me with much. But hey, I was willing to make a change and learn a thing or two, and so I visited a rabbit cafe for the first time on Saturday. Yes, it appears that rabbit cafes exist on top of cat cafes and owl cafes and penguin bars. This particular one was called Ra.a.g.f, which is quite difficult to read, and was located in Harajuku, but they seem to also have a branch in...Jiyugaoka, was it?
 Anyway, I went there.

 At a glance, Ra.a.g.f was suspiciously small, as if it were actually a one-room apartment turned into a cafe. It turns out Ra.a.g.f actually is a one-room apartment turned into a cafe. The business seemed to be doing rather good though, as I was unable to enter without a reservation at first, and told to come back after an hour, which I did. At first I wondered why such a healthy looking venture operated in such a tiny venue. But it turns out there's might be a reason for that, and I'll get back to that later.

 If you like rabbits, well, you'll find rabbits here. Ra.a.g.f (it's kind of annoying to write as well) has a solid dozen of the little critters, and you're allowed to pet them at will, or hold them if you ask nice enough. All the rabbits even seem to be different breeds, with one of them being particularly huge and twice the size of the other rabbits. They also let one rabbit at a time run loose in the common room, and as it turns out, the rabbits I had a chance to interact with were rather carefree and seemed to approach people without much of a second thought. The reason they only let one rabbit out at a time, I learned, is because two rabbits of the same gender are likely to fight, and two of the opposite gender are likely to mate. Fair enough, then.

Poop Machine is the only name you get.

But also, rabbits poop a lot. Unlike cats, they seem to poop indiscriminately of where they are or what they're doing, which might explain why they keep the venue small, lest they lose some of the poop. Even though they appeared to have a pooping zone, I'd say that they pooped there about 25% of the time, and that's pretty generous. And it's as much as staff can handle to pick up after the poop of a single rabbit, let alone several. And they throw it into the pooping zone, which might mislead you to think the rabbits actually poop there a lot. So if it disturbs you to sit on a spot where a rabbit might have pooped a few minutes prior to you coming in, then maybe avoid Ra.a.g.f? But rabbit poop is actually odorless and, from what I heard, edible for humans (and a recommended meal in case of a survival situation.)
 So yeah, go to Ra.a.g.f, chill with rabbits, chill with rabbit poop, eat rabbit poop,  get kicked out for eating rabbit poop, do what you like there!

Crazy Good Times at Alcatraz ER

I've been away! My birthday was an unexpected blur of time off, relaxation in the countryside, good food, and then suddenly karaoke bars, regular bars, and singing and screaming and laughing. I feel like I've been around the city and back without much of a time to just sit in my familiar chair, but it's been a great ride. On top of just my close friends, I was even brought out to celebrate by my coworkers, at the venue of my choice. Well then, though I, if we're going to spend some time going crazy, we'll need an equally crazy venue. Alcatraz ER in Shibuya came to mind rather fast.

No, I didn't feel like being normal on this picture either.

 The izakaya Alcatraz is nowhere as somber as the place it draws its name from. In truth, it wasn't the first time I had gone - I had also been there for some food and drinks when my brother came around some two years ago. I regretted not having documented it, because it really had been quite a blast. I didn't miss this second chance.
 As you might have guessed, Alcatraz ER is an izakaya with a theme, which, this time around, is asylum. You might recall I've visited a jail-themed restaurant named The Lock-Up in the past. Let's just say the two establishments probably face serious competition in one another.

  But what Alcatraz does right over its competition is the way the staff are 100% dedicated to making the experience memorable. And I don't mean that they're all super-serious about the theme, but rather, working at Alcatraz ER seems to be a riot. The waitresses are sharp-tongued; they'll tell you that whatever you don't eat gets shoved up your ass. If you order tequila, it comes with a slap to the face. If they get bored, they'll start throwing plastic severed heads at the doors of your "cell." It's all great fun if you don't mind a joke or two at your expense.
 And of course, Alcatraz has its own share of fun drinks, and really, there are all kinds. A nursing bottle that the waitress will personally feed you. A "blood" drink poured into your cup or straight into your mouth by a syringe. A drink stirred by a dildo. Yeah, it's pretty crude, but it'll liven up the party like nothing else.

 I actually think I enjoyed Alcatraz over the Lock-Up, but once again, the true decisive factor of how much you'll enjoy it lies in the company you bring, and how much fun you're willing to bring to the place yourself.