The Great Disappointment

Really, I don't want to spend too much time on this story, but hell, I guess it's worth a mention. After careful planning, four of the Adventure Friends team I assembled and I boarded a bus to Matsumoto city, where we were bound for an abandoned school for North Koreans. For many amongst the them, it was supposed to be their first step into the crazy world of urban exploration.

Familiar faces and new - Erika, Agha, Millo and Christina are four of the Adventure Friends.

This "land for sale" sign was all that remained.

 But our lead turned out to be a dud. That's right - after a three hour bus ride to Matsumoto, we walked a half hour only to realize that the place had been demolished. What a letdown! Especially considering the round trip was 6100¥. Yikes. In my own defense though, the place had been abandoned and stood where it was since 1998. Satellite pictures on Google Maps still had it standing where it was. We must have missed it by a hair.
So the rest of that night, the Adventure Friends and I wandered around the city and ended up in a karaoke joint for a few hours until we boarded our bus back to Tokyo. It was fun, just not 6100¥ fun. Still, I have lots in mind for the group I created. They're all awesome people, so in time we'll head out again and have ourselves a real adventure.

Milestone: 3½ Years

 Not a particularly eventful last three months, but there've been a few cool happenings. Seeing as I'm leaving Japan on the 31st of August, this is the penultimate milestone. I've quite a few things I want to get done until then, so I've created the Adventure Friends corps to see me through. You can compare with my other Milestones!

 3½Years : Summary

                                                        Status:

 
Job: Children's Fitness Teacher, Pro-Bono Cultural Ambassador
Financial status: Great

City: Tokyo
Ward: Itabashi-ku
Train station: Senkawa
Residing in: Alien Castle, my apartment.




Cast of Characters:

Major Characters: 


Ken Tanaka
Millo, Julian of France
Ty Clark, my fellow mudblood
and the soon to be introduced Adventure Friends!

Minor Characters:

Aala Kansali of Tunisia
Jean-Paul "Papa Lo"  the French Laotian
Nana Takeuchi, the Bawss 
Eri Karasawa, who works a different branch
Erika Mochizuki (and Maxine!) 
Kazue Inoue 

Top Five Highlights:
(since last milestone)

- Fishing Inside a Restaurant
- A Rabbit Cafe
- Party at Alcatraz
- Paragliding For the First Time
- Samurai Archers

Still to Come:
- Final Fantasy: The Cafe
- The Abandoned North Korean Facility
- The Floating Bar
- Oiran-za
- Kagoshima

Yadoroku: Tokyo's Oldest Onigiri Shop

Fun fact: Tokyo's the world's Michelin Star capital. Although I can't say I'm a huge foodie, with some money set aside, it'd definitely be possible to do a huge tour of Tokyo's Michelin Star restaurants. But even in doing so, you would most likely miss out on some of Japan's most beloved dishes.
 Take the onigiri, for example. The humble rice ball is truly one of the foods I'm the most likely to miss once I leave Japan. I can't count the times I've gotten hungry while out and about, stopped by a convenience store to by an onigiri, and ate as I went along my merry way. It's truly a gratifying thing to be able to do.

  Though shops that specialize in onigiri are not exactly common, I decided to drop by the capital's oldest one, being that I happened to be in the area for the yabusame tournament. Yadoroku, as the shop is named, is a humble store, run only by one man. As I entered, I marveled at the minimalistic interior. Most of the seats were lined up by the counter, where the ingredients were on display. I later found out that these ingredients were all of excellent quality. The cod roe, for example, was brought in all the way from the northernmost island of Japan, Hokkaido.

 The shop owner was quite jovial and made pleasant conversation about just about anything, daydreaming out loud about wanting to serve customers by doing backflips and throwing rice balls straight into their mouths. But the nicest thing was that as he did so, he prepared the rice balls before my eyes. It's almost needless to say at this point, but they were delicious and warm, and so was the dark miso soup that came with the set. With such good atmosphere and pleasant food, it's hard for me not to recommend Yadoroku to others.

 Although Yadoroku isn't quite the place you would want to eat at for a big meal, it's perfect for picking up a snack and strolling into Asakusa. As an added bonus, the place stays open until 2 in the morning. I'm not quite sure when exactly the owner gets sleep.

The Samurai Archers of the Yabusame Tournament

 Today, I attended Asakusa's annual yabusame tournament!  As far as sport goes, Yabusame is pretty god damn difficult. Its practitioners are few, and it isn't quite what one could call a rising trend. But man, is it epic.

 For the uninitiated, Yabusame is traditional Japanese horseback archery. The practitioners must sit atop a horse, set the horse to a full gallop, and shoot at targets as they speed by. As you've probably guessed, it's a sport that requires extreme precision, not only because you're shooting while moving, but because holding a bow with two hands means you're letting go of the reins and sitting upright - and if you've ever ridden a horse, you might have a better idea of how incredibly difficult that is in and of itself.
  

Yabusame is rooted in centuries-old tradition, dating back to Japan's feudal era. It is considered to be a weapon-based martial art, meaning the philosophy behind the sport is just as important as technique. But contrary to most martial arts, where practitioners are often made to wear humble, loose-fitting clothes (which is even true of kyuudo, Japanese archery,) Yabusame practitioners are dressed in full traditional garm. The dress code reflects the fact that the original practitioners were noblemen. No detail is left out: asides from the fancy hat, some of the archers also ride with clothes of deer pelt, and all of them have a short sword attached to their hips. It's quite meticulous.
 Explanations aside, though, watching the tournament take place was quite gratifying.

Archers came in from different regions of Japan - even from the tiny Ogasawara islands, whose archers were reputed to be most accurate. Still pictures do no justice to the speed and precision of the archers, who load, aim, and shoot in the blink of an eye. The targets themselves were pretty close to the track which the horses ran along  - but whether this makes things easier or harder is questionable, too, and each archer had three shots to make on each run. All together, it was an impressive display. There was even an English-speaking commentator on spot, explaining the origins and rules of the sport.

 If anything, though, I regretted not having had access to a better spot. The annual tournament takes place alongside the Sumida River, and the places fill up quite rapidly. Had I known anything about how entertaining yabusame actually was, I might've gone through the trouble and paid the extra buck for reserving myself a spot. Standing along the fences, while costless, unfortunately makes it quite difficult to see the major part of the action, and I was glad I even managed to get the pictures I did.
 But my favorite thing about yabusame? The way the archers shout battle cries as they race by their targets. Talk about amazing.

Brief Note: Adventure Friends!

I've set up a Facebook group to let friends of mine know in advance when I'm about to head somewhere or do something interesting. If you've been invited to the group, rejoice! But if not, let me know and I'll see about adding you in. Adventure Friends, ahoy!

Capcom - The Bar

Though it may or may not surprise you at all, it turns out that video game companies in Japan get to have their own bar. If you're savvy at all about video game company names, Square-Enix has one, and Capcom has one. Though it would bewilder me any where else in the world, this is Japan, after all. For once in a rare while, though, I was the one dragged along, by Millo and a few of his friends. I gladly partook in the outing to the Capcom Bar.
 Again, this will mean very little to people who aren't at all video game aficionados, but for the initiated yet uninformed, Capcom is the company behind some of gaming's most iconic franchises, including, but not limited to, Street Fighter, Resident Evil (or Biohazard locally), Ace Attorney and Monster Hunter - a lot of which have their own movies (Hollywood or not.) It's one of the leading powerhouses when it comes to releasing high profile games, and has been for over two decades now.

 Does the bar itself measure up to the standard of the video games it draws customers from?
 Well, the short answer is, that depends how much you like Capcom.

Our drinks, and Millo's awkwardly placed face.

 Like many a themed food establishment I have been to before it, the Capcom Bar relies mostly on decoration props and menu items vaguely similar to the theme it's trying to sell. It's amusing, for example, to have a drink based on Dante, the two-gun-wielding demon-hunter, come with gun-shaped ice cubes inside. Some of the items on the menu are very clever, whereas others are a little, well, dumb. We scratched our head at the Devil May Cry based pizza, which, by all means was nothing but an ordinary pizza with the letters DMC on it. What was pretty cool, though, was that some menu items came delivered in special ways when ordered. A short fanfare music would play audibly in the whole venue when anyone would order a Monster Hunter food item, and the waiters would quote the game out loud. On that though, I also thought it was pretty cool that the staff all seemed like they genuinely enjoyed video games and knew a thing or two.

There are quite a few video game references hidden inside this picture here.

That aside, the other appealing point of the Capcom Bar was that each table came with its own television, console, and a single game. Our table happened to be the Sengoku Basara table - a game I knew nothing about. Still, it's pretty legitimate to be to able to just come in, get your food, and play your favorite game at your table with your friends. Provided that you get the table you want, of course. I guess you can't be too picky.
 Now apparently, the bar also does to small shows, though we didn't get to see any. I can't imagine they'd be anything elaborate, given the relatively small size of the place. But we did get to stick around until closing time, and it appeared that the bar ritually gives out free merchandise to one lucky customer a day, with a random draw. None of us happened to be that lucky customer, but the prize appeared to be just a handful of small things - key chains, stickers, and the like. Winner or not, though, you do get a video game character-themed coaster upon leaving, which I guess is pretty cool.
 That pretty much summed up my visit! So really, go if you're a fan of the brand, and don't if you aren't. Not that you would've in that case, but that's pretty much the extent to which I can recommend the Capcom Bar, which by no means was a bad experience either.

Paragliding!

It was a long time coming. I think the first time I had even mentioned paragliding in Japan might have been last Summer. On the 6th of April, I left Tokyo on a bus towards Mt Fuji, heart in my hands. It was lucky enough that I had even managed to find this place on the internet - paragliding, as you may or may not have guessed, isn't a very popular thing to do amongst the foreign community here. Or even the locals that much. But the plan was to take the Tokyo - Mt Fuji bus for 9:40, get there at 11:30, take a connecting bus at 11:40, and get to the paragliding base by 1:00.
 Except my bus arrived late, I didn't make the connecting bus, and the next one was at 3:00. The paragliding trip I had planned and reserved for was dead on arrival. A little upset, but mostly annoyed at the wasted trip, I called Sky Asagiri, the paragliding company, and explained my situation. "Alright," the lady on the other end of the line answered.
"Well, we'll still do the jump when you get here."

 Now, hold on, hold on. I know this all sounds like boring anecdote. But I couldn't believe what came next. Ten minutes later, I receive a call from them back. "Actually, we'll come pick you up. Just stay at the station. The drive's a half hour, so just don't go too far." Man, that made my day. Plus, I got to save 1400¥ on the bus fare.
 The instructor they sent to pick me up was Yamazaki-san, a man in his early 40's most likely, and extremely friendly. We chatted it up all the way to the base of a mountain and picked up the paragliding equipment before making our way to the top.

The jump site!

And the spot itself could hardly have been more scenic - forested hills with great pines, an open space at the base of the mountain for landing, and, looming ahead in the horizon, Mt Fuji itself, it's head crowned by clouds. I got strapped in.
 "Run, don't jump." I was told. "Just run off the cliff side nice and straight." I did as told.  Before I even reached the edge of the precipice, my feet left the ground, and I was flying. Paragliding didn't have the same effect on me as bungee jumping, contrary to what I expected. Whereas the bungee jump pumped my brain full of natural chemicals as the ground rushed to meet my face, paragliding was almost dream like. I felt weightlessness, like nothing I was strapped to was even there. I couldn't feel the parachute or the weight of the harness or Yamazaki-san behind me. It was just trees some three dozen meters under my feet, and Mount Fuji straight ahead. I couldn't help but laugh. The whole thing was surreal. "This wind feels amazing," I said.


 "Actually, we're traveling at 30 km/h. It's really just our speed. Here, take the reins!" And he gave me the reins. And I piloted us for a while, under Yamazaki's advice. "You probably like roller coasters, huh?" he said, as I handed him back the controls. "Here, then!" And then we started spiraling down in a mad downwards corkscrew. But at this point, there was nothing that could be done to make me fall out of love with paragliding. I loved that too.

 Our whole descent was around ten to twelve minutes long. Some unlucky bastards only get three minutes or so, but apparently the wind was good. And though the landing was a little rough, we made it down in one piece.
 After that, I had 30 minutes to kill. It turned out Yamazaki and I really got along well, and he didn't mind walking around the area with me until my bus arrived. We took it really easy and went around looking for fallen deer antlers. I was amazed at how friendly he was, even though I don't make for very interesting conversation in my basic Japanese.
 All in all, my paragliding experience really couldn't have been much better. Sure, there weren't any cherry blossoms in the area as I had first hoped,  but the folks at Sky Asagiri were remarkably friendly people, and I feel like I came out of all this having experienced something very few people get to do in their lives.

Interesting Tidbits: The App That Took Japan By Storm

Chances are you've never heard of Line if you've never traveled to Japan. Personally, I don't even have own a smart phone, so all of this is pretty much irrelevant to me - but you can expect a little bit of dismay from the locals if you tell them you don't have Line.

A Line sticker pack.

 Simply put, Line's an instant messaging application for the most part, though it also allows users to exchange photos, video, and conduct voice conversations and conference messaging too. In a nutshell, it's very similar to Skype. But what Line brought to the messaging applications scene was "stickers" - allowing users to express their emotions through original or existing character sticker sets that are easily downloadable for free or at a cost. You could, for example, download a Sponge Bob set or whatnot. And though emoticons have existed since the dawn of freaking time, stickers, which function in the exact same way, allowed for more personalized messages.

From the Line Shop. I kind of stand out from these guys.

As a matter of fact, on the grand scheme of things, Line's popularity sort of exploded over night and its growth became exponential. And though that's sort of where things are on the smartphone app development side, Line's kind of reached a whole other level. Not only do Line's original characters now have their own iOS game, but Line now has its own store in Harajuku. I dropped by to have a look, and it seems to be doing well on top of that! Just think about that for a second. How the hell did a communications application get to the point where it now manages to sell physical good? If you were to open a Skype shop, what would you even sell in it? Well, given the nature of Line and its mass appeal, it kind of figures that it would manage to market its characters using only the power of its brand. And I still can't quite wrap my head around an app turning into a brand. But it's happening.
 Does Line have a chance in the world outside of Japan? There are probably people who have a better idea of that than I do, but apparently, people are hearing of it in Korea and China, so who knows. But I do wonder if I'll ever encounter it in North America, be in this Summer when I return, or in the years to come.