my burogu

How it's going, like.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Weekend in Tokyo

How do?

So I went to Tokyo at the weekend. The main reason was to watch the Grand sumo tournament, but needless to say other events were shackled on to both sides of the sumo.

Friday


I caught the train down after work using the wonderful senshun jyuhachi kippu - or youth 18 ticket in English. It's a ticket that let's you travel anywhere in Japan on the local trains for one calender day at a price of 2375Yen (about a tenner in English money) - Bargain. Kayo leaves work later than me, and I was on a mission to check out some of the
cool record shops in Shibuya.
They were delightful and I spent a couple of hours listening to tunes and wishing I had a record deck here in Japan. In the end I settled for a couple of cds Four Tet's DJ Kicks and The Loleatta Holloway Anthology.
I spent most of my time in Manhattan records - great shop, and then Kayo was late so I wandered into the Massive HMV and browsed their wonderful floor of dance music.
Not only are the record shops all stocked full of wonderful music but they're all open until 23:00 or midnight. Respect!

Next I met Kayo and we went to an a wicked izakaya to meet her sister (Nao) and friends. Had a delightful night drinking and eating. It wasn't a good night for my Japanese practice, though since all of Nao's friends spoke much better English than I do Japanese. One of the 1st conversations of the night was about the Japanese music scene - Gazoisan was suggesting that most people in Japan were lazy when it comes to music as they all listen to J-pop rubbish. However, I'd just spent the previous 2 hours in those great record shops so had to argue that it's not quite the case. It's true to an extent, like. J-pop is by far and away the No1 music genre in this country, but they've got some tremendous record shops too. I suppose it's just like England after all.

On the way home from the Izakaya at about 3.30 we called in to an ever so convenient convenience store for the extra unnecessary bottle of headache inducing red wine. O-Yasumi Nasai.

Saturday

So we got up late, had a delightful tandori chicken lunch at a little Indian restaurant in Koenji and then it was off to see fat men in nappies.
On the train to the Sumo, I had the (wonderful?) idea of taking of photo every hour to see how the day progressed. I didn't quite manage to take a photo on the hour every hour - and some of the ones I did take were a bit dull. So here's a general photo blog of our Saturday. The main people featured in the photos are me, Kayo, Tom (my old mate from Nagano) and his girlfriend Hiromi. I'm sure you know who's who.

だから。。。。。A Hungover Kayo on the train to the sumo......

on the way to sumo

We waited outside of the sumo venue and watched some of the wrestlers arrive. Now before the weekend, I must admit that I wasn't really that excited by the sumo. But as soon I arrived their was a fantastic buzz of excitement around the place. There was an old chap stood near us trying to shake the hands of the sumo guys as they walked past - some were happy to oblige - others were stoney faced scary behemoths. Everytime a co-operative wrestler shook his had he had the look of a six year old in toy town. It was very sweet to see such a happy old man. The other thing I must mention is the the smell of their hair wax. Tradition dictates their hair to be styled in a very special knot. The higher up the ranking system you are enables you to have a fancier knot in your hair. They use a special kind if wax to fix it up and it reeks more than one of my my farts. Smelly!

This is us practicing acting like twats before the wrestlers walked by......

renshu

And this is us behaving like twats as the wrestlers walked by......

torimasu

Hiromi (acting?) as the primary school kid....

kancho

And down to the real action.....

bellys

Check out the titties.....

robes

We found this chap as we wandered around the arena. He seemed happy enough posing for photos with everyone despite his steely glare. So the girls plucked up the courage to ask. Did you know the average sumo wrestler weighs about 150-170kg - or about 25-30 stone in old money.

Massive.....

massive

Swanky hotel desu ne.....

hotel

Then it was dinner time in a super cool bar/restaurant in the middle of a book shop in Shibuya. The lovely Mihoko and Hitomi joined us for dinner too
Flash.....

flash

Followed by some more drinks in another super cool bar. Tokyo is definitely very cool. (Unlike Hiromi and me.)
Twattery.....

freaks

Next we toddled off to a fantastic club called womb to see James Lavelle. It was a wicked club - kind of dark like fabric - but a bit more glam with a HUGE mirrorball in the middle of the grimy dancefloor. It also had a fantastic tiny room hdden away on the top floor. They were playing great tunes all night in there. It felt good to be in a PROPER club again. It's been a while.

Womb.....

faces

More dancing.....
dance

and then it was time for the taxi ride home followed by the ultimate way to finish off the day: A beautiful bowl of boiling miso ramen.

Oiishiiii.....
rich miso ramen

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