Like Osaka!!! but wider streets and cleaner. at least at 6 in the a.m. yah for bus drivers that get us places an hour and a half early. (seriously, it`s appreciated!!! and the buses were much more accomidating than greyhound. but no independent lights. what`s with that!?!)
and now we`re in an internet/manga/anime/dvd place/thing/cafe. in...ELECTRIC TOWN!!! the officially sanctioned segregation of geeks, nerds, otaku, and freaks into their own little safe haven from the rest of...well, the world. one could literally stay here all day. computer, tv, manga, anime, shower (yes, shower, which i might use in a bit, bus rides make me stinky), bathrooms, food, drink, alcohol (yes, i just...uh...wrote alcohol...it`s widely available in japan, usually without carding), and one can even sleep in the computer...cubicle...room...box...thingie. in fact, i think i heard someone snoring early. seriously! snoring! how impolite. oh yah, and it`s open 24 hours. i guess you could live here. (we got the 3 hour pack for 1000 yen. there are much larger packs, but i don`t know for how long or if you have to use them all at once. i shudder to think.) oh, and on line games. as if ever-crack at home werent bad enough.
now, i`m not getting down on anyone (well, maybe the ever-crack people who take it too far...jesus, stop talking about orcs!!! we`re in a bar!!!), just expressing amazement. and thinking about how it would be to live in one of these fancy kinds of places. hirakata has something similar, but they also have pingpong (which is when i found out that fumiko not only likes it, but was part of the pingpong club in high school...who knew?), billards (don`t say pool, they think you want to go swimming, which, by the way, they DONT have), kareoke, darts, and...everything else is the same. creeeeeeeeeeeeepy!!!
uhh...let`s see. the trains in tokyo also have these cute, yet slightly intimidating TV`s above all the doors. in addition to the trains talking to you. i guess they`re really worried about people getting lost. two tvs...one that`s really nice and tells you where you are, where you`re going and where you were. (and it`s got english and pretty green maps.) and the other is scary and tries to make you buy stuff. at least it was for Final Fantasy 12. (it`s a pretty video game! i like pretty.)
now that i think about, tokyo is more what i imagined when i thought about japan, in terms of hyper-realistic, technologically advanced, almost fictious world. osaka is like the real world, tokyo is where everyone goes to escape the real world. which explains alot about japan, i think. and visual kei. (i should try to put that in my project/report somewhere.)
but the toilets were normal. i was slightly disappointed by that. though the water-squirty things are scary. (what are they called...i forget...) but here`s an almost true story about someone else`s experience with japanese toilets...
A Word about Japanese Bathrooms
A word about bathrooms.This is intended to be HUMOR, but it's all undistorted fact as well.Generally, you'll find an 80/20 mix of Western seat toilet / Japanese trough toilet, in public areas. In the countryside and in peoples' homes, this figure drops RAPIDLY to 50/50. You are expected to carry a small packet of tissues (for nose and for butt-wiping). There's absolutely no guarantee that a moderately new building, excepting private homes, will have toilet paper in its public toilets. Almost all new construction has Western-style toilets, but you should learn to cope with the trough-style. You may even find, in the countryside, that toilets are not connected to water, or even a pipe below the glory-hole. There may simply be a flap that leads to god-knows-what.On how to DEAL with a Japanese trough-style toilet, I defer you to the other guys. I've never successfully negotiated one. Generally, I end up removing my pants entirely, not knowing where or how to stand, and making an embarrassing number of splattered "miss-marks", as though I were throwing snowballs at a fencepost.As far as I know, you're supposed to pull your trousers down to your knees, then squat as low as possible in the stance best described as "baseball catcher waitin' for a ball". If, like me, your Western knees aren't used to bending that low or getting up smoothly from that posture, then... well... you're outta luck.
Happily, there's an opposite extreme that's a little life-threatening, but really exciting. Like riding a roller-coaster with a nervous tiger.The standard Japanese "Western-style" toilet has 2 fantastic improvements on the classic American design. First, there's a "big flush/little flush" setting on the handle. Turn the handle 1 way to get a big flush, and the other way to get a little flush. This makes SO much sense, I can't understand why it hasn't been adopeted worldwide.The other standard improvement is the HAND WASH-BASIN above the watertank. Think about it: When you flush, the water tank empties. It then refills with PURE CLEAN WATER, and waits for the next flush. The rafts swimming in the toilet don't care that they're being swept away by good, pure water. What a WASTE ! Then, Americans go to rinse their hands in the BATHROOM SINK, the same place they wash their hair and brush their teeth. Think about the residue on that sink. Are you getting the creepy-crawlies yet ? Y'never really thought about it that way, didja ? A Japanese toilet comes standard with a FAUCET over the water tank, so you can rinse your hands without touching a handle, and the water you use to rinse your hands falls directly into the water-tank, to wait for the next flush. Instant recycling, and your hands touch nothing before they get thrust under the clean water. Good karma !Now, we enter the exciting world of electricity. Modern public bathrooms come equipped with infra-red sensors, so when you leave the "work area", you don't need to touch a dirty handle. The flushing is triggered automatically by your departure. Good !
Going overboard:OK, now we leave the realm of positive creativity, and enter the nation of the mad scientist. Japan, in a startling contrast to other prejudices which AREN'T true, is in LOVE with electronic gadgets. In the washroom, this love has reached life-threatening levels. Do you remember the old Star Trek captain, James T. Kirk ? Remember that cool chair he sat in, with all the gadgets and buttons on the arm ? Now think about all the cold Winter nights, when you had to sit on a cold toilet seat. If a mad scientist ran a wire through that cold ring-shaped seat, it'd warm up like a toaster. Hot buns ! Yeahhhh, baby !Errr.... water and electricity don't mix. At least, not without electrocuting someone. In a toilet seat, we're looking at the large posibility that someone could be a little inaccurate, resulting in household voltages passing through their most tender bodyparts. I've heard that some dictatorships, and Bush on his off days, employ this kind of torture to subdue their prisoners.Think about that Captain Kirk chair again. It has all those cool buttons. A toilet seat has none. Except in... JAPAN ! *austin powers voice ON*Yeah, baby ! They put the GRRRR in electGRRRRRicity !*austin powers voice off* A typical $800 electric toilet seat in Japan comes standard with buttons for warming the seat, flushing the toilet, and farious heights and angles for "refreshing bidet fountains" which rinse your buns & most private portions. These geysers are alarmingly high, near-to-electric-power-lines. If you're unlucky like me, you'll wonder what each of the buttons is for, fumble while you look for the clock-radio, and then wonder if you've been attacked by a mad, spitting fish.Welcome to Japan. Don't push any buttons, and be careful where you ...sit.
sorry, i just reread that and laughed until i cried. i dont press the buttons...but pretty much everything else is true. though i have figured out how to use japanese style toilets...though i still avoid them. i`m not sure why, but they`re kinda scary.
okay, that`s it...have a nice day! i`ll tell you more about tokyo when more happens. i think we`re gonna go to harajuku or shibuya today. maybe both.
p. diddily-d!
