Back from Japan

Got back from Japan the day before last, and although I thought I was over Jet lag it appears I am not. As my extra early wakefulness is due to Japan, it is appropriate that I write something about Japan, namely some trip details, during it.

I went to Japan on last minute notice, where by last minute I mean I booked my flight a week before it departed. My primary reason for going was to force myself to do things that I felt like saying no to as a friend had just recently asked me if I wanted to join him on his journey. I met up with the so called friend and another friend in the airport at Vancouver before connecting to Tokyo--where we would meet up with a Japanase friend that was hosting us.

The trip was meant to be more of relaxing than tourist, with plenty of skateboarding and casual sightseeing. Tokyo harbours some crazy skate spots, plenty of marble ledges and crazy rails. Everywhere we went we saw flatbars that were potentially skateable. We did end up skating quite a bit, some parks and several street spots, but it turned out that transportation from our resident Tokyo satellite to the scattered Tokyo spots limited the number of spots we could hit. The skateboarders in Japan were super fun to skate with; always good vibes, and they would always be stoked on tricks landed. The skaters all had crazy pop.

Skateboarding aside, much of the trip, at least from my perspective, was lived with a beer in hand: beer while walking, shopping, driving in cars, or riding the trains. Not because I am a heavy drinker, but because it was acceptable (or was it) and available. I arrived in Japan a recent vegetarian, with hopes of sticking to my eating habits. This turned out to be rather difficult, as most dishes had meat in them and a translator was not always on hand during ordering to decode the menus or make special requests. The food, restaurant or convenience store, was pretty much always good. Once I overcame the meat eating aspect, I started to enjoy the seafood as well--something I hadn't been a fan of in the past. Before going, others told me how they missed even the convenience store food; I now understand what they meant.

Of course, many aspects of life appeared to be the same in Tokyo as they are in Canada. Besides the long commute from the Tokyo suberb we stayed at (1 hour by train), the other main things had to be never ending little technological advances such as their toilets, mechanical sushi vendors at restaurants, and coffee vending machines with video display of the coffee being made. Public toilets rarely had soap. Smoking is still acceptable in restaurants, so I smoked. Drink vending machines are everywhere, and they contain cold coffee lattes--I drank several of these daily. Hot brewed coffee is harder to come by than a cold latte (from a vending machine); a grande cup of hot from Starbucks is about 400 yen (roughly $4CAN), where strangely a specialty latte was not too much more. Things like pizza and fries were also fairly expensive. Transit was also fairly expensive, our daily train commute costing upwards of $10 one way (car travel was even worse due to highway tolls). All these little things aside, one of the most notable differences was the overall tolerance of the Japanese people. Even when someone getting cut off by another driver (or bike, or person), they didn't seem to get frustrated or upset like they would have here in North America. Another testament to Japan is how safe you feel there. How could it be any other way, when you can leave your bike without locking it and know it will be there when you return.

Japan was great, the people are nice, the food is good, and there is cold coffee everywhere. I'm happy that we didn't completely do the tourist thing on this trip, as it gives me another good reason to return to Japan. Also, my camera broke in a sake induced drunken bike ride, so I'll have to return just to take the pictures I would have taken.