Wow, the days are beginning to escape me! Later in the day Tuesday, we spent the evening in Ame-mura, or "American Village." We didn't find patriotic t-shirts or anything there, but what we did find was a slice of youth cuture. There were lots of trendy shops and a pretty awesome Used Kids-esque record store. The prices at the store were, well, pricey, but I managed to find a sale rack of 7" records. For 300 yen (less than $3) we picked up 10 singles in all. Rad. Dinner found us at a nearby Subway restaurant (I wasn't foolin' about Kyle being desparate for American food), and then we made our way home. (An aside: I can't imagine how many miles we've walked on this trip, but "a shit-ton" seems to be a fair description. Good thing, as my main food of late has been chocolate and egg-salad sandwiches.)
Once we got back to our hotel, we checked the selection of free videos we could borrow from extensive selection of B-movie options and started on the evening's featured film: Ghost Dad. It was not as good as you remember, even if you remember that the critics ranked it "top" in their lists of the worst movies of 1990, as the IMDB later revealed.
Wednesday, we went for a ride on what is billed (depending on which sign you read) as either The Biggest or One of the Biggest Ferris Wheels in the World. While I sort of doubt its claims of world supremacy, it was pretty freakin' tall -- enough to make me feel sort of shaky, even though the cars were enclosed in glass. The ride was sort of deserted -- I think we were the only ones on the daggone thing, although business appeared to be picking up as we were leaving.
Afterward, we went to gaze in the windows of Greens, a vegetarian restaurant Mike said was likely closed, since Wednesdays are a typical day off for many businesses. I insisted on torturing myself by checking it out, though, and I was rewarded for my efforts -- the place was open, and for less than 800 yen, we could have a vegetarian buffet! It was rad, as I have really been hurting for veggies on this trip (as Colleen said when we were in Kyoto, "I'm tired of eating shit food!" i.e. the fast-food and convenience store food we all started eating sometime after spending $50 per couple for small plates of Mexican food, which is a rare find in Japan. But I digress.)
Ah ... so, at Greens, we found fresh, non-iceburg lettuce salad, pasta with beans, delicious bread and rice -- heaven. Then we headed back to our hotel, where in the lobby, they were watching Ghost Dad. For reals. Maybe now is a good time for a word about this hotel. Apparently this and other hotels in the region used to cater to day-laborers, but since the economy here has soured, they started reaching out to 20-something travelers. The price for a room is beyond-reasonable for a U.S. hotel, nevermind a Japanese place -- it is costing us about 3,000 yen a night apiece, and includes free internet and coffee, free videos, air-conditioned rooms with VCRs and mini-fridges ... in all, pretty amazing. And this place isn't even the cheapest spot around -- next door, a room can be rented for 1,500 yen for rooms on the lower level (less than $15) down to 1,000 yen at the top (we're guessing there aren't any elevators in the five-story building). Anyhoo, we have what appears to be some day-laborers here, but mostly foreigners, a pretty even number of whom are traveling or are in search of work. For those who are looking for work, this place becomes like a dorm, I think, and many of them hang out in the lobby all the time -- hence, the Ghost Dad incident. We're going to see later if we can repeat the phenomenon, although last night's flick pick, Airheads, would probably be even more challenging to convince people to watch.
So far today, Thursday, we've done some more wandering around department stores and through the city's streets. There's some good people-watching here, for sure, and checking out all the Engrish is pretty fun, too. I think I should be able to post some more pictures in a bit.
(Oh, and there are more new pics on the Flickr page)
Once we got back to our hotel, we checked the selection of free videos we could borrow from extensive selection of B-movie options and started on the evening's featured film: Ghost Dad. It was not as good as you remember, even if you remember that the critics ranked it "top" in their lists of the worst movies of 1990, as the IMDB later revealed.
Wednesday, we went for a ride on what is billed (depending on which sign you read) as either The Biggest or One of the Biggest Ferris Wheels in the World. While I sort of doubt its claims of world supremacy, it was pretty freakin' tall -- enough to make me feel sort of shaky, even though the cars were enclosed in glass. The ride was sort of deserted -- I think we were the only ones on the daggone thing, although business appeared to be picking up as we were leaving.
Afterward, we went to gaze in the windows of Greens, a vegetarian restaurant Mike said was likely closed, since Wednesdays are a typical day off for many businesses. I insisted on torturing myself by checking it out, though, and I was rewarded for my efforts -- the place was open, and for less than 800 yen, we could have a vegetarian buffet! It was rad, as I have really been hurting for veggies on this trip (as Colleen said when we were in Kyoto, "I'm tired of eating shit food!" i.e. the fast-food and convenience store food we all started eating sometime after spending $50 per couple for small plates of Mexican food, which is a rare find in Japan. But I digress.)
Ah ... so, at Greens, we found fresh, non-iceburg lettuce salad, pasta with beans, delicious bread and rice -- heaven. Then we headed back to our hotel, where in the lobby, they were watching Ghost Dad. For reals. Maybe now is a good time for a word about this hotel. Apparently this and other hotels in the region used to cater to day-laborers, but since the economy here has soured, they started reaching out to 20-something travelers. The price for a room is beyond-reasonable for a U.S. hotel, nevermind a Japanese place -- it is costing us about 3,000 yen a night apiece, and includes free internet and coffee, free videos, air-conditioned rooms with VCRs and mini-fridges ... in all, pretty amazing. And this place isn't even the cheapest spot around -- next door, a room can be rented for 1,500 yen for rooms on the lower level (less than $15) down to 1,000 yen at the top (we're guessing there aren't any elevators in the five-story building). Anyhoo, we have what appears to be some day-laborers here, but mostly foreigners, a pretty even number of whom are traveling or are in search of work. For those who are looking for work, this place becomes like a dorm, I think, and many of them hang out in the lobby all the time -- hence, the Ghost Dad incident. We're going to see later if we can repeat the phenomenon, although last night's flick pick, Airheads, would probably be even more challenging to convince people to watch.
So far today, Thursday, we've done some more wandering around department stores and through the city's streets. There's some good people-watching here, for sure, and checking out all the Engrish is pretty fun, too. I think I should be able to post some more pictures in a bit.
(Oh, and there are more new pics on the Flickr page)
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1 comment:
Jen & Kyle,
Nice photos & descriptions. The ferris wheel looks very beautiful & scarey. I bet that ride will stick in both of your memories forever. Get it.
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