The Adventures of Vivi and Robrob

TOKYO: Big beats, noodles, and toodles to Tokyo.

vivi_and_robrob — Tue, 12 May 2015 23:11:00 GMT

“Never Give up!” - We found ourselves applying one of our Cupnoodles Museum mantras perhaps flippantly to a long walk home at 5:30am, as the sun rose and kissed our tired faces.

We were on our way back from Rappongi Art Night, a music and art all-nighter, starting at dusk and lasting till dawn. In it’s 5th year now it was excellent to experience the slightly chaotic but entertaining schedule of events, spread out across this vibrant Tokyo district. Interesting as much for the art pieces as it was for the attendees fashion styles, from punk to street to catwalk fashion crashing into ‘Hello Kitty’ sweaters.

We spent a large amount of our time watching a hanging chandelier type light structure above the lake, which was quite faithfully representing a firework display in it’s depths, viewers could choose the displays with their phones apparently, but even without interactivity it was beautiful anyway, we tried to leave a few times but couldn’t, the lights, the lights…

On our journey around we were invited to write a sentence of remembrance for the victims of the 2011 earthquake, eager but slightly under pressure and on the spot, Rob asks a guy nearby for a little help writing his message in the Japanese alphabet. It wasn’t only Japanese the person on the opposite side of the table could speak, it was Welsh too! Counting to ten in Welsh on the other side of the planet with a Cardiff bred Japanese dude, gwych! (ace)

The long walk home followed a J-POP Kraftwerk-esque band who ended their set with a computer controlled crescendo of lasers, face mounted iPads, LED body suits and energetic robot snake like dance moves; the crowd went wild, we were a bit confused but also jumped up and down. A fitting end to a great night.

And so to the Cupnoodles Museum, Yokahoma, who would have known you could leave a dry food snack museum with a renewed belief you really can achieve anything you want in the world, and it’s never too late to try.

Momofuku Ando was 48 when he invented the first instant noodle as we know it, a rollercoaster life of trial and error he had lived, but it was in a small wooden shed in his backyard that he perfected his revolutionary dried noodle method, which was set to take the world by storm. He didn't stop there, and continue to invent he did, finally realising his ultimate dream as NASA added his Space Ramen noodles to their officially inventory in his final years.

A small profound section of the museum explained through an incredibly effective, mechanical scale-model shadow animation show, how, “Rather than a lone cedar, it is better to nurture a whole forest.” In reference to the well weighted reaction to the many ‘instant’ copycat noodles that flooded the marketplace shortly after the invention, and the decision taken not to sue and exercise patent law, but to make Momofuku a governor of the new instant noodle marketplace.

And for this and many reasons, that’s why this museum was great, it was as much about the product and it’s creator, as it was about believing in yourself, and how anyone can have ideas that can be embraced and adopted, and we can use those ideas to change the world, one noodle at a time!

And we got to design our own Cup Noodle.. yey! (Youtube Link...blog embed fail..meeehhh)

On our way to the ghibli museum, OMG OMG OMG.

The Ghibli Museum - An out of town purpose built grass covered hobbit-like building in a lush park, designed by Director Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli and home to a complete insight into this most popular collection of Japanese animated films. (If you haven’t seen any, now would be a great time to go and have a quick look at some trailers, much as we did for extra revision before attending the museum!)

There is no fixed route through the experience to allow for exploring, and we don’t want to give it all away, but we loved the fact that it was a real show-and-tell for the traditional art of animation, something younger generations may miss if not to actually see and hear the whirling spinning reels of a mechanical projector, and the hand painted cells and sketches pinned to the walls frozen, begging to get moving. We loved that the displays and explanations were at the eye height for young curious minds, and the little cinema's window shutters closed like eyelids moments before the picture started, to avoid keeping those minds in the dark too long.

Coming up for air onto the fourth floor, to digest all we’d just seen, we found ourselves on the roof in a well manicured garden, peacefully overlooked by a giant five-meter-tall Robot Soldier, ah Ghibli, we loved it!

Inspired we left the museum, and drifted like spores in the wind to a gallery nearby, only to find a lady and gentleman tag-team who were all about the fungi, the gent was a mushroom photographer and his lady friend crocheted mushrooms from wool, a lovely duo, and a special shout out for the Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria) hat! A super surreal day.

It was our last weekend in Tokyo and it turns out some of our favourite DJ’s were playing at a festival ‘just down the road’ on the Izu Peninsular, it also turns out it was ‘Golden Week’ a three day weekend for all Japanese people which the Government charitably has bumped up to a glorious Golden Week of holidays for all.

The draw card DJ’s of Rainbow Disco Party festival won out against the knowledge that the roads would be choc-a-block, and we are now in a hire car on the highway, it’s and Audi A3, we got a free upgrade as our car wasn’t hoovered, Viv is looking good behind the wheel “I’ve always wanted to drive an Audi!’ We’re less than ten minutes into our journey.. ‘Why is that man waving a big glowstick at us? We’re not even at the festival yet…’, konnichiwa to the Japanese police. *whatever we did, please don’t fine us, please don’t fine us!

Long badly communicated (on our behalf) story later, it turns out that an Orange line means no overtaking or changing lane, (worth noting) but onwards!!

The journey was long but sunny and beautiful as it wound around the coast, the mild traffic allowing us to take in the seaside views. The festival was great, the setting lovely, we were one of the last-in as we’d been hit by the traffic, and narrowly missed having to pretty much nail our tent onto the steep incline that was the last remaining camp spot, by squeezing in on the last bit of semi flat ground nearby.

Dancing, watching the sun go down, beats, lights and lasers, the first night was lovely, it was now morning and Kenji Takimi was on at 10:30, a few disco tracks to wake people up then the Velvet Underground’s ‘Sunday Morning’ on full, the crackling vinyl fuzz complimenting the warmth of this lovely bright and hazy Sunday Morning. A few people danced as the DJ selected his next record to the beat, under a huge black mirrored disco ball which remained, silently spinning, a reminder of the party that the night brings.

But for now the day was sunny and the universe seemed to talk to us through hip Japanese people and their T-shirts… ‘Lost in Vacation’.. yeah it does feel a bit like that!.. “I’m lovin’ it”.. Us too!!..”Find yourself a city to live in”… I think we did!.. *Picture of cross fingers*.. yep thanks for the good vibes.. ”Andy”.. Andy, yeah he would love it… ”Diana dead”… ok, bit weird “Ipomoea purpurea: An east facing perennial, best suited to medium dry soil..”… um, ok, anyway you get the picture, it was pretty cosmic.

It was a big Golden Week for music as after the festival we had tickets for Taylor Swift. #1 pop artist performing in a country of Kareoke, costumes and where ridiculously cute stuff is acceptable and encouraged, this was a show we couldn’t miss!!

Walking around the outside grounds of Tokyo Dome, we noticed that many teenage girls were all dressed as twinsies!! The most popular style was matching red sneakers, cute 60’s skirts, taylor swift fan t-shirts with matching red head bands. SOOOO cute and amazing that we wanted to buy some matching T-shirts, until we saw the merchandise line snaking all the way through the crowd…..hmm, pass.

So many hand made costumes inspired by TS music videos, we were nervous to ask if we could take photos looking like the standout Gaijns! Until 2 twinsie girls approach us and say ‘hello! photo with you?” our faces lit up with excitement! hai hai!! Saying bye we were then approached by another twinsie duo, then another, then another!! CHIIIIZUUUU!!

And we’re in…EEEEEE!! 55,000 screaming fans with the issued LED wristband lights flashing in sync, turning the crowd into a canvas of light, as she blasted one song after an other from the 1989 album, while striking black and white visuals on the big screen set the scene, punctuated by splashes of red as per her trademark red lipstick.

We couldn’t help but glimpse the people sitting around us, a teenage girl that started to cry and let off a high pitch squeal when TS performed her favourite song (which was most of them). A man on his own next to Rob, bouncing up and down clapping, his smartwatch proudly displaying the TS album artwork (and give him constant TS updates we suspect!). A father of a family of four, clearly more into TS than his wife and daughters, wrestling 3 devices to capture the gig in it’s entirety. It’s safe to say that the love for TS was universal!

For the finale, the one song that Viv was really waiting for, ‘Shake it off’, a song that had been giving our lives impromptu energy injections via the radio for the past year, Viv may have lost her voice but whispered “totally worth it! I love you TS!”. We were walking on air on the way out, no, like seriously there was a gale blowing people out of the door!

And so this was the end of our stay in Tokyo, goodbye multi-floored old hospital house, goodbye Naka-Itabashi.. goodbye to our lovely local shop keepers…

“how long are you going for?

“Umm 3 months?”

“Here..” and she gave us 3 tins of hard boiled sweets for our adventures. Yey Tokyo!

And so we board a plane to the far south, for birthday island adventures and more! Stay tuned!

In other news:

* Viv hasn’t committed any further traffic violations, but we did have to swerve an angry monkey!

* We’re working on a fruit farm!

* When unsure whether photos are allowed in small quiet art galleries, please ask Viv to refraining from yanking at large metal clanging doors labelled ‘Push’!

* Rob is preparing for a big interview in Tokyo next week, eeeee.

Extra bonus bits and LOLz

Japan unwrapped.

When walking out of a local convenience store Rob opens the pack of chewing gum we’ve just brought, sliding the draw out carefully to reveal our goods, just as we see them descend out one by one from underneath like eager parachuters, free falling towards the ground to our dismay, but alas all our parachuters today were happily wrapped in their own overalls, the 3 second rule getting a hefty extension to the 3 minute rule. Yey and ‘hmmm’ for the slightly over wrapped goods of Japan!

Kevin the cookie lives in his own see through bag house, he currently lives in a row of 5 neighbours, they live in a nice sturdy cardboard drawer. The neighbourhood backs onto another fairly quiet, if a little nutty neighbourhood, they’re both kept safely in a wrapper which will have the cookie species written on, and may well be considerately wrapped in another clear wrapper to keep the cookies from losing their identity.

When faced with Tokyo’s 5 option ‘recycle-everything’ sorting bins, we’ve observed many foreigners have a breaking point where they just throw whatever material they have in their hand, be it PET bottle, plastic bottle, cup, paper straw or hamburger, into the nearest receptacle, shrug their shoulders and walk away; and it’s at this same point somewhere else in the world, a toddler is sending a triangular shaped peg hurtling across the room, after it refused to fit into it’s new circular home for the sixth time.

TOKYO: Meeting Chatou & Chasing Cherry Blossoms

vivi_and_robrob — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 23:57:00 GMT

Hello, Helo, Hola and Konnichiwa!

We are here in Japan and loving it, here are a few of the things that have happened so far..

Walking like a zombie pack horse from the redeye flight from Colombo, Sri Lanka, towards the immigration desk, I receive a Whatsapp from the other side that Viv has arrived safe <Yey!> and is waiting at the gates with an ‘unorganised surprise’ <what?!>. Through the arrival gates I walk to shouts of “Rooooob!”, a dual waving Viv bounces over to greet me, with a camera crew in tow.. “oh Boy.”…

Saying my last goodbyes to my Dad, Nina, Verona, Mintar, Nicole and Kim I was finally departing Melbourne after months of preparation.

Arriving to terminal 2 it wasn’t overly busy but I noticed there was a camera crew. I put my bags down right at the front of the the arrival gates waiting for Rob with crazy but nervous excitement. Looking around again from my left to my right I was suddenly introduced to a camera in my face, an interviewer with a massive microphone and a translator.

"Do you mind if we ask you a few questions on why you came to Japan for Tokyo TV?"... "Can you speak much Japanese?".."Do you have a favourite Japanese Word?!"
my answer “Peko peko!!” ("hungry, hungry!")....
“OOOOOHHH!!!, and what made you want to come Japan?”
“FOOD, calligraphy, art, a year off after working and studying for 9 years.”
“OOOOOHHH!!! And Why are you carrying such a big bag"
“I’ll be camping and working around Japan as a graphic designer, working on organic farms and teaching English!”
“OOOOOHHH!!!” "Are you travelling alone?" "No" I say, "I'm meeting my boyfriend, this is an adventure for both of us and I haven’t seen him since January" "Can we film the reunion!?"
"Sure!"(I knew Rob would be a little startled! LOL)
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!”

...who knows if we’ll be wide eyed and on TV but we’re waiting to see..Outside the terminal we finally got to say hello to each other properly, when out pops a a quote I may never live down “OH!! Look! A vending machine! :D”, I’d heard they would be here, but seeing the first one was an indication I’d really arrived.

They’re the same shape and everything as the ones back home, and do the same job, so shouldn’t be so notable, but they really are. It’s maybe their ability to live unharmed in the wild, under railway bridges, in bus stations, down the darkest streets and on deserted rooftops, their omnipresence is comforting, their street white glow illuminates and guides you on the walk home, and they'll serve you a hot canned coffee like a 'Boss’ whenever you’d care to ask them to.

“How many people actually live here?”

“Too many” replies the seemingly over-exposed dude from somewhere in the UK.

The other housemates from around the globe however, the other 8 of them have been generally full of optimism and advice, and have mostly been here for at least 2+ years, living the Japanese dream.

On arrival, our hostess with the most-ess landlady Masa and her husband had picked us up from the station, and driven us the two blocks to our ‘Gaijin House’ (house for foreigners), bleary eyed we hopped out and looked up at our new home, a large four storey house opposite a little park, excellent. We started unloading our stuff as Masa and husband marveled at Viv’s ability to manoeuvre her rather chunky life moving rucksack with ease.. ‘Ohhhh… Superwoman!!!’

We chose to go for a foreigners shared home as the red tape surrounding renting a place otherwise for foreigners in Japan is plentiful, and we’re initially only here in Tokyo for a month, the area is nice and the rent reasonable. Yatta!

We spent the first few days exploring, the second day, a rainy one we went to the large park Ueno, famous for Cherry Blossom flower viewing picnics, the Hanami. We were meant to have arrived during the average yearly date for full bloom, but had heard rumours from the house people, that the weather had made the trees peak a little earlier.

Walking through the gates of the park, the rain continued to fall, and we witness the last remaining petals of the cherry blossoms beautifully dripping off the trees, ah nuts.

Rob was a little ill from jetlag or something, so we seeked refuge in a nearby restaurant, which turned out to be a fusion Japanese-Korean DIY BBQ, unplanned but delicious. Experiencing for the first time the impeccable service of the Japanese as they put our shoes in lockers, took us to our floor level mat seats, gave us hot towels to cleanse, and introduced us to the innovative fold out bib-cape! A great first meal… although unfortunately we were still carrying the bento box lunch we’d planned pre-nausea to eat in the park.. which we ate later under the cover of a convenience store, in the rain, romance isn’t dead.

We then discovered a 5 Floor toyshop..Funassyi was written by the towering doors, and 'Funassyi' it delivered, the experience of walking from the already noisy busy Tokyo street through the entrance into the toystore, was similar to divebombing into a swimming pool, the world changes, the ears are full, the sound surrounds… we swam through, all senses consumed by the thousands of individual ideas stocked on the shelves, fighting for our attention.

Mr lazy egg man to the right, Studio Ghibli and all it's beautiful cast... the girl that keeps getting trapped on stuff (?)… every conceivable character to date all under one roof, some, like Adventure Time (yeah!) have hit the global bigtime, with Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Others live only here, in Asia, they are equally great (shout out to lazy egg man, Gudetama), but are still waiting for their big break.. (to crack the market, beat the competition.. hmmm).

Stepping off the bus, almost back in time, Eleanor Rigby by the The Beatles plays from a little side cafe, it feels like a Murakami novel, the sun shines down on us, it’s a different day, we’re in Koenji an area famed for it’s vintage stores. Walking around we discover a relaxed vibe as we stroll down Central Street, in search for the unmistakable scent of second hand style.

We see a shop to the left, three ladies bask in the sun around a table, drawing away, not meaning to pry, we look over their shoulders at the artwork, a cat with a big smile, a multicoloured cat with big ears, the beginnings of a paw...

We were caught staring, one lady is stood up now and pulls us into the shop with her invite, we enter through the small wooden door, cats.

Cats as far as the eye can see, paintings, hanging mobiles, manaquins, ornate fans.. this is a pretty cosy shop and is floor-to-ceiling cat, we finally notice infront of us a smiling non-cat, a gentle looking man with a head band behind a counter, his bow and hand signal greeting in harmony with the chime based lullaby soundtrack. We smile and bow back, before taking a look around…

We select a few postcards from the many, and approached the till, to the owners left there was a cage, he brings us over and points to a cat in an elevated cage “Chatou,” he says.. “…sleeping”. Viv gives Chatou a little stroke of acknowledgement being careful not to wake the beast; our cat host then points to the paintings surrounding Chatou’s cage, “Chatou, Chatou, Chatou.. Chatou.. Chatou!”

He’s pointing one by one to the numerous framed paintings that cover the nearby walls, they are all of a ginger cat with one eye, he’s a ballerina, he’s a God, he’s a sailor, he’s a bigger God, he’s a samurai, he is many things, he is Chatou, and we got to meet him. We left the shop, turning back to photograph the sign, as Chatou gave us a knowing wink from up above.

Music was one of the draws to Tokyo for me personally and being a fan of the record Label Flau, we ended up in noise venue called Soup under a public bath and dumpling shop in Shibuya for a gig.. it was a smokey room filled with no more than 50 people, the cover charge was high but the hip flask was full (budgeting) and the sound system was fuller. Here's a little video of how the toilet roll was handling the bass..

The gig was all consuming with simple effective visuals, and after the gig we stayed for shots with the headliner for his birthday, n.b learn to sing happy birthday in Japanese… afterwards making the most of our first weekend in Tokyo, we went in search of the superclub 'Womb', a little lost our friendly guides whom we asked for directions took us to an R&B club they were DJing at….. we agreed, we danced.. we sang... we also found out the the underground closes at 12:45, and that we live in a distant suburb, but also learnt Taxi's with amazing automatic doors have amazing drivers. Totally worth it.

Tokyo has a distinctive sound, the ears are always alert and receptive, strolling down a street the sound changes many times from passing the many 'pachinko' parlours to the sound of the cities train stations, after a week, the sound of the bird calls in the metro station became too familiar to be natural, and the absence of any birds another clue, a closer look discovered a speaker above for the visually impaired, which emminates a different bird call to help guide people around, #geniusJapan (lots more to come in this series).

Robot Restaurant, close friends Kerem and Liv are are visiting, adrenaline is already high but this is perfect... it's a must see if in Tokyo. A definite highlight, it’s touristy, over the top and completely bonkers, but still somehow seems to maintain the decourum and rythm of Japanese culture. (We have videos to share if you can't make it!)

Having not properly experienced the cherry blossoms in bloom, the chase was on. We jumped on a bus to the Lake District of Tokyo, Kawaguchico. The Five Lakes area, which also reportedly offered stunning views of Mount Fuji. The village being 910m above sea level means the cherry blossoms flower a couple of weeks later than the rest of Tokyo and surrounds, perfect!

We got off the bus after two hours and stepped directly into a gray drizzly cloud, we somehow found our campsite and pitched our tent, the only colour that wasn't gray being a red tophat on a solem looking swanboat bobbing on the lake. After paying the equivelant to a nights stay at a reasonable B&B, we fired up the soggy camping stove to heat our dried noodle ramen, perhaps feeling a little short changed, but Chilean wine, good music and chats will always lighten the mood.

The morning came, the light was different, and upon unzipping the tent, we got to witness Fuji in all it's glory, the swan was looking much happier.

What a spot, and what an experience, we'd found our Cherry Blossoms.. until next time... Yatta! (hooray)

In other news:

* We have just visted a Cup Noodle museum in Yokohoma, it was amazing and surprisingly inspirational, coming in the next entry!

* Viv is some sort of Japanese expert, where as my new language skills are taking a bit of time to warm up.

* Kit Kat's are the biggest selling chocolate bar here, allegedly as the name sounds like 'kitto katsu' which means, "You will surely win".

* Viv is staying true to form and has lost one 1 x Metro Travel Card (correct on 27th April, 11:43am).

* Maybe don't drink Sake from a carton friends!

Thanks thanks for reading!

p.s Here's a bonus video of the politest and most Japanese way of telling customers that the car park is currently full..

Japan!