Neil Hopcroft

A digital misfit

Where did I get to? Oh, yes, I’d just landed after flying back from Helsinki…flying in to Haneda airport is a very different experience to arriving at Narita, somewhat akin to landing at London City, you fly toward the skyscrapers then turn south toward the runway at the last minute.

I collected my baggage and headed out to catch the monorail back to the centre of the city, this is the first time I’ve ever seen baggage receipts being checked….I guess thats because it was an internal flight with no customs to go through after, so it would be easier for people to make off with your cases….

The first thing to do upon arriving was to meet up with my parents, who had arrived on the friday night and were staying in Tokyo for the day before heading off on a tour around the country…

We went up to Shimbashi to take a look at some of the architecture up there and walk around some of the mall areas. Then headed back for a meal at the hotel, since I wasn’t feeling particularly adventurous by that time. I headed back home early for some sleep.

After a little nap, I got woken by Kate calling, by this time my body clock was well and truly broken so I figured that it would be OK to meet up with her and Tim to go to Dark Castle in the evening – there was no way it would lead to more recovery time anyway.

We arrived at Deseo around midnight, but the place wasn’t opened yet, so we hung around outside introducing ourselves to random gaijin, there was a good crop this time, including one guy who’d come all the way over from Colorado (or somewhere, gods I wish I could remember the names of all the states and where they were) for the event.

It wasn’t a particularly eventful evening, and I wasn’t really in the best state to enjoy it…I’ll let stompyboots tell you all about it, doubtless she’ll do a better job than I can.

We met again the next day to wander around Harajuku/Yoyogi-koen, it was raining a bit so the place wasn’t quite so full of beautiful people – the rain makes the make-up run.

They were leaving on Wednesday, we met again before they left, on Tuesday we tried to go to Trick or Treat, a ‘gothic dining’ experience in Roppongi, but we were told that it was ‘Japanese only’ and it was clear that we weren’t welcome….oh well, on to Xen in Roppongi Hills, poor Tims feet were not prepared for all that walking, so the rest once we arrived seemed welcome.

Since then, I have pretty much been working and nothing else – the project is about to get to its final phase, so we’re planning how we handle the build cycle during this time, which appears to be something more of a headache than anyone had really anticipated. We’re getting there, but there are a few nasty technical details that noone spotted until it was too late – I hope we’ve now at least gotten people thinking about them, but the Finns are on holiday at the moment so we don’t know what they think until Wednesday.

Today was some more frantic running around trying to get myself organised before meeting my parents again, they’ve returned to Tokyo after their tour around the country – they seem to have had a good time. We went up to Shinjuku to go up the government building, then back to Shibuya to take a look around there. If you’re thinking of coming to Tokyo there is plenty to keep you fully occupied for three to four days, trying to do it all in two afternoons is going to leave you wanting more.


7 comments

  1. If you’re thinking of coming to Tokyo there is plenty to keep you fully occupied for three to four days, trying to do it all in two afternoons is going to leave you wanting more.

    i would say 3-4 MONTHS!!!

    have you tried going to trick or treat with a japanese person, i wonder if a gaijin with japanese people would be welcome….

    hmmm…

    • I was going to talk to Maya-chan, who I think has something to do with running the place, to find out what that was about – when she gave me the card for it she seemed very keen that everyone go along so I was a little surprised to be turned away. More, the name of the place itself and the menu outside are written largely (though not entirely) in English, and its not as if the place was busy, there were three or four little groups of Japanese people and maybe twenty free tables. Maybe they didn’t have any English speaking staff on, but thats ok, we can point at random things on the menu and not eat it if we’ve accidentally ordered horse-intestine or something.

      • well i think you should look into it, as whoever turned you away was obviously a touch more xenophobic than would be expected of a place that wasnt even a “traditional” japanese tea/eating house!!!

        gah, i’m hungry for some traditional japanese food now!!!

        • Indeed, if you’re running a restaurant for nihonjin only you don’t set up in Roppongi with an English name.

          All I can think is that they didn’t like the look of our party, but I can’t think of any reason why not, there was me in a suit, Tim in shorts and Kate looking quite normal. Admittedly Tim is quite a well-built guy and has a tattooed look to him but he’ll only throw his weight around if its necessary, and almost certainly not at frightened looking Japanese waitresses unless she does something really odd.

          How are the Japanese about tattoos? Tolerant? Enthusiastic?

          Maybe they thought we were Americans…I’ll have to remember ‘Amerika-jin arimasen’, won’t I?

          • tattoos are still quite taboo apart from in yakuza circles, dont forget. how often do you actually see tattooed japanese people around?

            i suspect the lack of any japanese people in your party just worried them, as did the higher male – female ratio… possibly bringing a local girl or two along might have made things easier.

            or going as just a couple – i expect its also one of those cute dating places people go to, not a lads night out….

            and shorts are usually a no-no at most decent eating establishments, in japan or elsewhere.

            i certainly would have misgivings about letting someone in who was in shorts were i running a “nice” dinner place….

          • I think its fairly obvious Tims not a yak, he doesn’t have the mullet for it…and if they don’t like shorts they can say that without really offending anyone.

            But yes, I figured it had as much to do with male/female ratio as anything else…any clues on where/how to find suitable local girls to take along for such occasions?

          • hahaha!!!

            erm.. maybe they didnt know english for no shorts.

            so they just said, no gaijin. its much simpler without insulting your sense (or lack of) fashion…

            ask rosi, she might know some local girls who wanna be wined and dined! ;p

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