Not Much, Week 5

Sorry to keep you waiting!! This week was not particularly full of interesting touristy activity! This is due to the fact that we were celebrating 'Japan Style' for a rather long time on Friday night.

Shinjuku Golden Gai, Friday

Golden Gai is a neighbourhood near in Shinjuku which is a reflection of how Tokyo was before the 'economic miracle'. Hundreds of tiny buildings, only around 2-3 meters wide, and mostly populated by tiny bars which hold from 5-15 people maximum.

It wasn't cheap either. A lot of bars charged a 'cover fee' of up to 1000yen (£7.50) for entry and a seat,  and each subsequent beer was on average 800yen.

That didn't stop the drinks flowing however. And there were many interesting bars in the area.

There was also a surprisingly large number of australians in the area. Definitely one of the more international areas of Japan i've been to, which was a good change, although sometimes it felt like I was back in Aiya Napa!

Some very badly sung Karaoke music was going around - complete with hints for the Japanese in katakana.

After the bars of Golden Gai, we went to Harlem, a famous Hip-Hop club in Shibuya. There are no photographs of any quality from this part of the night. But it was a good one!

Saturday

After an 8am arrival back in Chōgo to the dorm (we had to get the first train at 6am from Tokyo), Saturday was extremely unproductive. I came first in the 100cc lighting cup on Mario Kart.

Sunday, a walk round Fujisawa

Part motivated by the lack of content for the blog, part by a desire to actually move, I went for a walk around the suburbs of Fujisawa to learn a little more about the city and life in Japan.

Large apartment blocks in Japan are surprisingly well maintained and rather middle-class, a dramatic shift from the situation in Glasgow. Clearly, large land values are a major cause, causing even the middlemen into small accommodation. But i'm yet to sense real despair like is so easy to find in Prague, Paris, Glasgow or any other comparable European city. I'm sure it's out there somewhere.

Its surprisingly easy to find small-scale farming operations in the suburbs of Fujisawa, and I assume other cities too. As the building starts to fade out, it either makes way to dense, forested mountains, or extensive but small-scale farming. I'm not sure what the ownership structure of these kinds of farms is, but it seems rather clean and sustainable.

On the topic of sustainability, I also passed by the Fujisawa Smart Sustainable City. A development primarily created as an experiment and an exhibition of various 'smart' Panasonic tech, it was lived in, and seemed to be a very safe, child friendly neighbourhood.

Part of this safe feeling must have been due to the extensive iron ring of CCTV, which apparently 'intelligently' feeds into a central system, as part of the smart nature of this city.

The development is full of fairly identical houses, I had very very strong flashbacks to Britain, it was like a semi-Japanese, high tech take on Buckshaw Village

I then walked down the river towards the beach, hoping to get some nice sunset shots for those followers who particularly enjoyed my first few Japanese posts.

They are always brilliant these sunsets. I'm not sure why geographically, but i've had a really good record. Also the weather is amazing for December, of you've noticed.

Sunday dinner was completed in a typical Japanese fast food establishment. 500 yen gets you a generous serving of beef and rice, this must be the perfect convenience for those without any kind of proper kitchen, which I imagine is a very common condition.

It was lovely too, just what I needed after an entire weekend spent in bed.