Nightmare before Christmas

Hey all,

I’ve pretty much died on Tumblr judging from the previous lack of posts…I do hope to make amends…how about a short on the night life of Tokyo? Or rather what I’ve come to experience.

Seeing as Tokyo is a massive Metropolis it is a rather big place to go on a night out and “paint the town red” as it were. Or if you are my friend here, go out, get wasted, and end up in a capsule hotel with 2 pairs of Bunny ears (funnily enough one of which wasn’t his).

——Side Note——

A Capsule hotel is pretty much all in the name. A hotel for short overnight stops for those that have no where to go whilst they wait for the first train home. It pretty much is a wall full of Capsules, where you have just enough room to sleep. Pretty Neat huh?

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Anyway, my nights out so far are pretty much as foreign as you could get. Halloween was pretty spectacular as we were trying to find our way to  one bar all dressed as god knows what, whilst Japanese on the street were shouting “Happy Halloween” to us. You try orchestrating a march composed of the likes of Buzz Lightyear, Pikachu and transvestites and see how long it takes you to get to one place. Especially since the group wanted to photo-bomb every photo on the street.

We did try to get ourselves arrested by 9 girls in Police Uniform. Bet they were surprised to see us….

Although that didn’t end well as they tried handcuffing us to the other guys in our group and not them. Unfortunately. 

—— Extra Side Note ——

Sorry to the Family members reading that last part….
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But I thought I’d enlighten everyone with the apparent Foreign Party on the Yamanote Train line that goes around central tokyo. Apparently every year there is a costume party held on the train where they do their best to not let others on or off. Pretty much take over a carriage. Sounds like good fun to me. Although I can understand why the Japanese do their best to discourage it.

I was told by my friend not to show off my Devil Trident on the train too much just in case I might get kicked off….

Apart from the usual kicks of going out in Tokyo, I have to say there are a surprisingly good amount of street acts. I’m used to the usual rather poorly thought out guy in all white robes and white make up as he stares down passers-by, using his dog as a guilt trip for people to give him money. The people here though seem to be on a whole new level.

If it isn’t the group playing Samba music (where me, the Alien from Toy Story and a Transvestites all danced along to, whilst dragging random Japanese Salarymen from the crowd out to celebrate) its the Western guy playing amazing drums on random empty buckets.

All of which makes for a random night out, fun. I suggest you do it sometime, you’ll never know what you see. Especially around Halloween. 

I do have to admit though.  Seeing someone dressed as Santa Claus on Halloween was pretty much the best thing ever. 

An epic mashup.

Well readers…this was short and boring. I hope to peek your interests soon enough as I plan to pick this back up!

Next up! Dating! (Not me, although from what I hear its pretty damn different)

Fun Fact of the Day: Dressing up as a Devil will only earn you the compliment “Cute” in Japan. My Trident was laughed at and my ego dissolved. I shall make amends.


Kindest Regards,
Bored Abroad 

Japan Challenge - 01. Tokyo Walk.

Hey all!


Been awhile but hopefully I can start updating a bit more now that I have some more free time…..

             ————————————-Yes Man————————————

Have any of you read the book or watched the film “Yes Man” ? About a Man who constantly declines offers and opportunities that come his way. He then joins a motivational group that make him say yes to everything.  I loved this idea of thinking and so decided to follow it for my travels. How else can you face the people back home and say all you did abroad was the same stuff you would have done at home? To the people that called me stupid for trying to find and or do random things like this then;  

Those that can’t or don’t want to see what the world has to offer outside the realms of the internet and the comforts of their living room tv I feel sorry for. There are a lot of things to see, and not enough time in one lifetime to do it all.  

I might make a checklist. See how far I can get in one year? 

——————————————Challenge Number 1—————————————-

Anyway I have been thinking of ages now on how best to see Tokyo. Or rather how best to see/experience Japan. I was trying to come up with Challenges so to speak. With this in mind my Japanese friend here suggested one. The Yamanote-line walk. 

The idea is that within central Tokyo is the green line called the “Yamanote” line or “山手線”. It covers 30 stations in a loop at just over 34.5km. We would start from Shinjuku (新宿) and go from that station all the way around, back to Shinjuku itself. At each station we would take a picture to prove we got to each. 

Good news is we did do it, in a startling 15 hours with only one hour for a lunch break. My legs sure didn’t agree with me afterwards but I’m glad to say I got to be able to say I have done it. 

I’l give you a run down on sights we saw;

- A 20 foot Gnome. Basically he was about 7 foot tall but his hat was stretched and twisted high above him. Looked like the kind of garden gnome you really didn’t want in your garden (although who wants them anyway?)
-  A big night time market that holds itself under a railway bridge! In any other part of the world I’d be sure it was a black market. But I’m sure black markets don’t deal in Crocs…(-.-;).
- Managed to find a big Beetle-like bug with pincers with which we put on someones nose. Yes it did clamp down. Yes he did scream. No it wasn’t a deep pitch of voice. Yes the bug did hold on. Yes he bled a little. No he didn’t bleed a lot. Yes he was laughing too…as were we all.
-Tokyo is one big concrete metropolis. Trains criss cross over head, go over and under, streets are in all directions zig zagging through suburban housing whilst every doorway may lead you down some stairs to some underground bar or restaurant. There are small shortcut entrance ways here and there that take you through Corporate buildings and let you pass through (to the stares of the men/women in suits).  And in spite of all this. There is ALWAYS a vending machine. 
-  Hello Kitty Buses. Tour buses with MASSIVE hello kitty painted sides/back. WITH pink wheels. Couldn’t believe it. Picture to follow! 
- There is a pizza hut in Japan. Delivery Only by the looks of it. All you can see is a big kitchen with a fleet of Pizza Hut Bikes. My favourite mode of transport as it always has a pizza.
- There was a television crew at one station, interviewing someone who was doing the exact same thing as us! And we were told to keep on walking by. I’m sure ours was better though.  And harder. 
- We found the Japan pigeon racing association? Or something to that effect if we translated it right. I don’t think you would ever find that on any conventional route to where you would be going. It was quite out the way. 
- Love hotels are everywhere, even in the most suburban of areas, and apparently it isn’t just a rest stop for the young. This couple must have been 50+ (good on them). I’m sure medical stimulants must have been necessary though.

I know this walk may seem extreme as a last minute decision or as any kind of decision. And believe me it was, I remember the next day I had 9:00am Class to attend. Trying to walk to the train station at a regular pace was impossible. Its rather hard to look cool when you can’t out walk Grannies. 

Fun Fact of the Day: Sushi at lunch time +  long lengths of exercise +heat =  a dangerous equation. I’m just glad there is a Convenience Store around every Corner, and in 90% of stores there are toilets. 

That would have been an unhappy end to the walk believe me. 

This may be a rather “boring” challenge. I guess its one of those “you had to be there” type things. Hopefully there might be several different ones coming up. Any ideas too please message me, trying to find unusual things to do in Tokyo is hard (surprisingly).


Yours Sincerely,
Bored Abroad. 

Chasing Pavements. Part 2.

Hey all!



Well after moving in, unpacking my 20kg worth of stuff and buying supplies it didn’t leave much else but ranting to do! Here are some of the other parts to the whole moving-in process.

As some of you should know, University dorm’s usually require an upfront payment, which I thought mine also would. So I tried to prepare the cash before hand (not having a Japanese Bank Account yet). This left me in the awkward situation that, one of my cards (not to mention names) refused any transactions I tried to carry out. Even just checking my balance.

The best part to this (sarcasm) is that I told this bank 2 months in advance, where I would, in what part of the world, even which cash machines I would probably use as well. They then took this information, marked it on a folder clearly labelled “For shredding” and then decided not to inform the Fraud Squad.

They also had the audacity to tell me my card was fine on their computers.

Well if they wanted a war I could give them that from halfway across the world. I phoned my Mother. I’m sure she fumed into the local branch and hopefully told them where they could shove their card. 

Anyhow it turns out that luckily, my rent apparently (as well as the initial deposit) is paid in one lump sum in 3 months time. So with a lot of cash on me. I hit the town. (>.O).  Kidding. I saved it (if my Mother is reading this I did…).

Well that was one rant over! Now to the next Alien Registration. As I said before I had to get a Visa to come to Japan in the first place. That meant I was legal to be here. Or so I thought. I also need an Alien Registration Card. Let me tell you know that the Men in Black had less forms to fill in than this City Ward Office.

Getting there was no problem. The only desk available was the English/Portuguese help desk. Where I might add, no english was spoken apart from when the Woman said “What is this?”. So, she went over the form slowly, telling me where to repeat the same details over and over again, then to go away, do it and then come back later. 

So I did this. I got back. And she checked it fast however two problems came up out of this situation. I want to state right now my Japanese isn’t Fluent. And even if it was I’m sure I couldn’t have described to this woman any better than where Gibraltar is. As I’m UK but my address is in Gibraltar I had no post code and no country after Gibraltars name. As Gibraltar. Is just Gibraltar.

With her giving me examples of places in Japan that were inside of other larger places I did managed to convince that no Gibraltar was not in the UK (as some people think) and that it really was at the bottom of Spain. I might try to carry a Map on me more often. After this lengthy process of World Geography, I had to go to a machine to purchase tickets which I could exchange for copies of the form I needed to prove I had registered as an Alien (the card won’t arrive for some time now).

I guess this is getting long as well. Wait eagerly for Part 3 please. I’ll tell you just how much opening a bank account/ getting a Japanese phone, in Japanese, can make you not want to live.


Fun Fact of the Day: If a product such as a deodorant, facial wipe or shower gel says Ice Type or Super cool on it. It will burn the sweat off you. In fact, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t feel my Manhood after stepping out of my first shower in this room. 


Yours Sincerely,
Bored Abroad