End of Days: Tokyo

So, I’d reached the home straight of my journey with a final week in Tokyo to put an end to my three months of laziness. Having covered large chunks of Japan by this stage, I was perhaps ready to return to London, looking forward to seeing some old faces again after several weeks on the road alone.

But being that this was to be the umpteenth time that I have visited Tokyo I didn’t feel like I was going there as a tourist at all, but a traveller returning. All the major tourist spots in Tokyo done, my last week was more one of hunting round record shops, seeking out any good graffiti and sitting in pubs watching football. It, therefore, served as a good spot to ease me back into London living before the twelve-hour flight.

Shibuya

My first night was that of England-France in Euro 2012, and so I had the fun task of leaving the hotel at 01:00 to find a pub showing it. I found one, no trouble, though it also advertised itself as closing at 25:00 (the Japanese for 01:00). So, it was both showing the game at 01:00 and closing at 01:00 – do I have to watch through the window? Ordering a pint of Kirin in Japanese during ‘God Save the Queen’ confirmed that I didn’t have to watch through the window, as well as my patriotism. I got chatting to an American, who surprisingly had some useful comments to make about the Premier League, and a Scot from Hertfordshire living in Australia. I remember little about the game and left the pub at 3AM to be offered numerous massages by the night ladies of Ueno. I ventured back for Portugal-Denmark – where I was the only person still watching by 02:30 – and France-Ukraine – which was fun as the match was postponed an hour.

Shibuya

The days were filled by trawling through the ¥250 and ¥500 shelves in Book-Off and Dick Union, where you can find a surprisingly large amount of cheap, rare hip hop wedged in between old Gina G and 2Unlimited CDs. I came away with seventeen newly bought albums, all ranging from around £2-£6 in price and adding to the dilemma of how I was going to pack everything. It was amazing as to the things you could find if were prepared to look that little bit harder: US hip hop rarities nestled between 1990s UK boy bands and Ugly Kid Joe in endless shelves of forgotten CDs that have all made their way to Tokyo. It was a reminder of just how much shit music gets made, with the works of bands long-forgotten sat there to probably never get bought – unless that bloke I met in Sapporo ever pops in – but also a moment of nostalgia when seeing something you recognise and thought was ‘you know, okay’ when 12: Dodgy, ‘Good Enough’? BOOM! ‘Good enough’ being both a title and review. Where are they all now?

Saitama 2002 Stadium

Nissan Stadium, Yokohama

In my quest to visit all ten of Japan’s World Cup stadia, I made journeys to Saitama, to Urawa Reds’ home stadium: Saitama 2002 Stadium, which is an easy enough journey from Ueno, provided you get off at the right train station; and back to Yokohama to the Nissan Stadium: home of the F. Marinos and the 2002 World Cup final. This left me with a total of eight out of ten stadiums visited – not bad for a pointless task. I also visited the National Stadium in central Tokyo for my fourth Verdy game of the season: a triumphant 4-1 win over FC Gifu. Boom! Top of the league! Take that JEF Chiba Utd!

Verdy 4 - 1 FC Gifu

I also made a quick stop in Kawasaki on the way back from Yokohama, as I’d never actually stopped in Japan’s ninth largest city. Type Kawasaki into Google and you’ll get a lot of information about racing bikes, which is probably fair, as Kawasaki is one city in Japan that you can call a dump. It’s almost as if Tokyo said let’s take all the things we need, but might make the place look less attractive and dump them west of the Tama River and call it Kawasaki. Housing was pretty low-rent and there was lots of heavy industry going on. I didn’t see much of it, so probably being harsh, and if you take the time to walk in between the various factories in the bay area, it can probably get quite interesting at least, but don’t plan any picnics.

Kawasaki

My last week, though was less of a travelling experience, and more a living one. I’ve got quite used to Tokyo and can find my way around pretty easily, knowing where I need to go, and so after weeks of seeing new and different things everyday, I spent my last week back in familiar surroundings, getting myself back on European time by watching the Euros in preparation for my new life in Balham…

Oh God, let me go back!

Three months in drum and/or bass...