Stopping to smell the roses (and maybe to check out the J girls)

After a few hours sleep (yes a very small few) it was time to tackle my last day in Tokyo, always a sad event in any holiday, so to combat my sadness I decided to head to one of my favourite places in Tokyo and possibly the planet (well from the limited part of the planet that I have seen that is). Sunday is one of the best days to visit Harijuku, the area is a buzz of people and colour and costumes, you can find street venders and bewildered tourists and freaks of every variety. Out of the whole of Tokyo I probably feel most at home here, its the perfect mix of beautiful scenery and artist eccentricity to appeal to my inner being (woahhhhh how hippy was that shit)

If you exit the station and turn right it takes you to an open area called Jingu-bashi where on a Sunday Afternoon all the Cos Play kids come out in force, but for me thats not really the draw card (but I shall get to that...) I possibly was there to early so there werent many of the Cos Play kids around but there was something that made me smile, off to the side of the Jingu-bashi were three cool kids doing their bit to make the world a better place...

As soon as I saw this, a giant smile spread across my face and I ran over to them, they all hugged me and were smiling, when I asked them why they were doing it, there explanation was simple "To make people smile" made me feel happy on my insides to know that there are still good people out there that do things for the purest of reasons. So to these guys I say Domo, you have restored my faith in humanity, thank you thank you 

After my hugs I headed off with the hugest smile on my face and a spring in my step (how poetic). If you keep walking past the Jingu-bashi you will come across a Rock-a-billy Heaven, you round an unsuspecting corner into a large paved area with murals on the ground and groups of rock-a-billy dancers standing in circles. I would never have known about this place if it hadnt have been for a passer by that stopped me last year to talk to me about my tattoos, he told me to go around the corner for a special surprise that would be just up my alley (yeah sounds dodgy hey, how could he know my love for ummm.... street venders). The only way I can describe it so you get the idea is, kinda like Stomp the Yard (or one of those equally bad American dance movies), there were 4 different "crews" set up inside the open air arena and they would take turns in laying down their best moves. The best thing about this for me is the detail that they put into their costumes and their hair, I honestly could watch them all day

As my time was running short, I could only stay and watch for a short time, for beyond the arena lays Garden Park (or Yoyogi Park). Hands down my most favourite single place in Tokyo. Something I have noticed about the places that I have travelled is the lack of trees, and being in the Tokyo concrete jungle I guess I miss a bit of greenery. Garden Park brings the wilderness back hard styles. Everywhere you look there is amazing Autumn Foliage (Japan has real seasons yo!!! not like in Australia where we have "pretend" seasons), wide open grassed spaces and water features. To say its beautiful is slightly an understatement.

One of my favourite botanical mistresses (que Millencolin) of Garden Park is the rose gardens that are in the middle of the park area, there are rows and rows of  beautiful rose bushes that were fully in bloom. As I was walking through the gardens a little boy was chasing his sister and there were laughing, whilst my first thought was "damn kids, get off my lawn and keep your noise down" I couldnt help but smile at their carefree nature. I did want to chase them and push them over to show them how real brothers and sisters should behave, but I thought that a very large white lady pushing small asian children over might raise a few eye brows so I refrained.  I always say that life is about the little things, and stopping to smell the roses is one of these things (and by the way, they smelt amazing)

Garden Park is a wash of people on a Sunday afternoon, and everywhere you look there is something exciting going on. There are musicians to sit and watch, couples kissing on blankets (I dont think you can sit and watch this because that might be a bit creepy, but hey if you want to give it a crack go right ahead), people walking their little costumed adorned dogs and people playing frisbie. Any activity that you can think of, I am sure you can find here. Its a great place if you like to people watch (or go to have quiet moments on a blanket with your significant other, I personally hate these people as I do not have a significant other and my supply of cats is sadly running low)

I wanted to join them, but I didnt know if I would get a banging welcome

In the middle of garden park there is a giant fountain with a rather quaint little bridge going over the top of it (no trolls but a few small Japanese children so maybe same/same), last year when I was here, I took a coin and tossed it into the fountain whilst making a wish (hey I have seen them do this in the movies and it works), sadly my wish hasnt come true yet, so I decided to give it another crack, possibly my 50 Yen donation did not appease the gods, so this time I decided to throw a whole handfull in and make a wish with all my heart... I will let you know when it comes true, because I believe that it will... I deserve it

Is that a jet in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Crap, I just realised this is only 35 Yen, maybe the gods will be tricked because there are more coins... keep your fingers crossed kids

And with that I was done, it was time to head back to the hotel to collect my bags and high tail to the airport. On walking down the main shopping street one last time I ran into another group of free hug hippies, they were joined by an American guy from Boston who at a whim had decided to join them and wave a sign.... Japan is the place where people come together and as much as I wanted to stay I really had no choice to go, I wonder what the reception would be if I was to hold up a Free Hugs sign in the middle of Forrest Chase? I might try this one day 

A metro, a bullet train, a lost ticket, a plane, a dinner spilt on a brand new white shirt, a 7 hour stop over, a delayed flight, another plane, a customs line as long as Mt Fuji and a mother at the wrong airport and I am home. It is with sadness that I bid adure to Japan for now, thank it for its amazing experiences, curse it for being a breeding ground for negativity and come back more tired than when I left.  If that was Japan, I well and truely did it and am counting down the days until I can do it again

Love and Lucky Coins 

Miss K 

Street Vender Noodles. Sooooo amazing and cheap

Amazing Autumn Foliage 

No Fireworks? Maybe its lucky I didnt have a lover to go with 

Maybe one of these lovely ladies will be interested in being my companion? I do like them Chesty

Big Piece Yo!!!!

Tattooist said no beer - But he didnt say no Chi-hi

We had been really lucky with the weather for most of our time in Japan but as if the weather decided to match my mood when I got up on Saturday morning the heavens had opened and it was raining the preverbial cats and dogs. Having to change hotel rooms means we needed to get out of the hotel early which gave me time in head to worry about what was to come, I headed off on the train to Shinjuku thinking I was giving myself plenty of time to get there, find the studio, grab some food and relax, for anyone that has spent any time in Japan I am sure you know where the next bit of this story is going!!!! Japanese train stations are confusing and despite previously heading to the studio and trying to dillegantly pay close attention to my surroundings and exits so I could find my way again I got catastrophically lost and on checking my watch 45 minutes quickly got eaten up. I was LATE and saturated and hating life. I ended up finding the studio at about 12.10 (my appointment was at 12) and was ushered in and told to sit down.

Normally when I get tattooed there is friendly banter with staff, I feel at home in my surroundings, but in a non English speaking Tattoo studio that doesn’t really happen. I sat in a corner, trying to look at books written in Japanese to distract myself from what was going on. The artist came out and showed me my design and thankfully it was amazing and nothing needed to be changed (I can imagine this would have been a struggle to try and communicate), after watching him set up (This was very important to me, I wanted to see that they were fresh needles and equipment, having been tattooed as much as I have, I think I know the set up pretty well) we smashed the stencil on and were ready to start. He did know one English word “Ready?”  and to this I meakly nodded my head. Let me tell you, my heart was in my throat and I thought that it might explode because I was so nervous. I am pretty sure that the tattooist might now think I am a crazy cardigan lady because after the first two lines I started to laugh manically. I had built this experience  up so much in my head and thought that it was going to be as painful as stabbing myself in the eye with a rusty spoon and infact it was pleasant and easy!!! He had the softest touch and his lines were so fine and gentle that I could easily forget that I was getting tattooed. 2 hours later and we were done, the final result speaks for itself, I am over the moon

Stencil On

Bahhhhdahhhhhh

After hobbling awkwardly back to my hotel and a few hours sleep I was ready to smash it!!!! The tattooist had told me “iiee Beeru” which translates to no beer, but he didn’t say anything about no Chu-Hi and because I had missed the festivities on Friday night I wasn’t going to miss out tonight. It was my last night in Tokyo and I wanted to go out in big styles. The plan was the same as the night before, meet the boys at Shibuya crossing at midnight and we would find somewhere to go and celebrate.

One thing that always astounds me about the people in Japan is their sociability, despite the rain and the late night hours the crossing was still packed. I met up with Luke and Aarron and we sat in Starbucks drinking our Chi-His (yep you can drink on the streets and in random Starbucks stores as well it seems) and kept an eye out for Stewy, there is really nothing as good to me as standing amongst a mass of people and taking in the atmosphere and the crossing is one of my favourite places to do this.

When Stewy showed up the decision was made to go to AgeHa which is the biggest club in Tokyo, there is a bus that goes out to it so all we needed to do was find the bus stop and we would be set, we wandered around to cries from Stewy of "this looks familiar" but in the end we gave up and asked some people and the Japanese being so lovely walked us to where the bus would leave from. It was by asking randoms where to go, that we found a fourth person for our adventures. We met a Canadian from Montreal who was travelling by himself and was looking for night life, and he decided that he would tag along with us. To me, this is travelling, when I was alone I used to just tag along with people given any chance, its how you build your experiences. 

AgeHa Entry

We jumped on board the bus and headed off to the club Mecha that was AgeHa, on arriving our only instructions was "Dont Jump in the Pool or they WILL throw you out", we put our coats in the coin lockers (and my camera, no cameras allowed, devo) and headed inside and by golly was this place HUGE and awesome. They have rooms for all your favourite genres of dance music and straight away we headed out to the DnB room and cut some shapes. One of the Unique things about this club is there a pool on the outside deck, while it was cold outside everyone was still tearing it up, what more can you want in a club, great atmosphere, great view BLISS (well actually I would have liked there to be a higher number of tall gorgeous single millionaires (or even one would have done)  but you cant win them all). The rest of the night was flitting from room to room soaking up the atmosphere of the place and dancing. God it felt good to dance.

Lasers in the Main Room - Mental

The song Reflections by Bliss N Eso goes "Its not the high when you're running round, its the friends that you find when you're coming down" and this has rung true for me many times in my travels (not the getting high bit, getting high in a foreign country is just a silly idea) and this night was one of these. We ended up breaking out into the day light at about 5.30 in the morning to make our way back to Tokyo, the last bus is at 5 so we started walking towards the train station. On our journeys we met some awesome Hawaiian guys who chatted to us because of my shoes (I was wearing my drift cats for those playing at home), turns out they drive 86s and have been living in Japan for 11 years. To me its the little coincidences in life that can make me look back and smile about my experiences. They helped us find out way to the station, get on the right train and bidded us farewell... its the little things right.

6am Tokyo Sky

Someone I know said that 0430 - 0630 were the best hours in the day, for everything and on this one occasion I would have to agree, there is nothing like the morning sun rising over a sleeping city, the passed out people on the train, the garbagemen, the old people going for walks, the clear stillness in the air, there is nothing like it at all. I walked back to the hotel listening to Aussie Hip Hop with a smile on my face , because this is living

6am, a Tokyo Street, a moment of quiet

Love and Inky sheets

Miss K

Hip Hop and Smiles (and maybe an old person)

P.S Turns out you also get kicked out if you throw people in the pool, hey Luke?

Pancakes and a life less Boring

As some of you know I was doing Japanese lessons for 6 months at the start of the year in order to fulfill my dream of moving to Japan, my lessons stopped when my amazing teacher Eri moved back to Japan in April, and I was pretty excited to be coming back to Japan so that I could see her again. It was decided we would meet at Tsukijima station at 6.30 and go for dinner in a local area and have Okonomiyaki and Monjyayaki. Once again Japan turned into all about the food for me, being in a culture with such amazing food has blown my mind (and my belt line)

As I got off the train I saw Eri waiting at the gate, exciting stuff to see her again and we headed off into the cold Autumn night down a little side alley lined with restaurants. This whole street does nothing but Okonomiyaki and Monjyayakii and the most amazing thing is that you get to cook it yourself!!!!  I am still not 100% sure on what the difference is between the two but they are both a Japanese pancake kinda thing. I think (don’t quote me and please correct me if you know the answer) Okonomiyaki  is made with an egg pancake base and is a signature dish of Hiroshima area (we had the Tokyo adaptation)  and the Monjyayaki is made with a flour and water base and is a Tsukiji speciality dish that used to be made for little kids to eat (I think it would be equivalent to our bubble and squeak). It didn’t look so nice but it was great, we had one that was made from Cabbage and pork and apparently because of the way that it looks a lot of foreigners don’t enjoy it. Baka Gaijins, I am pretty sure most of them would have put things far far worse into their mouths but alas I digress.

Doesnt look so delicious, but tastes great (both the things in this picture ;) )

After dinner I headed back to the hotel room to find the little asian getting ready to head out on the town with the boys from Adelaide. The plan was to meet at Shibuya crossing at 11 and we would see where the night would take us from there… Clubs in Japan don’t really start to kick off until about 12 or 1 in the morning so we had some time to kill before we headed off somewhere so a stop to the 7/11 for some more Chu-Hi was necessary. We set off to find a club called Air because there was a house DJ that was playing that was supposedly the business, one thing that I learnt is when Stewy says he knows where something is, he might be confused. The boys jumped into a taxi to try and find the club and I decided to call it a night, afterall Saturday was tattoo day. Again on catching the last train I was struck by the amount of people that were on the train, the normally quiet train carriages had turned into loud rowdy train carriages.

Midnight at Shibuya Crossing

I got back to the hotel and I don’t know what came over me, I was filled with so much fear for the impending tattoo that I couldn’t sleep, for anyone that knows me, I am pretty heavily tattooed so in reality getting a small tattoo on my foot shouldn’t be anything to blink an eye at. I think possibly the fear of the unknown, a tattooist that I know doesn’t speak English, I don’t know how he tattoos or if I am going to like the design that he has drawn. I also thing that because my last tattoo was my back piece in my head, I am associating all tattooing with that 3 months of constant pain and healing, I guess there was nothing I could do but suck it up and see how we would go. I ended up drifting off to sleep just as I heard a smacking sound against the hotel door and on opening it found a small asian man slumped against the door and on dragging him inside he got into his bed and profusely thanked it in Japanese (heck I don’t know what was in his bed, but if it made him thankful and he was quiet who was I to say anything). 

Some other observations I have made on Japanese Life 

- Their construction workers are no where near as good looking as ours. They dont really do High Vis, it all looks to formal and clean

- There are a lot of homeless people, no one asked me for money but they were everywhere. You would walk through train stations and there would be homeless people sleeping in corners everywhere. The symptom of a fucked up economy

- They promote smoking like its a glamorous activity and there are cigarette vending machines on every corner. I know its someones choice to smoke but I dont like it being thrust in my face (much the same as religion I guess) 

- Stand up ramen bars arent for tall white people, bending over to eat my dinner is never my idea of a good time

- I think I want a small asian child, they are the cutest 

Love and a Boring Life

Miss K

I dont smoke, but would consider doing it just so this guy doesnt kill me

Painful Ramen - Stand up eating is pretty painful its true

I'm all for love hotels but I dont think this one is for me

A giant gold man and 100mtrs of Falling Water

On a crisp Autumn Thursday in November (mainly yesterday) a tall dark hair women and her small asian side kick boarded a motor coach to head off into the hills to visit Nikko and the Kegon Waterfalls located a few hours drive outside of Tokyo. Nikko is a religious city North of Tokyo and is home to some world Heritage listed shrines and beautiful Edo period History. Please find some commentary ala Kerry for your digestion on the Nikko region

As we drove through Nikko village we passed the Shin-Kyo which is a sacred red bridge over the Daiya-gawa which is famed to be the spot where Shodo Shonin was carried across the river on the backs of two giant serpants. It was the gateway to the temples laying over the river for the travelling worshippers

No trolls under this bridge

Inside the Shrine Complex there are 4 different shrines with each of them representing a different Buddishm sect or mausoleum , these are the Rinno-Ji, The Toshu-Gu, Futaran-Jinja and Taiyuin-Byo. Lining the street of the main entry way up to the temples are hundreds of ancient Cedars that are over 400 years old, my details are a bit sketchy here but the trees were donated by someone would couldn't actually afford to make a monetary donation, so he went around and collected lots of small sapplings and planted them along the road as an offering to the gods. When walking on the road you should walk to the sides because the centre is reserved for the path of the gods. 

Cedar Line Street

Fun little fact for you, the pathway up to the temple is made of crushed stone, this was done so that if enemies were approaching you would hear them coming through the sound of the crunching gravel. The gravel that was used isnt native to the area and all had to be bought in and laid. 

Sadly my photos for the next bit are going to be a bit lacking as you arent allowed to take photos inside the shrines, so use your imagination. The first shrine that we entered was the Hinji-do which is best known for the crying dragon that is painted on the ceiling, a monk stands under the Dragons mouth and when he claps his sticks together the dragon roars, if you can hear the dragon roaring it is said to bring your good fortune (I heard its roar, totes means I am going to win lotto). The accoustics in the room cause this Phenominon and if you are standing anywhere else in the room and clapping the sticks you cant actually hear the dragon roaring.

Probably the prettiest of all the temples in this area is the Yomei - Mon or the Sunset gate, it is highly decorated with gold leaf and intricate brightly colour carvings of girls, flowers and birds. The people that created the gate were worried that the perfection of what they created would make the gods envious so when the final pillar was installed they put it in upside down so that this wouldnt happen. I like the idea that through imperfection, perfection is created, for me it resounds in life as well, I am not perfect but for someone I am (yes I know, pass me the bucked *spewwww*) 

Sunset Gate

I bet this guy gets all the bitches 

The column on the left is the Imperfect one... I will stand on the left 

Inside Toshu-Gus main hall there is a painting of a Kirin which is mythical creature that is half dragon and half Giraffe, it is known to be a Symbol of peace because it likes to eat iron weapons. It is said to only appear when the world is at peace (or when you go to the 7/11 beer cabinet). Also through the sunset gate is a small wooden carving called the Nemuri-Neko, which is a very life like carving of a sleeping cat. It is said that the guy who carved the cat did so with his left hand because he had lost his right hand in a bar fight (actually that was just a blatant lie, his hand got cut off by some jealous guy who was upset that this guy had so much talent, but the carver went up yours buddy and still carved something amazing anyway, so in your face wanna be assailant). Past the sleeping cat there are stairs that go up to Ieyasu's Tomb, and let me tell you, its very beautiful, but big girl struggled with the steps, clearly daily fapping does not constitute strenous exercise and I am bloody unfit. I ended up buying a few trinkets from the top of the tomb, its ok to reward yourself after some hard work

I walked all this way for this? 

Big girl is dying in the Cedar covered paths

The main attraction of the complex though has to be the Rinno-Ji, it is the house of the three golden Buddhas which are the largest wooden Buddhas in Japan. Entering into the room of the Buddhas something washed over me, maybe a kind of calm or a bit of awe. Every time I step into a temple I always wonder why I am there and feel like I am intruding on something private and sacred. As I stood in front of the middle Buddha Amida Nyorai I will admit I gave a silent prayer and paused for reflection, when you are standing in front of a giant 8mtr gold Buddha you really dont have much else you can do but be thankful.  This temple also holds a statue of the healing Buddha, its apparently really good for pregnant women and people with ailments (and thank fuck I am neither of those things, though if I was up the duff the place does have about 1 million steps that I could have thrown myself down to remedy the problem)

Problem Solvered

Around the top of the Shinkusha (Sacred Stable) you can see the story of the hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil monkeys. The buildings are carved with the story of the little monkeys, how they are kids, grow up and the have kids themselves the story repeats itself. I didnt want to get to close to have a look because the Stable had a horse in it.... sacred or not, I aint going anywhere near those death creatures. 

 Sorry I couldnt get closer, The horse was making horse noises, you know how it is 

The Japanese are big believers in good fortune and all over Japan you can find things to tell your "fortune", on walking out of the Shrine Complex I noticed small white bits of paper tied to the trees, the story goes if you get a bad fortune, you tie the fortune to the branches of sacred tree and give it as an offering to the gods, its like saying "Here, I have shit luck, I am going to give it to you and it will all be wiped clean". I got a few fortunes but I am not sure if they were good or bad so I tied them to the trees just incase

A Tree of Bad Fortune

After a Japanese lunch (which let me tell you was the most amazing thing EVER!!!) we were on our way up to the Kegon Waterfalls, on the way up we made a quick stop at Lake Chuzenji which is the highest altitude lake in Japan and is used as a summer retreat for many of the foreign government representatives that are situated in Japan. It is also a great fishing spot and is well known for its Black Bass angling. We rocked up as the sun was lowering over the mountains that surround the lake, the air was crisp and the sky was blue, the air just tastes different up here. 

Ahhhh hows the serenity

 You can see snow on the top of the mountain in the back ground

To get up to Kegon waterfalls you have to take a road called Irohazajzeka Road, I am sure that many of you drift heads have heard this road, think the most amazing Touge road in the world, with 49 corners and sheer drop offs and you are on the money. I wonder if its strange that the bus ride there was more exciting for Kev and I than the actual waterfalls. I wish that we had have visited this road before I went up to Matsuri because being on it made me remember my passion for my car and dong hills runs. 

Sighhhh..... I miss my Stella 

 Smash the Clutch, catch and release 

100mtrs of falling water, Crazy Shit 

There always has to be one doesnt there

I can highly recommend this day trip to anyone that is heading to Japan, the guide that we had was very informative and the scenery is stunning, its enough to make even me silent (and gosh we all know thats a tough thing) the bus drops you back in Shinjuku and you are close to the Government Towers which has a free observation deck on the 45th Floor and its worth the trip up if you have nothing else on. I am attracted by the sparkly lights so this was a must for me. 

 Twinkle Twinkle Little Japan 

Love and Clutch Kicks 

Miss K 

Probably the coolest Paste up I have seen here in Japan, it reminds me of a Hill Top Hoods Album Cover

Our Amazing Japanese Lunch - SOOOO much food

You dont wanna mess this one up, That would be Shit 

Highlight of my trip so far - I got a root 

 This is the Stone Tori leading up to the temples, it is made up of 15 huge stones and was donated by the Warriors that came to protect the Temples 

Birthday Parties and Love in this Club

November is a good month, Japan is a great place, and in this amazing place two amazing things combine to make one huge night of epicness. To mark the end of Matsuri and Andy from Powervehicles birthday they have a party to celebrate it all. After last years efforts I knew this wasnt going to be an event to miss so I made sure we stayed in Ebisu for another day just to get amongst it... and by golly was I not disappointed by this decision. Hoorahhh I night out on the town, lets get pretty (this is a struggle), grab the next door neighbours and destroy the town. Good plan!!!! We drove down the hill to meet the buses (thanks for the lift Kev, you are a champ) and headed off to the Asahi Brewery for some dinner. 

This is Marissa, she is beautiful, we are beautiful

The Asahi Brewing company is one of the biggest Brewers in Japan (I could be lying but lets run with this anyway) and they make everything, Think Coke size but they make booze as well and from what I can gather they have breweries dotted all over the country side, and we headed to a small one near Fukishima for some dinner and a few (to many) drinks. Korean BBQ style dinner and all you could eat, this food was amazing, when your plate of cow was running low the efficient staff run off and come back with more cow. And the drinks are the same, those sneaky little Japanese have eyes like hawks, the minute your glass looks like it is going to run out they pop up with another full glass for you, and as you can imagine this makes it a bit hard to keep track of what you are drinking (or maybe thats all the alcohol talking). We also managed to discover a flavour sensation, which by positivity is double alcohol awesome!!!! Young Hanson wanted a Whisky and Cola but was promptly told no Cola, but he could have Whisky and Cider... interesting yes, but let me tell you, this is probably one of the greatest drinks I have tasted. I suggest that everyone gives it a bash (but then I was pretty drunk so may have been mistaken at its deliciousness.

They give you bibs, you know this shit is serious

Trish cooking up a storm 

And what was I drinking, water and lots of it... but before that, something pink and delicious known as Pink Grapefruit Chu-Hi. The Wikipedia definition of Chu-Hi is this but I think it should be the drink that gets you fucked up and makes you fuck shit up. After drinking these I got super awesome classy and may have possibly given the road a litt-o-bit of rainbow (but never worry, it was out the window of the bus and none of it actually went on the bus). I honestly dont remember drinking that much, which makes me think that these things are deadly (and the few headaches that I had, had during the week can possibly testify to this as well). I also learnt a valuable lesson, when you get sick on a bus and tell people not tell anyone and they say they wont, they are fibbing. Thankyou to Leighton Fine, who told Emily the minute I got off the bus, well I guess it serves me right for just jumping on a random bus.... maybe it was their company that made me sick.... lets go with that. 

If only I had have known what was coming, I would have been pulling the same face as James

So after emptying the contents of my stomach on the way we ended up at a Kareoke Bar in Fukishima (I am going to guess its Fukishima, the bus trip was a bit of a blur) and the catch phrase of the night was "Fuck Shit Up" and it was chanted religiously throughout the night.... most of the chants being started by Suenaga from Team Orange (this guy is crazy). And shit got fucked up, towers made from glasses, pie face smashing, sausages being thrown around like confetti, floors covered in beer and people on the ground more than they were on their feet. So much awesome in one night, all liquored up with the aid of the guys from Agent K, who every time I ordered water would tell them to get me a big glass of water and order me another drink at the same time, cheeky cheeky. 

Darren, Christian, Benny and Suenaga Fucking shit up

Apparently we were to hard core for the Kareoke and (not) suprisingly we got kicked out and herded onto buses back to the hotel, a 5 minute stop at the 7/11 for supplies (pro tip icecream is not a suitable food to soak up alcohol) and then off home we went... after a bit more partying and hilarities I was done for the night and would wake up in the morning with no hang over *cough*. This officially ends our stay in Nihonmatsu and in the morning we got on the train and headed back to Tokyo. 

Being back in Tokyo for me is like being home, I love this city and it makes me feel at ease. I decided to head out to try and get tattooed (Thanks Anton for putting this idea into my head) so after some researched headed out to a few studios to see what I could organise, where we are staying in Ikebukuro is the Yakuza hang out area so I knew there would be a few studios around the area, but was concerned about whether or not that they would tattoo a gaijin, the first shop that I went looking for I couldnt find so headed off to find the second shop that I had written down. Now I am a big believer in fate and I think finding this studio was a bit of fate, I walked in and not only will the guy tattoo me but his favourite wrestler is also the same as my amazing Tattooist from home Mike Van (if you want rad tattoos hit this guy up), so it was set, I would get tattooed and it would be amazing. 

Finding spots like this in the middle of the city make it amazing

Today disaster struck, I realised that mistakenly I had got the days of my tours wrong and infact am going to be in Nikko when I am meant to be getting tattooed, I have emailed the guy and hopefully I can move my appointment. There were a few studios that I was interested in checking out while I was in Japan, so after the news that my plans would be disrupted I headed off to find another studio in the hope of getting a walk in spot. I got on the train and headed to Shinjuku to find Blossom Studio. I walked around the same street about 10 times trying to find it and eventually I got there, damn the Japanese road signs and street layouts are confusing. 

I am sure all of your have walked past a tattoo studio in the past, they have signage and glass windows and some advertisement that it is infact a tattoo studio, in Japan things are a little bit different which makes studios pretty hard to spot. I went up an elevator to the 5th floor and knocked on a blank door (yeah I can hear you thinking FUCKKKK!!!! I was thinking that a little bit as well) and when I opened the door, there was a regular tattoo shop hiding behind the door. WINNN!!!! next problem was that there was no english speaking staff. Let me tell you trying to book and organise a tattoo with the added language barrier is a bit tough, but after an hour of working together we  managed to get it sorted and I have an appointment on Saturday at 12 lunch time to get a matching crane on my foot. I wonder if whinging sounds the same in english as it does in Japanese? Lets hope not because I want to appear tough. 

One thing that I have noticed about Tokyo is that its a city of love, I know they say Paris is but I have been noticing it a lot around here. There are a lot of happily loved up young couples walking around hand in hand  in the love bubble and its nice. I dont know if it is only because I am paying more attention than I do at home, or if there is actually more couples but I do notice it more. I think today it made me a bit sad to be alone, but then I remembered, I am listening to Aussie Hip Hop in Tokyo and I dont need no man to make me awesome!!! I cant remember if I have touched on it before but in Japan they have "Love" Hotels everywhere and its probably a good thing for these kids, imagine having to catch a train home to have intimate relations with your significant other, that shit takes time and you dont want to ruin the mood. 

I think this is a love hotel, how fancy is that 

In case you were wondering a love hotel is a room you can hire for a few hours to hold hands and have polite conversation. There are some places that offer themed rooms or you can just get a room that is like a fancy fancy hotel. You enter the establishment of the place you want to stay and there is a light up board with all the rooms on it, when you have selected the room you want you push the button and head to the counter and pay the lady for your visit. And then from there... well like I said holding hands and polite conversation. 

You want to hold hands for a long time or a little time?

Going to head off now to find something to eat, hope its something amazing and obscure, and maybe get some new kicks. Thats one thing I love about Japan, its 7pm and I know that I will have no problem going to find something to eat and some shops to terrorise. Ahhh Japan how you treat me good 

Love and Hand Holding 

Miss K 

Japanese Candy Anyone?

Caught red handed with his sausage out

Matt says "Take that Suenaga"