Day 28 Japan
It's Mario Cart day!
But first. I slept terribly in the book hostel. It was the noisiest place I've been on this trip. Since the place was so small and people were still arriving after midnight it was just a constant stream of noise for ages. People banging the metal stepladders with the bags or toiletry cases or whatever, sliding the curtains, talking in the room. It wasn't fun.
If anyone ever decides to stay here I would heartily recommend a solid set of earplugs and possibly a blow-up mattress. The beer also is very expensive so I would bring your own.
I like the gimmick of this place but the execution is somewhat lacking. Still - they filled the place despite it's shortcomings and the price is more than double that of some better places I've been in so they must be making money.
Checked out then headed back to Akihabara to do MARIO CART. There's a company called MariCar that operates in a few cities in Japan where you can dress up as a Mario Cart character and drive through the streets of the city in a go kart. Sort of a self drive tour. I only heard of this in a hostel about a week ago but almost everyone I talk to has heard of it so I guess I've just been living under a rock.
It was a great fun! We only had 3 people in our group which I think was great. Another Aussie (and his wife and daughter rode in the support tuk-tuk) and a Korean girl. Means you weren't waiting for many people and the people at the back weren't sucking fumes from too many carts.
The Korean girl arrived first and picked the Mario costume. I chose Luigi and the family went for Minions which I think was inspired. The tour leader was a minion as well so it would have been cute if we'd all done the minion thing but whatever. Not that I'm a big Mario fan (I was a Sega person not a Nintendo person growing up) but I wanted to be Mario or Luigi.
Our course was below. I can't remember why I chose this particular course over any of the other ones but it was good.
Started with us working our way through the city towards Tokyo tower. It was a bit slow going at first because of all the traffic lights and other traffic but it was fun driving around. We worked our way around and went past some beautiful areas of the city (the old palace gardens for example) then headed over the Rainbow Bridge. It's a big bridge with a spiral entrance on each end and it's apparently lit up with colourful lights at night.
Anyway the rainbow bridge was fun because this was where we hit top speed. We topped out at about 65km/h on the bridge but we definitely could have got more out of it. Mario was a little bit timid and since she was first in line we were stuck behind her so we never really got as fast as we could at any particular point. No overtaking and rubbing was not racing in this particular case.
After that we drove around the Bay Area for a little while then had a quick leg stretch there for 5 or 10 minutes.
At this point we ran into some alternate Mario Cart groups from different locations and I met alternate Luigi. Clearly in his reality they make bigger suits. We posed for a few photos and then started to head back towards base. Back over the bridge then we went though the Ginza high end shopping district and finally back through Akihibara to finish up.
It was great fun and I'm really glad I did it. It was an interesting and interactive way to see some of the city. It also brought a lot of smiles to people's faces as we were driving. You would see drivers in other cars grinning and people waving and taking photos. Our tour leader had more than one conversation with pedestrians and other drivers along the way explaining what was going on. It was especially fun when a group of kids would see us. Their eyes would go wide and they'd start pointing and shouting.
I'd really recommend it for anyone going to Tokyo, Osaka or whatever the other places were (Google it).
Things to note if you want to do it:
1. You NEED an International Driving Permit (get it from RAA / RACQ / RACV etc... at home for 60 bucks when you show them your license) otherwise you can' thrive.
2. Consider bringing a face mask if you're sensitive to smog or diesel fumes. We were literally in the middle of traffic (like less than a metre away from semi trailers going at 60km/h on the bridge) so it did get a bit smokey at times.
3. Sunglasses. They will provide you clear plastic goggles to protect your eyes from flying stones and whatnot but I'd recommend sunglasses particularly if the weather is good.
4. The suits are HOT. They are pure polyester and don't breathe at all and they slip on over your clothes so don't wear anything too heavy. You will be a sweaty mess afterwards.
5. Consider hiring a Bluetooth speaker (or bring your own) to pump some music. It would have been much more fun with some music blaring (possibly Mario theme music though I assume that will get annoying after a while).
I think we finished up about 1.30 so I headed for lunch after that. At that point I realised I had left my glasses in the pouch on my cart. Fuck! So I sent them a message and headed back after lunch but no glasses were found. Apparently the cart was already out with the next group so I had to come back in 20 or 30 minutes to see if they were still there.
So I went and found some NEW THONGS! Can you believe I had to go to a place that specialised in large feet to get these? I found some in another couple of places but they were all too small. These are actually a little bit long but they will do the job. Since the strap is narrower on these than my last one my thong tan doesn't really suit anymore and I don't think I have enough summer countries left to really get it going again. Will have to wait til next year.
Came back and the glasses were not found. They did manage to find 2 other pairs of sunglasses that people had left behind but not my glasses. So I showed them a picture of me wearing the glasses and they sent me a message about an hour later saying they had found them. Hooray! I wouldn't have to go to an optometrist and get glasses shipped somewhere. That would have been tedious.
I had been considering going to a maid cafe while in Akihibara as it seems to be a thing you do here. I'd been thinking about it but I just didn't feel comfortable with the idea. Basically pretty girls dress up as a maid, act all cutesy and serve you food and drink. There are different types apparently from subservient to giggly / flirty to Victorian era stuff. And while I know it's not a sexual thing it just feels really pervy and creepy and exploitative and I just couldn't do it.
At this point I had a few things on my list but none of them were especially close by so I decided to go have a closer look at Odaiba and see the Gundam statue they are building over there. Giant robot statues is a bit of a thing in Japan (i.e. the Tetsujin statue I saw at Kobe) because of the anime culture. The monorail over to Odaiba is really cool! I didn't expect it but it provides really great views of the city and bay area which was cool. Nice to have a view on a train after riding the subway a bit the last couple of days.
So I arrived and wandered over to the Gundam statue which was pretty awesome. I don't know anything about Gundam other than it exists but this guy was pretty impressive. Didn't feel as large as the Tetsujin statue which really felt BIG but this one has a lot more detail and looks like it cost a whole shitload more money. It's still under construction but it doesn't officially open until the week after I leave Japan so I'm going to see it now.
I love Japan. They have a photobooth set up so people can get an under construction photo with Gundam as a memorial and the line was pretty big. About 30 people. I did actually line up for this and had the professional photographer take my photo for me. They did one with their actual camera first which you could purchase (obviously I didn't though it was a good photo) and then they would do one on your mobile for you as well. Apparently the salute is something he does and everyone was doing it so they made me do it too.
After that I just wandered around Odaiba for a while looking around. It's mostly a big shopping district from what I could tell but they did have a couple of cool sounding museums. Unfortunately the National Museum of Emerging Technology and Science was closed the day I was there. On the top floor of one of shopping mall behind the Gundam statue they had a store dedicated to something called Gunpla ... which is a brand new word for Gundam model building. So you go into this store, spend a stupid amount of money on a plastic model of Gundam or another character and you can then sit down and build it in a dedicated area of the store if you want to. Must be some big money spent on this stuff because the store was pretty flash.
I was starting to get hungry and I needed to get my glasses so I headed back to Akihibara to grab those and my bag then went over to Tsukiji where I was staying for the night. The Tokyo fish market is in Tsukiji and it's supposed to be the biggest one in the world. However it's primarily famous for the tuna auction that happens every day at about 5am. They've gone back and forth over the years about whether to let tourists in there or not but the current stance is to let the first 120 people in each day. The catch (see what I did there?!) is that you have to be at the market at about 3.30am to get a ticket then you have to sit around for 2 hours and wait for the auction to start.
I was really interested in seeing the auction but had two things stopping me from committing to it.
1. It feels intrusive. This auction is important for the livelihood of these people's businesses and they did not sign up to be a tourist attraction. It just feels like I'm sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong. Visitor not Tourist.
2. I'm not really truly sure I want to get up at 3am then sit on a cold floor for 2 hours to see 20 minutes of a tuna auction.
Regardless - to give myself the option I booked a hotel close to the market so I could make a decision later and go from there. You have to stay near the market as public transport does not run that early in Tokyo. That was really surprising to me given the size of this city. It's another way that Japan, which seems so forward in many ways, is strange at times.
The place I'm staying tonight is technically a capsule hotel. It's called First Cabin and it's schtick is that all the rooms are supposed to be like a first class sleeping cabin on a plane. Since it is a capsule the doors don't fully close (basically a curtain) but you do effectively get your own little room. Shared bathrooms and whatnot are part of it. It was actually really cool! The facility was in really good condition (it felt near new) and there was hardly anyone there. It had an onsite onsen type thing (not Spring fed but a hot bath) and it was sort of plane themed. I really liked it and while it didn't have the same ambience as the book place for the same price I much preferred it.
Went across the road to have a really nice sushi dinner (since I'm 5 minutes from the fish market it's going to be fresh here!).
CONTROVERSY ALERT.
I sat at the bar at the sushi place and ordered a 13 piece sushi set then was perusing the menu while I waited and I saw WHALE! I've always wanted to try whale and this is the first time I'd seen it on a menu so I immediately ordered it. You could have it as a tartar or as straight sashimi. I went for the sashimi option so I could taste it without the seasoning that comes with a tartar but I didn't take a picture unfortunately.
The flesh was a nice deep red / maroon with some very fine marbling of fat through it. The meat itself was very tender and it basically fell apart in my mouth. Very little chewing required. It was nowhere near as fatty as I was expecting and the flavour was definitely fishy but not as much as tuna. Pretty expensive at nearly $10 AUD for 5 small slices but it was great and I'm really glad I tried it.
I'm not interested in a morality debate about eating whale. I don't know what kind of whale it was and whether they are endangered or not. It was on a menu and it's a local delicacy so I tried it.
The rest of the meal was great as well. There were a number of pieces I hadn't had before that were really delicious (flatfish, fatty tuna and a chive sashimi). Good meal.
Finally for the evening I headed to Shibuya to check out a craft beer bar that Derek and Kat rave about called Dry Dock. Really cool bar. Tiny little place and I got the last spot at the bar downstairs. They have Cantillon bottles for about $20 which you don't see very much in Australia so I had a couple of those and a local Japanese beer which was good (mosaic pale ale ... love mosaic as a hop!).
I also wandered around the Shibuya area for a while. Seemed pretty cool and busy even on a Wednesday night. I think this would have been a fun area to stay.
That's pretty much it for today. When I got back to the hotel I showered and used the bath for a little while since there was nobody else in there. It was a good day.
