Differences

Things really have changed here over the last few months, and no, this isn’t more navel gazing or self-reflection. As you all know the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck the northern coast of japan closer to two months ago and while things have returned to a slight sense of normalcy, at least in places, in others the differences are profound. Last weekend I went down to Shibuya as I will every so often to take pictures of the city, the sights, sounds and people. At first glance things did appear to be normal, thousands of people crammed into a very busy intersection with people running in all directions at once, groups of friends gathering, chatting, or just chilling. You wouldn’t think that anything negative would have occurred such a short time ago. So I walked around taking lots of pictures visible here http://www.flickr.com/photos/58409124@N03/ http://verseless-photography.com/ http://www.verseless.deviantart.com/

Note, none of them, or at least very few, are actually of the city, that’s for a reason. Sundown finally came and I set up my camera at about 15 till, and I start to look around expecting the lights to come on any second hoping to get some great pictures of the city and people. Maybe a few nice low light shots. Possibly a good spontaneous portrait or two. The sun goes down behind the labyrinthine cityscape, the last copper hues of the sunset fading into….dark? The city was dark, for Shibuya anyway. The closest comparison that I can give to it would be like standing in Times Square and all of the billboards, all of the video screens, were turned off. And that’s exactly it, all of the video screens, all of the advertisements, the brighter streetlights, even shop lights were deactivated to save power. Now, I am unsure of the exact state of the infrastructure here in japan right now, but I know that since the Fukushima Daiichi plant got hit life appears to be at least a little less colorful in Tokyo.

People have been through worse in the world, and thankfully Tokyo just seems to be rationing power, no daytime lighting on the trains, or air conditioning at all, no heated seats either, small little conveniences that I’d begun to take for granted now no longer evident in anyone’s lives. Might just be my observation, who knows, maybe they’re flawed, that could be. But to see all of those bright, comforting, and saturating lights and sights just gone….it made me feel like something had been lost. It made me remember that everything we’re doing to help these people will actually have an effect. It may be years, it may be decades but to see Shibuya return to its former shining glory will be worth it at some point. A transformation has taken place in the nation of Japan and they’ll never be the same. The lights will eventually return, the glitz and glamour will be back to inspirational levels at some point, but for now things are subdued if only in some degree.

I wouldn’t say that any of this has been inspirational though, that word just doesn’t cut it, to apply such a finite word to a series of events such as these, to apply such a word to the relief effort that started the day it happened, the month of nonstop support that numerous nations provided and continue to provide still, the coming together of branches of numerous militaries, raid organizations, and even firefighters from all across the globe coming together to forge a cohesive response force well within a month to help these people, is not inspirational. It… is… legendary. It’s not about medals, news coverage, a renewed sense of responsibility, strong senses of pity, regret, conscience, or anything like that. It’s that almost jubilant feeling of pride you get hearing that perhaps barely intelligible ‘thank you’ from people that genuinely have many things to be thankful for. I’ve only ever personally received the smallest part of that, one lone man telling me that we’re ‘big hero country, thanks for what you do.’ I can only imagine the kind of thanks that rescue workers deserve and received when they helped those directly affected by the tsunami.

If you’re coming here don’t expect all the ultramodern conveniences that have been touted for years, even some basic amenities are still hurting, come here expecting the warm reception of a thankful nation and from those truly in need. If you’re leaving here, like me, then I hope that you’ve received a sense of pride that you’ll never forget. Those who leave may go on to do great things, but remember, the greatest thing that one can hope to accomplish is to have been deserving of a simple ‘thank you’ from one you’ve helped however indirectly.

All-nighter in Roppongi

Well….



Pulled an all-nighter in Shibuya/Roppongi last night just acting as the wingman of one of my buddies. Interesting experience, being well not-single in a place filled with whores and strip clubs, but I’ll get to that soon enough. The night started well enough, going to the Enlisted club trying to win the 900 dollar jackpot. Surprisingly they had a rather amazing buffet there and it provided an awesome free dinner. Sadly nobody won the 900 dollars so I’ll go next week maybe when it’s up over 1,000. I mean really? Woman that had the winning ticket left, what is there more important than wining nearly 1,000 dollars and making a 1,000 dollar profit. Hopefully the person had a sick kid or an emergency at home.



After that I left with my buddy to head down to Shibuya so he could meet up with his date and get the night started with a few drinks, while I abstained personally from alcohol as bad things happen and considering I have a girlfriend alcohol in a place filled with whores and strip clubs don’t mix. Shibuya itself was cool, mostly a shopping district with a few clubs and bars. I’d go back there I think, so long as I have the money but I think I’ll save up for a good while before going out again, spending money on coffee got expensive. Speaking of which I’m a victim of Brand recognition, had some vending machine coffee and the only reason I had that coffee is because I thought the Tommy Lee Jones commercials were funny as hell. Let me make this clear I only had the coffee because Tommy Lee jones was selling it……. I hate being a victim of advertising campaigns, was good coffee though, so yeah.



I have no idea how many times I had to say variations of ‘No thank you’ to people trying to get me to go to strip clubs, or whores offering massages with ‘happy endings’ than I care to count. For that reason not a place I’ll go back to during the night time. I did however go see Tokyo Tower at night, long cold walk, past the Russian embassy and Aston Martin dealerships, past pricy business and then up a very steep hill, and get to look up at the bottom of a very well lit icon of the Tokyo landscape, quite breathtaking if taken in the right context. Hell even the police guarding the entrance were marveling at the thing.

If you’re wondering where my buddy was all this time, he was at a club I had no interest in. I’d rather not pay 2,000 yen to get into a Rap club where drinking is mandatory, we did keep in touch with our phones so I didn’t abandon my wingman, and the night ended well for him.



Anyway after walking up and down the street for the millionth time saying no to the same club pushers and whores I dip into what turns out to be a rather fancy restaurant and order a few things. I had what turned out to be an appetizer, grilled beef with potatoes and Miso, now it was an absolutely amazing use of my money, should have gotten a bowl of udon but well que sera sera, I also had pumpkin mousse, and that was an absolutely amazing choice, the rich creamy texture with the strong pumpkin flavor was absolutely marvelous. Now at this point it’s about 2:30 AM trains have stopped and I’m tired of saying no to the same whores, so I dip inside Starbucks and have a coffee, black and wind up dumping 6 or 7 packets of sugar and honey into it to try an improve the flavor, that worked for about 15 minutes until Starbucks closed, then over to Mc Donalds to use the restroom. But only place open was the ordering area, McD’s had private security guarding the upstairs where the seating areas and restrooms were. Let that sink in for a little bit, Private Security At a fast food restaurant. Typical rent-a-cop uniform, and deformed security guard and everything, guys ear looked like it had been chewed up and spit out, but yeah so I order another coffee, and let me tell you, I STRONGLY prefer starbucks over Mc Donalds, but that doesn’t mean the coffee tastes much better. So I’m sitting at Mc Donalds just watching the street and a girl winds up sitting next to me, blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin. I figure ‘what the hell’ lets hope she speaks English. So I start up a nice and polite conversation with the woman, turns out to be German, and just finishing up an extended vacation before she starts college. Nice person to talk to while waiting for the crack of dawn. Then I see what may be my first encounter with yakuza activity. The two of us ‘me and the german woman’ are watching from the 2nd floor window when this guy gets kicked out of a big van with blacked out windows, approaches the drivers side and kneels, forehead touching the ground, for about a good two minutes before running back into the van. NO clue what he did to insult the driver, but from what we could see they looked like Sterotypical yakuza, nice suits, strict behavior customs, young.



Anyway so 5 AM rolls around and me and the German say our good byes and go home to our respective ends of Tokyo, should have gotten her facebook she seemed very nice, and by this point I’m fighting off sleep like Indiana Jones fights Nazis. The lyric from an iron Maiden song comes to mind ‘He’s walking like a deadman’…that’s how crappy I felt. And yeah finally make it back to base and PTFO for a few hours.

So that was my all-nighter.