My final dental appointment to have my permanent crown fitted was booked in at 1:30pm in Ginza and everything else was “organised” (in as much as I am capable of organising anything) around that. I started with a very quick stop-off at Shimbashi as it was on the way to other places and I had previously spotted something from the train that I wanted a proper photograph of…

From there, via New Days convenience store to buy cakey breakfast, it was off to Akihabara again on a special request errand for a friend. Mission accomplished, then to Ryogoku, where I’d spotted some handy little presents for people. Most shops here don’t open till 11am and I almost cleared this poor fella out of his stock at 11:02am and decimated his float for the day, making him break my 10,000 yen note. Gomen nasai, sir.

Breakfast by the Sumida river near Sumo Hall, then, as I still had a little time to kill, I headed to Ginza early and thought I’d have a nose around Tokyo’s poshest district.

It seems on Saturday a large portion of Ginza San-chome, the main street, is closed to traffic, allow people to mill around where they choose and, indeed, stop for a sit-down and a cuppa in the middle of the road. Imagine how the idea of pedestrianising Regent Street every weekend would go over in London. Yeah…

It was funny to see people instinctively still crossing the road at zebra crossings though.

So, Ginza is very shiny, expensive and well-to-do place. Pretty much all the shops are high-end global fashion brands, so sorry friends, but no presents were purchased here. Have a crazy wobbly building on me though…

Oh and a “Dandy! Dynamite!! Dangerous!!!” Steven Segal poster…

Tell me you don’t want to see that.

Anyway, I wandered up to the dentist’s office about fifteen minutes and was greeted by Hayashi-san, who heard me talking to the receptionist and poked here head out from around the corner with a big grin and a cheery “Hello!”. She ushered me into a room straightaway and got to work (early! Take note, NHS dentists) on my tooth.

That woman has a streak of mischief to her too. About halfway through, she suddenly said “I have to tell you one thing. The [I didn’t catch the word. Sounded like “haijin“, but that means cripples, so that can’t be it. Although…] around here are crazy about you. You’re very popular with the girls.”

I opened my mouth to make a stunned noise and she quickly shoved in some cotton wool and went “Bite down on that. Back in a few minutes” and wandered off! I sense it was all a ruse…

Anyway, we finished up the whole crown procedure in about 45 minutes and she gave me printed out map. “You said you were going to see if the sakura was out in Ueno Park. Don’t get off at Ueno, get off at this station and walk up this road. You have to see it.”

Not wanting to argue with Tokyo’s finest tooth doctor, I rode the two extra stops on the Ginza line to Tawaramachi and ended up on what is called on the public “You Are Here” maps, “Kitchenware Road”.

If Akihabara is where you can pick up anything electronic and Harajuku is the place to shop for clothes, then Tawaramachi is where you go to get everything for your restaurant. Pots & pans, cutlery & crockery are sold everywhere and there is a “gaudy flashing sign” shop. There are shops devoted to the various decorative lanterns one can hang outside one’s premises, a shops that sell nothing but knives of varying sizes, shapes and scariness and a shop that sells nothing but the plastic replicas of food that are on display outside virtually every Tokyo restaurant.

Mmm… tasty-looking, but fake…

Ueno Park is about a fifteen minute walk from Kitchenware Road (thank you iPhone Google Maps and a free wifi hotspot), so rather than put any more pressure on my rapidly depleting Suica card, I hoofed it to the park. Turns out I wasn’t the only one…

Yes, the sakura was indeed out and so was most of Tokyo.

The blossom wasn’t the only reason people had descended on the park. There was also some sort of Japan/Pakistan friendship fair thing…

…booze…

…food (I had a really nice lunch of beef noodles and cherry ice cream from the park vendors)…

…croquet…

..and cats.

Even my return trip to Harajuku being a bust (the sword museum closed for the day before I even left Ueno and a shop I was told was there… wasn’t) couldn’t put a downer on the day as I got to see this…

…and this big fella came to say hi too:-

I saw a kingfisher here too. He jumped off his rock, caught his fish (a little silver one, not one of these heavyweights), biffed its head on the rock to do it in and fluttered off to dine. All before I could even get my camera out.

How can a day with cherry blossom and kingfishers be a bad one?

———-

The trip may be over, but this won’t be my last entry. I’ll be adding bits here and there as I find photos and remember stuff. Tokyo Snack Review isn’t complete and I think I still have an Engrish Alert! or two to add as well, so stick around.

For me, its bedtime now as I fly home in the morning.

I sent my nice comfy long-haul flight shirt to the hotel’s laundry and it came back beautifully packaged…

I almost don’t want to unwrap it…

Coming out of Harajuku station, you have two choices. One exit leads out to Yoyogi Park…

This leads to Meiji Shrine and, eventually, to the Japanese Sword Museum; somewhere I’ve been trying to see for two trips now. Sadly, I still didn’t get to the museum as the area around the park entrance here smelled so bad, it was making me feel sick, so I turned around and headed the other way, into commerce.

On the surface, Harajuku looks like a lot of other Tokyo districts: clean, big safe brands, flashing lights. The whole nine yards. Where this place really comes alive is in the backstreets behind all the big malls.

There seems to be two main areas: Harajuku Street and Takeshita Street (which we’ll get to in a bit). They are packed with every type of clothing shop imaginable and are to the fashionista what Akihabara is to the gadget freak.

The two areas are on opposite sides of a main road and couldn’t be more different. Harajuku Street is more upmarket, with independent and name boutiques, where as Takeshita Street… well…

It’s more like a market. The shops’ wares are cheaper and more extreme than the other side of the road. Shop staff stand outside their shops, waving placards and bellowing about their latest deals. It’s also packed at noon on a Friday…

…and ruder…

Somewhere in the middle of all this is Jingumae, which appears to be where the twain meet.

Any kind of clothing you want can be yours in Harajuku. From an S&M Geisha maid with cat ears (yep) to “Base Station”, who pride themselves on selling good quality, but very plain underwear, socks, vests and T-shirts. That said, when I needed jumpers, I went corporate and ended up at UniQlo. Turns out I’m the perfect UniQlo Japan size Large. Who knew?

A year or so ago, a kid’s Power Rangers style TV show called Rescue Fire started up and made the emergency services cool, so this place sells fashions based entirely around the emergency services.

And while the boys are playing in there, directly across the road..

…is a fancy ladies boutique. Oh, and Spiderman graffiti…

There’s also an art gallery:-

…a snack van…

…and, in the middle of all this chaos, mania and commerce, this quite beautiful thing…

I love this crazy city.

Well, there have been more wrestling shows; six in fact. You want the usual tantalising pics and review links? Of course…

Kaientai DOJO at Shin-Kiba 1st RING

———

Real-Japan Pro Wrestling at Korakuen Hall

———-

Pro-Wrestling NOAH: Live TV special at Korakuen Hall

———-

All-Japan Pro Wrestling: “ProWres Love in Ryogoku Vol.9” Live pay-per-view at Sumo Hall

Great Muta entrance gear display.

———-

Osaka Pro Wrestling at Shinjuku FACE

———-

Dragon Gate: “Compilation Gate 2010” Live pay-per-view at Sumo Hall

The shows varied in quality and there were many different styles on offer, but each one had at least one excellent match and I always felt I got my money’s worth. Having seen eight live shows in eight days, each between two and four hours in length, I’m now a bit wrestled out!

Bedtime now. Further Mega-Update tomorrow.

At the beginning of last week, I was chomping away on perfectly innocent food when I felt something go “crunch”. As I wasn’t in polite company, or even rude company, I felt it perfectly safe to spit out my mouthful and investigate.

“Funny,” I thought. ” I don’t remember there being any nougat in this… Oh, hold on…”

Yep, it was tooth. Lower rear left, to be a little more accurate. Well, shit…

I tested what was left with my tongue. It wasn’t painful and didn’t feel like any more was going to come out, so I figured I could leave it and get it seen to when I got home.

The next morning it did hurt and I quickly decided that leaving it to its own devices for another ten days or so probably wasn’t the best course of action after all. Google to the rescue, then, and a search for “English speaking dentists in Tokyo” brought me the website of, and several recommendations for, Dr. Hitomi Hayashi D.D.S.

I took a chance and sent her an email explaining what had happened and asking her if she’d mind having a look at it. She replied quickly, saying she had a slot free at 11am. I snapped it up and headed to Ginza.

Ginza is quite a fancy district. All the shops are Bulgari, Prada, Dior and, um… Apple. I found the Fujimi Dental Clinic with considerably less difficulty than the doctor’s office earlier in the week and stepped inside a stylish and immaculately decorated reception area. The only clues that you’re in a dentist’s are the gum and toothbrushes for sale behind the reception counter. I almost wish I’d taken photos.

As mentioned on the Tokyo Medical page, the receptionists both spoke good English and I filled in a few forms. A few minutes later, Hayashi-san herself popped out and handed me her business card, asking if I could wait a few minutes while she finished with her previous patient. Really no need as I was quite early. A few minutes more and an English-speaking dental nurse escorted me past a row of sliding doors. At the end of the row, I went through one and realised that behind each one was a dentist at work.

I’ll spare you the details of the root canal that ensued, but suffice to say, I want to bring Hayashi-san home with me. Purely in a dental capacity, you understand.

I’ve had some pretty shitty experiences with dentists in the UK. The German “Vider. VIDER!” woman who, when I was a kid, split the corner of my mouth using her hands to wrench my jaw open past its natural limit. The silly moo who made a right hash of my other root canal (took two goes, not enough anaesthetic, made a mouth ulcer bleed when she jammed her thumb into it and, the tin lid, sliced my gum open with her drill). I’ve not had the best of luck.

Hayashi-san is very friendly and almost always smiling and laughing. She took my trepidation on board and explained every step of the process in clear English as well as being quick and thorough. It’s not cheap, but you get a hell of a service. Especially if you’re used to NHS work.

Today I went back to get the impressions taken for a permanent crown (if I’m getting it done, I’d rather have the best dentist I’ve ever been to do it than an NHS hack back home) and, as we had a few minutes spare, she “buffed out” (for lack of a better term) a patch of that I’ve had for years on another tooth. On the house.

Saturday lunchtime, I need to go back to have permanent crown fitted and, you know what, I’m not nervous at all about getting in that chair again.

Last night, on the way back from Korakuen Hall, I was in a seat near the door when three young ladies got on. They stood by the door and chatted as the train set off. One of them wasn’t holding on to anything and was gesticulating with her hands as she talked. The train lurched out of station and she stepped backwards, tripped over her own handbag and ended up in my lap. Her friends burst out laughing, she apologised profusely, absolutely mortified and they all ran to the other end of the carriage, laughing and hiding their faces in their hands.

—–

A couple of days before, I was heading out on an early, fairly busy train. A troupe of tiny old Japanese ladies got on and, with nowhere else to stand, gathered around me. I offered one of them the low rail I was holding onto as I could reach the ceiling handholds and she couldn’t. She refused and joked that if anything happened, she’d hold onto my arm. Almost immediately, the train lurched out of the station and her eyes went wide as she staggered backwards and grabbed hold of my arm with both hands to stay upright. Her friends fell about laughing. When they got off, she made a muscle pose at me and they all waved goodbye.

—–

All of the stations on the Yamanote Line play a different jaunty tune as the train is preparing to leave the platform. If I can, I’ll record some and upload because they’re great.

The hotel is attached directly to the Wing Takanawa West  shopping arcade. “East” is on the other side of the road, attached to Shinagawa train station.

There are clothing stores, a pharmacy, a small concession mall, a big book/magazine shop (I didn’t see an English section) and a bunch of restaurants, bars and cafes. Speaking of which…

I recommend Anna Miller’s. They do decent Western food (well, the Japanese interpretation of Western food, but at least nothing I ate there had a bloody fried egg on top) at reasonable (for Japan) prices. They also have a takeaway pie window that I will sample (see Tokyo Snack Review) before I leave.

A couple more from around the back of Wing Takanawa West. That French restaurant is way bigger than it looks, stretching quite a way back with another entrance ont he street that runs parallel to the right of the picture.

You know how I love my perspective shots off bridges in this city. Here’s the road the runs along outside the hotel.

That’s the road taken off the other side of the bridge and the station, respectively. Let’s pop into Wing Takanawa East.

1F is clothing and dining (or “Fashion & Tea Room” as the sign outside puts it).

B1F contains the “Food Market”, a supermarket with smart-looking takeaway, dining and snack concessions (never knowingly undercaked, the Japanese) all around. Behind me as I take this picture is also a large wine merchant’s.

These are a series of little restaurants all built under the train tracks. There were at least thirty of them, stretching off in both directions out of this picture.

This was two guys selling immaculately presented sushi boxes out of a converted camper van to the local office workers.

A little wander into Shinagawa station (which is massive) leads us to…

Big Apple, a New York-themed dining area over three floors above the station itself. All the little avenues have names like “Manhattan Drive” and “Seventh Avenue”. There’s a mini-mart and couple of delis, as well as an “East Village” restaurant zone and…

…Central Park. Moving out the other side of the station, we come to…

The Shinagawa Intercity tower (the curvy one on the left), which contains some more shops and some 25 restaurants and another tower I forget the name of (right). What struck me about the tower on the right is that it contains an eight-story InterContinental hotel… which doesn’t start until the 26th floor! Below it are yet more shops and restaurants.

A couple more from around Intercity before we head to…

…Konan, the area east of Shinagawa station.

I didn’t stop to find out why this place is called “Time Shower”. Sounds like a really cheap sci-fi movie to me…

A glimpse down a Konan side-street.

There were also tons of little, twisty, interconnected alleyways, all populated by tiny restaurants and hungry office workers looking for lunch.

That concludes Around Shinagawa. Join us again soon as we explore another of Tokyo’s many districts.

I promised pics of my wee hotel room, so here they are:-

Told you my bathroom was in a cupboard. It’s a little prefab unit, plonked at the back of the room.

Fancy exploring the rest of the hotel? OK, come on then!

There are four towers that make up the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. I’m in the 17-floor East Tower. There’s also the 36-floor Main Tower as well as the Annex Tower and North Tower. The hotel very much subscribes to the Japanese principle of large public area, small personal space. There are, by my count, 68 rooms on each floor (from 2nd to 17th) of the East Tower. A little further up the road is the Grand Prince, which uses the same logo, so I assume it’s related. The Grand Prince has another two towers of its own.

East Tower Reception

Ground floor (1F) connection to the Main Tower. Yes, that is a bridal shop you can see above the Main Tower entrance.

Main Tower reception with its faux stained glass window.

Let’s not forget the in-house convenience store. Around the corner to the right, there are also vast vending machines, selling drinks and, to the left, a stand where you can buy CDs, food and stationery.

Upstairs (2F), there’s a cafe or two, and the connection to the Annex Tower, which is lined with shops, mostly clothes and beauty-related. I look at the price of one of those yutakas: 298,000 yen. £2161.75!

3F is entirely given over to wedding-related stuff,with a photo studio, make-up studio, barber, bridal suite, two chapels and a banquet hall.

“Welcome to the Entertainment Zone” indeed.

Bowling (spread over two floors) and a six-screen cinema. This floor also contains a cafe, day care centre, swanky cocktail bar/nightclub and a connection to the aquarium and what I assume to be a ballroom. The next two floors above (5F & 6F) contain another three banquet halls between them, then on top of that (7F), there’s another two-screen cinema, a cafe and, finally, the reception area for the Annex Tower.

All of the above can be reached without once stepping outside. Speaking of which, see the next post for a little look around Shinagawa.

Saturday was arrival day. I didn’t get to my hotel till gone 9pm, so there was nothing to do really but eat and sleep.

SUNDAY

Sunday was the first two wrestling shows. I hit Korakuen Hall first thing to get my tickets for all the shows I want to see there. I love that venue. The floor all the wrestling shows take place on was designed specially to be a ringsports arena and they have something on every night, wether it’s pro-wrestling, kickboxing, boxing… anything. Although the tickets are expensive by UK standards (it varies from promotion-to-promotion, event-to-event and depends on where you want to sit, but I’d say the average price is about £30 per ticket), not one of the 2000 seats offers a bad view. For anyone who goes, the South side (the one with most seats on the seating plan) offers the best combination of economy and comfort. For my money, the best seats are the back row of the first raised section: close enough to the action, nobody’s big head right in front of you and an easy escape to toilets, snacks and merchandise.

The other plus, of course, is if it’s a show for TV. Wrestlers these days tend to work for the hard camera, which in Korakuen is, yep, at the top of the South side.

Anyway, tickets purchased, it was off to Shinjuku to find the brilliantly named FACE venue for OZ Academy, a small women’s wrestling promotion. FACE is a small, nightclub-looking establishment on the 7th floor of the Humax Pavilion, ten minutes walk North of Shinjuku station. Much like Korakuen, it is set out perfectly to have a ring plonked in the middle:-

I imagine that most of you probably aren’t wrestling fans, so I shall merely tantalise you with a couple of pictures and say that if you want to read my account of the show and see more pictures, head here.

During the interval, I got to meet Manami Toyota, one of the wrestlers on the show, who is an absolutely legend of Japanese women’s wrestling. She was one of the main event stars in the early-mid nineties when women’s wrestling was, fairly regularly, drawing upwards of 40,000 people tomajor shows in venues like the Tokyo Dome. Beyond that, she’s also really, really friendly.

After it was over, I then had the option of trying to cram a 45 minute journey into half-an-hour to get to a special Pro-Wrestling NOAH show in Ariake, on the other side of town. I opted not to, mostly as I was quite hungry and I already have a ticket to their main show at Korakuen on Saturday. Instead it was lunch at the brilliantly named “Italian Tomato Cafe Jr.” and back to the hotel to recharge my camera battery as I knew full well I’d need it that night.

I’m really glad I picked the OZ show over the three other wrestling options I had that afternoon. All five matches were good, but different from one another, the setting was great and crowd were really up for it. I’m going to see if they have another show in town before I leave, especially as the end was designed to drag you back to the next one.

I got back to Korakuen hall just as New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s ring announcer was preparing to introduce the first match. Fine timing!

Once again, teaser snaps now and the full write-up here.

Going in, there was some consternation among the online wrestling community I’m part of that this show looked quite weak on paper. When it came down to it, though, it turned out to be really enjoyable, with three of the eight matches standing out in particular. Also, in a complete surprise, I got to see Jushin Liger (the fella in the red Power Ranger get-up) wrestle. Liger is one of my all-time favourites and, like Ms. Toyota, a true living legend of professional wrestling. At the beginning of the nineties, he revolutionised the small man’s role in the world of wrestling and has arguably more classic battles under his belt than any other wrestler alive today.

MONDAY

With the sun defying Accuweather’s predictions of rain (oh, Accuweather; when did you stop being so Accu?), Monday was sight-seeing day.

First, it was off to Akihabara, the gadget district and one of my favourite places in Tokyo. If I let my willpower drop, I could easily spent a lot of money in Akiba’s electronics department stores, second-hand games shops and toy emporiums.

In actual fact, I went to pick up a second battery for my camera; the previous day having made it clear that, on day’s with two shows or one show and a lot of sight-seeing, one would not be enough. This took approximately eight seconds (slight exaggeration) as LAOX, a well-equipped camera store very close to Akihabara station and the first place I looked, had them in stock for a decent price. Now what?

Well, I had a semi-purposeful nose around Akihabara (I’m after a copy of Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 for the N64. Can I find one? Can I nuts) and a small but tasty, but ultimately regrettable (oh yes) burger for lunch before deciding, on a whim, that I wanted to see Roppongi Hills. A friend had suggested the place to me from when he visited last year and I hadn’t had the time to squeeze it into my ’09 trip, so I took a wee jaunt on the subway to Roppongi.

Roppongi Hills is a mega residential, office, restaurant, shopping and entertainment complex. The idea behind it being that if you lived, worked, shopped and ate int he same place, it would cut down commuting time and increase your quality of live. The centrepiece is Mori Tower, which is 54 storeys high and peaks some 900 feet above sea level.

I went to the very top.

Let me tell you, the wind up there sure keeps you alert! Also, the views are great, even on a murky day like Monday.

At night, they turn the lights on too:-

When I got back down from the top of the tower, I saw that the complex’s cinema had a showing of The Hurt Locker starting in ten minutes. I figured I should try to keep up with modern cinema a tad and, as the thing has won a few golden baldies, I’d go in.

I wish I’d had the balls to take photos inside the Toho Cinema, but there’s currently something of a piracy clampdown going on in Japan and I didn’t want to be the big dumb gaijin waving his digital camera around. Let’s just say the design of the place fits in perfectly with the rest of the development. It’s also the only cinema I’ve ever been to where, to get to the screen, you have to ascend an escalator behind a large glass waterfall and cross a Star Trek-esque bridge with a glowing floor and walls and elongated shiny black arches. Just getting to your movie is an adventure.

The Hurt Locker is very good, by the way. Thoroughly deserving of its accolades.

After a disappointing Chinese dinner in one of the hotel’s many restaurants, it was time for the “distressing” part of the performance…

Post-combined shower/shave/sunburn peel (it was coming off my legs in sheets the size of banknotes), I noticed that my lower right leg was really quite swollen and very red. It had previously swollen a little in Australia, but I’d that and all previous pains down to the sunburn. This time though, it felt like it was about to burst. I feared the worst…

I did a quick Google for Deep Vein Thrombosis symptoms. Courtesy of BUPA:-

• swelling of the affected leg – check
• pain and tenderness in the affected leg – you may also find it difficult to stand properly with your full weight on the affected leg – check (at least at points last week)
• a change in the colour of your skin, for example, redness – check
• skin that feels warm or hot to the touch – check

In the immortal words of James May: “Oh cock…”

Back to Google for “English speaking doctors in Tokyo”. This turned up http://www.tokyobritishclinic.com/, conveniently located in Ebisu, just three stops away on the Yamanote line. Brilliant! Unfortunately, as it was at this point nearly 3am, making an appointment wasn’t really an option.

So, a night of little sleep was had by all until I was woken at about 7:30am by the third minor earthquake I’ve experienced since landing. I know when an earthquake happens as my tenth floor hotel room bobs around like it’s on a boat, I shit myself and all the natives I see from my window just carry on about their days.

TUESDAY

Anyway, even though the swelling had gone down considerably, I still called the Clinic at 9am sharp to get an appointment. They answered the phone in English and we set on 9:45am, thinking that’d give me plenty of time to get there. Best laid plans and all that…

What actually happened was I came out of Ebisu station and wandered around for almost 90 minutes, looking for the damn place. I doubt I’d have found it all if I hadn’t asked a young lady setting up a display outside a clothes shop, who turned out to speak excellent English (“Oh, I studied English in London for a year. I’ve forgotten loads of it though”) and her boss who ran to his car down the road to bring us a Tokyo road atlas. I eventually reached the Clinic at 11am.

I apologised to the staff profusely and said that I wouldn’t push in front of anyone and I’d go to the back of the queue. There was no queue and I was seen really quickly by Dr. Wan, a young Chinese doctor with a fairly pronounced Edinburgh accent. After a prod, an investigate and a short argument (between one another), he and the Clinic’s founder, Dr Symonds, determined that I didn’t have DVT after all and was just suffering the after effects of the burn. Dr. Symonds even said he was surprised it was sunburn as it looked more like injuries he’d seen on people who’d burnt their legs on the exhaust of their motorbike. I took off my shirt to show him the rest of it and I think it was only really then that he was satisfied that I hadn’t actually been set on fire or anything. Even though, I’m apparently fine and could just do nothing to let it heal, they gave me a bottle of calamine lotion to help it along.

I was really glad to find that this service existed (and so close), as my phrasebook doesn’t cover “Excuse me doctor, I think I have DVT. When are we operating and can I take my leg home with me?”. The staff and doctors were really nice and, more importantly than that, competent GPs. Definitely file this place under “tips for visiting gaijin”.

The visit, in the end, cost me about £100, but I figured it was worth it to be sure that I was OK and that nothing has to be chopped off. Reckoning that was enough excitement for one day, I headed back to the hotel to find there was a “coupon” waiting for me at reception.

The hotel has a “Green Cleaning” policy, meaning you can opt to have your room cleaned every other day instead of every day. On each of the off days, housekeeping just nip in to empty your bins and you are given a 500 yen voucher (about £3.50 – £4), redeemable in the hotel’s main restaurant, 24, and the on-site convenience store. Sweet! I can save about about £20 on food and water with this.

I celebrated by checking out the Epson Aqua Stadium, the hotel’s built-in aquarium. Read that again.

An adult ticket was 1800 yen (£13) and, although the place is comparitively small (though, obviously, I wasn’t expecting a rerun of Osaka’s Kaiyukan), they pack plenty in, including penguins…

…sharks…

…rays…

…the lesser-spotted gormless mongfish…

…a sealion show…

…a dolphin show…

…and this big bastard, who had to be twelve feet, end-to-end:-

Oh, and this on the way in…

Tomorrow, it looks like I’ll be having a wander around Ryogoku, the sumo district. While I’m there, I can pick up my tickets for my Sunday and Monday night wrestling shows at Sumo Hall (Monday is a national holiday, apparently). I’m just waiting for confirmation from my potential companion as to what his price limit is.

Two things I’ve just remembered: Before you head out to the roof of Mori Tower, they ask you to put your stuff in a locker. The girl tending to the lockers clocked my Dragon Gate bag and I head a small voice say: “You like Dragon Gate?”

“Yes,” I replied. “Do you?”

Enthusiastic nodding.

“Who do you like?” I asked. “Genki? CIMA?”

A short think, then “Dragon Kid ichiban [number one]!”

“I’m going to the Sumo Hall show. Are you?”

“No. Working.” And with that she buried her face in her hands.

——

Later, at dinner, one of the waiters saw my AC/DC T-shirt. “You get from AC/DC concert?”

“No. I was in Syndey when they were, but didn’t see them.”

“Ah, Sydney! You Australian?”

“No, from England.”

“Ah, England! Liverpool!”

I laughed. “Not quite.”

“London!”

“Yes. I live near London.”

“Ah, OK,” he said. “Rolling Stones-u.”

Then he gave me the thumbs-up, said “Heavy metal the best” and went back to the kitchen with a big grin on his face…

Viewable in sizes upto 720p HD, here it is:-