Kamakura

Kamakura is a coastal town which was at one point the Centre for the biggest empire in Japan. The Emperor at the time felt he needed the will of the Gods on his side and hence ordered that many temples be built and a Giant Iron Buddah.

It was very busy with lots of tourists but I managed to see most things.

A traditional Buddhist wedding, although I understand these are becoming less popular in favour of western-style weddings.

I had assumed the Buddah had been made in sections but it turns out it was a single cast on-site. Quite impressive!

Jammin at the Savoy

I had a really great night on Wednesday. Popped along to a bar called Savoy as I had heard they was a Jazz/Funk night on.

Sure enough, when I arrived there was a really great 6-piece band playing: trumpet/vox, clarinet, saxaphone, guitar, bass and drums.

I got chatting to the owner June, who used to work in London so his English was very good. He and the barmaid Mami seemed pretty impressed I was from Scotland/UK and I felt obligated to take advantage of the generous selection of whiskies on offer. They were asking me all about Amy Winehouse who they seem to be fascinated with, which was really bizarre.

I had a really good laugh and got chatting to the band on their intermission. Then after they got back up I went to take a picture but as I did they invited me up to play!

June has house guitars on the wall so I got to pick one of them. We played a couple of jazz and blues numbers then June got up to play drums and Mami to sing. Of course they wanted to play an Amy Winehouse number with the British guy, so we belted out a rendition of 'Rehab' with the whole band. What a night!!!

Didnt manage to get any pics of June and Mami, but Ill definetely be back so maybe next time!

Common Room Party

On friday we were going to have a party but Asahi Kasei (who actually own the whole dorm) had booked out the 2 common rooms for a new employee party. In the end we decided to just gate crash it, which turned out to be a lot of fun.

Pedro (Portugal)

Brian (USA) on the right, Juan (USA/Colombia) beside him and Wendy (China) between them

Wendy had baked an apple pie for Ryan's Birthday

Juan and Alex (French Canadian) eating apple pie and tiramisu with chopsticks. All the asian people get Alex and I confused, I suppose i didnt help we were both in red that night.

This is me being asked if I brought my kilt :)

Thanks to Karen and Steven I had the next best thing!
Hung Lung (Hong Kong) and me.

Young Ki (Korea) and Hung Lung

Wrong way!

Juan brings out his shisha!

Brian at 4am

Bowling and Video Games

After the love hotel nonsense we decied instead to go bowling. Japanese people have really taken to bowling and its a common pass time. It was really good fun and we were even allowed to bring our own beer to drink (or at least we werent stopped).

When we'd finished off a few rounds we left for a games arcade. As to be expected however, this was not the norm that I was used to. Video games are a serious buisiness in Japan and this arcade was a good example. First you have to create a membership, your then charged by the hour and all games are free to use during that time.

There were lots of games on offer, but a whole section of Music games caught most of my interest for the evening. Here are a few examples-:

This one is a keyboard games where you have to play along and get all the notes right.

This is a bit like guitar hero but with a koto (japanese string instrument)

This is a DJ game where you have to mix and scratch the tracks together. It is surprisingly realistic.

This one was my favourite. Play along on actual Yamaha electronic drums to a variety of tracks. Playing this game could actually teach you how to play for real!

A 4-player arcade versoin of Mario Kart, why dont we have this at home!!!??

Japanese drum game. Prentend to be a kodo drummer!

Of Love Hotels

Let me tell you about a unique Japanese phenomenon: Love Hotels!

Japanese working hours and household arrangements where children, parents and grandparents typically all live together makes it difficult for couples of any age to have some private time. Hence dotted around most Japanese cities you will find streets of love hotels. Looking like a scaled down Las Vegas these establishements provide guests with a potential getaway whilst maintaining the upmost discretion. Rooms are charged by the hour, although if what Ive just said is true then this could potentially be 58 minutes waste of money......

Apparently it is also possible to hire larger rooms for parties with karaoke machines and the like. So last night a few of the guys from work suggested we hire out a room for everyone in an attempt to demystefy the whole thing. I joined the scouting party to try and find one that would accomodate us.

Inside each one is a panel with all the available rooms, you pick one you like then a machine prints out the keycard. When your done you put the card in the machine and pay. No human interaction required. However we never got out of the lobby in any of them without being harrased by the manager. It seems five half cut foriegn guys seems to be a problem. We were told lots of different excuses such as we were too many or too male. One guy even told us if we returned with at least one girl we could have a room, though that just sounds even more questionable to me.

The result: no love hotel party. However we did manage to get a glimpse into this bizarre world and hopefully no-one from work saw us!

This one had some sort of cave theme. You could purchase little gifts for our loved one from the glass displays.

One of the rooms in this hotel even featured a cage....

You can drive right up to a bay that leads directly to each room in this one. Even more discrete!!

We managed to get a few games of pool in this lobby before being chucked out.

In a not-so-clever wordplay this one was called C-Lover and was a bizarre mix of Irish/Caribbean theme

This one is called "The Elegance Inn" as so well depicted by the giant image of Shrek.