Archery Practitioner

So, I signed up to go practice archery. But I didn't realize that I wouldn't be kicking a straw target's ass. Instead I was subjected to a long lecture about proper hip, shoulder, chest placement and then encouraged to center myself, become one with the target, etc. I was not even given a bow for the first hour of my experience. That's not counting the mandatory hour-long walkthrough of the Meiji shrine and Shinto purification rituals (four total).

So, I left, and went shopping in Shinjuku -- Apparently, more my speed. I'm not very centered, I guess.

Ecstatic

Being in Tokyo for the cherry blossoms was just unbelievably nice. They were everywhere, and completely lovely.

Five dollar prayers at Meiji-JIngu

These prayers cost 500￥ to purchase. The prayers range from cute to totally devastating. I prayed for a bunch of people while I was waiting for our friends to finish their ritual shinto purification and obeisance to all the little shinto gods.

Meiji-Jingu Nun?

Not sure who this was, but she had two photographers walking with her for quite a while.

Two hours spent poorly in the Four Seasons Chinzan-so

The bottom middle picture is the moment of sadness.

Travel Hell

I decided to come back early to surprise Chelsea and the girls. What ensued was one of the worst travel experiences I've ever had as far as logistics go.

I brought four cards to Japan: Amex, BofA debit card, license and sportsclub card (okay, okay, not intentional).

To recap my trip:
Day 1 - debit card dies. I am unsure if it is just Japanese ATMs, which are fairly picky about banks, or my card.
Day 1 - I lose my Amex.
Day 4 - I receive new Amex via DHL
Day 6 - I destroy my laptop. (pictures available shortly)
Day 7 - I use my new Amex to check out of the hotel
Day 7 - I buy a new laptop
Day 7 - I go to the airport to leave early, and am told my miles upgrade has been charged, but will not result in any upgrade. Result: 45 minutes of extremely polite Japanese stonewall.
Day 7 - I pay for my upgrade with the Amex, except oops! It's dinged. I am pretty sure that I have plenty of space on my card, so this is a surprise.
Day 7 - amex fraud prevention office CLOSED.
I will cut out a long, extremely trying experience which involves me getting down to my last 500 yen in coins, and results in me, in LA, with
Blocked Amex ("I'm extremely sorry, sir, I'm not sure why it is blocked, but I can't do anything about it.") dead debit card, and a mighty hunger, plus a six hour wait.

I am feeling pretty good, considering. Good thing I didn't stay in Japan. I'd be selling myself in Roppongi.

Oops

Photos later.

Akihabara-style surgery resulted in a death. My Laptop. Gone. This will severely limit my blog updating, as Paul and I part ways tomorrow.

I'm going to have to be posting from otaku-style internet cafes from now on.

I'm very sad. I have a new processor, a dead laptop, and no skype, no blog posts, no cell phone. I'm alone in the most connected world in the country.

I might have to go buy expensive items in Akihabara to console myself.

I might buy one of those really little cool laptops that dynamism.com sells, but I'll have to wait and see how I feel post-grieving.

[Followup June 17, 2007: I bought a Sony Vaio. I then stepped on the screen ever so lightly one night. I now have a Sony Vaio with a picture of Roppongi and a completely cracked LCD screen. I hate this laptop with a mighty passion. Not a day goes by that I don't dream of buying my next thinkpad. I mean that quite literally. Not a single day since I bought my f'ing Sony have I not dreamed of my Lenovo X60s.]

Breaking the Sake cask

I was allowed to help break open the cask of sake at dinner. Yum.

Dinner Last Night

This English-style mansion is a private club that we had dinner at last night. Apparently, people like the President of Toyota belong here. That's what I'm talking about! I'm sure this is the only time I'll be invited to a location like this.

Akiba girl costumes

I wanted to buy some of these fancy maid and police costumes for Chelsea, but they didn't sell any in non-J-Girl sizes. Very sad. These are expensive, too, at least $60 per.

Back from Hiatus

I got tired of talking, even to my blog. A more restful day, and I'm back at my blogging ways. A few pictures coming shortly, but I just want to say that I got to see girl ninjas fight with real nunchuks last night.

GIRL NINJAS. Real Nunchuks. I felt that I owed it to my 13 year old self to really, really enjoy the experience.

Did I mention there were real, live girl ninjas with real, hard nunchucks? I will include pictures of myself with the honorary shogun and his armor guy at our event when Paul fixes his camera. Until then, more Akihabara.

Amazing session today

I went to an amazing session today on how banks think about businesses for purposes of funding, and how to manage cashflow. It was just totally stellar. The company is called Inmatrix. I loved their software demonstration, and I'm looking forward to using it in our companies.

 

My traveling companion’s blog

Paul's blog is pithier than mine, with better pictures: http://imisspascha.blogspot.com/

The video

Here's a sample video of the people below

I left all this for my book

That's some awesome hair. I asked if the hair was real later, but they just looked at me and wouldn't answer. Maybe I got the Japanese wrong.

Night-time at Chinzan-so

Geisha Dance

Geisha dancing at our dinner. Contrary to American understanding, a geisha is more a fine arts performer than prostitute. In today's Japan, prostitution is illegal in any event. Wikipedia has more information on Geisha in general.

What a relief

I hate Japan. I'm relieved; I was having too good a time, I wondered when it would all come crashing down. I'm sure tomorrow I'll feel differently, but tonight, oy. I think what went wrong is I spent almost the entire day with between one and four hundred people, no downtime. Guaranteed to make me cranky.

So, I'm in my room, spending quality time with the Internet, telling you what it's like to be in Japan, in very nice circumstances. In a word: you could have the same Japan experience I'm having today by going to a casino, drinking, then coming home and reading a book alone. See? Your jealousy is cured.

Oh, and we saw a cool sake ritual, geisha and dancers and drummers, you know. That stuff too. Pictures in a bit.

The guy who sold us our chips

This guy was very helpful, and sold us two Core 2 Duo chips for our laptops. They will be undergoing surgery, Akihabara-style, later in the trip. Imagine 200,000 square feet of signage like what's behind this guy, and you'll have a rough idea of what going to Akiba is like.

Back from Akihabara

Wow, I liked Akihabara as much as I thought I would. Not a lot of foreigners there; the ones there were clearly on pilgrimage (sometimes with their bored-looking girlfriends). I will post a few pictures later, but I am posting one of a helpful salesperson who sold us Intel Chips in Akiba, a 9 story phantasmagoria of consumer (electronics) delights.

I'm off to get ready for our week of intense partying with other entrepreneurs who can only go on vacation by making it a business trip. More as I have time!

Yes, that is a toothbrush being used to clean a sidewalk

No wonder America's sidewalks are so dirty. We don't have people with toothbrushes to clean them.

Four Seasons at Chinzan-so

The Four Seasons at Chinzan-so is really nice, I have to say. I'm staying in a suite here with Paul, and the view (below) is frankly pretty awesome. I like the nature-against-city backdrop even more than I thought I would. The sakura are blooming here a bit, and should peak this week, so it's a very nice time to be here.

Paul and I crashed a Yamaha breakfast thinking it was the restaurant for breakfast this morning. Oh well. They did let us in, so that's nice. We read the FT and tried to make cool-sounding cryptic comments so that we could fit in with all the International Travelers (caps mine) around. Like, "Blackwater IPO; Private Equity bubble, I told you – two for four."

Nobody noticed, which makes us posers, but we had a good time.

 

Garden at Tokyo Four Seasons at Chinzan-so

The cool bus station at Tokyo Narita

Really Really Tired

Oh man, I'm tired. As I get older, jet lag is more of a problem for me, so I've been trying to manage it more aggressively on my trips. I made the decision sometime around 10pm eastern time that it would make the most sense to just not sleep on the plane, and kind of get with Tokyo time a day early. So, I've now been up for 25 hours.

Add to that I missed the last bus to my hotel, so I've now got a multi-hop commute to Tokyo Station, and then taxi to the hotel.

So, make that, tired, hungry, and have to pee. I'm expecting at least an hour ride into Tokyo Station. And, actually I'm kind of in a good mood. I usually hate new countries for at least a day when I travel, but so far I'm enjoying Japan. Everything is clean, people are polite and stuff comes in extra-bright colors. That's just the airport. I can't wait to see Harajuku.

One of the many books I read on my long day over the Pacific Ocean forwards a concept that while Anime itself is on the decline in Japan, Anime Culture is on the increase. The book includes hard stats on the Anime decline, but only "softer" stories about the Anime Culture thing. I thought that was interesting. So far, the ATM I used was total anime culture, including a cute little businessman and cute girl mascot with those big anime eyes. I'm also sitting behind a granny with certifiably PURPLE hair. It's not all purple, but much of it is. I'm sure I'll have more to say about this. I'm going to try to get Paul to go to a teen-idol concert with me while he's here; I think it would be pretty sweet.

Right now, I'm not sure if dinner or long bath / shower will win out in my affections when I get to the hotel. We know how long it's been since I had a shower. I haven't kept very good track of the meals, though, so I'm not really sure if I've under or over eaten so far on my trip. I guess we have to see how long this whole trip takes to know what's going to be more attractive. Okay, stomach growling too much to write.

Lost AmEx Woes, part 1

On a less bright note, I lost my AmEx in LAX. That's a bad feeling, since it's the only card I travel with (are you listening AmEx marketing drones? It's the only card I travel with).

After waiting through a few IVRs (who in this world wants to say anything else to a computer after "my card is stolen."), I have the right numbers to call: To start, call 1-800-268-9824. Say stolen card. If it mishears you and thinks you want to sign up for a new card, take my advice, just hang up. You could try saying "go back" but then you'd have a conversation like this:

"Hi, it's Lisa, the AmEx robot.. What can I do for you?"

"I lost my card."

"okay, what's your card number? You can say it or enter it"

"3725xxx," (what do I care who knows it now??)

"Okay, what can I do for you?"

"My card was stolen."

"If you'd like to sign up for a new account, say "new account."

"agent".

"I'm sorry, I didn't get that. If you'd like to sign up for a new account,"

[Peter presses * twelve times]

"I'm really sorry, I didn't catch that.."

[Peter presses * six more times]

"I'm really sorry…" And, she did sound sorry, almost codependent, like it's your new girlfriend and she can't understand you on the phone. I hung up.

Once you've gotten through to a live person, (and in my case said "People are boarding my plane to Tokyo. I need the card ASAP so that I can sleep somewhere."), you will be redirected to someone in global services if you need the card sent to you somewhere other than the US. They will then give you two more numbers for the hotel (say) to call if you still want to bill your travel to American Express. So, in total three numbers:

• AmEx Lost Card Service: 1-800-268-9824
  
• AmEx Global Assist: 1-800-554-2639
  
• The number to call for your hotel to talk to: 1-800-992-3404
  

First Time in Singapore Airlines Business Class, plus AmEx woes

So far, (and it's been a few minutes), business class in Singapore air is nice. I asked for the top deck; they said it's a bit quieter. I'm on a 747-400, I think these are the old business class seats, not the recently announced Sing-Air leather sofa seats.

Okay, if you're a guy, you might be thinking "Are the stewardesses as pretty as I've heard?" So far, the answer is yes. Pretty, and skinny. And they're nice. Not too nice, but nice. Chalk one up for chauvinist asian marketing?

One nice touch for window seats in business class is that there are little storage lockers to the right of the seats; no getting up and bugging your business-class buddy next to you.

Travel Tips from the TSA

So the line at LAX is unreal. I mean, really unreal. The security lines, both of them run the width of the international terminal and actually meet in the center, creating a sort of existentialist confusion about which to take.

I went to the front, since I'm flying business class. No dice; there is no business class security line at LAX. Surprising. I was shocked. (And I really didn't want to stand in line). The TSA guy quietly told me "you should have the airline escort you through." I've never heard of that, except for the infirm, but I decided to try it.

3 minutes later, a very polite Singapore Airlines gate agent is waving badges, and pushing me ahead of even flight crew. I got through the line in 10 minutes. I wonder if this works in coach as well?

At any rate, thank you Singapore Air, but thank you, most of all, TSA, saviours of American air travel.

 

first flight

18 years later, the Japan visit

I started learning Japanese 18 years ago. My first full sentence was 'anata wa inu desuka?' Translated, "Are you a dog?" Jim, a fellow in my Japanese class responded with "Anata wa dick desuka?" (Are you a dick?) Sadly, the answer was yes.

My Japanese language skills never really got that much better over the four years I took Japanese, but I'm excited to see just what I can remember. I'll be in Tokyo for five or six days, then parts unknown for a few days, then to Seattle to see my family. Expect photos.