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So, it's quite a time since we where to Japan, but here comes a short summary of what we saw there.
We arrived to Nariata Airport and took a bus and metro to Yokohama where we had decided to stay. The trip took about 2 hours. We had decided to stay in Yokohama, because the "Dislocated" Media Art festival that Andy was exhibiting at was there too, but we ended up spending more time in Tokyo. We stayed in a "traditional" Japanese hostel. It meant that we had a tiny room with madrases to sleep on. The ac was also extremely effective so we called the room or own igloo :D It was quite late when we were ready to start exploring our surrounding, so we oriented our selfs to Yokohama China town and ironically our first Japanese meal was Chinese. Afterwards we took a walk to the harbor and returned to the local Kallio where our hostel was. The hostel was in a area where some mental patients where treated so the area reminded of Kallio back home. The crazy old people where harmless, but a bit weird.
Next day we started our hard core sightseeing. We took a day pass to the Tokyo Subway and made a whole loop on one of the circle lines, stopping every now and then. And believe me Tokyo Subway is something to experience. Yes the subway in Seoul is crowded time to time, but never as packed as in Tokyo. It is amazing how many people can fit in a train. Of course it is only during rush hour really bad, during the day you could actually breath in there. After a hours subway trip we were at our first stop, the blinking electronics market. We walked amazed around the place and I am proud I could resist the temptation to buy a dv-cam.
The next stop we made got us lost on a old cemetery and cute small alleys. We found a very interesting temple with thousands of small statues. After strolling around in this area we took the Subway again, this time to Harajuku where the Manga girls should be. Unfortunately we were there the wrong time. But we walked down the "fashion street" and saw a lot of interesting clothes combination and had some lunch. After lunch we took a walk in a nice park besides the area. One thing we could not get... it was very hot maybe +30C and girls where walking around in winter boots...fashionable at any cost?
After walking the whole day we found a perfect bar with happy hour and we rested our feet accompanied with some gin tonics. After a couple of appetizers it was time for dinner, and of course we wanted to have some sushi. But Murphy's law was working against us. When you look for a sushi place in Japan you can be sure not to find one. After a long walk we gave up and had some grilled food with teriaki sauce and we were very happy with our choice.
The second day we visited this futuristic island in Tokyo. We found the only beach in Tokyo and of course it was totally empty, but we had to take a dip in the blue anyway and enjoy the sun. Afterwards we visited a Innovation museum, it was a bit of a disappointment. It was pretty much the same as Heureka in Finland, and we had expected something else. The rest of the afternoon we visited the mall, amusement park and other sites on the island. In the evening we finally found a sushi bar and I was very happy! But it was good that we didn't go to the first best place and asked for the price in advance. The first place wanted 180 Euro for a meal set...not really in our budget. But we found an other restaurant with a suitable price and really good sushi.
Day 3 was exhibition day. So first we visited the Yokohama Gallery with the Dislocated exhibition. This is where Andy's work was shown. But people were still building so we went looking for an ATM because we were out of money. This was a bit harder than we thought. It was Saturday and the banks were closed and in Japan you can't enter the Atms if the banks are closed. Yes there are ATMs every where in the markets etc. but they don't take foreign cards... We almost ended selling my dirty pants, as Walla would have done(Madventures Japan episode), but the post office came to our rescue and we found a ATM there and got the money. We returned to the gallery and had a look. I think the exhibition was quite nice, but a bit off space. There was also no official opening as we expected, but we got invited to an happening in the Ginza gallery in Tokyo later so we went there. The organizing was not so good. First we didn't find the gallery there was just a small room at the address we found, and the door was locked so we continued searching, until a half hour later we realized that this small room actually was the gallery. The happening was a screening of the same videos that were at the gallery and we and the curator and one lady looking for her friend were the only people there. We stayed until it we not to rude to leave and also we arrange a meeting with one of Andy's friends he had meet at File festival. We meet Tetsu at the Gin Tonic bar and had a interesting talk, some of his friends and a French guy joined us for dinner and we had a very nice last night in Tokyo. We had to leave around midnight to catch the last metro and also we had a 6 am wake up to get to the airport the next day.
Japan was very interesting, but of course the stay was way to short. A lot of things were similar to Korea, but still different. The people in Japan seam more stressed. Also the people are more individual in Japan and more creative in how the dress. Tokyo is also very consume orientated and very much after the latest trends. The more expensive or harder to get a table for example in a restaurant the better. Still Seoul seams more cozy, maybe because I now the place better by now. Still Japan is worth exploring more and hopefully I can go there again.
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