Day 12

Tacky Tokyo
Last night we stayed at a love hotel. The Japanese have these places where people rent out the room for an hour. They are right next to all of the clubs, so people are in and out of there all night. We saw some people leaving and checking in. Anyway, you can rent out the room for the night after 10 PM. The room was only 6,300 yen - as cheap as the hostel. It was awesome even though I would not want to go in there with one of those CSI lights. It had Karaoke and movies and everything you would need to convince a drunk girl from the nearby club that this was not a sleazy situation. It also came stocked with everything you might need to get ready to go back to the club and meet another girl or boy. It had a jacuzzi hot tub, various soaps lotions and shampoos, a hair dryer, cologne, towels, kimonos, a refrigerator, microwave and light dimmers etc. I sang True Colors and To Love Somebody and then I fell asleep.

Today first we went shopping for gifts at 109 Shibuya where all the teeney boppers shop. Boy, are people slaves to fashion regardless of how ridiculous they look in them? I have never seen so many micro mini skirts and shorts in my life.
Then we went to Odaiba and checked out the man made islands. First we saw Panasonic's building where they display all the new technology. At one point they took us into a large room where one whole wall was a touch sensitive lcd panel. They would let me take pictures, but I snuck one in anyway. The demonstrator was playing piano on that huge screen and moving and resizing windows with her fingers. She also bounced a ball around the screen and when she pushed a window around it would move with the force of her pushing and slow down at an appropriate speed. It was cool. The most surreal thing was a huge screen with a woman singing Bryan Adams in Italian opera style . I didn't like the song in English. Her name was Jenkins.
Then we went to a crazy looking building with this huge saw sticking out of the ground like a giant left it there. The Japanese know tacky and revel in it.

Then we went to THE TACKIEST mall I have ever seen in my life. I should have realized I was in for a treat when we stopped at the station and there were at least 200 girls waiting. No men. Anyway it was modeled after some tacky Italian place maybe Rome, maybe your local Italian restaurant. Either way it was awful. The ceilings were painted like the sky and the lights changed to simulate night at times. Then we went to the beach. Yes, a man made beach with the statue of liberty. I don't get it, but this building was cool. The ball at the top is supposed to be a restaurant or an observatory or something. There were thousands of people there.

I played the new street fighter IV in the arcade. It was pretty neat. Each person gets his own screen and you sit on the other side of the arcade machine with your challenger. This is so he cannot see you. We played in an 8 floor arcade building.

This guy won all of that candy stacked up there. It only cost him about $10. The candy would have been about $4 in the store. I need a money making scheme like that. Something where people who can't do math gives me his money and nobody minds.


Next we went to see the blue man group. Erin had never been and I thought it might be cool to see them in Tokyo. Erin loved it but she wouldn't pose with the blue man. I think she has character phobia, because she wouldn't pose with Tokyo Donald Duck either. Oh well. We tried to find a Karaoke bar, but all we could find was karaoke rooms. Erin has heard me sing way too much I think. We went to a British pub after walking around Roppongi hills again. Then home and to sleep. Tomorrow is our last day in Japan.