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Saturday, February 15, 2003
Homestay stairs
Up early today to get to Shinjuku before 10. A quick sprint down the five floors of my homestay and a walk to meguro station to catch the JR line - I'm certainly getting fitter.
There are 2 main railway companies - the subway and the JR (Japan railways). You need different tickets for each, can sometimes transfer but not always, so it's a bit confusing at first. There is usually a map in english in the tube, but not always so you have to get used to recognising the kanji for each station. There is always a gai-jin gazing at the map in the station, trying to figure out where they are going.
Shinjuku station is huge and really crowded. In Time Out tokyo the advice for when you hit Tokyo is the 'don't panic'.
Shinjuku rush hour
I arrived at rush hour so it is unbelievably busy. I managed to find the new south exit and waited for Sayaka-chan from Muse. Half an hour later and the multiple exits of Shinjuku had caused confusion, she was waiting at the south exit. Reunited we made our way over to Tokyu Hands which is a 7 floor hardware/household store attached to Takashimae Times Square which is a huge department store on the lines of Selfridges.
Squinting at the new south exit
We'd gone to source exhibition materials and to see about getting vinyl lettering printed. Oh my god, this is where the price difference between england and Japan shows, materials are so expensive - £2.50 a word for lettering. It looks like it's going to be cheaper to source materials from the Uk and ship them over, which seems crazy. 5t's really frustrating not just being able to pick up the phone and order stuff from the supplier I know in Radford or Basford!
Sayaka-chan and her cartoon lookalike
We went to a chinese / Japanes mix place for lunch, incerdibly quick and cheap. I had rice and noodles with vegetables and a clear (gelitanous) sauce, delicious. The decor was great, really atmospheric, we had our own wee booth to sit in.
Booths at lunchtime
Back to Muse, an afternoon of editing and planning for the weekend - 2 more days of filming and photography. I'll be filming a bit more with Emi-san on Sunday, the interview has too much ah ha, noises from the translator and Yuko-san and is unusable in the edit. I don't mind too much as I willget better sound with the new mic anyway.
Yuko and I went to Ueno this evening to meet up with François. He has a one night stop over from Australia enroute to england. We went to a Japanese pub which was my first time and I really enjoyed it. We sat in a (no shoes) raised area with a table that you lowered your legs under. I had pomegranete sour (mixed with vodka kind of drink) and we had a selection of snacks - soya beans, spinach and garlic salad, tofu balls, japanese pizza with dried fish (which is kind of like a tortilla) and ramen noodles. delicious.
posted by Jeanie Saturday, February 15, 2003
