#59 Visiting Tokyo Tower

Transcript

Alright, I'm not going to make a habit of this because there's no point. There's not pleasing sounds like opening the lock at my Airbnb in Fukuoka, but here's exiting the little restaurant ASMR. Well, out onto the street. It's always kind of a surprise what the day is going to be like because there's not really a proper window in there. Pretty overcast. Do I even feel sprinkles? I think I do. I'm just looking from the outside. Looks like the people that have private rooms. They do get windows. Lucky bastards. Yeah, it is raining a little bit. Hmm. Yeah, I've still got my collapsible umbrella from Canada, but one of the spokes is kind of broken, so it falls, you know, kind of limply. And I tried to fix it. I bought some tape from a dollar store, from a hundred yen store, but it turns out it's a lot harder. You can't just tape up an umbrella that's meant to fold in on itself. Too many mechanisms that did not work at all. But I don't know, it's really barely, barely raining. It's really not worth an umbrella.

Anyway, last night, the restaurant that my Airbnb is above, it was actually open for the first time ever on a Thursday night. It was pretty fucking hot. A bunch of people in there drinking sake, eating mushrooms. The, it's like a guy hosting, and I don't know, it's like a little weird, just because it's a very small place. And I just kind of walked in and walked right past everybody and walked through a side door up into the Airbnb. Yeah, and obviously the guy who runs the place, this was normal for him. But I wonder, I don't know, none of the customers seem to notice, maybe they're all regulars. Because I guess it is kind of a thing in Japan, like these little tiny bars. There's this one by Yuki Bukuro. I probably mentioned it when I was there. It looks so cool. It's like four seats. And it's one of these places where you buy, like you pay for a whole bottle of liquor and they put your name on it. And then when you come by, you just drink out of that. And then when it comes time to refill, that's when you pay. Just seems really cool to be a little regular one of them places. Except I would need one that doesn't sell booze. It's like, hey, I'll just over pay for espresso or something. I don't know how it would even work. I don't know.

I'll pay you with the booze prices. I just don't want the booze.

But yeah, it's kind of interesting how much you can kind of, you can do a little research, you can kind of do some detective work and learn about these places. Because I've never met the guy who runs it. And other Airbnb people have said that the guy who runs that restaurant is very friendly and nice and helpful and stuff. But he was busy doing a mushroom sake presentation when I went in. So no time for me to become his best friend forever. But yeah, by looking through Airbnb reviews or just the reviews on Google Maps, that's kind of interesting too. That's a separate set of reviews. So it looks like this place started about five years ago. So again, just before COVID, this must be the most annoying time to start a place. And that the restaurant on the bottom floor is a completely different thing. Different guy runs it. Different whole situation. And weirdly, it seems like the people who got private rooms actually have the worst times, the worst experiences. They have some some kind of bad reviews of just like, yeah, there was a weird smell and it was coming from the air conditioner. And when I opened it, it was full of black mold. It's like Jesus. And then they said, you know, to the person's credit, whoever runs it, like they got it professionally cleaned like the next day. But still. But I think that falls into line with the vibe I was getting at first. It really seems like everybody cared a lot five years ago. But now it's just been five years of just cleaning up the stupid fucking Airbnb every day. And just like cleaning up after all these fucking tourists. And you know, you can just tell they're not putting their all into it anymore. Just random stuffed out working. Everything's a little half-assed whatever. It must be different if you're in like a bed and breakfast back in the day where you kind of make some kind of a connection with the people that you're looking after and whatever. Which is not necessarily even what I would want. But as a host, I bet it's a lot more fulfilling. You know, we're here. It really is just people coming in, people going out. Somebody doesn't have quite the best experience. Who the fuck cares? There's someone else coming right in. Which speaking of, I figured man, Friday. Friday is usually when Airbnb's get slammed. That's what happened at the one in 5:00 Sang and Jaya. Like it was busy. And then it just became completely 100% full for the weekend. So I guess that could still happen tonight. But it's Friday as I record this. And I figured like for sure the people who are here presently, a new Daniel from Vancouver was heading out because he told me he was only here for three days. But surely they won't leave for the weekend. How would that even make sense? The weekend's the money mail and the weekend's the time that normal people care about. You know, to me it's just another day, but to them that's the day. But everybody's gone. Medium snorer across for me is gone. And importantly, crazy insane. I'm an orc from fucking Dungeons and Dragons snorer underneath me. That was like the dual bunk where that one was just so confusing. It was two people and one of them was like getting up at 4 a.m. to go get dressed for business. Maybe that guy got a job and got got them in apartment in the last day. I don't know. But everybody's gone. And I'm like, hey, man. All right. I mean, I guess we'll see. We'll see what happens. We'll see who comes in. We'll see what results from this. But it's certainly not a bad thing to lose all of these nightmare snores. Like this one person beneath me. Just it was, I've never heard snoring quite like this before where it was just such slow, gradual snoring. But just the, you know, inner flaps, the folds of the throat, whatever the fuck it is. Like it sounded like farting.

It was just like, but inward, you know, they did that by breathing in somehow. I can't even do that. And it was really loud. It's just over and over. It's like, what the hell? It's sort of weird because like I usually just put on rain sounds to help fall asleep, but it's like a half hour thing and then it ends. And presumably at that point, I'm asleep. If I'm not, then it's, you know, it's like, hey, you've been trying to fall asleep for half an hour. Maybe you should give up. But in this case, I gotta just put it on the loop and turn it up louder than I usually do. Because it is much easier to sleep through loud rain noises than loud snoring. At least it's consistent, you know? You just kind of get used to it. And it dulls the other sounds. Or like, sudden sounds wake me up very easily. So if it's quiet for a bit and then someone starts snoring, that's bad because that'll wake me up. But if it's mixed in, if it has been rain sounds the whole time and then mixed in with the rain is the snoring, then I'm probably fine. But it's a weird feeling to wake up after hours and hours and hours. And the sounds still going. And it's like, man, that's been blasting in my ears this whole time. That is weird. But it seems like the only way, the only way to handle things because your plugs aren't enough. They don't do it. They're not good enough. But yeah, Daniel from Vancouver, the guy I met, as I was checking in, he was checking in at the same time and I helped him get inside. I kind of got his whole life story all of a sudden right at the end. Because I saw him like, I think one other time. But today, as he was leaving, he made a point to say, fairly well. And yeah, it's like, I was like, all right, cool. So what are you up to now? And he's like, well, I'm going to such and such a place because that's where the arrangements for the funeral are happening. And then I got to go over to this other neighborhood because I got to see about getting my citizenship. That's just like Jesus Christ, Dan. I didn't know any of this. I didn't know. I didn't know you were here for a funeral. I was aware that he was Asian, but I mean, just because he was from Vancouver, there's no, certainly no presumption that he's Japanese. There are many, many colors in the rainbow in Vancouver. But anyway, we chit-chatted a bit about how I went to Akihabra and he told me he went somewhere else and now I forget what he said because I was thinking like, oh, I guess I could have done that today, but I don't know. Anyway, some kind of gardens maybe? Imperial. Maybe he went to the, the Imperial Palace, which I mean, I've been there. I've been there already. I've done that. I didn't go in. I just walked around it. But yeah, we exchanged email addresses. Then it's one of those things that I mean, I don't know what I'd ever do with it. I don't know when I would ever drop him a line or vice versa. I have a feeling that it's one of these things or will. That's it. Nice to meet you. Single serving friend. Glad I could help you get in. Nice to yammer to somebody who, again, no offense to Japan, but it is nice to yammer to somebody who can speak English. That's just nice. I don't hate that. I did end up buying a kebab from Akihabra last night and it was a pain. Anything like in a wrap, anything in a, in a pita or a burrito. 10:00 I'm just so bad at eating them. They just fall apart of my hands, but it was nice to just order from a guy who just, hey, yeah, this guy definitely speaks English. It's like, how nice.

Man, am I going to regret this? No, don't get it. I'm just looking at this, you know, Georgia coffee. It's like the the Coke brand. It's not that great. It's max coffee. It's like coffee with extra caffeine in it. It's like, no, that's not what you don't want that. Just go. Just because you haven't had coffee yet today, you can get some soon enough. But yeah, I think the exchanging of emails was more, more just like, it's more a sign of good will. Of like, hey, thanks for helping me get into the place or whatever. And then I was like, all right, well, have fun on your remaining adventures, but then immediately my brain said, hey, he just told you he's heading to a funeral soon. So, my dad, you know, obviously not all of it will be fun, but you know, like overall. He said, yeah, okay, cool, thank you.

But as for today, yeah, I guess this doesn't really change my plans or lack thereof, because it's really not raining that hard. And yeah, I figure I'll just keep my umbrella with the broken spoke just in case of emergencies, just in case the sky opens up all of a sudden, just because it's, it can be collapsed down enough to keep it on me, where I'm still envious of other people's big long and tall umbrellas. You know, they got some umbrellas around here. They got just regular size umbrellas too, but they got some that are real big, and they're real nice, but they're also really long and awkward, unless I did some Oswald's copper pot shit, you know, and just made it into a fucking walking cane or something. I don't know, I thought maybe I'd walk south to Tokyo Bay and just see what happens, but I kind of know what's going to happen, like nothing, right? It's not going to be good. You can't really approach the bay, you know, if it's anything like Chiba, it's just going to be an industrial nightmare. But I don't know, I might try that anyway, we'll see.

And yeah, the reason I haven't had a coffee, I was going to buy one of the brown sugar coffees from the 100 yen machine that I found yesterday. Star vending brand, that's about star level selling of things, not starving and ending, very awkward name, but then I was looking in the machine and they had a lemon and yuzu drink, and I was like, aha, yuzu, I learned about yuzu in Fukuoka, because I nabbed a lemon off a tree, an unaffiliated tree in the countryside, I feel like I should add that. I didn't steal from any particular person's lemon tree. And even if I did, it was for science. And the science that I learned is that it wasn't a lemon. It was like bitter and grape fruity and I was like, hmm, what the heck is this? And that's when I learned that there's a lemon-like fruit called yuzu that tastes bitter. And I was like, fucking amazing, it's so weird, so cool. So I saw this lemon and yuzu drink and I'm like, sweet, dude, maybe that'll be like a weirdly bitter lemon drink, what the heck is this? But again, I didn't want to drink it that night because I just don't want to have to get up to pee a lot when I'm in this communal Airbnb. So it came out of the machine warm and I guess that's probably how I was supposed to drink it, maybe like neo-citrine or something, but I just kept it stashed away, drank it this morning. But it wasn't really that bitter. The yuzu part was very mild, which I guess is the same with the lemon. Lemon Aidenstuff doesn't actually taste like lemon, it just tastes like sugar. So I guess it tastes, I guess the way you would, I guess, actually expect it to taste, but basically just tasted like lemonade was fine. But I was hoping for a blast to yuzu. Hook me up. Hook me up with something weird and bitter and that is not not what it was. And it had no caffeine in it. So yeah, that's where it's like, I gotta get me some coffee. But if I go to the mini-stop, was it mini-stop? No, it's daily Yamazaki. I'm gonna get me some bread for actually, I think I dobbled enough at that Airbnb that it's a little past noon. So I guess this is my lunch. Oh yeah, that's the other thing I noticed today kind of again. As interesting as anything is in this podcast, I guess, so it's fine. Because so many people were leaving the Airbnb, they had to flip it. You know, they had to clean it up. So I was just in my bunk with my little curtain closed, doing some computer-y stuff, 15:00 so I could really only hear what was going on, but it was kind of interesting too, because I I got a couple little insights into how they clean stuff, at least in a Japanese Airbnb, because it does seem a little different. I feel like in North America, with hotels and stuff and probably Airbnb, it's kind of like you just wash all the linens, you just change everything. Not the mattress, but everything else. Where I noticed even in 2019, it's a little different in Japan, just because there's more of this futon culture. So it's not necessarily, let's throw every single thing into a washing machine every single time. It does seem like some of their cleaning methods are a little different, and maybe what we would sort of consider not cleaning methods. I can't say for sure, but that's just the feeling I was getting a little. And this was a bit like that where I heard a lot of like a huge part of this process was definitely lint rollers. So you know those things you can get at like the dollar store or whatever, that it's just like a plastic stick, and it's got sticky tape on it, and you roll it over your clothes, or over whatever to pick up lint or dog hair, because it was like ro-ro-roll, tear, ro-ro-roll, tear, ro-ro-roll, tear, like a million times. But that does make sense. I mean, that's a pretty good technique if you are just kind of leaving the fundamental bedding as it was.

Whether or not it's actually clean or not, it certainly will look clean if you lint roll it all the heck it is just you know looks pristine. But it is one of those things too where you just you don't want to think about the person who was sitting on the toilet right before you you don't want to think about the person who was in a place before you. You like to just imagine this somehow magically everything was just perfect as though you're like the first person even though someone else was on that toilet two minutes ago someone else was in this Airbnb a few hours ago whatever you know it's like whatever just don't overthink it it's fine but then the other thing I thought was kind of interesting is after all the stuff got cleaned I heard the very distinctive click of a cell phone camera taking a picture which I don't think mine does that I think that's a Japan thing right for uh to make sure that you're not taking sneaky creep picks of people and stuff see let me just take a picture of this wall yeah no sound no sound in North America but yeah it had this shutter sound of three pictures being taken and I guess yeah it must be oh this must be as the cleaner person is reporting back to whoever owns the place here it is I clean this bunk I clean this bunk I watch the shower I did all this like you must have to just take pictures and email them which I got to admit it really does make sense of like it would be nice to just trust that everybody did their work but why trust when you could know just pass them by the museum I didn't look at the front of it last time I can't tell if it's pretty or ugly it's got a lot of glass windows but I'm gonna lean toward ugly it's got all these weird poles sticking out at an angle and these weird wire mesh statues spinning around and some guy taking a picture of it just because it's at a fucking museum yeah yeah nah but that must mean I'm on the right route that daily Yamazaki is around here somewhere I'm just walking through this nice little park that is uh you know the fall colors are really starting to happen I mean I guess it's just that the trees in Japan are only well no I guess not I was gonna say they're half evergreen and half not but there are some over here that are partially changed still but mostly at this point it seems like the trees that are gonna change color are changing color and it's very nice looking it's very pretty I know it's not uh the amazing cherry blossoms but I'm sure this is still pretty good and this uh I don't know if uh no I guess it does it's gonna say I don't know if you could say fall leaves really fall into being like Canadian sensibility thing but yeah we got a fucking maple leaf our goddamn flag looks like a fall fucking leaf I think it's safe to say that this speaks to my Canadian heart even though it is a phenomenon that happens all over the place but I saw a guy at this park sitting on a bench with his laptop which is I did that a couple days ago but it was clear skies today it is just sleet not gray but uh like a light well it's not blue it's not gray it's not 20:00 blue it's not white it's just it's just nothing it's just a void of nothing in this guy bright nothing it's the bright version of the incredible darkness at night and yeah it's not raining at this very moment but that guy it's a brave fucking guy it's been kind of misting all day so I didn't even get what I expected to get at daily amazaki I can't remember what I saw yesterday that that caught my eye but anyway today they had like like a breaded chicken sandwich thing and I got like a hot dog with all these hot peppers and stuff on it and it was kind of good the same way getting like the kebab thing was kind of good yesterday just as like a jump back to Little North America every once in a while I mean I am starting to get that impulse now that I've been in Japan for a while of like oh jeez what if I just went to Wendy's or something so I got a little taste to that feeling and it was good but yeah just even just like the grease on my fingers and I'm just like I got to go find a washroom and of course there's never soap in the washrooms but at least wet my hands and then wipe them on my pant leg or something just this grease god get off me grease and yeah I'm sure if you live in Japan it's nice to have oh once in a while let's go get a hot dog let's go get a fucking chicken burger let's just do this type of thing you know McDonald's is extremely popular here as well just to have a nice change from traditional Japanese food what am I saying traditional I think it's safe to say seven eleven food is not traditional but it's the new tradition it's new traditional because for me it made me realize like nah I'm not going to be in Japan that much longer times going to go by really fast even if I'm just eating onigiri and ginger soy mackerel and even noodles you know even just ramen or whatever even if that's all I'm eating all the time take advantage of it now while you're here while you can the ramen is not that big a deal but it kind of is because ramen here it's just better even if you're just eating convenience store ramen because you know you can get like an egg from the convenience store and they have like some of these weird eggs that are like absorbed some kind of sauce again might just be soy sauce I don't know but so they're like black can you get all this cool weird stuff it's just better you know see I think it's uh I'd be better off eating that stuff while I can while I'm here while it's easily accessible with like a month or so to go I think this was the appropriate time to uh just be like yeah fuck it give me some fried bullshit let's do that but then upon eating it and it was pretty good I mean I'm not complaining it was well made it was like pretty tasty but it's like yeah no yeah no the last four years in New Brunswick Canada where all I could eat were chicken burgers and chicken because it's all they have that came back in a flood it's like yeah no I'm not uh I guess I don't miss that so I made it over to the Samida and I'm just gonna walk south and see what happens since I was thinking about heading down to Tokyo Bay anyway this basically kind of takes me in that direction and I get to walk next to some water since it's such an overcast day it's kind of cool look in the sky tree I can't see the top it just disappears into a fuzzy haze about four fifths of the way up just above the big main observation deck and it's actually a cool vibe this really feels like coastal it feels like despite the fact that it must be past one o'clock now yeah it's about 130 but it feels like 6am it feels like I got up early and went down to the shoreline you know in like fucking St Andrews or something instead of the beautiful bright lights at night of everything all lit up and everything all beautiful this is just totally plain just the plain river and there's not even really people I guess the rain probably scared them away earlier it's like one person way down far ahead of me and one lady who just passed me but usually there's joggers when I'm here in the evening it's just non-stop joggers people jogging everywhere and yeah that tower as I walk away it's just getting more and more disappearing it's like that Stephen King story the mist that they turned into a movie with a new ending which was terrible 25:00 I hated the ending but but the short story didn't have an ending it just ended ambiguously with like who knows what we will do in this new world of the mist so I guess I can't complain at least the movie had an ending but it sure was fucking stupid I don't know if that has nothing to do with anything it looks cool is what I'm trying to say the tower really looks like it looks like it's from an oil painting or something it just doesn't look real it really looks big you know when something disappears into the clouds that's that's the sign of bigness that's what made me think of of the mist there were these monsters in the mist we're in the mist it's just the world gets enveloped by mist it was supposed to be mysterious but I think it was later revealed that it was all tied into the dark tower or something nothing makes a mystery more entertaining than to just explain it but in the original mysterious mist takes over the world and they're stuck in this super market and outside are monsters and they just don't know what to do but at the end when some of the people finally leave the supermarket and they're driving along and they see these creatures that are so big they can only see their legs like dinosaurs but even bigger and they can't even fathom how big this thing is or what it even looks like because it just disappears up into the mist that's what the sky tree looks like right now it's fucking cool yeah like this vibe I don't know it's weird it doesn't feel like a like an overcast gray day it just feels like a cool fisherman day down by the water down by the docks feels weirdly good hey one just weird little thing I wanted to mention about Yuzu since I learned you know that Yuzu exists this fucking magical fruit and just like wonder how many fruit there are in the world and vegetables and just stuff that I've never heard of before it just still kind of blows my mind in some ways that you can just be an adult and just not know about certain fruits and vegetables this weird feeling but when I was still in my fancy pants digs in Fukuoka I did a little a little phone home because it's like all right won't really be able to do that while I'm packed in with people so why not why not call home and I asked my mom if she ever heard a Yuzu before and this kind of surprised me she said that she did because my dad went on a kick at one point of just trying to buy fruits and vegetables he'd never heard of you know so I guess I'm a chip off the whole block but I was surprised to hear that because my dad famously did not like trying weird stuff you know I mean he would buy anything from the supermarket that said new but it wasn't really new you know it's just some new frozen enchilada or something it's not actually different or weird in any way but yeah he went on the space of buying all this stuff to try out and my mom was like there was one called ugly fruit with an eye that's like for real ugly fruit but I looked it up that's only one of its names it has an official name but it is known and also is ugly fruit and I can't remember what she said it tasted like but I mean what the hell you know not only is there stuff I don't know about that I've never heard of but it has the weirdest fucking names in the world I just walked across a bridge and I was just on this little I guess

I'm still there for now but still just on this little island just this little island mini city like I don't know how big is this thing not very big I don't know like 10 blocks I could be wrong that's just a weird estimate but it's not huge and I found a nice little tullies and I got a matchellate crammed myself in the corner because it was all busy because of the rainy day I assume and man this is one thing it's just a little thing but it's so nice when you're prepared for this stuff it's like makes it a not a big deal when it would have totally sucked otherwise is just being crammed in and having to duck around people and I'm like squeezed into the corner and it's just like awkward and I accidentally knocked over my stupid latte and luckily like the top didn't come off or anything it just a bit of matcha liquid came out of the little spout at the top but enough to make like a little puddle on the floor and the lady sitting next to me just did the classic Japanese don't don't acknowledge this don't even act like nothing even happened act like you didn't see anything which is like at the same time like okay I guess that's actually not the worst thing just let me handle this and that's fine I guess but it still does feel a bit weird you know in North America I can't really predict what a person would say 30:00 but they'd say something you know we'd make a little joke about it or something but luckily in my little my little day bag I've gotten so used to having this thing it's so nice it's essentially a purse you know I mean I guess it's just a less feminine version of a purse sure as handy this thing it's not that big but it's really got everything I need in it like last night when I got the 7-Eleven Mackerel on the way home and the lady didn't offer me chopsticks but I was like that's okay because I'm quite sure I have chopsticks in this little bag turns out I do not but I do still have my little plastic plastic forks that I haven't used since since I was at Yogi Park and I'm like good enough use my plastic fork to eat it when I got back to the Airbnb I washed off the plastic fork tucked it back in there and if I do end up with a spare pair of disposable chopsticks I'll put them in here too but one thing that's in here is I bought one of these little 10 packs of just like moist towelette type things and I just had those in case I should come across a washroom that doesn't have toilet paper which never happens that happen one time at a random ass park in Fukuoka and that's it it hasn't happened since I actually forgot that I had this thing because it's not it's like zippered away in a little side pouch and I guess I could have used it this morning when I had gross grease all over my fingers I just kind of forgot but as soon as I spilled the matcha it's like then my brain kicked in it's like okay potential social shame happening right now quick spring into action and immediately my brain remembered hey in this side pouch you got that thing you've never even opened it so I'm like cool you're right I open up the thing the little 10 pack I use like half of them and I just cleaned up the whole mess like perfect like it never happened because otherwise I would have to go all the way ducking through people to the front counter and the napkins they had were just like the very smallest thinnest lightest I would have used like fucking 50 of them it would have been awful instead I just cleaned it all up if anything the floor was cleaner when I was done and it's just like yeah nice even though I didn't I didn't use these little wipes for what I thought I might need them for but that's a good thing to have on you dude just have a little pack of fucking wet wipes in your in your little day pouch I would consider that necessary even if they're almost never important the times when they are important they're dang important So yeah, I hung out there, did some computer-y shit till my computer was almost dead. Not a lot of places to plug in your computer in Japan, but in a way it's not bad. It's a good arbiter of like, that's a good way to still have the sort of, hey, just hang out, inviting vibe, but also the, hey, but don't just stay here forever. I mean, I was there for at least two hours. Maybe more than that, I don't know. Definitely if I'm rendering videos and stuff, it just eats up my computer battery like crazy. Because it got eaten up a little faster than it should, but anyway. Good timing though. Because then when I came out, now it's nighttime. And from the center of this little island, I just walked over to, uh, just kind of followed the lights now. It was really pretty in the daytime with the cool mist, but there's just, you just can't beat the lights. The lights at night. I mean, they're just, I just have to, it has to be the prettier way to see Japan because the daytime's amazing, but, the night is just, I don't know, it's just insane how cool it looks. So I saw some lights strung up on like a little shopping street. So I just moved, gravitated naturally toward them. Just like, uh, pretty beautiful. And walked through a little park and then, and then up some steps over a little sea wall. And then boom, back to the water, back to like, it's all like canals in between these islands. And it's just, boom, like it just hits you, like all the buildings were lit up. And then the bridges, I don't think bridges are lit like this in North America. They have like utilitarian lighting, but these have lighting both the bridges I'm looking at, like lighting all the way across them. One of them is yellow and green. The other one is purple and white. It just looks so fucking cool. And that was going to be enough. I was just going to say like, man, so beautiful. But as I've been walking between two of these buildings in the distance, I'm like, is that the Tokyo Tower? I've never been to the Tokyo Tower. I don't quite know where it is. But I'm finding that stuff in central Tokyo is a lot more walkable than I thought it was. Everything's a lot closer than I thought it was. I was just walking toward this purple and white bridge because it looked pretty. And I was like, I'll just go cross over there, whatever. I think it's kind of sort of taken me back where I need to go. But I'm in no hurry to get back to the Airbnb. So who cares? I'll just walk wherever's prettiest. And then I'll catch up on where I am later, whenever. Who cares? 35:00 But yeah, it's like, of course, with the nature of towers. Maybe it's not that close. But I'm like, I think that's Tokyo Tower. So I mean, I could mosey in that direction. Why not? A misty day would be a perfect day to see it. But then I've never heard tell of this phenomenon. But if that is the Tokyo Tower, I don't know what else it could possibly be. It has to be. It's not easy to see from where I am right now. There's like these two buildings that I can't can almost see it right between. From here though, it's kind of hidden behind a building. But anyway, to my left is Tokyo Tower. But over to my right, behind another lit up archway type thing, very hard to see. Way in the distance in the mist is the fucking sky tree. I'm looking at the Tokyo Tower and the sky tree at the same time right. Well, not at the same time because I have to turn my head. But from a single vantage point, is that a thing you can do? Is that a common thing? I wonder if there's specific points that are known in Tokyo where you can see both. Or did I discover it? In case I discovered it, let me figure out exactly where I am. Let me tell you what it's called. So I can... It can be confirmed or denied by future historians. Tsukishima Monje Street is where I was. TSU-KI-SHIM-A-M-O-N-J-A Street. And Tsukishima Station is right there. So I'm just in the northwestern shore from Tsukishima Station. Near the Kachidoki Bridge is the one I'm looking at. That's the purple and white one.

And the yellow and green for some reason does not have a name that it wishes to tell me. Yeah, holy fuck, it's right there. Tokyo Tower.

Tokyo Tower this way? Sky tree that way. Yeah, dude, that's really close. I'm going to the Tokyo Tower dogs. That's what I'm doing today. This is not what I expected to do, but hey, man, that's the joy. The joy of Japan in general. And yeah, this fucking vantage point I met. This little central Tokyo fucking, I've never stayed like this central before.

It's kind of absurd. How close everything is. How accessible everything is. And then we'll see from here, I mean, I could take a train back. But every time I notice the train going by across the Semitra River, back toward the direction where I would need to go. Pretty much any time of the evening when I see one go by, it is so packed full of people. It's just so packed. And I'm like, I don't, I would rather not do that if I don't have to, if I could avoid it. What the hell? But we'll see. I mean, I'll probably just walk. But man, I just, I just, man, I just love that I just keep walking around. I mean, this has been happening for weeks now. You just walk around and something cool happens. Who needs a plan? Fuck a plan. Bitch, that's such a weird Tokyo dower. Skytree. But I feel like that must be a relatively uncommon phenomenon. Because even here, I mean, yeah, like I said, it's not quite perfect. I can't quite properly see the Tokyo tower right now. And once it comes back into view, Skytree is quickly disappearing behind the building. I don't even know if this really counts. There's got to be better ones than this. But I don't know, I just assumed they were really far away from each other.

I'll tell you, there's no better way to learn geography than to just walk around. You really do get a sense of where everything is in relation to each other. Way more so than with trains. With trains, I just, nothing sticks in my brain. I never know what's going on.

But yeah, I also noticed, before I started walking this direction, my other idea, just doing vague looks on Google Maps, was if I went the other way, if I did keep going toward the bay. Because this little mini island, I'm on, is not unique in the sense that everything down here is weird little islands. Little bridges between little islands, they're just like little, a little neighborhood that the whole neighborhood is an island. And they seem really cool. And it's like, okay, I could go down to this one, and then this one, and then this one. And then there appears to be some kind of park that goes out into the bay. How accessible is it? Can I get there on foot? I don't know.

But then I realized each of these little journeys, they do add up. Because I was like, wait, there's Haneda Airport. I also thought that was way further away. And then there's like Yokohama. And my final Airbnb in Japan is in Yokohama. And by islands, I mean, yeah, like they're mega developed.

It's certainly not an island like Robinson Crusoe. This is an island like the Jetsons, if they had islands.

Do people even live on the surface in the Jetsons? How does the Jetsons work? The Jetsons house was in space, right? I don't know, who cares.

But also, it made me realize the other nice thing is Yokohama is not fire. But I mean, that's, I don't know, it's also deceptive. Because I was thinking like, yeah, all this is very close and very accessible. And like, if I get tired of Yokohama, it seems like I can very easily just take the train to wherever I also want to go from there. No problem. However, on a map, it looks like where I'm going to be is about the same distance as when I was in Chiba, just on the other side of the bay. And Chiba felt kind of far away. Chiba felt too far away to comfortably just travel into Tokyo on a whim. But maybe it wasn't. I mean, to be fair, I didn't try. Since I was only there for five days. Since I'm going to be in Yokohama longer, maybe I will bail out. Oh, maybe not. Maybe I'll just go the other way into the wild blue yonder. Who the fuck knows? In summary though, fucking Japan is amazing to walk around in. And it's just beautiful as shit. There's a nice boat going under this bridge. And all these bridges are very low. No big boats are getting through here. That's for sure. But I love that they're very low bridges. It feels very comfortable for me as a scary pants pedestrian. Not like those bridges in Akigawa that were scaring the piss out of me. But anyway, speaking of bridges, with bridges comes traffic and when traffic comes noise. So let's pause the podcasting until I get to the Tokyo Tower. Or they're about us.

Hey, it's Keith from the future.

I came back here the next day and I found the exact spot. The exact spot you can stand where you can see the Tokyo Tower to your left through these buildings and the sky tree to your right. Also, between some buildings, but much bigger, easier view. You really got to be in this exact spot. So next episode, I don't know shit about Google Maps, but I'm like, oh, let's see. It's got your location and it's got fucking coordinates. So I read off the exact coordinates. So check next episode if you want the coordinates. But for this episode, let's try this because the other thing is there's a code. Share a short code for this location. So I mean presumably this is an evergreen code, right? This is in fact where I am. So let's try this and if something doesn't work with this code, like I said, the exact coordinates are in the next episode. Well, let's do both. Why not? As a backup in case you care. In case you happen to care about where this exact location is with this view, because I don't know, I think this is pretty neat.