Bi-wheeled humanoids checking out the scene..
Ok, I want you to picture this - a huge department store that is filled with all things electronic. A whole floor of mini discs and CD's and TV's and electronic toilets that wipe your arse for you and watches, cameras, computers...Were talking like 6 ot 7 floors of it...and then, amid all this flashing and beeping chaos, among the flourescant halos of the army of floor staff, picture an oasis...not a palm tree and coconut juice oasis, I mean an oasis in keeping with the electronoidical orgasm of consumer delight.
A sea of lounge chairs, different shapes and sizes. Some are upright, some are tilted so far back as to be horizontal. Row upon row, maybe 6 rows deep and ten wide, all of plush chair action. An every single chair has a Japanese person lounging, reclining, resting in it. Some of the chairs are shaking and vibrating, the leg rests clamping around the slender bow legs of the person resting on it, compressing and releasing in a complex pattern of vibration. Other people are being pummeled by the chair, their backs arching as they struggle to feel the therapeutic benefit of having a machine wrench your tired muscles with synchronised movements. Yes, we have arrived in Massage Chair heaven!
The chairs are apparently for sale. With names like Dodo-Mum G4000 and Cyber-Rest (with aquaplunge!), you can choose from a staggering array of different models. Dotted around the perimeter of the chairs were a dozen different models of foot massager. People were lining up, waiting paitently to leap onto an apparatus the minute a person, now suitably refreshed and doey-eyed would finally float off the chair and back into the shiny electgronic horizon. no one was actually going to buy these chairs! But there was no sense of shame, the way we Australians feel when we sit on the leather sofa at Harvey Norman for just a little too long. No clucking and tutting salesperson giving you the eye to buy. Just row upon row of blissed out face. I stayed in my chair, watching out of the corner of my eye, waiting for the person next to me to give up their plush, vibrating model with inbuilt muzak.
This was some insight into why I wanted to come here, to see stuff like that! We have searched in vain for the panty vending machine and have decided that it is a myth. Just like it's a myth that the japanese are small and have got umm...tiny wangers. Reliable reports from the men's bath house is that there are todgers of all shapes and sizes and more than a sprinkling of strapping lads. We did buy a beer from a vending machine, though it was a little watery.
We have been doing night time bike missions into different areas. It's Obon festival, so everyone is very jolly and there are fireworks a plenty, as well as groups of people walking the streets, beating drums and carrying lanterns. Apparently at Obon ancestors return to their houses. I haven't figured out whether people are keen on this or not. All the drumming and chanting seems to conjure up the vibe of an exorcism, but the festival has a celebratory aspect as well.
Can I just say that there are a lot of incredibly boring people teaching english here. We met some at this club last night - ryan will fill you all in on it, but there were lots of gaijin looking really glum and just giving off a total lack of positive energy or vibe. Apparently this happens to people when they stay in Japan too long, but these guys had been here for like 3 years...maybe we were hoping to meet some other wide-eyed puppy dogs to play with, but it seems we will have to keep sniffing.
On the way to the club we heard this saxophone floating out over the river, so I rode down and gave the guy my card, told him I'd like to jam-u....damn, if only we had a babel fish and could actually have some meaningful exchange...ryan is rocking on the jap and I am sort of clawing my way up the hill.
Stay tuned for more, it's gonna be a big weekend.
Kimba xxx
A sea of lounge chairs, different shapes and sizes. Some are upright, some are tilted so far back as to be horizontal. Row upon row, maybe 6 rows deep and ten wide, all of plush chair action. An every single chair has a Japanese person lounging, reclining, resting in it. Some of the chairs are shaking and vibrating, the leg rests clamping around the slender bow legs of the person resting on it, compressing and releasing in a complex pattern of vibration. Other people are being pummeled by the chair, their backs arching as they struggle to feel the therapeutic benefit of having a machine wrench your tired muscles with synchronised movements. Yes, we have arrived in Massage Chair heaven!
The chairs are apparently for sale. With names like Dodo-Mum G4000 and Cyber-Rest (with aquaplunge!), you can choose from a staggering array of different models. Dotted around the perimeter of the chairs were a dozen different models of foot massager. People were lining up, waiting paitently to leap onto an apparatus the minute a person, now suitably refreshed and doey-eyed would finally float off the chair and back into the shiny electgronic horizon. no one was actually going to buy these chairs! But there was no sense of shame, the way we Australians feel when we sit on the leather sofa at Harvey Norman for just a little too long. No clucking and tutting salesperson giving you the eye to buy. Just row upon row of blissed out face. I stayed in my chair, watching out of the corner of my eye, waiting for the person next to me to give up their plush, vibrating model with inbuilt muzak.
This was some insight into why I wanted to come here, to see stuff like that! We have searched in vain for the panty vending machine and have decided that it is a myth. Just like it's a myth that the japanese are small and have got umm...tiny wangers. Reliable reports from the men's bath house is that there are todgers of all shapes and sizes and more than a sprinkling of strapping lads. We did buy a beer from a vending machine, though it was a little watery.
We have been doing night time bike missions into different areas. It's Obon festival, so everyone is very jolly and there are fireworks a plenty, as well as groups of people walking the streets, beating drums and carrying lanterns. Apparently at Obon ancestors return to their houses. I haven't figured out whether people are keen on this or not. All the drumming and chanting seems to conjure up the vibe of an exorcism, but the festival has a celebratory aspect as well.
Can I just say that there are a lot of incredibly boring people teaching english here. We met some at this club last night - ryan will fill you all in on it, but there were lots of gaijin looking really glum and just giving off a total lack of positive energy or vibe. Apparently this happens to people when they stay in Japan too long, but these guys had been here for like 3 years...maybe we were hoping to meet some other wide-eyed puppy dogs to play with, but it seems we will have to keep sniffing.
On the way to the club we heard this saxophone floating out over the river, so I rode down and gave the guy my card, told him I'd like to jam-u....damn, if only we had a babel fish and could actually have some meaningful exchange...ryan is rocking on the jap and I am sort of clawing my way up the hill.
Stay tuned for more, it's gonna be a big weekend.
Kimba xxx
posted by kimba at 11:02 PM
Meet your hosts: Kimba and Ryryry
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