Fenchurch

I almost started a new board called Britcoms, but British comedies are almost always awkward (at least the ones I watch).

The Wrong Mans is a comedy-thriller produced by BBC Two and Hulu with only 6 episodes in the first series, but it looks like a second series is extremely likely. I watched 5 episodes last night before I passed out at 2 am. The storyline is pretty over the top, but extremely entertaining.

From Wikipedia:


Check it!

Hat tip to Al, thank you! Nabbed that and will be watching it tonight.

For anyone who's been to Japan and miss it (I do and fiercely), I'd recommend this book, Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo.

I had such a this dull, bittersweet ache in my chest after returning stateside that I was devouring books about Japan/travel/etc. It simultaneously made things better and worse. In this book, the author lives with his family in a tiny Tokyo apartment, and he and his 8-year-old daughter bop around town, eating everything! It's a great travel memoir and I've been meaning to read his previous novel where he writes about raising his daughter to be an adventurous eater.

I have a Kindle and can lend the ebook to anyone who is interested! It's a quick, fluffy read but it totally brought me back to Japan.

</tears>

Anton, any photos from your trip?

My friend went to a maid cafe and loved it because she was the "master". All the guys were thoroughly weirded out by girls mixing all their food for them and just generally doting.

I wouldn't want to go, either.

But, an owl cafe?! C'mon, you gotta!

It has been renewed for season 2! Won't be out until April 2014, though.

Just do it.

I love that Al, of course, is assuming the worst! I must agree because I've been there; I know how weird internet people can be.

When I first moved, I went to a Weird Foods meet up. What a mistake! I'm so glad I invited my friends to come along; they were able to confirm that everyone else were weirdos and I wasn't just me.

One woman kept being really sexual, thrusting her (HUGE) breasts enthusiastically back and forth when describing some sort of motion (I forget). For some reason, she described this twice in one night and both times almost punching me in the face with one of her breast. I believe she attempted to seductively eat a shrimp, pretending it was a tiny sea monster dick and she was sucking on its head(?!). I later looked her up on the meetup site and saw she had joined multiple dating groups, one entitled "Date Me If You Dare".

There was an older woman who wrote countless books that were in the vein of self-help or self-marketing. She kept telling us she was an author over and over and over again and was competing with Bresties for the spotlight.

Oh, on that note Bresties was so mad at me when I asked her a question! She was telling a story about going to a Portuguese meat celebration, and I inquired if it had been a matança. I was trying to make conversation! She turned very slowly to look at me and then said, "I don't know what that word is. I have no idea what you're talking about." She was all kerfluffled that I interrupted her story! She turned back to the group and continued nannering on and pretty much carried the conversation the entire night.

I was quiet after that; I knew my place. And then there were two other people who kept making "heh heh cock" jokes when we were served chicken and various other terrible not very clever innuendos.

So... good luck with your meetup! Hope no one brings their Real Doll.

The subreddit of your town sounds so active! Oakland seems kinda dead; I bet Berkeley will be more active but most likely populated by university students (yuck).

Glad it hear it! The actress does a spectacular job of playing all the different clones. You can tell when she's Clone A pretending to be Clone B; you can see Clone A's mannerisms shine through.

I love the nod to the Berkeley clone. Berkeley is a 10-minute drive from where I live and they nailed the stereotype.

My two favorite recent-ish discoveries have been Black Mirror and Orphan Black. I see Al has posted about Black Mirror already but there's been no mention of Orphan Black! I cannot sing the praises of this show enough, though I'm no good at writing up summaries.

Has anyone watched it? Here's the trailer:

What exactly happens at a Reddit meetup? Is it like a LAN party? Or parties where we show each other weird shit from YouTube?

Have you seen the crazy themed rooms in some of the love hotels? I wanted to book a room in the S & M Hello Kitty room just so I could take photos!

A PS3 or Xbox... Is the hooker gonna play console games with you?

Haha, of course you did!

Are you in the Kabukichō district in the Shinjuku ward? I think I rode a bike through there and it was pretty tame by our standards. However, if you're not with a group of other people, door guys will holler at you to come into the clubs.

I did not see any prostitutes! Just sheepish couples coming out of the love hotels startled by a group of lily-white Americans on bicycles (and me).

Look for the vending machine with panties in them! I never got to see it and was wondering if they were used or new...

Makes sense!

The only other thing I could think of was http://wikitravel.org/en/Tokyo

If you haven't really done anything yet, this is helpful. I relied heavily on it when I was doing research for my trip.

Absolutely! As does the "lady" runner who poops in the yard.

The "junk" ramen dish is called mazesoba.

Here's a look at what Tokyo looks like...

Fishing at night seems like it would be more fun in the dark! Do you eat the lemon/rig sharks?

I haven't had time to peruse the guide you linked to but I'm sure they'll mention that Japan is very safe and that it is a cash society!


More info!

1. I pulled out $2,000 USD from an ATM and walked around with it during my trip. Check the exchange rates... I hemmed and hawed over where to grab cash from (at home, at the airport, in Japan, etc.) and finally just went with the ATM at the Narita Airport. I don't think I got boned on the exchange rate...

2. Don't use the squat toilet unless you're very limber. I had a terrible (comical) time!

3. I feel like Hyperdia had an edge over Google Maps. I may be wrong!

4. Subway map

5. Japan rail map. There are various subway and train networks (so confusing!), but you'll for sure be using JR because they have a line, the Yamanote line, that runs a loop around central Tokyo.

6. Don't get caught on a train/subway during rush hour. I think this happened to Scott:

Free wifi is about nowhere in Japan. :\

You can get wi-fi at Starbucks but you need to sign up for an account ahead of time via their Japanese website. I did this but didn't end up using Starbucks at all because I rented a mobile wifi device. I ordered it ahead of time and picked it up at the airport! You can also have it sent to your hotel... but then you're stuck at the airport with no internet at all.

Scott was going to do the sim card route but kept running into problems, because it's illegal(?) to rent a sim card if you don't have a Japanese address. Something weird like that. I don't think he ever got his hands on a sim card. However, there are plenty of sites that offer sim cards for rent! I think Scott's problem was that he was trying to rent one in person.

Here are two other sites to consider if you end up renting a sim card or a wifi hotspot.

http://www.econnectjapan.com/pricing
http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/

I reviewed the Japan wiki I made for my trip but nothing stands out as a must. I had a great time just gawking at my surroundings!

Some tips:

1. Eat at 7-11. Food from convenience stores are actually high quality compared to the States! Most mornings I grabbed a ongiri-esque item from the deli section and was in heaven. My favorite had a half egg and soy sauce rice. On that note, chain restaurants in Japan are pretty good as well. Food there is just... good.

2. Skip the Ginza district. It was all upscale shopping stores... though Scott and I did discover a neat Alice and Wonderland art exhibition above a makeup shop.

3. I know you're going to the Akihabara distrcit because there's so many crazy electronics and video game stores there. The video game wonderland we ended up at was called Super Potato, which I think has more than one location.

5. Try out a restaurant (usually curry or ramen?) that takes your order with a ticket machine. Japanese curry is way different than Chinese/Vietnamese, Thai, or Indian curry though.

6. Go to Tamagawa Daishi! It's a small, local temple in a nondescript residential area. It has "an underground passageway that snakes its way under the building. There are statues and altars with lighting at various points, but much of the tunnel is in absolute darkness. It symbolizes a passage through the intestines of the Buddha (better not to dwell too much on the symbolism!) while the 88 Buddha statues in one of the chambers also symbolize the famous 88 Temple Pilgrimage in Shikoku." The candlelight really sets the mood. One of my favorite experiences from the trip.

They spoke zero English there when I went. Just take off your shoes at the entrance, and place ¥100 on the wooden tray. There's a box of brown slippers near the stairway on your left. Grab a pair, put on some slippers, and shuffle into the darkness.

7. Try an onsen? I didn't have time to go to one but it's on my to do list for next time. Might not be your cuppa since you'll probably be in your birthday suit with a bunch of Japanese dudes. You don't have any tattoos, do you? You won't be allowed in if you have any ink.

8. Check out a park or a garden. I ended up at Shinjuku-gyoen which has Japanese, English, and French gardens. Tokyo is so claustrophobic that it was nice to go to a park and just not bump into someone every 2 seconds. Nice place for mental reset.

9. Check our a larger temple than Tamagawa Daishi. I think Sensōji Temple is one of the larger ones. Caution, the area is populated by tons of tourists!

10. Learn some stock phrases. I mostly used "I don't speak Japanese" and "Excuse me". People kept speaking Japanese to me so it was handy.

Here are some of the photos I took while I was there! http://www.flickr.com/photos/fenchurch/set...57635426062369/

You will get lost. Just let it happen! I didn't and was very frustrated (i.e. I am a control freak). You see, Tokyo has no street names. You have to find your destination by city, ward, block, and building number. Block numbers are not laid out in numeric order.

Get a bilingual map and buy a subway pass!

I'm so excited for you! Ever since I came back from Japan, I've been scheming to go back and I think I've become a bigger Japanophile than I was before.

Going to the museum means you get to see 1 of 4 animated shorts that is only shown at the museum. The guide is correct that you'll need to purchase your tickets ahead of time from a Lawson's. I bought my online from JTB and had a voucher mailed to my house. The benefit to buying online is that you can go to the museum anytime on your chosen day. If you buy the tickets from Lawson's, you need to show up at a certain hour. Also the Lawson's menu is only in Japanese, and I only know hiragana and very little katakana and kanji.

Probably for the best.

All those zombie and Hitler photos have burned a special place into my brain (and heart).

Squee!!! Where are you going in Tokyo? I was just there this past April where I met up with Sawall.

PS Am doing a roadtrip to Vancouver on 10/4. Any recommendations for Washington, (Portland) Oregon, and Vancouver would be appreciated!

Elysium and every space film I've seen this year has been such a disappointment. You'd think I learn, but District 9 is also one of my favorites.

The story seemed so choppy especially in that one scene with Jodie Foster; I wonder if they had to cut out a bunch of footage.

Now I'm worried that I should go delete my account, as well. It's been so long that I don't remember my password.

I have and am patiently waiting for series 3! I'm a little disappointed in America television shows right now, though I'm about to catch up on Game of Thrones. Been mainly watching British stuff.