Baud Attitude

Seriously, Japan, you don’t need to make things this easy for me.

So this is my fifth trip to Japan.

The first time, I went to Tokyo Tower as a tourist.

And the second time I went there because I’d broken something my wife had bought there on our first trip and I needed to replace it.

And the third time, I went up there because I’d never been up at night and I’d heard that the view was really good at night.

For the record, yes, it is.

But I was seriously done with Tokyo Tower at that point.

And then my father came to Japan at the same time as me on my fourth trip, and I had to show it to him

But this trip I wasn’t going to go.

And then I kinda got roped into it anyway.

Like, grrr.

But it managed to be fun anyway, mostly because of a massive Michael Jackson tribute that was going on outside the tower.  There was a stage, and a DJ playing Michael Jackson songs, and a whole bunch of Japanese people trying to dance on it.

There was also this big damn Shrine To The Gloved One:

You see all the white roses, right?  There was a little table about 20 feet away selling white roses for Y500.

Now, I’m not a cynical man.

OK, I am a cynical man.

And as a cynical man, I’m going to bet that a good number of those roses were on their third or fourth trip from the table to the little shrine and then back to the table.  🙂

Anyway, the tower itself was, uh, you go up and look down on stuff.  I’m a big fan of going up and looking down on stuff, but it was a pretty overcast day so the view wasn’t much.

I did see this sign.  It’s in braille.  There’s something weird about a braille sign in front of massive windows that are 150m off the ground that you have to pay Y820 to go up and look out of.

I kinda want to know what it says.  I have my own theories but none of them are very nice.

I did take one nice photo of the tower on the way out though.  I’m going to call this my “Tokyo Tower Upskirt Shot” and I am going to enjoy the extra hits that throwing that into a blog update will bring.

What was inside the tower, however, was more fun.

This thing:

It’s a “4D theater” attraction based on Fatal Frame II.

And man I love me some Fatal Frame II.

4D theater, in this case, means that you watch a six minute 3D movie while the chairs you’re sitting on tilt back and forth and puffs of air blow at you.

All the footage seemed to be newly done for the ride, too, it was pretty cool and the 3D effect really worked.

There was another 4D theater ride that I didn’t really want to go on, but that I kinda wanted to go on for the bit AFTER the attraction was over.  Sadly, there wasn’t an option to see the Sega History part of it without sitting through the Sonic thing, so I opted to save Y500.

Odd that there’s not a Dreamcast in that mix of hardware.

Last but not necessarily least, it’s good to know that security, if not necessarily English, is being taken seriously at the tower:

…aaaaand I’m out for now.  More as it comes to me.

While I’m over in Japan taking language courses, I’ve been doing some side research on a project of my own – that is, I’m trying to find out if it’s really as hard as everyone says to find clothes that fit.

For reference, I’m not a small guy.  I’m 183cm and pushing 100kg, and I wear an american size 12 shoe that equates to a Japanese 29 or 30.  I’m a little above average size in the US and I’m a freaking giant in Japan.

I used to be a much larger guy, at 135kg, and if I was still that guy I wouldn’t want to come to Japan.  I got down to 85kg at one point, and that would be an even better weight to be here, but 100kg it is for now.

Anyway, from a not terribly scientific sample, I’m not really able to buy shirts off the rack here.  Japanese “LL” shirts will fit, but they’re not the kind of fit that’s particularly comfortable, and they’re not even that common.  Most places stop at “L” for shirts.  I also have a bit of a problem with jeans – I have a 90cm waist and most of the ones in the shops stop around 85cm.  Slacks are easier, they go all the way up to 90.

That being said, I picked up a men’s mail order catalogue and it has shirt sizes all the way up to 5L and waistlines up into the bigger numbers, so if I actually NEEDED to buy clothes here I could.  I’ve also heard that there are a few “big & tall” chains around; it’s possible that even my much bigger self could have gotten dressed here.  I’m going to check one of those out at some point, just to see how “big and tall” they really mean.  I expect some amusement. 🙂

What I was more worried about was shoes.  I’d heard that Japanese shoes were readily available up into the 26 size, with 27 not being too hard to find, but that beyond that was madness.

Either things have changed or I’m in a part of Tokyo where they have particularly monstrous inhabitants, because I walked into both of the shoe stores near the station and found size 29 and 30 shoes in both.  One of them actually had the bigger sizes set off to one size, presumably so customers needing that size of shoe wouldn’t accidentally step on, sit on, or eat the smaller shoppers, but the other store had them mixed neatly in with the more common 22 and 23 sizes.

For reference, that’s american men’s sizes 4 and 5.

I bought a pair of sneakers that were size 30 and EEE width and they’re actually roomier and more comfortable than the shoes I wore over here.  They were also only Y2900, which I thought was pretty damn reasonable for athletic shoes.

Granted, if you’re over an american size 12 shoe, I wouldn’t try buying shoes here, but then you might have a difficult time even in the states.

This is probably only funny if you watched Ren & Stimpy in the 90s.

Since I did, I cringed JUST a little at the sight of a dental office with a beaver mascot. 🙂

So, I’ll be in Japan until the 10th of August, which means that this is probably going to be used as a showcase for weird food and drink items for the next month and a half or so.

Mind you, those posts are what get me the most traffic, so it’s a win-win: I don’t have to do much work to write them and people come to read them anyway.

Anyway, today’s item: Ultra cola. Actually, Ultra Cola AND Ultra Lemonade, though the lemonade is more properly based on Ultraman’s enemies. I saw these in a vending machine in Mukougaoka, which is a place name I wouldn’t like to say three times quickly, and invested 200円 into the purchase of a can of each.

Of course, what I didn’t realize was that even though the cans on display represented Ultraman and Baltan, the actual cans you got were random, selected from an assortment of Ultra-family members and villians.

So I wound up with a Zoffy and a Dada, but it could have been worse. At least it wasn’t one of the weirder new Ultra-brothers.