The Way Americans Slurp Ramen

In this episode we talk about the way Americans tend to slurp their ramen.

Restaurant Review - Pizza Slice: Possibly the Best Pizza in Tokyo

Recently, a friend of mine and I passed a pizza place, aptly named Pizza Slice, on the way home from Shibuya one night. As we perused the interior, it had a look to it that was trying a little too hard to resemble a New York pizzeria: white tiled floors, neon lights that read "Pizza" beckoning patrons, pizza behind glass, pizza boxes piled ceiling-high, the whole nine yards. And this being Tokyo, their effort most definitely worked as it drew our American eye balls to the wooden menu standing outside the restaurant door.

The price didn't seem half bad for a slice––300 yen for a slice of cheese––so, as we were quite parched at that point in our journey (not eating lunch does that to an individual) we decided to stop in for a couple.

Now, as any American in Tokyo knows the pizza options here can be a little, well, sparse. It ranges from sorta kinda decent (Gust, Saizeria) to probably-okay-but-horrible-for-the-price (Domino's, Pizza Hut, Pizza-La). And they can be on the small side. It was a surprise, then, that Pizza Slice's, ahem, pizza slices were the sizes of slices we were accustomed to in LA from pizza places that attempted to resemble New York joints. I've never been to NY so there's no way I can make an accurate comparison, so I have to go with what I know.

Taste-wise, it was definitely as good as any place you'd find in Los Angeles that serves this kind of pizza. The cheese was nice and mozzarella-y. The pepperoni were big and pepperoni-y. The grease was as runny as you'd expect the grease on pizza to be.

Complete with greasy paper plate.

This place was hidden under the train tracks just like a pizza place in New York would be, so I hear. It's what numerous movies and television shows have also told me. Even the toilet was an American one, complete with palm tree and American flag near the entrance to the bathroom. There was one glaring omission, though. An omission that might be unforgivable to someone more strict than I am, and that was the absence of parmesan cheese on the tables. This may be to due to the relative high price of cheese in Japan, or maybe the owner's just an a horrible asshole that doesn't deserve our business anymore because I wanted some goddamn parmesan cheese, dammit! But I kid. I don't even use that much parmesan cheese on my pizza. But if you're one who does that's one thing from home you will definitely miss, so remember to BYOC.

That blemish aside, you'd be remiss to pass this place up if you're looking for a great piece of pizza in Tokyo. It might quite be the only place you'd find something that matches the stuff from home, assuming you call Los Angeles home. Come on, New York pizza can't be all that different. Can it?


PIZZA SLICE
3-1 Sarugakuchō, Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō-to 150-0033, Japan

Extending a Tourist Visa in Japan: Yes, it is Possible

Of all the times I've been to Japan I wish someone had told me this earlier. Perhaps it's common knowledge and I'm just late to the party. But I used to think that if you were a tourist, it was a strict 90 days max and you're out kind of deal, but apparently, as I was told recently, I can absolutely extend my tourist visa. And you can too!* As soon as I heard this bit of information I headed straight down to my local immigration office, which was in Yokohama.

All you have to do is make a trek down to your nearest immigration office (入国管理局Nyukokukanrikyoku) and fill out an application and you're on your way. Perhaps I'm oversimplifying it, but if you have what you need the first time you go there it should be relatively painless. I did not have what I needed which resulted in a second day visit for me, but if you're smarter than I am you should be on your way to  a longer stay in this beautiful country of Japan.

Things you'll need:

• Your Passport
• The address of your current place of residence 
• A decent reason for wanting to extend your stay

The reasons I have include wanting to visit other friends in other places that I haven't had the chance to yet, and more research for a novel I'm writing (check my other writer's blog if you're interested ;)). And I gotta say, I'm getting a lot of more inspiration for it now that I have a chance to stick around for a bit. 

The great thing is while you're in the interim you're allowed to stay here legally for two months until your results come, in the form of either a phone call or a postcard, which you provide the address for. And then if you get the extension it's good for the specified amount of time––most likely 90 more days––from the point you get the extension. So, you're good to stay for 5 months total, potentially. That should be plenty of enough time for you to get all of your sight-seeing in. All in all, it should cost about ¥4000 for the extension. 

Happy traveling. 

Here is a handy list of immigration offices throughout Japan:

http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/info/

If anyone more knowledgable has contradicting information then please, someone feel free to correct me. 

*This info is for tourists traveling from America. 

It's a Thin Line Between Love and Hate for Japan

 

Just the other day a lovely non-Japanese friend of mine declared to me, I FUCKIN' LOVE JAPANESE PEOPLE! While I too shared her affinity for the island full of people I share half of my heritage with––or is it a fourth, me being half Okinawan (It's all very complicated)––I couldn’t help also thinking, simultaneously, BUT I ALSO FUCKIN' LOATHE JAPANESE PEOPLE!

I mean that somewhat facetiously, but a lot of what they do and how they operate as a culture does indeed infuriate me to no end––do you know how strong an emotion infuriating is?

That then led me to ask myself, if they cause me to feel such a palpable negative reaction to the mere mention of their existence, why then, as many of my friends know of me, do I love the country so dearly and want to exist there so much? It goes well beyond just sharing blood with the people. I have non-Japanese friends whose command of the language and knowledge of the culture far exceeds mine, and who know of the horrors I will soon speak of, yet, still love Japan, seemingly, unconditionally. But why?

I compared it to the oft talked about reason women like broken men (I’m sure it happens the other way, as well): perhaps I believe that if I stay with Japan long enough I can truly change it from the inside out. Foolish and futile, I know, as I am but one lone half-breed guy with zero influence in what I will eat for dinner on any given night, let alone enough to change an entire first-world country. But did the insurmountable odds stop Harry Potter and or Batman from trying? Or, to use a more appropriate, Japanese-themed analogy, Goku? Actually, Goku has his roots in Chinese literature, but hopefully you get the point.

Let’s get the good out of the way.

Since it’s been talked about ad nauseam, I have nothing new to add, so I’ll just lazily blast-list the great I find in Japan:

Food, culture, castles, comedy, porn, technology, efficiency (good lord, the efficiency), the service, the variety in all things tangible, the convenience stores, the vending machines, the trains, music, and, lastly, food.

Yes, I mentioned food twice. It’s that good––certain types not withstanding, of course––that it deserves a second mention. I’m not some idiot that doesn’t proof read my posts to make sure I don’t accidentally mention things twice twice.

Now, the bad.

Working Just to Work: The Japanese Work Ethic

Now, it’s great that they have such good work ethic. Indeed, without I would not have the efficiency, the food, the technology, and pornography that I love so dearly. But, it just seems that the people work just to work.

About two years ago I got the opportunity to work at a small production company that a friend was working at, largely thanks to a favor I did for them that same year. Now, despite the head honcho telling me I could come in at around 11am, my friend, who I was staying with at the time, tended to drag me along as he went there at around 8am, and he also drug me home at around the time the last trains ran, despite being done about four hours prior. During this time I observed what he did, and maybe it was fatigue that clouded my ability to judge things properly, but I could have sworn he wasn’t being especially productive during this extra time in the morning and in the evening. That led me to the conclusion that Japanese people do just work to work, perhaps in some attempt to look good to the boss. I know that’s absolutely the case in probably 90% of the work places in Japan, but the boss at this particular company actually spoke to me of wanting to start a union––a concept which, to my knowledge, doesn’t currently exist in Japan––to change the way Japanese people work, so I was reasonably sure he wasn’t cracking some kind of S & M-styled work whip, forcing my friend to come in when he didn’t need to.

Indeed, I recall another friend, in response to staving off boredom, or some similar subject, saying, “I’ll just work all the time.”

Again, another friend of mine used to talk of working morning, noon and night, often not having the time to properly eat or sleep. Normally, this would be said in the tone of a complaint, but he used to speak of it as some kind of accomplishment, or badge of honor. Like he just did a bunch of reps at the gym. “Yeah, I worked to the point of complete exhaustion and starvation today. How many overnight shifts can you do?”

That’s some deep engrained shit right there.

The real kicker, though, is the word “Karoushi (過労死)” which, by the definition in my Japanese-English dictionary, means “death by overwork and mental stress.” Had I not looked that up I was just going to say “death by work”––a gross underestimation.

They have one single word to describe what it takes a full goddamn six-letter sentence to explain in English. I absolutely detest that that word exists.

The overtime situation can be blamed for that, as people are expected––EXPECTED–– to work overtime shifts, many times, if not in every case, not being compensated for their extra time. People wake up, go to work in the morning, go home on the last train, go to sleep, then repeat that process six more times throughout the week. A position that is great for masochistic workaholics, but not so desirable for 90% of the rest of humanity.

There’s no wonder Japan’s suicide rate is so high. And it’s not like that it’s a recent phenomenon, either. I remember, when in high school, waking up and watching the Japanese news and there would be an almost daily story about some poor student or salary man jumping off of a building or onto the path of an oncoming commuter train effectively ending their existence. And that was eighteen years ago! Suicide is rampant there, the rate of which has rapidly increased since the nineties. Rampant is a word usually used for things like looting, or measles, or teenage sex. It shouldn’t be used for mass self-extinction.

It’s gotten so common that people actually complain about the distressed jumper disrupting the flow of their workday. I hear the jumper’s family actually has to pay for damages. It’s an actual problem for the country that begs the question, at what point does the country stop blaming the victim and start thinking to themselves, hey, maybe we should look internally and figure out that it’s maybe the way we do things that’s the real culprit?

Hey, maybe it’s mass decades-long data collection for all the inevitable robots that they plan to build to do that work in the future. At least that would provide a comforting narrative to all the sad chaos that’s happening.

But, apparently, it's not as bad as I once believed, so there is hope. 

The whole work situation in Japan is probably the one thing I most hate about the country that I love.

Above the sexism, the bureaucracy that I hear so much about, above the robotic nature of the people, above the near non-existence of free available wifi in an industrialized country that should totally have that––that one is a biggy.

And the reason why it takes precedence over everything else is perhaps that I can see change in the other compartments. Japan is like America in the fifties in some aspects. I can see change in sex inequality as years go by, slow as it may be. The opinion many hold of the unfriendliness of some people is something that seems to change by region and not a countrywide thing. And Osaka recently just tried citywide wifi. But years later I see no change in the Japanese workplace.

Now, I know I sound like some kind of whiny lazy American who doesn't like to work, but I just don't believe life should be lived away from it. It's that simple.

Maybe, in a couple of years Japan will change they way they do things and I’ll lose all the efficiency and tasty foodstuff and convenience I gush about to many people, but if that results in a stark drop in the suicide rate than, I believe, it would have been worth it.

In the meantime, I’ll take the good, I’ll take the bad, and I’ll largely shut up about it.

Japan, you beat the shit out of us, but we still love you in spite of the abuse.

Sincerely,
your battered foreign boyfriend.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra: Ska Band For the Ages

One of my most favorite bands of all the bands that have ever banded is Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. They're a nine piece Ska band from Japan that has been around since the beginning of the 90's and they have not slowed down since. They've overcome a couple of tragedies and set backs here and there––the death of two former band members, members leaving for various reasons––but they keep trucking along. As well as keeping it traditional, they also infuse their brand of very danceable Ska with other genres such as Rock, Funk and Jazz. The sound of the band has changed a little over the years––there was more of a Rock sound to it than the Jazzy sound of recent years due to changes in their music direction, but they sound as good and as polished as ever.

The Ska genre is all but dead here in America, and I hear it's dipping in Japan as well (it used to be a haven for Ska fans like myself during the dark times), but you know who keeps releasing albums regardless of this miserable absence of a proper music scene? Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, that's who!

Do not mess with these dudes or you'll get a trumpet up your ass! Or a trombone. Or a Saxophone. Oh, you do not want a saxophone up there, let me tell you.

I count myself lucky being a fan of such a hard working and prolific band as I am never want for new music from them––they put out new full albums seemingly quarterly––and their quality has never waned. I couldn't imagine being a super fan of say, Creed, or something.

For reasons other than 8 year gaps between albums, obviously.

In fact, they have so much output that I missed an album from the end of 2012. I have since rectified the situation, but, as a self proclaimed hyper fan, I still beat myself up over that one.

As of late, they have taken a page from The Skatalites and have recorded a number of singles as a backing band for some of Japan's most popular artists and singers. From Okuda Tamio to Shiina Ringo to Puffy to Chara to Crystal Kay, and, most recently, Yoshie Nakano of Ego Wrappin' fame, Asian Kung Fu Generation and Mongol 800. They've even done a collaboration with Angelo Moore from Fishbone. They don't even stop there, having also provided the soundtracks or theme songs for television shows, commercials, video games and anime, most notably, One Piece.

About ten years ago, Skapara (their nick name) performed in Hollywood, CA and I was extremely fortunate to have seen them play live and it was one of the best Ska shows I've ever been to. They even played Coachella in 2013. These guys are going strong some twenty five years after their formation and show zero signs of stopping any time soon. I, myself, am in it for the long haul.


With all of their collaborations with famous Japanese artists I certain hope they finally do one with my other favorite band of all bands that have ever banded, Sambomaster. Then, and only then, will I be able to achieve full personal musical bliss.

Below are a few choice songs from their catalog. Enjoy:

Makankosappo... じゃなくない？

Apparently, there's a new fad amongst Japanese school girls (that will no doubt spread to the rest of the Japan and THE REST OF THE WORLD!... if we're lucky) where in they take pictures of themselves blasting away friends in a style that's inspired by a move the character Piccolo does in Dragon Ball Z, called Makankosappo (KATAKANA = マカンコサッポウ, KANJI = 魔貫光殺砲).

Okay, guys do it, too. But it's funnier when the girls do it. 

Why it's named after this move, I do not know as it looks nothing like the move being referenced. 

First, you have to cut off your arm, then shoot a large lazer beam from your other good arm. Come on Japanese school girls, where's your commitment?

In any case, it's a very cool trend and I look forward to many years of Makankosappo-inspired pictures. Or months. Or weeks. Or days. Wait, are they still taking pictures like these?

Here's what the actual move looks like in action!

SOURCES:
Naver
Critiques 4 Geeks
Danny Choo





          

Tokyo Disney Resort

Anyone who knows anyone that remotely knows me knows that I've been a lifelong Disney fan. And as much as I love a lot of their animated films (and two or three live action ones), my fascination is mostly with their theme parks. Ever since I was a little boy, I've appreciated the minute detail in their theming, never compromising quality for something like quantity or cost. In their rides and structures anyway. In their American parks, if they only paid as much attention to their food quality as they did their architecture it would be that much more perfect.

If you've ever found yourself in a conversation with a Disney fan from Japan, I'm sure you're quite used to cries of "Disneyland in Los Angeles is so small. Tokyo Disneyland is so much better." Apparently nostalgia and loyalty to its creator is lost on the Japanese. Walt Disney actually walked the grounds of Disneyland and kept an actual apartment there, and for that, Disneyland will remain superior to any of the parks in my eyes.

Another popular one is "I was surprised by how small your castle is compared to ours." It was the original, I always tell them. To them, bigger is better, but that is not always the case. It was the first of its kind (theme park castles, not castles in general; those have been around for much longer), so that was probably the largest they could have conceived. We have the original, and that makes it the best, perhaps not aesthetically, but historically.

Besides, if you walk right up to them and force the perspective in your brain, you can hardly tell the difference at all.

I've not yet been to the any of the Florida parks or the one in France, but if you twisted my arm and asked me which of the parks that I've been to is my favorite, I'd have to go with the Anaheim original. But a very close second would definitely have to be Disney Sea in Tokyo, which is adjacent to Tokyo Disneyland. Kind of like the distance between Disneyland and California Adventure, the only difference being a twenty minute walk or a 300 yen monorail ride. Okay, not kind of like it at all.

Disney Sea was designed with adults in mind, and as such all of the details, the style of architecture, etc., has a sophistication that the other parks––the ones here on the west coast at least––lack. It's named Disney Sea because part of it is actually built over the sea, and because of it's nautical theme.

The park is comprised of even distinct areas: Mediterranean Harbor, Mysterious Island (inspired HEAVILY by the works of Jules Verne), Mermaid Lagoon (don't be surprised to see a lot of Ariel here), Arabian Coast (Aladdin themes abound), Lost River Delta, Port Discovery (think SCIENCE!) and American Waterfront, which looks like what the Japanese think New York probably looked like in 1900. For all I know it is very accurate.

And Tokyo Disneyland, I hear, is much like Walt Disney World in design and feel so if you've been there then you have some idea of what it's like, just picture it with 95% more Japanese citizens.

I've been to both parks many times and a trip to Japan for me would not be complete without a stop to one, or if I'm lucky, both parks within the Tokyo Disney Resort. Now I will share some of my photos and thoughts from the parks with you, in no comprehensible order. Oh, all right, I'll do my best to divide them up by lands and areas, but that's all you get. I'll focus more on Disney Sea since that's the more foreign (to us) of the two. Enjoy!

FOOD

The counter service foods within the Tokyo Disney Resort is some of the best I've had at any theme park so far. Above is a picture of a sausage with a suspicious bone attached to it, but don't let that deter you from eating it. It's one of the most juicy and delicious sausages I've ever had. That, coupled with a beer or cassis cocktail that you can also purchase at the same stand, makes a perfect midday snack. It's available at a stand called Barnacle Bill's. Click the link (which is in Japanese).

The second to last picture in the collage above is simply of a sausage wrapped in a tortilla with cheese and is the single best snack food I've eaten at a theme park. It's located near their Splash Mountain at a stand called Rackety's Raccoon Saloon.

Their churros also come in a variety of flavors and have a Mickey shape to them. The ones above were just maple, but there are special flavors that come around here and there. I've had strawberry, Lemon Honey, and, get this, sesame flavored ones in the past.

A bit blurry, but they are definitely Honey Lemon and Sesame flavored churros. What else could be colored that way?

Here's something called an ukiwaman, which is a standard Nikuman (meat bun) shaped like an ukiwa, which means floatation device in Japanese. This one was stuffed with minced shrimp. This had the most clever packaging, as I'm sure you'll agree. Donald never had a tastier time being overboard.

Aside from the usual foods, they also sell popcorn in flavors you'd never see here. I've eaten, curry flavored, strawberry flavored, sea salt flavored, standard caramel flavored, cream soda flavored (which is more like a creamy 7-up there then the American version of it) and my personal favorite, black pepper popcorn. There is a black pepper popcorn at California adventure as well, but it's no where near as good as its Japanese counterpart. I neglected to snap a pic of the popcorn though. My apologies.

The only time I've had a bad food experience there was when I ate a cheese burger, but that was during a time where they had a problem with the beef exports in Japan and were using pork as a substitute, so I'll give them a pass there.

ENTRANCE

Tokyo Disneyland Hotel

The monorail that takes you from one park to the other.

The monorail interior.

It was gussied up to celebrate the opening of Toy Story Mania.

TOKYO DISNEYLAND

I went in October, during their big Halloween celebration and the visitors, including adults as well as children, were encouraged to wear costumes, something I couldn't imagining happening on these shores. That may have something to do with the Tokyo Disney Resort being owned by a different entity that's not Disney affiliated. Here are some photos of visitors in costume. There were a LOT of Alices.

TOKYO DISNEY SEA

MEDITERRANEAN HARBOR

The following pictures are from a show they do on the waters of Mediterranean Harbor called, The Legend of Mythica. It's a truly fabulous show with music by Alan Silvestri of Back to the Future fame. 

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND

MERMAID LAGOON 

If there's a better representation of The Little Mermaid than this at another Disney park then I don't know it. Astounding detail. 

ARABIAN COAST

LOST RIVER DELTA

I don't have many shots from the Lost River Delta, but these are from the queue for the ride Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull. I would like to believe that's where they got the inspiration for the film, but despite the similar locations and the name "crystal skull" I don't think they have too much in common. 

A Hidden Mickey

PORT DISCOVERY

I have even less of Port Discovery, but I did risk potential jail time to get these pictures while in the queue to Storm Rider, a sort of Star Tours-style adventure motion simulator. Okay, it wasn't THAT dramatic, but they did ask me to put away my phone during their presentation. They are particular about taking pictures of the queue areas. They don't like it.

AMERICAN WATERFRONT

The pics below are of the Tower of Terror (The "Twilight Zone" is omitted as this version has nothing to do with the TV series). The story line has to with with a Robert Ripley-type (of Ripley's Believe it or not fame) explorer by the name of Hightower. He traveled the world bringing back artifacts to his famed Hightower Hotel, one of them being the mysterious Idol, Shiriki Utundo, an idol that is said to obtain a curse, the curse that may or may not have been the cause of the disappearance of Mr. Hightower. My money says that's definitely the cause.

Mr. Hightower himself!


FANTASMIC!

At night, they have their own version of Fantasmic. I do prefer the original, but theirs is also quite marvelous and very original. And their dragon actually worked!

 
Here's a little video of it.

There's also a Downtown Disney-type of outdoor mall called Ikspiari located near the parks that's filed with all kinds of shops and eateries and a movie theater, but the only picture I got from it was of the facade of the Disney Store.

All in all, the Tokyo Disney Resort is a very magical place and a must-go destination for any Disney parks fan if you ever find yourself in Japan, and if you can afford it that is.