roganjosh

A lot of people say about London that, although it seems to be this sprawling metropolis, once you get to know the place it’s really just a load of little villages that have all squashed together. Camden is distinct from Spitalfields which is a world away from Clapham or Stratford. The same is true of Tokyo, except that in Tokyo’s case each of the little villages that make up the city is itself a vast urban world of skyscrapers and neon that makes London look pokey and quaint in comparison. And while, like London, the Tokyo metro shuts down at midnight the city itself really does never sleep. I’ve walked around Holborn at 11 o’clock of an evening and not managed to find a place where you could get a drink. In Tokyo the bars wouldn’t think about closing till 5, and even then it’s just a polite request that maybe, once you’ve finished your drink, you might like to move on to the next place.

Also like London, and countless other cities around the world now, Tokyo has a Dr Sketchy’s night, a life drawing class in a bar featuring burlesque models! Drawing clothes is always tricky when you’re more used to classic life drawing, but luckily the models tend not to wear too much. I’ve been to a couple of the classes in London which are on a Sunday afternoon, when most of the people involved are hungover, but the session in Tokyo took place on a Tuesday evening in Shibuya - in fact my last evening in the city, which was lucky because it should have been held on the Wednesday, but the venue was booked up. There was plenty of drinking, drawing and chatting and it’s the most sociable art class you could ever go to! I even won a prize for one of my drawings, but since the prize was two shots of tomato juice, tequila and tobasco I would have been happy for my good fortune to have been shared. Still, you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth, and it was a top evening out! I recommend The Pink Cow in Shibuya to any future travellers.

So what else did I get up to in Tokyo? I met up with my Fijian-wife Annette (When I was in Fiji it ended up that we were the only two people staying in the dorm accomodation, so everyone assumed we were together on honeymoon) who now lives in Sendai, but pops down to the big city when she can. We drank the night away in Yokohama and checked out all the love hotels in Shibuya looking for the ones with Hello Kitty themed rooms (We didn’t find any!). I laughed at the girls in Harijuku, all dressed up as punks or nurses or goths and posing for photographs with tourists. I found Godzilla!*. I saw Mount Fuji from the Fuji building in Odaibo - That mountain is huge! It just looms over the city on a clear day, even though it’s maybe 100 kms away. I even managed to go to the Studio Ghibli museum before leaving Japan, which was a little bit disappointing, but probably amazing if you’re a kid. The bulding was very cool at least, lots of bridges, spiral staircases and child sized doorways. Apart from that I was mostly just wandering around, eating great food, gawping at stuff. The usual activities!

So I flew to Australia the other day, and it was a full fifteen minutes from leaving the airport before I head Men At Work’s “Land Down Under”, so I guess my plane must have landed early. I flew Qantas which was okay, but I had to ask for a beer three times before they remembered to bring me one, and then it was a Fosters! Is this really the spirit of Australia?! Anyway, I’m here at my cousin Tom’s getting used to the heat (it was 37 degrees the other day) and trying to work out what I’m going to do next! I’ll let you know how I get on.

* The small statue of Godzilla that is, which for some reason no-one ever reveals the precise location of when they describe it. I think the search is an integral part of it, so suffice to say it’s in Ginza, near Hibiya park, next to some people having a cigarette break

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