A Test of Will

Having been dragged out of the Tokyo Apple store, it’s taken me this long to find more internet access. I am now chilling in this little Japanese cafe, but they don’t have broadband up in the mountains, so this is taking me ages.
Now I’m just going to quickly burn through the last couple of days and I’m inserting the preamble now that if there are any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors (unless glaringly obvious ones), they are the result of the freaky Japanese keyboards.

On the day after Boxing Day, did not do much.. shopping and packing, jammed some beach volleyball up at Neilson (formidible UMJ decimated [yes, reduced by 10 JD you gimp] the lowly competition of Marcus and Yank) and then headed to Hannah’s farewell at the Dolphin in Surry Pills. P.S., for a place that looked utterly shit from the outside with wall-to-wall pokies, it has a mad interior, nicely priced beverages and some smashable cocktails. Well worth a repeat visit. Then met up with Jess for a late night coffee and bed.

28th - just got ready to leave on the 10pm flight. Nothing amazing at all.

Flew into Tokyo airport at 6am, and hit up the bus into the main part of town. We were lucky enough to be staying in the Grand Hyatt at Rappongi Hills - a huge shopping complex - which meant that there were more tourists than elsewhere and a reasonably central location.
After settling in, we headed out for a walk to Shibuya, a main shopping district. However, Pete and I were a little optimistic in our map-scale reading and the walk ended up taking a solid hour, in 5 degrees, under a motorway. Not to be shaken from out path, we marched on and were treated to the main square of Shibuya in full force. It seems that Tokyo is on holidays and most people head back to their villages etc for the four days over the New Year, so it was surprisingly empty compared to my expectations. But we saw some of the hectic fashion that I had been looking forward to and there were numerous sneaky pictures taken of the family in an attempt to catch them on film.
Lunch was provided by this dingy hole in the wall, where I had pork and SALT sauce. Ordering blind off the menu turned into a massive fluke because we all enjoyed the meal. Well, kinda. It was certainly not the traditional Japanese food you get in Sydney. AND, before you blow up, Italian food tastes the same in Sydney and Rome, so it’s not ridiculous to assmume the same from other cultures.
From Shibuya, a short train ride up to Harajuku (though how we managed this on the hectic train lines is a mystery - Brad must agree that if you can’t read Kanji, it’s a nightmare. A walk down the main streets of Harajuku provided some amazing sights, with foot-high hair, a couple dressed in 19th century children’s outfits and all kinds of punk attire seemingly the norm.
By this stage, the afternoon was coming along, so we headed back to the hotel. Having not really slept on the flight, most of the family had been up for 34 hours non-stop and an early night was called. However, Em and I had been struggling to meet up (no contact between Australian mobiles and Japanese ones) and when I got back to the room, there was a message to meet out the front of the Hyatt at 9pm. A daunting task to kick on, but I thought it would be cool to go get a drink in Tokyo with a friend.
Having waited outside for a cool half hour (and cool means -2deg), she FINALLY arrived and we walked around the local suburbs, catching up on all the goss. But we couldn’t find an open bar (even the one with the metre-wide disco ball only had 2 people) so we settle on the Hyatt one for a very ‘Lost in Translation’ moment (footnote: I can only guess because I haven’t seen the movie, shock horror). She left at 11:50 because the trains stop at 12, though I think she got on the wrong line and I’m not really sure whether she got back ok or not!

30th was spent at the Ginza district, which is the main shopping area with all the ridiculous stores etc. A short wander brought up the Sony Store, 6 levels of concepts and new technology. Not as impressive as I would have thought (though you all know my theory regarding Sony’s inability to innovate) but the Aibo robodogs were awesome. Dad was able to make one sit, and the reactions were awesome. We then headed over to a vertical pinball parlour, which was insane. The noise deafening and we hadn’t the slightest clue how the game worked though we saw some massive payouts. Just massive sensory overload.
We then headed to the Apple Store, from where I made my last post. Nothing massively new, but four levels was impressive enough. We then hit up another hole in the wall where absolutely no English was spoken and that was an experience. We still don’t know what we got - it was totally unrecognisable. I didn’t mind it, but general consensus was disaster. We then hit up one of the major temples in the area where Brad stayed (but I can’t remember the name). Interesting, though the markets definitely detracted from the significance. And another monster walk home.

On NYE, we had a very early start to get the monorail to the airport, but of course we forgot our ski boots and the rush to get there on time was intense. Hour long flight, followed by a 2 hour drive to the snow.
Our place is reasonably nice, though I don’t think anyone has ever stayed there before. Got settled in, and just chillaxed around for the arvo.
Mum had made a booking at some random Japanese/Italian fusion food to make sure that we had something to do. But was done by 11 and was asleep for midnight - not really cut because had never planned for a massive night. Though I received a couple of drunken messages so I’m hoping that everyone in Sydney had a blinder.

Today, got up for first lift at 8 and oh my god. The snow is knee deep everywhere and it just snows all the time. It took a couple of runs to find my ski legs again, but these are the best conditions I’ve ever skiied. The goal of the holiday was to do movie turns with the powder hitting you in the face and we achieved that by 11am! Constantly off-piste, the visibility ranges from sketchy to wonderful when the clouds open and you can see everything. I’m really looking forward to the next week!

More importantly, I want to here about people’s NYE’s. Comment on this post with your stories because I have none of my own. Also, I can receive messages, but can’t reply because there is no Vodafone here, only DoCoMo (the local provider and not synced with Aus). Will try to email as best I can, but with only dialup, the blog will be the source of my info. But I want to know what’s happening domestically, so JAM ME COMMENT AND GIMME THE INFO. (via A Test Of Will)

Ok, so at the moment, I’ve stolen away up to the fifth floor of the Tokyo Apple store and have hijacked a iMac to get this message out… kinda. They actually have free internet, so not quite as clandestine…

But if I thought the Spanish keyboards were complicated, every key has has about 4 different letters, characters, symbols and it is driving me insane. Took me five minutes to find the apostrophe (for personal reference, its shift 7).

Because this is taken me so long, I’ve now run out of time. So will have to post again when I’m at a proper internet cafe. (via A Test Of Will)

At 7pm on Boxing Day, I’m only now starting to feel a little better. But it has been a good couple of days, so it was certainly worth the effort.

Woken at 8:30am for ‘stocking’ presents, supplemented with tea and Panettone and then zipping off to the family service at St. Marks. James has come up with an adaptation from ‘beach points’ (namely dishing out points for inappropriate beach activities such as wearing jeans, high heels or underpants). ‘Church points’ are delivered to those who undertake inappropriate actions in the Lord’s house - wearing sunglasses, being drunk (therefore getting up to act in the nativity with 3 year olds) and clapping! Something to make the time pass a little quicker when one is stuck behind a pylon and cannot see a thing!

During breakfast, Dad was trying to tell James and Pete that not everyone just drinks beer and that I would drink two beers and then move to vodka, cocktails etc… but they only heard that I could only drink 2 beers. So the challenge was issued that I couldn’t drink 10 beers through lunch, which I then had to disprove and which was the beginning of the end. Birches, Lopez’s, Harpers and the Ashes for drinks, and then just the family for lunch - about 27 people at one point.

Finished with some drinks by the pool and by 8:30pm made the move over to Brent’s with Sarah, Pete and James. More drinking and merriment, and was good fun. Circle of Esky was a great way to round out the long weekend!

Four hours sleep and then up to lie hung over in the sun. Obviously started reading James’ Christmas present books before my own and managed to smash about 10 chapters before I had to head to JD’s. Nice view, looking over the harbour to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart. Couple of devastating caipiranhas, a very hot/flirtatious waitress and delicious food – not a bad way to recover from a massive night.

Then just chillaxing throughout the afternoon, watching the cricket and sleeping on the grass in the sun. How good are holidays? (via A Test Of Will)