Hunkabutta Archives
09.30.02

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I've been thinking that it would kind of fun to do an occasional series of tips for living in Tokyo.

Tokyo tip #1

If you're traveling regularly on the trains or subway, designate one specific pocket or area of your wallet where you will keep your ticket. This will save you from the headache of hunting through your stuff for your ticket when it comes time to exit the station.

I first gave this tip to Karen's dad Gary when he was here last year. He later mentioned that it really came in handy, so it stuck in my mind. I always keep my ticket in my left breast pocket.

To understand the importance of the 'designated ticket pocket' you have to know a little bit about the fare system on Japanese commuter trains.

In the stations, platform areas are protected by ticket gates. To make the doors to the gate open you need to use either a pass (which most regular commuters have) or else a one-trip ticket (which most tourists or non-commuters buy for each trip).

Here's how the system works. First, you go to the row of vending machines that sell the tickets and stand in line. While you are in line you read the fare map on the wall above the machines and see how much the fare to your destination is. When it's your turn at the machine, you drop your money in the slot, press the button on the computerized touch screen that corresponds to your fare amount, and take your ticket when it pops out. Tickets are small and magnetized: about an inch and a half long and half an inch wide.

Next you enter the platform area. You have to pass through a gate that is about three feet high with little padded stop-doors on its far side. As you walk through you insert your ticket into a small slot on the near side, the stop-doors open, and you pass through and grab your ticket as it pops out on the far side of the gate.

This is where the problem starts. You have this used ticket, and you need to hold on to it in order to exit the station at your destination (It's done this way so that people don't just buy the lowest fare ticket and then use it to go really far).

At this point, most people just stick the ticket in their front pocket or wallet -- whatever's easiest. However, experience has taught me that by the time you have gotten to your destination the location of your ticket will be a distant memory. Often, because of the thick crowds you are swept up to the exit gates and are expected to have your ticket ready to drop in the slot, so if you have to stop and start emptying your pockets or start pulling out every little old scrap of paper from your wallet you're going to piss off a lot of the people waiting behind you.

Sometimes you just never find the ticket, and you just have to pay again. I'm not sure where these lost tickets go, probably the same place as missing socks.

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Today's pictures are from Sunday afternoon with Karen's brother Dave who is visiting from Canada.

We took him down to look at the freak kids in Harajuku. After Harajuku we went to a night-time matsuri (street festival) in Ikebukuro. I have lots of sweet pictures from that event as well which I'll probably be putting up here on Hunkabutta this coming Wednesday.

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09.28.02

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Karen's brother Dave has been here for a few days now, but I have been busy working and baby-sitting and haven't spent much time with him yet. However, he and Karen have been very active, they've been going to shows (death metal) and to see some of Dave's friends here. That's why I don't have any pictures of Dave up today -- Sorry.

Tomorrow we'll be spending the whole day together. We'll be going to see the teenagers in costume who stand in front of Yoyogi Koen (park) in Harajuku, then we'll be going to a matsuri (street festival) in Ikebukuro. I'll be taking a lot of pictures.

For now, I thought I'd show you some photos of Shibuya because it's the place that Dave spent Friday afternoon and evening. Maybe you'll get a sense of some of the new things he's seeing.

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I want to say hello to the many new visitors to Hunkabutta who've come here from CNN.com because of my picture in a recent article entitled 'Mysteries of renowned Zen garden revealed.'

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09.26.02

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Karen and I were talking the other day about how good Japanese fruit is. It's one of those minor details of life here in Tokyo that you'll probably never read about in any guide book, but it's true: Japanese fruit is outstanding.

Of course, I come from Toronto, where pretty much the only fruit that we get is the stuff that's too crappy to sell in the States so they ship it up to us while it's green and irradiate it in secret warehouses.

Here the fruit is always high quality. You never come home from the shop and find a rotten peach at the bottom of the basket or anything like that. And another thing, they have really distinct fruit seasons here, and when something is in season, say watermelon, then it's everywhere and it's delicious. A few days after the end of the season, you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a watermelon anywhere.

The reason that I'm telling you all this is because I want to let you in on a little secret: Japanese nashi (sometimes called Japanese pear) is absolutely, without a doubt, the best fruit in the world, bar none. It sort of looks like a big Golden Delicious apple with a slightly greener tinge, but that's where the similarities end. The flesh is firm, yet tender. It is so juicy that when you take the first bite the fluid gushes down your wrist. The core is so small and innocuous that sometimes you eat it without even noticing. You can cut a nashi in half, leave it in the fridge for a week, and when you take it out it will not have changed a bit: no browning, no drying, no decay at all.

Nashi is the wonderfruit and if I can I'm going to smuggle some seeds back with me to Canada when I eventually move back. I know that the Ministry of Agriculture is pretty strict about importing foreign plants and animals, but I don't care. I'll swallow a condom full of seeds if I have to. I'll rove around the Okanagan planting nashi seeds where ever I go, and people will say, "Here comes Johnny Nashi Seed."

Okay, but seriously, Japanese fruit really is something special.

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09.24.02

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Today's pictures are for Karen's Uncle Bill who made a request a long time ago in the Hunkabutta comments section for some car photos. You thought I forgot, didn't you Bill?

I didn't forget, but I had to put it on hold for awhile because I lost a lot of the car pictures that I had amassed when I left my company laptop on the train at the beginning of August.

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I met my first language exchange partner on Sunday. Her name is Kayo and she lives out near (in?) Chiba. She's 27 and used to live in Australia. She wants to do language exchange in order to keep up her English level.

We only had a brief introductory meeting to work out a schedule. Unfortunately, our schedules don't jive very well, but we're going to try to meet at least once a week. Our first official study-meeting is tomorrow at 8:00 p.m.

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My brother-in-law Dave is arriving for a visit tomorrow afternoon. It should be fun. Expect some family touristy pictures in the near future.
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