danieru in tokyo: EFF ONE

Monday, October 09, 2006

EFF ONE

I was in charge of the entrance tickets. JB was in charge of the shink tickets. Toxic Daz was in charge of the hotel. It all seemed sussed. With the Friday night behind me, I woke up as early as the body would allow on a Saturday morning to get-me-to-the-shinkansen on time. Met Jeremy, and said "sorry i'm late". His reply "i dont think darren realises how big tokyo station is. I spoke to him 2 mins ago, and he's just ordering sushi. The train leaves in 10mins." "He's never going to make it, lets go". Somehow, through the panicked thought of missing it, he shoved, pushed, ran, and ploughed through persons old and small in Tokyo Eki to prove me wrong. We jumped on the train, and the doors closed. Woosh. Took the fastest of fast trains down to Nagoya (366km in 102mins = 134mph average).
The three of us made for good company - equally minded fools looking for disasters in any shape or form. Darren provided Episode #2 after getting into a taxi. He called the hotel, and persuaded them to give directions to taxi driver. He started driving, taking the directions. Then, 30seconds later, the great Japanese sound "eh????" and a tirade of nonsensical words, followed by handing the phone back. It's the wrong hotel. Daz, the muppet-man, had called a different hotel to the one that he had instructed the taxi driver to proceed to. We jumped out, a mere 2 minutes down the road, and spent the next 30minutes stunned to realise that Daz had no idea where we might or might not be staying. All the hotels in Nagoya would be booked, I knew this was tight. Luckily the weather was good, so the thought of buying a tent from The Donki and rocking up to some field, wasn't so far fetched. As was checking into the capsule hotel. Credit to him, he eventually delivered on his promise, and we ditched our bags, dashed back on the train - with amazing timing - and arrived at Suzuka. The noise was unreal - these machines must translate 70% of the fuel energy into the eardrum busting raucous that can be heard for a few km away from the track. The speed was tremdous. A safety car NSX came out later, and pelted it round the track. The guy was driving flatout - the body roll showed. The F1 cars remained rivetted to the ground, yet going so much faster. We got to watch approximately 12 to 15 seconds worth of the qualifying, before the horses were sent back to the stable for the evening. Track cars, safety cars, minvans and AMG Mercs all whizz about enjoying their moment in the eyes of the masses, all waiting to see something - anything - happen on that tarmac down below. But it was time to wander, and find out what Suzuka circuit had to offer, in terms of vantage points for tomorrow's fun. There was some well prepared geniuses out there, with ladders, and all kinds of contraptions to get that extra inch in, and lift themselves above the crowd. Everyone turned up a day in advance to reserve their place on the grass verges by slapping down some kanji-signed tarp and stones for the next day. Needless to say, we were completely unprepared for this, and started by lifting a couple of binbags, grabbing some pebbles, and hey presto, we had smacked out some turf.
Chuffed, our days work complete, we wandered further afield, using the opportunity to explore Suzuka completely, in the knowledge that tomorrow it would be impossibly busy to do the same. And then we found a hill. A hill that had a perfect view, and free space to plant down another squatter settlement. We were out of binbags, so I found a foldable table in a marquee and pinched it, slapped it down, and went home.

We got back to Nagoya, and headed out to a district known as Sakae. I asked some kids on the street where we should go to get some food & drink, and got mostly bemused looks, until someone decided to take us all the way over to a place called ID cafe. It was singularly the most vicious bar i've been to in Japan, worse than being filled with drunken GIs, it was filled with 7' Brazilians, looking for trouble with the 8' LA bouncers. Nonetheless, a goodtime was had, and we even got herded on to a Salsa bar afterwards. 6am, called it a night, and stole a couple of hours sleep before waking up for the Grand Prix. On that Sunday, God parted the wind and the clouds from the skies to deliver a picture postcard day. Magically, our seat on the lifted table was still intact, a mere hour before the race started, and so we sat, with earplugs, and snapped happy.

Got back to Nagoya, and managed to sneak in a brief cultural experience - Nagoya castle. Huge thing. Every time I witness an example of historical Japanese architecture, I am left aghast with disbelief that the same culture who valued asthetics so highly as to create {whatever I am in awe of at the time: from castles, to plain residences, bonzai plants, Kyoto, kimonos, the onsen} could leave such a brilliant legacy with the nonchalant disregard that created, in a mere 4 decades, one of the world's ugliest cities - Tokyo.

Listening to: Feedback - Jurassic 5
Read: Freakonomics
Looking forward to: Bring back the 'dale. Getting about Tokyo
Most desired skill: Lying. Convincingly. Going to try harder - I have to nail this one, or it's going to cost me. It's all about value, baby. Sell people what they want to hear, and they'll pay more.
Next holiday: Shanghai. Just got in touch with Dom after 3+ years. It's that time again...
Watched: The Inside Man. not what i expected from Spikeeee
Waiting for: Snowboard season.
Thinking about: learning to type with more than 2 fingers.

- posted by Daniel @ Monday, October 09, 2006

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