No Maps for These Territories

Full gallery of pics is here.  Today we check out our office for working remotely, and then head off to the famous Hanami (cherry blossom) festival in Ueno for utter chaos!

Hot and spicy noodles down the street from our hostel.  They’re so good, we all ordered them this time.

Kevin and Range chow down on noooodles.

You won’t believe this.  A fishing park in the middle of the city.  They stock it with fish, and you pay to sit and fish in the middle of metropolitan Tokyo.  I’m not sure if you actually get to take home what you catch, or if you have to just toss it back.

I LOVE these machines.  You insert your money, pick your meal, and give the ticket to the people inside.  I believe this comes from the buddhist concept of handling money being “unclean”.  No one inside ever has to touch cash.  And there’s no tipping in Japan, which is wonderful.

Closeup of the front of the happy food machine.

For some reason Japan is obsessed with Krispy Kreme.  Every single franchise has a line like this in the front.  This is the Shinjuku Krispy Kreme.

Our home away from home.  Here’s where we’ll be working.

They even have a game room with a bamboo floor!  Of course, I’ve never seen it in use.  It’s probably completely decorative.  Japanese would feel too weird about gaming during the day while their coworkers are toiling.

The view out the window in Shinjuku.  14th floor baby!

The inside of a coffee machine.  I couldn’t help myself, I’m an engineer.

Here’s the outside.  You can choose your levels of sugar, creme, and coffee strength.  So awesome.

Here’s what every train looks like.  Dead silent, everyone on their cell phone.

Except in our case, it’s Range and me towering above everyone, banging our heads on stuff.

Ah, Ueno.  We’re here for Hanami.  Look at those mountains of trash!  The Japanese do not mess around when they’re out drinking.  They’d been at it for HOURS by the time we arrive.

This is what the parties look like.  Tarps covered with beer, coworkers being forced to dress in maid outfits, everyone drunk as hell and having a blast.

Here’s what everyone is theoretically here for.  No one seemed to be looking at them but me.  Nice cherry blossoms.

Now that’s a lot of one cup sake.

The next few pictures are food porn.  Here’s all the awesome festival food they had available.  Oden…

Corn cobs

Grilled meat on sticks.

Not sure.  Takoyaki?  Dough balls?

Cabbage pancakes?  Okonomiyaki?

But there’s an EGG on it!  I should have tried one.

Aww yeah.  Hanami food.

The crew.

Bags like this were everywhere.  Enough to give every Japanese citizen a full facial flush.

Wow.  A McHotDog.  They should have sent a poet.

Kevin bought Death cigarettes.  Not because he smokes, but because they’re freaking awesome.

After this we all drank at the “Coffee and Beer” cafe down the street with some folks from the hostel from Sweden and Amsterdam.