Arrival

Oh sweet Mary Poppins & Garrosh Hellscream how I've missed this. I didn't get an ounce of sleep on the plane, threw up and almost passed out due to an instance of sudden hypoglucemia during the 'lights out' part of the flight and what not. And it was all well worth it. At this point I'd like to mention how knowing even a bit of Japanese can help with the customs officials. Just happens so that the official inspecting luggage at the end of my line was the same gentleman as last time, so he automatically just casually asked in Japanese "Japanese is ok with you right?", to which I simply agreed in Japanese. He then just asked a few questions such how many times I've come here now and what I'm gonna do this time, and ended with "Oh, is this all your luggage?" "Yes." "OK, have a nice trip!" without even asking me to open my bags. Even though I was carrying slightly more alcohol than the regulations allow.

The first thing I saw while waiting for the train was the spitting image of Japan that is in my head; a cute girl with huge headphones on, sleeping in a corner of the train. I just couldn't help but smile and think how simply happy & at peace I felt just being here out of the ordinary. It's always the little things that get me like this. Kids playing rock-paper-sciccors on the train, a girl sleeping on the train with headphones the size of her head, grannies at the local 100 yen shop arguing and laughing about the price of tangerines and on the side pondering & making fun of our height out loud thinking I can't understand them.

Speaking of which, on the train from Narita airport to Asakusa, I had a rather pleasant surprise. A few minutes after boarding the train I dozed off due to lack of sleep on the plane. When I woke up, I somehow thought I was still on the plane and Miikka was sitting next to me. Wrong.  I suddenly realized it was some random girl sleeping and leaning on  me, and I admit, I felt giggly inside, especially with Miikka staring at me funnily across the aisle. Oh and by the way, Miikka wasn't so lucky. Instead of a cute girl, he was forced to sit next to a rather angry looking elderly lady. I guess she wasn't a fan of foreigners (:<).

In any case, We got to our hostel around 1 pm, and got a warm welcome back as usual. After a solid dinner of udon noodles with Tomo nearby we went for a short nap to compensate for the jet lag and general lack of sleep. 2,5 hours later we managed to pull ourselves out of the beds and headed to the lobby for some more dinner, and consequently, a few beers. This is where the stories always repeat themselves: Every single time we decide it's best to head to bed early and catch the new daily rhytm. And every single time we fail. We came across a new acquaintance, Dave, who happens to have a T-shirt company 'Image in motion T-shirts' distributing mentioned products on Ebay. What makes the shirts special is that they all have unique pictures on them taken by his friend, mostly of old school rockers such as Ozzy Osborne, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Freddy Mercury. And when I say unique, I mean the kinda pictures that have never been released and you cannot find anywhere, so heads up people. You can look for the shirts on Ebay by the company name, Image in motion, the artist names, or the photographer John Shiner. You can also find John on facebook and become a fan.

As I was saying, our calls to head to bed early and have a good night's sleep never hold, and this was no exception. A few beers later we broke out te Salmari, a.k.a The Terror of the Japanese, and had a few too many shots than we probably should have. Many bars and beers and whatnot later, I think I finally hit the sack around 3 am. But not without losing something. Oh yes, that was no exception or surprise either. So far I've managed to lose my wallet and my bag in Japan, and they've all been returned to me in a day or two. This time it was my jacket's turn. I was at A.S.A.B., our friend Yu's new bar, and started to leave & put on my jacket. Which was when I noticed I simply couldn't find it. People then told me I didn't have a jacket on when I got into the bar. Hmmm. Interesting. I can only assume I left it somewhere else. This could be the latest Indiana Jones flick; Yacchan and the Jacket of Disappearance. Or perhaps Three Bars, One Jacket. Whatever. I trust it'll find its way back to me eventually.

And on that bombshell (thanks Jeremy, we wub you), it's time to end this time's blog. Good night people.


EDIT: Yes, I realise this is a bit late, but alcohol  and sleep got the best of us :[

Helsinki-Vantaa

Yes, we're finally at the airport. And consequently, the local pub. By pure chance, in case you're wondering. Just happens so that the chance's name is Miikka.

Anyhow, the beers here are freaking expensive. I bought a round for me & Miikka (2 pints of Foster's), and the total was.. 17 freaking euros. WTJesusF? Despite this little upset, Miikka bought a second round. Still F'n 17 euros. That's 34 euros for 2 beers each. Seriously, are the bartenders androids that consume liquid gold for fuel? The messed up thing is, I don't even care. We're at the airport and nothing costs nothing, and we're just fine with that.

Because. Japan.

Japan, we're almost there (again)

starting to be that time of the year again. Tampios gonna travel, huh, Miikka? Yeah, tampios gonna travel. It's been way too long since our last (and far too brief) visit, so we saw it as our obligation to spend the the coming xmas & new year with our friends in Tokyo. So, our flight is 3 days away, and we can barely stay in our pants. Keep an eye out for some more idiotic TampioTravels action.

Zip @ Nihon TV

So, Friday was officially weird. First Miikka was ambushed by some people interviewing people in Akihabara, asking questions about Skype, World Heritage locations etc. Based on what Miikka told me, the incident went as follows in 3 simple steps:

1. Step out of the Akihabara Subway station

2. See a crew of cameramen & interviewers closing in on their prey: you

3. Get asked whether you speak English

a) answer ’yes’, get interviewed

b) answer ’no’, gtfo

Since Miikka isn’t exactly a fan of people interrupting his shopping sprees in Akihabara, he tried to get the interview over with as soon as possible.. to no avail. But, since I didn’t see anything in the news about people getting hurt in Akihabara, I can only assume the camera crew let him off to continue his shopping spree soon enough.

You’d think that’s pretty much the 15 minutes of fame for the day, right? Well, think again, Tim.

Once Miikka managed to get back to the hostel and we finished off the delicious Korean bibimpap above with Yuri, Tomo and Johrel, a group of people from Nihon TV - a Japanese nationwide network - popped up at our hostel’s front desk. I noticed Naoto, our friend and one of the staff members at Sakura Hostel, pointing at us while talking to them, and saying something about Japanese being OK.

The next thing we notice is them closing in on us, giving the cameraman a green light and saying let's begin. In Japanese. If I had had some time to prepare (the amount of discomfort a camera brings to me is ridiculous) by having a beer or two, things would've been a lot more relaxed, plus my Japanese tends to get better and more fluent with a few beverages as I stop worrying about grammar too much & so on. Well, in the end it went OK I suppose, since the guy listening to the interview behind us was telling us it was smooth, though from my point of view it was relatively awkward since they were using the kind of formal language I personally do not use or hear too much. Anyhow, the TV show is a morning show, and it will be out on May 19th on the Nihon TV channel (channel 4) at 7:15 am. Prepare for the worst.

EDIT: We managed to see the show at our hotel in Tokunoshima, seems like they only used about.. 5 seconds of the 15 minute interview, so nothing to panic over if you missed the whole thing.

Hello all!

Today I got a textmessage from Janne.

And he ask me to inform you all, that they are somewhere

on those little islands of Japan (don't ask, I don't know where).

And there are no internet connection near of them

or they haven't just found it.

So...

It could take time when Janne is writing in here again.

Patience.

-Pasi

(sorry my bad english, I hope it is still readable)