[cont..]
So I walked until I could see no more neon and it was pretty dark, it took a while but I still couldn't see any stations. I continued walking for a while and just looking around. I guess I was in some business district or something but there was not much to do. So I walked. Eventually I decided to head towards Shinjuku as that was really busy so I thought that there would be something to do there. I knew it was a bit near Shibuya so I headed in the general direction according to the train map[A] I had. About 2 o' clock, and I came across some road signs and headed towards Shibuya after grabbing some nifty convenience store food and chocolate. Genuinely convenient. I continued walking and saw the road was R246. This was actually pretty damn fantastic, because I recognised it! It was a track on Gran Turismo 3[B] and I could actually see where I was! I was basically on the start /finish straight (I think) so I carried on walking (past the little kink in the road). Walking it takes a lot longer than it does in a souped up Nismo Skyline, that's for sure. I continued walking straight (past the GT3 right-hander that leads into a chicane) until I got into Shibuya. Now Shibuya I had heard a bit about from Steve so I knew it'd still be awake at 2. As I walked through, I was constantly reminded of another of my favourite games - Jet Set Radio[C]! In that game (a pseudo-futuristic, cartoony, rollerblading/graffiti 'em up set in an alternative Tokyo), there is a level called Shibuya-to. There are loads of footbridges to grind off and the real place had loads of footbridges that looked just like the ones in the game. It might sound a bit sad but it was pretty exciting actually to put the place to the name. While I walked around Shibuya[D], I could see a fair few kids just "hanging" on the steps and chatting. It seemed like a really decent place and I really wish I could have just sat down and had a chat - it looked like that kind of place. But my Japanese skills are not really up to it. It was about 250 - still another 2-3 hours before the first train so I continued walking until I saw some guy in a smart suit with a megaphone and people walking into a building. It was a cinema and there was a showing of Matrix Reloaded at 330. I'm not the biggest fan of the Matrix but I had expressed some interest in going to see the sequel at the cinema with the intention of totally switching my brain off. It was expensive JPY1800 but a better way of spending three hours (in an air-conditioned room and seated) than anything else I could think of.
It was a 330 showing but I walked inside at about 255 to see what the place was like and the entrance to the theatre was rammed. Everyone was waiting there and there was a real buzz in the air. This was at 330 in the morning, remember, so I was a little weary but I actually perked up a bit. We were let in at 310 and I walked in to see a pretty full auditorium and any empty seats seemed to be reserved. I found some seats near the front but a lot of seats appeared to be empty until you got close and saw bags on them. Unattended bags. People were so secure that they left their bags there and got their food and drink without telling someone to wait. It was really refreshing but I don't think I'd do it!
I watched the film (though I think I fell asleep for about ten minutes in the middle) and thought it was OK. Not horrifically bad, just not great. I thought the action was a lot better than the first one and the fighting a lot more plausible. The acting was still crap though. And the plot a bit arse. But hey ho. I did kill three hours so I was not too displeased.
I walked out into the sun at 6am and made my way to Shibuya station which was still pretty busy with people that had been out for the night and those that were starting the day. What I was a little confused about at 6am on a Sunday morning was seeing smiling, joking schoolchildren (in uniform) on the trains. They work them hard here. Very hard.
I got back to the hotel at about 7 and caught about an hour's worth of sleep.
[tbc]
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. Getting lost before instant access to Google Maps was really interesting. There was a genuine frisson of excitement as you realised that you had no idea where you were. At this point, I was not very well-travelled but many of my later trips take this unplanned feel to them although I look at maps a lot more now. As a result, I remember quite a bit about this particular episode, not location but the feel of an area at night.↩
B. Mapping out real locations in games is pretty common now but it was a rarity at this point and it was revelatory to suddenly piece together a game on to real life. The blogpost was written in 2003 as a website and I remember a friend of mine laughing about the fact that I remembered it from a game. I was always rather defensive about my gaming knowledge and I did justify it to him. Nobody seems to think it is odd to recognise, or even visit, locations from films yet it is seemingly odd to recognise game locations. This is not logical, especially as within a gameworld, you have the agency to explore that environment and so have a greater connection with it. He agreed, but said it isn't about logic - it is about the fact that he didn't know anyone else that would say it (or maybe admit to it...).↩
C. This is one of my favourite games and I wrote about it here: [link]. It really was a beautiful and evocative recreation of the concept of Shibuya.↩
D. Shibuya is a very well-known area in Japanese youth culture and so has been used in lots of games, since, as a stylistic backdrop with a number of well known items of scenery such as the Shibuya scramble (crossing) and hachiko statue..↩
So I walked until I could see no more neon and it was pretty dark, it took a while but I still couldn't see any stations. I continued walking for a while and just looking around. I guess I was in some business district or something but there was not much to do. So I walked. Eventually I decided to head towards Shinjuku as that was really busy so I thought that there would be something to do there. I knew it was a bit near Shibuya so I headed in the general direction according to the train map[A] I had. About 2 o' clock, and I came across some road signs and headed towards Shibuya after grabbing some nifty convenience store food and chocolate. Genuinely convenient. I continued walking and saw the road was R246. This was actually pretty damn fantastic, because I recognised it! It was a track on Gran Turismo 3[B] and I could actually see where I was! I was basically on the start /finish straight (I think) so I carried on walking (past the little kink in the road). Walking it takes a lot longer than it does in a souped up Nismo Skyline, that's for sure. I continued walking straight (past the GT3 right-hander that leads into a chicane) until I got into Shibuya. Now Shibuya I had heard a bit about from Steve so I knew it'd still be awake at 2. As I walked through, I was constantly reminded of another of my favourite games - Jet Set Radio[C]! In that game (a pseudo-futuristic, cartoony, rollerblading/graffiti 'em up set in an alternative Tokyo), there is a level called Shibuya-to. There are loads of footbridges to grind off and the real place had loads of footbridges that looked just like the ones in the game. It might sound a bit sad but it was pretty exciting actually to put the place to the name. While I walked around Shibuya[D], I could see a fair few kids just "hanging" on the steps and chatting. It seemed like a really decent place and I really wish I could have just sat down and had a chat - it looked like that kind of place. But my Japanese skills are not really up to it. It was about 250 - still another 2-3 hours before the first train so I continued walking until I saw some guy in a smart suit with a megaphone and people walking into a building. It was a cinema and there was a showing of Matrix Reloaded at 330. I'm not the biggest fan of the Matrix but I had expressed some interest in going to see the sequel at the cinema with the intention of totally switching my brain off. It was expensive JPY1800 but a better way of spending three hours (in an air-conditioned room and seated) than anything else I could think of.
It was a 330 showing but I walked inside at about 255 to see what the place was like and the entrance to the theatre was rammed. Everyone was waiting there and there was a real buzz in the air. This was at 330 in the morning, remember, so I was a little weary but I actually perked up a bit. We were let in at 310 and I walked in to see a pretty full auditorium and any empty seats seemed to be reserved. I found some seats near the front but a lot of seats appeared to be empty until you got close and saw bags on them. Unattended bags. People were so secure that they left their bags there and got their food and drink without telling someone to wait. It was really refreshing but I don't think I'd do it!
I watched the film (though I think I fell asleep for about ten minutes in the middle) and thought it was OK. Not horrifically bad, just not great. I thought the action was a lot better than the first one and the fighting a lot more plausible. The acting was still crap though. And the plot a bit arse. But hey ho. I did kill three hours so I was not too displeased.
I walked out into the sun at 6am and made my way to Shibuya station which was still pretty busy with people that had been out for the night and those that were starting the day. What I was a little confused about at 6am on a Sunday morning was seeing smiling, joking schoolchildren (in uniform) on the trains. They work them hard here. Very hard.
I got back to the hotel at about 7 and caught about an hour's worth of sleep.
[tbc]
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. Getting lost before instant access to Google Maps was really interesting. There was a genuine frisson of excitement as you realised that you had no idea where you were. At this point, I was not very well-travelled but many of my later trips take this unplanned feel to them although I look at maps a lot more now. As a result, I remember quite a bit about this particular episode, not location but the feel of an area at night.↩
B. Mapping out real locations in games is pretty common now but it was a rarity at this point and it was revelatory to suddenly piece together a game on to real life. The blogpost was written in 2003 as a website and I remember a friend of mine laughing about the fact that I remembered it from a game. I was always rather defensive about my gaming knowledge and I did justify it to him. Nobody seems to think it is odd to recognise, or even visit, locations from films yet it is seemingly odd to recognise game locations. This is not logical, especially as within a gameworld, you have the agency to explore that environment and so have a greater connection with it. He agreed, but said it isn't about logic - it is about the fact that he didn't know anyone else that would say it (or maybe admit to it...).↩
C. This is one of my favourite games and I wrote about it here: [link]. It really was a beautiful and evocative recreation of the concept of Shibuya.↩
D. Shibuya is a very well-known area in Japanese youth culture and so has been used in lots of games, since, as a stylistic backdrop with a number of well known items of scenery such as the Shibuya scramble (crossing) and hachiko statue..↩
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