[Day 99] Pırate Shıps, Eat ıt Alıve, Karaoke

Eargasms...


I wrıte thıs from a hotel lobby ın Selçuk Turkey... beautıful hılltown near the Aegıan Sea. Today we saw the ruıns of the bıggest cıty ın ancıent Rome, as well as the home belıeved to belong to Vırgın Mary... pretty cool, but to be honest Egypt ıs hard to top and I can't waıt for the south country clubs.

Here's more from Tokyo.


We go sightseeing—various trains to bus station, then up wintery hills to lakeside mountain village. The biggest thing there is a boat terminal, where ferries & 10s of swan-shaped peddle boats rest for couples in sumertime. It's icey at that elevation, & the chill racing off the water is incredible. Buy tickets for a touristic Pirate ship, & when it comes, we can't help but add random ARRGHs to every sentence. Dash down harbor, board, & with a big BERAAAAGH the ship sets forth. From lake-middle we notice several temples meditating atop surrounding peaks.


Dock in far-off port—quaint, full of more swan-shaped boats, all nestled in dramatic valley. Dash through cold and into warm building. Immediately buy hot chocolates, then cones of green-tea soft-serve (strange texture, like apple flesh). After regaining circulation, we board cable cars. Through north-facing window see Mount Fugi—snow-capped, immense, so much higher than everything, as if mountain itself is torso of a sumo celebrity, head being Fugi, ostensibly pondering the whole of Japan. Cable car climbs into wilderness, over passes see mines that turned the soil electric, & sulfuric hot-springs are everywhere adding earthy scents. Float down mountain behind village, then hop on bus & traverse back to citylife.



Exit few stops early for “best sushi in Tokyo.” After 20 minute cue in outdoor freeze, we squeeze in small barside section, which surrounds 2 sushi chefs who skillfully prepare every color of fish. Beside me is nice Japanese couple who promptly spark conversation and explain the restaraunt: just beyond our resting elbows is a river, hand-width, on which various types of sushi float on elegant porcelain boats—like Kabuki Sushi in Pacific Beach, different types of sushi have different types of boats: rainbow rolls float on boats painted black with orange dots, nigiri salmon floats on boats painted green with pink curlicues, etc—take from the river what looks appetizing, then at meal's end, get charged for the quantity/type of boats we collect.

We dive in. Though everyone's on a budget, we splurge. 6 dishes fill me up, but eveything's soo right. I get adventurous—ask the couple for something strange... whale—violet color, flavor like lean beef & mint... magnificent. (1 month later, Aussie friends would inform me that it was most likely a threatened species illegally caught off Autralia's coast... damn. whoops!) Then Kelly asks the couple for something strange as well: prawn, alive... nice. Her & I order it...



Return to hostel bellies full. Facebook-chat with Jen Clark, another friend from High school living in Tokyo studying culture, and the 6 of us decide to sing kareoke in bar district Shinjuku. Again off we go. We stop at sidewalk-vending-machine for beer, meet up with Jen, exchange ploar-bear hugs, & charge toward the Kareoke building.


**In the US, kareoke's sung in big bars for drunk audiences who cheer, participate, & spill their drinks; creativity, personality, & expression are encouraged! Contrarily, Japanese kareoke's sung in tall buildings, in private rooms rented by-the-hour... this is fitting—Japanese are wonderfully polite, pleasant, & good-spirited, but also reserved, or suppressed, like their emotional volume is on permanent low; they seem to be part of a profound, confident, efficient machine—mind you, it's nothing like Big Brother, people have their own styles and privacy etc, but the idea that someone would do something outrageous in the street or in a bar or anywhere at that, is totally inconceivable.

Elevator up to 4th floor. Walk the hall exchanging vodka pulls & I peek in rooms via tinted-glass doors—see locals in small rooms seated in couches before TVs, some alone wearing suits, really trying to sing—they hold the mic like a school girl performing national anthem at baseball game—this is how people spend their free time or unwind after work? Awesome! AH if I could hear them!

Find our room—it's perhaps 8ft wide & 12ft deep, lit outrageous... decorators went for the acid-trip laser-tag look with black-lights glowing mural'd walls: big pictures of manta-rays flying in space, images of galaxies, shooting stars, dolphins, & angel fish. Beside the door is a TV, above which 2 party lights hang from ceiling—u-shaped couch surrounds room, & in the middle is a table on which 2 massive song-books await. We go insane! 6 of us singing to each other, jumping on furniture, banging on the walls, shaking what our mammas gave us, all the while laughing uncontrollably at how ridiculous everything is. The energy in the room was ınsane!