hail all!
things are ticking along nicely here in nippon. recent developments suggest there could well be a job on the horizon, or at least a source of income while i look for a better job. anyway i have met some really nice people both western and japanese and had some exceedingly good times.
currently alex and i are living in a place three stops from yokohama called ishikuwacho. to describe this place as “a fetid hellhole, stinking of rotting fish and filled with the largest concentration of homeless people i have ever seen ” would be a bit of an understatement.
it is deeply rancid. strolling down the street is reminiscent of scenes from a zombie movie as hundreds of old men lurch about clutching cans of chu hi (korean alchohol mixed with lemon, the cheapest drink avalable) and “one cup” sake easthetically served in jam jars. the smell is not dissimilar to an open sewer and regulaly the stench of spoilt meat or fish will burst from an open window of doorway and send you reeling into the gutter, retching and gagging for air. our room is on the fifth floor of an apartment block. this is nice as the bottom three floors seem to have been annexed to the old men and appear uninhabitable to anything human. since we arrived the smell of the place has got steadily worse. before long i believe the fourth floor will have to go and then we will have to break out the shotguns and start nailing up the windows. occasionally we will see the local yakuza having meetings a few blocks from us and give them a cheery wave.
apart from the fact that we are living in the worse place in the world im have an excellent time. yokohama is really nice and exciting without being as garish as tokyo. i think i will try and go back to asakusa though. actually i have been trying to book a place there for some weeks now.
asakusa is quite touristy on one side of the river and on the other really calm and quiet. its a pleasent mix with the only downside the lack of parks.
once again i am on a computer with no means of shrinking my pictures, so i will put some up that i grabbed from facebook. you can go and look at them yourselves if you like but you will have to trawl through about 800 of me being drunk at karaoke.
me in the commen room of khoa san tokyo, moderatly happy
a jolly meal at a classy japanese resturant
delightfull lantern lit sukura (cherry blossom)
the shoe depository at koah san
me and some dudes heading of to sightsee in tokyo
might mail you some more that i cant resize
anyhoo shall blog later with some more news. i have an interview on the ninth so fingers crossed.