アルプス

Pic by Tomoko Saito

Somewhere in Kabukicho among love hotels and hostos, there's four floors of the cheapest, looking-nothing-like-Switzerland izakaya ever: 2 hours, table charge, all the beer you can drink and food never make more than 1,500¥ and it is ususally around ¥1,300. Beer is a must -nobody'd come here otherwise- at 100¥ the mug and 500¥ the pitcher, and then there's a rather extense menu of food to choose from: gyoza, mame, yaki-nabe, fried chicken, fried rice, chips... anything.

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and although nobody at アルプス (Alps, as in the mountains) knows mine, it's the closest I can get to that feeling in Tokyo. They know me, they just don't know my name, but they know me, not sure wether they like me or any other gaijin for they send us all to the last floor where we won't mix with pure japanese, but they know I'm in the building, if you know what I mean.


I practically live there so if you ever come to Tokyo and want to see me, don't come to my house, don't go to my school, go to アルプス on a Friday night. Any other night there's a slight chance you can join us too.

somewhere over the rice fields

the crib life

Ah, the crib life...! This is where magic happens, where food mysteriously disappears from your drawer, finished toilet paper rolls reproduce as rabbits, electricity is perennial and where to my surprise, I have only seen one (ONE!) cockroach in the last 5 months.

But it is also one of the few single rooms I can afford within central Tokyo and is way better than the other 2 places I stayed in before. It is called 'Asakusa Crib 2', because there's an 'Asakusa Crib 1' not far away from here, where, by the way, I also lived for some 3 months last year. Basically this house were two different flats I believe, or maybe just a single family house and they made some 20 tiny rooms and convert it into a cheap guesthouse. First floor (groundfloor anywhere else but Japan) is where the common area is, then second and third is where the 'cribs' are. I'm lucky, mine has a window. It faces the building you see on the right. Not much, I know, but it's a window. If only psychologically, it helps, believe me, I lived in a place with no window in Yotsugi 2 years ago, and that's something I don't wanna do again.

All in all, this is what I call home and I will be leaving in a month. And that, my friend, makes me very sad.

le plat d'une femme est trés délicieux si cette vaiselle est utilisée

Quoi de neuf? Tu me manques beaucoup.

it causes the breakdown, and push the stamp lightly

Found in Hakodate, Hokkaido.

messagio (de luce) per te

trenak eta untxiak

Trenean sartu ahal izan nintzen. Baina lehen bezala zerbaitek gelditu egin nau. Trenean sartu ahal izan nintzen, bere atzetik. Ahalegin pitin hori falta zait askotan, pauso extra hori. Trenean sartu ahal izan nintzen, bere atzetik, eta zerbait esan, zer edo zer, dena delakoa.

Birraititaren untxiekin gogoratzen naiz orain. Ikuiluko atea ezin nuela ireki banekien baina untxiekin jolastu nahi nuen ni. Hurrengo trenean ere sar ninteke, izan ere norantz dihoan badakidalako. Baina ez naiz trenean sartu eta ikuiluko atea zabalik utzi nuen untxiekin jolasten sartu nintzenean. Trenean sartzea erabakia nuen, baina ateak itxiak dira dagoeneko. Hurrengo trenean sar ninteke, baina ziurrenik ez dut hori egingo. Nasan geratuko naiz, trenbidera begira. Hiru, lau edo nik zer dakit zenbat tren pasatuko dira eta ni ez naiz mugituko, ez naiz tren horietan sartuko. Edo bai, baina etxera joateko.

Untxikume batek ihes egin eta jostagarri bere atzetik atera nintzen, nora zoaz? Alboko baserriko zakur batek nola ahoan hartzen zuen ikusi nuen eta zerbait apurtu zen nire barruan, treneko ateak itxi eta bera barruan, ni kanpoan, trenetik kanpo, berataz kanpo nagoela konturatu naizenean legez. Ahoan hartu zuen zakurrak untxitxoa eta nik negarrez atera zazu, atera zazu oihukatu nion. Bizkarrean kolpatu nuen, gogor jo. Zakurra ez zen mugitu eta nik untxia jan egin zuela pentsatu izan nuen. Ikuilu aurreko mailetan ixuritu egin zen nire gorputz txikia, etsituta. Astiro, erruaren pisua haztatuz.

Orain badakit ezetz, ez zuela momentu horretan jan, aho barruan mantendu zuela soilik, eta ahoa eskuekin eutsi eta ireki izan banio, han topatuko nuela untxi-puta. Baina trenean ez naiz sartu, ez dut ahalegin extra hori egin eta zakurra beste nonbaitera joan da ni nasan utzita, untxitxoa lasai asko jaten. Trena ez dudalako hartu. Ea hurrengoan trena hartu eta untxia salbatzen dudan.

コルドモルニング

時々、いい天気でも、朝は寒くになります。

羽島

ダニエルさんはこのビデオフェイスブクで送信しました。だからありがとう。

via videosift.com

Otherwise known as 'battleship island,' Hashima is a small island near Nagasaki. It was developed in the early 1900s to mine the coal underneath it and at its height (1959) was one of the most densely populated place on earth. The comment about 'needless deaths' near the end of the movie is a reference to the fact that during World War II the Japanese brought in Koreans and had them mine coal on starvation rations. In 1974 the coal mine was closed and shortly after the island was abandoned. Today, travel to it is prohibited.

Seems like they opened a bit of it to tourism? Will have to investigate...

turista estranger

Una cançó amb l'Amaia.