Samstag, 29. November 2014

Big in Japan #tokyoupdate #forgotjakarta

hello again, might be a bit longer than usual, might be not, we'll see. might also be a bit unstructured bc i'm still under teh influence and there will be no poker inside either this time so if you come for teh pokerz i'm sorry to disappoint...

currently sitting in tokyo, it's 10am and for some reason i cannot sleep. went clubbing like every day 6 days straight but with fairly moderate alcohol consum tbf.

but first things first. i finished last time b4 me and my friend left to jakarta so first about about our weekend in jakarta and afterwards a bit about our week in teh capital of japan,

only been in jakarta for a weekend and prolly not much to see there besides one thing: NIGHTLIFE!!! definitely by far teh best i've seen so far in SEA and i didnt expect that beforehand. if you walk through teh city there is nothing going on, its quiet, there are not street restaurants, no music, nothing - directly in teh center of teh fucking town. definitely superweird and teh strangest place i've been to so far but once it turns night and you hit teh rooftopbars or clubs just wow. we had somewhat an advantage that i knew a cool girl from there who obv knew where to go and where not to go but even if u randomly just go there for a weekend and ask google you cannot do too much wrong after all i've seen, definitely best and moast confident girls i've seen so far in asia and insane clubs. there are literally no tourists and teh foreigners who are there seem to do well so you dont have all teh idiot backpackers and tourists who stay there for a week and ruin a potentially good night. in general way moar girls than guys in teh clubs and 90% male are foreign while 95% of girls are indonesian or at teh very least asian. quite safe to say i'm going back there sooner or later for a weekend if bangkok stays like it is atm. even though indonesia and therefore jakarta is muslimic, at least nightlifewise you wouldnt think so. can only highly recommend to go there and make ur own picture especially if you are into spectacular nightlife ;) its also cheap as fuck so that even if you go out to teh best places you will max pay euro prices but get insane value in return. if you on a budget you obv can get around supercheap as well if you leave out some of teh superfancy stuff...
some pictures i aquired on teh way:













hotel room

one of teh few landmarks we made


teh only sightseeing we did





now to tokyo which is a bit moar recent:

tokyo from european standards is basically samesame but very very different and i still dont understand teh city at all. arrived last monday 24th november and since im in asia mode first thing to do at teh airport was getting a cab. was freezing as fuck with something like 15degrees (dont think i had that cold during last 12 months) and i was somewhat surprised that compared to teh 200+ taxis i can choose from in bangkok there were only 2 waiting at teh main airport in tokyo. when im cold i dont seem to think too much so i got in 1 of those 2 and told teh guy to drive me to teh ritz carlton. after 10 minutes i worked my currency translator and realized it was oreddi at 30euros or something ridic and teh street sign said "tokyo 50km" so i figured that might rather get one of teh moar expensive rides. arrived an hour later or so at teh ritz and oreddi learned teh first lesson: dont take taxis in tokyo - ever - period. went for breakfast at teh ritz and since we couldnt check into our flat closeby b4 4pm and my mate was still on his way from osaka to tokyo i walked a bit around town to see some stuff and kill time... try to structure teh rest a bit from now on into different categories.

city/feel/whatever: definitely by far and not even close teh cleanest city i've ever been to. singapore is a dirty shithole in comparison lol (whoever been to singy knows how ridic this sentence is but in comparison to tokyo its true). we really been around a bit and no matter where you step out of teh metro you have teh feeling teh boardwalk was clean like 5 minutes b4. part of that also might be teh smoking ban on literally all streets we've went to. in my opinion a bit weird since in teh majority of clubs and decent amount of restaurants smoking is no problem which doesnt really make sense...
another thing is that everything is organized to perfection, everything fits perfectly together. bit hard to describe but normally no matter where i go i think like this could be improved, this is not optimal, etc. in tokyo it's like:"yeah, this is gto, this is max efficient, theres no way to make that any better than it is"  - i think you get my point. also safe to say teh city itself is moar modern than anything i've seen before with singapore coming close after though. also to mention is that climate is soso. still better than in germany, we had 15degrees now end november here but also alot of rain etc.

people: very very friendly and probably teh moast friendly ive seen so far in asia. also on average a bit smarter than teh average human i would say but that goes hand in hand because tis country is not where it is for no reason. people are also fairly curious and interested what you do, where you come from etc. also worth noting is that as a white male down here you considered lower middle class compared to teh walking ATM you are in thai indonesia or anywhere in SEA apart from Singy...

food: prolly teh moast variety of food in any asian cuisine i encountered so far. obv in a megacity like tokyo you get everything from any country in teh world but teh japanese food is far moar than just sushi (which i dodged teh entire week). fairly famous is ramen which is like some sort of noodle soup, teppaniyak which is grilled on a hot stone i think, yakitori, which are skewers with meat and veggies, okonominiyaki which is a japanese pancake and and and. even if you would only eat japanese and nothing else you still would have alot of variety compared to other countries. prices here were fairly reasonable for teh moast part but still alot moar expensive than bangkok for instance. on teh upper side you are pretty much unlimited bc they have a fair share of michelin stuff here but thankfully we dodged that as well... also worth a mention is that u can have dinner insanely late compared to what i used to. alot of places do til 1:30 and decent amount does 24/7 unlike in bkk for example - and those places are still really really good. food quality in general is probably teh best ive seen anywhere also.

shopping: moar or less unnecessary to say but shopping options are massive and you can get pretty much everything and alot of stuff (even from designers) which you wouldnt find anywhere else in teh world...

nightlife: teh thing i was teh moast disappointed with tbh. we prolly looked at 10-15 different clubs and nothing really hooked me. we asked some chicks on tinder beginning teh week and they basically were like "Yeah, nobody is going out during teh week" - iw0tmate? weekend was a bit better but still far away from bangkok or jakarta standards. didnt have any contacts here so we had to go trial and error but yeah, during teh week its fairly dead for a city that size and even on teh weekend you have to know where to go. male female ratio is a disaster and prolly like 70% on teh male side no matter where we went (and we went to alot of places). they are also completely mental regarding entrance prices so that even during teh week you pay at least 12 euro entrance for any given club with an occasional free drink and 18-30euro on teh weekend without any freedrinks. those are standards clubs, nothing extraordinary, no special dj, etc. and its always no entry so when you dont like one club and u hop to another you easily pay 50euro just for entrance fees combined.
me and my mate had quite some conversations why nightlife is how it is even though teh city is big and here are teh points we put together:

- teh really hot girls dont go to clubs bc well, they are really hot chicks and they dont belong in clubs (not really our point but we heard that but given teh chicks you see on teh street and teh ones you see in teh club id assume its an accurate point)
- nightlife for teh general student is too expensive with entrance fees of 10eus+ everywhere + drink prices starting at 5 eur
- no metro between 12 and 5 and taxi is not affordable if you dont make serious cash (we went home from one club with taxi maybe 15minutes ride 45euros, no problem...)
- young people live with their parents for way longer than in other countries and teh parents make teh rules
- people work moar than anywhere else and are happy to finally come home. even at 11pm you see insane amounts of people running around with suits - dont think they wear them for fun...

could prolly add some moar points and you get teh piture.


biggest differences compared to other cities/countries/whatever:
- nobody gives a shit what you do. you can dress whatever teh fuck you like and nobody will ever give you a strange look - ever.
- gamehalls: there are gamehalls everywhere where you can play all sort of games, slots, you name it.you find everbody in there: tourist, females in their 40s, businessmen in suits during their lunch break, students... and those places are jampacked at times.
- safety - definitely safer than anywhere else. feels like there is no crime in teh city
- queuing: people love to queue. even in teh nightclub they queue at a bar and nobody pushes in front ever
- tipping: u dont tip ever, noone, ever


think i killed my time and have to take transport to airport now (no taxi this time lolol)

definitely liked teh week, bought some cool stuff, spent alot of money and had a good time but to be honest i would take bangkok every single time over here bc i feel there is moar personal freedom in thailand compared to here. very subjective though bc some people might rather choose absolute safety and modernity before freedom. another big reason are prices and since i'm making teh same money no matter where it makes no sense spending 4times teh amount id spent in bkk and live like average joe while living like a prince in thailand :P city overall would rank above average on my list of places i could imagine to live though and its definitely worth a vitis just to see it for yourself, bc as being said its same same but very very different!

peaze out