Episode 0: Luke Floorwalkers Adventure to Japan (Tamagochi, vending machine and Hello Kitty Land)

July 31st 2004

Well dudes, starting a whirlwind tour of tomagochi and vending machine land, naturally before any overseas travel, I was very excited. Sometimes I can get overly excited and forget many things but luckily on this occation it did not happen. Ah well, it only happened once when I lost a camera.This is a story about my first impressions of places and of people becuase when one enters a new place for a first time their impressions are added to a new space in that persons brain where more physical memory has become available, now they can chuck out any garbarge that was having a holiday in that place before like a new puppy stretched out on your parents queen bed.I remember i needed to clean my shoes becuase one must always clean their shoes before any multi-continent journey. However i could not find any shoe cleaning material, therefore i used a shirt to give them a whipe over.Bording any trans continental flight is exciting. As I lined up to catch JAL from Sydney to Toyko, i remembered a theory of mine. People are very excited to catch a plane and line up much earlier than needed. They are like little puppy dogs. And then when they get on the plane their seat is assigned and they have to sit there for some long time anyway, so what is the point of being so eager. Then when people get off planes it is like a mad rush anyway. I call it mad plane theory.So there i was waiting for the remainder of people to get onto the flight. We took off above the oceans across the Pacific over Guam where i noticed some turbulance and then to the finish , Narita Airport. We flew over 196 hole golf courses and small pockets of densely vegetated forests, rolling hills and separated satellite settlements. Japan is a very clean place with lots of modern cars and people. They seemed to have evolved to a culture with endless talent for finding new and interesting ways to dress themselves.I checked into my modern hotel suite after visting the talking lifts and vending machines. In the hotel lobby I noticed a multitude of young Japanese dudes really trying to dress like surfer dudes. They were wearing board shorts sixty sizes to big, thongs and either frizzy long hair or trucker hats turned sideways. I think I noticed them on their way to a BBQ in the hotel courtyard. A Japanese style outdoor BBQ. I was attracted to the laughter and smell of beef. I went and had a look, it was a pleasant sight with large groups of Japanese dining outdoor in the garden with the background sounds of cicadas and frizzling BBQ sounds. A picture of my friendly vending machines, after chatting with them a little I decided to try a multitude of cool and refreshing Kirin drinks.

Drink Up! Enjoy refreshing time. Well I certainly had a go at this.. In my spaceship room it was an excellent room. Quite small but comforatble. As soon as I turned on the televison i was overwhelmed by the Japanese love for game shows where the objective of the game show was entirely questionable. I noticed one fellow had to run 100km through rivers along roads and forests, at one point he was running with a picture of his wife and family on his tee shirt and he looked like he was in agony, at 12km he was consulted by a doctor and for some strange reason they showed an x-ray of his upper thy, carefully and meticulusly examining this while he waited nearby.

I had a go of the traditional dressing gown in the room, it was great. I felt like Ninja or Samuri.After my exploits through the cupboards of my room and the interesting television programs i managed to go on another adventure throughout the jungles outside the hotel to a shopping mall via the USA because I was very hungry by this moment.I ran out of the front of the hotel clasping my Kirin refreshing time drink, I picked a direction and ran in that way. Into total darkness. At this moment in time I did not care where I was running, it was a wonderful feeling, running into the darkness in another country, an unfamiliar place. I soon came across a sign. It said USA, this way. Wait a minute I am in Japan, not the USA? This sign intreged me. So I followed it and after some 5 minte of running i came across another. A full moon rose out of the darkness leading me. It was a barmy, warm and pleasant smelling evening as jogged through the bushes near Narita Airport. Out of the midsts popped up a mini mart. Wow I exclaimed as I rushed into the mini mart.

Inside this mini mart were all sorts of wierd and wonderful treats. I spent about 1 hour in this shop looking at almost everything. Most things were different to an Australian store or an American store. Hello Kitty, Tamagotchi, every little plastic dangly thing one could imagine. There were a few things that I could not work out at all, little these battery powered slots for your mobile phone SIM card. Like for your keyring? I seriously do not have any idea what these were used for.I took some pictures of the SAKE on the shelf because the dude in front of me took some pictures of it, puzzled was I by his intentions, but it was ok as I waved at him and laughed. He gave me a funny look and laughed. Well that was some cool cultural exchange as I was just interested in his intetions of photographing the SAKE on the shelf with his digital camera.