6 November 2024
Salaryman glowstick idol adoration
Ramen in Sakae
Tonight I went outside and nearly got blown over. Sudden gale force wind and also coldness. I had to go underground. Plenty of options.
So I went half way to Sakae underground, came up, shivered for a while, went underground again, heard some sort of a commotion and found a bunch of underage girls dancing and screaming in shrill girl voices for salarymen waving glowsticks and shouting words of encouragement at the top of their lungs. Weird. I have seen it before, but it is strange that these girls perform to 50 people, in a stairwell, at 6:30pm on a Wednesday night, and yet some men that just finished their day selling fax machines know about it and come equipped with glow sticks.
After pondering the state of the world for a while I decided to find some ramen so I could walk back to the hotel wearing just a t-shirt. The place I chose specialises in fermented shrimp ramen. Pic below of course.
Tomorrow I will go to Kanazawa. I was last their in 2016, and on that occasion I could only get accommodation for 2 nights. This time I will go for 4 nights. Getting there is a 2 train expedition, I will first take a limited express non bullet train to Tsuruga, before changing to the new bullet train from Tsuruga to Kanazawa. I am glad I already collected my tickets for this journey as they were purchased from 2 different non affiliated sub divisions of the same company who refuse to cooperate.
After a mini tornado seemed to be blowing through, it was time to go underground and go as far as it would take me.
This is a tarot card reader. They are everywhere here. Not even in back streets in hidden booths but out in the open in the underground malls.
And if placing your faith in a few cards was not bad enough, here is the local lotto ticket place, which has a shrine for you to pray at. Classy.
The christmas decorations here have incorporated a miniature railway, in the subway station. I was thrilled.
Next up in the tour of ridiculousness, the claw machine megaplex. 4 levels of claw machines.
The prize here, a jar of pineapple pieces. Would you eat a jar of pineapple won out of a claw machine? Assuming you win, what do you do with it upon winning, carry it around for the rest of the evening? In Taiwan these are believed to be a giant money laundering operation, I suspect the same applies here.
This is right in the middle of the nightlife area, where the Family Mart's have smoking rooms and boys with blonde permed hair wander the streets with jars of pineapple looking tough.
If you want a cheap chair, this is the place to go.
And as per my intro, here is the idol group performing in the stair well. The girl in green is out injured so is sitting through the whole performance. Either that or she misbehaved so the manager hobbled her. Not a joke sadly, read about it! The small crowd of guys with glowsticks yelling the chorus at the top of their lungs was a site to behold.
Every Japanese city has a donki, the main Nagoya one is well lit. Sometimes the lights show a game of tetris. For the uninitiated, donki or Don Quijote to use its never used full name, is basically a cheap as chips / reject shop, spread over many levels.
And then finally, my ramen. Full of tiny dried shrimps, partially rotten, mixed with fermented beans.