My friends and I were due to go back to Kyoto to check out the thousand red gates and more of the area that we didn’t get to see on our first visit. But one of my friends and I made no effort to rush and get ready that morning, having clubbed it up the night before. So I said I’d hit the other fella’s up on the keitai when we reach Kyoto, and then rendezvous with them here. As we were getting ready to leave, my friend couldn’t find his Japan rail pass. So Kyoto was a no go. I could’ve left him, but I’m not that much of an bastard (despite what some of my friends say), so I said I’d stick around with him. We decided to make a day out of checking out the local area, mingling with the random people we come across and head back to Den Den town, seeing as we didn’t get to see the best of it the first time we went a couple of days ago.

Two purchases in an Adidas store and one wrong subway stop later we finally ended up at our destination of Den Den town. We doubted ourselves at first and started to curse and cuss we’d gotten off at the wrong train stop (again) because the area looked NOTHING like the Den Den town we’d visited before. But after asking a local in the nearest shop where Den Den town was and being told we were in it, the exclamation mark appeared above both of our heads like a Genome soldier: we hadn’t been to Den Den town before, and we were in it for the first time! Suddenly our second trip to Kyoto didn’t seem like something we’d badly missed out on.

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It’s all well and good visiting Japan and doing the touristy things like visiting shrines, temples, taking pictures of Engrish on sweet wrappers and riding a bullet train. But if like me you like to club it out at home, then you have to do the same in Japan. It’s the law in my eyes. I just had to do it. I needed to know how the Japanese get down.

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Japan is clean. I’d heard and read about how clean the countries streets are, but I don’t think I expected the streets to be as clean as they are. Seriously. Japan’s streets are dead clean. I’m from London. So I’m used to seeing rubbish on the sidewalks, people littering, bins overflowing and dog shit smeared into the road. In Japan, I saw none of these things. People actually carry bottles of water with them when they walk their dogs, so that if they piss on something they can pour water over it to rinse it off. Only in Japan.

Sure, there were some area’s that looked a little run down. But even these area’s were pretty garbage free. And any garbage that was spotted was placed in neatly tied garbage bags of the appropriate colour corresponding to what type of garbage the bag contains.

Part of the reason why Japan’s streets are so clean is because people tend not to eat on the streets. In the West we’ll pound the pavement whilst snacking on a sandwich, a chocolate bar, some french fries, fast food. Pretty much anything we can eat without the need for a plate, a knife and a fork: we’ll eat on the go. In Japan? No deal. Because of this general social rule, there is a distinct lack of dustbins. So if you were unlucky enough to decide not to eat your Burger King in the joint, then a daily excursion can quickly turn into a scavenger hunt for a dustbin. And chances are if you find one, it’s only for a particular kind of rubbish which means you’ll still be left with whatever you couldn’t chuck. (Garbage separating = an integral part of Japanese life). As time goes on you slowly acclimatize to the country and turn a little Japanese, you begin to learn the Nihongo way: you either eat your food where the hell you bought it, or you want till your ass gets home.

Japan has many wonders and marvels to catch your attention. But the one you’re constantly hit with is how generally clean the streets are. It really is hard to hate the lack of dustbins and general rule of not eating on the streets, when the streets are so clean as a result. It definitely hit me hard when I landed in the fly tipping site that is London.

The part of Kyōto I visited first was a small town, neighbor to some stunning gardens, shrines and pieces of architecture. What really caught me about Kyōto is that by just walking around the gardens and temples, you got a real sense of history. There was just this feeling that every building you saw had a story behind it which spanned hundreds of years. Walking around the grounds was incredibly tranquil and calming. Despite the number of people around and the bustle, there was barely any noise other than the birds tweeting in the trees and the sound of leaves in the wind. Sounds poetic doesn’t it? That’s Kyōto for you.

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China is known for its population loving a good old ride on a bicycle. (Something that Chun-Li’s stage in Street Fighter II taught us years ago). But I had no idea so many Japanese folk rode bikes too. Bikes run rampant in Japan. They’re bloody everywhere!! I’m honestly surprised I’m still alive, because I came too close on one too many occasions to being mowed down by a bicycle.

Dodging and weaving in between people on the streets of Japan is difficult enough. But then to have bicycles thrown into the mix!? It’s dangerous. Japan has a low crime rate. So holding onto your bag and your wallet isn’t what you need to be focusing on. What you need to focus on is not getting your arse run down by a bike. People ride FAST. They creep up behind you, they won’t steer out of the way of you and there’s no sympathy for you being a foreigner.

Not all areas have marking on the pavements clearly showing where you should walk and where cycles should ride. So you have to gauge how and where people walk. There seems to be this secret society system to how the Japanese walk in regards to bikes on the pavements. You do catch the hang of it eventually. Looking ahead to see if there’s a wave of people shifting to one side to let a bike through. And listening intently for the speedy spokes, or a bicycle bell unintentionally sounding quietly as the bikes goes over an uneven slab on the pavement.

Me being from London – the city of zig-zagging walkers and pavement blockers, it took some getting used to. But it’s something you do have to adjust to. Unless you want to spend your holiday in a nice, but expensive hospital.

This is one of Japanese’s unique national sports, and a regular sight on Japanese trains. There is no place you won’t find a Japanese person K.O’d. In the street slumped against a lamppost, in shopping malls, in restaurants and eateries, even on train platforms. Anywhere is fair game to look dead and completely out of it.

The Japanese work hard and party hard, so it’s only fair they get to sleep hard too. It’s something you don’t ever really get used to, because each day you’ll find somebody looking more dead and K.O’d in a more uncomfortable position than the last. Only in Japan could young lady be sat on her own in a train carriage fast asleep with her handbag and mouth wide open, and there be a minimal chance of her getting mugged or raped. Gotta love the safety.

God continue to bless Japan.

I’ve been absent from Dark Diamond for God knows how long. Not that it’s had any kind of effect on things here, but I thought I’d mention it none the less as a contributor to this wonderful, wonderful otaku haven that we call home.

My absence has been due to having gone on holiday. Where to I hear all 2 of you ask? To Japan!! There’s so much to say and share about my time over there, but as not to bore you with walls of text; I’ll post periodically on my experience and some of the stuff I saw whilst in the land of the rising sun. Some of our Dark diamond readers may live in Japan – to which it’ll be interesting to hear your views on the country and if they clash or are in unison with mine. But I thought it may be cool to have yet another ‘foreigners’ insight into what it was like to be in Japan for a couple of weeks.