TOKYO: Paper dragons, robots and rappers

After three weeks in Japan, its almost time to leave. Having returned to Tokyo from the north, seeing all the neon and sky-scrappers has been just as exciting the second time around. But we wanted to see a few things the guidebook neglects. First up was the hunt for origami. The art of folding little bits of paper isn't as prominent here as you might expect - we'd only really seen it in Hiroshima with the peace cranes. Gwenfair found an address on the internet that claimed to be a museum of sorts, in a quiet part of the city. When we eventually tracked it down it turned out to be the office of the 'Japanese Academic Origami Society' - they take this stuff seriously. One book showed you how to make a grasshopper in just 153 easy steps...the dragons, birds and dinosaurs were all very impressive.
We also wanted to experience going to a gig. At home, this involves going out late - hanging around in noisy crowds. Here things start at 6pm - with hushed silence during every song, until the last note has finished. There were three acts - the first a terrible songwriter from Florida who thought the way to bridge the language barrier was to gesture hand signals to accompany his lyrics. Next up was 'Group Inou' - two skinny Japanese kids who make loud electronic music to shout a long to. We have no idea what they were saying, but they were full of energy - the sound was a bit like being locked into one of the noisy 'pachinko' amusement arcades for days. The headliner was someone I'd heard of - 'I am Robot and Proud'. Electronic music is very popular here - perhaps because they produce a lot of the electronics - and while nobody dared dance, everyone - including us - really enjoyed.
On Friday we move on to Beijing, which should be very different. We don't know yet how easy Internet access will be, so if the blog goes quiet for a little while, please don't panic.

*O ie, a gan bod Gwenfair wedi dechrau blogio yn Saesneg (gwelir Mt Fuji), gair bach oddi wrtho i yn Gymraeg - yn anffodus sdim gair o wirionedd i beth welwch chi isod, ond mae Pocari Sweat wir yn bodoli...