It's raining today and I finally remembered what I was supposed to show you
Boom
Yes
Work has kept me pretty busy the last few days
So I haven't straightened my hair
So there it is, natural, for you guys
Anyway, I'm gonna go buy a bicycle
Because I don't have any of my three bicycles previously purchased in Japan
When I first came to Japan, obviously I had a lot of will to explore
Every day was a new adventure, new places, new weird culture that I didn't know
After a year this place still surprises me, but
The will to explore is kind of faded with me
So to combat that, I got my Croatian-Australian friend Sabrina on board
We're gonna see an area called Koenji, that I've visited only twice
Shop with grains?
A thrift store with random items
Do you wanna be talking with me?
This area here is called Koenji and it's famous for thrift stores
Lots of specialty shops, Japanese crafts
And lots of bars, too. We went to an Okinawan restaurant
It's really good, it's different from traditional mainland Japanese food
If you're in Japan you should probably check it out at some point
And now we're going to Shinjuku, to Golden Gai
-Yeah we are -Let's see what happens there
This is what I and many other affectionately call "Bike prison"
It's where my 3rd bike ended up
I went to Bali and it was towed and moved over here, and apparently they only keep them for about a month
It was during the winter so I thought oh, I'll just pick it up after the winter
And well, it's no longer here anymore
If your bike gets taken make sure to pick it up within a month if you're living in Shibuya
I definitely want a bike with a basket because it's the most practical for grabbing groceries and stuff like that
The only question is which one
This is the ugliest color bicycle I've ever seen
It's coming out kinda reddish-pink on the camera but in real life it's like
Peach vomit
Allright, I'm going for the ugly peach one
The story of the first one's pretty simple
I bought it in Nagoya, I moved, I sold it
Second bike - so I went on vacation to the Philippines, or the US
And I airbnb'd my room
I let the person who used my room use my bike
And when I came back my bike was just gone
I don't understand what happened
Then my fourth bike, I went to Bali
Bike got towed
I didn't pick it up in enough time
Never saw the bike again
(Eric Clapton - Layla)
We ended up in this bar called Lonely
Which turned out to be really amazing
This guy founded this bar in 1966
And he showed us pictures of his family tracing back to the Meiji era of Japan
He showed us his family record
That traced back to the Genji era
Really mind-blowing stuff
If you come to Golden Gai, you should check out the bar called Lonely
For the standard of these places, it's really really foreigner friendly
In some of these bars, you're not really welcome as a foreigner
But this guy, he's cool
Typical Japanese bike stand
Stands your whole bike up
I got a back tyre rack
Sweet
You got this bike attached to your wheel
That's all most people do
Sweet bell
Six speeds, wow, gonna go crazy
A reliable basket for transporting goods, like today's...
Toilet paper, tissues and paper towels
And this light that's powered by the tire
Pretty ugly color, I love it
Guess who I met for a quick post-work dinner
Fish with lime sauce
Look what's everybody watching in Tokyo
Bye bye
We ended up in a place called "Ashiro"?
In Japanese
I'm not gonna kid you, this is the first time I'm admitting to this, I'm drunk
3am and I'm going back to edit this
If you see it happening, it's because I stayed till 5am to edit this
Good luck for me