Tokyo Freespot

[imomus]

I arrive in Tokyo on Thursday morning. I'm not entirely sure whether the place I'm staying has internet access. So I'll be using Freespot to guide me to free wireless hotspots across the city. It's a listing of open wifi signals in Japan, but also China, the UK and the US.

In a city like Tokyo, where safety isn't really a concern, it's fine to go 'prospecting' for signal on streets just about anywhere in the city, at any time of the night or day. Just flip up the lid of your laptop and see what networks are in range. I'm a good prospector; I easily find unpassworded wifi signal wherever I am. I was using one in London over the weekend, for instance. (It's a skill not unrelated to 'hip homing', since signal and hipness tend to go together. What's more, sharing your wifi signal with other citizens makes you extremely cool.)

There are dangers, though. You have to stay street wise. I learned this last summer in New York, when I thought it would be fine to go prospecting for wifi signal up near the top of Central Park at one in the morning. I succeeded, even in crusty Morningside Heights, managed to download my e mail, then had to escape from four marauding, menacing teen hispanics on BMX bikes demanding money. The whole thing was chillingly polite: it started with 'Sir, can you lend us ten bucks?' and ended with 'Sir, we have to talk!' as, running like hell, I escaped to a porch of friendly black kids, a rival gang they didn't want to mess with. Did I mention that I was carrying $500 in cash as well as my laptop?

Comments

[dzima.livejournal.com]

Japan is very safe indeed. When I was living in Tokyo, I used go to Shinjuku and rent some cds at the local Tsutaya. I then would take my laptop and all the cds to the Shinjuku park so I could sit down and copy them. When I needed to go to the toilet I would just leave the laptop, the cds and my backpack on the bench I was sitting on in the middle of park. Coming back a few minutes later everything was still there untouched. One can just do this kind of thing in Japan.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I often use theft as a way to get rid of things when I leave a city. For instance, when I left New York, I decided to get rid of my little Razor scooter. I went to look at an art show in Brooklyn, leaving the scooter outside. Sure enough, ten minutes later the scooter had gone. In Tokyo, though, it didn't work. I had an orange folding bicycle. I had to go away to the US and decided to leave the bike on the street unlocked. When I came back three months later it was still there, still unlocked, a bit rusty from the rain, with a police notice taped to the handlebars saying 'Please do not leave this bicycle here'.

orange bike

[sheppardzo-14.livejournal.com]

that's so funny. yeah, i love visiting Japan. If i have jetlag, i can get up in the dark at 3 or 4 a.m. and walk or jog, anywhere. And usually see a handful of other women of all ethnicities out doing the same. Admiring the Emperor's swan pond, or windowshopping.

The other great thing, if I catch cold flying there, is to save the wasabi from lunch and mix it with boiling water from my hotel room tea set. Drink that concoction...if you do it fast enough, drink lots of hot non-caffeinated tea, and then sleep for a good 12 hours, you can wipe out a cold before it gets started.

[alionunderaw.livejournal.com]

I read once that in the space of time before someone is about to rob you, there takes place what's called (if I remember correctly) an "interview" determining your suitability to be robbed; the more openness that you display (in any way ie, willingness to speak to them at all), the greater your chances of harm. I don't doubt that that's true, I somehow also don't like the implication that you're supposed to be unpleasant to eveyone.

(Not strictly on the topic, sorry. By the way I've added you, if you don't mind)

[dragonmonkey.livejournal.com]

I left an expensive video camera in a taxi on the way to Ninja (http://www.ninja.tv/) in Akasaka. The driver was a poker-faced ojiisan who gave me an icy scolding after I flagged him down for having walked in front of his car to get his attention - I apologized, and then had an awkward conversation about where I wanted to go. My Japanese was crap and he had never heard of the restaurant. I called Ninja on my cell and let them explain - I think he thought that the whole affair was very tedious. He dropped me off in the vicinity, jerked his finger in the direction of the restaurant, and grufly turned back to his enka.

A girl ninja who claimed her name was superman lead me through narrow hallways, low-ceiling crevices, and calling down a secret bridge with a magic word, over a pit of gurgling dry ice. When I arrived in my dark and serene ninja cubby hole, I realized my video camera was in one of a billion taxis in Tokyo. I didn't know the cab company and I had left no calling card and I had maybe gotten a footnote on the driver's shitlist. It was depressing. I found it hard to enjoy the disappearing coin trick my waiter hoped to entertain me with.

But sure enough, after eating some levitating maguro, a tall lanky grumpy old man comes out of the shadows, craning his neck and back to fit into the entrance to my crevice. Looking out of place flanked by kneeling black-clad ninja waiters, he handed me my camera.

I bowed a lot and said thank you, brightly grateful that I hadn't lost my 700 buck toy. His stony glare broke, and he smiled for real, taken back by my profuse apologies.

It was a warm moment.

But my point was this: Here in Japan, it is often easier to find someone who will go to great lengths to return something valuable to a stranger than to keep it for themselves.

Welcome back. Okairinasai.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. The BMX crew asked if they could borrow $10 as they rode past. I laughed in a friendly, 'you've got to be kidding' kind of way. They continued, conferred, and then started coming back down the road towards me. It was very like an interview situation, including the bank manageresque 'Sir, we have to talk'.

[yanatonage.livejournal.com]

I live in the clinton hill section of brooklyn which is unfortunately lacking in wireless spots. And anyway I get lots of stares walking around and sitting down with a laptop. When I lived in wonderful gentrified Williamsburg, I need only rest on my stoop and miraculously would hit on someone's wireless node. For this reason, as much as I hated it there, I now miss it.

[sylvia101.livejournal.com]

that is amazing.

are you interested in living in tokyo full time? the photo makes me want to visit even more.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

When we were leaving Tokyo, in a fog of sleep-dep, we left the bag containing our digital camera on the floor when we filled out some forms. Half an hour later, we were distraught when we realized it! Not expecting anything, we mentioned it to an official, who took us through the bowels of the airport, along employees-only corridors, and down secret elevators - straight to our camera bag, exactly where we left it.

Conversely, when we left the same camera in a rental car at the airport in Providence, it was never seen again.

Note that losing one's digital camera is a natural chance to upgrade...

At present, we are fighting with a neighbor's sluttish wireless network, which insists on hooking up with our hub and making it impossible for my laptop to get access... Clearly, some settings need changing.

Rent-a-gangs

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Hm--perhaps for those nocturnal outdoor wifi enthusiasts there should be a "gang rental" service to prevent such unpleasantness? In fact, they could rob those who otherwise might have robbed you as partial compensation for their trouble. Many gang flavors to choose from: Dead Rabbits, Plug Uglies, Death Fetchers, etc.

Slo-mo Po-mo Postcards

[(Anonymous)]

Please post a photo collage of your trip, that is before you leave your camera or laptop in the back of a cab ( it's normally phones or sunglasses with me ). I imagine you'll be doing a lot of walking so would be interested to see your visual guide to hi-speed Tokyo from a slow-momus point of view ( slo-mo ? )...

Richard G

Re: Rent-a-gangs

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

At the interview:

"My qualifications are impeccable."

[the-basic-eight.livejournal.com]

Since you are now in Tokyo, I suppose this is the appropriate time to ask this. My housemate, an American, will be visiting Tokyo & Japan for the first time. Though not Japanese, she speaks the language at an intermediate level. What are Momus' Tokyo must-do's?

Speaking of wireless technologies...

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Thought this might amuse, if you were previously unaware: http://www.pokia.com/

The relative civility of Morningside Park transients

[(Anonymous)]

I've encountered some very odd characters in Morningside Park, and with few exceptions our exchanges were very pleasant. Of course I've been harrassed, and every so often money changed hands, but on one very memorable occasion I given a gift by a large black homeless man who lived there: a fake fur hat that he insisted looked 'fabulous' on me. For a few months after I carried the hat with me everywhere, so that if I happened to bump into him I could put it on quickly and pretend that I loved it. But I never saw him again.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes most of Japan is remarkably safe.

But not completely safe. I managed to get mugged in
Wakkanai, Hokkaido last September. Moral of the story:
don't drink vodka with Russian sailors in Hokkaido.
The illegal fishing trade is run by tough eastern Russian
gangsters and the yakuza. The Far Eastern Economic Review
ran an article ( The death of sushi (http://www2.gol.com/users/coynerhm/death_of_sushi.htm)) about it a couple of years back.

Fortunately I didn't go anywhere near their boat. While they
were still being friendly they were trying to convince me
to visit their fishing boat.

The Japanese police were completely useless in this case.

- M

[imomus.livejournal.com]

There's a very long answer to this question, which you'd have to take me for coffee to hear!

But the short answer is in the form of four websites which should give you lots of ideas:

http://superfuture.com/city/city/city.cfm?city=1

http://www.realtokyo.co.jp/english/

http://metropolis.japantoday.com/default.asp

http://jeansnow.net/

[the-basic-eight.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[eduard-green.livejournal.com]

In the last town I lived in, in scotland, I began to feel sure that "have you got the time on you?" was code for "we're not going to rob or threaten you." Often there would be groups of threatening sorts hanging about, or walking towards you, and my reaction was always to keep my head down. One time as a group of huge guys squeezed past me in a narrow underpass one of them said "have you got the time?" and clapped me on the shoulder as he walked past, not stopping to hear if I replied. I wondered if he sensed my unease. My flatmate reckoned it was trick- he'd noticed how groups of kids asked it all the time- reckoning if you didn't answer they'd have reason to beat you up.

[alionunderaw.livejournal.com]

If that's true, it's a great system. I wonder how often things like that happen in a really localized context? Oddly enough I come from a fairly small southern town and was robbed there twice. Both times the person who robbed me was unusally to the point. I was walking along and someone said "give me your lighter;" the next thing I knew I was up against a wall; the second time it was the same thing only I was told to give up my wallet.

[eduard-green.livejournal.com]

Whenever I've been harrassed by groups of kids they have _always_ been strangely polite, come to think of it. I remember at high school the nasty kids would draw you aside in the corridor and ask kindly "Do you realise what you're wearing? Do you realise you look like a freak?" Which would throw me completely- I would react by trying to have a conversation with them.