Well, I can’t imagine there are any “awesome” times for being homeless – unless steaks rained from the sky and it was always summer – BUT turns out that right now is particularly terrible.  Here’s what I woke up to around Shinjuku station…

When a day of homelessness starts out like this...

Almost 7am, almost freezing, the sun a barely an annoyance to the tops of the thick clouds.  The day opened up and it got colder, and a little colder, and then rainy, then more rainy, then that thing that happens when it rains in sub-zero temperatures.  Snow started to fall in Tokyo.  This wasn’t the pathetic sprinkling of snowflakes, like when you permit a polite amount of ground pepper on a dainty salad.  This was a proper urban flurry, like when you pour salt and pepper on a terrible-tasting lasagna.

Snow falling down Cocoon Tower

It wasn’t quite cold enough for the snow to stick, but that only meant it melted.  And because it drifted, hiding under overhangs was only so effective.  I don’t think an umbrella would have helped me too much, if I had one.  Unfortunately, I didn’t, so I scurried to the train station with all my bags, with snow felling and melting, and me wishing I had a warm room to go lie down in.  Instead, I was destined for a nap on the Yamanote line subway.

All snow and no umbrella makes Matt...

The beautiful nature shots in the beginning of Episode 203 were from Tokyo Bay Hamarikyu Onshi Teien – a giant tea garden – that we stumbled across while wandering around early in the morning near Tsukiji Fish Market.  We were some of the first people in the park, so we were able to wander around alone in the morning quiet.  It was perhaps one of the most peaceful places I’ve been to in Tokyo.  Shibuya is constantly buzzing and bustling, and our own neighborhood in Miyamae-ku is about as eventful as a crater on the moon (but without the “hey we’re on the moon!” feeling).  So our lives oscillate between the hyper-active and the inactive, but at the park, it was a comfortable medium.

Massive monolithic buildings towered on all sides, making the park seem almost like a little valley from 400 years ago.

Jed and Conrad

About 50 stories by 40 rooms of concrete and glass overlooking a ceremonial tea house…it felt like ancient Japan nestled within modern Japan.

We discovered that long ago, the area used to be a falcon range for the shoguns, but it also came to serve as a tidal pond, a tea garden and a wild duck hunting site.  After WWII, it was made a public park and protected under Japanese law.  Many eras in Japan have passed through this garden, and perhaps it was the layers of history that made it feel so peaceful.  In Tokyo, a subway ride can be literally overflowing with people but also feel silent and almost sterile (at least to a mind accustomed to constant conversation); central squares can feel claustrophobic with so people but also incredibly lonely because no one will ever look you in the eyes; bedroom neighborhoods, like ours, can be full of residences but empty of social interactions.  The park felt like a unique space for us – serene but still stimulating.  The park was mostly empty, but it didn’t feel like we were being separated from other people as much pushed together with our own thoughts and reflections.

Skyscrapers on the lake

Our current diet of experience isn’t incredibly nourishing for our bodies or our minds, but this separate peace in the park helped rejuvenate my passion for traveling.

It’s midnight, and I’m settling down for another 7-hour stint in an internet cafe in Shinjuku.  Last night, I cashed in my “crash at a friend’s house” token and slept in the living room of the guesthouse.  It was a troubled sleep, but it was definitely sleep.  It also let me use a shower and reload on rice…I’ll probably allow myself one night at the guesthouse each week, just because most net cafe refugees seem to sleep periodically on the floor or a friends house. 

Here’s a picture of me with my new duffel bag, wandering around outside the east side of Shinjuku station.

I don’t look homeless, right?

Let’s review some data from the past couple days to see how this experiment is going in its initial stages, from Tuesday morning to Thursday morning…

*remember that I started with 4000 in my wallet, and 1000 went to a 2-week wifi pass

So far, so good – I’m definitely saving money, even if its costing me sleep and pumping me with coffee.  We’ll see how I hold together.

What are some other things you’d like me to track during this time?

First, allow me to clarify this internet cafe plan: I, Matt, will rove around Tokyo, sleeping in random internet cafes by night, working on Jet Set Zero at cheap wifi-enabled establishments by day.  Brian and Rob will stay in our normal guesthouse, resuming life as usual, just without me.  I chose this particular date to begin the experiment because we just finished the 2-month mark on my room, so rather than pay for an entire third month (50,000Y), I’ll just ride out our remaining days in Tokyo from the cushy confines of an internet cubicle. 

So, after my first day, I had a couple crucial realizations that inspired me to repack my stuff. 

1. I’m not equipped for how cold it is before dawn, so I exchanged my vest for a light jacket and I picked up an extra.

2. Given that I once needed to buckle that cheap blue laptop case to my nice black backpack, there’s no way I’m not going to look at least a little homeless.  Plus, if I hid my bulky laptop between my back and the actual pack, then my body would take about 5 minutes of walking to scream in protest.  Finally, the backpack simply didn’t have much room, and my jacket pockets were overflowing with things to carry.  I chose my ratty hiking backpack, trading a professional facade for more room and cheaper chiropractor bills in the future.

3. I need earplugs to sleep well, both in the cafe and on the train…so I got some.

Here’s my new set up:

Me, hunkered down around the only usable power outlet in the KFC at Saginuma station.

It looks a little more ragged and I look a little more like a bum, but it keeps me warmer, my posture tighter, and my jacket pockets empty.  Today took me through 3 offices: McDonalds, KFC, then another McDonalds.  Tomorrow I’ll have some numbers for you…

Many of my friends know that I can sometimes be a creature of excess – beneath a relatively mild exterior, I have a streak of recklessness.  Perhaps this vein in me has helped inspire a little experiment I started today.  Basically, I am now homeless.  I have moved out of the guesthouse in Kanagawa, and will join the ranks of the so-called net cafe refugees, who spend their days as normal people and spend their nights in internet cafes.  My thoughts on this were threefold. 

Not too shabby

First, it’s a cheap intense form of cultural immersion. This isn’t just a “wild and crazy Matt idea” – as I alluded to, people do this every day. About 1.5 years ago, there were estimated over 5,000 such refugees and given the waves of layoffs, more people will be doing this very soon. The furnishing isn’t too bad, just slightly smaller than a standard closet…

Showers, coffee, fast internet

Second, it’s a way to save money. For my tiny single, I paid about 50,000Y/month, roughly $18/night. For a 7-hour stint in this internet cafe, I can pay only 1,000Y ($11). For a trip into central Tokyo and back, I once paid at least 400Y; now, I walk out of whatever cafe I happen to sleeping in. I’ll be measuring my new budget against what I would have been spending to see how effective this strategy is.

3,000 Y to my name

Finally, if we’re going to be poor in Tokyo, let’s drive it into the ground, utterly and completely. I have 3,000Y in my wallet and a 2-week wifi pass redeemable at McDonalds. My only source of income is my tutoring. Basically, we will see whether I have reached a financial equilibrium in Tokyo without a stable teaching job. It’ll be like a worst-case scenario for an aspiring English-teacher…

Every night, I will sleep in a different internet cafe throughout the city, and by day, I will haunt various regular cafes, McDonald’s, subways, and public parks, weather permitting (which, unfortunately it is not at the moment).  Everything I have is laid out below, and I encourage you to visit the Flickr picture which explains each item.

My worldly possessions for the rest of our time in Tokyo

Think I’m nuts?  Let me know, and stay tuned for a daily update of my new lifestyle…

Finding fun in Tokyo without any cash is a constantly evolving creative challenge.

Finally, an episode out on time!  Ever since I made it back to the States I’ve had trouble keeping things on schedule.  Before I went to Japan I was always at a two week lag from real time, and when I was with the crew on the road I was experiencing things as they happened, but at all times I had to be thinking a few weeks ahead to do my job as producer.  About 60% of my time is spent as editor thinking about what did happen, and about 40% of my time is spent as executive producer/director thinking about what will happen, and the result is that I spend a clean 100% of my time confused.  I was too inexperienced when starting this project to know why production and planning staff are almost always separate, but I think I’ve got the gist of it after living for a few months in this scheduled haze.

This week also marks the debut of our newest musical contributor: Tettix!  I’ve been listening to Judson Cowan’s music for years, both in his current incarnation and under his previous handle of Cicada.  His work has been featured in a number of creative spots, including this Boing Boing short.  It gives me no shortage of pleasure to be editing to his music, in this episode The Graves of Good Humans from the startling Technology Crisis II.  I hope to use a few more of Tettix’s tracks before Season 2 is up, but in the meantime check out all his albums at www.tettix.net or purchase his songs on iTunes!

So, Episode 203 is finished and uploaded, but you may have a little trouble seeing it (or any of our content) at the moment as Vimeo ate the big one at some point this morning. Hopefully they’ll be back up before the end of the day, but until then just hold tight.

The 99¥ Jr. Kidney-Crusher

When I get back, I am never eating another goddamn hamburger so long as I live.

Oakhouse Miyazakidai is the name of our current guesthouse, the home of 5 Americans (us) and around 20 other residents.  Given that our financial limitations afford a short leash, Oakhouse is our most common restaurant, office, and bar – it’s where we eat, work, and play.  And when Jed arrived, we ate, worked, and played aplenty.

This was just the beginning

Here is a picture from Jed’s birthday, and there are so so many things to point out.  Yes, those are 4 bottles of Wild Turkey, and yes Rob seems transfixed by them.  Yes it’s cold enough inside that we wear jackets and beanies, even when drinking.  Yes the walls are mottled and dirty, and yes those computers are probably from the early 90s.  And, finally, yes Jed is not in this picture, but don’t worry, he was very much a part of these festivities.

With Jed out here, this was one of our first gatherings with everyone, and I have to say it wasn’t a mild night…

Oh Jed, we all know how this is going to end

The irony here is that we didn’t buy all this alcohol – in fact, we’re trying to detox after all our bonding with our Vietnamese friends.  Mr. Isume and Mr. Mickey – in the top photograph – supplied all of this, and what were we going to do?  We can’t be rude guests in a guesthouse to our gracious friends…

So here at Oakhouse, we were well on our way to bonding as a team and bonding across cultures.  And we’re unfortunately finding that sharing drinks so easily fills the gaps left by their limited English and our virtually nonexistent Japanese.

This was just the beginning

You saw this message as well as I did.  As Brian just mentioned, we aren’t in good shape (I try to be positive and think of being 20% not-fucked…).  We have a couple creative strategies for getting nutrition, taste, entertainment, and something that is vaguely Japanese on our empty budgets.  We haven’t considered shoplifting BUT I’m just saying that a bumper sticker illegally pasted on the side of a road told me that it wasn’t crime if we decided to go there…