Tokyo Shenanigans

Kyoto Weekend

2006-07-02T02:11:00.000-07:00

so I haven’t updated for a long ass time.

my apologies.

KYOTO

So a few weeks ago we decided to go to Kyoto for the weekend. we found a package deal online, pretty cheap for an entire package, hotel, bullet train, everything. so we meet up on Saturday morning, jump on to the bullet train, and head out towards Kyoto.

the train ride was about 3.5-4 hours long. but we’d gone 900 km. which means that the average speed including the stops would be over 200 km/h. that in itself was amazing. the scenery zipped by so damn fast. and they had a food service on the train. the woman bowed nicely every time she entered and left the car. overall, the trainride was amazing. more fun than an airplane ride for sure. surprisingly, it didn’t jerk around so much. though apparently karma hit me when I went to the bathroom, because I swear it was harder to piss than on a plane.

we arrived in Kyoto and checked into the hotel. it was already 2 in the afternoon, so we decided to go balls to the wall and see at least 2 things during the day before the temples closed for the evening. first we set out to Fushimi-Inari temple, which is dedicated to Inari. He’s the god of rice and the foxes (there were many statues) are thought to be his messengers. the entire trail is covered with shrine gates, and it takes about 2 hours to walk through the entire thing. it was pretty crazy, made a lot of shots. haven’t edited them properly yet, so I am posting some travel guide ones :)

after the Fushimi Inari shrine we tried to make our way to the Kiyomizudera temple, which has a porch-thing that looks out onto the valley. we sorta lost our way and then ended up stopping at a convenience store to ask how far the temple is. she said 30 minute walk (which in reality was only 10, I guess Indonesia isn’t the only place where people can’t estimate time), so we ended up going to a different temple which wasn’t very interesting. she also told us that the temple closed at 6 pm, but it closed at 6.30, it was 5.40 when we asked her, so with the 30 minute walk we wouldn’t have made it. oh convenience store people.

after visiting the boring temple, don’t even remember the name because it was that insignificant (it was called Kodaiji, dedicated to an Emperor’s wife), we started walking towards the Gion district of town. this is apparently where all the cool Geishas hang out, though they tell us that the geishas don’t actually go on the street. the ones we saw around were Maikos, Geisha trainees. couldn’t get a shot though because I remember seeing a guy in the red light district of Amsterdam get pimp-slapped for taking photos. not gonna happen to me here. we visited a shrine that was open at night and had hundreds of paper lamps. it was definitely an amazing site, though it’s too bad I forgot the name of it.

we ate dinner in the Gion district, lollygagged around a little bit, took Purikura photos and headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

One of the trails at Fushimi Inari

Entrance to Fushimi Inari

A photo off a travel site. Weather was crappy so i didn't get one like this.

Kiyomizudera Temple, the one we didn't get to

Kodaiji Temple

the next day we woke up at 6 am. I know some people in the group weren’t a fan of it. but I paid my money and I wanted to see everything. we jumped on a train to go to Nara, where the oldest standing wooden building in the world, a deer park and a large Buddha temple were located. we walked through the deer park to get to the Todaiji temple. the deer were VERY friendly (Ruben knows everything about that). or maybe Ruben was just being very friendly with the deer. anyway, Dr. Dolittle had a field day with the deer. the temple in itself was an amazing structure, built entirely of wood. it was restored at only 2/3 it’s size. it was still huge. apparently, they are now trying to rebuild the rest of the temple that had burned down a few centuries ago. by 2010 they are to add the 2 pagodas on either side of the temple that have not been restored. the Buddha inside was an amazing site as well. there was no doubt this thing was about 2-3 stories tall if not more. y’know, after living so long in Indonesia maybe I have trouble estimating measurements as well. who knows.

ANYWAY, after buying some souvenirs in the form of little cakes for our host families (that were coincidentally shaped like deer shit. it was amazing), we went back to Kyoto to continue sightseeing. we stopped at the Kinkakuji temple. The Golden Pavilion, or the most famous building in Kyoto. It gets its name from the Gold plated outer walls of the temple. Quite extraordinary. However, this temple has been around for only about 40 years. It had to be restored after a crazy dude set it on fire and ruined the whole thing. Douchebag. The temple was amazing though.

we walked up the street and headed towards the Ryoanji zen gardens. it was quite a trek, but we eventually made it there. the gardens were very, Zen. what can I say. the rock formation was very soothing to look at. the fact that the temple was so secluded from civilization was amazing. I’m sorry, I just like that word. after zenning for about 30-40 minutes, we headed back towards Kyoto, it was getting darker, getting late and we were all tired as hell from the trip.

at one point during the day, we ate Subway. don’t remember if it was for lunch or dinner, but my footlong tasted good. not as good at Jimmy Johns. but it was still quite a change. oh yeah, I remember what we had for dinner, we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant by Kyoto Station. I had Japanese fried noodles called Yakisoba, and I swear it was one of the most amazing things I’ve eaten in Japan, apart from the noodles I had after rafting (read my Chichibu post). we hung around the Kyoto station for a while, the architecture was beautiful and it was just a cool place to chill. we also tried to go up Kyoto Tower, but it was 20 bucks to go to the viewing station. after all, this was Kyoto. not too exciting. LOL. went back to the hotel at like midnight and watched a movie.

Dr. Dolittle

Way to discriminate against us

The Todaiji temple

The huge buddha

Model of the temple

The Golden Pavilion

Ryoanji Zen Garden

Kyoto Tower

woke up a little later the next day, checked out and headed over to Nijo Castle. The castle was used by the Emperor to entertain the Shogunate I believe. I latched onto an American tour and listened to what their guide had to say. it was definitely interesting. one part of the castle that struck me the most was the construction of the floors. the floors were constructed as “swallow floors”. Or some other bird. anyway, when people step on it, it makes the sound of some kind of bird. this was a way for the emperor to be woken by anybody trying to enter the inner chambers of the castle. oh yeah, it was made entirely of wood. the walls around the moat and the fortifying walls were stone. anyhow, the paintings on some of the sliding doors were amazing too, and still relatively intact. though underrated, I believe this is one of the places to check out while in Kyoto.

After visiting the Nijo Castle we tried to go see the Imperial Palace. It was hot as hell, and we weren’t going to get inside the imperial palace compound without an invitation a year in advance (or so they say), so we headed out to a quaint Japanese place for lunch. the place was ridiculous. it looked like the food cost 30 bucks a plate. we had our own waitress in a kimono, with a view onto a zen-style garden. it was ridiculous. and my meal only cost me 11 bucks. which is CHEAP in Japanese standards. And for the style of restaurant this was. I was scared to go inside at first because it just seemed so nice. but the food was amazing, the atmosphere was awesome and it was worth the money.

we headed back to our shinkansen, and proceeded to go home. I vowed to study on the train, and I did get my share of ECON studying done.

so our weekend trip (and 1 skipped day of school) was done. definitely a great weekend, and a successful touristy trip.

Nijo Castle

The View at the restaurant

Studying on the Train

and for shits and giggles.... WHAT THE....????

amaterasu + baseball + BBQ + sanja matsuri

2006-05-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

well in the past week or so, we've had the chance to see a bunch of events

Amaterasu:
http://www.kodo.or.jp/amaterasu/index_e.html

It was the first time that Kabuki Theatre was mixed with taiko drumming. Here's the poster:

As for the actual performance, we weren't allowed to do any photography.

But I snuck a shot of the stage in:

And nobody says no to my Leica. So once I get the prints developed, I might post some work up. They look promising though.

The performance itself was amazing. The first half was primarily the Amaterasu (Sun Goddess) strutting around and then another man running around. He represented Ama-no-Uzume, who was supposed to convince Amaterasu to come out of a cave. I thought the entire act was very beautiful. Slow, melodious as everything seemed to float from place to place. By the way, that Amaterasu person is a man.

The 2nd half was mostly taiko drumming. It was also very awesome to watch, except that my headache wasn't going away.

It looked close to this:

Baseball:
Japanese baseball is something that everybody should watch at least once in their life. Although we went to see the Yakult Swallows play (they're not very famous), the atmosphere of the crowd was very positive. Our crowd when rallying would pump these green and blue umbrellas up in the air into a sea of those colors.

'Let's Pre-game' was the theme of a small get together organized by C.W. in order to bring the people of our program together for a few drinks. 'Twas a very nice thing to do, and everyone was in a very happy state by about 6 o clock.

The downpour shortened the game. But at that point I don't think there were many people left/ i don't think many people cared. It was a great experience I think:

6.15 pm and tipsy

the ticket

peace

veiw of the field

crazy umbrella dance

CIEE Barbecue:

The day after the baseball game, the entire CIEE was invited to a country house owned by one of the host families. The food was amazing, cooked by the host families. There were activities such as calligraphy, yukata wearing, a live band performing and just generally the chance to socialize and get to meet the host families of other people.

I took the chance to wear a yukata, and practice some calligraphy. Why not?

sporting a yukata and wooden shoes

calligraphy. "Bushido" and "Asashoryuu"

Group shot!

Goofin off.

It was a great time, and I really appreciate the CIEE for throwing something like this together.

Sanja Matsuri:

One of the biggest festivals in Tokyo happened at the Asakusa shrine. The entire point of the festival was that many different portable shrines, called "Mikoshi", were to be paraded around the streets. They Mikoshi weigh a few hundred kilos and are carried on the backs of people through the streets. It was packed, and I mean PACKED with people. I don't think I'd be wrong if I said there was at least 50,000 people there. All of the roads around the temple were closed. And the streets just packed with people. An amazing event to go see.

What I saw:

Crowds

Crowds

Crowds

Close up of a Mikoshi

Coolest thing at the festival

CP+B rocks

2006-05-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

CP+B (Crispin, Porter + Bogusky) has to be one of the coolest ad agencies out there.

And this is why:

Grand Sumo Tournament

2006-05-13T08:31:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to a sumo tournament at the Yasukuni Shrine. Not only was it a friendly tournament, it was free, the food was good, and it was so damn early and so damn cold. But since then I'd been intrigued with sumo as a sport.

So when news of the Grand Sumo Tournament came along I became excited. Little kid in a candy store excited. The fact that it was going to be held in Tokyo was even better. So we bought "box seats" to watch sumo for an afternoon.

On Wednesday after class we rushed over to the sumo Ryogoku Kokugikan, the Arena, and found our seats. The main bouts weren't starting for an hour and a half, so we hung around, talked and laughed at our "box seats" (which were in reality 4 pillows on a tatami floor).

But I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Ryogoku Kokugikan. So Old-school looking.

The Emperor's Cup.

The ring

Our box.

Our Neighbour's box.

Ruben is definitely enjoying himself.

With Asashoryu.

Being a little cheeky.

And some actual sumo pictures:

Purifying with water.

Slapping around.

More Slapping around

Look out below. 800 pounds coming your way.

Wedgie

Flexible michelin man was there too.

Bald russian guy.

Getting air.

Grappling

Washing off the belly.

As you can see, it was a great time. I wish I could've seen more. We sat next to some crazy people who were crazy drunk:

Crazy times at crazy places. With Crazy japanese.

ChiChiBu

2006-05-13T02:18:00.000-07:00

Chichibu

A few weeks ago I didn’t have any plans for Golden Week, the few days of holiday thrown together to create a 5 day weekend. Travel mania. 70 million Japanese would be traveling. Crazy. But I heard some friends talking about going to a place with flowers. Flowers. Macro. Yes. Let’s Go.

So on Friday morning last week, I made my way over to Ikebukuro station to meet with the other cats who were going on this trip. Matt, Ruben, Francesca, Sarah and Kendra. “Pack Light” said Matt. Apparently we were going to go trekking somewhere. But “Pack Light” is not something you tell a photographer. Especially when there’s flowers involved. But I made compromises. Packed everything into my camera backpack.

The train ride there was pretty intense. About ¾ of the way to the way to Seibu Chichibu, the train stopped at a station and then started going in reverse. I have to say it was so weird. But I guess that was the end of the tracks there or we had to change direction or something.

We got to the station and walked up towards the Chichibu flower fields. From all the advertisements, it looked like the flower fields in Leiden, Holland. Been to those tulip fields and they looked amazing. We got there, and it was slightly smaller. Regardless, it was still quite beautiful. I was satisfied. And so was my camera. Walking around the premises, we decided to have some snacks on a stick for lunch. Sitting in a pine-smelling forest, we snacked.

We decided to go to the next part, the strawberry picking. As we’re looking out onto the valley and trying to figure out where the hell this place is, we remember that there’s also a Sake factory somewhere out there. So we walk back towards the station in search of the sake factory, which happened to be on the way to the strawberry picking farms.

I was convinced that we would have a tour of the factory to see how the stuff was made, but I was wrong. They did have a sake-tasting room that we were promptly invited too. This homemade stuff was pretty damn good. And pretty cheap too. So I bought two bottles of Ume (Plum) Sake and we kept spelunking through this town.

Now when I think about it, 2 miles isn’t really that far (that’s what the scale on the map suggested). If I can do a mile in about 7 minutes, so 2 miles walking should be like 30 minutes max. But the road kept on going and going.

And going and going.

So about an hour and a half after we left the Sake place, we arrived at the strawberry picking place to find out that it had been closed at 1 pm. But alas. The lady who owned the place saw a group of hungry looking foreigners and gave us our trays. Now at first we were confused. We paid 10 dollars for a tray that would fit about 5 strawberries on it. I figured out soon that not only do we pick the strawberries, we eat them right there. The tray was for the little green things. Glad I brought my appetite. Apparently Ruben did too.

It's right over there. Past that bridge. Across the valley.

So after eating our guts out, we went back out of the greenhouses to where we left our stuff. The owner lady brought out tea and bamboo shoots as snacks. She asked us how we got here and we told her we walked over. She gave us a weird look, and then asked how we’re getting back to our hotel. Upon finding out that we’d call a cab, she said “no no no no. my son is going home and he’s going that way”. We told her that it’s ok but she resisted with the perseverance of a mad old woman. A few minutes later we were in a random Japanese guys van going towards our hotel.

We found it. It was more of a woman renting out her house. But it was still sweet. Accommodated the 6 of us perfectly fine. it came out cheaper too with having more of us. So we lounged out after the day of walking, and pretty soon decided that food is an important aspect, and we desperately need it. Apparently, the staple food of this particular group going somewhere far together is Pizza, and we passed a Pizza-La (or Pizza-Ra) as some of us like to say, so we ordered that. A cheap wine run was made, and we were sitting in front of TV, around a table that was heated underneath. Cash money.

As soon as we finished our Pizza-Ra, we busted out the playing cards. There was Ume Sake to be drunk. (drinked? drank?) With the baseball game still playing on the TV, we played a game that I don’t really remember at the moment. Oh wait. Asshole. That’s the game. It was fun.

And then Pride GP came onto the TV. Pride GP is like UFC, except in a regular boxing ring without the cage. It was ridiculous. At one point, a Japanese guy was fighting a British guy who looked like he’d been taking horse steroids or something. The Japanese guy was losing, they grappled, and then he came up and pummeled the crap out of the British guy’s face. And with the last punch, a gob of blood covered the camera lens. It was so sick and so awesome at the same time. We all cringed.

The next day we woke up to go rafting. A short train ride and walk away we got to the rafting place. Our particular guide spoke great English, and as soon as we got our wetsuit bottoms on, it was time to rock. We dragged the boat down to the water and a few minutes of safety briefing later, we were in the water. It was damn cold!

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

After rafting, we went to this restaurant on the small street we walked on before. I ordered the beef noodle soup. My goodness. I have not had that beef noodle soup that tasty in a long long long time. Probably ever. Whatever favorite food you may have. This is better.

Here it is:

Before

After

Full and happy, we trekked back to the station, took the local train back to the main station, shopped for gifts for our host families and then got onto the train back to Ikebukuro. As everyone passed out, so did I, waking up at Ikebukuro station. The trip was successful IMO.

kyudo and clubbing

2006-05-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

The journal is long overdue. But I don’t really care. I’ve been busy and a little sick.

On Monday I finally spent some time in the darkroom. It was amazing. I mean, call me nerdy or whatever the hell you want, but I had a blast in there. I threw some Armin Van Buuren into the CD Player, turned the lights off, and it was heaven. The smell. Amazing.

And as I printed them and took them from tray to tray. The photos appeared. It was heaven. And I also learned how to use color filters to up the contrast. I’ll be back in there again sometime.

On Wednesday I decided that I would bust out and do some hardcore sight-seeing, culture hopping. So I went down to the Meiji Temple Complex in the morning. Boy, was I in for a treat.

First I went to a Kyudo Tournament. Kyudo is the Japanese traditional martial art of Archery. I guess it’s a martial art, I don’t really care. It was amazing to watch regardless. There is so much grace and eloquence in this sport. The contestants would slide across the waxed floor towards the open side of the dojo. Every movement was calculated and so fluid that it was like watching a dance.

Plus, many of the contestants spread across the ages. There were some who looked like they could pass for 15, and some who were older than my grandparents. And the best thing about it was that this 15 year old looking girl totally kicked ass. The boys are apparently really hard to use, and this girl hit the target 3 out of 4 times. Many people were lucky to hit it even once. One woman managed to hit it 4 times.

After Kyudo I moved on back to the Meiji Shrine where I was treated with Japanese classical music. The concert featured the Koto, a Japanese zitar, and a Japanese guitar thing which I will name later. Apparently both concerts featured really well known musicians. It didn’t matter though, the music was amazing regardless. I think I want to buy a CD with Koto music.

I had a few hours to kill, so I hung around the Harajuku district. The main thing about this place, is that it is so strange. The people are just weird. Costume play, the whacky hairstyles and the even whackier clothes. Which is why I love just standing on the corner and watching. I took some shots with my Leica, but the main point was to stand and observe. I will do that again sometime.

In the evening I headed out to a place called Club Vanilla. Paul Oakenfold was supposed to spin. Yay for seeing an international DJ. But alas, as soon as I got there, it turns out that Oakenfold cancelled. That cunt. But it’s all good. We were inside anyways so we decided to party away. (couldn’t take pics inside though).

Whatever they were spinning was good. The drinks were cheap. But then when the crowd started rolling in it began to get wild. People jumping, yelling. It sounded like being at a soccer game. Now this was cool. For like 10 minutes.

But it went on for literally 6 hours. I swear. I think it’s because these people don’t know how to move to electronic music. So instead they just jump around and scream and pretend they’re at a soccer game. It was like a huge mosh pit. Annoying. Thank goodness the drinks were strong and the speakers loud. I ran into some Indonesians as well.

So at around 5.30 in the morning when the trains start running we leave and I get on my train home. I get home at around 7 in the morning and pass out. Successful evening if you ask me. And a few more things coming up in the days ahead.

auto show

2006-05-02T05:18:00.000-07:00

autoshow was damn ridiculous.

Special Imports Show Tokyo 2006.

Imports in Tokyo = American and European cars.

No rice rockets, sorry.

The only thing really to put this in perspective are pictures. So here's some....
Murcielago

Vector (only 12 of them exist)

Mercedes CLS

Ferrari 360 modena

SL500 - Mercedes Benz

Mustang GTH

Saleen S7 - Sexiest car there

McLaren Mercedes SLR

Porsche Carrerra GT

Saleen Mustang

naki-zoumon

2006-04-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

My Friday morning starts of with amazing news. I get to Ueno all excited about the last day of the week. But it’s rush hour because I have a morning class. AND the Keihin Tohoku line (the only other line out of Ueno to Tokyo) isn’t running. SOOOO. Everyone gets on the Yamanote. The damn Yamanote. There were so many damn people there that I had to wait for the 3rd train (and about 2000 people get one one train). So that was an interesting start to my day.

After classes were done I headed over to meet with the guy who had stopped me on the train a few days earlier. It was great. We talked about the kid I’m supposed to teach. We talked about how he should learn English. We talked about why the guy has a huge gash on his head (“I LOOOOOVE drinking” was his answer). As we parted, he told me I have to go drinking with him at least once before I leave. With a gash on his head like that, I’m sure he knows how to party.

Steph cooked some amazing Portuguese food for dinner. I hearted the soup. It was very good and I had 2 bowls of it. And I was happy. And then Evan strummed some tunes while we listened. And then there was Office Space. Office Space is a good movie. I like it somewhat at least. Dumb, but good. Oh yeah. Steph’s okaasan (host mom) is the most amazing okaasan in the world. I can’t wait to go to the BBQ to talk to her again. She’s such a little gossip queen.

On the way home we hit up a bar for a quick Pint with the boys who live in the dorms and then it was home. And what a ride it was. I sat next to this guy who after frantically typing a few emails on his laptop, closed it and started to write a text message. And never finished it because the poor guy passed out.

So Saturday I woke up in the morning to go to this thing called Naki-Zoumon. Crying Festival. I saw this on the list of things to visit/festivals and asked one of our resident directors what it was. Apparently, it’s a contest held every year at a temple here that is supposed to measure the healthiness of a baby.

How?

They get 2 babies in a ring, scare the shit out of them, and whichever one cries first is the healthier one.

ONLY IN JAPAN. I was gonna go. No doubt.

But I slept for a little longer. and then got on the long ass train ride to this temple. (On the train I see this random chick falling asleep on a guy who’s already asleep).I get out, look for this ring. Our Resident director was NOT kidding.

The ring was set up like a sumo ring. They had the guy singing the names of the kids out then they had a referee too. They had sumo wrestlers who’d hold the babies and make faces at them and try to scare them. If there was a stalemate after a while, a guy with a demon mask would run up and go right up to the baby’s face.

The "Ring"

The "Ring"

Bringing out the demon masks.

This one is definitely healthy.

With a face like that I'd shit my pants.

It was ridiculous. I love it. But about 10 minutes later the rain came. I managed to shoot well for 10 minutes. That’s what getting 2 songs at concerts trains you to do.

Met up with some cats, went to McDonald’s to grab some food. Had Will and Pat sing Bohemian Rhapsody in the middle of McDonald’s. Quite sweet.

Thunderbolts of lightning, very very frightening....

Tomorrow. The Auto Show. Cannot wait.

Next week.

Kimono Festival (I hope)
Paul Oakenfold
Paul Van Dyk
Flowerland

nihonjin wa CRAZY desune.

2006-04-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

we’ve been getting some shit weather lately. cold and rainy. and I asked my host dad about the weather here. apparently my town is 2 degrees colder than Tokyo. great.

today I will write about trains. since I spend about a fifth of my time awake everyday on trains. well… about 2 hours minimum. and then whatever else depending on where I want to go. regardless, it’s a lot of time in the presence of total strangers.

well yesterday morning I was on the train, studying for a Japanese quiz. the guy next to me gets up and leaves, and a young woman sits down. pretty cute. ok. study for quiz time. and then she yawns.

I swear on my life that I smelled death. Death in the form of breath. I was just about to vomit, no joke. I mean, if it was a little kid, yeah that’s understandable. And some guys are just generally disgusting and unhygienic. But this was a woman in her 20’s. It was ridiculous. And I almost died.

and then today I was on the train coming back from Shinjuku and something weird happened. on my last train I stood in front of the seats, because everybody seems to get off before my station. and as I wait for these people to get off the train, I look around. this girl sitting in front of me just looked out into space. for about 30 minutes she barely blinked, head in the same position. the train bobbled left to right. but her head stayed in the same position. staring in one space. I literally felt like waving my hand in front of her face to see if she was alive. weird.

And what would crazy Japanese be without Crazy TELEVISION????

So another TV show I watched was crazy. In this one, they had celebrity guests come in and COOK. YES! COOK. They had a panel of judges who would eat the food and decide whether it is good or not. At the end they also had a ranking of all the celebrities who had cooked on the show. But that’s not important.

So the first lady comes on and she’s some sort of actress. Her cooking is alright. The guys cringed a little bit while tasting. The second lady’s food was alright too. The third was a-ok. And then the fourth person came on. She’s an 18 year old popstar who’s mother is Japanese and father is CEO of some company.

Now when she made the food and revealed it to everyone I’m sure some of the tasters’ stomachs just said “NO I’M NOT GONNA EAT THAT”. That’s what my host dad said. He was like KIIIIIIIIIIIMMMOCHIIIII WARUUIIIIIIIII. As in “HOLY MOTHER OF GOD THAT CRAP LOOKS LIKE SHIT AND I WOULD NEVER PUT THAT ANYWHERE NEAR MY MOUTH”. It looked like crap. No joke. Like someone just dumped a bunch of shit onto a pan and then mixed it up. And there was a fish head in it and a drumstick. It was crazy.

So everyone tried it and nearly vomited. And they made her try her own food. She nearly vomited. It was amazing. I love Japanese television.

Oh yeah. And the losers of the show had to wash all the dishes at the end.

How high would TV ratings in the states shoot up if you had George Clooney squaring off in a cook-off with Jim Carrey, or Brad Pitt. And then the loser having to wash the dishes on national TV. It would be priceless.

Here's some photos:

Tasting the food

Eating more food.

A Chart topping singer. Her food was disgusting.

The winners squared off. The one on the left eventually won.

Losers scrubbing.

There you have it, a chart topper doing the dishes.

4/24

2006-04-25T05:36:00.000-07:00

This was essentially yesterdays blog, but something screwed up.

as usual, i was cutting it close on the train today. very close.

now halfway to school (or 2/3s of the way there if you want to be technical) i switch trains to get on the famous Yamanote line. The line that transfers about half of Tokyo in the morning rush hour. Turns out, the Yamanote-sen is at a standstill. As I'm walking down the stairs, the announcement comes onto the PA system. And as the announcement is finishing i see the craziest thing so far in Tokyo.

Everyone from the relatively packed Yamanote line that's standing on track 3, runs across to Track 4 onto the blue train. Amazing. I have never seen so many frantic Japanese at once. You'd think that The Big One was hitting or that Godzilla was ripping up the street.

But no. This was worse.

THAT was the only train to TOKYO STATION from UENO. OOOHHHH... *play heavy drums*

I slowly walked down the stairs and squeezed myself onto that train. I was still late to school.

This is why it happened:

Yamanote stops

So this proves about 2,000 people can fit on one train. Wow.

Got to Tokyo station, transferred trains to the famous suicide Orange colored train. Suicide Orange b/c so many people jump in front of this train. Maybe it’s the pretty color. Maybe it’s just the fact that it’s the RAPID service and it doesn’t stop very often.

But I’m going through my vocabulary list to study for a quiz, and I notice this cat next to me writing physics notes. An old professor type. After a bit he flips over his paper and starts writing in English. Whatever.

My stop. I get off. This guy gets off as well. I’m walking toward the exit and I feel a tap on my shoulder.

This guy wrote out in English what he wanted to say to me.

“I’m sorry I’m being impolite, but I am a teacher and I have an 18 year old student who would like some English conversation classes. I will pay you … to help him out. Are you interested?”

He was so cute. And funny. How could I say no?

Wow, what a reason to be late. Hell yeah I was interested. I gave him my card, number and email. Lo and behold I come home and there’s an email in my inbox. Hooray for finding jobs in the middle of fuckin nowhere.

Bizarre.

After school I raced home and changed into a suit for a job interview. Boy do I heart suits. But I went to the interview and it turns out that you have to sign a contract for a year for most of these schools around here. Oh well.

So much for looking snazzy.

I could use some Digestive Biscuits to make me feel better.

Hahahaha… that shit just cracks me up.

here’s some more Engrish for you:

French Fries package from our school

time flies

2006-04-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

Another week is practically gone by.

It was great to get into the full swing of classes finally. It started getting a little boring to be honest. The commute is still a hassle. And it is still a sardine-packed trip on my 2nd train. Especially for my morning classes. But I guess I’m starting to get used to getting up 2 hours before class.

TV here is great. Not just great. Fucking awesome.

We were sitting around with the family watching TV after dinner and this show comes on.

The show gets celebrity/comedian guests, who dress up in costumes. In this particular show, the guest would get spun around in a circle for about a minute on this machine, then they would try to cross a beam over a pool of hot water.

They had a small tub of crushed ice for the people to jump into outside.

Why don’t people in the US come up with this kinda shit? I’d PAY to see Tom Cruise or Russell Crowe get spun around, try to cross a pool and jump onto a small tub of ice.

Getting spun around

Walking across the pool on the beam

The tub of ice

WTF???????

But that was not it. We had another show that I didn’t quite understand. The female presenters were dressed in tuxes. All the male participants/comedians were dressed in drag. It was awful. They also had a celebrity guest dressed in drag.

They’d have a musician or TV-star come in and have to rate these “girls” based on a few factors. This particular one had to choose based on two things. First, the kiss. The contestants had to kiss the air and then he chose the best one. What he didn’t know is that “she” actually had to kiss him. So “Madonna” got to kiss the TV-Star. Then the second time, he had to choose based on the “puppy dog look”. The celebrity guest won this one. It actually took the TV-star a while to figure out that it was the celebrity guest too.

Not Men

Definitely Men

Yes, this celebrity kissed "Madonna"

These shows are nuts. Crazy Japanese if you ask me.

Wednesday a new holiday was created. Well, not really a holiday. But Wandering Wednesdays kicked off with a gathering at Yoyogi Park. Apparently the name is now Wakaranai Wednesdays. I'm down for whatever. We are going to make t-shirts. ANYWAYS.

Wandering Wednesdays is a weekly event. We visit the local Conbini/convenience store, stock up on alcoholic beverages namely beer or Chu-Hi, the local mixed can drink, and then wander around and find a new place to hang out. On the train back I passed out and nearly missed my station. Hooray for Wakaranai/Wandering Wednesdays. Next week's transmission: Ueno Park.

On Friday we decided it would be a good day to finally go out. Tokyo when you go out. You go out. Trains stop running at around midnight, so it’s difficult to get back. Actually our cab back to my friend’s apartment cost us about 20 bucks. And it was just a few miles.

After getting to Ropponggi, we proceeded to go to a club called Vanilla. It sounded good and the website looked good too. Turns out you have to be 23 to get in for guys.

For girls? Girls have boobs. And boobs get girls in everywhere. I said it. Call me a chauvinist. I’m just being realistic.

But we looked through and found another place called Lexington Queens. Apparently a lot of celebs party there. Some old cat owned the club. I don’t know. Frankly I didn’t care. All I really cared about at that point was the $25 all you can drink deal. It was sweet.

So the club was filled with gaijin. Foreigners. Not exactly the club I imagined it to be. But what the hell. Filled with Americans too. Americans love cheap booze. And so do I. There were tons of models in there. Skinny Russian models. Bitchy Russian models. I remember someone (she will not have her name revealed to prevent her turning 10 shades of red) in a drunken stupor wanting to yell “go eat a fucking steak or something”. This was fashion TV models. All they did was smoke cigarettes. And apparently one of them had some coke, Kate Moss style. Fuckin Models. Trouble makers I say.

The dancefloor was full, the drinks kept coming (and were actually decent) and the party went into full swing. ‘Twas brilliant.

So after drinking a lot and partying even more. We ended up at a friend’s apartment after paying $20 for a cab ride that was essentially 5 minutes. But nobody cared. It was an awesome evening. And naturally I passed out on the futon; between a guy and a girl.

In the morning I looked like shit and I felt like shit. And I had to walk all the way back to the station and try to get home. Well, after getting stared at literally everywhere, I bought some shoe-cream cakes at the Ueno station and got onto the 3rd train I had to take to get home. I fell asleep on the actual train, and then once it stopped I woke up and got off. Turns out I got off a station before I was supposed to. Had to wait around for the next train.

Home. Bed. Lots of it.

Sunday morning proved to be a wonderful morning. But there was no food in the house.

McDonald’s.

I’m Loving It.

and I had Digestive Biscuits for tea time. What the fuck are they? God knows.

Peace.

another week passed by...

2006-04-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

the past few days have been a little bit hectic.

everything from registering for classes on Monday to nomikai (drinking party) with the Badminton club

Registering for class was awful. It was weird and really old school. in this age of internet and technology, being in the most technologically advanced country in the world, you’d think they’d do everything by like DNA scan or something. Drop of blood on a machine, and then based on your DNA makeup they can predict which classes you want to take.

No.

You have to write it out on a piece of paper and fill in some squares. A few batsus (crosses) later, you’re ready. And then you go up the stairs in some building and throw the sheet of paper into a cardboard box. HI – fucking – TECH if you ask me. Congratulations.

At least they use blackboard.

Sometime during the week, Francesca, Pat, Ben and I went into a used camera store. Where I felt like walking into the gates of heaven.

Leicas. Hundreds of them. I could hear the angels already.

They all called my name. Silently.

Piotr

Come Here

Look at the price

There was a special edition for $50,000. Never been used. Hardcore serial numbers. Collector’s edition. MMM….

T’was nice.

Wednesday evening we went out for a few beers. Or was it Tuesday. Sometime during the week we went to an Irish pub right next to campus for a few beers. And it was happy hour. Too bad it was ￥100 OFF. I thought that was the special.

Drinking with your closest friends is fun. And apparently the food there is pretty good too. But Alas, it has no large screen TV. Which means my search for a World Cup bar continues…

We had class on Thursday and Friday. Our registration results came back. Ooooohhhh. Got all my classes except a Religion & Conflict class, which I’m gonna push my way into. I went to the first lecture and it was awesome. That class is staying on my schedule. I also got bumped up to fast-track Japanese, which I don’t mind at all. At least I’ll be learning new stuff.

Also, I was almost late for some of my classes. The morning ones especially. It’s no secret that a lot of suicide happens in Japan. Apparently most of train-related suicide happens in downtown Tokyo. And my express Chuo Orange line is the all time favorite. So Wednesday and Thursday, my trains were delayed because of “accidents” that had happened earlier. Apparently one of them was a suicide.

Frankly I don’t care if you want to commit suicide. It’s your choice. But if you’re gonna do it, don’t do it on my line. Or just wait until I get to school. I know I’m mean. But seriously. Don’t jump in front of my train.

And apparently, when you commit suicide in front of a train in Japan, they identify your body and then send the cleanup and damage bill to your family. Yes. Your family pays for you committing suicide and slowing down train traffic. Crazy Japanese.

Friday after class was the highlight of the week. I am thinking about joining the Badminton Club here. It looked cool, and my friend from high school is in it. So I’m thinking “dinner together or something, sounds good.”

so we get to this restaurant, and there’s food on the table. Yes. And then the alcohol comes out. And everyone goes nuts. Japanese have funny drinking games. And they’re fun too.

“Koronkoronkon, Koronkoronkon, Sosouu, Sosouuu”

At least that’s what it sounded like. That’s what everyone ‘sang’ when you called someone by the wrong name, major or year (after introductions). You had to chug your glass.

Some of the first years no doubt got toasted. I only drank a lot when they said that we had to leave, and someone had placed a brand new opened bottle in front of me. A large one I must say. So I finished it in under 10 minutes. This was already after 2 hours of drinking.

Karaoke after that was fun too. Everyone went crazy. And this place had free ice cream as well.

Japanese Gibberish on the screen

I got home not too late and decided that I would go to a Motorsports Club event. We were supposed to meet at school at 6.30 in the morning and drive out to Fuji. So I set my alarm for 4.30 which would give me enough to get prepared, get on the train and get there.

But, I slept through the alarm, probably turning it off. I got a phonecall from my friend Matt who was already at school. So I decided I was going to take the train out there. I get on my train in Abiko and take one train to Ueno station, then Kanda station, then an express that takes me from Kanda to Shinjuku station that takes me there in 10 minutes and omits all the 10 stops along the way.

So I get to Kanda, and it turns out that all the Chuo Line trains are normal today. Which means the orange express isn’t an express.

It’s still orange though.

So the ride that’s supposed to take 10 minutes ends up taking about 25, and I arrive at Shinjuku station with just enough time to get on the direct train to Fuji.

Apparently not. I try to by a ticket and they said the last tickets were sold at 10:10. It was 10:14. And the train left at 10:20. I could’ve gone to another station and taken a train with 2 changes, but at that point I didn’t really want to anymore.

So I went to Harajuku district, had a coffee to battle the major headache from lack of sleep and drinking. I decided then to wander around the area for a little bit. I trekked up to the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. It’s beautifully made, though not as extravagant as the shrines in Nikko. Maybe it’s the red painted wood. I did see some couples in traditional Japanese wedding outfits. Looked awesome.

Breakfast of Champions

Sad, Missed-the-train face.... Rawrrrrrrrr

Leicas and Coffee for breakfast. What could be better?

Meiji Shrine

Traditional Wedding

This evening was a little birthday party for my host family. This past week was Sakurako (the daughter), the mother’s and Tora’s birthdays. Tora is the huge Golden Retriever. So dinner was awesome.

They set up a Teflon tray and we got to cook our own meat in the middle of the table. And then noodles. Food was amazing.

The father also baked an awesome cake. Strawberry sponge cake. We popped the party poppers that I bought, freaked the shit out of the dog who knocked over a plant, ate the cake. Tora got the last piece of cake.

The Cake

Dinner before the cake....

The Moronos and myself. Sorry about the hair. Fell asleep after taking a shower with wet hair. Tora's in the right corner.

Moronos. Yukio, Sakurako, Hiromi, Fumio

So far a successful weekend. Homework day tomorrow. It’s what I get for joining the faster track of Japanese.

Happy Easter Everyone.

And what would a blog be without a crazy japanese comment.

Well I was shopping in the Combini the other day (the convenience store), and I came across a drink.

Whiskey in a can.

Who the fuck does that.

And it's only 9% alcohol.

Crazy Japanese.

Happy Spring everyone.
Here's some tulips for you cats:

Sumo!

2006-04-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

Getting sick isn’t fun. I walked around in the rain. And got sick.

Yes, that’s me walking to the station with a tissue in my nose.

And on the way I saw one of the sweetest cars ever.

I think it’s a ’47. Something like that.

The word on the street for about a week was that there would be a free sumo tournament yesterday.

So despite being sick as a dog, I get my ass up early. 6 am is early for me. Trek to the train station all bundled up.

I arrive at Ueno station, ready to switch trains. And I realize. Oh fuck. It’s rush hour.

Yes, all those people are getting on MY next train. Thank God Japan Rail employs people who literally push the passengers onto the train. No Joke.

But I arrived at Yasukuni Shrine a few minutes later than I was supposed to (Sorry Cheska). But at least I was still early. This free sumo tournament was open to the first 6,000 people. We were like the 100th there. But it was good cause we found good seats.

The sumo tournament was awesome. Not only was it great to see fat men in thongs pushing and slapping each other around, they had a few stages of the event. For warm-ups it was mostly unranked sumos wrestling without colored belts. Then came the first ranked sumos, who had colored belts and seemed a little more hardcore. There was an intermission with 2 sumos doing a little skit, making fun of sumo wrestling. It was hilarious and the whole crowd was roaring with laughter. There was also an intermission where a man played a Taiko drum. There was also an intermission where the ozeki ranked sumos gathered around and sang, but also recited some limericks or gimmicky poems or whatever. They sounded funny and people were laughing, so I guess that’s what they were (shit I have to work on vocabulary).

It got pretty damn cold so I decided to buy some vegetable soup. I’m sure that’s what it was. At least I didn’t find any weird squid, octopus legs or anything else strange floating around in it. So I ate it. And it tasted good. And it was warm. Happiness is warm soup on a cold ass day.

Oh yeah, during another intermission the grand champion/yokozuna, Asashoryuu, made an appearance. He did this awesome little show that I’ve seen him do before on TV. And he was doing it 30 feet from me. His Chinese characters are Morning, Blue and Dragon, so I guess that’s the meaning of his name. He’s actually Mongolian. Surprising that there was also a Czech, a Bulgarian and two Russians. Bunch of other Mongolians as well.

Here are some photos from the tournament….

Priest before the wrestlers came

Warming up

Nice ass

Biggest guy there.

Biggest guy about to wrestle.

More big guy.

A biiiiiiig WEDGIE

One of the Russians about to wrestle.

Throwing salt before the wrestle

Most flexibler wrestler in the world.

The parade of higher ranked sumos. This guy was Russian.

Asashoryuu doing his little Yokozuna dance

One of the Referees

How can you not smile?

Awesome stuff, ey???

The grand champion/yokozuna was there. It was quite a treat. And free.

On the way back had some food at that fair. It’s still up. So I made a move. And had bacon on a stick. And then this pancakey thing that wasn’t as good as it looked. But it was food.

Got the results to my placement test back. I’d have to say I’m satisfied with the results. I think I’ll be content in that class. As long as I get down with the kanji. That’s Chinese characters for all you non-Japanese speaking cats.

I decided to go home early to fight off this cold. So I get home, eat dinner and decide to take a 2 hour nap starting at 8.30, so I could get up at 10.30 and send an email to my school back home.

I woke up.

At 8 am this morning.

So much for 2 hours of nap.

I bummed around pretty much all day and edited these sumo photos, many for my personal website. I spent most of the day trying to think of what crazy Japanese story I’d run into in the past day or so. I couldn’t think of anything. But then came the savior of my Crazy Japanese series.

Japanese TV.

I’m watching a TV program with my host brother, and all of a sudden the program switches.

The title of the new program (apparently it’s filled with comedians):

Team Synchronized Tasting Program.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?

I don’t know how many “what the fucks” I could have rolled into one to express my shock, awe, and whatever other feelings I had. This was fuckin ridiculous. So I watched.

So the first team comes out and it’s a bunch of men dressed as women in swimsuits. And they’re doing stretches and getting ready for the tasting. They’re also wearing nose plugs so they can’t smell the food.

Now the whole point of the program is that they taste the food with their nose and eyes closed, and they have a few minutes of guessing time, where, without saying the name of the food they think it is, they give each other hints as to what they think it is.

After this, they all have to give the answer. The catch is, if any of the 5 “tasters” says it wrong, they all get dunked into a pool of ice cold water.

All the contestants are Japanese comedians, so my host brother is laughing his ass off. I’m laughing my ass off because I’ve never seen anything so fucking ridiculous on TV. Now the Russian team gets dunked, then the Japanese team gets dunked. The Chinese team got dunked. Then the American team comes out. Not only do the Japanese guys put huge fake boobs into their swimsuits, they talk Japanese with legitimate Gaikokujin (foreigner) accents. I nearly shit my pants.

I fucking love Japanese TV.

Oh yeah. They got dunked too.

And then someone pushed the lady announcer into the pool of ice water, after getting out she nearly shit a brick.

Don’t believe me?

Here:
Crazy.

More crazy pseudo-American Japanese Synchronized Tasters.

The Tasting Time

Oh wait. You see that "batsu" there. They all guessed right; Tuna. That guy didn't. Those fuckers are gettin DUNKED.

DUNKED!

What the frozen pool looked like behind those guys. And the warming up tank.

The announcer warming up and being pissed at everyone else.

Who the fuck comes up with this shit?

CRAZY JAPANESEE!!!!

The week in Review.

2006-04-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

So I haven’t posted for a while. And I’ll post right now, giving the synopsis for the week.

Monday was a day off, so Francesca and I decided that it was time to encore the fruit on a stick day. The fair would be over soon and so would the fruit on a stick. So, with the great new-found tradition, I had steak on a stick, franks on a stick and fruit on a stick for dessert. Got the chance to shoot some street stuff which I’m hoping to develop sometime soon. Monday was also a really really windy day.

Getting back on Monday night was hard because I had to study some for my placement test. I studied a little bit, but then I figured it’s a placement test based on my present knowledge. So I went to bed.

Tuesday they gave us our student ID cards and some people came to talk to us for orientation. A few cool professors, some staff, a minister (we’re a Catholic university). We had lunch in the awesome cafeteria on the 5th floor of one of the buildings, which looks out at Tokyo. Nice little view.

Placement test spanked everyone. And I mean everyone. Standards are different here. I cruised through part one, which was the basic stuff. I turn the page and got slapped across the face. Kanji I had never seen before in my life. Grammar that I’d never studied before. I really needed a beer after we were done.

So we went across the street with some All Year Program cats and got beers for 90 yen a piece. Freshman week special or whatever. 90 yen is kosher. It’s about 80 cents. And they came in frosted mugs too, none of this plastic cup stuff.

Wednesday I decided to go to school again for the club fair. I look outside and it’s raining, but the temperature’s not bad. About 15 degrees Celsius. I can deal with that. So I walk to the station and get on my train. It’s raining the entire way there. At school the clubs were all over the place, and because it rained they were mostly inside. I met up with some people and decided to go to Harajuku to check out some shopping places. Man I wish I robbed a bank before I came here. Lots of awesome things to shop for. Awesome clothes. Awesome shoes.

On my way home I bought a tiramisu cake for my host mother, it was her birthday. So after dinner, we all sit down, turn the TV on and have some dessert. What better way to celebrate than with tiramisu cake and K-1 Fighting on TV? The whole family sat down and watched as a Thai Kickboxer beat the shit out of a South African boxer. And the Tiramisu was good too.

It's Thursday now and I feel bad because my sickness from the rain and cold yesterday; we had to cancel our trip to Kyoto. Sorry guys. :( :( :(

Now here’s some funny anectodes:

Waiting at the station on Monday, I decided to get a drink of pop from the vending machine. So reaching down to get my drink I look up against the huge ass wind that’s blowing in my face. And a guy walks by.
And as the wind blows really hard, his toupee starts peeling off and he catches it right before it’s about to fly away. I nearly piss my pants laughing and wish I hadn’t gotten a drink so I could have my camera out. Oh well. Crazy Japanese.

On another train ride, I was standing all mooshed up against everybody else. This older businessman comes in, listening to his iPod. He puts his bag on the rack and takes out some sheet music. Violoncello it said. A few seconds later as he’s listening to his iPod and reading the sheet music, he starts air strumming his Violin. Crazy Japanese.

On yet another train ride, I sat down and waited the 15 minutes for the train to go. After the train started moving, I noticed the guy standing in front of me falling asleep. He was holding onto the upper railing and nodding off. As he nodded off, he would go slightly limp, and then jerk and wake up. For about 30 minutes this would go on in front of me and he would look confused everytime he woke. Crazy Japanese.

Now this is the most hardcore so far:

On the same train ride, some older dude sat down next to me, and busted out some comics. I was like, okay, comics, normal. No. Not normal. The comics had porn in them. Hardcore comicbook grandpa fucking geisha porn. Cat pulling down owner’s panties porn. WHAT. THE. FUCK. How the fuck can someone grow the balls to read comicbook porn in the most public of places? Maybe it’s just me. Crazy Japanese.

Three days of shenanigans

2006-04-01T23:56:00.000-08:00

So on Thursday we were given a day off. A fine day to go out and do some photography. I was planning to go out early. Didn’t work. But whatever, I eventually got out to the Imperial Palace and it’s surrounding gardens.

BEAUTIFUL.

I walked around for a good hour and shot some photographs of the palace and of the shrine that was closeby. Then I was tempted to sample some of the food that was going on at this fair thing around the shrine. I had a fruit on a stick. Strawberries dipped in melted/carmelized sugar and then placed on a stick. TASTY. I also had a frank on a stick and some corn on a stick. I was gonna get some beer as well. That didn’t come on a stick though.

I met up with some friends and we headed to Ueno park, in this other part of town. The cherry blossoms here looked amazing too and they had red paper lanterns that would light up when it was dark. Being the beer connoisseurs that we are, we bought some beer and hung out on the tarps they put out at these parks. Some other people came around and we went to the Ueno fair and had some chocolate covered bananas. Good food if you ask me.

We wandered around Ueno for a little bit, through shopping parts. Saw some good deals. I hope to get a job soon so that I can start shopping :p

On the way home I got onto the train, and it looked relatively empty. On one of the stops, three people came on, and with all the space on the train, they stand close to me. I was fine with that. But when the lady stands so close to me that her back presses up against me that becomes too much. Crazy Japanese.

On Friday we had another day trip, this time to Kamakura, by the ocean. I wanted to get up early and go shoot some Sakura before getting to school. That didn’t happen. I was almost late for the trip too. So much for that.

The train ride was about 2 hours, but once we got there the shrines were quite amazing. And the amount of vodka these people drink is even more amazing. Those are all Vodka barrels, people.

The gardens around the shrine were a lot more zen than the other ones. It was a little more quiet because there was less people. There were, nevertheless, quite a few people there.

After grabbing lunch at a small (and cheap for a tourist town) curry house, we took a small rickety train to the famous Daibutsu Buddha statue a few miles down the road. The statue was pretty amazing as well. Huge if you ask me.

Cheap Lunch

Big Buddha

We then walked to another shrine where there was a legend behind the golden Buddha statue. Apparently, in the 6th century it was washed up to the shore, and the people brought it up the mountain and made a shrine for it. It was quite amazing and looked like it was made of pure gold. And we could finally see the sea. Pacific Ocean was sweet. It was sexy.

A group of friends decided that we wanted to go to the beach by a place called Enoshima. it was by the beach and apparently it had great sunsets. They weren’t wrong.

Ruben, Sarah, Kendra, Francesca, Patrick and I decided to stay for the sunset. We were not disappointed. With a view from an island onto the sun setting behind Mt. Fuji, we ate pizza that we ordered to be delivered to the pier.

Beautiful.

Moments I will never forget with greatest new friends.

Cheska the champ orders pizza.

After the sunset we decided to go to Shibuya and get some food, maybe grab some drinks. Wandering around the great little town we ran across a great little restaurant. TGI Friday’s. And yes, we stopped and went inside.

On the way home I ran across a funny old man. He was listening to his iPod and reading sheet music. Not only that, he was strumming it out as well. Crazy Japanese.

Saturday I finally did my laundry. Yes. Now I had some clothes. It was a good day because it was relatively sunny as well.

Saturday was officially “Fruit on a Stick Day”, so I met up with Francesca at the Yasukuni Shrine to eat fruits on a stick. We had apples, strawberries, bananas, corn on a stick. Well, corn isn’t a fruit but it was good anyway. Walked around the cherry blossoms a little and then I made my way to Shibuya to find Ruben and some others. In other words, Fruit on a Stick Day was successful. And Monday’s the encore because the fair might be over next week.

At Yasukuni I ran into another guy who was using a Leica. I've seen so many of them here in Japan. I'm in my element let me tell you this. But what surprised me more is that I could hold a conversation with this guy, about cameras. I was surprised with the level of Japanese I could use, but hey, that's why I'm here. And I also found out where the Leica store in Tokyo is. Hmmmm... Might start this job sooner than I thought :D

At Shibuya we met up with a bunch of other cats. Had dinner at a budget Japanese place. It’s awesome because there’s a vending machine at the front where you essentially order your meal. You get a ticket and then they take it from you.

We decided that a great way to finish off the day was Karaoke. So we found a relatively decent place with Nomihoudai, all you can drink, karaoke. A few other people joined us.

Starting out with “All The Small Things” my singing talents really came out with “Bohemian Rhapsody”. It was a great time and it will be repeated again soon.

We left the karaoke place and almost missed our trains. I had about 2 more after mine so I was safe.

On the train, everybody was passed out. it was late and I guess everyone was tired. As it neared my station, one guy got up and stood at the door talking to himself. Crazy Japanese.

I leave you with some more images of this Sakura that everyone's been raving about.

Nikko Trip

2006-03-30T07:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I get my ass up and packed. We were going on an overnight trip to Nikko. They warned us that it might get a little cold. If only I had known…

Once again, the train ride was quite ridiculous, though because I was on the Yamanote line slightly later, it wasn’t as sardine-packed. I guess 8 o clock is the time everyone’s supposed to be at work. Hope none of my classes start close to that time.

The bus ride to Nikko was pretty uneventful. I decided that sleep would be pretty good, and for the first half of the ride, it worked. And then the girl in front of me started talking about anime.

Not just talking about Anime. I mean, talking about it. Describing every little scene in episode 270 of some show. Like a Japanese wannabe trekkie or something. And then she described the ending of the series, and how the fans were pissed, so they made a movie… I wish I had a gun at that point. Or a working iPod. I had neither.

On the second part of the ride (after a short break), I sat with Francisco from El Salvador, which alleviated the pain of more anime talk from up front.

Nikko was an interesting place. We visited two different shrines, and a temple. Our tour guide explained the difference on the bus. Buddhism and Shintoism. Though talking to Francisco I forgot which one was which.

The shrines were gorgeous, though I though there were too many people around. So I decided that it would be better for me to wake up early in the morning and come up myself. After walking around the shrines and temples, we were taken to our Ryokan, our traditional Japanese hotel for the night.

The ryokan was interesting, and we’d finally sleep on futons. No not foldable college futons. Real futons. And there was an ofuro as well. A hot tub with spring water. This was a geo-thermal zone after all. The tatami mats in the rooms looked really snazzy too. Some of the guys dressed up in yukata, the male kimonos and pranced around the hotel.

Dinner was funky as well. We walked into the banquet hall and there were over 50 individual tables for all of us. And on the table were a bunch of plates. They had raw beef too. Surely we weren’t going to eat raw beef. That was true.

The ladies came around with lighters and lit underneath the plate. The beef was cooked right in front of us. So we could make sure it was up to our standards. That was phenomenal. I enjoyed every bit of it. And then I also threw some of my raw fish on there to cook it up a little bit. My fire ran out soon and I was stranded with some sakana on my plate.

But no fear, the sushi monsters came by and ate it.

Most of the guys went to jump into the hot spring tubs. But I decided that I would chill a little bit and go to bed. I’d be getting up at 5 am the next day. Needed to be ready.

I woke up at around 6 actually. Didn’t feel the need to get up at daybreak. Sleep was precious to me. Even at 6 it was really damn cold. I walked down to this bridge, and then walked back up the hill to the shrines. Definitely a lot more zen with nobody around. Though I did expect there to be some sort of fog in the morning. It was too cold though. After a while, small flakes of something started to fall out of the sky. I thought some of the trees might be losing some flowers or something (it is spring). I was wrong.

The drive up the mountain was pretty cool, except for the few flakes turning into a massive blizzard. We went up 44 hairpin turns. Thought my stomach wouldn’t agree. At the top of the mountain we stopped and went outside. The wind howled as the blizzard continued. The temples looked really nice with the red paint and the snow covering everything. But it was still coming down in droves.

We went on to the first waterfall we were supposed to visit, and the snow kept coming. I slipped down some steps. But it was worth it. The views were wonderful. We went to another waterfall as well, which was about 300 feet high. More than that actually because we had to go down an elevator for over a 100 meters. At that point most everybody was tired. It was cold, VERY WINDY, and grey. Icky for the most part.

We piled back onto the bus and were hit with Tokyo’s reality within 2 hours. Traffic and congestion. And urban sprawl. Oh Tokyo.

On a lesser note, on the way home I walked onto one of the trains and took a spot out in the open by the door. About two stops down, the train had more people on there, but a lot of space was available. The third stop, three people get on the train including a lady, and out of the entire car, she chooses to stand right in front of me, an inch away. Talk about invading personal space on an empty train. Crazy Japanese.

Photos are coming…..

Spelunking + Scavenging

2006-03-27T06:01:00.000-08:00

So I woke up early today once again. It’s what happens when you hit bed at like 8 am.

I rode a bike to the station and parked it at the local bike parking garage. It was sweet.

The train ride was initially the boring one that I expected. But then I got to a station called Ueno, and switched to the famous Yamanote line.

And I guess half of fucking Tokyo wanted to join in the ride. Because there were thousands of people at that station. Not hundreds. Thousands. And hundreds of people were getting on each train. The station actually employs people to pack passengers into the train. When a wave comes in and they need to close the door, this man pushes people in until they can be closed. I have never felt so sardine-like as the packer shoved 10 more people into the train than there should’ve been.

All those people are getting on that train

What a sardine looks like inside the can.

Slightly squashed, I got to campus and was put in a group for the scavenger hunt.

Campus

Scavenger hunt = free all day train ticket for Tokyo + the biggest fucking playground ever

So we wandered around to the Imperial Palace, to Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku. Admired the cherry blossoms, admired the view from TMG (Tokyo Metropolitan Government) buildings, ate some crepes, stood in awe and watched thousands of people mill around Shibuya (don’t these Japanese people work or anything?)

Cherry Blossoms around campus

Shibuya milling

After the hunt was over, some cats and I wandered over to Akihabara electric town. Steph, using her wonderful mastery of the Japanese language arranged for us to buy cellphones with plans and everything. We even chose sexy phones with English language menus. And then came the most important part. Paying 3 yen for the cellphones. I decided to be nice and treat Ruben and Steph to cellphones. Yes, I bought my friends phones. I’m nice aren’t I?

The ride home was slightly less squashed. Being tired from the day spelunking around Tokyo didn’t help either. But what was coming up was worse.

On my bike-ride through the near pitch-black streets of my town I ran into 3 policemen who asked me for my passport. Being the smartass that I am I left my passport at the house. So I showed them my drivers license and ID and started talking in Japanese. Maybe they liked the fact that this gaikokujin knew how to put two sentences in Japanese together, or they liked me, but I got off with a warning: I need to turn on my front light when riding at night.

Tomorrow we set off to Nikko for the overnight trip. As a certain Evan Miller would say, it will be sugoi.

I leave you with an interesting image.

Yes that's a bicycle. And yes, that's an ashtray attached to the bicycle. Crazy Japanese.

Day Two or so

2006-03-26T00:25:00.000-08:00

So I woke up today early again. I had hit the sack at like 9 pm, which for those who know me, is an unbelievably early hour for me to be sleeping. I didn’t want to get out of my room until later, so I organized some of my music and read my camera manual for the first time ever (should have done it right when I got it, let me tell you that).

I went downstairs to take a shower. The water pressure is amazing, like a massage machine. After the nice, hot shower I went back upstairs to change, came down and breakfast was ready again. This time Sakurako made it for me. It was a really nice gesture. I will start making my own breakfast pretty soon. Promise.

I decided to finish one of my books, and after that ventured out into the little town to find a supermarket. I desperately needed some snacks, and desperately needed some ham and cheese for breakfast. The walk through the town was nice, but I am going to buy a bicycle, because it’s a lot easier that way. The supermarket’s by the train station and I took about 20 minutes to get there. On a bike it should be something like 5. That’s 15 extra minutes of sleep time there.

On the way I saw some cool things:

The House

And you complain about tight parking?

Some cool tree...

Pimp looking house.

The supermarket was fun. A lot of people were really surprised to see a white guy shopping. But a man’s gotta eat.

This looked interesting...

After throwing some necessary items into the basket, including snacks for tomorrow and rice-cakes, I decided that it was about time that I test the most important thing in the world; the drinking age. So I walk over to the drinks and throw a beer into my basket. For shits and giggles I took the smallest one they had. 135 ml. Yeah. 4.5 oz of beer in a can. That’s like 2 shots of beer. Who the fuck drinks 2 shots of beer.

Smallest fucking beer in the world.

But the plan worked and now I know that despite the drinking age being 20, nobody really gives a shit. Yay for that.

Can’t wait to meet up with the cats from school tomorrow. See how much more in common I have with some of them.

I'll leave you with more images of japanese efficiency.

Arrival + First Few Days

2006-03-26T00:18:00.000-08:00

Started this blog as a way to keep track of what goes on in Japan. Sorry it’s long. It’s for those of you who are interested. If you’re not. Fuck off. I’ll try to add something everyday or so. Internet’s all over the place.

Japan’s not bad, I guess. It’s a little chilly, like 50-60, but it’s all good I have my sweaters and whatever to keep my warm. The bus-ride to the hotel from the airport was an hour long. Sucked ass if you ask me. I had to take a taxi ride from one hotel to another. Thank goodness I still know some Japanese. The driver spoke no English. In fact, half the people around here speak little or no English. My hosts do though :).

I stayed in a tiny ass hotel room for the night. Because of the jetlag I couldn’t sleep all night. I was also anxious to meet the other people. In the morning we went to orientation at the university. Doesn’t look too bad and it’s a block down from one of the shopping districts. Dunno what I’d be shopping for though. Some nice little food places around here. There’s also an Indo restaurant right down the street. Hell yeah I’m gonna go in and scare the shit out of the Indonesians who work there.

View from the Hotel.

I spent the afternoon chilling with this dude from Grinnell. He’s from Des Moines. Iowa pride. Had a connection right away. Also chilled with some guys from Minnesota. We got a little Midwest club going here.

Then we met our families.

The daughter in my host family came to greet me. It was pretty hardcore. She speaks very little English. But we communicated for a little bit. Went to the train station to get on the trains. Switched trains once, then one more time. Turns out I live about an hour away BY TRAIN from the university. Goodbye sleeping in. I could sleep on the train like ¾ of the people do. But I’m scared I’ll miss the station. I have 2 train changes along the way. Actually what I am thinking about doing is once I start school, to leave early (beat the rush hour) and hang out in the computer lab to come online. We still can’t use the labs because we don’t have IDs.

The train ride was a smack in the face from reality. For almost the whole hour you look outside and there’s buildings as far as you can see. It’s like the horizon packed up and left. I’ll make a video someday and post it. And at every station there are hundreds of people milling around. Downtown it’s even worse. And I can’t wait to experience rush hour (yeah right).

Anyway after the train ride, I got to the station and the host mom picked me up in the car. We get home to this nice little house. Turns out they have a golden retriever. It’s pretty cute. Its name is Tora. So after I met the dog and was almost humped, I actually went inside. After a small tour they showed me my room. It’s on the 2nd floor. I got the whole 2nd floor to myself. Not that there’s anything special up here, but it’s pretty cool. So I had a glass of water and passed out.

My room.

So yesterday morning I got up at 7 am. Unpacked my hand luggage. Chilled. Listened to music. Then I went downstairs to check whats going on. There’s nobody here. No clue where everyone is. But my suitcases were here. So I dragged those mofos upstairs and unpacked them. Organized myself really well surprisingly. There’s a lot that I can do when I have nothing else to do.

So it’s 11 am on Saturday and I don’t really have too much to do. I might read some books. If I find out where the hell the family is I might go and explore the little town that I’m in. See where all the convenience stores are, where the beer vending machines are. You know, that kinda stuff.

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It’s like 1 pm now. Talked to the dad. He made me breakfast which was cool. Well the mom’s somewhere and the dad went to walk the dog. So I’m chilling with the kids. Fumio is 15 and he loves video games. Sakurako is 16 and she’s the one who picked me up. So we’ve been playing winning eleven most of the morning. Wow. I am gonna fit in with this family. Waking up at noon on weekends. Winning Eleven. I’m gonna go to the electronics district to get something for my PS2, maybe a used TV for my room. I’ll see how much it costs. I’ll be getting a cellphone sometime in the next 2 weeks as well. Cellphones here are beyond sexy. They have TV and shit in them. And I get to keep mine too.

I went to try and get one today actually. Apparently there’s 50% discounts for college students, but I don’t have my college ID card yet. And I lost the document that shows I’m a college student. Wonderful. You can apply the discount later. But hell if my Japanese is good enough to ask that. I might try again in another district in town over the next few days.

Dinner was good. The father cooked up a storm for like 3 hours. Have to say that my mouth watered for the whole 3 hours. He made amazing chicken karage, fried chicken and chicken with cashews which rocked. There were also Chinese dumplings, which I didn’t like and a plate of the most random seafood, which I didn’t even touch. I’m not ready yet to try octopus and all that other crap. But I will eventually. Liking sushi is my goal at the end of this trip.

Passed out again at like 8 pm. At least I’m slowly getting adjusted. And I’m waking up at like 6-7, which’ll be the case most of the semester (Lord help me!).