Eepzilla!

Closing this cycle

2009-05-06T05:53:00.000-07:00

Keeping the blog on life support, today marks 2 years being back in the US. Still wanting to return to Japan, but what can you do? No really, what can YOU do? Let me back! Help!

Now Two Years Ago....

2009-01-03T23:50:00.000-08:00

It's been two years since I left for Tokyo. I still burn to go back there.

One year ago....

2008-01-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

So, one year ago I arrived in Tokyo. Bit of an anniversary of sorts. Can I go back now?

Tales of a very hungry caterpillar.

2007-11-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

I just sent out a check for $150 to my friend Lara in Japan to procure me coffee. I'll repeat, I just spent $150 on canned coffee. I am an addict. I need to get back to Japan. Oy.

I've been feeling sick lately, and tonight for some reason i want nothing more than yummy stuff from Sukiya. Sukiya is an amazingly cheap and yummy place. We didn't eat there often, but it was good stuff! I ate there for some reason when sick a few times. So did Mandy. Maybe that's why we didn't eat there often...association? But then, I remember it being useful while sick. The soup was amazingly good! Hey! I have miso in my cabinet at home! Perfect!

Eepzilla! - Directors Cut Special Collector's Edition de arimasu!

2007-10-26T06:59:00.001-07:00

I may no longer be in Japan, but it doesn't mean my memories of the wonderful time I've had there have faded. It's been months and a lot has happened. Went to Florida. Became a lawyer. Still don't have a job. I'm stuck here for now, and wish to go back to Japan as soon as possible. In the meantime, I've finally managed to get all the photos off my awesome uberbenri Japan phone. No particular order here (emphasis on very unparticular chaos) I hope you enjoy.

No, this isn't Paris. In early February Ami-chan and I got to visit the (in)famous Tokyo Tower. We had seen the Tower nearly every night walking from the Law School to the Alley of Awesomeness, and had been hoping to go for some time. On a whim, we decided to just go, as it wasn't that far from the school and neither of us felt it was the right night to be in a class. The towers was spiffy. The lower levels contained lots of various shops selling fun touristy stuff. Amusingly, they sold a lot of knock-off Suntory Boss stuff. Ami got me a cool lighter that looked like a Boss Coffee can, but sadly I wasn't able to bring it back with me to the states. Although the bottom levels were free, it cost some Yen to get up the Tower. Braving her fear of heights, Ami and I went up to the lower observation deck. From there we got a nice view of the Tokyo Skyline. I paid a little more money, and went up to the higher observation deck, after waiting in line for 20-30 minutes. That deck...not really as worth it. A fun time though! We went back to the Tower a few times while in Japan both for souvenirs and to go to the aquarium! YAY! Mandy got herself an AWESOME Tokyo Tower T-shirt. Here we are at MOS Burger with a look of pure "Why are you taking my photo again J?" A quick word about MOS Burger. It's a damn yummy chain, if you're looking for fast food in Japan. Good prices, and perfect portions. Their "onion potato set" gives you the right amount of fries and a couple onion rings to go with their burgers. Mountain, Ocean, Sun....what's not to love? Also, another great fast food chain is Freshness Burger. They're another wonderful chain, with a bit of a laidback atmosphere. Their burgers are really good too, and they serve steak fries! I loved the Salsa Burger, the Teriyaki burger, and the Katsu burger. Oishikatta. They also had really good "ginger protector" drinks. There was a Freshness Burger and Mos across from each other in Monzen-Nakacho where Ami lived. For most of our time in Tokyo, we would go to Mos. We finally tried Freshness, and it was really good. We ended up spending many hours studying for finals there.

On the topic of food, another great place to go, which we went to in the Alley of Awesomeness is Doma Doma. Similar to many other Izakaya, Doma Doma is almost like a Tapas place. Lots of small dishes (though a lot is put on those dishes) at very cheap prices. Also a great place to observe after-work Japanese people doing their thing.

Now, who wants some Engrish? I forget who had this shirt, but they were wearing it on valentine's day. Valentine's Day (St. Valentine's Day there) is done differently. The ladies give us guys gifts. Mind you, we have to give them an even bigger present on White Day. I personally appreciate the Korean Idea of Black Day. Hah!

Admit it. My ties ROCK. The purple ones, the cool black ones, and the ones with the fans I got in Japan. The 3 black ones (one with chains, one with a chain and spiders, and one with leather straps) I got at Richards in Harajuku. I've previously posted some stuff about Harajuku, but haven't really gone into it. Harajuku is a capitalist dream. It's a test market and admittedly it has some cool to it. It's way pricey, and very chaotic, with stores opening and closing all the time. It's crowded with a lot of young people dressed up looking to find the latest and coolest thing. On Takeshita Dori you'll find a lot of stores, and some yummy crepe places too. It's nice...but not necessarily my thing (especially on a student budget). I found my groove in Shimokitazawa! Again, another place that we didn't discover until late in our time in Japan. It's kinda like Tokyo's East Village. Very hip. Very laid back. Very cheap. Ami and I found the most awesome hookah place ("don't you worry about Pimps?"- fabian) in the world there, Shisha. The place was very chill. The owner's friends constantly were coming in and out to say hi, and have a quick puff. The guy knew how to mix his tobaccos, and liked to play his Nirvana. More than that, the price for a hookah was only 500 Yen! CHEAP! During finals time, the place was invaluable. We went there, relaxed and Ami found hydration in it.
Anyone up for some product placement? Hah! Another one of those awesome Dr. Pepper labels...right next to a boss coffee and my laptop. Clearly this was taken in mita hall.

There was some traveling in Japan as well. I'll post some pictures in a re-released edition. In late January/Early February as mentioned, we went to Sapporo. During spring break Evan and Kendra visited us. We stayed in Tokyo wandering around a few days before we went to Kyoto. Sugoi time there. Stay tuned! As always, other things interfere, so I can't do a full posting. For now, let me leave you all with some random images.

GUNDAM POCKY! THE SARGE'S FAVORITE!

That's right ladies. F Cup Cookie! Eat these cookies and your boobs will grow!
And if that doesn't work...Miracle Boober!

Sums up the Japanese view nicely, doesn't it?

What? I'm having breakfast?

And so it ends...

2007-05-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

I actually deny this city being tokyo. No no. It must be some other city. The pigeons won over the cats in Monzen-nakacho. Our holy bridge pigeoned! The vibe is wrong. And most of all,ami-chan beloved isn't here. This isn't Tokyo.
However it ends the way it begins. I am in asakusa, just as I came here. But I have my greater wisdom. I'm not lugging my bags the whole way, when I can simply taxi over to Ueno eki, and take the limited express from there. Yosh.
I look forwards to my summer journey to Florida.I'm not excited to go back to the USA. The people are rude and ignorant. They are shitheads to themselves and others. There is no value for the dollar. Dying empire. In my life, I have the bar coming up, and LLM applications to send out. Pain.

I found joy, magic, true love, and pocky in Tokyo. Why would I want to ever leave this?

What would keroro do?

P.S. Maybe one day I'll backdate some real posts. Till then, I leave today!

and now a word from our sponsor

2007-02-06T08:53:00.001-08:00

Back from Sapporo. A bit behind in the work, so no posts. Until then, enjoy first a review of Suntory Boss coffee, and then the webpage itself. Oh! Wikipedia too! Suntory is my boss.

Better than the french foreign legion

2007-01-30T17:50:00.000-08:00

After many gatherings with people have been thwarted I have decided to get a phone. Is it not nifty?

a taste and it is eggy!

2007-01-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

I should be asleep. Instead, I shall post random photos of weird shit in Japan. Enjoy.

MEAT! A shirt in Harajuka.

From Hanashiki in Asakusa.

Perna should enjoy this message of wisdom from an arcade in the alleyway of awesomeness.

Me with my mega-awesome new tie. Yes, I'm happy, over a fucking tie, what of it? Fuck you. I got it in harajuku. It's metal.

more great shirts in harajuku

pink rotary phone in the bento box place

Creepy coke ad, also in the bento place.

Do you think I ever know what's really going on? this was in the subway

incoming post

2007-01-30T02:57:00.000-08:00

Hey kids, sorry for the lack of posts lately. Excuses: 1) I've been busy. a) I have been avoiding spending too much time with my computer. b) I've been out having fun 2) I have lots of photos. I don't want to tell the stories without the photos. Finally found the cord.
So I'll be updating soon!

Fun and games.

2007-01-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

Have I mentioned how much I love this country? The pictures below show some cheap purchases made. Except the 5 flavor pocky, which I won.
Suddenly, I find myself in the mood for Mongolian BBQ. Weird. Enjoy.

Cup sake

Crush pocky- Cookie

Crush pocky- almond

Grape pocky!

Five flavor Pocky fruit

5 flavor pocky black

Decorative Apple Custard

Decorative Grape

tori amos vs. the men from mars part 3

2007-01-22T06:54:00.000-08:00

So once again I owe a few days worth of updates. Let's start with Sunday. On Sunday I went to a Media Cafe. More to the point, I went to one of a chain of media cafe's called "Popeye." Oooh. A wonderful link in Japanese. Great, right? It's a really weird experience. I went in, and at the desk arranged the service I want. They offer three different packages. A level is just an open computer. B level is a booth with a fucking awesome lazyboy, and a computer and what not. The C package gives a nice mini-sofa, with a computer, a ps2, a dvd player...and a little mini locker. some slippers to put on come with it as well. Here's where it gets weird (scroll down folks)...the place has some stuff you'd expect a media cafe to have. It's got munchies, drinks, books, blah blah pretty normal. Here's where it gets weird. It has a shower facility and a tanning booth. The place is also 24 hours. This is clearly meant for a 24-25 hour a day lifestyle. This is the kinda place you go to between 12-5 while the metros are closed, and you don't feel like paying $60 for a cab back to Toshima. yeah. So enough about that. Post that, I went to Namcoland and played the crane game (Taiko drum master was full). This was an example of eep strategy in action. I limited myself to 500YEN. The prize was a 4 pack of special 5 flavor pocky. It had both Goka pocky and Kurogo pocky. I know for a fact that these pocky usually go for about 200YEN+ a box. So I knew it was worth the 500YEN to try. Lo and behold, using my ninja crane game skills, I was able to win a 4 pack. In eep tradition, I gave a box to the first mädchen I saw (in this case the employee giving me a bag for my winings) and walked off. As a side note, the Goka is much better than the Kurogo. Go eeps though! As a side note, let's cross these off on Eep's list of pocky. Truly, my goal is to try as many as possible. I rule.
Today was pretty low key. I overslept again. I really did try to wake up. No. Waking up isn't the problem Getting out of bed is the problem! I am jack's lack of motivation. I really need to start getting out of bed earlier. I should be able to easily tomorrow. I have work to do, and my first day of Japanese. I finally got out of bed, showered, and went to Lawson's for some salmon sashimi! YUM!
IP tonight was ok. The big thing tonight was going to the Alley of Awesomeness with my friends to a place Sarah and Leslie found called Doma Doma. I very much enjoyed the food here! The place was almost like a tapas place. All of the dishes were small, and low priced. Let's explore the menu a bit, shall we? From the cheese menu, we ordered several things. Leslie and I split some delicious fried Cheese Mochi (left side, 3rd picture down. the 380 yen thing). Really yummy stuff. The cheese melted right out of it. It was a nice twist on the cheese stick idea. The group of us split some nan bread with melted Gorgonzola cheese and honey. Tres yummo. In addition, Amanda and I got Doma Doma's mini pizza. I was shocked! The pizza was fucking delicious! Not bad for 490YEN. Also on the cheese menu, I got the "Doma Doma Russian Roulette." That's the item on the bottom left. Basically, it was 6 ball like items that looked like takoyaki, but were actually melted cheese filed balls. So what was with the name? Well, 5 of the balls were filled with a delicious sweet cheese. But one of the balls was filled with a super spicy melted goo. Tasty, but damn it was hot! From the egg menu, Sarah got a delicious omelette. Finally, Leslie got some fried pumpkin fritters from the fried menu (Second to bottom row, center). Delicious!
After that, we left Doma-Doma and went to our respective metro stops. They took the mita line, and I took the JR back to oji.
That's about it. I've gotta work!
hopefully more photos soon!

change of flans

2007-01-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

So we ended up not going to goth night. Juliana, Amanda, and I met up at Azabu-juban station around 8PM. From there, we went to Shibuya, where we would have gone for goth night anyways. It seemed to be a relatively quiet night in Shibuya. We were still burned out from last night, so we decided to take it easy. So we nerded around Shibuya for a while, going to a good curry place...an Indian curry house! SO YUM! It was great to have some curry that wasn't that british-style curry for a change! LUCK-EEP! We ended up going to TAITOland (I forgot the name of the place) to play some games first. I played that Taito drum game again. It's really addictive. We then nerded over to a Sega where I played a really neat dragon ball z fighting game. After that, went out to the metro and went back home. Yeps. That's it. Time for some photos.

Amanda and Juliana ala goth.

I actually have no idea what this is an advert for.

Mmm! Pasta Cube!

Shibuya at night.

Again, I have no idea what they're selling.

Everything in Japan is uber cute, even the bus mascot.

feeling like a space plane one more time tonight

2007-01-19T23:44:00.000-08:00

So I owe you a couple night's updates eh? Let's start with a photo of another great questionable Japanese product! This was either supposed to be lychee...or skittles flavored.

Well, Thursday night Sarah, Lesley, Abby, Amanda, Juliana, and myself went to the alleyway post class to get some dinner. The alleyway area, as previously mentioned is rather groovy. From the street, all you see is a small neon gate. But as you get to the gate, you'll see a small alley like area loaded with tons of small food shops and street vendors. I haven't seen it during the day, but I'm willing to bet that it is only really alive at night. It seems Tokyo doesn't truly come to life until 10PM. The Japanese are much different than Americans in terms of their after work activities. The American mindset is Work ends, run home. In Japan, all the end work means is that you're now off the clock...but still on the job. Company members then go out for drinks/socialization with each other. As a result, the busy evening rush hour tends to be the last few trains in the evening. Sadly, I couldn't get any good pictures of the alley itself, but I managed to take a few pictures of some fun things!

As you might guess, this place involves alcohol.

Here there be frogs! RIBBIT! "Human Song Network." That sounds sinister, doesn't it? And you'd figure they'd show humans, unless those are former humans who have been turned into frogs. Either way it's a karaoke bar. We'll get more into that sorta thing later.

GIANT FUCKING EGG. I have no idea why. I don't question it. GIANT FUCKING EGG.
Moving on, we went to what I think was a Chinese place. I ordered a yummy shrimp and soba dish (yummo). We spent some time there eating our meals, drinking godawful jasmine tea, and generally being gaijin. After that we headed to our respective stations and headed home. Helpful note: The Kehin-Tohoku JR Line rocks because it runs a bit later. Rock. This will come in handy at a later episode, I'm sure.
So last night...
The story begins after Prof. Wilson's class let out. Set your clocks to 7PM tokyo time. After some false starts and other ishkabible we headed over to Roppongi (In truth it was next to Roppongi hills) to go to a venue known as the Super Deluxe. The venue was really trippy.
It was kinda like some sorta Andy Warhol-ian bar/space dream. After going down a spiral of a set of stairs, you get to the anteroom. A quick photo of one of my fellow students in the ante-room.

So yeah. Eyes everywhere. Creepy. The inside was also...interesting. Crowded as hell though. The place was packed with both law students and undergrads. We arrived during the talk from this past year's Cherry Blossom Queen. Side note: I missed drinking the Jagermeister. According to Amanda, it actually is a bit different/better in Japan. MOOF! Grr! After the Cherry Blossom Queen, we had a guest expert come in to teach us all about Sake! Very useful! very informative! we also got a list of good brands to buy and other such things! Luck-ee! Then madness transpired, as the sake tasting begun! YUM! There were 7 different bottles of good quality sake. Some of them were only so so if you ask me. They tasted like the stuff I get back in the states. However, some of the other sake was really unique. I dare say some of it had a bit of fruitocity to it. RANDOM PICTURE TIME
.
This was outside the Super Deluxe. Can anyone tell me what an "Avant-guarde women's toilet" is? And more importantly...why someone would want one?
So yeah...we were inspired to quest after that for some real good sake of our own. We navigated through Roppongi to find a way to safely cross the street and ended up at a small Sake-ya. I spoke with the clerk there as best I could and sadly he had to inform us that he didn't have any of the top sakes on the list. We did manage to get a big bottle of great sake anyways. From Roppongi we headed to...well...damned if I know. The area where Sarah lives in. Our first stop was Mos Burger for some midnight munchies. Not too shabby. The old lady working behind the counter was exceptionally nice, and did her best to deal with the sudden influx of noisy non-Japanese speaking gaijin that was our crowd. I'm actually shocked that my Japanese is starting to improve a bit. I've been able to communicate decently. I'm still no where close to the level of some of the other people but I'm better than I was.
Originally, we planned to go to Sarah's to drink drink drink, but on the way we came across a fun looking karaoke place. In a spur of the moment decision, we decided to go there. It LOOKED like it was only 400YEN a person per hour. So we opted for 3 hours. We were shown to our own private soundproof room, given a book full of English songs, and opened up our sake and began drinking. Lots of fun. Lots of good songs. Amanda and I did our best "Young One's" imitation to...uh...Cliff Richard's "Young Ones." Amanda and Lesley also each got another bottle of wine. In the end, I drank 1/5th a thing of sake and 1/2 a bottle of wine. And it had no effect. :( Disappointing.
We left the joint after paying way too much money and split up again. It was about 3AM so the trains were down for the night. I went with Lesley and Juliana back to shirokane-takanawa station by taxi (TOO MUCH $$) and we went to Juliana's place for a bit. They took her room, and I took the kitchen floor. Around 5:30, after not sleeping I realized the trains were up again so I split. Got back in around 7. So tired. Slept until 4PM. So tonight in that line...I'm going out to a goth club which runs from Midnight -5. ROCK! I'll write more tomorrow!

I shouldn't be seeing the sun

2007-01-19T14:29:00.000-08:00

Crazy night last night. Will post later. 7:30amish. just finished checking the eepmail. got in a half hour ago.
G'night.

I hate that cat.

2007-01-19T01:46:00.001-08:00

Enjoy.

we interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast

2007-01-17T08:58:00.000-08:00

Holy fargleflang. It would seem that Evanescence will be playing Tokyo the 30th and 31st. This is very much worth missing class for? What? Fuck you. I like Evanescence. Their new album isn't bad...but it's a disappointment considering how good their past stuff was. And it is indeed great. They suffer from the problem that they became extremely popular. And admittedly, some songs were overplayed. But ai ya! I saw them back in 2003 with Meep and it was a great show. I can't think of any shows I've been to since that. Can you? I need help. Can someone help me get through the Zepp site, and get tickets? Help!

Ya-pa-pa Ya-pa-pa: revisited

2007-01-16T07:50:00.000-08:00

So tonight Steve, Lesley (also from Pitt law), Iffeanyi, Juliana, Jerusha and myself went out for dinner. Up the street from the law school, and past the evil KFC and the "Hyper convenient US 100YEN" mart (not my name!) is this cool maze of alleyways that comes to life at night filled with small restaurants. It's awesome. Sadly, I didn't have my camera today, so I'll be revisiting. What did we do? We went to a cool little Monjayaki/okonomiyaki shop! The place was in the back alley of a back alley of a back alley. You could barely see the place, but once we slid open the door, we found ourselves in an adequately sized eatery. The vibe was cool. There was one other group there, a bunch of Japanese students of English Language. I'm going to cut things short here as I don't have any photos, but it was good stuff. I'll be returning.

whole lot of shaking going on

2007-01-16T02:47:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention...last night around 3AM there was about a 30 second earthquake.

purple reign

2007-01-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

Today I signed up for a number of possible internships. I would really like one because I need work experience. I need to also apply for post-grad jobs, because frankly, I'm fucked.
So here's the deal I make with you reader. Should I be unable to get an internship, I will be taking the Japanese language class, which also gives me free time to explore Tokyo. What it also does, which is why this is post worthy, is give me a number of months where I won't need to do anything superformal that would require me to be lawyertastic. As such, I'm going to let myself revert back to my more...natural...form...Re-dye my hair purple, and perhaps a few other things. Any American firms I apply to won't be able to see me for months anyways. Good deal?

get your body beat

2007-01-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

It's interesting the type of people TUJ draws to it. Straight to the point, the law school has drawn a large number of people who are somewhat gothtastic and/or will be going to the club with me as soon as I find a good club. I'm referencing Abby, Amanda, Renee, and Juliana right now, or as I have identified them, the four horsewomen of the Eepocolypse Japan branch. Amanda also had a pangtastic plan...she found a place that serves Absinthe. Actually, the place is Cafe Absinthe in Ikebokuro, which is near me! Amanda's plan is Absinthe, then goth club. That's her poison. Let's do it!

random images from japan

2007-01-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

shiny shiny shiny

evil evil evil

Looks like there should be cute candy in here, yes?

Hah! No silly gaijin! Japanese uh...yeah.

That's right. Aso-Viba! Say it. Sounds like ass vibe.

ya pa pa, ya pa pa part two!

2007-01-14T08:21:00.000-08:00

Ok folks, the eepernet seems a little less bitchy now. So let's continue, shall we? After lunch Abby, the Evil Queen of Visual Kei, and I explored the Yebisu Garden area a bit more. On the ground floor, I found some very silly/hyperactive Japanglish signs. Also, they had some randomly placed "art" like a chandelier.

After walking around Yebisu Garden for a bit, we decided to take a side trip to Shinjuku. I've never been there, but I've heard cool things. Also, we always practiced "Shinjuku Eki" in Japanese class, so it's burned into my mind. But yeah. Also, Abby has a really amusing game/plot. She plans on taking a picture of one Japanese person per day, to make a calendar. So very evil. Also a subplot is to walk up to gaijin, i.e. people like us, go crazy and take photos. Evil.
So yeah. We went to the station, and then went to Shinjuku. Shinjuku is a very cool place. I'll dedicate another posting to describing it. We wandered the streets Gaijin style, as Abby attempted to take photos of the various Japanese people...er...and not be too obvious. At some point, we stopped into a place called Closet Child, a place with CD's of a lot of visual kei bands on the fifth floor, and gothic lolita stuff on the 6th. Are you recoiling in fear at the second? Good. I didn't get a chance to take many photos of people in action there. Not many dressed up to be honest. However, it seems Abby is a HUGE visual kei fan and will be giving me a copy of her whole collection. In amusement/gratitude I purchased a Gackt CD for her. She seemed happy.
After that, we walked around a bit more, and split up. She went to Asakusa to meet a comrade, and I went back to my place.
I returned home, typed the first blog entry on this matter while the internet was the suck while trying to work on my Japanese placement test. Eventually I got frustrated and proposed that Yuum, Fabian, and myself go to Namcoland! I was shocked that everyone agreed, so off we went! We had a great time tonight! I played Taiko: Drum Master. Simply put, this game rocks. I want to get addicted. After that, yuum and I played time crisis 4. 4? I love getting to play these games before they're big in the US. She's deadly at the game though! damn deadly! finally we ended with a race!
Following the fun at the arcade, we headed out to find Fabian something to eat. After many false starts, we ended up at the AM/PM near our house. While they decided what to get, I found something amusing. "Jersey Milk Sticks." A jersey pocky? What the hell?!
So yeah. After that, headed home. We each had a beer, toasted, and whatnot and that was that. Oy! What a day!

Ya-pa-pa Ya-pa-pa: PART ONE

2007-01-14T03:33:00.000-08:00

So today I finally took the plunge and went on my great quest for Okonomiyaki. I'll admit that dorkdom is behind my quest for it. Okonomiyaki is a dish I first heard about in the Anime "Ranma 1/2." One of the main characters, Ukyo, is an Okonomiyaki maker/martial artist. Her main weapon is a giant spatula. It's been in my mind for a few years now, and I figured since I know of it's existence I'd go check it out. As all good quests need a comrades, this was plotted with Abby the Evil. Plotting this was a bit more difficult than it should be, as there was an email delay, so we didn't know if we'd actually go at the same time. Anyways, on with the story.
Today's quest took us to Ebisu. I used the JR to get there again. Very cool that I'm getting to learn the JR system. The route I took can also be used to get to Shinjuku, Harajuka, Ikebukuro, and Akihabara. Neato. As you can guess, I got off the JR at Ebisu Station. This was actually a much more impressive station than a lot of the others. Ebisu is a very nice area, and the station reflect that fact. Inside the station, there was a groovy mall filled with way overpriced foodstuffs. I didn't take a picture, but there was a random bagel shop. I'll head back there next time. I waited around a half hour for Abby, then decided to go on my way to the Okonomiyaki restaurant. To get there, I went on a randomly placed moving sidewalk concourse known as the skywalk. This quickly took me from Ebisu station, the main destination, Yebisu Garden. I'll admit, I was rather impressed by Yebisu Garden Place. It was really well done, even by Tokyo standards, with some cool buildings. The place was a child of the neat beer industry of Japan. Yummo once again. I really liked the nice outdoor scene they had there. More on that later.
I went up into Yebisu Garden Tower to the 38th floor where the restaurant, Chibo, was located. From the 38th, there was an awesome view of the Tokyo Skyline! Suddenly, in silly Japanglish style speech, I heard a loud "Luck-ee!" And behold Abby appeared! Somehow we managed to locate each other! YAY! We took some time to admire the awesome view of the Tokyo skyline and then headed in for our Okonomiyaki lunch!

From the start, we knew things would be...interesting. At this restaurant, we were required to remove our shoes (which is always fun when you're wearing boots) and we were shown to our seats. Throughout the whole thing, they were playing the "oh, it's the gaijin" game with us. Poorly. Easily seen through, we could tell the difference in the service. But then, what can you do? Legally. At least the food, when it finally came, was delicious! Here are some pictures!

So yeah, yummy stuff. I'm going to cut this short as the internet is being bitchy right now. In the next episode, fun in in yebisu garden place, and shinjuku!

my addictions.

2007-01-14T03:19:00.002-08:00

So in the pictures are some of the products I'm horribly addicted to here in Tokyo.

First up, we got boss coffee. Correction: Suntory Boss coffee. Suntory Boss is the Boss of them all since 1992. Or so the Vending machines say. Simply stated, this stuff ROCKS my world. It's on the sweet side, and gives me a good perk me up. The cans are best from the "hot" machines. It's neat how in Japan, the Sapporo beer isn't in the thick bi-metal cans that they use in America, but the coffee is. This stuff is great and I approve of it.

Next on the list, we have Purin, or Pudding. Let's be honest, it's flan. Yummy shit, that I get from the 100Yen store. I don't even have to win 50 fights in a row to earn it! ROCK!

And what do we have here? That's right, J's lucky Vitamin water! Packed with delicious Vitamin C so I don't get the scurvy! Yar mateys! Beware! This stuff is addictive because it contains CRACK!

He's not heavy he's my...ok, he's heavy.

2007-01-14T02:00:00.000-08:00

As promised, my update regarding yesterday's sumo tournament adventure. Sumo is a very interesting sport to me. On it's face the sport itself is a face paced exciting duel of strength, skill, and balance between two overweight men. However, below the surface it is all that and more. It is a sport that requires a sick amount of grace, and to be the best, a Yokozuna, you must possess all that. It's interesting watch a match because the battle itself is over quickly, often in less than a minute. In some of the physical battles, one wrestler would easily dominate the other and either remove them from the ring, or force them to touch ground with something other than their feet, ending the match. In other matches, more evenly skilled competitors would entangle until one could exploit a weakness in the others. The real interest however is in many of the rituals that take place before the match even begins.
The wrestlers are first announced through a traditional singer. They would then go through a number of rituals, and then face each other. They would squat and face, return to their corners, go through rituals, and return several times. In many ways, this seems to serve two functions. First, it serves a ritualistic and religious function, purifying the ring. Second, it seems to be a silent, and graceful trash talking. The competitors don't begin until they are ready. They glare each other down, letting the other know silently who the top dog...or cow... is. And then, in a flash they begin!
So let's go with my experience, eh. Getting around in Japan is really interesting. Most cities have a unified transportation system, such as DC's metro. Japan in contrast has three rail lines. JR, Toei, and Tokyo Metro (I think those are the names). Normally, I take the Metro, specifically the Namboku line. I probably already wrote about this, but hey, this is J's experience in Tokyo. It'll hopefully be helpful to you friends already here, or who will follow me (just as I followed the Queen, Ladi). To get to Ryogoku Station I had to take the JR. I'm slightly less familiar with JR, but it works just as well. The stations seem to be a little more rough and tumble, as it is more like a regular train station, rather than those ultraslick, ultra clean subway stations. The ride is cheap and quick though, and combined with the other methods of transportation, Tokyo is extremely easy and cheap to get around. Later on in the day, I purchased a Suica card. Frankly, this card ROCKS. In some ways, it's just like the DC metro card. However, it can be used for different things. Such as today, I used it at a vending machine. The Awesome! Back on topic, Ryogoku station takes me to a very interesting, if not pricey section of Tokyo. First and foremost, this area houses Ryogoku Kokugikan, the indoor arena in which sumo tournaments are held. Also I'm going to need to return to this area to check out the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Cool! Cool cool. Ryogoku Kokugikan is very cool. Outside, there were lots of old style Nobori, or flags, and some cool towers. Later on, drumming would come from these towers.

Also, outside was a monk, begging for money. I gave him a few hundred yen, then asked him if I could take his photo, to which he obviously allowed. Very cool old vibe to the place in general. The place had a lot of neat paintings both outside and inside, so we played the full tourist game, and snapped off a few photos. See above for one of them.
Also present were LUCKY BOX's. That just amuses me. What are they here for? Well, there is a raffle for free tickets to the next day's tournament/next tournament! I of course lost, or you'd be hearing more about it.

Eventually, we found our way to our seats in the ever-loving nosebleed section. In all honesty, it wasn't that bad. it allowed us to easily see the full match/stadium. If we were closer, we might not be able to see the other side of the arena, and if we were in the front row, we'd be in danger of flying sumo wrestlers thrown from the ring. As I've said, the inside is very cool. Check out the photo. Doesn't that thing make you want to have a traditional Jewish wedding? No? Me neither. Ew.
The first couple hours consisted of the lower/middle ranked sumo wrestlers. It was a very relaxed scene, so I didn't feel like I would be missing anything if I went to the concession stand. Ah, the bounty there. Yummy stuff is sold at sumo tournaments. Although hotdogs are sold, in Japan, Gyoza Dogs are sold. These things have meat in them, but are in a bun-like covering. To be honest, they're actually quite tasty. I'm glad they don't taste like hot dogs. I think that would be a bit weird. Instead, they taste like a giant dumpling (like I have for dinner most nights). Yummo. Also, they had something that rocked my world seven ways to Sunday...STADIUM SAKE! Ok, it isn't called that, but it's cold sake served in a paper cup. Yes that's blasphemy, I know, but come on! You can't tell me that sitting back, and drinking sake in a stadium doesn't rock the casbah! After a few hours, the big leaguers finally came out. Following ritual, they circled the arena, and assembled in rank order. The yokozuna has his own entrance, so this was everything all the way up to Ozeki rank. These guys are really amazing to watch. Yes, on one hand, they are huge. On the other hand, they have a real fucking ninja grace about them. To move like these big guys do, takes so much skill. One of them, while doing their foot stamps, did a standing vertical split. Sure we can all picture some skinny dude doing that, but a fucking sumo? Holy fuck! Amazing! Their matches were also quite good. As they were more evenly balanced, they would use more advanced looking techniques to defeat their opponents. Truly awesome!
Finally, the Yokozuna entered, complete with his people. Very cool sight to see. Currently, there is only one Yokozuna. I wonder if this will change soon. It's a good show that's put on, and impressive to watch in action. After the final match, a lower ranked wrestler comes out and performs what is known as a "bow dance" to signal the end of the day's tournament.
After the tournament, Joe, Amanda, Juliana, Bennett, Renee, and myself went out for dinner. Side note, slightly before that, some drunk off his ass Japanese guy came up to me, and asked if I was German. I'm not, as you know. Essentially throughout his drunk talk, whether he was meaning to insult me or not, he basically called me a sumo. I was polite. Really polite. I didn't kill him, hit him, tell him to die or anything. I took it with a smile, and simply remembered the fact that I have a larger penis and he will never satisfy his wife. Ever. The bunch of us walked around the Ryogoku area, but the places looked either too expensive, or too packed. Eventually we found a nice place near the station (go figure). Clearly the place was not normally frequented by Gaijin. Hence some of the nasty remarks I heard on the way in. Fuck them. Fuck them and their toilets. The food was good there. I got some warm sake (that makes 2 stadium sakes, plus this sake. Earlier in the night, I also got comrades Juliana and Amanda a cup of sake), and a yummy soba dish. Yosh!
After dinner, the bunch of us split up. I took the JR back to my area, and detoured to Namcoland. Namcoland...it's cool. In some ways, it's like a traditional arcade. Some really cool things there, such as a game for traditional Japanese drumming, Taiko. In other ways, it's like a light pachinko parlor with some gambling machines. After watching some dudes win at the crane machine, I decided to say "fuck it" and gave it a shot myself. Now I know what you're all thinking, these things are a scam. And yes, in America, they are. However that doesn't seem to be the case here. It take skill, and yes, some Yen to win. I concentrated on the pocky game. This game offered a prize of three boxes of mousse pocky. The price was 100Yen a play. Not bad. It took me about 5 or 6 tries to win the first time. It wasn't as much about picking up the damn thing as it is about knocking it off. I played the good guy, and gave two of the boxes to a couple of school girls who had been cheering me on. One of them had an eyepatch on so I wished her a quick recovery. And then later I tried again, and won in two shots. yosh! I'll get some of the better prizes yet!
After that, I went home, and well, that's about it for last night. Can't think of anything else.

in th meantime...

2007-01-13T08:20:00.000-08:00

let me leave you with this happy restaurant mascot.

not quite godzilla

2007-01-13T04:55:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. I'm a bit tired tonight, so I'll blog about the awesome sumo wrestling trip tomorrow. In case you're wondering re: some earthquake/tsunami, until I got home, i wasn't even aware of one. everything is groovy

irksome

2007-01-12T04:58:00.000-08:00

Shit. TUJ just sent an email re: Sapporo asking us to come in with our receipts to double check/confirm for buying tix. Dammit! Mine disappeared. Hopefully they'll be sane and remember me buying it.

Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc

2007-01-12T04:30:00.000-08:00

So I'm staying in tonight, even though it's a Friday night, and I'm here in glorious Tokyo? Why the hell might you ask? Well, first off, I'm a bit tired. I got up earlyish today, went to the school, reread my stuff for today's class, and did next week's immigration reading. I got home from class around 9ish. I don't particularly feel like going out at the second. Second, and more dorkishly, I want to do my reading for Securities class. But J, you're in Tokyo! Yes yes! Believe me, I will be going out this weekend! That brings me to my next point. I want to save a few Yen for tomorrow and Sunday. Sunday is still up in the air, but tomorrow I will be going to the Grand Sumo tournament! So why Securities tonight? Well, to be honest, I don't know anything about Securities...at all. So tonight I want to rectify that situation, and be able to have fun Saturday and Sunday! Yosh!

the yum

2007-01-11T22:05:00.000-08:00

I have decided it is in my best interest to enjoy delicious, and cheap sushi from Kyoto, the sushi stand near Shirokane-Takanawa station (where I get off to go to class). For 590Yen, I get 8 pieces of yum, and for 690yen I get 10 pieces of uber yum. I LOVE SUSHI.

Don't push the table too hard.

2007-01-11T05:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of update yesterday. I didn't get in until late last night. So first let's start with the bad news. I need a new wireless card for my laptop. For some reason it decided to die. :( Poor little wireless card.
Alright now the update.
JANUARY 10th
Yesterday was my orientation at Temple University, Japan branch. Earlier, in the week, I ventured out to the building, checked in, and picked up my books. As such, I didn't have to show up till later in the day. It's been rather nice getting to sleep in late these last few days. I wonder how long this will last. Hopefully, I'll either get a Japanese job, or I'll enroll in a Japanese class. I arrived slightly before 11:30, met up with Lesley, and joined up with some other students (Gloria, Bennett, and Sarah) on a walk around. Fun stuff! We went to the other Temple building so that some students could register their laptops. I got to know the other law students a bit better, and met a nice Floridian undergrad (Tegan) who told me of a supposed goth club that serves sushi. Hopefully I can find out more about that! Mmm...gothic sushi.
Following that, we went to the bank. Nothing special there, except there was a hilarious picture book on avoiding cancer. It used mice to give the lesson. Some of the things made sense, such as don't smoke or drink. But other things...well, don't eat hot or salty foods. DON'T TAKE HOT SHOWERS. Ne?
After that we went back to the school to enjoy a free lunch. Of all the things to get us, they got us Subway. Engrish time! The Subway slogan in Japan is "The Natural Ideal Style of Eating Vegetable." You're welcome.
After that, pretty standard orientation. The usual stuff. Sorta helpful. Got to know more people. Yay! Made some amusing fiends. After a long day of orientating, disorientating, and other stuff, we got our pictures taken for our ID's.
Now comes the fun part. Last night we were treated to a complimentary dinner at a local Japan restaurant! The fun bonus thing? ALL WE COULD DRINK! The waitress was constantly refreshing the big ass bottles of beer. The meal was several courses.
The of sashimi, and several other delicious fishy things. I love sashimi and sushi as you know. They had lots of good salmon, tuna, octopus, and something else which I couldn't identify. There was was some onion-y/bean sprouty thing. Not in the picture there was a large box with four compartments filled with yummy things. One of the things was some tasty fish balls. They tasted like fresh homemade gefilte fish. I wasn't the only one who thought so either! Oishikatta yo!!!!

The next course was very yummy hot pot. Filled with various forms of meat and vegetables, we gleefully devoured it as we continued the festivities. After that course there was a yummy ebi (shrimp) dish. I wish I had a picture of this. The dish consisted of a deliciously grilled prawn on a stick. Flavored to perfection! So very good. My only regret is that I was polite and only had one. Damn.

Sadly, I was unable to have the next course, which consisted of pork tongue. Here, we have one of my new fiends, Juliana. She's a very interesting woman. Hopefully she'll join some of my future adventures, and not kill me for publishing her in this blog! The reason I choose this photo was because it has her holding the pork tongue while sticking out her tounge.I was able to partake in the final course, which was a nice udon noodle soup. Very delicious! Japanese food is so good.

What I liked best was getting to meet my fellow students and drink lots for free with them! And yes, I did have a lot of sake!

I left the restaurant feeling slightly buzzed. I wasn't quite sure how to get to Shirokane-takanawa eki, the nambuko line station near the law school. Thankfully this wasn't a problem. I was able to use my Japanese skills to find a subway station, and then navigated my way home. My Japanese is finally starting to improve again. I think the biggest problem for me learning in the first place was Takabatake-sensei. She really is an ogre.

January 11
Today was the second orientation day. It was completely optional. I only went to the school for three reasons. 1) To have my computer registered for the wireless 2) To find out about the phones 3) To read my Japanese law book so I could leave it there. Obviously, I found out the bad news today about my poor little wireless card. Irksome. I went with Juliana and Renee to lunch today. We went to a local Italian food place run by the Japanese. It was actually pretty good, but way overpriced on weird things. The main course was well priced. I had spaghetti in a tomato and creme sauce, which had some delicious seafood. But we ordered some "toast" and that cost 450YEN a pop. Evil! After that, they delayed the phone orientation and then finally announced they were pretty much still in negotiations with the phone companies for a good student deal for us. So that was a bit of a waste. At least I found out that there are some other discounts available in Tokyo for me as a student.
Following that, I went downstairs to inquire about the phone. Juliana mentioned there had been a change on the waiting list for the Sapporo trip. I checked, and eep! There was a spot for me! EEP! I rushed to the post office, withdrew 40,000YEN, ran downstairs and plopped down the cash! Oh yes, I'm going to Hokkaido! What's going on there? Well my school is taking a trip from Feb. 3rd to Feb. 5th to the 58th Annual Sapporo Snow Festival! As the name suggests, the festival is held in the city of Sapporo, located on the northern island of Hokkaido! As it's further North, Hokkaido is a very snowy place! I can't wait to go! Hopefully, besides taking glorious pictures for you all of the awesome snow festival, I will be able to go either skiing or snowboarding. In the alternative, I'd like to see if I can visit the Sapporo Breweries!
After I paid my trip fee, I went with Abby to go get some sushi. I went to Kyoto, the sushi stand I went to on Tuesday. Thankfully, I was able to get it without wasabi this time. We went back to the school, and had our sushi! YUMMY! It's freaky. She reminds me a LOT of my friend Zellie. Same interests and everything, except she doesn't know Nightwish. Yet.
After that I finished my Japanese law readings, and headed back. I've finally finished writing up this update! Enjoy!

minor update

2007-01-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

Met Lesley at Narita today. A shlep to get there, and major delays on her flight. Good to see her. I'm tired as hell and classes begin tomorrow. Lisa is about to find out 5 of my grades. I'm dreading this. Last semester sucked exam wise.
Tomorrow is a new day in a new country.

How to pick a flight.

2007-01-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

Ok! Lesley emailed me her flight info! Now I have to formulate a plan.
http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/
Using this ninja tool, I shall hopefully calculate a perfect route from Oji to Narita, Narita to Asakusa (though I know that because I took that route), and from Asakusa back to Oji.

On the topic of Asakusa, this is a great picture that was on the wall near the hostel.

How to pick a fight.

2007-01-08T16:10:00.000-08:00

Today's topic is eggs. I purchased some eggs at Lawson's a couple nights ago. It seems in this country, most of the eggs are not kept in the fridge, but rather on the shelves. I spoke to Fabian, and he said it's done the same in Germany. Well, regardless, I found some eggs in the fridge so I purchased them. Today, to start my uber-busy day I decided to make a gypsy egg (to fill me with the power of a thousand flying chickens). Everything was going swell till I cracked open one of these things. The eggs are already soft boiled, thus thwarting me from creating a proper gypsy egg. Oh Japan...now you've gone and done it.

I am Jack's addiction to Suntory Vitamin Water

2007-01-08T06:36:00.000-08:00

This? Oh. Leftover Akihabara picture from yesterday. Yes, there is an actual person dressed like that. I don't think he was even paid to do that. Hah.

I woke up early today, with the goal of "getting shit done." I've been rather productive so far in Tokyo. Just wait till school starts/lethargy sets in. Today's agenda was to find the school, and purchase my books. I got up around 9, showered, ect. Despite General Zod contacting PNC, who gave their assurance that my ATM card would work, the local ATM's continue to thwart me. Tomorrow the Post Office will be open and I will get proper cash. Anyways, I hung out at the house online for a while. Talked to Kate ( :) ) and figured out certain eepministrative things (it's a word. I said it). Finally, I got off my tuchus (hi! yiddish!), and headed out the door.
Toshima is a very convenient area to live in. The Oji station is about 8-10 minutes away from my house on foot. It's right next to the JR station. On the way is said post office which I will be hitting up tomorrow. In the station, there is a tunnel which leads to the previously mentioned Meiji like area that leads to the ward office.
Getting to Mita hall, home of Temple Law's Japan branch was quite the trip today. The ride on the Nambuko line was fine. The Tokyo metro is great. It's clean, speedy, and efficient. Nambuko is cool because it's fully automated, and unlike US fully automated, it actually works. I'll take some pictures before I leave. Again, with the convenience, I take the line to the Shirokane-Takanawa station in Minato. Getting there was the problem. I misread the instructions to go right, rather than follow the street on the right...so I first went on the wrong road, but I found a different Temple building. More interestingly, I found a Kosher place and got a card from a nice Brooklyn dude re: a local Chabad house. The card worries me a bit though. It says "Long live our master, our teacher, our Rebbe, King Moshiach forever and ever." The Chabad are generally really good people. However, I think calling the late Rebbe the Moschiach is a bit...far. I don't want to rain on their parade, but I won't join in with beliefs I don't hold true. No matter what they believe in, a bottom line with them is they are generally good for other Jews to go to as they don't take steps to ever make you feel bad about whatever you do. I think that serves as a key difference between them and most cults I'm aware of. Cults tend to break people down, attacking their belief structure. In my interactions with the Chabad, they have NEVER done that or even tried to do that. They live up to their philosophy of loving other Jews regardless of background. They don't divide/categorize people, and that's why I always dug them at Rutgers. That and chocolate-orange schnapps. But this is a severe tangent.
Eventually, I found my way to Mita Hall, purchased my books, talked to some of the professors, and found my way to my locker. I threw a few books in their, purchased a Vitamin Water from the vending machine (oy! The Vitamin Waters are cheaper in the Law School vending machines than they are outside the school, but you can't beat the value from Lawson's 100Yen), and hit the streets. All the walking around caused me to work up quite the hunger attack! Near the station, I found an open (Today was Seijin Shiki or coming of age day, so a lot of things were closed) Sushi stand. Believe it or not, the sushi comes at a great price. I think I paid only 600-700 Yen for a dish LOADED with lots of sushi. Happy eep happy eep. Oh, but it came at a price. They put the wasabi in the sushi. Oh no! So yes, I made a lot of funny noises. I hate wasabi. I need to remember how to say "please no wasabi. Please please. I don't mean to insult your sushi, but I hate wasabi!"::sigh:: Such is life. I managed to eat the fish, but the rice was infected with it. I got back on the train and headed home (picking up a delicious sweet purple bean bun on the way).
I relaxed for a few hours, and then headed out to wander. By then it was 17:30, so it was quite dark. I found a strange street off of Meiji-dori (Meiji Ave.). The street was well lit and looked like during the day it was some sorta of marketplace. It was still open, but it looked like it was winding down. the strange part was that along that road, there was music playing...elevatorlike music. Very weird. I managed to find a 99Yen store as well! Following that, I went home, and worked on an MP3 DVD for Fabian. He digs the metal too. Speaking of which, I found a decent Japanese metal band. They're called "Duel Jewel."They can actually do metal pretty fucking well.
Around 10, I headed out to Lawson's to pick up a cheap dinner to help me work (hah! still haven't done that). Hana was also going so we went together. Her Japanese is really good, and she is bearing with me. I'm starting to remember some of my Japanese thankfully.
Well, that's all for now. Tomorrow will be busy. Post office ATM, Alien Registration Card, and Narita Airport to meet Leslie. Leslie who didn't give me any flight details other than 3:50PM. Nyeh. Oyasumi!

Our house, in the middle of the...

2007-01-07T03:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, so some of you have been wondering about where I live. I live in Toshima. This isn't the main road, but a kind of mini road thing where the houses are. The picture on the left is my house. More to come.

Overcompensating for other technical difficulties that may result in financial hardship.

2007-01-07T02:18:00.000-08:00

First, the bad news. My ATM/DEBIT card didn't get along well with the nice...and very loud...atm machines of Tokyo. It's a very interesting contradiction that in the public sphere, the Japanese are rather loud and chipper. Every machine screams, store employees call into the streets looking for purchasers of their wares, and every time you enter a store, you're given a traditional greetings. Yet, in the private sphere, namely my neighborhood, they prize quiet to an insane degree. Apparently, before I came here, there had been some complaints about the house I'm living in. I can't believe these quiet people got a complaint! Anyways, back on topic. ATM isn't working for me. I don't quite know what I'm going to do yet. Option 1) Do something involving citibank. 2) Go to the post office, and use my credit card for cash advances (I pay the credit card online anyways). The reason I'm so fucked is that I'm going to buy my books tomorrow, so I won't have that much cash.
FLASH UPDATE: Shelly the Great (new official title), another student who will be going to Temple with me says she uses PNC and gets her money from the post office. So I'll have to wait until Tuesday then.
So, let's go into my activities today. Today, the plan was to go to Temple University and pick up my books. Clever, smart, ninja eep called first though, and they didn't pick up. Further, on the orientation guide, it doesn't list today as a pick up date. So instead I jointed Fabian going to Akihabara. Akihabara, as the convenient Wikipedia entry notes, is essentially the Mekka of Geekdom. Would that make that the Mecha? The main goal today was the "Electric Town." Like, I said, this is geek capital. Right out of the station I was greeted by a curiously dressed girl advertising her restaurant. See picture above. The place was a filled with humanoids moving about looking to get good deals on electronics...or...otaku looking to fulfill their obsessions. Our first quest was in the more electronic area, as we searched for a cheap used windows xp disc so Fabian could fix his computer. Not as easy as it seems to get a cheap one. He got something for 500Yen, but it turns out that wasn't the right disc. On the way, we stopped into a giant 6 floor arcade. Did you know Half Life 2 was an arcade game? did you know there is a multiplayer arcade Japanese history Counterstrike? I'm talking to you Perna. There were several buildings like this, but this one had the best variety. No, I didn't go into the others, but as they were all owned by one video game company (i.e. Sega Club) I can assume. I didn't get a chance to take any pics, but there were a few cute girls. Not many though. It was mostly guys, walking around the electronic area as you can imagine. Having worked up an appetite walking around, we did a quick lunch at Curry Kitchen. Yummo. A generic unidentified curry with steak and rice. Tasty though! I dig the efficient method of ordering, as it is very busy. You use a vending machine to buy a meal ticket ahead of time. Then after you sit down, you hand it to the waitress. And that's that. After that, we headed over to Radio Center, walked through it, and like some Legend of Zelda Dungeon, scaled it. Fabian described it perfectly as the World's Capital for Shit you Will Never Need. It's mostly collectible CRAP. There were a few CD stores, and whatnot, but overall it was garbage. I did manage to get a gift to send back to Lauren though. I'm not telling what it is. Following the tour de junk, we headed back to the station.
Fabian was kind enough to show me the way to the Ward Office, so I can go for my Alien Registration on Tuesday. As I've mentioned, and I will continue to, it's so interesting how one second, you're in ultra-modern Japan, and the next second, you turn a corner and you're in Meiji Japan. Behind the station was...some sorta walk which was done very traditionally. I dug it.
After that, we went to the super to find out if my credit card would work there. It did! Yay! POCKY TIME! POCKY POCKY POCKY! I got some white chocolate mousse pocky (my favorite) and some unidentifiable Pretz product. I love pocky. So many good memories. I also managed to find a place to get BOTTLED Guinness. I know it's not as good as a tap, but it's better than cans! Cans are the blasphemy of beer! I've only actively drank can beer a couple times, and that was the "crap lager" I filled my mini-fridge with Junior year for my party. Ahh! No! Creme de minte flashback!
Anyways, I'm at my place now, waiting for the laundry to dry. That's it. More later. Tommorrow I'll venture out to pick up my books and to Ikebukuro. For the "they're legal now"...I mean coming of age ceremony

In memorial...

2007-01-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

They should have a day of mourning for this fine gentleman. Those who went to college owe him their very lives!

Fun with your remote controlled eep!

2007-01-06T07:29:00.000-08:00

http://bento.com/tokyofood.html
So check this out will ya? If you see something special, comment and I'll check it out!

I love Japanglish.

2007-01-06T07:11:00.000-08:00

Today's fun English misuse:
1. From a curry packet- "For those of you who have always wanted to eat a curry master."
2. A brand of shredded cheese- "Characteristics of Cheese."
NOTE: I hope this is a bungling of English, and not an implied warning about the authenticity of the product.

monoculture nightmare

2007-01-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

So I went to MacDonald's tonight. I had their Double Cheeseburger, known to them as a Double Cheese. And yes, I had it with a "Set," or what we'd call fries and a soft drink. Let's compare burgers shall we? Last night, I went to Mon for a burger. The meat tasted different. The cheese was sorta alien. And they used a bread like substance for a bun, rather than a bun like substance. So what about Nihon no MacDonald's v. US MacDonald's? You guessed it. Exactly the same. No difference. At all. Same fake cheese. Same fake meat. Same as I had in Germany. It both raises and answers a lot of questions at the same time.

Technical difficulties....

2007-01-06T00:34:00.000-08:00

Ok. This is irksome. Blogspot, for one reason or another, has all of its options in Japanese and won't go back to english. So I apologize if there are certain delays.
I'm settled into my house now. I like it here. So far there are 3 other people living here. Fabian, a German dude. Hana and Hyum, two Korean girls who don't speak English, but are fantastic at Japanese.
So what have I been doing for the last 24 hours? Well, as I mentioned, I've got a slight cold, so I'm taking it easy. Yesterday, after I finally dragged my stuff in, showered up, and got changed, I went out and explored the main street (I think!) in my area. That's the thing I've noticed about Tokyo...it's very mazelike. Lots of roads, placed where you couldn't imagine. And the system used for numbering them/naming them isn't the same as ours. I think I'm kinda getting the hang of it, however, I can see why people always draw maps/write in relation to landmarks.
Today, I slept in late. I needed it. I slacked off for a couple hours online, talking to Kat online ( :) YAY!). Finally, I used the little map Fabian drew for me and headed out to to Lawson, a 100Yen Store! So before I entered, I was thinking it would be like the $1 stores here in the US. You know, good for buying crappy household items. Well, Lawson seemed a little different. In addition to the crappy household items, they had food, including some name brand things that I've seen elsewhere for more money ::sips his vitamin water to demonstrate::. I spent about 19 yen and got a whole load of interesting things. Yes, some more pretz (I love the pretz), some food stuffs, some tissues, some vitamin water which I am horribly addicted too...some butter... Oh yes. And bread. I small half loaf sized bread thing, filled with HUGE and THICK fluffy slices. It reminds me of the thick toast I used to get at I's Cafe (I miss). Fabian says they are 24 hours too. Yatta!
Speaking of food, I'm going to break my normal policy, and go to follow Pei's advice and check out a Mcdonald's. Hey hey! Don't shoot. You know I normally don't like McDonald's...however, this is one of those wacky chances to see the differences/their interpretation of our foods. Also on my list, I want to find a German place. I made a promise those many years ago that I'd be having bratwurst in Japan. Zod dammit, I will!

Fun with hostels.

2007-01-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

ahh...hostels. nothing like waking up and seeing some old, fat, and above all...naked, european dude in the bed on the other side of the room. get the eyebleach.

I slept rather well though. The bed was larger than my bed at home. Combined with my exhaustion, it made for a good night's rest. I don't have to check out for another 3 hours, so I'm going to go explore asakusa a bit with my camera.

Tokyo night 1

2007-01-04T06:43:00.000-08:00

So, I made it here safe and sound. Long ass 12 hour flight. Not too bad. Saw Little Miss Sunshine and The Davinci Code. The second was a sleeper. The first was pretty good. As a sad side note, my eepmachine is on the fritz. So no photos for a while.
It doesn't seem like a real country yet. It seems more like a Japan themed amusement park, with everyone in on playing their respective role to the innocent lost gaijin. Then again, maybe they just want to simply minimize sources of disharmony.
Ugh...my nose is runny. I'm exhausted. I'm going to run to the AM/PM convenience store and I'm going to pick up some tissues.

Still packing.

2006-12-28T13:53:00.000-08:00

I've finally found my usb cable that goes to my camera. I was worried for a while. I want this journal to have photos in it. The actual inspiration for this was Ladi's journal while she was in Tokyo, so in some ways this is a tribute to her work, and the help she's given me...even before I started law school. Massive praise to my fiends for all their help in getting to this point. Ladi, Lauren, Dora, Meep, Mike...I'm really getting excited.
In other news, a package from the much loved Kate came in the mail today. In it were some very very useful books! One of the book books is on buying food in Japan. The other is "Tokyo for Free." Already I've found some stuff. Check this out: Welcome Furoshiki! Awesome!
Well, back to packing!

Tokyo ni iku tumori desu.

2006-12-27T00:46:00.000-08:00

So what's the point of this blog, eh? This blog is intended to be a record of my adventures in Japan. I plan on putting my observations, my stories, and hopefully my photos here to capture my wild and wacky experiences, good and bad.
So who am I? I'm the Eep! I'm a 3L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. I've had a thing for Japan for quite a number of years now. My goal entering law school has been to live, work, ect. in Japan. I wanted to be State Department. In all honesty, law school was a last minute thing. Four years since I graduated Rutgers, a lot has changed in my life. I've put back on the pounds, so hopefully Tokyo will help me with that. We'll see. My goal of being in Japan remains the same, though the picture I had in mind has also changed.
What are my interests besides just "Tokyo"? Admittedly, I'm a geek. I'm an omni-geek. I geek out at a lot of things. Besides just liking to eat, I appreciate good food. In my free time, I put on the lab coat and go into my kitchen to experiment. I'm looking forwards to good "wasyoko." I'm a big time history geek. The combination of my love of cooking and history probably lead me to be into Japan in the first place. I'm a real sucker for Meiji era stuff. Amazing period. Admittedly, I also enjoy anime. I haven't watched it in a number of years, and that's probably for the best. Dangerously, I've been drawn to Keroro Gunso lately (aka Sgt. Frog). We'll see how this madness spreads. Generic outdoorsy stuff is there on my list too. I'd love to hike Mt. Fuji, but it'll probably be closed when I'm there. We'll see more things on the list as I continue to post. I want to milk Japan for all it's worth.
What don't I like? Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty is my ancient nemesis. From time unknown, the forces of good (that's me) and evil (that's it) have done battle. This Spring, our battle will conclude.
So yeah, one more week to go.