The skills I lack

I'm still trying to decide if it's really that important that I learn to cook. I found a couple good books at the store today, either of which would be fine. It's just that if I do it I'm not gonna half-ass it; I'm gonna try really hard and buy all the correct equipment and not, you know, crush garlic with a fork (not that I will probably be crushing much garlic for Japanese food?) Anyhow, I spent like almost an hour looking at cookbooks at Tsutaya after running around with friends today in Shimokitazawa, which is an area I will definitely return to.

Roppongi Hills is really fancy, but it lacks personality as far as a neighborhood. There is a ton in it, but it's sort of a maze, and it feels incredibly superficial. Shimokitazawa, on the other hand, has a ton ton ton of stuff crammed all over, some cute, some grungy, some chains, some adorable indie spots. It's also a maze, but at least it's more of a "city" feeling than "mall." We had houjicha shaved ice, which is not a flavor you can find everywhere. The store we went to was tucked away upstairs around a corner (like most things, it seems) but there was a line outside.

After that we popped into a bookstore overgrown with stuffed animals, shower curtains, backpacks, snackfood, etc. I forget the name of this chain, but uhm...yeah it's like being a book store just wasn't good enough. I realize that Borders and other places stock things that are not books, but you can still TELL it's a book store readily. This, though, was just a cacophony of goods sprouting from every shelf like a new strain of consumer-ready weed.

I bought a couple used jazz CDs at Disk Union. I kind of want to go back there, too. Somehow I'm not used to shopping for used CDs, but I buy used games often enough. I should check out Amoeba more often (or you know, when I'm in San Francisco).

Later on we got drinks at an adorable cafe which is most definitely a secret, but the kind that people know about so there, again, was a line. Ended up ordering "orange spice" Sangria. I'm not really a Sangria expert, but this was more like a very small cup of juice (the wine was super diluted) with ice. The flavor that was there was good, but it missed the depth of the red wine base, somehow.

Dinner was "soup curry" at a place called cocoro. All three of us ordered the 14 vegetable combo with brown rice, but at various spicinesses. I got 6, which did end up being rather spicy. Soup spiciness is harder to do that other types of food because since it's liquid it hits your throat faster. Somehow if you "taste" food "more" before you swallow, it's easier? Maybe your spit dampens the heat. Anyways, the veggies were great, but we all ate too much.......

Incidentally, since I'm just sitting here in my room listening to Chet Baker wondering whether I need to cook, I might as well discuss (briefly, emo-ly) my TWENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY ANGST.

It doesn't really have anything to do with my birthday. It's just a convenient excuse to have it out.

Things flitting across my mind:

25 = one quarter of a century.

[excised because it's the perfect emo birthday tweet]

Not cute anymore. Not sure when that happened exactly, but I don't feel cute. I feel...like a disheveled adult.

I haven't cooked a meal in...ages. Absolutely ages. Does that matter?

I'm really bad at laundry.

I'm single.

Haven't really gained expertise.

I was far more disciplined during college than I am now. What happened? It's not like I'm genuinely more relaxed.

Etc.

This has been Birthday Angst With Tiger, only remember that the Birthday part is a clever ruse to make you think I am not always this emo when really I am.

#sigh

Random Things I Have Enjoyed of Late

the "short" Starbucks size

Yamanote line platform jingles

salad for breakfast (although I think I mentioned this already)

bossa nova in almost every cafe

Anyhow, as usual, there is so much I want to do that I end up aimless. Gonna just lie here and listen to more music. It's late, anyhow.

Pix or it didn't...

Well, I can't figure out how to get pix off my iPhone, and I figured blogging without them was a mite pointless, but now that I've been here for about a month, I figure I should relate what I have been up to.

Kamakura:

Went to Kamakura and Yokohama with one of the owner's of my favorite [Mission, San Francisco] local izakaya, Nombe. Ate shirasu both fresh and boiled, which was a new thing for me. Also tried a chocolate croquette. Who knew those even existed? Got to sample some really tasty pickles as we meandered around a shopping district. Saw the daibutsu and walked over to the bridge to Enoshima. Dinner in Yokohama included, I recall, some really tasty wontons.

Takoyaki Party:

Got together with some peeps from work and made takoyaki. Yup, grilled'em right at our table; you have to pour the batter into little cups, add ingredients, and then kind of spin them around as they cook to make them into ball shape. Here is a pic I took of the finished product, complete with mayo and tonkatsu sauce smiley face.

HBJB Concert:

A friend I met on Twitter took me out on a Friday night so see her friend's band. They play some pretty funky music, just cosplaying as Native Americans for some reason. The opening group was this a capella trio, DSC. By the end, they invited a lot of guests (including DSC again) up on stage, so the last couple songs were pretty epic. Overall, it was really a lot of fun, despite the bizarreness, and I'm glad I have the chance to hang out with Japanese people while I'm here! When I lived in France, I had next to no French friends. Still looking for more ways to meet people, but Twitter and other websites have been an ok start.

Asakusa:

One of my co-workers and his wife took me to Asakusa, where there is lots of shopping and a famous shrine. Actually, I went to the shop mentioned in this blog post. We also had excellent sushi for lunch. I've discovered that I do actually like ikura. Maybe my taste buds have changed yet again..

Mt. Fuji (you know what Fuji-san looks like):

I hopped in the car with a (different) co-worker and his family (wife and two young girls). We had a ton of fun, but really spent most of the time in the car aside from lunch and a brief outing at the 5th step up Fuji. The youngest was only five, so we didn't hike. Ate a variety of strawberry desserts with lunch. Escaped a traffic jam to hit the dreaded McDonald's for dinner (I had some kind of lemon and salt chicken sandwich with wayyyyyy too much vinaigrette on it, but it was not something I had ever tried before. Also, you can get a salad instead of fries, and the dressing--used sparingly--was delicious). We played probably HOURS of the Japanese word game, shiritori. I'm surprised there was not more janken. Anyhow, the kids were adorable. The oldest sewed me a super cute tiger doll! I wish I could post a picture :P

WOWOW Music Unlimited:

I got tickets to go see the Okamoto's, a rock band I found out about when they came to San Francisco as part of the Japan Nite Tour, with Chatmonchy. There were four other bands, and I enjoyed Lego Big Morl and Avengers in Sci-Fi enough to buy CDs. Shibuya AX is a pretty great venue. I hope to return sometime, maybe get tix earlier so I can be on the floor where it's crazy. The balcony was rather chill.

Japanese lessons:

Started private lessons at Berlitz. I'm learning all stuff for work. It is pretty challenging, but I'm trying to put in study time each evening!

Random food:

Been eating lots of curry, of course, of many varieties, though, not just Japanese. I also LOVE omuraisu; there is a place right by the Roppongi metro stop that does take out. Have taken a shine to Lauderdale, after having a leisurely and relaxing basil omelet experience last weekend. Tried Toraya Café today for lunch. Did Junkadelic's chicken burrito, which was tasty, if a bit soupy and nowhere near spicy enough even with the salsa. The best so far, though, was probably eating hiroshima-style (layered, not mixed) okonomiyaki straight off the griddle with fresh tomato, spicy pickled cucumbers, and sesame tofu and cabbage salad on the side.

Apartment:

It's still ridiculously fancy. All my friends think I am rich and/or a CEO. (I'm not the CEO, guys!) I love going to the pool in the morning during the week, and almost love it even more on the weekends. There is almost never anyone there. The most crowded I have seen it was four people, which, four people is fine since there are two big lanes. More than that and we'd be circle-swimming, which is less than ideal (but when you start complaining about that, you really know you've gone off the deep end...not that the water is very deep; in fact it's rather a bit shallow, BUT once again...one really cannot complain about such things).

Anyways, I think that's all I got for now. I want to try to see the new Ghibli movie, maybe, and possibly hit up a jazz bar tonight. First San Francisco is already this Tuesday! Time flew, naturally.

A little less lag, please! A little less lag!

Ugh I accidentally fell asleep even earlier than the last time. So it's still sort of rough. Yesterday was good. In the morning I checked out the pool. It's two big lanes, but there were barely any people so I don't feel like I will ever have much trouble. The locker room is ultra clean and they make you take off your shoes before you even go in (there are two sets of lockers, one for your shoes, and then inside, one for your clothes). I really want to find a swim cap and new goggles, but I'm not sure where I will be able to find them...

Before work I went to Arc Acadmey to up a pre-test so I can get some lessons at an appropriate level. It was sort of an unplanned visit, but they were really friendly even though the teacher didn't have time to talk to me. Complementary iced tea!

Then...hmm, got together with a Twitter friend and planned an epic shopping trip followed by dinner with her boss and a study abroad student from Singapore, so I'm really looking forward to that this afternoon. Other than that, just work. I did have lunch with Yukari and Reina—ultra Japanese style with grilled fish, salad, miso, and rice. On my way home I grabbed a slice of very bacony quiche at the Keiyakizaka Bakery, where they have "Moose" on the dessert menu, heh.

So yeah I mean to stay up, but I put on the TV and conked out almost immediately. So bad. I've been waking up pretty reliably at 4:20 am, but I managed to lie around until about 5:30. I figured I maybe the Starbucks on the corner would be open, but they aren't until 7!!!!! That's crazy. Shout-outs to Mission and 4th, man. They wake up early and we love them for it. Anyhow, luckily (?) there was this 24hr/365day Chinese cafe nearby. I had kimchi veggies and xiao long bao. They were not as tasty as the ones I ate in San Francisco, but I can't say I was expecting a ton from this place. No matter. It was ok.

Interesting people watching, too. It was pretty hopping for 6 am. Lots of (also jet-lagged? or maybe just party-people) foreigners, some of them discussing how their friends wrecked their attempts at picking up girls. One British guy was talking about how nonchalant the "Chinese style" of ordering food is, and how he tried to emulate it for this meal. It seems like he ordered a ton of stuff. The food started coming and hadn't stopped even when I left (and it took a while to order because I didn't realize I had to go back up to the counter).

Going to try to pop into the Twitter company meeting shortly, and then probably study for a while. I haven't been so I feel all rusty and horrible. And you can tell! My Japanese is awful :X

Disjointed first JP-side post

Oh noooo, I failed in my mission to be jet lag free. I'm not sure if that's even entirely possible, but I definitely went to bed way too early last night. It was either that or caffeinated. Energy had plummeted straight to zero.

Let's see, though. As for the flight, pretty standard, low-drama. I sat next to a family of four, but the kids were more or less behaved. Didn't watch any movies, but played a lot of video games. Slept extremely minimally. It was annoying that they had the lights off for most of the flight even though it was light out outside. It was daytime in Japan! They were setting us up for jet lag fail from the beginning ;p

The bus ride from Narita is really the most dangerous, though. It is soooo easy to conk out on that ride. I stayed mostly awake and got off at the Grand Hyatt (where I'm not staying) to meet my supervisor, a couple co-workers, and the guy who helped set up my apartment. From there we walked a short way to Roppongi HIlls Residence D where I AM staying.

It's really too fancy. Although the kitchen is small, I'll be able to cook most things that I would want to, and it comes with dishes and stuff. The TV has cable. The balcony has a view of Tokyo Tower (and a Blue Man Group billboard, heh). Breakfast is include and served at the spa (which has a pool and gym, so I won't have to worry about finding a club to join).

The area is basically like an outdoor mall with lots of shops and restaurants and things. There are four residence buildings. Maybe I'll meet some people at the cocktail party they're having in a couple weeks?

The first night we went to one of the restaurants owned by Akira Kurosawa's family for oden and udon. I was pretty tired, but managed to stay up after that till after 11. Contrast this with yesterday when I conked out before 9:30. Ugh! So this morning I am up so early…

Yesterday was my first full day. In the morning I had salad, juice, bread, yogurt (apple kiwi!) and coffee for breakfast, explored the neighborhood a bit (there's so much stuff everywhere!) then met Yukari to head to the Digital Garage offices. It's a really quick trip on the Hibiya line, just two stops to Ebisu.

I met too many people to remember all their names, but hopefully I'll get the nearby ones down soon. There are a handful of people I know from the phone whose faces I just need to get to stick. Everyone was really friendly. I got to meet the CEO, too! His office has some fish in it :)

Steven took us to this awesome korean restaurant for lunch. Had kimchee, tofu, raw egg, and rice. I love when rice is served in a hot dish so the grains on the bottom crisp up.

Work was mostly uneventful, but I'm a little behind and there are some issues lingering from before I left that I need to take care of. Looking forward to being caught up! Hopefully I'll be less tired today, even though I didn't sleep perfectly and woke up really early…

Last night I went for some food in my neighborhood at a place called Arata. I have no idea if it's supposed to be good or not, but I liked it well enough. Had cabbage salad, tsukune (which is like a meatball), and mushrooms wrapped in pork. The staff there had some of the most energetic "irasshai" I've ever heard. There are plenty of places where you'll get greeted by the whole place as you enter (or leave), but they really nail it here, to the point where it can be startling when a customer walks in, haha.

Ha, I'm distracted from writing this because I found a channel on TV with nothing but Japanese movies. Really I'm just waiting for the pool to open. I have about another half hour.

The rest of today will be checking out Japanese schools and hopefully getting some work done. It's gonna be kind of hard to figure out where I'm going. But I guess if I get lost I will have to learn fast ;) I think there are enough places in Shibuya that once I get there I should be ok. And supposedly I can walk back to Daikanyama (where the office is) from there. Anyways, I'm not sure. It'll be an adventure I guess.

Mostly I'm just really happy to be in Tokyo. And I hope I can learn a lot of Japanese while I'm here in addition to getting a lot done for Twitter. I'm hanging out with a Japanese friend on Saturday, so hopefully that will be good practice? I know she speaks English, though, so I'll have to be diligent.

This blog is gonna be really tedious without pictures. I might try taking some with my iPhone and seeing if I can get them on this computer without accidentally deleting all my iTunes ;)

Last Night in the Mission

Bid an extremely fond farewell to Heirloom Cafe over espresso and cookies with Nila. Caused no small amount of chaos (my pet exaggeration of the evening—they handled us like heroes, really) at Nombe with the biggest Twitter posse to date. Rocked Beretta with the Foursquare mayor and special guests. These are exactly the places I wanted to be on my last night in San Francisco before this trip, and exactly the places I will miss the most in the Mission.

It also just felt really good to have the support of so many friends as I'm taking off. Nombe was full to bursting in the front window with peeps (mostly tweeps) there to say hey. Lots of them had plenty of reasons to be too busy—including one co-worker who had two of them sitting in her lap :)—but they came anyways, which I appreciated so much.

Sappy sappy sappy, but when I have love I gotta show it <3

Before I leave:
-packing
-breakfast
-coffee
-Walgreens
-bank

There are some things I meant to do and then somehow did not do them. That sort of figures. Thankfully, none of them seem terribly major. The one that seems more major, may in fact be minor, where the one I thought was maybe more minor could be major if other things are also true. You know. Life.

It's not yet five am.

TOKYO: so soon

It is once again that time of time when I cross a large body of water which this blog affectionately if diminuitively refers to as a "puddle." The body in question is Pacific in nature, which could indicate a trip to Japan (if you know me) and if you DO know me, you may already know that it's true, and I'll be living in Tokyo for the next six months (minus a San Francisco check-in and a birthday stint in Vegas, of all places; Justin Bieber, the things we do for you).

No further news at this time :O Although I must say I am violently tempted to move this shebang to Tumblr, if for no other reason that to extricate it from The Past.

Finally!

Pix are up on Facebook :D

Crazy Parfait (and the rest of the trip)

We did meet Dan! In the morning! I'm back already, but here is the rest of what happened.

Dan! He came to have lunch/parfait with Kayo and me. Kayo and I split an herb chicken pita sandwich while we waited for him to arrive, but it barely had any chicken. Also, too much mayo...

Some people think that mayo in sushi is an abomination, but you know, they do it there, too. They really like their mayo.

Anyways, the best part was the amazing parfait. Exactly like an anime parfait or something. Insane. Huge. Monstrous, even. We ordered one that had either sweet potato or pumpkin ice cream, I forget. Whichever one of those flavors wasn't the ice cream, though, was this really thick cream almost like frosting, decorating. There was also more traditional whipped cream, banana, cookies, other fruit, chocolate corn flakes. Insanity! There will be a picture.........

heh

Kayo saw me off to the airport, which was nice. The flight was pretty uneventful. We had some turbulence, which I enjoyed. I like turbulence. Makes things more interesting. I watched The Spiderwick Chronicles, which was sort of cute as a distraction. Food was good. They had these insanely fine scrambled eggs. More like a paste than...an egg. Fluffy.

I dunno! The BART ride back was a cinch and I managed to stay up all day. Lonnnnnng day. So that's that. I'll post again when the pix are up :D

Ack, too much happened!

I've been so busy that there hasn't been time to update!

Well, first of all, the trip with Watanabe-san went very well. We all piled in his car and went to a tiny seaside place. (Later you'll see sunset pix on a beach where the opposite coast is North Korea.) At Matsukura, a famous sushi restaurant, we all had chirashizushi, which is a mix of raw fish and sometimes egg or fish eggs or whatever is around, over rice. Ours had raw tuna, shrimp, lots of fish eggs, what else....other stuff, squid, scallop? Some other fish. Lots of food. And it came with miso soup on the side---with shrimp heads in it!!! hahaha! Yikes. Made for good flavor, though.

What did we do that night when we got home? I don't remember. Maybe played video games or just went to bed. The next day we went to Asahikawa, which is a city near Utashinai WHICH to clarify IS the smallest CITY in Japan. There are smaller classifications of city-type areas, though, like villages, or something. SOOOOOooooOOOoooo it's not quite as small as you might imagine, but still quite small. ANyhow, Asahikawa was nice. We picked up a couple other JETs on the way. The plan was arcade, karaoke, and a movie, but one of the other girls had to leave early so we sort of condensed everything by splitting up.

Round 1 is a huge entertainment center that had nearly everything. Bowling, karaoke, darts, arcade, etc. I sang karaoke with the two girls I had never met, which was fun, but sort of annoying because they made us buy food. It was like...part of the cover charge or something. I was sort of sick of sweets by then, since we had some dango (sweet sticky mochi with sweet sticky sauce) in the car so I ordered something cheap that didn't look like ice cream or soda. Turned out to be nachos, only crazy Japanese nachos made out of regular potato chips instead of tortilla chips, and with aonori seaweed powder on top. DELICIOUS and totally deadly hahaha

Sang some songs, mosty in Japanese. The girl Ari and Caroline turned out to be really really good at singing. Esp the J-stuff. They really had it all down, so that made it extra fun. After that we hooked up with Three and Melissa for some videogames. Tried out a Gundam simulation (even got my very own pilot ID ;D) and then hit up the purikura for tiny insane pix of the five of us. I dunno if we have such crazy photo booths in the states, except when imported heh. One of the pix looks like a horribly 80s boyband poster, while another has us all popping out of a giant mouth. In one, we are being hugged by a huge koala. Really crazy stuff.

From Round 1 we went to an Asian restaurant where I had some fusion pasta with anchovies, ham, asparagus, and cabbage. Really really good, except they dust it with some kind of salt and I didn't realize I had to toss it, so the first bite or two was pretty awful, heh. Caroline had to go home, but Ari stuck around and ordered chili cheese fondue (chili the spice, but not spicy...it was pretty weak, actually, as far as anything with the name chili cheese tends to go), Melissa had cream sauce pasta, and Three got garlic steak that was actually pork. All very good! (And once again, the constant refrain, pictures on facebook when I get back!!! Cuz I suck!!!)

After dinner we made it JUST in time to the new "Indy Jones" movie. Well, actually we were a couple seconds late. But only a couple. So it was ok. I liked it well enough, I suppose. Campy as hell XD So whatever, that's fine. There are a few too many moments where you're thinking, "Oh hrm, this is cute cuz everyone is old hee hee hee" which is a bit uncomfortable, but other than that, the corniness is pretty managable.

It was a late night, then, because there was an arcade in the movie theater, too, with some actually good games. Like Mushi Hime Futari. I got the high score on Twin Bee, which rocked. I have a pic of my scoreboard initials DUK and they are way higher than anyone else. Not like anyone comes to this arcade to put scores up on the Twin Bee, but still cool.

The next day, which was yesterday, we couldn't sleep in at all. In fact, we had to get up early! I went with Three to the local elementary school to teach English. I've wanted to visit a Japanese school pretty much since I started learning Japanese, so it was really ridiculously exciting to be able to interact with kids in the classroom. We taught them numbers and how to tell us their names, letters of the alphabet, just simple things, but it was pretty sweet. They were all very surprised and excited to see me, and they clamored that we run around with them during recess. We totally did, too, except I was wearing the slippers that visitors have to wear inside the school (since visitors don't know/remember to bring extra shoes)

OH SPEAKING OF SHOES

The shoes I have not even had for a year that my mom bought me in August have holes in them. BOTH shoes have holes by the balls of my feet and this is me in the rainy season in Japan lol lol lol Oh well. I have other pairs in the states. Just a silly coincidence that I should happen to have holes now of all times.

Anyways, the kids were adorable. My favorite part of the day was either being beaten up by a crazy babbling chorus of RASENGANs and KAGE NO BUNSHINs (good thing I got into Naruto, or I wouldn't have any idea what they were talking about--turns out a big part of socializing with Japanese school kids is knowing all the cool characters in popular anime etc) or kyuushoku. If you remember last time I went and had fakey kyuushoku at the delicious kyuushoku toban restaurant in Akihabara. THIS time, though, I had the real thing with real 1st graders. There was rice, cabbage soup, veggies with tofu, and salmon. I didn't take any milk which caused a minor scandal among the kids, heh.

It was a tiring day, after not sleeping much, so I was pretty wiped out by the time we went to the board of education offices. The people working there were nice, though. Three was right when he said that it was one of my only chances to practice "real" Japanese. Elementary school chaos might as well almost be another language. (Also, Three's friend Yuuko's daughter uses so much slang that Yuuko told me she can't understand her--i.e. sutaba for sutaabakkusu = Starbucks)

The tiring day wasn't even close to over yet, though, because we went to Yuuko's house for tea. She showed us the temple where she works. It's pretty nice and the entire area around it is being rebuilt, including a new house for Yuuko and her family. I very nervously rang a HUGE bell that you could probably hear all around town.

Tea was great and she bought tons of fancy Japanese desserts like mango pudding, anmitsu, the best dango I've ever eaten in my life (with black sesame sauce....zomg...just too good). I'd like to say if I gained weight on this trip that it was alllllll rice and fish, but that would be a lie. That said, I did eat LOTS of rice and fish.

We went out to sushi yet again (the third time) but this time it was at Three and Melissa's favorite restaurant, which had just that day re-opened after being remodeled. Couldn't have had better timing! It was some of the best sushi I've ever had. The salmon alone was heavenly--and about A DOLLAR. Yes, 130 yen for two delicious strips of pinky perfection with dabs of wasabi to hold it to the rice. Dipped in soy sauce, the finest thing you will ever eat. Ever. Also tried some types of sushi I had never had before, like engawa (still not sure what exactly that was, in English) and kanimiso (crab and miso paste) We requested copies of the grand opening fliers to commemorate the occasion. SO GEEKY.

To top off the final Hokkaido evening, we watched Party 7. Actually, they both fell asleep, and I nearly did, but it is tricky without subs. I would love to see this movie again to see how much I actually managed to catch for realz and how much I just pretended I understood. Definitely worth seeing again in any case, it's crazy time. The opening credits are anime, too! Whoo! There are some people in a hotel and some people spying on the people in a hotel, and a very unprofessional travel agent. You kinda just have to see it...with subtitles o_o I wonder if there is a domestic release.

This morning Yuuko picked me up at 7 am, so that was it, my time in Utashinai come to an end. She and her husband had to go to Sapporo anyhow so they were able to take me to the station. Actually, her husband took the car and left us at a bus stop not far from Sapporo so he could go on ahead. It was nice to hang out with Yuuko a bit before leaving. We talked over scones and Hokkaido butter (which, incidentally, IS different from regular butter, but I'm not sure how-- sweet and delicious, though, that is fact) and then ran down to the depachika (department store basement) so I could pick out a lunch box. Shellfish rice! Veggies! Egg! Yum!

The train ride was hellllllla boring because I finished my magazines and my headphones are even more broken. On the way over I could wiggle the cord and hold it a certain way to get both ears to come in, but now that trick won't work anymore. Plus it started getting staticky. That might be fixable with new batteries, but with just one ear, I mean, some CDs don't record for mono. For instance, the new Mates of State has some of the harmony split so you can't hear it all through one 'phone. I mostly just daydreamed and dozed in and out. Tomorrow I will re-up on magazines before getting on the plane.

It was nice to meet up with Kayo again when I got to Tokyo. She made tasty beef curry, which I had been looking forward to this whole trip. We put spinach on top! Yummmm. She also whipped up this psuedo-fancy strawberry jello/pudding/yogurt type thing for dessert. Pretty nifty. That and I had a kiwi shochuu cooler from the grocery store. Finally got the pix from Halloween, and then we've just been relaxing. Or rather, she sacked out and I've been blogging. Which is cool. Been a lot to talk about. And there are so many little details that I don't really get to mention, but I guess that's good so there is something to discuss in person.

Tomorrow in the morning I am meeting Kayo's friend, Dan, who wants to grill me (I'm marinating to prepare...) on the game writing biz. We're hooking up along with Kayo at a parfait shop that one of Three's friends recommended. AS IF I NEED PARFAIT! Should be a good send off, though. For now, I should probably go to bed, since I need to get up and shower/pack in less than six hours...

Surprise Tennis

Yesterday for lunch we had kaitenzushi (conveyer belt sushi place, although we ordered most of it a la carte.) Can you IMAGINE getting a pair of nigiri for a dollar? They didn't all cost a dollar, most were 3ish, but that is still way cheaper than it tends to go for in San Francisco. The salmon was particularly delicious, but I also sampled hamachi, scallop, tuna, shrimp, and a maki with what seemed like maybe little bits of beef or pork or something in it. Hot water on tap at our table made for easy refills of green tea.

Then we spent a while at Tsutaya, a book, cd, dvd, game (and apparently rental) chain. We spent a while deciding what movies to rent, poked around the magazine aisles, and I got a kanji chart to put up when I get home. I'm really bummed cuz lots of my posters got trashed in the move to my new apt. The chart I got has all the sixth grade kanji on it, so it's good motivation--someday I'll finish elementary school ;D

The best part of yesterday was definitely playing tennis. There is a sports arena place in town with two indoor courts, so we met up with some Japanese people Three and Melissa know. One of them lent me a racket and we played for like an hour and a half. The balls were a little flat and the courts were sort of springy--better for jogging on than tennis, I think, BUT I felt really worked out by the end of it and had a lot of fun playing. Felt much less rusty than I had last time. Can't wait to play more when I get home!!

For dinner we got pizza and stuff to stick on top. Fresh veggies and some ham. Really tasty! Then we blended together bananas, frozen blueberries and raspberries, vanilla and pineapple ice cream, and a little bit of orange juice to make super delicious fruit shakes. Stayed up late watching one of the movies we rented, The Number 23, with Jim Carrey. I had never even heard of it before. Where have I been? ;D Anyhow, a decent thriller, I guess. I like Jim Carrey's (good) serious stuff better than his wacky days.

After that reason prescribed bedtime, but I still hadn't written up my last article from the press conference, so I punked around doing that till about 4 am. Took a bit longer not only because I was pulling quotes from my recording of the interview, but also because I kept nodding off and writing gibberish, as tends to happen when I work when I'm overtired. Requires careful self-editing before sending it off.

As expected the whole lot of us slept in pretty well. Easy time in the morning. Had a cup of "the 2nd best miso in Japan" (I guess it won a contest or something?) with tofu and some leftover fried rice for brunch. The miso was pretty excellent, but I"m not enough of a connoisseur to know exactly why or what made it that way. The only part I didn't like was that it was sort of dreggy on the bottom--not something I am used to. The taste was really too severe to finish it off. Not sure if that was a quality of the way it was cooked or the tofu we added or what.

Other than that just have been playing video games and reading. Later on we are taking a short trip (about an hour?) to some other town to be treated to sushi by one of Three and Melissa's Japanese acquaintances. Apparently he likes to go hiking and fell off a cliff not too long ago? I think that's the guy I'm meeting, Watanabe-san.

Up North...

the sun comes up around 3:30 am! :D Which is a little before we went to bed last night XD The train rides were LONNNNNNG but at least it wasn't like an airplane where your nose gets all dried out and you can't breath. I had bento on the way, and some kaki no tane (spicy little crackers with peanuts--my favorite snacky thing bccause it has protein!! Whoo! Corn potage snacks, you don't own my soul yet!)

The Shinkansen was pretty interesting. Part way through the trip they split the train in half and one half went where I was going (thankfully, the half I was on ;D) and the other went somewhere else! Fast, but not distractingly fast, really. Just smooth and easy.


On the second train, a group of kids on a school trip got on. I was sort of hoping they would sit nearby, but they weren't really. I was soooooo bored.

(Oh, apparently we did take the undersea tunnel, Oleya. It was not very exciting, though. We couldn't like, look out and see fish or anything. My thought it why would you even bother making it undersea if you can't see at least some seaweed or something, but I guss the answer is purely technical or something.)

My PSP wasn't charged, heh, so no Crisis Core ;_;

In fact, neither was my phone, so when I got to Sapporo all I could was wander around looking for a payphone, hoping I would stumble across Three and his gf randomly...

which I did! Sweet!

So we put my junk in a coin locker and went to a curry restaurant where I tried Hayashi rice for the first time. It's really hard to explain that sauce. It's darker than curry sauce, but doesn't taste like curry. It tastes like...well, like this, heh. Red wine and tomato sauce? Sure. Mushrooms, definitely. Super super tastey, but this place's was a little too oily for my liking, almost like they drizzled oil over the top instead of cream.

After that we went walked downtown a bit, went to a big arcade. Managed to thread past the UFO catchers without trying to grab even a single adorable stuffed animal, and then played some Drum Mania.

Then it was getting late. Time to hop on the train. It was a fun ride, trading stories about silly things. Got off the train and into Melissa's car to drive to the smallest town in Japan, Utashinai. Just under 5,000 people. No high school! Whoo. It's pretty chilly. I guess sort of like San Francisco weather, although when I left San Francisco it was beaaaauuuuutiful. I hope we didn't use up all the nice warm days, cuz I will want some more when I come back.


This morning Melissa is using expert egg wrangling skills to provide breakfast. I had one over hard with fluffy Japanese toast, and some banana and yogurt. She's a good cook, and the kind that likes the kitchen to herself, so Three is playing Monster Hunter and I am blogging...

Today, no plans, really. Just gonna check out the area, probably grocery shop and rent a movie for the evening. Chillin' sounds very nice, though. His apt is pretty cool, so I'll definitely grab some pictures of that before I leave :D

Something new

Turns out really anyone I know has been to Hokkaido except Three, at least that I know of. Everyone I mention it to, even the people who live here, say they have never been. Of course, I have never been to Hawaii, Alaska, Washington OR Washington D.C. etc etc so it's not that surprising, but I'm just noting that it seems I'll get to break some new ground ;D

STILL nervous about the trains, but all my seats are reserved, so hopefully things will work out. Had a VERY late night last night, which was somewhat irresponsible. Even more irresponsibly, it involved chips and cookies. Assorted junk food and a dearth of sleep is so bad!! Gotta shape it up a bit ;p

Today I'll be playing Crisis Core in the train. And maybe reading a bit more of my magazines. I dunno. Could be a musical selection. Honestly? We'll see how long I can stay awake. Anyhow, gonna nibble some more sandwich before I head out and then...and then...

(!!!)

I'll head out! ;p

sleepy worky girly

We ended up at the Shoto "museum" instead of the Shoto "Gallery" sooooooo that obviously didn't work out very well. Luckily a friendly cab driver took us to the correct location for free, since he could tell we were business people in need OR RATHER flustered idiotic gaijin.

Ah well.

We got there, to the press thing that is. I met some foreign correspondents and drank champagne or something and ate fancy little hors d'oeurve for dinner. Oh, and looked at games. I still have one article left to write. Basically, we can just say that games on the 360 are capable of having some beautiful graphics and thank god for that!! Infinite Undiscovery this Sept--w00t.

After that I went with some fellow journalists to this foody drinky place themed like a weird gothic church. The devil was leering over us and there were funky chaneliers and things. I took a few pix, but they are lowlight with no flash so as to not attract attn and/or glares from the waitstaff.

I went to the net cafe but ended up applying for a job instead of writing. The writing I did in the morning after I woke up at freaking quarter to six for no reason. Ate a salmon rice ball and drank some peach juice. Three hours of workish time and then hotel check out. Met up with Kayo and we arranged my JR pass and train tickets.

TOMORROW I go to Hokkaido o_o I'm pretty nervous. Bought some little sandwiches and grapefruit juice to have for breakfast before I leave, so I at least only have to worry about what to eat for lunch and snack instead of breakfast, too. The first train I take is a shinkansen, so that should be sweet. I'll probably take video out the window and maybe try to upload it somewhere later. Add to the probable hundreds of entirely too similar footage already available here. It's different when it's your own, though, RIGHT RIGHT? (Maybe.)

Kayo and I ate lunch out in a restaurant in the mall type place that sits on top of Shinjuku station. She had a bowl full of essentially raw tuna and avocado, among delicious rice etc. It was tasty. I got this thing that was sort of like unmade chicken soup. It was like component elements, only arranged differently. You scoop rice, chicken, egg, and mushroom into a little dish, add some seasonings like nori seaweed, sesame seeds, wasabi and then pour broth over the top. Prettttty tasty. The tea at that place was also really good. I forget the name of it.... It was brown, not green.

Kayo's apt rocks. That reminds me, I need to take pix. It's sooooo nice and adorable and brand new feeling. Extremely close to her station Shintokorozawa. All her stuff is shiny and adorable, as is her new laptop, on which I am typing now. I am not paying for this Internet! Keen!

So I actually had a pretty rad afternoon, considering I didn't get to Little Spoon. I got to meet Jean Snow and it turns out he totally rocks. Stumbled my way over to Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro, where he coordinates the gallery exhibits. Had a lot of fun talking with him about videogames, writing, chilling, living in Japan, etc. Drank a delicious Royal Milk Tea. How can you resisit Royal Milk Tea? Iced? With a dollop of ridiculously fresh tasting whipped cream on top? YOU CAN'T. Therefore, SUBMIT. But yeah, it was totally worth almost getting lost to go there. I will go again next time I am in town :D which more and more, I hope is in October for TGS. That's not to say I haven't been hoping to go since last year, because I have, but just that, there seem to be a lot of people to see in Tokyo now--a fact I enjoy.

Let me see, he eventually had to get back to work, which made me feel like an awful slacker. But then, I don't really have a job! I should make my own jobs, I guess. Jean is co-authoring a book at the moment. I dunno if I have the stamina for something like that. Maybe if I were a co-author...but I still dunno what I would write about. I seem to have lots of acquaintances who are writing or have written books.

I decided to go back to Shibuya to see if I could find Little Spoon. Yeah, so the story with that is that I heard Little Spoon had closed down, so when I saw one on the way to that weird churchy place the other night, I wouldn't shut up about it, despite the fact that our ringleader was entirely anti-Little Spoon. He said it made him sick. WELL I can't say anything to that really, but I can say that Little Spoon is one of my favorite curry places. So!

The funny thing is that I even looked up the address sort of before I left. But I didn't actually read the address, much less attempt to remember it or write it down. Maybe I just googled it to make sure I hadn't been dreaming. Anyhow, you can barely get anywhere even if you do have a map, so trying to look for this place when I had no idea what relation its location had to the station's was pure madness. I failed miserably, but then I went shopping.

Yes, I confess to shopping in Shibuya, but let me tell you why. I know I'm not supposed to shop, but I got four quality clothing items for less than 25 dollars. And they are new things and rad things and would probably cost like 30 a pop or more depending on what store they were being sold in in the states. I suppose it's the same anywhere, though. Sometimes fashion is just too into itself and decides prices have to go up for random reasons.

Man, I'm tired. It's because I wandered all over hell looking for Little Spoon hahaha but yeah. This store was called Three Minutes Happiness. The bag says, "Miscellaneous goods that make our life happy and easy. THREE MINUTES HAPPINESS, it creates your happiness." And then, with little icons for each bit, "Just three minutes--Enjoy shopping--A happy feeling" I bought this whole concept immediately. AND THEY HAVE GREAT T-SHIRTS. At least a few. Ostensibly two of these items are gifts. I'm so tempted to keep them, but I did buy two shirts for myself, so I think I will let that be as spoiled as I will get.

First shirt: black with a skull and crossbones. Says, "HAVE A NARROW ESCAPE.

Second shirt: blue with navy bikini girl sketch and white outlined letters. Says, "DON'T GET SO SERIOUS. TAKE THINGS IN A MORE FREE-AND-EASY WAY."

In other words, the shirts I bought for myself are also handy lifestyle reminders.

AS FOR BELATED BIRTHDAY PRESENTS FOR TWO OF MY DEAR FAMILY MEMBERS you'll just have to wait and see later.

Uhhh so I wandered all over hell, as I said. Eventually I decided I had to head back. Since Kayo had given me her key (she was out with friends) I had to be back before her and I didn't want to cause trouble. So I just grabbed some quick food. Turned out to be what I think was vegetarian katsu sandwich. Some kind of bean patty, basically, done up to look like tonkatsu. Tasty! It was only half of a smallish sandwich, though, so I had a smallish spaghetti sauce pizza pocket at a cafe while waiting for one of my trains. I totally approve of this dinner, so don't make fun of me. It was delicious and sort of had food groups.

Man, sleepy.

Uhm, I think I meant to be like...working right now, so I should probably get cracking on that last article. I have to wake up early tomorrow as I seem to be doing lately, and if I don't get any sleep I will be a sadface. I sorta want to actually look out the window on the train and play some video games, not just mess with my sleeping schedule.

Doing my homework

and regretting that ice cream crepe. But ok, let me explain this, first. We'll start with the good bit--I managed to find Tokyo Tower!!

Took the Yamanote line to Hamamatsucho and didn't recognize on the map where I was going at all. So I basically decided to walk in what I felt could possibly be the right direction and be satisfied with just the walk, if nothing else. It is wicked hot today. I nearly bought some sun screen (hiyaketome--sun grill stop) at a convenience store, but it was 8 bucks for 30 ml...screw that. I just put my hood up and my sleeves down. Ugh. Hot.

So I walked and sure enough, I was smart and ran straight into a nice intersection with a cool view of the tower. That said, the tower is not really that cool looking...at all! Nothing like this, for example:



I have some pix, which you will see later. Didn't have time to actually go up to the observation deck (much less the super special even higher deck), and it's rather expensive, as you can imagine--almost nine dollars. It was a good day for it, so I'm almost sad, but not really. There are a surprising amount of attractions up there somewhere, too, like an aquarium, wax museum, arcade, curry restaurant, but I didn't really feel inclined to visit them, so it wasn't upsetting that I had to leave.

So here's the story of how I ended up eating dessert for lunch...again...sort of. Japan always entails complete mayhem when it comes to food, for whatever reason. I guess tomorrow we'll try to get on track. I was thinking an ice cream cone would be a good cap for the experience of being near-but-not-on-top-of Tokyo Tower. The sign said one of the options was blueberry, which sounded pretty rad, so I ordered one. And then I just sorta rolled with it when he said it came in a crepe and not a cone. And then I saw that it wasn't actually blueberry ice cream, but vanilla with a huge dollop of blueberry...jam? It tasted pretty great, but it was quite a bit more food than I had anticipated. Sorta which I would have just said nevermind when he mentioned the crepe, heh. Ohhhhhh well.

(Someone is sleeping in a cube nearby ;D)

On the way back I got a little off track, so I took the metro back instead of the JR line. Was pretty simple, though, and it took me to the same station, just entailed a lot more stairs (which frankly is totally fine with me. I wish I had a swimming suit and a pool haha) Didn't get lost on the way back to the hotel, which is another major victory.

That said, I haven't gone back to the hotel yet because I wanted to come and do a bit of research about the games I'm seeing tonight (at least the games they mentioned already). Yeah, that's right! I'm totally here for work, as you'll recall. That part of things will get kicked off in a little less than three hours, and I need a shower first ;p

The Speedy Edition

There had to be at least one. Look at all the time I've already wasted! I still don't understand the business model here, but I told him I wanted an hour, sooooo I guess I only have like half of that left and I have to figure out what I'm doing.

Perhaps Tokyo Tower today. Yesterday I ended up at an arcade playing The Typing of the Dead (where you characters where Dreamcasts, a huge battery, and a...keyboard, and you type words to kill zombies) and some shooters. Nothing too exciting. I think my favorite was Muchi Muchi Pork, but I'm not so great at it.

Hrminum. Saw Yukiko and Toru last night. Man, Yukiko asked all about things and it was so weird explaining everything that has happened since I last saw her. My life is completely different! Different friends, different house, expanded job. Crubazuby.

I gave Toru a San Francisco crab keychain with springy legs. I knew that would go over well. Turns out everyone liked it! To Yukiko, I gave a mini-piggy bank, but unfortunately it is so mini you shouldn't actually put coins in it because they won't come out even though there is a plug to pull out in the bottom. Failure! I reimbursed her 100 yen, which Toru eagerly confiscated.

They seem to be doing well. Her husband was busy with work, but her dad actually came out for dinner (we had mixed okonomiyaki and pork wrapped shiitake whooooo, lots of food). He is always fun. He didn't remember meeting me last time, but it's probably best that we forget that affair (if you recall from last year, Toru was trying to fleece him for every yen he was worth.) Has the Obama slogan down, (in English!) Asked if I had a boyfriend and told me to meet a good Japanese guy (hurr *wink*)

This isn't as speedy as I had originally intended, but I still have ten minutes left of my hour, so I guess it doesn't matter.

After dinner, I took the train back to Shinjuku and got SO LOST. I wandered around in circles (literally, how soul-consumingly frustrating) for something like almost two hours, and the worst part was that I had to pee so incredibly bad. I had a stomach ache and I just wanted to get back to the hotel so I hopped in a cab, but I was so close he wouldn't take me!! Too close for a cab, but not actually on top of it, so I had to wander some more. I asked directions and finally some guy was able to point me in a semi-right direction, but I still had to look at my maps a lot (which were generally useless cuz they didn't have the street names).

Got home, talked to Kayo a bit (I will meet her at the Seibu-Shinjuku station tomorrow at 11), and watched a bit of a program teaching Chinese to Japanese people before sacking out. Actually that show got really trippy, but I guess just because I was tired. There was a Chinese chef teaching us the Chinese names of certain ways of cutting carrots (dicing, julienne, etc) Really bizarre. I gave up paying attn after a while. I vaguely remember the correct pronunciation for mabo doufu now, though, which is cool. Chinese is pretty.

For breakfast this morning I did eat that tasty bagel. And it was tasty. As I expected! Also grabbed a yogurt with BIG chunks of fruit in it. They didn't skimp at all. It had entirely too much sugar in it and the fruit was cocktail style, but it was pretty tasty and I assume there was still at least a hint protein in it, which was the point. I'm hoping to finally get curry for lunch today............

I think they're just messing with me now! (Plus the Ghibli Museum)

The guys at the counter here. The first night, I paid ahead of time. Maybe because it was after a certain time? Then this morning I didn't have to pay ahead of time, but they did ask how long I was planning on staying. NOW, they even had to bust out their English because they were totally confusing me by requiring neither of those things. At least I'm blogging to you.

So I went to a lesser "beef bawl" [sic] branch for breakfast, because it was open. Turns out I make a damned tasty gyuudon at home, but of course, it's still sort of novel to eat it in Japan at a counter at 8 am after buying a ticket from the vending machine.

After that it was off to Shinjuku station to find my way to Mitaka where the Ghibli Museum is located. I actually did ok, although I made that all too frequent error (do I never learn?) of not knowing the kanji for the place I'm going before I go there. So on the way I paid double fare >_< At least I was sorted for the way back, and even managed to find the express route. And this was during rush hour on a Monday, so...I count this as satisfactory for a first train outing.

The Museum itself was pretty terrific. I realized as soon as I got there that almost more fun than the exhibits themselves would be watching all the tiny children's reactions to them. You're not allowed to take any pictures inside, but I snapped a couple of the outside, so you can at least see the building. They'll appear on facebook later, I suppose...

I think my favorite part of the museum despite purposely quaint and charming rooms wallpapered with original sketches, explanations of the animation process hand-scrawled with cartoon illustrations, painted cells, story boards, etc. AND a big plush Cat Bus for kids to go nuts in and climb all over AND the animated short (which appears to rotate seasonally--we saw "Mei and the Kitten Bus," which was pretty adorable and entailed Mei feeding caramels to a whole family of Cat Bus characters and having a happy reunion with Totoro)--so yeah, despite all that my favorite part was actually one of the first things we saw.

The very first room has a bunch of different examples of how animation works. There are zoetropes and reels of film with explanations how everything evolved, but the coolest coolest thing is this huge, I guess sort of like a 3-D zoetrope almost, with various figurines mid-way through their actions. Mei and Totoro jump up and down, for example. When a motor cranks it up to full speed and a strobe light flashes, it looks like claymation, only right in front of you. I could've watched that thing all day.

But I didn't! I had some tea on the terrace and watched a zillion kids eat hot dogs and ice cream before heading back to the train. I'm glad I hit the gift shop first thing, or I would've been in line for hours, I bet. The place was a complete zoo, and on a Monday! No wonder you have to buy tickets in advance.

Before stopping off at the hotel, I went back to the donut shop in Shinjuku station. Do you remember the pic I took of their advertisement last year? I decided I should take the plunge this time. I picked up a green tea and red bean bagel for tomorrow's breakfast, but as a dessertful snack (if only I still had that tea!) I chose one of their "early summer donuts--" Blood Orange and Lemon. It was GINORMOUS (pic forthcoming). Didn't even try to eat it all, but it was delicious. I'm not always into light citrusy sweets, but this glaze really worked.

Touched base with Yukiko Shirai, my host mom from last year. She's going to pick me up at the hotel tonight at 7 and I'll go have dinner with Toru and her at their house. Sounds like a plan, but what I'm going to get up to until then, I have no idea. It's only 2, so I definitely have time to go somewhere. Just not sure where, since I'm not too hungry and I can't really shop ;D

It's too bad it's so rainy. It's not motivating me much, and I'm sleepy ;p Shouldnn't have let myself get out of bed before 8!! Oh well, I'll come up with something.

Oh yes, that familiar place...

Manga Netto! I like it here.

So the first thing on the news last night was the killing spree in Akihabara. 7 people dead, 10 wounded. "Survival knife" and he like crashed his truck, too? Dude just felt like killing random people. That's dandy. Aiie. Anyways, I don't really think there's a point to not going there. It's not like Akihabara has suddenly become the violent ghetto of the Earth or anything...

That said, I'm not really sure what my goal in going to Akihabara would be anyhow. Maybe to go back to Kyuushokutoban or something. It's not like I can go shop for games. OH WAIT

I remember why I'm going to Akihabara. Drrr. The MGS4 launch.

Anyhow, that's not till later. Uhhhh so last night after I got back I pretty much just got in my huge toasty starchy sheeted bed and watched some TV (including that horrific news story). There was a travel show annnnnnd some kind of boring drama. Lots of Indiana Jones commercials. It comes out here the 14th or something. Then I ended up on some sort of variety show where people were doing an awful lot of dancing around in their underwear. One of those where the hosts are dressed up in crazy costumes and everyone is constantly laughing and hitting each other over the head. I dunno, man, Japanese TV is weird. I wasn't kidding when I said I watch mostly for the commercials ;D

I slept pretty decently all things considered. Woke up too early, fell back asleep. Woke up at like 6 and tried to sleep some more, then decided to just get up. As long as I don't take any naps, I'll be fine. I certainly don't feel bad :D And there's nothing quite like starting your day with a free cup of CC Lemon (soda) at the net cafe. Even though you wanted curry. But the place wasn't open yet lol

The Ghibli Museum sounds really easy to get to from here. Hopefully I can remember how to use the trains ;D

BRR

So clearly I type too fast to have enough to do for two more hours. I could sit around and read except I'm REALLY freaking cold. I wore just a t-shirt since the weather is so hot and muggy, but there is a vent blowing on me. I'm worried I will catch a cold, what with not having slept in however many hours and all. Might just chalk up another lesson learned the hard way and head back...

Gah.

OH LOOK it's me, not having Internet in my hotel room

Ah, that was cruel. I don't actually have any pix right now. I took one of a convenience store mini-bento that I ate for the random up too long extraneous meal that happens when you go on international flights, but I can't upload it cuz I'm sitting in a net cafe where they have apparently forbidden (and possibly...removed?) the USB ports.

Oh well. I didn't bring that cord anyhow. It's back in the room with my computer and my other stuff and the shower where I made myself smell like about a thousand differet flowers and/or fruits. Wheeeeeee.

I would say the worst thing that happened today happened in the BART station on the way to the airport. I was getting ticket and this creepy crazy in a wheelchair whistling Silent Night started rolling right into me. And he didn't stop! I said, "Uhm, excuse me!!!" to assert my presence and he totally didn't care.

The flight was comparatively uneventful. I watched Clear and Present Danger, because a little Harrison Ford never hurt anybody. I daydreamed a lot. I waited for them to serve food. I passed up an ice cream bar. I watied and WAITED and WAITED for them to serve food. It was pretty tasty once it got there. I drank water and listened to cds and read some New Yorker and Wired and Cat and Girl comics.

Actually before that I ran into Mielke and Jason from 1Up. Mielke I saw again at the end of the flight. He had more exciting plans this evening than me. I was pretty much content with shower, Internet, and maybe some wicked groovy Japanese TV (which you really only watch for the commercials half of the time...at least if you are me...)

Of course even Internet proved to be a trial. I have wandered around now. I knew there should be a net cafe somewhere near the hotel, but I sort of forgot which way is back. I'm sure as it's one of the bigger landmarks around the friendly staff (who asked how old I was) will be able to point the way.

I am both underage AND a boy today! On a roll! Considering I'm not wearing any boy clothes, it certainly is a feat. I dunno why the stewardess on the plain was so convinced I was a "sir."

Hum. Of course, there is no one to chat to. Not sure why I bought three hours of time. Well, yes I am. I should've asked if I had to use it all at once first. Or maybe I just don't know what I am doing and I CAN save it for later. The thing is, I should really stay up till midnight or so anyhow, so it's not a big deal.

Tomorrow my plan is Studio Ghibli museum sometime morning/daytime and then meet up with my host family from last time in the evening. I think. This is all assuming the grand cell phone plan works out right. It had better since it's costing me dollars.

The exchange rate is much better here. I was worried when I saw it was only 93 to a dollar at SFO. Here it was 103--more like it.

From the airport, I had to take this really foggy gloomy bus ride. The weather is muggy, but cloudy. Glad I packed my umbrella.

Ahhhh what am I going to do here for two more hours?

So hey...

SOMEHOW I'm going to Japan tomorrow. Don't even ask me! The chain of events is too crazy. But, basically GamePro asked me to go cover an event in Shibuya, so I'm going to do the business part of the trip first this time (or at least in the first half) and then tag on a vacation for the ages wherein I visit Three, whom I haven't seen in...a year? Something like that.

Anyhow, yeah, my flight is at 1 something. I need to find my camera and pack the rest of my stuff. Been sort of a nutty week...

I may or may not blog in an orderly fashion. But I'll definitely blog.