Today me and Yu went to Odaiba. We walked around Palette Town and Fuji TV Studios, visited a pet store, saw many strange looking buildings, walked through some parks, chatted by the sea, played some games, and explored Shinbashi. Odaiba is a very pretty place. Fun day.

There was a museum inside Fuji TV Studios. One thing they had was a large diamond with a sign claiming it was the largest diamond in the world. I think that might be wrong. And it sure didn't have much security around it. Maybe none. I could have just picked it up and ran. There was also an extremely realistic looking robot model face-thing that was apparently used in the Terminator movies. It looked almost exactly like a human face.

Oh, and Yu taught me a new way to tie my shoes. I'm going to tie them like this from now on :).

I'm going to spend tomorrow in Yoyogi park with Shino. It feels like I've been just about everywhere in Tokyo, so I decided to go to Yoyogi park again. Yoyogi park is probably my favorite hangout place here. I've been there many times.

Hi~
Long time no update.

My two week vacation to the rest of Japan went great.
I visited Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Kokura, Fukuoka, Beppu, Nikko, Hachinohe, Aomori, Hakodate, and Sapporo. 12 different cities in 14 days. I could have seen more, but I got tired and lazy.
I'm sleepy and there's too much to write about, so details on them later!

I've gone back to my routine of hanging out with friends around Tokyo again. For my last week in Japan I plan on seeing the fish market in Tsukiji, Tokyo tower, and Odaiba.

Yesterday I hung out with my roommates all day. We sat around our room and chatted, went to a soba shop, and probably some other things I'm forgetting. Nothing too special.

Today me and Chihiro went to a Starbucks in Shinjuku to hang out and study Japanese/English. I was a little nervous the whole time, don't know why. Maybe she didn't notice. We took some purikura pictures afterwards.

Oh, I don't think I've explained what purikura is. It's Japan's version of a photobooth. Much more high-tech than the ones in the states. The insides of them are like.. um.. miniature studios. Everything is bright white and there are lots of different lights that go off when the picture is taken. Somehow I guess it enhances the look of your eyes. Looks great for asians, but other people end up with bug-eyes. After the pictures are taken, you can then doodle on them and send copies to your cellphone. Oh the cellphones here are pretty awesome too, but that's a story for another time.

Check my Facebook page to see my bug-eyes.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to Odaiba with Yu. Odaiba is known for being a romantic place where couples go. But it's also famous for high-tech things, unusual buildings, games, rides, and shopping.


I think my English is getting worse..

It's 5am Friday here now. The weather outside is quite nice. I just got back from a quick run to Matsuya. I woke up and was hungry.

Yesterday I was planning on hanging out with Toshi, doing some studying, and getting my hair cut, but Toshi ended up having to work too late. Didn't do anything of any significance.

Today, when Mana gets off work, we're going to go see the Imperial Palace and Hibiya park. She worked late last night and is working again now on very little sleep, so I'm wondering if maybe we should cancel instead.

Tomorrow I'm going to see Toshi again somewhere. I'll try to get my hair cut too. I'd probably be fine, but I'm nervous about going to get my first haircut here by myself.

I'm planning on starting my two week trip around Japan on Sunday. First stop: Osaka.

Things are still going great here.

On Saturday I met up with Miho and Ran (friends from Florida) in Shinjuku. We went to Shinjuku Gyoen, a very pretty park. Please check out all the awesome photos I took on Facebook! :D

After Shinjuku Gyoen, we met up with Sawako, another person from Florida (never met 'er before). We decided on which restaurant to go to and then went to eat. After we got done eating some employees who work there brought out a cake and everybody sang Happy Birthday. I was very surprised. Oh yeah and there was sakura-flavored ice cream! Sorry, didn't save any for you. It turns out that Ran had made a reservation there early that morning (Sneaky Ran! I'll get you back for that!).

After that Ran went home and me and Miho headed to Yokohama together. Another person from Florida was getting married in Yokohama. Miho went to the wedding, I went to China Town to meet Jason (My professional gaming team manager, really admiral guy, lives in Yokohama). We explored China Town, had drinks and ate a sakura-flavored cupcake at Starbucks (he payed for it), then went to Minato Mirai to meet back up with Miho and a few other people from the wedding. We chatted and ate dinner. The pretty girl next to me was acting quite suspiciously. I think she was trying to steal my food. But I successfully fended her off \o/! Jason payed for everybody.

Then everyone left for some boat ride and me and Jason headed for Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan. Fantastic view. Probably much cooler than that boat ride.

After that Jason introduced me to one of his favorite restaurants in Shibuya. We ate some kind of spicy nabe (like fondue). Tasty, but spicy! Didn't save any for you. Also, it was an expensive restaurant. Our meal was about $100. Jason payed again. I wonder if he's broke now...

Today Toshi and I studied English and Japanese at a McDonalds, walked around Roppongi, and ate at a Yoshinoya. Toshi went home at 9. Then I went to see Mana in Ueno to study English and Japanese some more.

Tomorrow me and Mana are going to spend the day in Yoyogi park admiring Sakura and stuff. At 7, I'll be meeting Kyoko in Shinjuku to hang out and study more.

It was raining today, so we didn't go to Yoyogi park. Instead we went to Akihabara to walk around and eat. I ate spinach and cream spaghetti, some pizza (the pizzas here are more like quesadillas), and a scoop of gelatin (They called it gelatin, but I think it was actually some kind of ice cream).

After that we climbed Tochou to see Shinjuku at night. Nice view.

Then we went to a fast food place to eat and study. I forgot the name of the place, but it's similar to McDonalds. I had a hamburger, fries, and melon soda. Melon soda is made from Japanese melons and is green. It has a unique taste. I like it more than other sodas (except root beer, which there is none of here.) But water is still my favorite drink.

I find Coke and Pepsi here and there, but it's not too common.

I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. Maybe I'll start planning my trip for next month.

This week I met many new friends and explored many new places. Yoyogi park, Shibuya (a few times), Harajuku (a few times), A museum in Ueno, and probably some other places that I can't remember.

Today I went with a new friend to a cafe down a new road in Shinjuku. Nice person, nice cafe. I had a good time. We talked and studied English and Japanese. I ate a piece of toast that had egg and cheese on top and a steamed chocolate cake.

That reminds me, earlier last week I also ate some fried cheese. That was delicious.

My new Osakan roommate returned to Osaka a few days ago, but he's coming back around April 1st. Really cool guy and very talented musician/singer. Here's his myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/ankichocolatefactory
I like the ivory song at the bottom the most.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm going to spend the day with a friend in Yoyogi park. We were going to go to Shinjuku gyoen park, one of the best parks in Tokyo so I've heard, but they close at 4:00 and my friend won't be free until 3, so we'll do that next time. I hope the sakura are blooming. I'll take pictures :)

I've done almost everything I wanted to do in Tokyo. There's just a few more things I want to see/do:
-Shinjuku gyoen park
-Fish market
-Odaiba
-Go to the top of Yokohama's landmark tower.

I'm not so interested in Karaoke, Maid Cafes, or Pachinko, but I want to see those too before I leave.

Around the beginning of April I plan on leaving Tokyo to go see some other areas of Japan: Hokkaido, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Kyushu.

Sorry for the boring blog. I really should be updating this more often.

I've been meeting a new person almost every day for the past two weeks. We usually do things like talk, eat, study, and sometimes do some sightseeing. It's been a lot of fun :). Every day I learn and experience many new things.

Today (March 14th) was a holiday in Japan called White Day. On Valentine's day here girls give guys gifts. On White Day, guys give girls gift.

Today I met a new friend named Megumi in Shinjuku (No relation to White Day). We walked around a bit and found a tonkatsu restaurant to eat at. It was my first time eating tonkatsu (a kind of deep fried pork). I ate it with some kind of special sauce that I forgot the name of (not tonkatsu sauce). It was very tasty :). We chatted and studied there for a few hours.

Another new food I discovered today is a salad dressing made from sesame seeds. My new favorite salad dressing :)

By the way, don't eat Karashi (A kind of mustard). That stuff is super super spicy! ><

Some other new things I ate earlier this week:
-Fried bones (delicious)
-Coffee flavored Cheetohs (not so delicious)

After that we went to Tochou, a very tall government building nearby. We went up near the top to the 46th floor and admired the scenery. I took a video which I'll upload later.

Fun day :)

Tomorrow me and one of my roommates (from Osaka) are going to go to a Japanese class nearby.

The day before yesterday I went to downtown Shinjuku to meet a new friend, Haru. He's a 26 year old guy married to a Chinese lady and has a 4(?) year old son. We chatted for awhile and I helped him with his English. Nice guy :)

Today Ran was busy, so we didn't get to go eat ramen. I'll see her next Friday maybe. I spent the day answering messages and planning my week instead.

Tomorrow I'm waking up early and spending the day in Chiba!

Exploring

Last Saturday I went to the Izakaya place again with Toshi. Toshi says it's not an Izakaya, but actually a korean-style yakiniku restaurant. haha :p

I haven't done anything too significant this week. Just more hanging out with my roommates and exploring the area around my house. Today I went to the library with a roommate. I read a few kid's books. It's only about a 5 minute walk from home, so I think I'll go there tomorrow too.

Last night at about midnight I decided to go on a walk and get myself lost. I walked down all the scariest streets I could find. I walked down a lot of pretty creepy alleys. On one street I walked past a group of rough-looking guys wearing black and red uniforms. Maybe a gang?

I did manage to get myself lost, but it seems hard to truly get lost here in Tokyo. There are maps on many streets and if you walk for long enough you'll eventually find a train station that you can use to get home. I found out last night though that many of the train stations are closed at night :(.

Living in a big city like this is quite fun and convenient. Everything I need is a 30 second walk from my house. I don't need to store any food. Walk a little further and there are all sorts of interesting shops to be found.

I've explored most of the area around my house, so I want to go to some other, bigger, areas of Tokyo next. Preferably with a friend. I don't have friends around here other than my roommates, don't have a job and I'm not a student, so it's a little hard to make new friends.

On Friday I might be meeting Ran (Another friend from Florida) for Ramen. On Saturday I'm planning on going to a big mall in Chiba with one of my language exchange friends that I've been talking to on Skype for a few months.

To make new friends I can talk to random strangers in restaurants, go to a club or a bar, or make a post on Mixi (Japan's facebook). I decided to try the Mixi route. I made a post earlier and soon had maybe a hundred messages in my inbox. I was very surprised. Learning English is popular here. I spent the past few hours answering them all. I don't want 100 friends, just a few! I'm going to be really really busy :(. Hopefully my Japanese will improve at a faster rate though.

Izakaya

The past week it's been raining and snowing a lot, so I've mostly been staying home and hanging out with my roommates. I've still managed to explore a decent amount of Tokyo though. This week was Ueno, Akihabara, Iidabashi, Shinjuku, and Roppongi. The streets and stores are very crowded, especially on the weekends.

In Ueno I just walked around and admired the scenery. Ueno has lots of museums and a zoo. Ueno is one of the poorer areas of Tokyo, so there were a lot of homeless people walking around, especially in the park.

Akihabara is famous for it's electronics, anime, and maid cafes. This is the nerdy area of Tokyo. Me and Toshi went to a giant electronics store there called Yodobashi-Akiba. Maybe the biggest in the world. Its 9 stories tall with each floor being about the size of a Best Buy. Lots of interesting stuff. Especially the phones.

In Iidabashi, me and Toshi went to Toshi's old university (Hosei) to study. I recorded a short video from the top floor of Hosei University (26 stories up I think). I'll upload it later. After that we visited a famous Shrine that I forgot the name of.

I went to downtown Shinjuku with another new friend (Aki). We went to a very big bookstore called Kinokuniya. Its 9 stories tall and two stories underground (11 floors total) with each floor being about the size of a Barnes & Noble. There were three elevators and each elevator had an elevator girl working in it (I guess to make them run more efficiently). They sounded and acted like robots. Looks like a really boring job. I bought a 3rd grade level kid's book to read and practice my Japanese.

Me and Toshi also walked a bit around Roppongi Hills. I recorded a video of that too which I'll upload later.

A couple days ago I met another Korean roommate named Hyou. She's one of the happiest and most enthusiastic people I've ever met. For some reason it's also easier to talk to her than even Japanese natives. Fun to talk to. She's studying Japanese in school and has three part time jobs. Busy! One of her jobs is at an Izakaya (similar to a restaurant) in Ebisu. I've never been to an Izakaya before, so she invited me and my other roommates (Just Masaka and Ri came) to celebrate my first Izakaya experience today at her work. It was probably one of the most enjoyable restaurant-type experiences I've ever had. The food was just ok, but the people working there is what made it special. It was almost like we were celebrating my birthday in some 5-star restaurant.

I got lost in Ebisu for about 30 minutes trying to find the place. I was about 20 minutes late :( ). The manager of the store was waiting at the entrance for me. They reserved a table for us near the back of the restaurant (I guess maybe the tables are normally shared among strangers). When I entered, Hyou gave me a litte hand-made poster welcoming us and wishing us a good experience (or something to that effect).

Masaka and Ri arrived about 10 minutes later. Hyou and Hyou's co-worker (I forgot her name, Chikaro?) cooked the food on the table in front of us. Nabemono. Me, Masaka, Ri, Hyou, and Hyou's co-worker all chatted together. The manager a little bit too. Everybody who worked there was quite cheerful and seemed like a big family. Looks like a fun place to work.

After we got done eating and saying goodbye, Hyou's co-worker sprayed us with some kind of perfume stuff outside.

I wanted to take a picture of the poster thing, but I lost it somewhere on the way home :(.

Masaka will upload the other pictures to his Facebook later.

Nothing too special to report today. I woke up, packed my stuff, and moved to Shinjuku.

I spent the day just getting to know my roommates. Interesting people. Sometimes I can understand everything they say, sometimes I can't understand anything. I'm glad I can at least communicate somewhat decently :)

So far I've met two people from France, two from Korea, one from Spain, and one from Taiwan. The rest are all Japanese. Lots of people live here; maybe about 30?

No plans yet for tomorrow.

Yesterday night I got hungry and went down to the local convenience store to get a snack. I found some chocolate flavored potato chips.



These are actually fried french bread chips covered in chocolate. Delicious :)

This morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, and left for Kamakura.

Kamakura was interesting. Old shrines and temples all over the place. I'll upload pictures to facebook later.

We stopped at a famous ice cream store there and bought some ice cream (Toshi said it's made using sweet potatoes?). Obama ate there too on his trip to Japan. Good ice cream :)

On the way back home we stopped at a dollar store. I bought a bar of green-tea soap and some fish jerky. The fish jerky was good, but not as good as beef jerky.

I just finished eating dinner. We had fish, chicken kebobs, rice, and vegetables. Dessert was rice cakes, but I don't care for those much so I passed on the dessert :p.

Ken has to work tonight, so we aren't going to see him.

Tomorrow I'm moving to Shinjuku.
Good night :)

Sorry for the late update. I've done a lot of things this week and don't want this post to become too long, so if you want more details on anything, e-mail me.

I left for Japan on the 31st. The plane flight was long, but not boring. I had my entire row to myself. The plane flew over the north pole, so I was able to view some nice scenery.

I was supposed to call my friend Toshi as soon as I arrived in Japan and then meet him at Shinagawa station. After I landed and went through customs, I couldn't find Toshi's phone number (even though I had just used it to get through customs), so I just headed straight to Shinagawa station instead. I luckily didn't have many problems getting from Narita to Shinagawa. I could not find Toshi in Shinagawa station, so I decided to use a pay phone to call my sister to get Toshi's phone number for me.

It's kind of a long story, but I used the phone for less than five minutes and was charged about $150. Ridiculous price and no warning at all. Still trying to get that resolved. I called Toshi and he found me at the pay phone. He was there waiting for me for two hours :(. We went to his house in Yokosuka and slept. (I later found his phone number inside my passport)

On Tuesday me and Toshi went to Tokyo. I went to my new guest house to sign my contract. Toshi had a meeting somewhere else. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand anything the landlord told me, but I actually understood almost everything :). After I signed the lease, I chatted with my new roommates for a couple hours. Nice people. I'll post pictures and more details later. After that I took a nap and then left to meet Toshi at Shinagawa station and go back to Yokosuka. Then we ate dinner and slept.

On Wednesday me and Toshi went to Sensouji in Asakusa to celebrate setsubun. Hard to explain, google it :). Many famous people were there to throw beans into the crowd. I only caught 3 :(.

After that we went to Roppongi to buy a cellphone and do some sightseeing. Pretty place. We saw some of Japan's olympic figure skaters being interviewed there. Then we went home and slept.

Other things we've done:
-Explored sougenji. It's a temple/cemetary near Toshi's house. Toshi's family and ancestors are buried there. Toshi showed me the Japanese ritual thing that they do every time they visit their graves.
-Went to Shizuoka to see some kawazuzakura (a kind of cherry blossom tree I think) and Mt. Fuji.
-Hung out with Toshi's friend Ken in Yokohama. We drove around in Ken's Toyota Majesta. Really nice car. Yokohama was very pretty too.

Yokohama:


Today me and Toshi explored Yokosuka by bike. We went to the memorial of a ship (forgot the name) and a big multi-story department store among other places. For dinner me and Toshi's family went to a kaitenzushi restaurant. At this restaurant nigiri, sushi, soups, fruits, drinks, and desserts go around the restaurant on plates on a conveyer belt. Each plate is about $1.00. After you're done eating, you drop the plates into a slot machine type thing to win prizes.

Tomorrow we're waking up early to go to Kamakura, a place famous for it's temples and giant buddha statue. After that we will probably go to Yokohama to hang out with Ken again. Maybe we'll go ice skating too.

Here's a short video I took showing the restaurant we went to:


Pictures can be found on my facebook page :)

First Post

I've been quite busy this week, running around all over trying to prepare for my trip and saying goodbye to friends.

My room deposit that I've been trying to wire transfer for almost two weeks now has finally been sent. I needed to send it as soon as possible to reserve the room so that nobody else would snatch it up. The deposit was 10000円($114), the wire fee was $40. I'm going to be there in three days so it seems kind of pointless to send a wire now, but oh well :(.

I'm going to be staying in a dorm in Shinjuku near the middle of Tokyo. The room costs about $300 per month.
http://e-guest.jp/detail/index/tokyo/304
I hope it's a good place. It will probably be too late to sign the contract on February 1st when I arrive, so I'll probably be signing it and moving in the next day.

January 27th

In the morning I talked to my friend Toshi for awhile on Skype. He offered to come pick me up at the airport and let me stay at his house for the first night. It would cost him about $60 in train tickets round trip from Yokosuka to Narita. Not to mention many hours of sitting on a train. Too expensive. I don't want him to do that. I'd rather be lost. Getting from Narita to Yokohama is easy, so I might meet him in Yokohama instead (close to Yokosuka).

After that I slept for a few hours.

At about 4pm I went out to eat at Logan's with Jani, Selena, Christina, and baby Elizabeth. We ate, talked, and laughed for a few hours. Jani treated everyone.

Then I went over to Iris's house to say goodbye and get a haircut.

Then I worked my last day at work from 10pm-6am.

I'm so lucky to have such nice friends. It makes me feel bad though since the only thing I can give in return is just a simple thank you. I wonder why people are so nice to me...

January 28th

More driving around and phone calls preparing for my trip. I bought a USB cable ($25) for my camera so that I can upload pictures.

There was a meetup group meeting at Millenia Mall at 7:30pm. I wanted to go see them and say goodbye to them too, but didn't. I was really sleepy, it was kind of far, and my car is on the verge of dying. Sorry! :(

Today

I have a few more phone calls to make.

I'm going to have lunch with Quyhn. She's a lot of fun to hang out with. Really looking forward to it :)

Going to stop by my old house to say goodbye to my old roommates and pick up my shampoo that I forgot there. They're great guys :)

I'm going to try to cancel my car registration. Might have to turn in my license plate. I'll store my car at my friend Jani's house. I hope it survives until then.

I might go shopping for clothes with one of my best friends, Aisha, if she's free.

Here's a relevant song from Ketsumeishi. Tomodachi (friends)
Lyrics
This video has a few pictures of Tokyo and Yokohama in it too.