For lunch Chi and I ate gyuudon from Matsuya. Then we went to hang out with Sawa and U-. First we went to a Starbucks to talk and joke around. Then we went to a love hotel. Then we ate dinner at a steakhouse. It was a fun, albeit expensive day.

Japan has a lot of specialized hotels here called love hotels. They are luxury hotels designed for couples to have 1-3 hours of private 'intimate' time together. It's a big industry here (about twice as big as anime, believe it or not), so there are all different kinds of love hotels sporting all different kinds of rooms, themes, games, gadgets, and toys. Apparently it's sometimes hard to find a vacant room, despite there being lots of hotels and people only using them for a few hours.

When we first walked into the hotel, there was a touch-screen computer on the wall at the end of the lobby. Using that, we chose what kind of room we wanted. We chose the cheapest ones available. About $85 for three hours. Expensive, but normal for a love hotel. Going to a love hotel is one thing I wanted to experience this time around in Japan, so it can't be helped. Last Sunday when I hung out with Sawa and U-, they suggested going to a love hotel together today.

Mine and Chi's room had a gorgeous bathtub. There was a TV on one end, lights all over (inside and outside of the tub) that changed color, and water jets. It was like a small pool. The room was pretty impressive too. It had a large lcd TV on the wall near the king size bed. The TV was attached to a machine that you could use to move it around. There was also a nice massage chair.

As far as amenities go, it had pretty much everything you would have in your own house; shampoo, soap, towels, makeup, razers, toothbrush and toothpaste, face wash, mouthwash, hair dryer, a bunch of other stuff I didn't recognize, etc, etc. Even various kinds of condoms. There was drinks too (even beer), but they were in a vending machine.

There was three remote controls. With them you could control the TV, the surround sound system, karaoke, and all the lights. You can control which lights you want on or off and how bright you want them.

Sorry I completely forgot to take pictures :(.

I don't know what Sawa and U-'s room was like, but it might've been similar to ours.

In order to leave the room, you have to pay a machine near the door. The door is locked and can't be opened until the machine is payed. Throughout the whole experience, you won't see any other people. Not even staff. Except occasionally maybe seeing another couple in the lobby coming or going.

After two hours, Chi and I met back up with Sawa and U- in the lobby and went to a steakhouse to eat. I ate a salad, Japanese steak, a green-bean like vegetable, onion rings, Sawa's breadsticks, U-'s french fries, and a sundae for dessert.

Chi went to a setsumeikai and then went to hang out with her friends Natsumi and Kiyomi today.

I went to play Go again in Kawagoe.

今日　kyou - today
友達　tomodachi - friend / friends

Yesterday Chi and I hung out with Natsumi. We went to the Denny's that Chi and I first met at at about this time last year.

At first I tried to go to a Go salon near there (Ikebukuro), but they said that if my Japanese is not fluent, I can't play. :(

I had a good time with Chi and Natsumi nonetheless. :)

日本語 nihongo - Japanese
ぺらぺら perapera - Fluent
しゃべれる　shabereru - Able to speak

Today Chi and her mom went to see Chi's grandpa. He seems to be getting better, slowly :). Today he was moved to a different hospital.

I went to Kawagoe to play Go. It was all old men and one old lady. It was hard to talk to them, but I had a great time.

After I got back home Chi's mom took us out to eat ramen. Yummy :)

It's Thursday morning here now.

The day before yesterday I gave Chi a ring for our sixth mensiversary, then left to hang out with my friend Yutaka. We went to a famous park, ate some ramen, played some pachinko, then went to his house to talk to his girlfriend and play some ps2. It was a lot of fun.

Pachinko is a kind of legal gambling here in Japan. There are pachinko parlors everywhere. You can't walk far without finding one. I've been wanting to try it for a long time now. Yutaka taught me how to play it.

It's kind of a mix between pinball and slots. First you buy a bunch of pinballs. Then you fire balls into the machine at whatever speed you desire. Those balls then trickle down through a bunch of nails. Your objective is to get a ball into a little hole near the bottom. If you get a ball into the hole, then you're able to try your luck at the slots. If you win the slots (any three numbers in a row), then for a few minutes afterwards, for every pinball you get into the hole at the bottom, you win more pinballs. It's kind of fun, but pure luck. You really have no control whatsoever of the outcome. It also seems like it's very unlikely that you'll win any money.

Lots of people lose lots of money on Pachinko. I think it's one of the main reasons why Japanese people commit suicide all the time.

Yesterday Chi went to tutor Ami. I went shopping with Chi's mom.

Today I'm going to go to a Go salon in Kawagoe to play Go. Chi and Chi's mom went to the hospital to see Chi's grandpa.

Today Katsuo (Chi's step-dad-figure) was fired from the company he's been working for for 30 years.

The other day when he treated us to yakiniku he drank a lot of beer. Then later that night after we went home he hit someone with his car on his way home. The person he hit was ok. One of his car's headlights was broken.

He works for Honda. I guess at Honda, because it's a car company, if you get drunk, drive, and get into an accident you will be immediately fired.

Poor Katsuo. I wish I could do something to help him.

I didn't do anything too special today. Chi's mom bought me some food from McDonald's

Today Chi went to take an English test called the eiken. I went to hang out with Sawa and U-. We went to a large game center called Round1 to go bowling.

To get our shoes we had to pull them out of locker-type machines lined up along the wall. My shoe size (28cm) was not an option. The sizes only went up to 27.5. I guess my feet are bigger than the average Japanese's :(. So we had to ask a staff member for a larger size.

I was up first. Before I could bowl my first ball, the whole room went dark and red lights started flashing alongside the lane. At Round1 they have a game where, during this period, everyone bowling finishes their frame and if the next person is able to get a strike, you win a picture and frame. I hadn't yet bowled, so it was up to me to score the strike.

I got a strike! Yay! :)

I got a strike again my 2nd frame, and then a turkey later on. So a total of 5 strikes. Even though 5/10 frames were strikes, my score only hit 130. U- got 100 and Sawa got 120. During the 2nd game, U- taught me how to spin the ball like he does. He's very good at getting his ball to spin and go where he wants it to. I tried it a lot, but mostly got gutters. I need to practice it a lot more. I don't remember the scores of the 2nd game very well, but I think U- got 120 or so and Sawa got 140. I got 80.

On the 3rd game I scored a 92. Sawa got 80 and U- got 160. My scores were low, but I got lots of strikes. 10/30 frames were strikes. I guess I was getting gutters right after my strikes. Haha.

As far as differences go between America and Japan, it seems mostly the same. One thing I did notice is that the floors (or shoes) here are much slipperier than the ones in America. I was slipping quite a bit. I saw other people slipping a lot too. It also seemed like the pins here are lighter than the ones in America (easier to knock over), but that could just be my imagination. Oh, also, it's more expensive than bowling in the states (Like everything else). It costs about $12 per game per person.

Everything here seems to cost about 3-4x as much as in the states. Food, Clothes, Entertainment, etc.

After we finished bowling and payed for our games, the cashier gave us some coins to use in the arcade. So we played some arcade games before leaving.

Then we went to the shabushabu restaurant where Chi was working. I went there last year too. We ordered the all-you-can-eat option (About $35 per person). At shabushabu restaurants you order vegetables and meats and then cook them on the table in a pot of broth. Similar to fondue. We picked on Chi a lot and I talked to Takuto (someone who works there who I met last year) for a bit. It was fun and delicious.

Sawa and U- went home. Chi is going to an izakaya and is going to stay up all night drinking with her friends Kenji and Nozomi. I came home to sleep.

Yesterday Chi and I went to hang out with her friends from her university. Natsumi, Kiyomi, and Rikako. We went to an izakaya to eat and talk. Fun fun fun!

Today me, Chi, and Chi's mom went to see a professional handball game. I've never seen a handball game before today. It looks like fun. I want to try it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_handball

After that we went out to eat yakiniku again with Chi's step-dad-figure. Delicious, as usual :). He treated again. This time ~$275.

After that we went to the same karaoke bar that we went to last week. It was even more fun this time. Even shokora (Chi's dog) sang a song. I recorded a few videos which I'll upload to my YouTube later :)

Today Chi hung out with her friend Nozomi and went to a Taylor Swift concert.

I went to Yokohama to see my friend Yuki and her friend. We ate some ramen and then went to an arcade called Round 1. This one was only 6 stories tall. three stories of bowling, one story of darts, and two stories of arcade games and purikura booths. We played a few arcade games and tried our luck at some mechanical-hand-grabs-stuff machine. We took some purikura pictures too.

Today Chi's mom, Chi, and I did a lot of shopping. Chi and Chi's mom picked out a few new long sleeve shirts for me. Chi's mom bought them. We also bought a bunch of food.

For dinner Chi's mom cooked us kamameshi and misoshiru. It was good :)

Today we woke up early to shovel all the snow out of the road. It was only about 3 inches deep by morning. My camera is broken, so I've been taking pictures with the Iphone that I'm borrowing. I'll post them to my facebook one of these days.

After that Chi went to Shinjuku to take some pictures with Natsumi to use on their resume-like application thingies. I went to the place where I lived last year to see my old roommates. Unfortunately noone was there that I knew, so I went to a nearby park to walk around. Then I decided to walk from there all the way to downtown Shinjuku. It took about an hour.

There I tried to meet back up with Chi and Natsumi. I couldn't find them. I wandered around downtown Shinjuku looking for the cafe they were in, but I never could find them, even with the help of the GPS on my Iphone. I was extremely frustrated. After about two hours they came to pick me up at the west end of Shinjuku station. We ate dinner and Natsumi finished helping Chi with her first resume-like application thing.

Finding a job in Japan is very very different from in the states. I'm not sure how it works yet. There are lots of different papers you have to make, strict rules and guidelines to follow, meetings to go to, many levels of interviews to pass, etc.

One example: If you don't have black hair, noone will hire you. Ridiculous, right? The reason is because employers here don't want their employees dying their hair. Almost all Japanese people's natural hair color is black, so if it's not black, chances are it's been dyed.

Chi dyed her hair black last night for the picture today. She dyed her hair brown last year. In December, for job hunting, she dyed her hair back to black. But a little bit of brown has started showing through recently, so she had to dye it black again.

黒　kuro - black
髪の毛　kami no ke - hair (on your head)
仕事　shigoto - job

Today Chi went to tutor Ami again and I went to the library in Narimasu. It was raining. I was in the library for about an hour reading children's books. After the library closed at 8pm I went outside and was surprised to see snow piled up about half an inch deep.

Chi's mom picked us up from the train station so we wouldn't have to walk home. We saw a few cars slide in the snow. Our car slid a few times too. Dangerous. We stopped at a convenience store to buy some bentos for dinner.

After we ate dinner Chi and I left to return some videos to the video rental store. It's too dangerous to drive, so we walked. It took about an hour round trip. But it wasn't so bad with the beautiful snowy scenery around us. After we got home I made a snowman :). I haven't made a snowman in a long long time. I'll take some pictures of it tomorrow morning.

The snow is about 6 or 7 inches deep right now and it's still snowing. Unusual for Tokyo.

雪　yuki - snow
雪だるま　yukidaruma - snowman

Yesterday I stayed home all day again. Chi's mom gave me some Aloe yogurt to eat. Then she made us some Gyouza for dinner. The past few days I've also been nibbling on the candy I got at the setsubun festival last week. They were all cheetoh-like snacks, but with other flavors instead of cheese. My favorite ones were the chocolate one and the cabbage one. Cabbage flavored cheetohs, sounds kinda nasty right? But it was delicious! :)

Today we went to see Chi's grandpa at the hospital, then went to visit Chi's grandma's grave. Chi's grandpa has had two strokes and is in a vegetable-like state now. Poor guy :(

For dinner we went out to eat with Chi's stepdad. This time we ate sushi. He payed for everything again. ~$180.

Last night I couldn't fall asleep until about 7am, and then I woke up numerous times between 7am and 12pm. It's hard to sleep with my throat hurting so much. Drinking, eating, speaking, swallowing, it all hurts. The good news is that my headache is gone and my fever seems to be mostly gone.

Today Chi's mom went out to McDonalds and bought me four hamburgers. She also went to a pharmacy and bought me some Halls and Vicks. At the McDonald's in Japan, apparently there are no plain hamburgers. Only the default ones that you get when you ask for a hamburger. Also, Halls here is advertised and sold as a candy, not a medicine. I was pretty shocked by that. I looked it up and it seems that it's sold as a candy in many other countries too, like Brazil. However, Vicks is a medicine. I don't really understand why Vicks is a medicine and not Halls, but whatever :p.

Even staying shut up in the room all day I still learn new things. Yay :)

I took a Vicks cough drop and then ate my hamburgers. My throat completely stopped hurting for about two hours. I took some more of the cold medicine I had the other day too.

Chi hung out with her mom today and then went to work her ShabuShabu job. I played some Go, read a little bit more of a book, and spent most of my time trying to go to sleep. I haven't been able to sleep at all yet though. After that first one, the cough drops don't seem to have any effect anymore :(.

When Chi got home from her ShabuShabu job, she made me some Ojiya. Ojiya is a soup-and-rice-like food that people here make for sick people. It tastes kind of like grits, but better. Yummy :). I got sick back in August and Chi made me some Ojiya at that time too.

I got sick last night. A sore throat and a bad headache. Today I was planning on going with Chi to Fujimino to see her friend Ayano. But because I have a fever, Chi made me stay in bed :(.

I just finished eating ramen with lots of onions and curry rice. Chi's mom made it for me for dinner and brought it to me. There's a superstition here that eating onions can cure sicknesses. She gave me some medicine too. I brought some advil with me, but I used it all up last night and this morning to combat my headache.

熱　netsu - fever
薬　kusuri - medicine

Today I explored the area around Chi's house some more. I also went with Chi to a city called Narimasu. There, while Chi was tutoring, I explored Narimasu and read some books at a library.

Chi has a job tutoring a girl named Ami. She goes there twice a week.

Today Chi went to meet up with Natsumi and Natsumi's friend to talk about working at Natsumi's friend's workplace, a chocolate company. I went to see my friend Toshi near Roppongi.

Toshi let me ride his bike for awhile around Tokyo Tower. It's an electric bike. I didn't even know they existed. You peddle a little and the bike takes off like a motorcycle, except with no noise. I had fun. The view of Tokyo Tower tonight was also quite nice. The sky was cloudy, so the bright tower lit up a large amount of the sky.

After Toshi went home I went to Ikebukuro to explore and walk around while waiting for Chi. While I was walking down one particular sidewalk a rather cute girl approached me. I didn't think much of it at first because stores here often have people stand out in front of their stores to advertise and hand out flyers. But this particular girl didn't have any flyers in her hands. She approached me and then asked: "seksu?" (sex?). I was surprised! I've never been asked like that by a stranger before.

I met Chi at Ikebukuro station soon after so we could go back home together. She got some chocolates from Natsumi's friend. They were yummy :)

Today Chi's mom and I drove Chi to the train station so she could go to her tutoring job. After that we went to a clothing store and chi's mom bought me a new coat. It's cold here and my coat isn't warm enough. It was hard to find a coat that fit me. All of them were too small. In the states most clothes are too big for me. Here, most clothes are too small for me. We found a nice-looking black one. It costed about $70.

After we got home Chi's mom taught me how to make onigiri. I've tried making them before, but they never turn out quite right. She steamed the rice for it in the microwave. The microwave here has a water pan embedded in it that you can use to steam food. The microwave here is awesome. I wish I could take it home with me. You can set the wattage you want, how long you want it to cook, how you want it to cook, and what temperature you want the food to be when it's done.

Today I finally mustered up the courage to use the toilet's bidet. The toilet washed my butt for me with a jet of water. It was an interesting experience. I'm still a little nervous about pushing the other buttons, namely because I'm not sure what they do. I don't want an obituary read like this: "stupid foreigner eaten alive by out of control toilet"

Yesterday Chi and I went to the local library. When Chi was a child she went to that library with her mom often and has read most of the children's books there. She recommended a few to me. While I'm here I want to read lots and lots of books in order to become fluent in Japanese.

At 7:00pm Chi's stepdad came over to pick us up and take us to a yakiniku restaurant. There we cooked various meats and vegetables over a grill embedded into the table. It was delicious. Chi's stepdad payed for everything again. This time it was about $385. Japan is so expensive!

After that we went to a small local karaoke bar. It was quite noisy there and most of the people were drunk, but it was fun. Everyone there was friendly and could sing well. When Chi finally sang a song, everyone in the bar started cheering, clapping, and singing along. Chi is a stunning singer. I was amazed. I wish I had taken a video of it.

Today we woke up early to take Chi to a kanji test. Kanji are the picture characters that Japanese use to write. Chi needs to pass this test in order to be able to find a decent job. She was not worried about it though because she knows her kanji very well due to reading lots of books. She studied for it anyways.

After that we went to the library again so I could borrow a few more books.

Tonight me, Chi, and Chi's mom went to a ramen shop for dinner. It was delicious. My 3rd favorite kind. First is the ramen I ate in Osaka last year with Jason. Second is the ramen that I ate at Sapporo station.

Yesterday Chi went to her 説明会 and I went to see a 節分 festival in Shinjuku. Some famous 芸能人 (geinoujin; performers) there were handing out bags of candy. I haven't tried any of it yet.

After that we met up with Natsumi and went to a 食べ放題 (tabehoudai; buffet) shabushabu restaurant. While we were eating a loud fire alarm went off exclaiming that there was a fire on the first floor and that we should evacuate immediately. But the staff of the restaurant checked and told us not to worry, that it was a false alarm. We ate lots and lots. It was delicious. Natsumi and Chi taught me many girly and cutesy ways of saying common phrases. We laughed until our stomachs nearly burst.

After that we took some purikura pictures. Chi uploaded three of them to her Facebook.

Today Chi and I went to the hospital to see Chi's grandpa. He had a stroke about a month ago and can no longer speak. He can nod his head yes and no though. I'm glad I was able to meet him.

After that we picked up Chi's mom from work and went to eat ramen. 美味しかった (oishikatta; it was delicious).

Now Chi and I are watching a drama called Glee together. We're going to sleep soon. おやすみ　(oyasumi; good night)

Today Chi went to a 説明会　(setsumeikai) and then went to her tutoring job. I spent the day at home with shokora (Chi's dog) and then Chi's mom. Chi's mom made me some おにぎり　(onigiri). They were delicious. I ate four of them. Other than that, nothing too interesting to report today. Tomorrow Chi is going to another 説明会. I'm planning on going somewhere to celebrate 節分　(setsubun; a Japanese bean-throwing holiday).

In Japan Again

I'm back in Japan again. This time I'm staying at my girlfriend Chi's house.

I arrived in Japan about five days ago. Again, over the north pole. At my stop in Canada I discovered an express walkway to help move people down a long hallway. It starts at a normal speed and then the plates that you stand on soon separate and extend. I was moving so fast on that thing that, despite being indoors, I could feel the wind in my hair. I found a video of it on YouTube. Apparently it's the first one ever made. Maybe the only one?



The other day Chi went to take a TOEIC test and I spent the day hanging out with her friend Sawa and Sawa's boyfriend U- (pronounced eww). They took me to a street full of candy stores. I saw and tasted lots and lots of new treats. Unfortunately I can't remember the names of any of them right now. U- is a funny guy. We had a great time

After that we picked up Chi and went to Sawa's house. There we walked Sawa's dogs and ordered pizza. The pizza here is quite different from the states. There is no pepperoni pizza. No mushrooms either. There is sausage, but they put the whole sausage on there, not ground sausage. There is salami, but I'm not sure if it tastes the same as pepperoni. There are many other ingredients you can add to the pizzas, many of which I don't know the names of. The pizzas are smaller and more expensive than the ones in the states. They taste different, but are still good.

It seems my Japanese has improved since last year. I can understand maybe 60% of conversations now. Yay :). Things like the TV and books are still way too difficult though.

I'm having a great time here. And everyone has been treating me to everything, so I haven't spent hardly any money. I tried to pay back Chi's mom by sneakily putting some money on her bed, but she said that if she happens to find any money that is not hers, she'll throw it away. :(

The three pizzas that we ate the other day costed ~$80.
We went out to dinner at a nice traditional japanese restaurant the other day and chi's stepdad payed for everything. It was ~$200.
I was treated to many other things, but I think those were the most expensive.

I'll try to get into a habit of updating this blog every night. また明日 ( mata ashita; see you tomorrow)