Not Just Visiting

good evening

2010-01-27T20:19:00.001+09:00

Good evening from Kichijoji!

good morning

2010-01-27T09:25:00.001+09:00

Good morning from Kichijoji!

Tsukuba

2010-01-10T22:34:00.001+09:00

Today I went to Tsukuba. Tsukuba is a small town about 45 minutes by rapid train from the opposite side of tokyo from me. its known for a major university and some mountains where youcan see the lights of tokyo, saitama, and chiba.

My new toy.

2010-01-09T20:43:00.001+09:00

look what I got today.

testing

2010-01-09T17:09:00.001+09:00

I got a new phone, and apparently I can blog straight from it.

this is just a test for now.

New camera filter.

2009-09-13T22:24:00.002+09:00

I got a new filter for my camera.

Can you guess what it does?

2 years in Japan/my new toy.

2009-08-26T21:35:00.002+09:00

I have officially been in Japan for two years now. In those two years, I've made friends, lost friends, traveled, had good times and bad times, but mostly good times. I became a university graduate and I got myself an awesome job. I've moved 3 times, which is pretty low for a 2 year period for me.

I wasn't sure if I would stay once I got here. It turns out that I do like it here and I'm going to stick around for a while.

On an unrelated note, I got myself a new toy. It's an Acer Aspire One micro laptop, and it's a lot of fun. I got it cheap from a store that's going out of business. I really want a computer I can do video editing on, but this is a nice little toy that I can take anywhere. When I get a bigger place to live (move #4) and more money in the bank, I'll get a nice non-laptop for business reasons, but for now this tiny little device is enough to keep me going until then.

What I've been up to...

2009-08-02T10:13:00.001+09:00

As I mentioned, I got a job here in Japan. I guess I should show off what I've been doing.

First, videos that I didn't make, but I added finishing touches on ...

I really can't take much credit at all for these, but I did a few minutes work and upload them.

these videos I did SOME work on, but mostly wasn't my work...

The last 3 I offered creative input, but I didn't really do anything. The first one I changed in some ways, but I can't take much credit for.

The next one I did everything other than filming and basic timing.

Actually, the majority of what I've done isn't public yet.

Last night I went to a fireworks festival in Ome, which is pretty much the edge of the edge of Tokyo city. It was actually a blast.

Besides the fireworks, Ome (which is a really cute town) turns out to be the home of cro-magnum man. I've been in Japan for almost 2 years, and I have NEVER seen people act like they did in Ome. It's a bit difficult to explain, but think "New Jersey". I literally stepped over 3 Smirnoff Ice bottles while avoiding this large group of people with a large bottle of sake and ended up getting yelled at by the police because there was a bus slowly heading my way maybe 50 feet away.

Anyways, I've been busy, but it's fun.

Next week, I'm going to Summer Sonic (a big music festival) and I'm pumped.

Night picnic

2009-06-27T22:07:00.001+09:00

I had a lovely night picnic in the park. It was the second one this month.

There were tons of bats flying around. Well, maybe not tons, but at least two and they were constantly flying overhead. It was quite surreal and lovely.

I didn't get any pictures because it was too dark.

Graduation day!

2009-06-07T09:59:00.002+09:00

So, today's the big day. Today's my graduation ceremony. As of tonight, I will officially become a college graduate. I honestly was dreading this day before I got my job, but now I'm quite excited. My whole family is here too, and that's pretty exciting in its own right.

So, of course this means after today, I will be done with Temple University Japan for good (probably) which is both exciting and sad. I had great times at TUJ, but all things must come to an end. Now I'm excited about my life at work.

BIG news!

2009-05-27T12:34:00.002+09:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. I just can't seem to find the time anymore. Maybe I'll devise a better posting schedule.

But for now, I have BIG news...

As you may or may not know, I am technically done with school. All my classes are over and I graduate next week. The big questions is 'Are you going back to America now? and the answer is...

No.

I have recently found a really good job. I am doing video editing work at a language learning company. The company is Innovative Language, and if you are studying Japanese, you might have heard of some of their products.

I had been doing job hunting for the last semester, and I got a whole lot of 'no's and no responses. I was really pleased to finally get a yes. For the last two and a half weeks, I have been doing an 'internship' where essentially I was doing what will be my regular job, but for legal and other reasons, I wasn't actually an employee.

Now, as of yesterday, my internship is over and I have been formally offered a job. It starts June 15th, which is after graduation and after my family leaves. They offered VISA sponsorship, which is a big deal of course.

I was afraid that I would have to be an English teacher to stay. Not that there's anything about being an English teacher, but I have no passion for the English language and while I wouldn't mind teaching, I have little to no desire to teach English. My job now is actually what I studied in school and what I want to do, so I am quite pleased.

So, I shall remain here for some time, and as of now I have no intention of leaving the country.

Osaka

2009-03-13T20:03:00.022+09:00

Osaka was a party. I have a deep affection for this town. This is partly because Kansai (Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto) was the first place in Japan that I visited, partly because I've got a good friend there, and partly because Osaka exudes this charm that other places in Japan don't have.

The thing about Osaka is it has some really nice places and some REALLY bad places. I don't mean "bad for Japan", I mean "Bad in general" but I'll get to that later. Even the nice places of Osaka have a little grime on them, and it's not like "Eww, that's dirty! Stay away!" It's just part of life there. People accept it and move on.

And speaking of people, Kansai people are WAY more energetic, noisier, and livelier than Tokyo people. For such an exciting city, Tokyo people are a tad dull.

Anyways, back to Osaka. Our hotel was a mere 7 minutes walk to Dotonbori, probably the most famous place in the city. If not the most famous, one of the busiest and most exciting.

It doesn't look too exciting in the day, but at night, this place is crazy.

And what do we do in Osaka? Eat okonomyaki! I met up with a friend and she took us to her favorite place in town.

Normally okonomyaki is cooked on a hot iron skillet in front of you and most of the time, you do the cooking, but at this place, the staff took over. And this guy was PICKY! He made sure everything was just right and when to eat. I ordered the yakisoba and okonomyaki combo (with a 'lunch beer'. Osaka is great.) and when my cohorts were waiting for their food, my yakisoba was done. Being the polite guy, when he told me to eat, I wanted to wait for my friends. Two minutes later he came back and told me to eat again. I asked him which was better for the okonomyaki, the sweet (normal) sauce, or the unsweetened (Osaka style, I guess) sauce. I asked him what he recommended, he paused for a second, and said with confidence and a coky look in his eyes "unsweet". He wasn't wrong.

I'm not sure if it was the BEST okonomyaki I've had in my life, but it certainly ranks on my top 5, no question. I miss that unsweet sauce.

The place was right around Dotonbori, so we went there when we were done. Here's the picture that everyone knows.

And actually, a few blocks from there is a kabuki theater. I had no idea.

The thing about this part of Osaka is there is a REALLY long underground tunnel. It links (and this is a bit confusing) Namba station, JR Namba station, and Osaka Namba station. That's right, 3 stations called "Namba". And while they can be accessed by an underground tunnel, they are probably a good 10 minute walk apart. There's another odd thing, but I'll get to that later.

Inside the underground passage are a lot of shops. There was also some nice new year's decorations.

Another example of some of the fine people of Osaka. I should also mention at this point that the whole underground mall is playing nonstop Para Para music.

Just leanin' against a whale. Without a care in the world.

After enjoying some Namba time, we headed over to Umeda, specifically Umeda Sky Building. Last time I was in Osaka, I was out in front of there for new year's, but I never went to the top. This time I got the chance.

It was quite a view.

One thing I noticed about Osaka is that the whole town is rather brown.

Not everything is brown, but there is a LOT of brown in Osaka. Lots of wood, dry grass, rusted metal, dirt, and just brown buildings. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than the bland grey of Tokyo, but that's the way it is.

Umeda sky building has these really odd escalators that take you to the observation deck. They look strange, but they're a lot of fun to ride.

Here's an odd out of place building. Note the orange train, a lot like the old Chuo trains that I ride occasionally.

And here's a building that has a road through it. If you look in the center, you can see it there. I first heard about it here, but it was nice to see it in real life.

Inside the top of the Umeda Sky Building was this odd little 'game,' I guess, where you had these chairs with plastic bubbles and the more you jumped and the more bubbles you put your weight on, the more it reacts to your movement with different colors, shapes and sounds.

It sounds odd, but it was a lot of fun.

Anyways, it was time to leave and I took a shot of that odd escalator. Those were actually quite great. It would be nice to take an escalator like this every day instead of a boring one inside.

So, after the ultra modern city, we headed to Osaka Castle. Here's a shot from inside a train station.

Near the castle, we were greeted by a friendly cow.

And there's the castle!

Apparently, a lot of the stones for the walls and base were 'donated' by neighboring regions' leaders and a lot still have markings on them indicating where they came from. You can't really see them in these pictures, though.

Osaka Castle was pretty damned big.

The inside was kind of strange. It seemed like the whole castle had been gutted and replaced with a museum. Well, it's been a long time since someone has ruled from it, so I guess it's better than letting it go to waste.

Here are some shots from the top of the castle.

After we left, we were a little hungry, so this being Osaka, we went to a takoyaki stand. I couldn't help but notice this precocious feline.

We headed back to Umeda station and I couldn't help but notice the lights.

These odd neon chandeliers were both tacky and classy at the same time. Kind of like Osaka.

From Osaka Castle, we headed towards another famous landmark, Tsutenkaku.

This tower was originally built in 1912, then torn down due to the war. In 1956, it was re-built and it's still there today. This tower is also near a REALLY bad neighborhood. But first, how about some T&A?

Yum.

I saw this building in the distance. I wasn't quite sure what it was, so I asked my friend.

Most neon lights like this in Japan are either love hotels or pachinko places. This was actually a grocery store.

My friends told me that it was a chain of super super super cheap grocery stores, and most people know to stay away from their meat and non pre-packaged items. A friend even got some pudding there that was bad. Later we went in one and it was quite depressing. Really bright lights, tons of security cameras, and just an overall creepy feel. There was also a large selection of cheap alcohol. I feel bad for people in this neighborhood who don't have another alternative but to shop there.

Anyways, back to the tower. The neighborhood around the tower must have been awesome in the 50's, but it's not the 50's anymore. It wasn't bad, but a bit more run down than most. Even the sign for the main shopping street was a bit broken.

Despite the grime, this was actually a pretty fun place. I could see myself going back there to hang out if I lived in Osaka.

Here's a close up of the tower.

To the right is the kushiage restaurant we went to. Kushiage is essentially deep fried anything on a stick, and another Osaka specality. It was GREAT!

You can see the tower from where I was sitting. Man, that place was good. I want to go back.

After our bellies were full, we headed back to the station a different way.

This time we headed through spa land. It's a giant building filled with hot bath spas, apparentlly from around the world. They love spas in Japan, but honestly I've never been to one. The idea of getting naked with a bunch of strangers is one I'v never really warmed up to.

Here's the front (HDR image). Apparently, it's open 24/7.

On the way back, we saw this work wear shop. Just another indicatior of the class of the neighborhood. Their local clothing stores are open late at night and are aimed squarely at the market for construction workers.

All and all, it was an interesting experience. If I was to spend some real time in Osaka, I'd check out this neighborhood during the day.

We headed back to the hotel, which like I said was near Namba. Here was a peculiar sign for the JR-Namba station.

The reason it's odd, to me at least, is JR is the company (Japan Railways), and normally it's written just as "JR" in signs, even if everything else is in Japanese. Here it's written as じぇあーる which is "Jae Aru", which is the closest pronunciation in Japanese. The strange thing is, Japanese language has a set of charcters for foreign words (Katakana) and since "Railways" is an English word and even the word "Japan" didn't originate in Japan, one would guess that they would use the katakana, which would look like ジェアール, but they didn't. Why? It just seemed strange.

Another thing I liked was the artwork in the giant tunnel connecting JR Namba to Namba station. Apparently it was all reproductions of pieces from a museum in Chicago.

But seriously, why the chain? I guess to just remind people not to touch.

After we got out of the staion, I saw the new Hello! Project building, called "H!PS", or "HIPS". Not sure which. If you know what Hello! Project is, than I'm sorry. If you don't, then you're better off. Sadly, I was quite overly excited to see the "H!PS" building.

I kinda wanted to ride the mini roller coaster inside, but after a LONG day of walking, I just wanted to go to sleep. But not after some more pictures.

It sure did seem super exciting.

I kinda wanted to go back on Saturday just to see what would happen.

But, I never did. Here are some more pictures of Dotonburi at night. I know it's touristy, but hey, I was a tourist.

Osaka: one giant crab, a million bicycles.

So, that was Osaka. I miss it severely.

I can't quite describe it in picures or even words, but there's this sense of Osaka that people are truly ALIVE! The excitement in the air is very tangible and it can be felt everywhere. It's most ceartinly not the nicest city ever (but it has some really nice parts), but it just feels great. I hope I can go back, as it is one of my favorite places in the world. One day was not enough to spend there.

Moving.

2009-02-11T22:10:00.002+09:00

As I posted earlier, I'm moving soon. That means currently a lot of my spare time is filled with packing and cleaning, and soon my spare time will be filled with unpacking. Because of that, be patient with me. I have a lot to say as always, I'm just too busy to say it.

If you have time, check out my documentary film making site here. It's school related, so it takes precedence over this.

Thanks for reading and thanks for being patient. I'll try to get something fun up soon.

The first day of my train trip in pictues (Mitaka to Osaka)

2009-02-01T23:32:00.190+09:00

I wanted to show some more pictures of my trip. This was the longest single day of train riding in my life, and you know what, I wasn't bored at all. I had an amazing time, and would do it again if I got the chance.

I wrote a bit of a narrative with pictures here, so I won't tell the story again but I thought I'd show some pictures.

For starters, here's Mitaka.

That's the intersection I see daily with the train station in the background. This was when I stepped away from the familiar into the unknown.

These pictures are between Shinagawa and Numazu

And here's my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean on this trip.

And there's the tip of Mt. Fuji on the right:

Here's a bit more from the front of the train:

Here's some more ocean. You can see I'm not the only one taking pictures.

Here is lovely Numazu.

Numazu was a pretty sleepy town, I guess. I was only there for a little while to get a break from riding a train and to see my traveling companion's friend who gave us some delicious hand made pastries.

The bird poop covered stone dog seemed a bit odd. If it was clean, was it supposed to be a bench?

Next to that was a fountain proclaming that Numazu apparently had Japan's best water.

I can't tell you if that's true, because as my travel partner pointed out, it isn't working right now.

Next to that fountain was a statue of naked people. Japan has plenty of nude statues, I've noticed.

And next to that was a giant old train wheel and front.

It clearly came from an old steam train (more on that later). I guess it's an homage to the trains that helped build Japan to the industrial giant it is today.

And here's the shiny new Numazu staion.

Back on the rails for a bit:

And then we stopped at Shimizu.

As I said before, Shimizu is the home of Chibi Maruko Chan in the comics and TV show. It's also supposed to be famous for it's tea, which was quite delightful.

We had a while to kill until the next train, so we got some tea and the lovely lady at the tea shop told us that there was a Chibi Maruko Chan museum and shop near by but we had to take a bus, which didn't come for a while, so we just walked around while we were waiting. I didn't take a picture but there was a NOVA with a 'now hiring' sign. For those who don't know, NOVA was the most popular English school in Japan and they went bankrupt last year. Now another company bought them and opened a few schools and is running them under the old name, but they're kind of rare. It's sort of like seeing a Sinclair station or Bob's Big Boy in America.

Also, NOVA was known for hiring any native English speaker that had a pulse, and while some good people got NOVA jobs, many people who shouldn't have ended up working for them too.

Enough about NOVA. How about some coffee?

While wandering, I noticed an outdoor rock climbing wall on the other side of the tracks. It looked pretty fun.

We rode a fairly old and ghetto bus to this shopping center that had the Chibi Maruk Chan "museum". It was the first, and I think last bus of the whole trip (minus the return ride, of course).

The 'museum' was just a place inside a shopping center. There was a room you could pay to go in, but I couldn't imagine what could be inside to make it worth my money to see, so we didn't go in. The shopping center and surrounding harbor was lovely, though.

My only regret is that I didn't eat any sushi. Apparently, sushi in this town was incredible. I just wasn't hungry.

Anyways, it was time to get back on a train.

I have no idea what this was, but it looked lovely. Maybe a test driving track?

Around sunset, we met these two people who were traveling from Tokyo to Osaka. They were also using local trains only because it was cheaper, and as one of them said "It's slower, so more relaxing." I agreed. Fast is efficient, but sometimes it's good to take the long way.

Here's a picture from Ogaki station.

This town looked a lot like Tachikawa, Omiya, Machida, or many of the other towns that lie just outside Tokyo. It was kind of a bit run down and odd, I felt.

I liked the USA spaceship though.

I also thought it was funny that in Tokyo, there's a chain of department stores called "Marui" (written 0101), but out here there was a department store called "Maruei"

My opinion drastically changed after dinner. We were told that this town was famous for inari-zushi (rice in a sweet fried tofu pouch) so found this tiny shop. Apparently we were told bad information, but we got inari-zushi anyways and it was the best I've ever had. The shop had an old woman and an old man (husband and wife?) that I'm pretty sure live upstairs. The woman was quite funny and enjoyable and the man hardly ever spoke and just made sushi. They were incredibly friendly and it was one of the best sushi experiences of my life, and only for 700 yen! (less than $8) I couldn't believe it! I was worried we were going to have to spend a lot of money, but it was SO cheap, and WONDERFUL! If I ended up in that neighborhood, I'd LOVE to go back.

After dinner it was too dark to take any good pictures, but I noticed I had this picture that I didn't put up. This was after leaving Ogaki

And after a LONG day of travel, I MADE IT!!! OSAKA!!!

Osaka was a site for sore eyes and I was happy to be there. I ate some okonomyaki from a street vendor coupled with a cheap beer. The okonomyaki was the best my traveling partner ever had (and my second best).

But, there's just something about Osaka. It's a really special place.

And more on that next time.

Whoops.

2009-01-26T17:46:00.002+09:00

I went to go partition my hard drive on Friday and in the process, it messed up and nuked all my data. Well, the truth is, I probably could have recovered it, but I was thinking about reinstalling anyways, so I just went ahead and did that.

In the process I was dumb, and a combination of using the first version of Firefox 2 (I don't like Firefox 3), being lazy about installing an antivirus program, and installing a shady file that I shouldn't have, gave me a pretty nasty virus. I was stupid, but after not having a virus for years, I got cocky. I wasted way too much time trying to fix it yesterday and decided that I'm just going to re-reinstall.

On the plus side, before I partitioned I was smart and backed up everything except for a few processed pictures, which since I have the originals, it's not that big of a deal.

Anyways, my posts will be a bit slow as I need to reinstall a ton of programs to get back to normal. So, as always, thanks for reading and I hope you don't hate me for the delay.

First day of the trip.

2009-01-22T18:48:00.003+09:00

I heard about 18 きっぷ (or 18 ticket), which gives unlimited usage of local JR trains for 5 days for a low fee of 11,500 (about $125 at today's rate). I can use a ticket any day and ride as many trains as I wanted for essentially $25 a day. I could have used this to see the sights around Tokyo and it would have saved me money if I traveled a lot and exited the stations often, but I wanted to do something else. I wanted to go to Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya, and then back home.

Osaka was the first stop, as I thought it would be nice to go there and then leisurely head back and do the heavy traveling on the first day. By airplane, a trip to Osaka is a little more than an hour. By shinkansen (bullet train) it's about 2 and a half hours. By local trains, it's 8 and a half hours.

Here is the route I took on the first day of my trip. I think I'm missing some stops, because it was a LONG day of traveling Starting in Mitaka, I met my traveling companion around 8 AM and left.

It of course was a regular Tuesday morning rush hour for most people.

From there, we went to the always overcrowded Shinjuku station. It doesn't look like it, but it was pretty crowded. This platform was just after a train left.

We boarded ye olde Yamanote line...

Then we stopped for a fast breakfast in Shinagawa.

We boarded our first train that took us outside of the Tokyo area.

And rode it until the end of the line which was Atami.

After a short stop, we went to Numanzu.

There was a stopover here, and not a whole lot to talk about, but a cute town. I seemed to have missed taking a picture of the train. Oh well.

Then came Shimizu.

Shimizu was not a required stop, but was the hometown of the popular comic book and TV Charcter Chibi Maruko-Chan. It was also known for great tea, and we were getting a bit sick of riding trains, so a well timed break was in order. Look forward to seeing pictures from that town later.

I was kind of disappointed at the trains I was riding. Not that they were bad, but they were bland. I was expecting some crazy trains. They were all pretty normal. When I went to the hippie festival I rode some crazy trains, and this was WAY further out than that.

Anyway, feeling refreshed, we got back onto yet another boring train.

We had to change yet again in Toyohashi.

And we boarded yet another boring train. Although I'm complaining now they were boring, I should be grateful that they were all comfortable.

Here's a map.

Then it was off to Ogaki.

And finally, an interesting train! It was pretty comfortable too.

After Ogaki, we had to change trains at Maibara.

While waiting at Maibara, there was a guy on the pay phone shouting very loudly and angrily. First off, I hardly ever see anyone using the pay phone, and when I do, it's only for a little while, rarely a conversation. Also, this guy was MAD! I'm not sure what, but it was starting to creep me and my travel companion out. Apparently he shouted "So, I'm a homosexual pervert, SO WHAT?!?" In Tokyo, I would have been a little worried, but out here, a family, including a kid that was about 12 were laughing at him and saying "He's drunk. Hahaha." It was then I really felt the cultural difference between Kansai and Kanto (Tokyo) people.

The train that finally came was a bit interesting too.

Thankfully, the loud drunk didn't get on our train, or was quiet when he did. either way, it was the last train before...

OSAKA!!!! After a LONG day of traveling, I was FINALLY THERE!

Okay, we had to get on another train to get to our hotel, but this was close enough. I didn't take pictures of the last train and stop because I was tired and I kind of felt like the last stop didn't matter as much, because I was IN Osaka. It was close to 10:30 at this point. An 8 and a half hour trip became 14 and a half hours. That's what happens when you take your time. It was great, though.

So, that was the trip. I'm pretty sure I left at least one stop off and I'm sure there are some factual errors, but whatever. Later on, I'm going to post pictures from this day, but that's the route for day one.

In total, this trip would have cost almost 9,000 yen, but thanks to my ticket, it only cost me 11,500 for the whole 5 day pass.

Stay tuned for more pictures and stories.

Sights from the last day of my trip.

2009-01-22T02:25:00.000+09:00

I kind of want to explain my trip... I got a 18きっぷ or 18 ticket, which means I could go anywhere using JR local trains and could get on and off the trains for 5 days. The first day, me and a companion went to Osaka, which was a LONG trip. The second day we chilled in Osaka. The third day we explored Kyoto. The fourth, we went to Nara on our way to Nagoya. The fifth was enjoying the city of Nagoya, and the last day was going home. Here are some pictures of the last day. If you want to know more about my route, check here for a mostly complete order of the stations I got on and off at.

On the way to Nagoya station, I saw the largest rubix cube I've ever seen.

There was also this large, dramatic sculpture.

I took some pictures as we were leaving the city to head towards the mountains.

You could see people gathered by a river and it looked like they were barbequing and fishing. It was Sunday after all.

Here is a better picture of them close up.

At this point outside of Nagoya, you saw lots of mountains. I didn't realize how mountainous my chosen route was. Train maps don't show things like that.

There was a brief rest stop at Nakatsugawa. There was still SOME city left at this point, but it was getting towards no-man's-land.

This area was famous for chestnut sweets. I went in a lovely little shop and had a slightly pricey sweet, but they gave me free tea and another snack, so it was an incredible deal.

The mountains kept getting bigger and the towns got smaller.

Here are some concrete erosion barriers.

I've seen pictures of them, but never really in real life. Apparently they are there to slow down the effects of erosion, but it's been said that cities put them up due to corrupt politicians with pockets lined by construction companies, which themselves are controlled by organized crime. I don't quite understand why they were at this river. There seemed to be plenty of natural rocks to prevent erosion.

Here is a shot of Nagiso.

It was a tiny speck of a town that seemed like a good place to take a break from the real world. It was also freezing.

More pictures from the train:

In this one town in the middle of nowhere, there was a steam train just hanging out.

I don't know if it was a monument, a train just sitting there, or something that was actually used from time to time, but it looked like it was in great condition.

Here is a shot from Shirojiri station.

There was barely enough time for a hot meal, so I enjoyed the local delicacy of Soba.

It was without a doubt, the best soba ever. After that, I darted back to the station.

It was getting dark fast.

My camera might be nice, but there is nothing I could do about the glare from the lights inside the car.

But here at a stop you can see how snowy it was. This was really mountainous and very far from anything.

I don't know where or what this is, but I kind of liked this picture. It almost looked like a castle outpost or maybe a small castle itself.

After that, my camera was useless. I couldn't see anything anyways. It was an amazing trip and I hope I'll have time to share my stories and pictures.

Last day of the trip.

2009-01-22T01:49:00.000+09:00

My thoughts and photos are all scattered from this trip. I want to write about all that happened, but that would take ages. I think I'll start right now at the end. When viewing them later, it will make more sense, but now it seems odd. Anyways, here is the last day, which was riding from Nagoya to home.

The last day, Nagoya to Tokyo: The entire Chuo line.
My closest station is on the Chuo line and I ride it almost every day, but it goes all the way to Nagoya, which is really far. Here's where I stopped and what trains I rode.

My first train:

This says "Nagoya"

I changed trains at Nakatsugawa. There was about 1/2 hour before my train left.

The train I got on:

I had to change trains at Nagiso.

Which led me to this train.

This train was abysmal. Not the train itself, but it was full of some really creepy people. Also, because of the cold and how small the towns were, not every station had a ticket window, so people could only use the front doors of the train. Both the front and back cart smelled pretty odd, but the worst was the air was so thick, it was like breathing soup. Kind of ironic that in the mountains, with incredibly fresh air, I was stuck in a train breathing something awful.

I was happy to get to Shiroji.

The train I got on, I was at the longest. I had a 1/2 hour break in which I ate and that's it. I rushed back to make the train, so I didn't get a picture of it.

FYI.. Shiojiri with that kanji literally means "Salty butt" (塩=しお＝shio means salt　尻＝しり or in this case じり= butt). They had this lovely place that served mountain soba (buckwheat noodles) that were really good and the people were really friendly.

The train took a brief rest stop in Kofu.

This was about an hour and a half on the same train, so I was pretty sick of it by then. I grabbed a beer and a snack. That beer was one of the most satisfying ever.

Then I got to Otsuki after another hour and a half.

Otsuki is the last stop on the normal Chuo maps that I see every day, and it was also a normal Chuo train so I didn't bother to take a picture. I could have gone straight home, but near the end, every stop the doors opened as the train sat there for a minute or so and let in freezing cold air. Then after we got moving, the heat would crank up and it would be boiling and I began to look forward to the doors opening again. Then the process repeated. It was making me kind of ill, plus 3 hours on a train and one minute to change made me a bit sick of moving, so we stopped at good ol' Tachikawa.

Next stop for any logical human would have been home, but I wanted to go ALL the way down the chuo line, which ends in Tokyo station.

And that was it. Starting at about 12:20 and ending at about 10:10ish, that was a long train ride. It was an amazing trip, and I hope to write more about it (and in a more logical fashion) later, but I have to organize my pictures and thoughts any more.

Moving in a month and a half.

2009-01-16T17:42:00.003+09:00

Looks like I AM moving. I've still got a month and a half, but it looks like I'm going to have to say goodbye to this apartment.

To make a really long story short, I moved in with 2 Japanese people. Apparently, my name never technically got on the lease. Now, they're moving out. If I want to get on the lease, I have to A) sign a new contract B) find 2 new people C) pay a huge fee for the new contract, and D) get a Japanese co-signer.

A and B would be no problem. C is an obstacle, because I can't afford it, but if I find 2 people willing to pay for it,then it would work out.

D presents a problem, and one that foreigners often stumble upon. A co-signer that resides in Japan is often required in order to rent houses. Since I wasn't on the lease, it wasn't needed, and until this afternoon my understanding was we needed ONE co-signer for the apartment, not one for everybody.

Given enough time and possibly money, I might have been able to get a co-signer, and if international co-signers were an option, I could easily get one, but they have to live in Japan.

But, the point is, I have to move. Nothing I can do about it. Oh well, I've got a month and a half, and it's been fun living in this apartment. Time to move on.

I might have to move soon.

2009-01-15T21:57:00.004+09:00

I'm going to either find two roommates or move out in the next 3 days. It's quite stressful, because I want to stay here, but I can't if I don't find 2 roommates.

I knew my roommates were moving, but there are so many other things I have to deal with that I wouldn't have to put up with in America, it's really frustrating. I'm most certainly aware this is not America, but I was surprised at how different room sharing is in Japan from a legal aspect. The deal is if I stay, I have to sign a new contract and get a new co-signer who has to be Japanese with a gaurentour that is within Japan.. I was expecting that but what caught me off guard is the new roommates would have to pay a fee for the new contract which will be somewhere between one month's rent (about $1410 total) and $7000. One month is acceptable (and affordable), but the higher end of that spectrum is way too much to bear and I'm not sure I can find two people willing to pay $3500.

But, if I don't find 2 people, I have another place to stay. The problem is I won't have my own room, but it will be in a pretty nice place and probably only temporary.

The most frustrating thing is I'm graduating in May, and I'm not sure what my plans are after that, so I might find a great job somewhere else. The odds are I'm staying in this city, but I can't say for sure.

Back from my trip

2009-01-12T00:02:00.002+09:00

I JUST got back from my trip and I have hundreds of pictures and stories. I had an incredible time thanks to all my friends and my amazing travel companion. I will write about it later, but for now I need to rest.

Edit: here's a preview.

Kichijoji and Hard Off again (important note at the end)

2009-01-05T02:10:00.002+09:00

Today, I went to Kichijoji yet again. You my notice I go there a lot. It's because it's close and I like it. Also a lot of my friends like to hang out there. We went to this delicious Thai restaurant called Peppermint Cafe. They have a lunch special for 980 yen you get an entree, a salad bar, unlimited rice, and unlimited soup and for 200 yen more you get drinks (iced/hot coffee, orange juice, apple juice) and dessert. The entree was good but not great, but the salad bar was delicious and one of the two soups was incredible. I'm not sure how many bowls I had, but it was one too many.

After that, my friends and I went to Lush, a cosmetics store. Everyone besides me and Monchi is a girl. I got a chance to take a picture of Monchi but they told me to stop, because apparently you can't do that in Lush.

Monchi was wearing his new suit. It kinda blended with the background. Hopefully, you will see a lot more of Monchi in the future.

After Lush and a bit of walking, we saw a marching band randomly in front of a department store. Apparently it was the 35th anniversary, but I wasn't sure if it was the 35th anniversary of that store or the company, as that building does not look 30 years old.

After they finished, someone contacted me about a find at Hard Off yesterday. As I said, Hard Off is a used electronics store in the outskirts of Mitaka (and many other places). The find was a HUGE TV for 3150 yen (about $35). They said it worked but was a little odd, but for a price like that, it's hard to beat, so we got it and brought it back home.

It worked but it sure was odd. At first, occasionally the sides would discolor and then return to normal for seemingly no reason. It's the same type of discoloration you get when a magnet gets near a TV, but it kept correcting itself after it happened. Then after watching it for a while it seemed to stop doing that. Even so, 3150 for a TV that big with an odd glitch like that, it's still a good deal.

And that box on top... That's an "AU box", which I don't fully understand, but it plays DVDs and TV. The TV comes straight from the internet, but looks flawless, so I'm wondering what the deal is. Is it TV over IP or just some odd modified cable style setup? Anyways, besides a 2 second lag when changing channels it works fine. Apparently the AU box also allows you to 'rent' movies, get pay channels and something when you hook up an AU phone. Since there wasn't an AU phone (mine's Softbank) we couldn't test that out. Anyways, it was working fine as is.

Important note:
Today I also bot a 18きっぷ(kippu) or 18 ticket. What that means is it's 5 days of unlimited JR train usage. It's called 18きっぷ because when you turn 18, that winter you are supposed to travel. With this I intend on going to Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya, and places in between. What this means to you, my readers, is first off I'm going to have a lot of odd stories to post. Secondly, I might not post much between the 6th and the 12th, as I'll be busy doing things. This trip is a large part of why I bought my new camera, so you can bet I'm going to take a lot of pictures.

I'm really excited about this trip, as I really don't leave the Tokyo metropolitan area very often. It may not look so on a map, but Japan is a huge country and there is a lot to see out there. I'm really excited that I get this opportunity to do this. A few more things are the 18きっぷ lasts between December 10th and January 20th and costs 11,500 yen, or about $125. I can use any JR train, but if I use a shinkansen (bullet train) or special train, I have to pay extra. What this means in reality is a one way trip to Osaka is going to effectively cost me 2300 yen ($25) when a single express train ride would cost 14,460, or over $150. Of course, the trip will take around 8 hours instead of 3, but even 8 hours on local trains would cost me about 9000 yen.

Anyways, to make a long story short, I'm going on a trip, I might not right much, and it's hardly costing me anything for transportation.

This site and some quick comments on today.

2009-01-03T21:35:00.004+09:00

Wow! I've been doing a great job of meeting or exceeding my goals for this site. It's easy now that I'm between semesters and I'm finding new things to say, but I'm afraid it might slip once I get back in school and get into a routine. Anyways, I've been doing better with shorter posts, so here's one more.

Today I walked to Hard Off in Mitaka. Hard Off is a great used electronics store and hopefully on a slow weekend I'll write more of it, but it's my favorite used electronics store. I found better prices for cameras at Fujiya camera (where I bought mine), but Hard Off has an amazing "Junk" section.

The Hard Off in Mitaka is about 2 miles from my house, so a walk there and back with a friend makes for a nice afternoon and some good exercise.

On the way there, I saw this:

I don't usually post Engrish pictures here, but this one stopped me in my tracks. Here's one of the many banners below this building under construction.

Wow. The ironic thing is the building in progress seemed to be entirely concrete and drywall. Oh well.

Another thing that I saw that pleased me was this job application sign.

It was written in both Japanese and English and while the sign clearly stated you needed to be able to communicate in Japanese (and said 'experiments' instead of 'experience'), it showed that they were open to hiring foreigners. I have no desire to work in a restaurant, but if I did and I owned a bike, I would be sure to apply. I wonder if it was because of the proximity to ICU, an international school only a mile or so from this restaurant. Whatever the reason, the attitude of this establishment made me pleased.

Another unrelated note is my laptop screen hinge seems to be dying. It was not working right today so I super-glued it, and surprisingly it worked! I know it's only a temporary solution, but this computer, after over 2 and a half years of daily use, is showing it's age. When I get a REAL job, I'll probably invest in a new one.

So, you're moving to Japan...

2009-01-03T20:01:00.004+09:00

It's almost a new semester and that means there will be a new crop of people coming to Japan.
I thought I'd try to dispense some advice to those coming. I'll try to be brief:

Before you move:

Don't come here because you like anime/manga. Japan is a country, not a comic book. If all you know about Japan you learned from cartoons, do some real research and then think about it. If that last sentience made you twitch when I used the word 'cartoons', then you are better off not coming here. Full disclosure, I used to like anime and I love Ghibli films, but it should not be a primary influence/reason for coming here.

Learn SOME Japanese and be prepared to USE IT! Could you imagine you working at your job and someone came in speaking Japanese expecting you to know it? Probably not. It's the same here, don't assume everyone knows what you're saying. Learn some basic phrases and try them out. There is a BIG language gap, and sometimes it's rough, but the more you know, the better you'll have it.

Visit before you move. If you can, check out Japan before you move there. Would you buy a car without test driving? Would you buy a house without checking out the inside? Why would moving be any different. If you only intend on being in Japan for a short period, then it's not so important, but if you want to stay, visit.

Japan is not what you expect. Japan is nothing like you've read in comics or seen in movies and anime. Just like America is nothing like Full House or The O.C. Japan is NOT a perfect country and if you move here, you will be able to see the flaws. It is not a fantasy, it is a reality. Don't get me wrong, I love it here, but I know Japan is a severely flawed country and Tokyo is far from a perfect city, but it's the best place I've lived despite the flaws. If you have a fantasy image of Japan, it will get smashed into a million pieces. Be prepared for that.

Japan is different from your home country. Unless you grew up in Japan, you will counter many cultural differences. Some may be pleasant surprises, some might not. When you can't do or get something you're used to, deal with it. That's life here. Beware of the phrase "Where I'm from." Japan is not where you are not where you are from, so don't expect things to be the same. It sounds obvious, but the first time you try to do something you can't do, you will be frustrated. Deal with it, as that's all you can do. The more you try to live like a native, the easier time you'll have. And on that note...

There are a lot of cultural rules. Try to learn them. There are a lot of cultural do's and dont's, and there is a big difference between what is legal and what's socially acceptable. You won't get arrested for drinking beer on the train and loudly talking, but it's rude. Even if you don't care, every time a non-Japanese person makes an ass of themselves, it makes everyone look bad. There are plenty of books on etiquette in Japan, so pick one up or check one out at your library.

Learn about your city. I'm writing this mainly for TUJ students, but if you're anyone moving anywhere in Japan, learn about where it is, what's good to see, what's the best hidden areas, what the local favorite food is, where trains are, how to get around, and so on. Surprises are nice, but knowing the basics are important.

People will like/dislike you because you're different. Know this. Some people are racist. If you've never dealt with racism, you may very well in Japan. People will treat you differently just because you're not Japanese. Some people will love you just for being a foreigner, some will hate you. There is nothing you can do about it, so just accept it and try to enjoy it when you can.

After you move:

Hang out with natives. Japan is full of Japanese people, so try to befriend them. TUJ's dorms are really nice for meeting people, but everyone at those dorms is a foreigner (besides Aki), so it's not a good way to get integrated into the culture. Try to meet some Japanese people outside of TUJ too, to get a perspective of what locals think and act like. This is a bit harder for people only here a few months because, let's be honest, do you want to befriend someone you'll probably never see 3 months from now?

Enjoy the food. Japanese food is great, but sometimes scary. Don't ask questions on what you're eating and just try it. You might not like everything, but that's the point of experimenting. The best food I've ever eaten here looks and sounds terrible. Just be brave and try it out!

Explore your neighborhood. I'm constantly learning stuff about my own neighborhood. Mitaka/Kichijoji is NOT a small place, and I see something new almost every time I go outside of my normal route. There is probably a lot more to your town than between your house and train station. Also, when you have time...

Leave your neighborhood. Tokyo is a huge city. Explore it. Some parts are great, some parts are pretty bad. I can tell you what I like, but you should find out what's good on your own. And on that note...

Get out of the tourist spots! I can't stress this enough. There is WAY more to Tokyo than Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku and Roppongi. Those are places where it's very easy to be a foreigner, and I'll admit, they all have positive qualities, but if you spend ALL your time in those areas, you are missing so much and you should really question your motives.

Keep a good sense of humor and an open mind. You will have bad days, you will be in bad situations, and things won't be perfect. You can either get angry or roll with the punches. People will react to you in strange ways and you won't know why. Just deal with it and try to enjoy life with a smile.

And probably my most important points...

Don't ask too many questions. It's great to ask questions! It's a great way to learn, but you will find some things that make NO sense. Don't try to figure everything out, because you'll only get frustrated. Sometimes things are the way they are just because that's how they are and that's how they've been for a long time. Accept things the way they are and don't question it. Some answers you will find in time and some you won't. That's life.

And...

HAVE FUN! Japan is a great place to live if you can put up with the downsides and enjoy the ups. Cultural and language barriers can be rough, so can social interactions, as the way people interact is quite different, but that's life. Make your time in Japan the best you can, if it's just a few months, a few years, or life.

Fukubukuro

2009-01-03T13:28:00.005+09:00

Yesterday was January 2nd, which means Fukubukro time. Fukubukuro is a grab bag from a Japanese store. I wrote about my adventures last year here, and this year I also went to Shibuya 109, so the story isn't too different, so I'm not going to bore you with the same words, so here are some new pictures and some comments.

I went back to the belly of the best. This time I wasn't solo, but I was a bit late. Oh well

Just like last year, there were plenty of women waving clothes around and plenty of security guards.

Here's someone trying to trade brown hot pants.

This next picture makes the girl look a little like a homeless bag lady.

I didn't notice it until I got home and looked at the picture, but who are those people standing up there?

Anyways, Shibuya was fun, but I actually wanted to buy my own fukubukuro in Akihabara. The more I go there, the less I like it. I enjoy some of what they sell (all the anime porn isn't something I'm looking for, or honestly regular anime either), but I really don't like the people who go there. A combination between sweaty nerds, women in silly outfits looking for attention (Kind of like Shibuya, actually), tourists, and someone looking to get rich from any or all of these people. It's a far stretch from the electronic parts utopia it used to be.

But, I came for 2 things. A new memory card and a fukubukuro. I went to one of my favorite used game stores, and I got there just at 11 and they weren't open yet. I thought they opened at 10, but I was wrong. When I got there, a small line had already formed, and I got near the end and after less than a minute waiting, I got in. Good thing I didn't wait any longer because the guy up front bought most of the good sets.

I ended up with something (a Game Boy set), but I was kind of disappointed when one person bought maybe 1/3 of all that they had. Also, he was kind of bossing the salesman around in English. It's one thing to be pushy in America, but it's another thing to be pushy here in Japan, especially in English. To me, it just came off really rude, also coupled with the fact he bought more than he should have. Well, it is partially the stores fault. They should have said "Limit # per customer" but they didn't. Oh well.

I did get a cheap memory card. 1280 yen (about $14 USD these days) for 4 gigs. That's REALLY cheap. Sure it's a no-name brand, but it works, so I'm not complaining.

After Akihabara, a friend and I went to Nakano. I don't think I ever wrote much about Nakano, but it's a few stops from my house and I really like it. I showed my friend Fujiya Camera (which I wrote about here). They were tecnically closed, but people were in there rearranging and were nice enough to allow us to take a peek around. I'm not sure if we could have bought something if we wanted to, but we were just looking, so it didn't matter.

After that, we went to the lovely Nakano broadway.

Broadway is a fun place, and kind of strange. Apparently, it used to be really fancy back in the late 80's. After the bubble burst, Nakano Broadway kind of slid downhill. Now it's a really strange collection of Anime and manga shops, used CDs/Books/Electronics, antique shops, gun and rifle replica shops, strange collector items, and some odd things like fancy watch shops and suit stores. It is clear what is leftover from the fancy days. It was kind of sad when I first went there, but even in a year, it's been getting better. Some entertainment enthusiasts who like the goods of Akihabara minus the porn are heading to Nakano now. It's a fun place, but really odd still.

Too bad almost everything was closed.

After Nakano, we walked to my friend's house in Koenji, which is about a 20 minute walk from the end of Broadway. On the way, we swung by this shop that always seems closed. The owner was sitting stuff out in front of the shop, and was really nice. He gave my friend a great deal. We dropped our stuff off (remember, I was still carrying the fukubukuro I got) and headed back there. The guy was REALLY friendly and a lot of fun to talk to. He loves ukuleles and American 50's/early 60's music and anything Hawaiian. He owns two places, but they're both really messy. I'm tempted to help him clean up his shops and make it a nice place for everyone to visit. He also has a large porn section and is unapologetically a fan of porn. It was a bit odd to hear that, but whatever, at least he was honest.

Then I hung out at my friend's house some more, ate some cheap ramen, then called it a day. While playing with my camera, I snapped this picture with different light settings and processed it like other HDR shots. The dynamic range wasn't very dramatic to begin with, so processing didn't do too much but I thought I'd share it.

Can you guess which instrument is mine?

New Years

2009-01-01T23:05:00.005+09:00

Last year, to ring in 2008, I went to Zojoji, a large temple in downtown Tokyo. It was fun, but really crowded and I wanted to see something different. My friend who lives in Koenji (a few stops from my house) recommended we go there, as it's well known for exciting night life and cheap bars/restaurants.

Disappointingly, almost everything was closed. It was like a ghost town. I was actually a little creeped out by how empty it was. My friend heard of a temple near by, so we went there. It was a bit of a hike, and pretty strange because the streets were practically deserted, but when we got there, it was quite a nice place. I want to go back during the day.

New year's was rung in an odd way for me. There was no grand count down, no fireworks, no Aud Lang Syne playing, just a large bell and a little bit of cheering. I kinda liked it better than normal.

Then, in the first few moments of 2009, some locals took a portable shrine and paraded around the neighborhood.

While back by the temple there was the usual fair of sweets, yakisoba, games for kids, and of course takoyaki:

I've seen lots of people with these rods spinning them around in front of the portable shrines. This one wasn't any different.

The whole neighborhood had a very timeless feel. It was a gorgeous place, but there were no neon signs, no modern looking shops sticking out, there was a McDonalds, but they were closed and kind of hidden, but just old houses, shops, and buildings.

After the parade, all the people carrying the mikoshi (portable shrine) took a break. One of those people was a friend of my friend, and we all got chatting and headed off to their house.

After way too much to drink, I fell asleep at someone's house in this neighborhood and we all woke up and headed off, but not before I could snap this picture.

What is that building? Why have I never known this part of town existed? I thought I knew Koenji pretty well, but that just goes to show there's always something new to learn.

Inokashira park again

2008-12-31T19:51:00.006+09:00

I went back to Kichijoji and Inokashira park, ate some ramen and had a nice day. The ramen shop was a tiny one down this odd street I don't go much (by WEDsday English cafe. That's not a typo) and the ramen was delicious but the music was almost painful. Just really wacky annoying odd shit. It was humorous for a bit, but it got old fast.

Anyways, I really just want to share some pictures of Inokashira in the winter.

This is on the way to Kichijoji from my house and still technically in Mitaka, I think.

Here's a nice shot of the shrine in the park.

Here's a different angle of the lake.

Yeah, these shots aren't in chronological order. Give yourself a pat on the back if you noticed that. Blogger changed how the order of how you upload things and it's frustrating me because I was used to the old style.

Here's the temple from another angle.

Here was an odd beverage that I've never seen before.

Make of that cartoon character what you will. I'm just impressed with the macro mode of my camera. The preview looked terrible but the end result was nice.

And I'll leave my last post of 2008 with an HDR shot of Inokashira.

Happy new year everyone!

Mojaco

2008-12-31T11:36:00.005+09:00

Yesterday I went to another Mojaco show. For those who don't know, Mojaco is a band that I have befriended here in Tokyo. I try to go to their shows because it's always fun, I like their music and it gives me a deep look into Japanese culture. If you haven't seen my mini documentary on them, I recommend you do.

Anyway, this show was in Shibuya. I thought I'd try out my camera and take a picture of one of the most photographed areas in Tokyo.

Not a bad picture for barely trying. Too bad I can't hold the camera right.

I've been to this club before and it's a cool place, but for some reason I had a hard time finding it. When I did, there was a guy playing solo on guitar.

He wasn't that good, but he was having fun.

After that, this duo of a girl on drums and a guy guitarist came up. This is the second girl on drums/guy guitarist duo I've seen in Japan (White Stripes style), and they were pretty good.

They didn't blow me away like Highered-Girl did, but they were good.

And then Mojaco went on.

I've seen them quite a few times, and I think for this one, the crowd was one of the largest (behind me. This picture makes it look deceivingly empty) and probably their best show that I've seen so far.

Action shot:

I feel the need to mention again that I really like this camera.

Akiba had a pretty rock star moment at this show. He even swung from something hanging above him. I didn't get a shot of that.

Generally passive Akane was rocking that bass too.

And Musashi as always was shining brightly.

Somebody smacked into my camera mid show, but it didn't seem to have any affect. It did stop me from taking more pictures, which is fine.

After they went on, Musashi told me she was nervous before and now she was ready to party.

The band after them was this kind of Ramones meets heavy rock kind of deal. The drummer was singing most of the time. They were also pretty good.

I accidentally took an awesome shot where I was zooming in and taking the picture.

After them, an unusual band went up. The drummer was really boisterous, aggressive, and really hairy. He'd often get up and start shouting and doing all sorts of crazy things. They were a bit lacking on songs and shy a little on talent, but they really made up for that with stage presence.

After the show, Mojaco, some friends, and I went to an Izakaya. It was a particularly nice one, and one I'd be happy to go back to again. There was a lot of food that was outside my comfort zone, something that doesn't happen that much these days. I had sea urchin and pickled squid guts for the first time. I didn't hate either, in fact sea urchin was kind of creamy and nice, but a tad overwhelming. One thing that looked creepy but was amazing was raw young tuna backbone.

You took those shells, scraped meat off the back and ate it. If you've ever had tuna sushi or sashimi, the flavor is quite similar, but better. That meal set me back a bit, but it was worth it.

Yet again, I had another great Mojaco experience. I'm not sure if it was luck or just trying something new, but I feel honored to enjoy the company of such fine and interesting individuals.

Dekotora!

2008-12-29T18:48:00.003+09:00

Dekotora is short for Decoration Truck, and apparently in the late 70's and 80's they were quite popular. I first heard about them from Pink Tentacle quite some time ago, and I see them from time to time, but usually driving and I can't get a good shot, but today I saw one in Mitaka parked by the station.

It's not the most dramatic example I've seen, but it was also in my neighborhood, no somewhere showing off.

Curry World

2008-12-29T18:33:00.004+09:00

I am a big fan of curry. I like it all types, so pleasing me with curry is not a difficult task, but it is rare that I see something different in curry. In Nakano, there is a tiny shop called Curry Wold and they offer "European curry" which seems to be a bit lighter, more elegant, and more flavorful than Japanese curry. I've been to this place three times now, and they always please me with their flavors, presentation, and selection.

They also have some rather lovely Creme brulee and offer a nice relaxing atmosphere. They're fairly inexpensive, especially for dinner as (I think) lunch and dinner menus are the same. Either way, it's a nice stop if you're in Nakano and hungry for something other than fast food.

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Megruo, Nakameguro, and getting lost.

2008-12-29T18:13:00.004+09:00

Yesterday, I intended to go to a year end festival in Meguro and Nakameguro. That didn't exactly happen. I kind of forgot to write down where these festivals were happening, so I ended up walking for ages. The intention was to walk to Nakameguro, but after 2 and a half miles (4 KM), I ended up in Toritsudaigaku. Of course I brought my new camera along and I took pictures.

Before Meguro, I took this shot at a burger place in Shinjuku:
Looks safe to me.

This is some river in Meguro.

Down this long street there were a lot of really cool boutique shops. It was surprisingly nice.

The next few pictures are my attempts at HDR photography. Looks like I need to learn more about HDR and my camera. Oh well. I'm having fun trying.

That's a few blocks from Meguro station.

This is my third attempt at processing this picture.

That's a bridge on the way to Toritsudaigaku. I thought it would make for a good shot. I don't hate how this turned out, but it could be better.
And here's an alley right by Toritsudaigaku.

After that, I went to Nakameguro, which was on the surface kinda bland, but after walking through the back alleys by the river (I think it's a different river from my picture), it seemed to be quite a nice area.

It wasn't the day I planned, but I had a lot of fun. I had company and that really makes a difference when walking long distances.

Festival in Mitaka

2008-12-27T23:57:00.002+09:00

Right now I'm organizing my photos. Since I've been fighting with blogger to upload photos easily, (Dear Blogger staff: Your photo uploading is obnoxious, and why can't I just stick things in Picasa straight on to blogger? You can blog from Picasa, why not the other way around?) I've been looking at all the photos I didn't write about.I'm not going to say much, but there was a huge festival in Mitaka on September 13th and 14th.

I have written about some festivals in the past and I've been to a lot more. What makes this one special is it was literally right on my street. It was pretty crazy watching it go by right in front of my house. There are tons of pictures here and some pictures from Kichijoji here, which is one train stop away.

I shot some videos with my camera, and they are of a big drum that was rolling around town:

Festival in Mitaka: Giant Taiko. from Keith McCreary on Vimeo.
It was really loud and could be heard several, several blocks away.

There was also a dance performance at the shrine really close to my house.

Festival in Mitaka: Dance performance. from Keith McCreary on Vimeo.

It was a lot of fun. Check out the galleries for more pictures, but here are two that I'm quite proud of.

Return to Ontakesan.

2008-12-27T22:00:00.005+09:00

I had a christmas package sent to my old address at the dorms in Ontakesan, so I headed there to pick it up. Unfortunately the dorm manager Aki wasn't there, but it was quite fun to walk around. It was nice to see the old place, and even though I hated living there for sound reasons (you can hear everything), it wasn't a bad place. Sure, the neighborhood is a bit boring, but it certainly isn't a bad place.

on the way back, there was a nice sunset I tried to capture.

That's Mt. Fuji in the background. Unfortunately, the fence on the bridge was in the way. Oh well.

Ontakesan main street. (I didn't take this picture)

And here is a nice sunset from the train station.

Anyways, Ontakesan was fun, and I see that the people living there have more chairs, more game systems, a bigger TV, and a lot more entertainment than I did. Too bad they have the same crappy doors that do nothing to block sound.

My new camera.

2008-12-27T21:22:00.005+09:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I very recently got a new camera. Actually, I got it Thursday night (It's now Sunday night). That camera is the Olympus E-510.

To explain why, first off, my cell phone used to take great pictures, but for some reason (moisture I think) the camera has become terrible, and now only takes low resolution pictures that are usable, so the once glorious 5 megapixel phone now only does 640X480. It's still good 640X480, but it is far from it's former glory.

Secondly, when I went to the Hayao Miyazaki press conference, I brought my Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6 camera, which I got for cheap about 2 and a half years ago on clearance. Now it is a 3 and year old camera, and when I brought it to the press event, everyone had their professional cameras, I really felt way behind. Also, the pictures clearly showed this, as one was used on the Japan Times website, but the other 300 I took weren't. Maybe less than 10 of them could have been used.

The other reason I got it is I got a teaching assignment one Saturday. It was quite profitable, and in the end paid for the whole camera.

Also, I did PLENTY of research on Digital SLR cameras. I settled on the E-510 for a few reasons. First off, I am a digital camera guy. This is digital camera #4 (5 if you count my phone), and I am not used to looking through a viewfinder. Lots of DSLRs don't have live preview, which means I have to use the viewfinder and can only see the picture after you're done. I almost got an unfortunately named Canon Kiss Digital X (also known as the 400D in Europe and the Digital Rebel XTi in America) that I found new for 35,000 yen, but I couldn't get over using nothing but the viewfinder.

I looked at the Olympus E-420 and E-520, and I liked the shake reduction of the 520, but it's a pretty pricey camera. I also looked at the Sony A-300, the new Panasonic G1, and a few others. I am on a budget, so while these are all great cameras, they all were pricey too.

Then one day I popped into a great used camera shop in Nakano called Fujiya Camera. There they had two E-510s for sale at quite a reasonable price. They didn't have any lenses included, but they sold them separately, for a quite reasonable price. I also saw the same camera being sold as a clearance floor model in Akihabara for more than Fujiya wanted, which I'm sure was much more manhandled.

I did research and found that there wasn't a huge difference between the E-510 and E-520 (which was actually the biggest complaint about the latter), and I also checked online store and auction prices and found even compared to Ebay, Fujiya was a good deal.

When I went back just to look on Thursday, one of the two E-510s were gone, and with the fear of not being able to get it, I snapped up the other one.

It's way more complicated than any other camera I've used, but I am happy with the results. It's an entry level DSLR and not really pro, but for the price, I am quite satisfied.

National Diet Building

2008-12-27T19:07:00.003+09:00

12/26/08

I went to the National Diet Building today. It was quite interesting to see. I was a little surprised to hear that it was made out of 99% Japanese materials. Not surprised so much at the fact, but more shocked that even in 1920, they imported building materials.

The tour guide told everyone that located at the top of the Diet Building was a room that was 2 tatami mats (about 71 x 71 inches). When asked what the room was used for, he kind of started stuttering, turned red, and started talking about elevators for some reason. I think he knew what was up there and I think it's a Ninja.

On an unrelated note, after much searching, I bought a nice new(ish) camera. It's a barely used Olympus E-510, and I think it is perfect for me. Considering I got the whole package of Camera, lens, memory card, and all the accessories for less than I earned in one day of teaching, I am quite pleased. Too bad I don't get paid like that every day.

Since I can, I'm trying to learn about HDR photography. Here is one example:

Nice, isn't it? It still doesn't look quite right, but since it's my first attempt, I'm pretty satisfied.

More professional work!

2008-12-04T00:32:00.003+09:00

Sorry again for the huge delay in my writings. I just need to find more time. It's the end of the semester for me, and I have a ton of papers to write, but first, let me tell you what I've been doing lately.

Japan Times wrote a big article about Hayao Miyazaki, and wanted me to attend the press conference to take pictures and shoot some video, which I happily did. After several hours of subtitling, here are the results:

I'm pleased my work can get out there, and hopefully it will be seen by tons of English speaking Miyazaki fans.

Sorry guys...

2008-11-23T12:42:00.002+09:00

Sorry for not updating forever. Personal, occupational, and scholastic reasons have kept me overly busy lately. The semester's almost over, so soon I won't have to worry about that, but for now, I apologize.

Professional work.

2008-10-17T00:12:00.002+09:00

For those who don't know (which is probably most of you), I'm an intern at Japan Times right now. I mention this because partially that's a reason why my posts have slowed down, but mainly because I finally did some work for them that I want to show off.

I have various tasks around the office, but my most exciting one has been going to cover the launch of a car. I did all the video work, and in less than 30 hours after posting, it's got over 2000 views!

The conditions for shooting and editing were a bit rough, as I didn't exactly have a pro-level camera or a tripod, and all the editing was done in less than an hour using iMovie. The camera did a decent job, but colors were a bit odd but not having a tripod and being really far away made it tough, but I think it came out decent. Editing with iMovie was killing me, though. After using Final Cut Pro and going to iMovie is like going from driving a car to a go-kart that's on a track, has a broken tire, and pulls to the right. If I knew nothing about video editing, iMovie would have been fun and easy, but since I DO know some stuff, the limitations were killing me.

Anyways, considering the limitations and the amount of time I spent on it, I was fairly happy with the result.

If you're interested in the background behind the video, the article is here. I felt a bit silly with a hand held camera while everyone else had pro gear and was from top news agencies, but besides that the event was a lot of fun and I hope to do more things like it!

Campus life.

2008-10-01T02:11:00.002+09:00

I'm on the Temple University Japan website!

You can see me here in Japanese and here in English.

Okay, it's not that exciting, but I was pleased to see it. Even though it's a kind of bad picture and I was sick that day (I'm not that pale).

Anyways, just thought I would share.

Hippie festival in the middle of nowhere.

2008-09-22T01:15:00.014+09:00

In early August, I was persuaded to attend a music festival pretty far outside of Tokyo. From what I could gather, it was pretty much a "hippie festival" and I had mixed feelings about attending. As much as I get behind standard 'hippie' ideals such as peace and environmentalism, I often have an issue with the methods 'hippies' use to get the message out, I'm not a big fan of mind-altering and I have dramatically opposite opinions about technology as some self-proclaimed hippies. Also, I feared it was going to be a weekend of one big drum circle, which for me, wears out it's welcome after maybe 20 minutes.

But my traveling companion really wanted to go and what the hell, maybe it'd be fun. Also, it was outside of Tokyo, and I'd wanted to leave the city for a little while anyways. So, we got some camping supplies and headed out.

I mentioned before that Takao was the furthest outside of Tokyo that I had been. Well, we had to change trains there and move on. Time to say hello to my friend again.

After we changed trains, I learned that Takao was really the end of civilization. As I said before, it was clear that Takao was NOT Tokyo, but it was still a town and it was in commutable distance from Tokyo, if you didn't mind a really long commute. There was a city there and while it wasn't a metropolis, it was still a city. I didn't realize that after Takao there is NOTHING! I don't mean like it's just houses and fields, I mean there is nothing there. You go through a tunnel and all you see are mountains. It's quite amazing. The only real civilization are small towns around train stations.

Also, train stations in Tokyo are pretty close, being no more than 5 minutes apart and generally only a minute or two. These stations were a good 10 or 15 minutes from eachother and the train was going really fast. Way faster than Tokyo trains. I was very much enjoying the trip out there. But, it seems most people didn't care.

Our train was way older than the Tokyo trains I'm used to and quite a bit sketchier. When we went under tunnels, sometimes the power would go out. The first time was a bit surprising, and this one kid on the train started screaming and crying which was, honestly, really funny. I could feel that most of the train wanted it to happen again.

After riding for quite some time, it became apparent that we missed our stop. So, we had to say goodbye to our old rickety train and get on the next one back.

We were in the middle of nowhere. Some people say that in Tokyo meaning that if there's only a convenience store and a McDonald's it's 'the middle of nowhere'. But, no. There was NOTHING here. Just like two shops on one side of the station and three houses on the other.

My ghostly friend was aware how far out we were.

For those interested, this is Torisawa, in Yamanashi prefecture. The complete English history of Torisawa from the wikipedia page is as follows:
June 1, 1902: Station opens.

Deep history.

So, we had to wait for a bit for our train to come, and it was really refreshing to be surrounded by nature instead of buildings. I've said it before that I love it here, but sometimes I want some nature. This was a really refreshing trip. And I didn't mind getting lost.

I took a picture of a guy who was being quite curious of the foreigner at his station as he was boarding his train.

This picture confounds me because he was stepping onto the train, not off, and I don't know why that girl is on the ground. I'm getting confused just looking at it.

I saw this pass by:

So, our train finally did come, and we headed back to Fujino, where we were supposed to go to begin with.

Fujino was a small mountain community that seemed to have missed out on the last 30 or so years of lifestyle changes. There was one convenience store and it wasn't a chain, but an ancient mom and pop place run by what I can assume is an actual mom and pop, or more realistically a grandmother and grandfather (at least). There was a 'snack' which is kind of a food/bar place that used to be popular and still is among older crowds, but have been replaced with 24 hour convenience stores and izakayas.

My camera did not do a good job with night pictures, but I stole some from someone else.

We got on a rickety bus that took us to this abandoned elementary school up in the mountains. There were bright lights, loud music, and lots of people. About half the people were dressed like 'hippies'. There were ample food vendors and some arts and crafts. There was a main stage and old classrooms used for crafts and a giant gym used for sleeping.

This is a picture taken facing some booths and a tent holding sound, lighting, and video equipment.

We dropped off our stuff in the gym and went and got some food. Since this was kind of hippie oriented, we were supposed to bring our own dining tools, which I think was a good idea. We ate some tasty food and checked out the concert.

There were a few bands that night, but most of them varied between decent but forgettable and bad. The headliner, however, was absolutely amazing and blew me away.

The band was called Sun Paulo and their performance was quite exceptional. They seemed like bland techno at first, but they had a live drummer, guitarist, and keyboardist.

I wasn't expecting much when I saw them on stage with Native American headdresses, but they really put on an amazing show. You can listen to them here but their concert was so much better than their recordings. Not to say the recordings are bad, just not as good as hearing them live.

Also, there was a woman who was doing some acrobatics with two sheets of cloth while the band was playing. It was quite amazing to watch that while there were people rocking out on stage.

It was a really good show. I'd like to see them again sometime.

After the show, we were a bit worn out, so we went back to the giant gym to get some shut eye. This was nearly impossible because it was really hot and there was this experimental noise noise musician (apparently all the way from America. Woo!) who was 'performing'. As someone who has performed live as a noise musician before, I can say he wasn't that interesting and the mood was terrible. Everyone was tired and a little soft music would have been great, but he was making loud grating noises.

We decided it would be better if we went outside and camped under the stars. It was a bit hot, but it was hot inside anyways. We had nothing to lay down, so we 'borrowed' a tarp (which we did faithfully return) and had an uncomfortable night of sleeping on a steep hill in a hot, humid chunk of woods. It was actually a lot of fun. Wouldn't be a lifestyle for me, but it was fun for a night.

Early in the morning, at 6:30 AM, this loud song started playing. I didn't get it, but my companion instantly jumped up and ran down to the stage area.

Apparently they were playing the song that EVERY elementary student exercises to in the morning. This was a throwback to a childhood that didn't exist for me, so I didn't join. Plus, it was 6:30 AM.

I slept a bit more, and then packed up camp. The view was nice in the morning.

The whole setting was great. It was quite a large school and very much in the middle of nowhere. I kind of see why it was abandoned, but it was really great.

That's the view near the gym, which is on the left.

We took the rickety bus up here in the middle of the night, so it was a bit hard to tell how exactly far out there we were, but during the day it was quite clear.

There was a golf course.

We wandered around a bit and saw this abandoned pool.

IT was pretty crazy and surreal, but it was an abandoned school so I guess really not that odd. The strange thing is the bottom was kind of springy, like a big sheet of rubber with nothing underneath.

There was a nice view from the edge of the pool too.

But, the second day wasn't nearly as good as the night before. It was getting to be too hot to enjoy it and the afternoon was mostly a giant drum circle, which was my initial fear. Also, someone was selling these clackers which were like two small balls with stuff inside tied together, kind of like two small maracas on a rope. You can swing them around and clack them together to make interesting rhythms, and when one person is good, it can sound really neat. When 20 people are doing it, regardless of talent, it's obnoxious. And everywhere there was another person doing it.

So, we decided to leave in the afternoon, giving us time to go home and relax. While waiting for the bus I saw this guy.

And the simple parking lot was really nice too.

Everybody was crowding around these uncomfortable rocks, so we decided to lie on the grass. We saw some cicada shells, which forcibly got attached to me.

I don't really like them, but they're harmless containers of protein.

The festival was odd. It seemed like a lot of people were enjoying 'hippie' as a trend, and for a hippie festival in the woods, it wasn't very friendly. Not to say that people were mean or rude or anything, it's just they were slightly more warm and friendly than a Tokyo train, which is to say not very much at all. It was a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere, though. I'm glad I went and I did have a good time, but I'm not sure I'd go next year if it's in the middle of the summer.

As we were leaving, I noticed something in the trees nearby.

It's a giant love letter in the mountain. No matter what I thought of the festival, Fujino was really lovely and was a breath of fresh air.

Thoughts on Japan.

2008-09-06T18:28:00.003+09:00

I've been living in Japan for over a year and I haven't left this country on over nine months, so I think it's time to check in and state some things I've learned.

Before I begin, I'd like to state that I really like living here. I mean. every day is fun and interesting if I choose to make it so. Japan, is however, a real place. Things good and bad happen to me. That's just life.

So, here are a few things I'd like to discuss:

Food:

I love Japanese food. There's so much great food around here. Dining is always fun and almost everything I eat is great. I'm an adventurous eater for the most part, and looking back on the last year, I can't think of a single thing that I've eaten that was absolutely terrible. I have, on the other hand, found some amazing Japanese food that is now something I crave often.
That being said, some foods that I was used to before I moved particularly Mexican food and pizza, are not the same. Pizza isn't terrible here, but it's really not the same. It seems that both Japan and America have their own takes on this Italian dish and they go in somewhat opposite directions. Mexican food is around, but it's usually overpriced and under par. Not to say it's bad, but when I spend $16 on a burrito plate, I expect something great. Instead I get 'decent', but I know where I am, so 'decent' is fine. On the other side of the coin, I was expecting pasta to be quite terrible, and every time I've gone out for pasta, I've been pleasantly surprised.
Also on food, the portions in Japan are smaller. Prices, for the most part are cheaper than in America depending on what you get, but portions are almost always smaller. Japan has no real culture of taking leftovers home and it's considered wasteful to not finish your meal. I have left restaurants hungry. In reality, it's better this way, as I eat less and rarely try to overeat, but it's just different.

Language:

Simply put, you don't NEED to speak Japanese in your everyday life in Tokyo. I don't speak Japanese well, but I more than manage. Japanese is something that I am studying and I want to learn, but it's not needed on a daily basis, really.
It is, however, something that is really useful. Even with my limited Japanese, I am allowed opportunities, both social and professional, that people who don't speak any Japanese miss. Also, certain key phrases are of the utmost importance (Sumimasen, kudasai, arigatou, etc.) and anyone who lives here should learn these without even trying.
Also, mind that I said you don't need Japanese in TOKYO. Tokyo is not the beginning and end of Japan. Other cities and even suburbs, you just can't get by knowing only English. Also, both in careers and socially, speaking Japanese is really useful. Even just trying to speak to someone in Japanese makes them feel more at ease and they'll often be much friendlier.
Surviving in Japan with any other language besides Japanese or English is almost impossible.

Dating:

Some people seem to think that if you're a foreigner, girls will flock to you. This isn't the case. Not to say there aren't plenty of Japanese girls that love foreign guys, because there are. It's that you're not the only one. Also, once you go out on a date with someone, communication (if you don't speak Japanese fluently) and cultural differences (even if you do), create big problems. Not to say working out cultural differences isn't interesting and fun, but it can get old fast.

Being a foreigner:

Slightly more than 1% of the Japanese population are foreigners, and of those, the overwhelming majority are Chinese or Korean. For people who grew up as part of the largest ethnicity of their area will instantly become racially aware. For example, in most parts of America, if someone said "I met a guy today. He's white.", it would sound really odd but in Japan, it would be quite normal. Also, in most of America, I wouldn't have to wonder if I'm being discriminated against
because of my race. Here I have to consider that sometimes. And there is discrimination here. Sometimes it's for the better, sometimes it's for the worst, but it does happen. I'm not going to re-tell stories I've told here, but it's never been bad. Some people have had some big problems, but I haven't.
Also, I will never be Japanese as long as I live. If I spend the rest of my life in Japan and I gain Japanese citizenship and I become fluent in Japanese, I marry a Japanese woman and I adopt all the Japanese customs and live the life 100% like the majority of Japanese people, I will still not be Japanese. Personally, this doesn't really bother me, but some foreigners get very sensitive about this. My thought is to look at it differently. No matter what I do, I will never be Swedish or Filipino or Chinese or Nigerian. One of the great things about America (and a few other countries) is almost ANYONE, given the right circumstances, can be an American. With almost 99% of Japan being of Japanese descent, this isn't the case here, and I will be a foreigner for life in Japan. The only time I see this as a real problem is when someone is born and/or raised in Japan who isn't of Japanese descent.

Two more quick notes on foreigners: We really don't know how to treat eachother. Sometimes we're overly friendly, sometimes, we're angry when we see another foreigner, and sometimes we're just regular people. This is partially because of the mindset that we are the only ones who are here, and our illusion is shattered when we see proof we're not. Or sometimes it's the reverse, that we're relieved to see we're not the only ones here. Either way, outside of tourist areas, it can be a bit awkward sometimes. At first, I didn't like seeing other westerners, but my mild annoyance turned into apathy, and now I usually don't care outside of my neighborhood. Inside my neighborhood, I'm usually delighted, as a lot of ex-pats have been living here for a number of years and are quite friendly.
If you look up the word 'gaijin', you will see lots of controversy. Technically 'gaijin' means 'outsider', but often times, it's just short for 'gaikokujin' which literally means 'outside country person' or foreigner. Some people take great offense, as it can be an insult, but others use that name with great pride. Personally, it bothers me when people refer to themselves as 'gaijin', as it is a misrepresentation of the Japanese meaning which is at best a descriptor, but is never really positive. I used to take offense when Japanese people used that word, but I was talking to a good friend and she used the word 'gaijin' in a neutral context while talking to me and obviously didn't mean any offense. So, if a good friend used it casually, then I'm okay with it, but not really happy to hear it. I did find out that 'gaijin' can't be said on TV in Japan.

Transportation:

Like most big cities in the world, cars are rarely used and public transportation is a must. The train system here is confusing but great. It can be a bit pricey, but you pay for convenience, as trains can take you almost anywhere you want to go. Outside of Tokyo, there are still plenty of trains, and a plethora of buses. Most buses and trains stop at midnight or 1 AM, but since bars or restaurants don't legally have to close any time or stop serving alcohol, many stay open until 5, so you can hang out and keep drinking until late at night. Which brings me to my next thought...

Sex, drugs, and alcohol:

Alcohol is big here. They like to drink a lot in Japan. The drinking age is 20 but nobody cares. At work parties, alcohol is present, and at almost every holiday, there is more than a modest amount of consumption. Even so, drunk driving is really not a huge problem here. Partially due to the great public transportation, but also due to the strict laws in Japan. I don't know the law exactly, but I know it's quite strict.
Drugs are rare here. People generally do not view them as 'cool' or 'exciting' and they're usually only thought as harmful. Most people rarely use them and drug abuse is a very minor problem here. That doesn't mean drugs are nonexistent, it's just they're rare, very rare. Also unlike America, if a celebrity gets caught using drugs, it's detrimental to their career.
Sex is very open in Japan. There's less than 1% Christians here and there is no real concept of 'sin' or something being wrong just because it's wrong. Not to say people don't have their on ideas, it's just not religious based. Generally people don't really care here. Prostitution isn't legal, but there are plenty of grey areas in the law. I've never partaken, but it's pretty obvious where and how. Japanese people don't feel the need to hide such businesses. This isn't to say that explicit sex scenes are on basic TV, but there's a much more liberal view about it in Japan.

Friendliness:

People in Tokyo don't talk to strangers under normal circumstances. It simply doesn't happen often at all. Inside restaurants, bars, and places where meeting and talking happens, people are very friendly, but outside of these places where people come to meet strangers, interacting with people you don't know is very rare. Even so, I've found that the majority of the people I interact with are really warm and caring.

So, those are my thoughts. I have plenty more to say, but I'm not sure this is the best way to say it (for that matter, I'm not sure that this article belongs here), but as I initially stated, Japan isn't perfect, but it's still great and I'm glad I live here.

Exploration

2008-08-24T22:04:00.018+09:00

It was late spring, early summer. I was between spring and summer semesters, and I was bored, so I decided to do a bit of exploring. according to Google maps, there was a big park not too far from my house, which you can see here:

View Larger Map
It's fairly close to my house so I decided to check it out. It looked to only be 3 stops away, but 1 on the Chuo line and two on another line, so I decided I'd walk one stop so I'd only have to get on one train.

After getting to my destination, it was worlds different from my house. The ticket counter was Suica machines AND a guy hand punching tickets.

Suica is a card that I just touch to go through train gates and is to me a symbol of modern life in Tokyo. It's high-tech, convenient, easy to use, and almost everyone has one (or Passmo, which as of 2007 became almost the same thing). But, that combined with someone hand-punching tickets, which is quite opposite. I know people who read this all the time will say I also saw it in Yonezawa, but Yonezawa is way out there. This is 3 stops from my house!

So, I got out of the train station, and I saw a really small and bit morose shopping street.

There were a few restaurants, multiple gravestone shops, and a ton of flower places. It was quite odd. I thought I saw the park, so I went.

But, it turns out this wasn't a park.

It was a really really large graveyard. It was so unbelievably huge.

A couple things to mention... In Japan, people are cremated, so there are no bodies buried here. However, there are memorial stones and graveyards for people, so there's still a marker.

To give you an idea how big this place is, I took some perspective pictures that might help. Do you see the tall tower in the middle of the picture?

Here I'm getting closer.

Here it's quite clear.

It's quite large.

Here. Let's take a look at how this looks on the map:
View Larger Map
Feel free to play around with that map to get an idea of the area of this graveyard, which is all the grey area. It's huge.

It had several normal streets and gravestones were divided like city blocks.

It was also eerie how quiet the whole area was.

Most were small plots, but larger than normal in Japan. One I saw was quite large.

I'm sure it belonged to someone famous. From the looks they were quite the scholar.

I the corner, I saw a little mountain park, so I decided to check it out.

Here's the graveyard from up the mountain a bit.

And zoomed in

This was a really peaceful mountain park. Nothing fancy, not big, not small.

A road ran through it. This looked nothing like my house a few stops away.

You could see the city if you peaked out the trees. It was a healthy reminder of where you actually were.

On the top of the mountain is a little shrine dedicated to the god of the mountain. It wasn't really a high mountain, but there were some other people trekking to the top to pray to the god.

I like this tree, near the shrine.

There were was an older couple taking pictures of these flowers, so I thought I'd join in.

On my way, I saw this:

Wait, are those giant satellite dishes? What's that about?

It sure was. I wanted to check it out. Under normal conditions, if I was with someone else, they'd wisely talk me out of not going there, but I was by myself, so I figured why not.

I couldn't get anywhere near them. Like, not even close.

Apparently this either was or is a military base, I think US base. I'm not sure, though.

While walking around here, I noticed that I was pretty lost. Not lost as in I couldn't find my way home, but I wasn't sure at all where I was. I found a bus stop that lead me to a train station, so I wasn't stranded, so I decided to keep walking.

I met this feller.

He was selling cars. I didn't want a car, so I didn't talk long.

I did eventually find a gorgeous park.

This wasn't even close to the park I meant to find, but it was really nice.

It had lots of interesting artwork and fountains and things to do.

These fountains would sometime shoot water up, drip water down, or just sit there looking interesting. It was marvelous.

There was this lovely little man-made river.

Kids with their scooters were loving it.

There was also some art in the center of the park.

It had a very late 80's early 90's bubble era feel to it. The eye was made in 1991 and the other piece below was early 90's, I think 1994, but I could be wrong.

At any rate, it was a really pretty park.

You can see that it's pretty big too. Not even nearly as big as the cemetery was, though.

I saw another that helped me find a train station.

But what was this in the corner?

Creepy. Oh, and it seems this is part of Fuchu. The walk to the station was quite picturesque.

So, I finally found a train station. Thanks to my phone, I found a route back home. I like this picture because the girl on the right looks really nervous.

It turns out that I changed trains in Tachikawa, which I really enjoyed before so I decided to check it out again.

I took a lot of pictures that didn't look good, but I really had a fun time walking around Tachikawa. I got to see some people filming a show about a restaurant.

I got some other shots of the station. I really like Tachikawa.

There was a giant TV advertising for a 'ramen stadium', which is a bunch of great ramen restaurants together in one place. I was hungry, so it sounded great.

The ramen was a perfect end to a lovely day exploring. Since then I've learned that Tachikawa was practically empty 15 years ago, now it's a huge metropolitan area. When I look back at what I saw I can understand this.

Japan is quite a country. It's both very modern and very old fashioned. It's constantly changing, but some things never change. My opinions on the best parts of Tokyo are always in flux, but for now I really like Tachikawa and I still very much enjoy this country.

Fukuoka

2008-08-23T23:30:00.000+09:00

I've always wanted to travel around Japan, but either time or money has prevented me from leaving the Tokyo area. I'd been trying my best to save money, and near the end of the semester, it was clear that I had enough for a trip (partially due to the fact that I pay about $200 less a month for rent than most of my friends) and I had an open invitation to go to Fukuoka by a friend.

For those of who who don't know, Fukuoka is in Southern Japan, on the Southern large island. Japan has 4 main islands and a bunch of tiny tiny islands. Most of Japan lives in Honshu, the main island. This has Osaka, Tokyo, Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, and, well, almost every big city in the country. Up north is Hokkaido, which is the home to Sapporo and not a whole lot else. The third island isn't all that far from Fukuoka and is the smallest of the big islands. The fourth island is Kyushu, which is where Fukuoka is.

I knew that Kyushu was different than Tokyo. My friend who I was visiting also saw me shortly after I moved to Tokyo. She was saying how life is more relaxed, food was better, and people were friendlier. I never had a problem with Tokyo food, but I could understand the other two complaints easily. I wouldn't describe Tokyo people as mean at all, but 'friendly' is not a word I would use either.

I could get to Fukuoka from Tokyo by train, but it would take several several hours and actually be more expensive than flying. A word about flying domestic in Japan... Awesome! Security is what it SHOULD be. There are metal detectors, you put your things through a scanner, a device to tell you if liquids are explosive or not, and that's it. My shoes stayed on, I didn't get yelled at, I was allowed to bring liquid on the plane, I didn't have to wait in line... It was the way it should be.

Anyways, when I got to Fukuoka, it was raining and night. It was actually quite a poor introduction to the city. I did not take any pictures for fear of getting my camera wet, also, it was a bit of a struggle to see in general. My friend was my guide, so we went back to her house, unpacked, and had some dinner at this GREAT yakitori joint. This place was classic. The chairs were wooden, the grill was quite dirty and full of the grease (and flavor) of many, many sticks of grilled chicken, and there was this giant pile of salt because every time they put salt on the freshly grilled meat, they threw it in the same spot. It was really good, and it wasn't even my friend's favorite yakitori place. Just her favorite near her house. I'd LOVE to see the best one, but as I'll tell you, we didn't really have time.

So, what's Fukuoka all about?

I know it's warmer and a bit more tropical than Tokyo, but not a whole lot. It's significantly smaller than Tokyo, but so is everywhere else in the world. I also know it's closer to Seoul, the capital of South Korea than Tokyo (and actually the capital of North Korea too), but what else about it? Looking at the facts, there are about 2.5 million people (As I stated before, 3.3 million people use Shinjuku station a day). It's also considered the oldest city in Japan, which makes sense because the first inhabitants of Japan came from Korea, which is quite close. I was told that on a clear day, you can hear North Korean radio, but I was too busy having fun to remember this while I was there, so I couldn't test it.

So, enough writing, here's some pictures:

This is the main river running through Fukuoka. Summer is rainy season so it's not a big surprise that it's fairly dried out, as it was late April.

There's a big shopping center up ahead, but I'll get to that a bit later.

First it's lunch time! Fukuoka is famous for Hakata ramen (I'll explain Hakata later). Hakata style is made with pork bone (tonkotsu) soup base instead of pork meat or fish bone. Since I made it clear before that I love ramen, I wanted to try the real deal in Fukuoka. I was blown away the entire trip by how many ramen shops there were in Japan. It was quite inconceivable. Imagine, in America, all the fast food places, coffee shops, and gas stations were replaced with ramen shops. That's what it was like. It may sound like I'm exaggerating, but I really think I'm understating the magnitude of ramen shops.

The shop I went to was a local chain and well known for being fantastic. It was clearly a shop for businessmen. There were vending machines up front, a staff member to point you the right direction to an empty seat, and private booths. You were handed a sheet of paper to circle your preferences (Noodles hard or soft, how spicy you wanted, how much garlic you like, etc.) which, along with your ticket from the vending machine, you put in front of a red curtain. After a bit, your ramen was slid in front of you and the curtain was dropped.

You never saw the person making the food and you never needed to talk to them. There was a tap for water at each booth and if you wanted something more, you pushed a button and marked on your chopsticks wrapper what you wanted and placed it, along with money, in front of the curtain. For a tired businessman, this was quite ideal and the ambiance was fantastic. Occasionally you'd hear a bell which sounded like it was being played off of a 40 year old tape machine, the back wall was lined with promotional tissues for your usage, and it was quiet, private, and very quiet. A terrible place to go with a friend, but a wonderful place to go if you want some peace and quiet along with a rare dose of privacy.

So, how was the ramen?

Well, to be honest, debatably the best I've had. It was stinky (more on that later), tasty, and the noodles were thin, slightly crunchy (the way I like it) and fantastic. I say 'debatably' because it's Hakata style and VERY different from miso or shoyu (soy sauce) ramen and sometimes I want miso, and sometimes I want tonkotsu. But, this place was by any measure fantastic.

Just yesterday, I found out they have a branch in Ueno, which is the other side of town from me, but still a LOT closer than Fukuoka, so I'm really excited to go there.

So, after lunch, I wanted to go to that crazy building I saw earlier, so off we went.

The place is called Canal City, and it's a really crazy shopping center/entertainment place/hotel in central Fukuoka. It had a very early 90's feel, but besides that, the architecture and design were amazing.

I know that Fukuoka has fewer earthquakes than most of Japan, so I don't know if that's why they could get away with such amazing architecture or not, but it was truly a sight to behold. Through the center, there was a canal (hence the name), and currently there were plenty of plants and interesting things in there.

In the picture below, you can see these glass circles. In the center is a little hole and water would shoot up there in a pattern or at random. A little kid was really entertained by this and was having the time of their life.

We took a look at the shops. Most of them were fairly typical of any fancy area of Japan, but a couple were worth noting. One was this shop that sold old-style candy and snacks. Another was one devoted mainly to Ultraman.

It was a pretty crazy shop.

Also in canal city was this 'helpful' robot riding around. I'd heard about this as being the wave of the future several years ago, I just didn't realize this is where it was.

It had a touch panel that would help you navigate the shops, offer a horoscope, and tell you about the place and general trivia. It was in English, Japanese, and Chinese, sort of. Only shop info was available in other languages besides Japanese.

I found this guy humorous, but a bit obnoxious. As you can see from the picture below which was taken at eye level, he's quite a bit shorter than me, so to view the screen properly, I either had to awkwardly crouch down or take a step back. Whenever I took a step away, he could sense there was no one in front of him and moved a bit closer. While trying to read the screen, it was really annoying. I was also annoyed that it had options for "horoscope" and "Information" in English and Chinese, but when you went there, it directed you to the Japanese page. Personally I would have preferred he didn't give me the option at all.

While it was cute, it really was just a novelty. I saw him go back to his station to charge his own battery, which was impressive, but other than that, I don't see them replacing help desk personnel anytime soon.

And yes, I know I kept saying 'he' and 'him'. I also saw a 'she' robot that was in pink and slightly more feminine of a shape.

Another thing that caught my eye was an amazingly large amount of TVs.

They were playing really strange random images. It didn't make any sense, but it looked neat.

Some of them were playing the same things, other's weren't. I'm curious how they were linked up. But the strangest thing about them, they were all Daewoo TVs, which is a Korean brand.

Here are some more architecture pictures. I was quite impressed.

The whole color scheme seemed quite dated, but the design was really fantastic and interesting.

There was an arcade near the top which had something that I'd only heard of...

A "Typing of the Dead" arcade game! Typing of the dead is exactly what it sounds like, a typing game with zombies. It was originally for Dreamcast (and arcade apparently) and then later came out, barely modified, on a PC. This was really just a Dreamcast in an arcade cabinet with two keyboards (with the Dreamcast logo on them) glued down. It wasn't any different than the home version, but it was still cool to see and play.

Also on this floor was a place called "Ramen Stadium" There were several ramen shops that competed every month and the one with the fewest votes would have to leave. I didn't take pictures, but I should have.

We crossed over to another part and went to the "dessert museum", which really was just a strip of dessert shops. We went to an ice cream place and I had one of the biggest "Why didn't I think of this?" moments in my life. They were selling scoops of ice cream with a shot of espresso on top. I got black sesame ice cream with a shot on top, and my friend had caramel. Mine was fantastic, but hers was better.

I also saw the strangest escalator (?) ever. It was long and there were no steps. It was just an angled rubber walkway.

This whole complex was right next to the major river that I posted pictures of earlier.

I was really taken back by the architecture and the use of plants.

After this, we decided to go for a little change of pace. Within walking distance of this complex was a bunch of old temples and shrines all fairly close to eachother so we headed that direction. As you can see, there were plenty of shops but they were much more old-world than Canal City.

And here's a food stall being hand carted to it's destination. More on that later.

A stone gate.

Another gate. I like gates for some reason.

This was the first shrine we went to, Kushida shrine.

It had good security.

If you're a regular reader of my posts or someone who knows about Japan, you might know about portable shrines they carry around at festivals. There were a few gold ones in a glass room.

But what Kushida had was, without a question the biggest portable shrine I've seen in my life.

Mind you, those people are life-size, if not larger.

According to my friend, once a year residents carry this around town for hours and it's considered an honor and duty to due such a task, but people can pass out due to exhaustion.

It was really detailed and well made. I can't imagine how heavy it was.

Here are some other shots around the shrine.

After a nice time walking around there, we headed to another bunch of shrines. This is where I learned all about Hakata/Fukuoka.

Originally there were two cities. The larger merchant city of Hakata and the smaller Samurai town of Fukuoka. When they went to merge the city, they originally were going to call it Hakata, but since the Samurai had swords and threatened the merchants. Now it's called Fukuoka, but Hakata station is the biggest in the city, Hakata is the main ward of Fukuoka, and the ramen is referred to as "Hakata style", as are several other things.

This whole street was full of history. It was kind of touristy, but that didn't bother me too much.

Inside one of these buildings, there was a guy using an old sewing machine to make what I believe were parts of a kimono.

While he was talking (In Japanese), I couldn't help but feel I've seen something similar to this before. My hunch was right. This machine was apparently imported from France a long time ago. That must have been some hardcore shipment. This sewing machine was NOT small.

There was also a little display of old crafts. It was quite cozy and lovely. It kind of had the feel of someone's home, but you could walk around and take pictures if you wanted to.

Here is a stone wall outside.

And a nice tree.

And around the corner was a recreation of an old style post box. These are still used around Japan rarely, but they seem to bring back a feeling of nostalgia for a bygone era for a lot of people. It's kind of like seeing a working phone booth (not stand) in America or something like that.

But, right around the corner from the recreation was a REAL old post box still in use. There's even a time table and a JP Post sticker. For those who don't know, the post is now run by a private company, not the government. This shift happened late last year, so that is evidence this is still in use.

After that, we headed some temple. I don't remember the name, but it was guarded fiercely.

There was some contrast between old and new, as is typical for this country.

The grounds were quite nice.

And this was old.

806? Really? That's hardcore.

Here is the cemetery mentioned. It's weird to think that these stones were here over 1200 years ago.

I really liked the architecture of this place.

There was quite a large area of old temples and shrines and some old residences. I didn't really know what I was looking at, but it was a really lovely and peaceful area.

You'd think that by now I'd be sick of rock gardens, but I've never seen any in Tokyo.

There were some turtles in this lake, but I didn't get a good picture of them.

Not quite sure what was up with this vase, but it looked impressive and old.

The subways of Fukuoka are really different than Tokyo. For starters, they all look like they were redesigned in 1979, they aren't crowded at all, and they just feel different. This station had an enormous underground passageway. I have no idea how far it went, but it was long.

Even with my 6x camera zoomed in all the way I don't think I could see the end of it. Pardon my shaky hands.

After riding for a bit, I saw this curious site:

You can't really see it in the picture, but there are TWO ferris wheels. One is much bigger than the other and they look really close to eachother. Why two?

But, really, THIS is what I came to see:

The Fukuoka dome.

If you've read my posts, you might know my fondness towards monster movies, particularly the 90's Gamera movies. Well, in the first one, people tried to trap monsters in this dome and Gamera ended up punching a hole in the roof.

Maybe there's no hole in the roof, but it is owned by Yahoo, I guess.

And the building next to it looked like it had a sideways christmas tree on it.

And there were a ton of bikes.

There was a shopping center right next to the dome. It was quite creepy, as it didn't feel like Japan at all. I could have been in any city in America and it would have looked exactly the same.

Here's a nice scenery shot:

On our way out, I saw this lovely sign:

It essentially means "Be careful of the water. It can be dangerous", but it shows a Kappa (a river sprite that likes to play tricks on people) pulling a kid under.
After a snack, we headed to meet some friends of hers downtown. Here was a cool looking train station stairway:

And here's an artsy picture of a ramen stall. I like how it turned out.

Here is the main river in Fukuoka. You can see Canal City all lit up.

And here is the row of those famous Fukuoka food stands. Earlier there was nothing here.

More night shots:

After some drinks and good times, we headed home. In this one quiet neighborhood, there were a lot of metal gates that were nicely painted.

The next day, we headed out to Dazaifu. Dazaifu is a historical city outside of Fukuoka and it used to the capital of the region from the 8th to 12th centuries. There are a bunch of lovely historical shrines and temples and it's a 'must see' place of Fukuoka.

The main area is down a main road. This place, while fun and interesting, really codified what I would describe as "touristy" areas in Japan. A nice street lined with shops selling the local specialties, restaurants serving fairly generic Japanese food, souvenir shops, and things of this like.

As much as I'm not a fan of touristy stuff, I have to at least respect this place, as it's been touristy for a very long time, and is really just continuing the tradition.

The area around the main shrine was really lovely nice. There was a lot of nature around.

There were a lot of small shrines and temples.

I'll be the first to say I know next to nothing about Shinto, but I certainly like the architecture.

The main shrine was really large and colorful.

There were plenty of smaller shrines and temples in the same area.

This supposedly contains the spirit of the Shinto god of education. People from all over the region come here before big tests and prior to applying to schools. Rumor has it that the son of the shrine master failed his college entrance exam. Oops.

There was a statue of a Lion-Dog on the grounds. It was really impressive and I believe quite old.

It may sound strange, but I learned about this creature from a video game. A lot of my knowledge old Japanese culture was learned from Legend of the Mystical Ninja. More analysis on the lion-dog can be found on this page near the bottom.

Also, there was a really cute owl statue next to this fearsome and detailed creature.

It's worth noting that Temple University's mascot is an owl.

Again another small shrine:

In this area, there was a quite unusual lake.

I don't understand it, but I liked it. It was very soothing to look at.

Recently, they opened a giant history museum near all these old historic sites. I was impressed at how well it blended with the surroundings.

I didn't want to stop in because the weather was too good to waste indoors. If I lived in Fukuoka, I'd make it a point to go sometime.

Here are a few animal shots:

In front of the entrance to the temples and shrines was a bronze cow statue. Rumor has it that if you grab it's horns, you will be granted with financial luck. I can't say if it's true, but the horns were worn down from people doing that.

When I first saw the cow, there was a pile of Korean middle-aged women on top of it giggling and having fun. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that.

On the other side of the cow were several rock gardens and yet more shrines.

Here's the rest of the museum, seen on the other side of the mountain.

There was this gorgeous place that looked like a large old residence. I don't know if it had any historical value, but it was a great place to stop and visit.

Part of it was under construction and we had to take off our shoes to enter (which isn't too abnormal). It was interesting to consider what life was like for the original owners. I wish I had a house like that.

It had a rock garden in the back and the front.

And there was a really old looking statue in the corner of the garden.

We headed back to the tourist road. There we saw some wild birds.

And there was some old-fashioned Japanese sweets being made. Apparently, it's rarely done with such archaic machinery. It was nice to watch the process, though.

Of course we ate some after watching. They were quite tasty.

We also had what is supposed to be Japan's best croquette. It was quite good. Japan's best? I'm not sure, but I did enjoy it.

Every time I leave Tokyo, I'm always surprised how different trains are.

I was in for a delightful surprise. I was going to Yanagawa. It was an amazing city.

The whole city had these beautiful canals. Now they're just for tourists, but back in the day, they actually used them as transportation.

Apparently, these canals used to be really polluted but in the 80's, they put a lot of effort into cleaning them up.

Here is a lovely flower-covered building.

There was also a giant building that used to be the Governor's mansion....

And a really cute area near where you could get on the boats.

We were actually too late for the last boat, but somebody (possibly the boat operator's manager) drove us from the normal place we board to where the boat was. It was quite generous, as it was obviously a personal car, not a company vehicle.

We were aboard with a Japanese couple and the guide. Our guide was quite funny and made the delightful even better. We were propelled Venice style, with him standing on back with a long pole pushing against the bottom of the riverbed.

As I began writing this, I found out there was a documentary about this area and it's canals done by studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki.

Apparently, after making Nausicaä, Valley of the Wind, Miyazaki visited this area and thought it would be a good setting for another movie. Instead of making an animated fiction, they ended making a documentary about the city. I haven't seen it, but now I really want to.

You have to duck under the bridges.

Here is that flower covered building form a different angle.

It was a really fascinating place. I want to go back some day.

Our boat driver was telling us he was just on TV a few weeks ago. They did an interview with him and he told everyone about the area. He also mentioned that he got $20 for doing the interview. Apparently his manager got a lot of money for allowing them to film there.

This is the most photographed part of the tour.

Sometimes trees were quite low and dangerous, but that's all part of the experience.

Back on dry land, you could see the town and a large shrine.

We had to meet some friends, so we took a cab back to the station.

The town, while enjoying their tourist dollars, was not really a tourist town. It didn't feel at all touristy and I felt a genuine warmth in the city that you can't fake. It seemed like a nice place to live.

The town was also famous for it's grilled eel, supposedly the best in Japan. We didn't have to try it, but I really wanted to.

Here's some train shots. I love taking pictures from trains.

Looking out the window of a train is a glimpse into what this country is really like. With old style architecture and driving ranges, Japan is neither in the past or the future. It is now.

In the distance, we saw a giant Buddha statue. Apparently, it's one of the biggest in the region. It was really hard to photograph because the train was going really fast and it was quite far away.

Back in Fukuoka, I noticed this statue inside the train station.

Looks like they really like their kappa. Also, what is it with gorilla statues in Japan?

I think that was for a karaoke place.

The main event had nothing to do with kappa or gorillas. It was my chance to eat at one of the famous food stalls.

And, it was great. The first stall we went to was the only place that sold chicken wings stuffed with mentaiko (spicy marinated roe). For those that know me, I really don't like roe at all, but I do love spicy and mentaiko in a grilled chicken wing was absolutely amazing.

Then we ate at the most famous ramen stall in Fukuoka.

Man, it was tasty. I know this place is just for tourists, though. We had a nice chat with some people from Osaka. If I lived in this town, I'm sure I'd frequent these stalls. Good ramen in a relaxed atmosphere is a winning combination. Especially Hakata style, which I now crave from time to time.

As we left, I saw a really odd handrail while running to catch last train.

It was quite uncomfortable.

I also saw an odd site. An upside-down ramen place.

The word ラーメン(ramen) is written upside-down. It really confused me, but apparently, it's the second best ramen shop in Fukuoka and they're really proud of that.

On our way back to my friend's place, I saw a giant statue that seemed quite out of place.

Apparently it's a shop that sells portable shrines. It was pretty large and didn't seem to fit it's modern urban surroundings.

Here are some shots from a bus.

Sadly, it was coming time to leave. We were going to grab some lunch, and I spotted this creature.

Quite dramatic. Fukuoka cares a lot about their food, and it shows. Everything, and I mean everything, I ate was delicious. I miss Hakata food.

There was also a lot of construction at Hakata station. It's kind of a reminder that what was old isn't always there any more, and sometimes that's a bad thing and sometimes it's a good thing.

In 2011, when they re-open, they will have more room and a much more modern facility. For now, it's a mess.

In the airport, this guy was here to greet people coming in and leaving.

And this could be seen while waiting for my flight.

So, really, what is Fukuoka like?

After a few days, it's still hard to say. It was not the nicest place in Japan, but it was far from the worst. It was historical and modern, it was fast-paced and very relaxed. Fukuoka people are not Tokyo people and southern Japan is about as different from the Tokyo area as New York is different from San Francisco. To compare it to anywhere else would be an analogy that just wouldn't work, as it's not like anything I've ever seen.

I sincerely hope this is not my last trip to Fukuoka.

One year anniversary.

2008-08-20T16:02:00.002+09:00

Today marks my first year in Japan. This year has had some ups and downs, but it's been a great year. I think it's been the most memorable year of my life.

I'm really glad that I am living here and I hope I continue to do so for a long time.

My school blog.

2008-07-31T21:54:00.002+09:00

For one of my classes, I've been working on a separate blog. I also did a documentary about a band. Check it out here:

http://keith-ts08.blogspot.com/

I'm sorry for not posting recently. This summer has been just crazy. I thought I'd have a relaxing, even boring summer, but that's totally not the case. Now that summer classes are over, I'll hopefully have more free time.

Hanami

2008-05-17T21:45:00.011+09:00

At the end of March and beginning of April in Tokyo is Hanami season. Hana means flower and Mi is to see, so hanami literally means flower viewing.

Hanami involves going to a park and hanging out with friends, snacking, and most importantly drinking.

It's quite a popular activity, to the point that Japanese businessmen sometimes skip out on work to enjoy hanami. Also, every major park is quite crowded.

Like everyone else, I took a ton of pictures. The first ones I've shown you were from Yoyogi park. There were a LOT of foreigners in Yoyogi. I'd say maybe 1/5 of the people in the park were non-Japanese, which is a really high percentage. The weather was nice on Saturday, March 29th. I drank quite a bit that night, and had quite a blast.

The following day it rained. I took some time to walk down to my local park and took some pictures on the way.

While it was cloudy, Inokashira was nice and quite crowded.

The entire park was completely full. I've never seen it even close to that busy.

Kichijoji was crowded as well. I felt like my neighborhood was all of a sudden the popular hang out.

During the week, I took some pictures around town. This was outside the window of my school.

On April 2nd, I took some time to take some more pictures at Inokashira, since it was a much nicer day.

The following Saturday, I returned yet again to take some pictures. It was really lovely and delightful despite how crowded it was. Everyone seemed to be having a great time.

This is a snack called Dango, which is a sweet snack made of rice cake and is quite like mochi. Mine was miso flavored, and quite delicious.

Here is the shrine by my house. It was best during hanami, no question.

Even the turtles were enjoying the day.

I've seen one or two turtles, but never this many.

On Sunday, April 6th, I went to a Fertility festival, which I found sadly a bit disappointing. Later on, I headed up to Wakoshi in Saitama to hang out with my friend. She took her to a park close to her house and it was unbelievable.

Unlike Inokashira or Yoyogi, the park in Wakoshi was practically empty. Also, it was the most gorgeous one during Hanami. Don't get me wrong, Yoyogi and Inokashira were both amazing, bu they were city parks. This was much more of a suburb park and less dramatic, but more open.

I also liked this scooter.

The typical "to prove I was there" picture. My hair and jacket are much shorter now.

As you can see, it's almost barren. It's only about 25 minutes outside of Ikebukuro and almost completely deserted.

I was a bit shocked at how some people, especially the women, dressed for going to the park.

After that day, all the cherry blossoms had fallen which basically ended hanami. It was quite a moving experience, and even though I was busy almost every day with school, I'm really glad I made time to see what I could.

This last picture was a building in Ikebukuro I saw while changing trains. It's quite unrelated, but I really like it.

Pictures

2008-05-07T21:00:00.022+09:00

These are he pictures of my trip up to Yamagata prefecture.

I already wrote about the trip extensively, so I'm not going to say much here.

I didn't have to get a photo of the shinkansen from the outside, but here's the inside of the train.

And here's Ueno station, our first stop and still definitely in Tokyo.

The train that is going off to the left is the Yamanote. This is the first time I've been outside of the Yamanote loop towards the East.

A view from the train.

It's hard to capture, but the feeling of pulling into a train station that was quite a distance above ground and to see the massive shopping centers outside the window was pretty surreal.

I'm not sure it captures it well, but I do like this picture.

I don't know how far away or how big that balloon was, but it wasn't small.

Fields!

Those were most of the good pictures from the train. The darkness and the rapid speed made it hard to capture a good video.

Here was a crazy looking store I saw on the way back to the house. There were giant posters of old movies. I kind of wanted to go there, but time didn't allow it. It was pretty cool looking, though.

Here's me with the mother and father and family dog. They were so wonderful.

Here is me with the monk. I had no idea what to do with my hands, so I awkwardly tucked them behind me.

Here is one of the most gorgeous and wonderful meals I've ever had. There was entirely too much food, though.

Here are some bushes that were protected from the snow using logs and rope.

And the family dog:

A river near the house.

This bus has seen better days. I was told now it stores sporting equipment.

More of that same river.

This is the agricultural school near the house.

More things being protected for the winter.

Here's the Prius I rode around in some. Steering wheel on the left was the main difference from my mom's car, but this one also had TV. It only worked when the car was in park.

Here's the front of the winery. If it wasn't raining, I would have tried to take a few more pictures.

Here is the outside of the winery

And the sign.

This store sign really caught my eye.

As did this ad for a pachinko parlor.

But the Karaoke gorilla took the cake.

It was election time, and there were so many ads up. I can't believe this many people were running for office.

Here is Ultraman in a train station. If you look to the left, you can see the top of the "butt biting" bug. If you don't know what I mean, look it up.

Just a view of small to medium town life.

this is the bell I wrote about. It's quite old, and apparently still rung on a regular basis.

This is the thatched roof building I also wrote about. It was quite grand on the mountain top, but I don't know if I could have shown that in a picture.

Here are some smaller buildings behind the main temple. The snow was quite thick, and it seemed very few people went back there recently.

Here is the tree that I wrote about. It's possibly over 900 years old.

Here is a political van. It spouts propaganda and thanks for supporting their pary.

Here is another one in motion. You can see the big speakers on top. They were so obnoxious.

These were old style huts. I'm not sure how old they were, but I think they were recreations of ancient houses.

Here is the pagoda in the distance. For me, this one was the main attraction.

The woodwork was amazing. All of it was interlocking pieces and no nails.

So that you can see, 八＝8, 六=6 and 0=0, so 八六０= 860. Old. Really old.

Here is the building that was going to be renovated soon. It wasn't in the best condition, but honestly, I've seen much worse. Kudos to the city for preserving their history, though.

Here's a shop in seemingly the middle of nowhere. The pagoda is behind me when I took this picture.

Here was a house that had all sorts of wires to hold up tree branches. That's how they get all those interesting trees around here, I guess.

Right across from the house I was staying in.

The front of the house. Not too different from America, I would say.

The mother loves gardening. These flowers were quite lovely, especially if you consider the season and temperature outside. This green room did next to nothing to keep heat in.

Here is a giant pachinko place. Boss is a brand of coffee in Japan, and the face is it's logo. Was this pachinko place brought to you by a coffee company or were they just ripping off the logo?

Fields in the day on the way to skiing.

On the way to go skiing, there was this one massive building that seemed really out of place. Why was it so tall and the only tall building in the area?

Here it is closer up. It's quite strange to see a building that tall next to several empty fields.

Here is about halfway up the mountain.

Near the top of where we went were these tunnels. They had windows that looked like aircraft windows.

Inside the tunnel:

Here is a shot from on top of the mountain. The view was quite amazing.

And here are the famous "snow monsters" of Mt. Zao.

Here is the statue near the top.

Compare this to the picture I found that someone else took:

And for size comparison, here's me, the mother and the sister.

Inside the Yonezawa train station, there's a statue as an homage to their famous beef.

And here's a shot of the father and sister saying goodbye. They were way, way way too good to me. If I lived there, I'd be so terribly spoiled.

While we were waiting, they told me that this orange train was about to end it's service life. I think it was it's last winter as a snow plow train.

Instead, this brand new blue train was going to take over duties.

And speaking of trains, here was my train arriving.

Some shots from the ride home:

And here you can see how the two trains attached to eachother. The white train I believe is the latest model Shinkansen. The grey one is the one I rode. This is in Tokyo station and in the middle of the picture you can see the old part of the station.

Well, that was my trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about it and looking at the pictures.