Yay, pictures.

Backlogged, a little. Here's some random pictures.

I saw Sho yesterday

December 21st

I'm not going to write much..  Hopefully I'll have time to put pictures (from what I wrote about last time).  I'm going to Ikebukuro to exchange money soon (whenever Yuichi gets back from class).  I don't know how to get there, and apparently the exchange place is on the third floor of a jewelry store...

The 9-story electronic/toy store in Akihabara. 

Some toys. 

Funny description for a sound-maker that sounds like wind...

Very beautiful and fantastic.

Akihabara.

Food in Akihabara.  You had to put your money in a machine by the entrance, and then you just picked what you wanted.  Then, when it was ready, they brought it out to you and found the right ticket.

Akihabara (or Ueno, I'm not sure):

Ueno:

Don't smoke, like the elephant.

Cute little kids at the 100 yen store.

First post

So, now that I'm finished being jet-lagged and have figured most things out, I have time to write about some things. 

I don't really remember much from the first couple days I was here.  I made it here okay.  My first two flights were ok, and then my 10-hour flight had these little tv's built into the headrests and I could play games and watch movies with this little remote control thing.  So, I watched Little Miss Sunshine and Pirates of the Caribbean II and played Bejeweled whenever I wasn't asleep. 

(For Lorrie- in the airport in Portland, there were two different signs for some sort of irish beer.  one said 'pubs.  the official sunscreen of the Irish' and the other said 'one pint, i'm feeling good.  two pints, I'm feeling everyone.')

The first day I was here, we went to a restaurant that reminded me of Ryan's, and there were these fun little buttons you could push to get the waiter's attention.  I had to ask for a fork, because I wasn't in the mood to use chopsticks.  I had some sort of soup, but ended up trading with Yuichi halfway through for his chicken.  This is also when I figured out that to get from yen to dollars, you divide by 100 and take off about 10 percent.  Then we went to Yuichi's apartment and I slept for a long, long time. 

The next couple days were eating out and me trying to get oriented, which hasn't really happened yet (although it only took me about 3 wrong turns to get from the subway station to Yuichi's apartment today, instead of just being totally lost).  We went to a yakitori restaurant, where Yuichi kept pressuring me to order my own food, but I didn't want to.  I asked for more water, though, and although I didn't do it, apparently I surprised Yuichi with my knowledge of how to ask for the check (okaike, onegai shimasu).  We also went to a Chinese restaurant, which was called Panda something.  We thought it was funny because Yuichi showed me this 'Japanese tradition' video that makes fun of things and one of them talked about how you can get 'rare delicacies' by asking for pandas or koalas or whatever at sushi bars.  So, apparently I'm supposed to ask 'Panda arimasuka?  Suki desu.'  We also went to a pizza bar things, where I had salami pizza and had a ginger ale ice cream float (pronounced ginger ale float-o in Japanese).  Other than that, I was tired a significant amount of the time for the first couple days. 

One of the first days, I got oriented by myself while Yuichi had class for an hour, so I found this fun temple (but the pictures got deleted, more on that later).  And there was a weird building with a giant crab on the side. 

Yesterday, Yuichi had class, so I decided to go to Ueno.  I went to the zoo and the Tokyo National Museum and took tons and tons of pictures.  Then I ran out of room on the camera, so I deleted some doubles from the zoo.  Then I was checking to see how much room I had, and pressed 'ok' on the screen where it told me I was using 125 out of 150MB or whatever, and then it deleted all my pictures.  So, I'm going to the zoo with Yuichi this weekend, I think, since he's never been there.  I'll have pictures of those places later.  While I was wandering around, though, there was this homeless Japanese guy who talked to me, in English, for about 45 minutes about a ton of stuff, from the prime minister, to the Westernization of Japan, to Waseda (and its relation to the prime ministers of the past and present), a famous Japanese scientist who moved to the United States, George Bush, and the Christianization of Asia.  So, I have no idea why he's homeless, but it was interesting. 

And today, I went to Akihabara.  They have a lot of duty free shops.  I bought some presents.  Then I went to this crazy 9 story tall department store that sold mostly electronics and a bunch of toys.  I didn't buy much, but it was fun to look around in.  I also got rid of my dependency on keeping track of where the subway station I came from was, since I passed about 6 of them while I was walking today.  I ended up using the same stop at Ueno that I used yesterday.  I ate at this fun restaurant today where you put in your money in this machine at the entrance, and they just bring out your food when it's done.  I was looking at a magazine by the front, which the lady working thought meant I needed help, so I had fun not understanding what she was talking about.  At the duty free store I went to, I tried to talk to the lady, but she misunderstood me, so she just started talking in English.  It was kind of funny.  I asked 'Kore wa doko desu ka?' (where is this?) because the thing I was looking at was in a row with a bunch of other ones, all of which had boxes behind them with the items for sale, except for the one I wanted.  She replied, 'Japan.'  I think she thought I was asking where it was made.  Then she tried to correct my Japanese to mean 'I want this one.' and I became more confused.  So then she just started talking in English.  So, after today, I think I can find my way back to the subway station and the cafeteria here at Waseda.  I also know how to get to the dollar (100-yen, whatever) store, which is apparently crazy popular here (or at least around the college). 

So, yeah, tomorrow I'm going to go exchange my money.  But I can't open a bank account here.  You have to live here at least 6 months to do that.  Oh, well.  I'm not sure what else I'll do tomorrow... Maybe plan my trip to Kyoto and Osaka. 

Insurance commercial:


By Waseda's cafeteria:


Salami pizza: