Costco

I found it, but it takes me about 40 minutes to get there. This is important only because it's the only place I have found tortilla chips, tortillas, and black beans. Last night I made delicious guacamole to go with my chips. My quality of life has increased seven fold now that I can potentially make and eat delicious Mexican food.

food, or lack there of

umm..so you guys are probably going to have to fatten me up when i get back. let's just leave it at that. i'm not going to feel bad about eating anything after living here.

p.s. last night i paid 20$ for one game of bowling--wtf japan, god

culture shock

i think i might be over it already?

god

Today I mooched off of a friend's field trip and got to see pretty much all of the famous Tokyo museums in the part of Tokyo called Ueno. The coolest thing I saw was probably this guy. He's an Egyptian mummy of course.

After viewing at least four different museums, we headed to Harajuku, the part of Tokyo known for crazy-clothes wearing people.


Then we walked to Shibuya to shop and walk around. I found a Japanese copy of Vice at American Apparel. We went to Tower Records--which I wasn't expecting much from, but found such artists as Crystal Castles, the Death Set, and Yelle (which I purchased). The top floor book store was even more impressive--you can find things here that I mail-ordered in America. Here, also, in Shibuya I saw this with mine own eyes: the Bape Store

We ate dinner at an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet and I got full for the first time this week. This was basically the longest day ever as we were downtown for nearly 14 hours. God.

Lists

Likes:
-onigiri, especially handmade(rice balls--note: learn how to make while here)
-trains
-Uniqlo
-cell phones
-super cheap food
-going new places
-Skype

Dislikes:
-baby eels or baby fish in my onigiri
-super small (read: "Japanese-sized") portions
-fish flakes(or the so-called "dancing fish" on my vegetarian food)
-trains
-being crowded and pushed against 10 people i don't know at the same time on any kind of transportation system
-being hungry
-being tired
-being stared at because i'm white
-cell phones
-no free refills
-hanging laundry to dry (oh god, i know it saves energy, but how many of you guys would voluntarily do it?)

Hey, i'm still having a good time, i'm just really really tired right now.

:(

Being far away from Kyle sucks ballzzzz man. :(

...

I learned how to say "infrared" in Japanese this weekend. Most Japanese phones have infrared communication devices. Oh yes.

iTunes

I can't live on 400 songs, AND apparently I'm retarded because I don't know how to get BitTorrent to work. Oh, and cds here are like 30$, but as soon as I find a neato record store I'm still gonna buy like 5. EAR HUNGRY.

Shibuya

Last night I went into downtown Tokyo (Shibuya, to be specific) for the first time, and it was by myself to meet my friend Monika for dinner. Somehow I managed to not get lost on the trains during Saturday rush hour. Shibuya is supposed to be the busiest part of Tokyo. It contains that giant intersection that they always show in movies. It looks like there's a lot of fun stuff to do in Shibuya! Especially when it's not raining. And I guess it's also where most of the venues are.

The restaurant we went to was all vegan! There were lots of zines around the restaurant and the owners also have a record label. It was very cute, kind of like a Japanese vegan YJs.

When I got back to Fuchinobe after dinner I ran into some friends and I got to play Wii for the first time. It's pretty much the most fun thing ever. Someone buy me one plzzzzz.

Cigarettes

How do they keep the little guys off of these suckers? I've heard they're trying to get legislation passed to ban cigarette vending machines because they make for easy access to cigarettes for children. Lucky Strikes in the lower right hand corner go for about 3.20$

Also, according to Ping Mag (and this photographic evidence) somewhere in Japan they have American Spirit vending machines. I want to find one.

Also, also...

Hahaha, I think everyone's heard of this by now, though. It's a gatorade type drink--therefore, something you drink when you sweat. It tastes basically the same.

Weather

It's a typhoon, bitch! God, why?

School and tiny earthquakes

I've been what could be described as quite frustrated the last few days with the start of classes. I don't know why it took any thought at all to realize this was because ALL my teachers and ALL my textbooks are speaking/printed in ALL Japanese--which at this point is still at least KIND OF difficult to understand. And one would think I would take this as an advantage. And I do except I don't really know what my homework even is or what the test is over.

P.S. Earthquakes are at least as common here as thunderstorms are in Kansas. I have felt at least three for sure. They feel basically like a 50 ft tall truck driving by. One was in the middle of the night. One of my teachers said that everyday there are earthquakes in Japan. Now when I sit at my desk doing homework I like to trick myself into thinking that I feel tiny earthquakes.

#1

The most exciting thing about my apartment here in Japan besides that it's brand new and came with internet and all that bullshit is that I live about one block away from Baskin Robbins.


Because most streets are not named in Japan I have been attempting to use this as a landmark, but when I tell Japanese people I live near Baskin Robbins they only get extremely confused. I finally realized this is because the Japanese text underneath the Baskin Robbins sign only says "Thirty One Ice Cream." I have also realized that just like I pretty much ignore all the Chinese characters I see everywhere because I don't understand them, Japanese people pretty much ignore any English words they see.