Nothing to Lose: Outside the Door of a Tokyo Talent Agency
For the last week, my buddy Ryan and I have been bouncing around Tokyo as he applies for work at various modeling and acting agencies. Ryan is the proud owner of a work visa, enabling him to get a job here,
unlike me. He obtained it by committing to a year-long job at a private English language institute, but he left them and is now looking for a line of work that doesn't include so much English speaking.
Some of the Offices Weren't So Pretty on the Outside
As of now he is waiting on some auditions for various things. He is somewhat of a commodity considering he can act and is bilingual. He and I have also made some good friends and connections from this experience. A couple days ago we went to a party at a hotel where we heard it was an open bar for individuals who simply submit a business card, so we both got on out computers, made some business cards for ourselves, and had a great time. We went with our new friend, Jeff, who makes a living in the entertainment and mass-media industry here in Tokyo, and Jeff's wife. At the party we made lots of friends, and I even got to meet Tadanobo Asano, from the hit movie Mongol. There was also very interesting art on display that I unfortunately have no pictures of. Later that night I went out drinking with some people I met at the party and ended up crashing at one of their apartments.Our Cards Made For Free Online
Ryan leaves my apartment tomorrow and will return to the Tokyo area to move in to his new apartment soon. Good luck with everything dude!The clock has just struck midnight here, and that means it is officially the month of May. 2009 is now one-third passed us! Not much longer until the new decade comes!
Akihabara: The district of Tokyo known for electronics
Friday I was in the area so I decided to stroll through Akihabara, something I hadn't done since before last years mass-murder on the streets here by an man who had just been laid off. My mission was to get my hands on a video camera that I am considering buying, and even though it is a professional model, you can find it in retail electronics stores here in Tokyo.
After testing out the camera, I decided to check out what else was new around the store and one of the first places I went to was the television section.
103 inches of plasma hugeness!
The 65 inch to the right looks so small!
The price wasn't listed, and I was too afraid to ask. I will ask Santa for it because I don't think anyone could afford to buy it for me. The TV is the Panasonic Viera 103v.
Hello Kitty Bus at Tokyo Station
Honestly, Hello Kitty isn't as popular here as one would think. I think that other animal characters seem more popular in Japanese society such as Pooh-Bear, and Snoopy. I get the feeling that with all the Hello Kitty exposure in the USA related to Japan that my fellow Americans probably expect nothing less than buses such as the one shown above. Another thing, the more I look at that bus the more I realize that there is no way I could stand in the aisle without hitting my head against the ceiling.
From animated animals, to CGI monsters, you just aren't going to believe this little piece of Tokyo news I am about to reveal to you. So at Tokyo Disneyland a new ride opened on Saturday called "Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek!" The wait to get on the ride reached over five hours that day! Once again this country leaves me shaking my head with my hands over my eyes asking "why?"
Suburbanites waiting in line for a Tokyo-bound train
One of the best things about Japan is how well-mannered its society can be. Manners are such a big part of Japanese society that they have even added our the English word "manner" to their dictionaries. Though it is written in katakana characters, one can see it written all over the nation such as at public smoking areas, in priority/elderly seating in public transportation, and on almost all cell phones here as the function that keeps it quiet.
Some of the things that get to me about this country that I consider bad manners are vehicles with loud speakers making announcements, and smoking indoors at places where there are non-smokers. That's all I can think of right now. Have a nice weekend!
With the economy here doing poorly, I am sure Tokyo's homelessness problem is not getting better. I have even heard of cities laying off their JET teachers from abroad (the program I'm thinking of doing) because many places are over budget.Some of the park's beauty
Olympic banner over a baseball field
As you may have heard, Tokyo is a top contender for the 2016 Olympics. Some say that with Obama as president, US hopeful Chicago will have an edge, but Tokyo is still campaigning very hard for the event. This banner hanging on the backstop says, "(We're) Japan, therefore it can be done! (A) New Olympics!" The irony in this picture is that baseball has been removed from the Olympics as of the end of last summer's Beijing event. Perhaps with the bad economy they can't afford to award medals to three entire baseball teams!
Big City, Big Weekend
I have been learning lately how busy Japanese really are during the workweek, and how they truly pack a lot into their weekends. It is very difficult to hang out with most adults here on weekdays, because work hours often keep people busy quite until late at night. That is the case with Miho who is now working full-time in Tokyo.
This past weekend I had a lot of options on my plate, and all of them seemed so fun that I had to give them all a chance. Since I hadn't seen Miho since before her work week started, her and I met up near my place around eight on Friday night and had cheap Italian food, which tasted pretty good considering the low prices. She didn't have time to come see my new place, but she was back in my neighborhood the following afternoon to visit for the day. We made curry and went on a walk along the riverside where the last of the cherry blossoms were still holding on for their lives. The wind has been strong so the weak blossoms are all floating away.She went home around seven so she would have time to go shopping before dinner with her parents. I, on the other hand, got ready to go to the city and meet my friend, Duffy, to join him at a party at condo in a complex that is known for being Japan's second-highest residential tower, and having condos worth over a million dollars. 
Duffy was less aware of what the party was going to be like than I thought he would be, so we were a little nervous about what to expect. We made our way through three layers of video intercoms to get to the forty-fifth floor shindig, talking to random partygoers who graciously answered our calls and unlocked the doors.The living room had a blue theme, while the other rooms were red
When the lights accidentally got turned on
We finally made it in to the party which contained a fun mix of foreigners, locals, and took place primarily in the living room with two different wrap-around seating areas, and another room with more seating. A woman collected a steep $30 from us each, which gave us admission, and an open bar. There were a couple ladies taking drink orders all night.
On the balcony with Duffy the football player
I made a friend there who is a Japanese guy who had heard of Humboldt County and Reggae on the River. He couldn't believe that I listened to reggae, and said that judging by my clothes I was probably listened to U2! He told me oh his stories of going to Jamaica and being called a "chink" while being robbed at gunpoint.
With the comic book girl
I almost forgot to mention the comic book artist who was actually one of the first people I talked to at the party. She was kind of awkward to converse with, and often wouldn't even answer, she just would nod her head to respond. Later in the party I looked across the room and realized she had her sketch book out and was drawing me! I didn't have much of an urge to look at what she had drawn, but at one point when I randomly walked by her as she continued to draw something, she abruptly, and dramatically shielded her work, like Batman might do with his cape to block killer bees. Finally, to top it off, I noticed something I hadn't noticed before in the midst of all her crazy fashion. She was wearing a mask, backwards, on her head. I told Duffy and had her go have her put on the mask for a picture, because I knew I would need visual evidence to assure myself this girl really exists.A very drunk Swedish guy and some locals
Duffy sleeping while being shown pictures
Fashion of designer wallets sticking out of mens' pockets
Hanging out at that party extremely late was quite tolerable because there was no smoking inside, only on the balcony. I arrived there around nine knowing what time my last train home was, as well as the first morning train because I wasn't sure I was going to want to be there all night or not. Well, I ended up having a better time there than I ever could have imagined to I gladly hung out until dawn.
Outside the building as dawn broke
The first train got me home around 6:45AM on Sunday, and I had to leave the house by 8:30 to meet up with Miho and her family to go to a Tulip festival in their town.
Since their town is a sister city to a place in Holland, the festival had a Dutch feel to it, and I think lots of the flowers there were from Holland. There were also Dutch snacks for sale, though we went out for Chinese food later that afternoon. I did my best to be alert though I was drowsy all day.
A good accordion band
You could pick flowers, and buy them
"Not for sale" (right Miho?)
*To begin, are the apostrophes used correctly in my title?
The grounds of the imperial palace, in the heart of the big city
My friend Alex who goes to grad-school at Waseda University, and who I graduated San Francisco State University with, joined me on a walk around the beautiful grounds which surround the imperial residence here in Tokyo. I took the subway from here in Chiba, all the way to Kudanshita station, where we met, and started on our way.The McDonald's we met in front of
A large portion of Tokyo now being available for viewing with Google Street View has made meeting in places you have never been before a little easier considering a very large majority of Japanese streets aren't named. I just emailed him a link to the Street View image I had chosen, and we were easily able to figure out where we were to meet. Here is a picture similar to the one I sent him:
大きな地図で見る This McDonald's was unique in that it had an order-out area due to all of the people who pick up to-go orders from all of the local offices. As you can see from the picture I took, they are promoting two new items, the "cheese-katsu burger" (a breaded pork cutlet filled with cheese, I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot stick), and a "macha-Oreo McFlurry" (macha is a form of green tea, I really want to try this!)Cherry blossoms at their best
Looking down at the moat
The best thing about my first visit to this place is that I think I found the best place to picnic in the city. There is plenty of grass, nice trees, and peace-and-quiet! Hopefully the next pictures convey what I am trying to express!
I don't think we actually saw the palace itself. It is heavily guarded, and also sheltered within the nature-filled property. However, there were many traditional looking buildings that were attracting lots of tourists. I know it is sort of ignorant, but I feel like once you've seen a handful of those historic buildings, you've seen them all, so I didn't pursue finding my way in.
A couple pretty trees at the border of the imperial grounds
A group of Japanese tourists all dressed the same
We were in walking distance to Ginza, where I took this picture
Sometimes shortcuts lead to regret
I have been one to microwave bacon ever since I saw that as a cooking option on the package of some turkey bacon I bought in San Diego. I typically cook bacon with a few other things, so to have one less thing on the stove, and one less pan to wash is usually a great benefit. I even recently microwaved pork bacon when I cooked breakfast for my dad for his birthday, and it was easily the best breakfast I had ever eaten in my life! A couple days ago, however, I had a bad experience because my bacon was seriously burning after just two minutes in the nuker! Anyway, as you may have noticed I am using a slightly bigger font. I think it suits my blog better.
Alright, got my blog out of the way and it isn't even 7:00 AM yet... Nothing new there!
Cherry blossoms with ivy
The rest of my pictures from my neighborhood include this cool, ivy covered tree sticking out of someone's back yard. Anyway, to carry on where I left off on my last blog, I will go into more detail as to what saw at the big river I ended up at on my walk.
One of the first things that struck me, especially since the sun was low, and it sets into Tokyo, was how much visibly dirtier the air was over in the city. When I was living there I really didn't notice it. It is not like Bangkok, where, from my experience, you can taste the pollution and it gives you a sore throat, but I guess it is still quite visible. The following two shots are pointing towards the sun, and away from the sun. You should be able to see the big differences in air quality. I am happy to be living where it is cleaner!Towards Tokyo
Towards my place
I mentioned before that there is more nature here than the place I was living in San Francisco, and to compliment that, there are even convenient signs to help you see different places. The first picture shows a sign saying how many kilometers away a park is. The second picture says how far away the "ocean" is, but in English we wouldn't refer to what it leads to as the ocean. In Japanese, there is a word for "bay", but it is still called the ocean. From what I have seen, the word "bay" is mainly used for names of bays such as "Tokyo Bay," or "San Francisco Bay." The sign for the ocean would take you to Disney Sea theme park, the most expensive theme park ever built. To the city park
To the "ocean"
As the sun got lower, it took on interesting shapes as its light was blocked
A pharmacy called "(The) Salad Pharmacy" (?!?!)
