sans closure

No more sushi, No more Shibuya

No more harajuku girls, No more udon

No more chu hi, No more 5am first trains

No more Ramen, No more Tokyo

"When I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse."

Tokyo, I love you but you're bringing me down

The January Hodgepodge

First, I'm happy that Mike has become my 7th follower. I am expanding which is a good thing since soon I will use all of you views to monetize and make money so I will be able to retire before I started working.

I have been here for almost a month. Harajuku is the best place I have ever lived in. Harajuku is the fashion center of Tokyo and from what I see is probably the new fashion capital of the world. Everyone is always put together which is not something I am used to. It has been making me reflect on myself and I have been trying to make changes in my wardrobe. The newest thing here with girls is wearing big eyed, black, thick framed glasses with no lenses. They wear them just to provide contrast with their face. It's interesting. Not something that I could see catching on back in the states.

Last year I found out that there are Costcos right outside of Tokyo. The problem is a card cost about $60 dollars and it's just not worth doing the trip and buying the membership card. Luckily this year one of my friends from the program has a membership card. Last week we made a trip there and I picked up so much great American food. I will have Skippy SuperCrunch for months!!! When I was there I also found out that the common courtesy laws in Japanese culture do not exist when free samples are present. THEY ARE RAVENOUS WOLVES! Btw, free samples here also consist of free cans of beer,

I have been going to a lot of clubs this year. The most interesting experience happened last Friday. Last Friday, the 28th of January, the Roppongi (one of the areas in Tokyo) Bar Association had a party/mixer at a bar. Many expat lawyers and legal/business recruiters were in attendance. At around 11:00 I met a recruiter from southern England. Let's call him Bob. I could tell he was a bit "mental" but was not 100% sure at the time. As the night continued I figured it out and I felt following him after the bar association party would lead to a great story...so I followed. He led me and 2 of my friends from the program to a club called MUSE. As we walked in Bob told me "If you can't pull a girl here you're tosser" and then ran off into the crowd. After that he was gone. Bob definitely didn't look like the Jersey Shore type club guys (he had graying hair and was about 40). The club turned out to be a really fun spot.

Now about Jersey Shore. I recently found out that Jersey Shore is broadcasted in Japan. However, it is more appropriately entitled "Macaroni Rascals." I hope you are laughing right now.

My friend from NYC, Allen, will be arriving in a few days. We are going to head up to Sapporo next weekend (2/12 - 2/14) to check out the snow festival. It should be just as awesome as last year except for the fact that I will be missing Jenn, Nina, Tia, Mike, Steph, V, Alicia...not Ben.

Nothing else has been going on. Just a lot of reading and the occasional Chu-Hi...well more like the daily Chu-Hi.

I am tentatively figuring out what to do for Spring Break. I am thinking 3 weeks in Singapore, Malaysia (maybe), Laos or Cambodia, and maybe some Thailand. Allen is bringing me some travel books so I will figure it all out when he gets here.

For the Foodies:

As you probably know, I love food. Luckily Allen loves food too. So while he is here we are going to hit up some amazing foodie spots in Tokyo. This will most likely include some Turtle Soup (Shredder's favorite) and Fugu. I've done extensive research on fugu and there is no reason to worry...i hope.

I'll post pictures and comments next week.

Showdown in Big Tokyo (part 2)

Friday 3:30PM: Plane arrives at the airport in Tokyo. I scoop up my bags (making sure they are the correct ones this time), get a prepaid card for my phone, and then hop on the coach bus to Tokyo.

On the bus I texted my friend Ayumi who was putting up my bags for the first couple nights when I didn't have accommodation. (No answer). I text again. (No response). I get to the main bus station and now I have no clue where to go since she isn't answering the texts. I then try to call her but I'm missing a digit. At this point I start freaking out. I have a regular backpack plus 3 huge bags, each weighing at least 40 pounds. I find my way up to the lockers in the station but realize there is no way I can fit my bags in there. The bags are too big. The anxiety sweat starts pouring. After 10 minutes of panic I realize before I left Tokyo last year I lent my phone to my roommate Tomoko. Since Tomoko was best friends with Ayumi I hoped to god that she called her when she had my phone and it will still be in the call log. I checked the log and I found a number that was exactly like the one I had for Ayumi but with an extra digit. **RELIEF**

I make my way to Ayumi's place and unload the baggage.

Now time for sleeping preparations. At Ayumi's I googled and found a few in the area. As I was jotting down addresses I figured I might as well reactivate facebook and make a post on the Temple Tokyo wall saying "if anyone wants to chill give me a call." It might lead to free housing. WHICH IT DID!

That night I met up with a few dudes (Chris, Matt, Arthur) from the program and enjoyed chu hai.

Caught a few hours of floor sleep.

Saturday started at about 6PM. We went to a famous Udon restaurant in Roppongi then went to a bar. One of my roommates met us there with a friend of hers. After, we went to a sweat box club in Roppongi which ended with me and Matt at a sushi place with some people we met at the club. Well that's how the night ended for me and Matt. Chris has another story.

Chris left the club around 4:00 AM. He is very new to Tokyo and didn't know the way back to his apartment. He ended up walking from Roppongi to Haneda airport. That is like a 30 minute subway ride away. He got back to his place at 10:00AM. It is reasons like this that I DO NOT walk anywhere in Tokyo without my compass and atlas.

At some point that morning (daylight) Matt and I went back to his spot and I got another floor to sleep on. A few hours of sleep then orientation. Yes, I was cracked out (figuratively).

Finally after orientation I was able to move into my room in the Harajuku guest house.

This place is really nice. Unlike last year I can actually turn around in my room without knocking something over.

I have 3 roommates. Jesse (USA/computer animation;cartoon work; lighting), Al (Australia/not sure what he does but he is on a 6 month work visa), and Yves (France/Computer Science Professor). They all seem pretty cool. We'll see where the next 4 months take me.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Tokyo

I made the very hard decision to take another semester abroad. I'm heading back to Tokyo.

Right now I am in my 8th hour of my 14 hour layover in Toronto. I am the best planner ever. The only good thing to come of this is that there is free wifi in the airport here.

Recap of the past 24 hours:

I packed all my belongings into 4 bags. 2 duffles, 1 small backpack, and 1 big backpack that I borrowed from my brother. It's one of those common EMS blue backpacks. After all the packing, which went down to the last minute, my parents rushed me to Laguardia for my flight. Everything went smoothly at the airport and the flight went quickly. I landed in Toronto, grabbed a cart and my bags and headed to customs.

Before leaving my house in NY my mom packed me some leftover chinese food. When I went through customs they asked me if I had any meat on me. I replied yes and said I have the chicken. Customs then grilled me about the chicken. Telling them it was chinese food chicken was even worse. After the interrogation they let me through. I found quiet spot at the airport, made my bag fort, and tried to get some sleep.

At about 5AM I was looking for some tissues in my bags. I checked the top pouch of the backpack my brother lent to me. The pouch was empty. I know I packed things in there so I reached inside thinking security snatched some of my things. I felt a ball in the pouch. I pulled it out and it was a hacky sack with the Canadian flag on it. THIS WASN'T MY BAG!

I ran upstairs to the baggage area and the bag was nowhere to be seen. The baggage clerk then asked where I came from on my flight. I told him New York and he said the bag could be in the other baggage area through customs. The bag had to be there. If it wasn't I would be wearing what I had on for the next 4 months. This backpack had all of my clothes in it.

I went back through customs and found my bag sitting next to carousel #7. I'm happy other people aren't idiots like me and take other peoples bags.

"Lifeguard: The original bionic drink"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6EDXZsHhn8

Gone Vietnaming