tokyo summary

tokyo summary

the last weekened was a triple holiday (ie 3 day weekend) so I kind of decided to go to tokyo last minute with Martin
although the main goal/excuse was TGS, I think I was there more for seeying friends

friday afternoon, we (me and Martin) went to visit Sure before we left (don't know actually why)
but that took way too long... we were getting all pumped up about TGS and almost missed our shinkasen...
so we dashed all our way from Hirakata to Kyoto main station... luckily we made and even had time to buy some gift for Jon's host family
(we were going to stay at Jon's host family's place at Tokyo) we got some mochia (? green tea?) pudin and bean paste/mochi thing
all apparently specialties of the Kyoto region

The 3 hour Shinkansen ride went quite fast. The seats were wide, but the chairs were kind of hard... not very comfy
we had tea and onigiri that my host mom had prepared for us. good stuff haha

arriving at Tokyo main at around 9, we changed train and arrived at Shin-koenji by metro.
it was dark and raining a bit but Jon, like the good friend he was, stood at the station waiting for us
>"< i didn't see him at first, but he was there. some how he blended with the surrounding...
hair shorter than before, but same Jon

we walked a bit to his place and met his family. nice ppl, spoke some English, awesome house
apparently they were into western style and music. one of the rooms even had a collection of revolvers

the father was also suppose to be a good carpenter and made a good deal of the carpentry in the house

had good japanese curry for late night snack... tons of beef, yum... and we past out upstairs at the attic

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saturday morning... it was game show time~! gosh, it took quite a bit to get there. The site for TGS was at Chiba, like an hour away
we saw a weird, some type of express train that would get us directly to the site. It saved us 10min... but cost us an extra 500 Yen (~$5)
on the way, Jon and I were on DS playing FFRF, while Martin passed out with his iPod

waiting in line was probably the most exciting part some how. It just went on for ever... real long line...
it litteraly went up and down, back and forth around the whole building... we got there around 1015, but got in by 1100?

walked around in the show till my knees stopped working. Martin was still quite energetic and went to buy surveniers at the Campcom shop..
we stayed there all the way till the end at 5pm.

saw some cool RPGs and Resident evil previews. The 360 seems more asian friendly than before.. hmm tempting
RE5 was kind of generic, but cool. we weren't quite prepared and got our heads chopped off maybe 5 min into the game
we did stood 70 min in line waiting to test it though... at the Site we also saw other KG students.

Ernesto, Ricardo and then Eugene and some other kids i didn't quite know...

we left the site when the whole wide world was doing so as well... so the station was packed... so we just sat around for a while till maybe 1830
originally we were going to stay with the other KG kids but... nah... we were beated... went back to Jon's place
had more curry, yum, for dinner... and passed out again.

I was originally planning to meat Rie (who taught English with me last year at Kyushu), but she was flying back from Hokkaido and her flight got delayed
so it got too late for that...

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side note, Jon's family had 3 dogs(afro, yaya and ... can't remember). tiny, and cute... but poop a lot... all over the place hmmm
especially at our bathroom...

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Sunday morning, Jon had too much work and had to talk to Jess so he stayed home. Me and Martin headed out for more Tokyo tour
unlike some of the other kids who went to TGS again... we decided to do other stuff... Since it was Martin's first time at Tokyo and he loves his temples
(Tsubasa and Suika say he's searching for a place to go when he retires and becomes a monk)
I suggested him to go to Asakusa, big temple place that I've been to way too many times (I lived at a Temple next to it last time I was at Tokyo)
while I went to have lunch with Rie at Shiodome before her work

At Shiodome, I got to see a giant clock designed by Miyasaki that did some quite sound and action when it ran at noon. Of course I had to film it.
hurt my arms a bit, and the angle wasn't great but still a cute memory

went to the gift shop, got some gifts for my sister and other ppl

met Martin, Ricardo and Ernesto at Akiba

explored the giant Anime/Game store (10 floors, maybe, two buildings)
that took... maybe...1.5 hrs.... I bought 2 manga at the manga floor and 3 light novels at the novel floor
(the two "manga" turned out to be novels as well... i realized that on the train....)
we didn't stay long at the trading card foor.... either the AC didn't work there or ppl there didn't shower much
the we also went to Yodobashi-akiba... that took maybe another 2 hrs..

we saw a summo at some point, and ricardo took pictures shamelessly with full flash
kind of funny

oh... on our way back.. texting and crossing the pedestrian pass with the green lite flashing... i tripped...
pokkai style? ie 狗吃屎 in chinese... basically face down flat... made a huge hole in both my knee and jeans
BUT, I didn't get run over by a car... so that is good

tired... we want back to Jon's place and had great dinner. Meat loaf and oden(關東煮)....
couldn't finish it of course, although we all had 2nds, 3rds or even 4ths....

we got to have some of the puddin we brought at gifts as dessert
mean while, we had some interesting conversations with the mom and dad about life and stuff...
cool ppl...
after that we went out for a bit

met with Ricardo (Ernesto was lost) at Shinjuku and we HAD to explore the red light distric of Tokyo
because apparently Martin is a "good boy" and didn't know it existed

of course we didn't pay for anything, but we had to walk around the street and check out some stores
some one was having fun... haha not going to say who

it was fun when either Japanese or Black person would come up to us and ask what we were looking for and offer all type of service
kkkkk.... cute @.@? obviously... haha we just said no to everything and we felt pretty same in a group of 4

but at some point, we might have gotten way too deep into the district and we got surounded buy like 10 of them and that was kind of scary...
so... we were just like "we are looking for the eki (train station)" and hurried out of that place

after that, we hurried back to the station, almost missing the last train and went back...
again... we pass out... Jon might have done some hw... i didn't mmmm

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monday morning Jon had to leave with his family to some graves... not sure why, didn't ask so me and Martin packed up, said our thank yous and left
at shinjuku eki we left our big bags in lockers and headed for Harajuku

usually ppl go there for Cosplayers, Martin wanted to see some, but it was Monday (instead of Sunday) and a bit too early in the morning so there was none
so, i took him to Meji shrine. Huge forest for one in the middle of the city. nice walk, more pictures

rushed back b/c it was time to meet my Japanese friends that volunteered with me this summer.
At the station, I met Jun, Yuko and Saori. Saori apparently got lost on the way and they started making fun of her on how i was a better Japanese person
haha... the train system isn't THAT hard haha

from there we went to a Mac (in Kantou/Tokyo) or MacDo (in Kansain/Osaka) or better known as McDonald in the US....
waited a bit till Taro arrived. I was not used to seeying him without his glasses

had Okonomiyaki nad Manjayaki (?) at Shinjuku and Martin's wish to go to Tokyo tower overwrote mine to go to Tokyo U...
maybe a good decision though...

we were poor and young, so we took the stairs up... hmmm that was fun... I am glad I wasn't Yuko who was wearing heals hehe
all the way up to the "special" observatory was 1400 Yen (~$14) and we had to walk down as well.. although that wasn't too bad

when we were down, we had to go do what we needed. Martin and Jun went to buy souveniors, Yuko and Taro went out for a sig and I went to have a McShrimp
with Saori... hmmm I started being just thirst... wanted a bit of fry... but ended buying a whole set

this takes us all the way till almost 5pm. Taro hard his work so left early. From there we went back to Harajuku again, with hopes to see some Cosplayers
and meet Mayo. There was obviously no cosplayer, so we walked on the crouded street and went to have some bubble tea. Mayo didn't stay long, she had
to go to her badmin club but brought us lots of gifts. Jun also gave us some stuff before the had to go as well.

from there, me, Martin and Yuko went to Shinjuku again met Cory who just came back from some retreat/camp in the mountains
we had dinner at a Kaiten sushi place and went to a coffee shop to just chat about our summer and school here at Japan.

things seemed cool... Martin said weird comments that kind of made sense logically but not much in the context....
I'll not say them, but they were something a long the lines "I have to laugh when I see something funny"
that may to seem make sense, but we were talking about where I worked over the summer... it would make more sense if you knew what that was of course

we sat at the shop with a cup of coffee for a few hours and decided to check out Cory's place before going back. We said bye to Yuko at the station and went to
Cory's room. It looked like a rented appartment and her host mom a bit more like her landlord than host mom.. oh well...
things were cool

Martin and I went back to Shinjuku again, picked up our bags from the locker and went to our bus.
the seats were better than the Shinkanse, and included a blanket. I was exausted and quickly fell asleep till the next morning when we arrived back to Hirakata
and went back home, had breakfast, took a shower and went to class....

that concludes my weekend.

also, an important lesson about Japanese sex industry (according to cory's book)
when they say massage, they actually me sex
and health massage are bj, body massage is hj and bubble world is hot japanese bath followed by more action
hmmm euphemisms