I'm on a time limit right now (ala leaving in about half an hour), so I'm going to try to be quick and stuff. YEAH!
I don't really remember what necessarily inspired the first couple of pictures, and most likely nothing really INSPIRED them, but anyway, one day after class, my classmate friend Nate and I decided that we were going to drink after class around Sophia. Cool thing about Japan is, you can drink in public, so don't worry about us getting arrested. Also, you can be drunk in public, too, and it actually is seen as good because it's showing that the salarymen are actually getting out there and having some kind of fun in their lives. It probably keeps the suicide rates down a little bit more by allowing them to not have to care how much and where they drink.
Anyway, originally we were planning on going to sit in a park, but then we ultimately decided that it would be kind of fun just to be around school. So, we went to 7-11 and bought the two items that Nate is displaying here, some crackers, and some cheese. Basically we labeled it as a wine and cheese party with that $6 or so bottle of wine (one per person) and string cheese. I think it's kind of bad when I can safely say that the Ritz crackers were the classiest thing about this wine and cheese party.
... egh.
It was good, though, and we even drank some of these babies, too. They're called Oni Koroshi, or "Demon Killer"s, and while they look like innocent juice boxes, they in fact are not. I think they were recommended by Matt Pollard to Jen Doo. But, keep in mind, Matt downs the worst of 40s and drinks gin out of the bottle, haha. Oh, and he also recommended the One-Cup, which I haven't had yet just out of sheer principle and respect for myself, haha. Don't worry, Matt, I'll probably try at least one before I leave, heh.
They weren't as good as the wine, p.s.. But, after everything, we cruised down to the actual campus part of Jouchi (where we drank was the Sakura-dori, just outside of campus), sat, chatted, and went home. I remember being really sleepy at that point, and that mixed with the alcohol actually made me take the train in the opposite direction to get back home. So hooray for adding another 15-30 minutes to an already really long train ride!
Speaking of riding the wrong train when I had already been in Japan for two months, I actually ended up riding the wrong train during midterms! Call me retarded and it's totally valid, but call me unobservant and, well, I would appreciate it. At the Akabane station, there are two orange lines. One is the Shonan-Shinjuku line, which is blue and orange, and the other is the one that I accidently rode that day. When I looked at the arrival schedule in the station, I noticed that the Shonan-Shinjuku line wasn't coming for a long while, so I headed to get on Saikyo. But, when I passed a certain gate, I heard the fateful mamonaku ___ban sen ni kakueki teisha blah blah the train is coming. So, thinking that maybe I looked at the wrong board, I ran up there and dashed on the train! "Tsugi wa, Ooku" 'Ooku, where the hell is that...' Turns out Ooku is a desolate wasteland with about 12 train tracks, all of ONE that is being used. Excellent. The next stop was Ueno, but forgetting where exactly Ueno was, I rode back to Akabane and rode to school, getting there a tad 10-15 minutes late. *sigh* I tried to take that track again one day because I thought it may be faster than taking Saikyo or Keihin-Tohoku all the way to Kanda, but yeah, of course it wasn't. I got to Ueno and lines to get on the Keihin were backed up from the train, all the way up the stairs, and out into the station hallway. Bah!
Looks like I'm out of time. Next post will be about the Tokyo Blue Note, the greatest night of karaoke I had in Japan (thus far!), more baseball, my illness, and one more night of USHSD-ness.
Until next time...!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Almost Done!
Wooo, time whipped by since that last post. During the time from then until now I have visited Kyoto, climbed Mt. Fuji, and made a girl cry. But before I get to all of that awesome stuff, I have to continue with writing about stuff from the past couple of months or else I'm going to forget even more. If you read the last post, it was a mess, so I need to bust the next picture sets out before my blog turns incomprehensible. But hey, I just finished my second exam today (kanji was yesterday and grammar was today), don't need to study for tomorrow's (it's listening, writing, and oral), and then I'll be home free sans my 25 page anthropology paper! Yikes...!
The first picture starts us off at the two-month anniversary of the Sannin's arrival in Japan. To celebrate we decided to out to dinner, and after wandering around Warabi for a while (reminiscent of our first night in the city), I spotted an excellent prospect: a poster that had unagi on it!!! For those that don't know, unagi is Japanese for "eel", and you can try some Americanized unagi in the little sushi packs that they sell everywhere, right next to the California, Spider, and Dragon Rolls! This is my favorite Japanese food, and for good reason. The eel isn't really fishy and the Japanese have concocted a superb sauce for it. Yoink! I highly recommend trying some at home. Don't get fooled by the name "eel" either... I mean, just take for example a cow or something. You wouldn't ever look at cow never having steak before and say "MAN that's a tasting looking animal!" Same for pigs. They're smelly and dirty, but holy crap is bacon awesome or what!?
The first picture starts us off at the two-month anniversary of the Sannin's arrival in Japan. To celebrate we decided to out to dinner, and after wandering around Warabi for a while (reminiscent of our first night in the city), I spotted an excellent prospect: a poster that had unagi on it!!! For those that don't know, unagi is Japanese for "eel", and you can try some Americanized unagi in the little sushi packs that they sell everywhere, right next to the California, Spider, and Dragon Rolls! This is my favorite Japanese food, and for good reason. The eel isn't really fishy and the Japanese have concocted a superb sauce for it. Yoink! I highly recommend trying some at home. Don't get fooled by the name "eel" either... I mean, just take for example a cow or something. You wouldn't ever look at cow never having steak before and say "MAN that's a tasting looking animal!" Same for pigs. They're smelly and dirty, but holy crap is bacon awesome or what!?
So the unagi turned out to be my first real expensive dinner in Japan, pricing about 2,000 yen or so. Was it worth it? Well, let's see the presentation first. Looks pretty good, right? A really nice box, that is! Mystery box, mystery soup, mystery vegetables (they're ALWAYS mystery here), and mystery drink. Well, the drink is green tea. You know, 'cause I'm in Japan. Anyway, voila! There are some open boxes. Everything looks delicious, right? Well, the verdict is, it turned out to be good, but not up to expectation. The soup was delicious, and I even liked the cucumbers (pickled, that is... pickled is the mystery of vegetables that is not so mysterious in Japan). Rice was good... unagi was... par. It's possible to get boneless unagi, but I unfortunately didn't, and it took away from the flavor, which was a little hard to sense in the first place.
Funny thing about the trip, though, was that we all agreed we STILL can't perfectly order food in Japan. The menu is just full of kanji that we don't know (because I mean, there're fish names and stuff... and I'm busy learning how to read and write "meteoric belt" and "volcanic zone"... COME ON!). And yeah, it's still a problem. I mean, do you inherently know what "Unagi Yamakake" is? (whatever, Akira!)
So there went the two-month anniversary reunion thing, and on the horizon was a load of other reunions that involved my friends from USHSD 2004 (starting front left and making a U around the back back to the front, that's Yusuke, Fumi, me, Miki, Aika, Yuuka, Ayano, and Urara). There we met in a pretty nice restaurant to eat and drink a bit, talking about old times and catching up with everyone. One thing about not seeing these people for a long time... you tend for forget names. And even worse, you tend to forget faces. Take, for example, my blunder. I walked in the room, looked at the people inside, and thought '... who's friend is that...?' Errrr, that was actually Yuuka. In my defense, I think I have absolutely no hard copy of what she looked like in pictures either, so how was I supposed to know?? I was safe with my secret for a while, too, until Ayano asked me if I remembered everyone's name. GOD I hate when people do that! Stephen did it to me a few times with the baseball guys, too. Did I know them all? Nope. Do I still not know them all? Yup!
Anyway, dinner was pleasant, especially hanging out with a couple of my homeboys, Yusuke and Fumi. Fumi's presentation of Japanese to me was hilariously semi-insulting. It was really slow, but EXTREMELY sarcastic sounding. He got out of the habit after a little bit, and then later on when I wouldn't understand something he'd do it again, but at those times it was okay. The girls didn't hold back too much, though sometimes Miki and Ayano would speak English... which I was cool with. Man I have a lot of pictures of the girls... But yeah, we went to purikura afterwards and took some good shots. I also played Poppin' Music while the girls were cutting out the pictures. It was fun!
The next time we met was at Kohji's wedding surprise party. Kohji was a counselor from USDHSD 2004 and an all around spectacular guy. He was the first Japanese friend that I had that really listened to jazz. By that, I mean he even kept up with current artists (I specifically remember talking to him about the Dave Holland Quintet). He ended up getting married at the beginning of July when I was in Kyoto, but as for the party, it was really early and he showed up to be surprised and greeted by friends from when he was a student in HSD and from every year he was a counselor. People came from all over to see him, too, which was very cool. Aika ended up giving him a speech on behalf of us '04 kids. What'd she say? Don't remember, and probably wasn't really sure when she was saying it anyway. The important thing is, though, that he was happy, and he may have even shed a tear or two! He should have, at least, and if he didn't, he better have had after he read all of what was on the shirt that we gave him! That's an HSD counselor shirt fitted with signatures and messages from every person in attendance. I wrote in Japanese on it, and if you think that writing on a shirt in marker is hard, well, imagine what I had to go through. My year had these cats in attendance (from back left, Taka, Nori, Fumi, Jiro, Miho, me, Miki; from front left, Youhei, Azusa, Kohji, Ayano, Asami, Aika, and... uh... who the hell is that?). Oh no! She's in another picture, too. I think she set up the event. Was Azusa's partner in crime. Everyone thought it was cool that I was wearing the HSD shirt, by the way. It turns out, though, that it's one from HSD '03, not USHSD '04. HA! Joke's on them... suckers!
Afterwards, Jiro, Youhei, Fumi, and I hung out in Harajuku while the girls went shopping. Youhei left early, but the other two and I went walking around. Old men like this were enough to make Jiro, the Osakan, exclaim, of course, just like Kohei, "Tokyo is not Japan...". After cruising around we all went to eat and drink some more, ending with the videos of Jiro talking about how he hates Jews. I mean juu-s.
I have to leave to go correct some random Japanese dude's English. Hopefully he pays me : ) But, I will leave you with one more photo. FEAR THE POMPODOUR!!!!
Until next time...!!!
* Everyone that reads my blog (whether you like it or not) should download Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I'll even pay the $4 you lost if you don't like it! (don't quote me on that)
** Hey Flicka-Flicka Fans, Sprite Remix may be a lost cause in the US, but that doesn't mean it is in Japan! Asahi's new drink is "Lucky Cider (with KIRAKIRA SPARKLE)" and is a refreshing replacement for the Flicka that we know and love.
Funny thing about the trip, though, was that we all agreed we STILL can't perfectly order food in Japan. The menu is just full of kanji that we don't know (because I mean, there're fish names and stuff... and I'm busy learning how to read and write "meteoric belt" and "volcanic zone"... COME ON!). And yeah, it's still a problem. I mean, do you inherently know what "Unagi Yamakake" is? (whatever, Akira!)
So there went the two-month anniversary reunion thing, and on the horizon was a load of other reunions that involved my friends from USHSD 2004 (starting front left and making a U around the back back to the front, that's Yusuke, Fumi, me, Miki, Aika, Yuuka, Ayano, and Urara). There we met in a pretty nice restaurant to eat and drink a bit, talking about old times and catching up with everyone. One thing about not seeing these people for a long time... you tend for forget names. And even worse, you tend to forget faces. Take, for example, my blunder. I walked in the room, looked at the people inside, and thought '... who's friend is that...?' Errrr, that was actually Yuuka. In my defense, I think I have absolutely no hard copy of what she looked like in pictures either, so how was I supposed to know?? I was safe with my secret for a while, too, until Ayano asked me if I remembered everyone's name. GOD I hate when people do that! Stephen did it to me a few times with the baseball guys, too. Did I know them all? Nope. Do I still not know them all? Yup!
Anyway, dinner was pleasant, especially hanging out with a couple of my homeboys, Yusuke and Fumi. Fumi's presentation of Japanese to me was hilariously semi-insulting. It was really slow, but EXTREMELY sarcastic sounding. He got out of the habit after a little bit, and then later on when I wouldn't understand something he'd do it again, but at those times it was okay. The girls didn't hold back too much, though sometimes Miki and Ayano would speak English... which I was cool with. Man I have a lot of pictures of the girls... But yeah, we went to purikura afterwards and took some good shots. I also played Poppin' Music while the girls were cutting out the pictures. It was fun!
The next time we met was at Kohji's wedding surprise party. Kohji was a counselor from USDHSD 2004 and an all around spectacular guy. He was the first Japanese friend that I had that really listened to jazz. By that, I mean he even kept up with current artists (I specifically remember talking to him about the Dave Holland Quintet). He ended up getting married at the beginning of July when I was in Kyoto, but as for the party, it was really early and he showed up to be surprised and greeted by friends from when he was a student in HSD and from every year he was a counselor. People came from all over to see him, too, which was very cool. Aika ended up giving him a speech on behalf of us '04 kids. What'd she say? Don't remember, and probably wasn't really sure when she was saying it anyway. The important thing is, though, that he was happy, and he may have even shed a tear or two! He should have, at least, and if he didn't, he better have had after he read all of what was on the shirt that we gave him! That's an HSD counselor shirt fitted with signatures and messages from every person in attendance. I wrote in Japanese on it, and if you think that writing on a shirt in marker is hard, well, imagine what I had to go through. My year had these cats in attendance (from back left, Taka, Nori, Fumi, Jiro, Miho, me, Miki; from front left, Youhei, Azusa, Kohji, Ayano, Asami, Aika, and... uh... who the hell is that?). Oh no! She's in another picture, too. I think she set up the event. Was Azusa's partner in crime. Everyone thought it was cool that I was wearing the HSD shirt, by the way. It turns out, though, that it's one from HSD '03, not USHSD '04. HA! Joke's on them... suckers!
Afterwards, Jiro, Youhei, Fumi, and I hung out in Harajuku while the girls went shopping. Youhei left early, but the other two and I went walking around. Old men like this were enough to make Jiro, the Osakan, exclaim, of course, just like Kohei, "Tokyo is not Japan...". After cruising around we all went to eat and drink some more, ending with the videos of Jiro talking about how he hates Jews. I mean juu-s.
I have to leave to go correct some random Japanese dude's English. Hopefully he pays me : ) But, I will leave you with one more photo. FEAR THE POMPODOUR!!!!
Until next time...!!!
* Everyone that reads my blog (whether you like it or not) should download Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I'll even pay the $4 you lost if you don't like it! (don't quote me on that)
** Hey Flicka-Flicka Fans, Sprite Remix may be a lost cause in the US, but that doesn't mean it is in Japan! Asahi's new drink is "Lucky Cider (with KIRAKIRA SPARKLE)" and is a refreshing replacement for the Flicka that we know and love.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Picture Group 7/10
That's how far behind I am. Four folders of pictures! And that's not four days, that's four spans of time between uploading photos. Luckily for me, I don't have billions of pictures per folder, so technically that's not SO much work, but looks like I still have plenty to do, no? I'll also have plenty of photos to share after the trip when I steal everyone else's from my class and stuff. [guffaw]
The first group has all to do with the weekend that my friend Kohei came to visit from Hiroshima which was... a long time ago. May 16th, my camera says. Jeez.
For all of you who have never met him, here's Kohei, my Japanese friend who homestayed with my family and me this summer. He doesn't normally look like that, but at the time he was frustrated with a weight puzzle that he was trying to solve on my Nintendo DS from the game "Professor Layton and the Curious Village". When playing the game, I often wear that kind of face, too, and it's usually on the trains. It's cool to know that he could read many of the puzzles' descriptions enough to solve them. I myself could buy the 2nd "Professor Layton" game in Japanese, but there would be no hope for me.
Anyway, we went off to Yoyogi park to show Kohei Tokyo. Yoyogi (which I think I've talked about already.. it's the park in Harajuku with the people that dress up and stuff) may be an extreme of Tokyo, but it's fun for people to go see, I think. It wasn't Sunday (the traditional day to go), but luckily for us, even Saturday that weekend was full of unusual happenings. It started with happening upon this giant thing. I don't know what it is, but it's hilarious looking, and it must have been important because there were enough people there that were interested in worshiping it. Or at least move it around... that's like worshiping it because who would want to move that thing around, right?
Kohei was the first person that I heard say that Tokyo "is not Japan". He first commented on Yoyogi itself, but think he may have said it again after we did more stuff that weekend. Yoyogi people especially scared him, though I think everyday Tokyo fashion did, too. But, it seemed like he found it amusing, too, especially when we were in the area of Yoyogi that's full of a bunch of bands playing even though are clear signs that say "no playing allowed". Take note that the sign is also in the first picture in the back.
In the park itself, Kohei, Dan, Jen, and I sat around and talked. Kohei taught me a lot of useful words in Japanese that I can use to make friends, we wrestled and raced a bit, and then happened across a bunch of elementary school kids that were racing themselves. It was actually a televised event that was being hosted by a famous Japanese television personality, though I don't remember his name. We ended up cheering for some kid who, when asked to speak some English, actually spoke some. (海の) Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully we got on TV : )
Basically that day we just walked around. After Yoyogi we went to a Reggae festival because they happened to have one there across the street. I bought a taco there. It was awful.
Oh yeah, and while walking to the park, I talked a little to Kohei's aunt who used to be a famous comedian in Japan. I'm not really sure where she's living right now, but she was living in Hawaii until she decided to take a long vacation to China and, I think, India. In fact, she told me that she was there around when the earthquake happened. Luckily, I think that she was out of the country before it hit.
Like I said, we basically walked and talked that day/night. When we went back to Dan's I remember that we played Free-For-All Super Smash Bros. Melee. I have to regain all of the skill that I gained at home all over again, boooo. It was the first time Kohei had played, and he got very determined to win so we gave him a bit of a handicap and I think he may have one once, haha.
When we woke up the next day we went to Shibuya to eat at an Indo-curry tabehoudai restaurant (all the nan I can eat??? wooooo!) and then went to Tokyo Dome City to ride the roller coaster there. It just so happened that on the day we got there there were a bunch of cosplayers prowling the city. The word "cosplay" means to dress up like a character of some show or video game and run around like them. Take, for instance, these really good Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children cosplayers. The Cloud one was especially good, we agreed. Even the sword he had was bad-ass realistic. The Sephiroth and the two clones there weren't as good because they didn't have the face for their characters, but their costumes still were quite cool. There weren't just Final Fantasy cosplayers there, though, of course. I saw some people dressed up like Evangelion characters, people from Gundam 00, Darth Vader, some girl dressed up like an E.S.F.S. girl that I don't know (Warning: XXX), etc.. Hey, we even joined in the fun at the park! BAM!!! Not only were we members of the End of the Century Heroes Go Renji, but we also all took our turn becoming Forrest Gump.
Kohei and I ended up having a blast on the roller coaster, even if it cost $10 to ride once. Neither of us had been on a coaster in a really long time, and I'm glad to say it's invigorating for me once again. Afterwards, we some some musical duo play on a stage that had this birthday song... oh man, I wish I could remember it. It was hilarious. If Dan and I can remember, I'll record us singing it and everyone can use it for everyone's birthday in the future. I think they said "Happy Birthday Song" over and over in the actual song.
In the end we ate okonomiyaki lead by master chef Kohei, who was actually confused at first because the way that Tokyoians make okonomiyaki is different from the Hiroshima way. Of course, it's a well known fact that the taste is different (the Kansai area's okonomiyaki is famously better, starting, I believe, with Hiroshima and going down from there), but he didn't know that the actual production was, too. And, truth be told, the first time I made the stuff here in Tokyo I thought something was wrong, and I was right (in USHSD I made it in a restaurant in Hiroshima).
After dinner we watched Kohei go off and planned on meeting again in the future. And, I plan on making good on that this month when I go to Osaka, which should be good, clean fun.
Time to continue to bust through my homework load. Hopefully I'll be back to cover more of the photos soon because I really want to talk about the details of this actual weekend asap.
Until next time..!!!
*Edit: While adding more photos from Jen's album on here, I realized that I totally mixed up the chain of events. In reality, it was Yoyogi, Tokyo Dome City, Okonomiyaki, back to Dan's to sleep, then Indo-curry and Kohei's departure. Maybe you noticed how I did, which was by looking at Kohei's shirts.
** Edit Two: Have fun, Japanese readers. タワーレコードという店の外で、有名じゃなくて女が二人いるバンドはこうこくした。車の「おしり」の上でグラスの函の中に座って、俺は、新しい単語を使うために、携帯で「ムラムラだよ。赤外線をしたい！！！」というメッセージを書いて、女を見せた。でも、その女の表情は変化してしまわなかったんだ。残念だな。。。
*** Edit Three: If my Japanese is off, that'd be embarrassing, but I'd appreciate you telling me. I know I can count on you, James! But, Akira reads this, too, so...
The first group has all to do with the weekend that my friend Kohei came to visit from Hiroshima which was... a long time ago. May 16th, my camera says. Jeez.
For all of you who have never met him, here's Kohei, my Japanese friend who homestayed with my family and me this summer. He doesn't normally look like that, but at the time he was frustrated with a weight puzzle that he was trying to solve on my Nintendo DS from the game "Professor Layton and the Curious Village". When playing the game, I often wear that kind of face, too, and it's usually on the trains. It's cool to know that he could read many of the puzzles' descriptions enough to solve them. I myself could buy the 2nd "Professor Layton" game in Japanese, but there would be no hope for me.
Anyway, we went off to Yoyogi park to show Kohei Tokyo. Yoyogi (which I think I've talked about already.. it's the park in Harajuku with the people that dress up and stuff) may be an extreme of Tokyo, but it's fun for people to go see, I think. It wasn't Sunday (the traditional day to go), but luckily for us, even Saturday that weekend was full of unusual happenings. It started with happening upon this giant thing. I don't know what it is, but it's hilarious looking, and it must have been important because there were enough people there that were interested in worshiping it. Or at least move it around... that's like worshiping it because who would want to move that thing around, right?
Kohei was the first person that I heard say that Tokyo "is not Japan". He first commented on Yoyogi itself, but think he may have said it again after we did more stuff that weekend. Yoyogi people especially scared him, though I think everyday Tokyo fashion did, too. But, it seemed like he found it amusing, too, especially when we were in the area of Yoyogi that's full of a bunch of bands playing even though are clear signs that say "no playing allowed". Take note that the sign is also in the first picture in the back.
In the park itself, Kohei, Dan, Jen, and I sat around and talked. Kohei taught me a lot of useful words in Japanese that I can use to make friends, we wrestled and raced a bit, and then happened across a bunch of elementary school kids that were racing themselves. It was actually a televised event that was being hosted by a famous Japanese television personality, though I don't remember his name. We ended up cheering for some kid who, when asked to speak some English, actually spoke some. (海の) Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully we got on TV : )
Basically that day we just walked around. After Yoyogi we went to a Reggae festival because they happened to have one there across the street. I bought a taco there. It was awful.
Oh yeah, and while walking to the park, I talked a little to Kohei's aunt who used to be a famous comedian in Japan. I'm not really sure where she's living right now, but she was living in Hawaii until she decided to take a long vacation to China and, I think, India. In fact, she told me that she was there around when the earthquake happened. Luckily, I think that she was out of the country before it hit.
Like I said, we basically walked and talked that day/night. When we went back to Dan's I remember that we played Free-For-All Super Smash Bros. Melee. I have to regain all of the skill that I gained at home all over again, boooo. It was the first time Kohei had played, and he got very determined to win so we gave him a bit of a handicap and I think he may have one once, haha.
When we woke up the next day we went to Shibuya to eat at an Indo-curry tabehoudai restaurant (all the nan I can eat??? wooooo!) and then went to Tokyo Dome City to ride the roller coaster there. It just so happened that on the day we got there there were a bunch of cosplayers prowling the city. The word "cosplay" means to dress up like a character of some show or video game and run around like them. Take, for instance, these really good Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children cosplayers. The Cloud one was especially good, we agreed. Even the sword he had was bad-ass realistic. The Sephiroth and the two clones there weren't as good because they didn't have the face for their characters, but their costumes still were quite cool. There weren't just Final Fantasy cosplayers there, though, of course. I saw some people dressed up like Evangelion characters, people from Gundam 00, Darth Vader, some girl dressed up like an E.S.F.S. girl that I don't know (Warning: XXX), etc.. Hey, we even joined in the fun at the park! BAM!!! Not only were we members of the End of the Century Heroes Go Renji, but we also all took our turn becoming Forrest Gump.
Kohei and I ended up having a blast on the roller coaster, even if it cost $10 to ride once. Neither of us had been on a coaster in a really long time, and I'm glad to say it's invigorating for me once again. Afterwards, we some some musical duo play on a stage that had this birthday song... oh man, I wish I could remember it. It was hilarious. If Dan and I can remember, I'll record us singing it and everyone can use it for everyone's birthday in the future. I think they said "Happy Birthday Song" over and over in the actual song.
In the end we ate okonomiyaki lead by master chef Kohei, who was actually confused at first because the way that Tokyoians make okonomiyaki is different from the Hiroshima way. Of course, it's a well known fact that the taste is different (the Kansai area's okonomiyaki is famously better, starting, I believe, with Hiroshima and going down from there), but he didn't know that the actual production was, too. And, truth be told, the first time I made the stuff here in Tokyo I thought something was wrong, and I was right (in USHSD I made it in a restaurant in Hiroshima).
After dinner we watched Kohei go off and planned on meeting again in the future. And, I plan on making good on that this month when I go to Osaka, which should be good, clean fun.
Time to continue to bust through my homework load. Hopefully I'll be back to cover more of the photos soon because I really want to talk about the details of this actual weekend asap.
Until next time..!!!
*Edit: While adding more photos from Jen's album on here, I realized that I totally mixed up the chain of events. In reality, it was Yoyogi, Tokyo Dome City, Okonomiyaki, back to Dan's to sleep, then Indo-curry and Kohei's departure. Maybe you noticed how I did, which was by looking at Kohei's shirts.
** Edit Two: Have fun, Japanese readers. タワーレコードという店の外で、有名じゃなくて女が二人いるバンドはこうこくした。車の「おしり」の上でグラスの函の中に座って、俺は、新しい単語を使うために、携帯で「ムラムラだよ。赤外線をしたい！！！」というメッセージを書いて、女を見せた。でも、その女の表情は変化してしまわなかったんだ。残念だな。。。
*** Edit Three: If my Japanese is off, that'd be embarrassing, but I'd appreciate you telling me. I know I can count on you, James! But, Akira reads this, too, so...
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