週末

I wrote this in notepad last night in bed and now under the duress of having to get off the computer in 3 minutes so there may be lots of mistakes and sorry if the pics are bad, but I gotta go.

Kaiten Sushi

You may or may not have seen conveyer belt sushi either being made fun of or in action, but it's real and it's really cool. About 5 times cheaper than a normal nice sushi place, apparently, with infinite green tea mix and hot water, it's a great place to eat. We went to Chiba station, in the heart of the city, and waited about 20 minutes for our 15, separate even, seats. The guys working the sushi bar said irasshaimase (welcome, you hear it at EVERY shopping venue in Japan) in a really loud and weird way, so as people were coming out after we had paid I would say "himitsu aru, taisetsuna himitsu ga aruyo!" (i have a secret, i have an important secret!) and a few seconds after they huddled up near me I'd yell "IRASSHAIMASE!!!"

aha lol i'm funnay. Well I thought it was, and so did they! Or some of them, others thought I was loud and, inaccurately(!), drunk.

Revolving Sushi
Another View
Downtown Chiba at night (blurry)

Laundry (doing it "as we speak")

My host mom tells me that since Japan has a very humid climate, mold grows really easy in dirty clothes. Eww, I haven't seen or smelled it yet, but apparently a week without laundry is unheard of here, so, I gotta start doing it more. The washing machine is so much smaller and they air dry everything on the balcony, so it will take me like 5 loads to do all the stuff I have tomorrow, and from now on I probably have to do it every 2 days. That's kind of a pain, but I'll deal. Just another country difference to which I gotta adjust!

Tokyo

Today we went to Tokyo to go to Tokyo Tower and to observe THE OTAKU PHENOMENON in Akihabara. We were supposed to go to Odaiba, which are the artificial islands they built to defend against the Americans who tried successfully to open the country to the outside world in 1854ish, but ran out of time. I allcapsed OTAKU PHENOMENON because having gone now, I feel like the blaring examples of atrocious fetishism and crime committed by Otakus probably accounts for about 0.00001% of the whole Otaku demographic.

I'll go as chronologically as possible.

Out of the station to a temple..
First Street out of the Station -
Arriving in Tokyo, by some measures the biggest city in the world, was pretty breathtaking, especially since it was by train. I love big cities, so Tokyo took the cake.
Takashi-sensei's useful group identifier
Far view of Tokyo Tower
An up close shot of a gate
Tokyo intersection
Down a small street
Taken while crossing the street

From a temple to Tokyo Tower
Temple gate
Me-shot in front of temple
Temple+condo
Statue
Memorials to the dead
View from Tokyo Tower

In Tokyo Tower
Approaching
Me in front of one of the four bases
We climbed the stairs - So, a few of us were going to brave the stairs while the rest took the elevator. That somehow turned into everyone doing the stairs (wa anyone!?) and it was quite an ordeal. Tired, sweaty, yet accomplished, I bought a strawberry vanilla ice cream cone from the shop at the top. We got cool little I climbed the stairs certificates too. Worth it? umm..
Some of us in the observatory
What we had at the food court

Tokyo Tower Views (uncropped 1200x1600 mostly) - wish I could explain what some of these buildings are, but just view and enjoy, cause I can't! It was also very foggy
View 1
View 2
View 3
View 4
View 5
View 6
View 7
Down the glass floor

Akihabara Streets
A band
Welcome!
Blurry night shot
Bunch of people playing a bunch of pachinko - they looked liked zombies
Dance rental girls, I think(?)
Cool building art
Crowded street
Crossing a night street, came out weird
Tomoyochan and the colonel
Serious business
Kuai would like this

I went to a Maid Cafe, but it was somewhat lukewarm. Check the culture journal for a more
in depth look at the Akihabara exprience.

Yodobashi Camera - one of the coolest places ever
View from the station
Entrance
Department guide
2F
3F
4F
5F
6F
7F
Abroad/Japan top 10
Game dept - endless
More games
FFXII - Revenant Wings
FFXII - RW Display
Tarutaru fashion (seriously)
Interesting FFXI guides
Me in front of 5000 vending machines - triple the width and there were 2 rows of that
Docomo place
Outside & up close
Full outside view from very far away
Miscellaneous & New
FINALLY got to see a full train
Same deal, wasn't too comfortable!
Mcdonald's Megateriyaki burger - haven't tried it yet, but I'm gonna
Mihoko chan
Same, after 550 stairs
Friday's lunch, it was octopus!
AIDS support/check ad in train

Ocean's 13

I really wanna see the latest and greatest of one of my most favorite movie franchises, Ocean's 13. In Japan. Just thought I'd throw that in there, and when we go I'll report how different (or similar, hopefully not!) Japanese theaters are.

Looming Decision

I had a smashing time doing all this stuff - all of Tokyo was breathtaking. I'm liking Japan more and more, and my Japanese improves so much day by day as long as I'm here, but I see two paths on the horizon. One way takes me either to a job in the states, or grad school in the states and then a job either teaching or at a company, and the other sends me off to Japan, or at least to a job that will eventually send me off to Japan. That's pretty much the great divide at this point, and while I have a pretty large chunk of time to think and decide, having firm intentions from now til then is pretty important. The pros and cons of each path, like in terms of money, job satisfaction, lifestyle choices, and much much more are really quite vast. I'm starting to weigh them now, but it'll be tough and I want not to regret my choice.