And you thought only The Grateful Dead could steal your face...

Before getting into my new blog post, I'd like to say Gerry- It's good to see you are fully recovered and back to posting comments. Cheers, brah.

So I decided to call it a weekend a little early this weekend, because even though it's Saturday night, I am damn tired. Also, it was a three-day weekend, so it started on Thursday. Work on Thursday was excruciatingly easy and boring at the same time. I sat on the computer in the teacher's office literally all day. But, I'm getting paid so I can't complain too much. The kids had exams to determine what high school they'd be getting into. The school system in Japan is very stressing on the students and ridiculously competitive. I feel bad for the kids sometimes. Like I ask them "Kono shumatsu wa nani o shiteru no?" or something along those lines, like "What are you doing this weekend?" To this, they almost always answer, "Studying." Poor bastards.

Anyways, after work I headed to Manami's. Her mom made a delicious dinner called Nikujyaga which means, almost literally, "meat and potatoes." Of course, cooked Japanese stylee it's pretty different than what one might be used to in America. It was really good though. We also had miso soup, pickled cucumbers, rice with stuff in it that tasted good, some fish, and mushrooms. It was good.

Oh yeah, then after that, her parents took me to a yakitori-ya (chicken-on-a-stick-shop). It was awesome. Totally a place that I would NEVER go into by myself because it's SO Japanese looking and no one knows any English, the menus are all kanji, etc. So it was cool, we ate a little more, drank shochu (a Japanese liquor, it's good and strong) for a while, and then they busted out the karaoke. Shochu and karaoke, you know what that means. I hit the mic hard. I started with Cheap Trick, "I Want You to Want Me" to represent the hometown. I think one or two (of the fifteen or so) people there knew the song. Then a couple other people sang, then it came back to me and I sang "Daite Seniorita" the best I could. Manami's dad helped out on the kanji I couldn't read, but I pulled it off and well, impressed the fuck out of the Japanese people there. You heard me, no being humble about that one!

I meant to take a picture of the place, but forgot.

Friday, Manami and I went to Roppongi. She had an interview and got the job, because her English is so good (Roppongi has the heaviest concentration of foreigners in Tokyo). We then met up with my friend John Suzuki (the only red-haired Asian kid i've ever met, he's half-Japanese and half-Irish), who is from Chicago and was studying abroad here in the summer with me, but lives in Nagoya. We walked around a little then went to Shibuya to meet up with Hoko and her friend who is also from Chicago but is here with the US Marines. He was okay, nothing to write home about. Or more specifically, nothing to write in your blog about. Here's my attempt to be artsy and capture a Roppongi skyline. Tons of cool architecture in that area of Tokyo.



Still, we had a good night. The 5 of us headed to a restaurant I found online called Kushiage Monogatari. This translates to "The Tale of Fried Food on Skeweres." It was awesome. All-you-can-eat for 2 hours. All the food is stuck onto sticks, then you bring it back to your table, dip it in batter, breading and fry it right there. There's everything from mussels to bacon to broccoli (yes, deep-fried broccoli...it's a gastronomical oxymoron). It's so dangerous, but so delicious. There's also like 10 different sauces, most of which were delicious. This is a kind of restaurant that would NEVER fly in America. Not only are you handling raw meats, but you have a deep-frier in the middle of your table. Like so-



Speaking about the danger aspect, on more than one occasion, grease "popped" out of the frier. I was handling a little desert rice ball and accidentally dropped it in the frier. We all forgot about it, then like 15 minutes later it exploded and grease went everywhere. I got hit the worst, as about 3 big drops of grease landed on my face. Now, there's little areas of skin missing on my face. Hopefully it won't scar. Yes, this restaurant will quite literally rock your face off.
Don't worry, though, it's nothing too bad.

John, Manami, and I then found a small small little bar to chill at called the Beat Cafe, I think. It held maybe 10 people and played all punk, ska, indie rock, and 80s britpop and stuff. It was very, very cool. I want to go back. The bartender said he'd met Bloc Party like 3 times.

Crashed at Manami's house because mine was too far. Woke up, went to Kashiwa, and ended the weekend on a high-note. This CD store had a MASSIVE section in the center of the store labelled "Progressive Rock." I about shat myself right then and there. They had a ton of Yes bootlegs, and I found one from 1971, when they were just finding themselves as a band, and now i'm listening to the double-disc from 1977. TOTALLY BADASS.

Here's a picture of the reversible coat thing I got last weekend. Pimp right?



Finally, ANA has just started flying direct Chicago to Narita, and there's commercials on it for TV. I think you can get some really good rates, so come visit me. Oh yeah, and I fully encourage communication in the forms of my blog comments. Keep it up family and friends. Peace.