I call this post: Crowds.

As for the artsy title, you'll see in a minute. As for never updating this blog, I'm sorry! Is it just me or has half of this blog turned into me apologizing for slow updates?? I'm sorry! You see, people, I like to give you quality photographs in these blogs and not just text updates. At the same time, the process of getting the pictures from my camera to this blog takes a long effing time, and I have not such patience. Anyhoo, I'll quit with the excuses and get on with an update of my so called Japan life.

So, it's thursday. Not much has happened since last weekend, so I'll write about that. Last weekend was pretty fun, from what I remember. Friday, I met up with my buddy Paul. He's a guy that I met last summer. Good guy, knows as much about music as let's say...me. He's here on an internship and I met some of his buddies. Manami, Hacchan, and I got together with them, got some dinner, and proceeded to get piss ass drunk at some random karaoke joint. 1000 yen for an hour of karaoke and all-you-can-drink. That is an amazing, amazing deal for Tokyo (again 1000 yen is just under $10).

I'll be honest, I did most of the singing. Or should I say, "singing" cuz my voice sucks. The list that I remember is as follows:

Technologic- Daft Punk
Digital Love- Daft Punk
Surrender- Cheap Trick (gotta represent the hometown)
More Than a Feeling- Boston
Cherry- Yui (had to do at least one Japanese song, ya know)
One Way Ticket to Hell and Back- The Darkness
Roundabout- Yes (let's say about 6 of the 9 full minutes)
True Faith- New Order
Sweet Child O' Mine- Guns N Roses

Trying to remember the rest of the songs hurts my head, so I'm gonna stop there. That's a pretty sweet karaoke setlist though, right? Here's some pictures of that fateful night.

Most of the group:



In the next picture, I'd like to draw your attention to two things- 1) My kick ass shirt. 2) Hacchan's face. This is how red a Japanese person's face gets after 3, maybe 4 drinks. (Okay, not all Japanese people, but she's MAYBE 4"10' tall. Hilarious). Finally, I'd like to draw your attention AWAY FROM- my face. I'm not sure what the hell i'm doing.



Okay, now I'm gonna get all Quentin Tarantino on your ass and jump around in time. Taking you back to THURSDAY. So, I met up with Manami, Erisa, their gaijin friend Sarah, her boyfriend who was very quiet and weird, and more importantly, John Suzuki, my red-haired half-japanese half-irish friend I met last summer, and his girl Erika (also half Japanese...so if they had a kid, the child would STILL be half-japanese...weird right?). Anyhoo, we all met up in Shinjuku and went to a sweet looking place called the Christon Cafe. This is essentially a blasphemous-as-hell izakaya (we all remember what that is right? essentially a dining bar that reinforces the "in-group" society that is Japan) with awesome decorations including a replica of the Sisteen Chapel (weird I think that's the second reference to Michaelangelo since my last post).

That description was long-winded and wandering as hell. Anyways, this was a cool place and the food was really good, albeit small and a little pricey. Here's pictures, including one where I look weird again.




And now, we're gonna hop on over to Saturday. See? Today's entry is nothing short of Pulp Fiction in blog form. Is anyone getting the reference?

Saturday was the 2nd of 3 days of the Sanja Matsuri, one of the three biggest celebrations in Tokyo since Tokyo was founded as the Capitol of Japan. Needless to say, it was PACKED. Packed packed packed. Two million people or so packed. Not that much to say about the festival, but it was fun, and Manami and I ate a helluva lot of food. Or at least I did.




The following picture shows you something called yatai. These are food (and game) stands set up for festivals and other various types of celebrations. I guess many of them are connected to yakuza and run by sketchy sketchy looking people, but the food they serve is honestly some of my favorite in Japan. Jagabata (mentioned a long time ago, this is really soft potatoes with a mountain of butter, plus your choice of things like miso paste, pickled vegetables, corn, etc). Honestly, one of the best foods you can eat in Japan. And my students always get a kick when I tell them it's one of my favorite foods.


After that, we met up with my buddy Shaun. He's pretty cool, but wear's some of the tightest clothes I've ever seen and LOVES talking about himself. We went to the Jamaica festival in Yoyogi park, which I thought would be really cool, but turned out to be sorta lame. There weren't any reggae bands as I expected, and the DJs spinning music thought reggae meant shit that was closer to hip-hop (read: Ne-Yo and shit like that). Regardless, the 500 yen jerk chicken was pretty good.

Obligatory picture-


Finally, on the way home, we hit the most crowded train I think i've been on the whole time i've been in Japan. Now, I know Japan has a reputation for having a ridiculously crowded transportation system. But honestly, it's not that bad so long as you don't have to ride during morning and after-work rush hours. However, if trains are delayed for reasons like someone committing suicide or malfunction, be prepared for a ridiculously hot, sweaty, and dare i say sexy ride home. I'm not sure why my train was delayed this time, but it was packed. So, here's some shots of that.

Boarding the train-



Inside-


This picture came out really cool I think, and I think gives the kinda cramped feeling of what it was like to be inside the train. Sorry to get all artsy on you.

That's all. Hope it was worth the wait. As usualy, I will TRY TRY TRY to post more often. Love you all. Can't wait to see you, the majority of the people who read this blog, at home in July and August!!!

-ryan