The past few weeks: A long awaited update

Hi everybody! It's been a while, huh? Why don't we catch up? I've found a much better way to organize/upload pictures to my blog, so expect more pictures. This one's got a lot.

So, near the beginning of the month, Manami and I celebrated our one-year anniversary. This was a first one-year anniversary for both of us, isn't that cute? To celebrate, we went to an all-you-can-eat brazillian-style barbecue place. How romantic is that? Didn't take any pictures of the food, but I did take some pictures while we walked around Asakusa, the area of Tokyo where the restaurant was. We'll start off with this whiskey advertisement.



Wait, what's that say? Yeah I've never really understood why this whiskey is called Nikka, but to make matters worse (or funnier depending on your personality and sense of humor), the bottles of whiskey usually have the word "Black" preceding "Nikka." Hmm...

Here was my attempt at being artsy and cultured. I thought this little street split quite nicely into "new Japan" and "old Japan." Dunno if I really captured it though.


Manami's a sick accordionist.


I don't really remember the sequential order of the next couple of pictures but whatever.

I spend much of my free time at work looking up restaurants I want to eat at in Tokyo. I found a great-sounding Israeli place near Ikebukuro so Manami and I decidede to try it. And holy fuck was it good. Possibly the best falafel i've ever had. If you come visit me, I'm taking you here for sure. About $20 for all you can eat and so worth it. I mean look at Manami's face!


One weekend, we went drinkin. Big surprise. This is Manami, French Francois (the small one), Swedish Johan (the big one), and me (the cute one) at the Lock Up. It's an izakaya where they try and scare you and shit, and the drinks look like science experiements. Kitschy but fun every once and a while.


Here's a pretty funny Engrish sign that was at the entrance to an apartment building. I guess only animals and robots can live there.


My sick new shoes.


Two weekends ago, Manami and I made a little day trip to Kamakura, which is sometimes referred to as Kanto's Kyoto (Kanto = the area made up of Tokyo and surrounding prefecture). Lots of temples and a big buddha. It was pretty fun, but Kamakura is actually very close to Yokohama, one of my favorite cities ever. So after sightseeing we went to Yokohama and ate at Hard Rock Cafe (That's 4 i've been to in japan now). Here's some pics.

Scenic coastal shot of Kamakura-


The speciality treat of Kamakura is ice cream. More specifically, sweet potato ice cream. Weird in theory, delicious in reality.


Many small, creepy buddhas.


Manami being Japanese and praying to said buddhas.


Me and the big man.


Manami and her new friend.


Yokohama night shot.


Mashed potatoes and more at Hard Rock.


Didn't eat this, but was very tempted. Pizza in a cone!


Finally, last weekend we went to Tokyo Dome City, home of the Tokyo Dome where the Tokyo Giants play baseball, roller coasters, restaurants, shopping, and the world's first center-less ferris wheel. More pictures!

The roller coaster goes through the ferris wheel!! Even though the coaster cost 1000 yen, it was totally badass!


Just being cute as usual.


I won this from a UFO catcher (what japanese call the crane game things) at an arcade.

His name is Marimokkori, which is a sweet play on words. Marimo is a green moss kinda ball thing that only grows in 3 places in the world, one being Hokkaido (the northernmost island in Japan). Mokkori is onomonopaea (that's a hard word to spell) for the sound of someone getting a boner. So, you can see he's got the bulge of an 80s rocker in leather pants. I now wear it on my cell phone and have gotten a lot of attention for it.

Some classic Engrish. I like shutting up beef too.


Saw the Tokyo Giants play Yokohama. Tokyo won, it was a great game. Actually no runs till the 8th inning, when Yokohama got 2 home runs in a row. Then Tokyo was up and got 3 runs at the bottom of the 8th to win the game. Good shite.


Pretty excited about the Giants winning....


And finally, what I ate...Sumo wrestler food called Chanko Nabe. FUCKING YUM!!

It's these moments when I don't like typhoons.

So, I dunno if this is making news or what not, but there's a pretty big effin' typhoon making it's course through Japan right now. Japan sucks when it comes to natural disasters, because it gets just about every one of them. Well, right now there are the strongest rains i've probably ever seen in my life. It looks like a movie when there's way too much rain falling on the characters that it looks fake. You know? But it's real here. And crazy winds. I just saw lots of people with broken umbrellas.

I think Dave England, Dave Canada and myself will forever be known as "those foreigners that still go drinking when there's a typhoon."

I only had one drink, a delicious long island iced tea. Usually they run about $10 at the bar we like to go to, but at happy hour, they're only about $6.50. Nice. The key is getting there right at the end of happy hour, and nursing your drink till company shows up. But I guess company doesn't show up when there's a fucking typhoon!

Here's an awesome part of Japan that I don't think i've written about before. At the grocery stores that are not 24 hours, they mark down the fresh food that will go bad after a while. So, I live next to a place that closes at 9. So, if a strapping young 23 year-old bachelor like myself should need some dinner around 8:30 or so, said young lad could get an awesome meal for less than $4. I just had two yakitori (big chicken skewers with many things, but mine had garlic and onions between the chicken), several large pieces of boiled pumpkin (which I've grown seriously fond for this past year in Japan) and something called okara. Okara is minced up tofu with maybe a little bit of carrot or things like that mixed in. Good shit, and it's all so healthy. It cost me 332 yen, which is like $3.15. I mean does that kick ass or what?

At work during my free time, I've been reading Papa's "Threads of Destiny." Papa, if you're reading this, I had no idea you could write (and remember details) so well. Now I know where I get my unbelievable blogging skills.

That's all for now. No pictures. I'll do my best to survive the bike ride to school tomorrow in these ridiculous squalls and downpours.