Attack of the (fake) panda

Photos:

• Top left: Shibuya at night. I took the picture from almost exactly the same place as the photo from Sept. 28. There are so many lights here that the place is lit up even at 10pm.
• Top right: I only have one question. What exactly is that panda doing to that poor man? I watched them walk down the street, the man in the panda costume hanging on to the other man's back the whole way...
• Bottom left: big intersection at Ueno. Actually, this is what a pretty typical intersection looks like in busy parts of Tokyo.
  
• Bottom right: more Ueno. Thought the pic looked cool in B&W.

Mmmmmm....tasty!

As Winston always says, there's nothing like the taste of sweat on those days when you're *really* thirsty, if you know what I mean. Maybe that explains his facial expression?

P.S. Pocari Sweat is actually an extremely popular beverage here in Japan. Everytime you turn around, it seems, you're looking at another vending machine full of it. It actually tastes like a lemon-flavored sports drink.

An outsider's looks at grocery shopping in Tokyo

• Round trip train fare from Azamino to Tamasakai: 1,220 yen
• Japanese phrasebook: $.50 at a used bookstore in the States
• Buying peanut butter in a country where the people never eat it? Priceless.

Let's face it. Anyone who lived with me at college knows exactly how much I like peanut butter. The thought of going without it for a year or possibly paying atrocious amounts of money to have it was heart-breaking. One trip to Costco was all I needed. All I have to say is that I left the building with a smile on my face, my head held high, and a 4-pound jar of PB. Before, Japanese people just ignored me on the trains. But for this one particular day, I became a one-woman show, it seems. I got the "once-over" from pretty much everyone. I don't think they'd ever seen that much peanut butter in their entire lives...combined.

The rest of the pics that follow are a small example of my grocery-shopping successes here in Tokyo. Just looking at the labels will give you a small idea of how I feel at the store. I finally got in the habit of bringing pictures of a cow, chicken and pig so I can ask the clerk what kind of meat I'm buying. But enough chatter...let me show you what I mean.

I should also take this opportunity to introduce you all to Winston. He's a sheep. Wearing a Santa hat with a frown on his face. But I love him anyways. For today, I have given him the job title of "Vanna White of Japanese Groceries." Here, you see him with a can of what I think might be tuna. I still haven't worked up enough nerve to open the can, though.

In this photo, you see Winston with a typical loaf of Japanese bread. The biggest size they come in (that I've found) is 8 slices. You can also get loaves that are identical in size but with only 4 or 6 slices, they just cut the bread thicker. Almost like Texas Toast. Still costs over a dollar, too.

No Winston in this pic. He was on a lunch break. But this is one of my favorite things about beverages in Japan. Not only are there vending machines and convenience stores everywhere you look, but the aluminum cans of Coke come with screw-top lids. Tell me, why don't we have this in America?

And last but certainly not least. Here's a pack of saltine crackers. They don't come in long packages like at home. To my surprise, Winston and I found that inside the box there are actually only 9 individually-wrapped packages, each with 6 crackers inside. Nice for packing lunches.

Japanese people go bowling too, you know.

A night at a bowling alley in Tokyo.

Photos:

• Top: L-R: Mel from NY (coworker of Kim), Kim (my flatmate), Me, Brian (another coworker of Kim). Every time a girl wears one of their costumes, they get a free cell phone charm. Kim and I got ours, but Mel and Brian were just plain out of luck.
• Middle left: get your bowling shoes from a vending machine: "The Autoshoeser"
• Middle right: Bowling alley. TV screens everywhere you look.
• Bottom left: Final scores. Yes, the 38 was my proud conclusion to the evening. And as a side-note "Bolan" was the way the Japanese employees typed Brian into the computer. At least we all got a good laugh out of it.
  
• Bottom right: Kim and I had thought about purchasing a snack for the train ride home. That is, until Brian ruined the moment and told us they were "cabbage flavored." People who can read Japanese just suck the fun out of everything sometimes. We went home empty-handed...I'm not THAT brave yet.

Chinatown, Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Bay

Photos:

• Top left: Garden near Chinatown where the wildlife consists of...cats. I guess they hang out there to, um, "watch" the koi in the pond, if you know what I mean.
• Top right: Chinatown
• Middle left: Even Chinatown has to have its own Starbucks.
• Middle right: My first glimpse of Tokyo Tower. Sorry, folks, I'll try to get a better pic next time.
• Bottom left: Tokyo Bay...very smoggy, but also very pretty.
• Bottom right: The emptiest anyone will ever see a train car in Tokyo, which is probably because it was empty except for me. But this was taken on a Sunday morning towards the end of the line, hence the lack of people. A little something that I like to refer to as "fewness of men," which is otherwise known as "oliganthropia." I just KNEW Greek history would come in handy one day.
  

Yes, I know. It's kind of counter-intuitive to travel all the way to Japan and then go to Chinatown. But it is the biggest Chinatown in all of Japan, so I figured that gave it enough of its own weight to merit a visit. Lots of things to look at; I really enjoyed it. Kim and I found a great restaurant to eat at, too.

The shot of Tokyo Tower is one I got just by chance. Yesterday I decided to take the train over to the branch where I will be training on Monday, just so I could time it out and make sure I'm not late for my first day of work. After I got off the train, I decided to explore the neighborhood a little bit and upon rounding a corner, I got my first glimpse of the Tokyo Tower. I hadn't even known I was that close to it. Nice little surprise. Kim and I plan to go back after I get my train pass. We may even pay the 900 yen it costs to take the elevator up (about $7.60 USD), but we'll see...

Really enjoyed my first visit to the Bay, too. It's just a few blocks from Chinatown, so it was really easy to get to. It also made me slightly reminiscent of trips to the Oregon Coast because of the smell of salt-water in the air. The bay is about 45 min from my apartment by subway. Now all I need to do is figure out how much it costs to take a ferry ride. :)

My first trip to Shibuya and a mini tour of my apartment

Photos:

• Top left: "Living area" of my apartment, taken while standing in kitchen. Pretty sweet fake machete hanging on the wall, huh?
  
• Top right: kitchen, taken while standing in living area. Yes, that's my uber-small refrigerator (that all three of us share) right next to the sink.
  
• Middle left: my futon. Just imagine there are two of those side by side and then add a foot and a half or so at the end of the bed and you know how big my room is.
• Middle right: my closet. Yes, Ted, I have a midget closet right above my regular closet, too.
• Bottom left: main intersection in Shibuya. Just above the girl in the red shirt you can see a two-story Starbucks and farther above that you'll notice that the windows in the building are actually TV screens. Haven't even been in Tokyo for 24 hours yet, and already I got them to put up a billboard tribute to my sister... :) (Click on the photo to enlarge and look at the white TV screen to see what I'm referring to.)
  
• Bottom right: more Shibuya

Just thought I'd share a little portion of my new home with you all!

My first night in Tokyo...and I've already fallen over

Photos:

• Left: Goodbye Portland!
• Right: Hello Tokyo! (The image looks pretty peaceful, but to get the full effect of my experience you'll have to imagine for yourself the many screaming babies that were serenading our landing.)
  

Here I am in Tokyo. Well, technically I'm in Yokohama, but apparently my ward is just about as close as you can get to Tokyo and I will probably even have to take the train into Tokyo just to catch another one that will get me to work. So for all intents and purposes, I live in Tokyo.

Got into the airport at Narita at about 4:15 after possibly one of the most comfortable of the ridiculously long flights I've taken. Customs and immigration went incredibly smooth as well and then I met up with the team from my language school that had come to pick up a bunch of new hires that were all flying in the same evening. Caught a bus at 6:45pm with three other new guys and arrived in Yokohama just shy of two hours later. One of my flatmates had come to meet me and take me the rest of the way to the apartment.

On the way from the bus station to the train station I had the good fortune of tripping over one of the stones on the sidewalk. Not just a small, unnoticeable trip. The big kind, where you fall completely forward and almost on your face. My flatmate gracefully is blaming it on the jet lag, but I myself have burned into my memory the horrified gasps of the crowd of Japanese people that were awaiting their buses. I didn't get hurt or anything, but it sure is one way to have a memorable arrival.

Once home at my apartment, I met my other flatmate and set up my futon, which means that I'll be getting used to sleeping on the floor. It also redefines the concept of a small bedroom: my futon takes up just under half the floor space of the room but is smaller than a twin-sized bed!

This morning my luggage arrived earlier than scheduled (yay for Japanese efficiency!) and we ended up heading out around 11am, I think. I went to my ward office and applied for my alien residency card which will be ready in a couple weeks and is also necessary to do almost anything that someone who actually lives here might want to do. So for the next couple of weeks, I'll be living like a tourist.

From the ward office, we went to Shibuya. Took a few pictures just outside the train station and then went to Tower Records to look for a Japanese textbook for Kim. Didn’t find it, but a few minutes later we did find a little eatery that looked kind of like a diner, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to a diner that serves curry and soba before. It was a relatively cheap meal. We followed that up with a walk through some of the neighboring streets to do window shopping. Piece of informational interest: Japan is pretty much the best place to be if you want to get your alarm clocks for about $1 and then go to Louis Vuitton and get your umbrella for about $600. No joke.

Anyways…ended up the evening with a trip to the grocery store, which is an entirely different kind of adventure that I shall save for a later time, and then I went with Kim to where she gets Japanese lessons for about $3 a month. I’m thinking I may start going next week myself. But for now, I’m just going to settle for going to sleep.