School, Hanging in Azabu, and Shibuya

Started the day off with the first quiz in Japanese class which was just vocab so I was able to pass it pretty easily. After, just kinda hung out with some friends in the cafeteria. We were studying the reading assigned for Law and saw our law teacher. He came over and talked with us a bit before he headed out. A little later we had law and then Accounting. After Accounting we headed to the Soba place near school which offers a discount for Temple students. From there we took the bus to Shibuya and hung out there for a while. After that I headed home and that was the day.

School, Work, and Home.

When I reached the station this morning I realized that I forgot my wallet and had to head back home to get it. This made me late for math but I guess it was ok. After I grabbed some lunch from the combini and then went to my once a week Business class. I think this is going to be one of my favorite classes this semester. We work on revising our resumes, make a mission statement, career plan, and learn about the interview process in the US and Japan.

After I headed to work and after that back home.

School and Home

Got up got ready and headed to Japanese. I switched to the advanced Japanese class so I skipped a level and I think it should be a good challenge. After, I had Business Ethics with that one super opinionated guy added some funny comments that made the class worth going to. From there I ran to the Combini and grabbed some lunch and hung out at school and read some stuff for Law and worked on homework for Japanese. After Law, I had Accounting which is just as bad as it was in the US.

When Class was over, a couple kids from class and I grabbed some dinner and hung out till about 8 and I headed back home.

Math and a Birthday Cake

Headed to Yoshinoya for breakfast. It was pretty good, soup, rice, meat, and a salad for about $4. After breakfast I headed to school for Math. The class was totally full and the teacher's name is John Wu but he had nothing to do "Mission Impossible 2" I've heard he's a hard teacher from other students and he is often refered to as General Wu.

After Mason and I headed to Shinagawa Imagration Office and picked up his work permit. From there we went to Shinjuku and checked out some stores and had some Burger King for lunch. We met up with Josh in Harajuku and we checked out some places in Harajuku and Omote-Sando. Josh met up with his girlfriend for dinner so Mason and I met up with some other friends and headed to Friday's for dinner.

When I got back to the guest house, some of the people got together and made a cake for my birthday. Can't believe I'm 25 already. Crazy

School

Got up early today made a quick stop at Mr. Donuts for breakfast and headed to my first class of the day Japanese. I like the teacher but I think I will drop it and move into the more advanced class. After that I had business ethics where when talking about Monopolies one student brought up Microsoft and talked about how he liked Macs better and another student argued that PC's were better and it made for a very entertaining class. After that I had about 4 hours of down time till Law started. The teacher for Law is a funny guy from Taiwan and he seems really cool. After law I just stay in the same classroom for Accounting which is taught by a Japanese guy that was born in Peru and speaks with a heavy Peruvian accent. He seemed pretty cool but accounting is accounting no matter who is teaching it.

After school I headed to Odaiba and waited for the Dad to get back from a trip. He brought back Sushi and some souvenir chopsticks. From there I headed back to Asakusa and got ready for bed.

Work, Odaiba, and home

Headed to work today. After work I headed to Odaiba and Kouros, Phill, and I headed to Yoshinoya for Dinner. We hung out on the beach for a little after that and I headed back to get ready for school.

Samba Carnival, and Shinjuku

Woke up and met up with a couple in my building and we headed to the Samba Carnival. It was like the Festival I went to in Hibiya but in a parade form. Music was either playing from a set of speakers, or a marching band. Tons of people in a wide variety of costumes dancing down the street.

After that I headed to Odaiba and met up with Phill and we headed out to Shinjuku to check out some phones. He held off on getting a phone because explaining and understanding a phone plan is difficult when it's not your first language. We walked around Shinjuku and went to a Conveyor Belt sushi place for dinner. From there I headed back home.

Taiko Museum, Helping my new Host brother get his Gaijin Card, Work, and Rain

Headed to the Taiko Museum today. It was pretty cool they had a bunch of Taiko drums, sticks, and other Taiko related items. After that I headed to my Host Family's house and met up with my host brother Phill. We headed to Daimon city hall and I helped him apply for his Foreigner Registration card and National Health Insurance. From there I headed to work and on the way home it started raining. By the time I got to Asakusa it was pouring rain. I walked down the one shopping street because it has a partial roof over it and it was funny to see people without umbrellas running across the street for cover in a dry place. The rain was pouring off the roof of the temple from the corner of the roof and I stepped in a very deep puddle and soaked my shoes. It was a crazy day.

KFC, Work, Host Family

Headed out to Shinjuku and stopped at KFC for lunch before work. After work I headed to the Host Family's house where I met the new Host Student from D.C. He seemed pretty cool but caught a pretty bad sickness possibly on the plane ride over and wasn't feeling all that great. After I headed home and headed to bed.

Udon, Work, and Soba

Hot again, headed out to Shinjuku and got there about a hour or two early so I could grab some lunch. I picked some random Udon chain restaurant and enjoyed some Udon, which is basically a thicker version of Ramen. After that I went to Club Sega and played After Burner which is pretty sweet cause the whole machine shifts side to side and other then the addition of a throttle for speed control the game play remains unchanged from the original. When that game finished I headed to Yodobashi Camera game section, since I had time to kill I headed to the top floor and worked my way down. The top floor was nothing but capsule toys, which are little toys that can be bought for 2-300 yen and come in a capsule. This is something that is pretty unique to Japan so I took a picture.

From there I headed to work and after work I headed home. Asakusa is a really quiet residential area but a lot of the streets have a very cool look and there seem to be a lot of cool restaurants and places to hang out. I stopped at a Soba shop and headed home.

Meeting friends in Shinjuku and eating conveyor belt sushi

Found a place near my house that sells Bento for 250yen (about $2.20). Not bad for a full meal. One of the guys in my building is a T-shirt designer and he painted a couple cool things in Japanese. The one I have here says "Mark is tall and a nice guy"

After I headed to Shinjuku and met up with one of my friends from Kaiwa Club. She is here studying at Waseda University. She came with a friend and we waited a bit for another friend. Near the station they had a big light up box thing that lit up in different patterns when you touched it, some of the stuff like that, that you would never see in the US just adds a level of cool to Japan. We headed to a conveyor belt sushi place and enjoyed some sushi. After that we all headed home.

Hanging in Asakusa

Well, I got up and went over the contract with the manager, unfortunately the room in Ueno is only for long term people so I'll have to stay in the Asakusa building, but he said that he'll try and get me a private room in the building. It's really cheap and there aren't many places that just rent for part of a month so I guess it's the best deal. Asakusa is a quieter residential area and the location is a little inconvenient, but I'll be able to do it for 11 days. Walked around to get a little more familiar with the area and took some pictures of the famous temple and shopping street. It was kinda funny cause when I went to the temple I ran into my friend Tomoko who was there showing some friends from other parts of Japan around. After that I headed to a restaurant, grabbed some soba, and headed back home.

Moving, work, and moving

Got up this morning, got ready, grabbed my suitcase and headed to Asakusa. I got to the place where I met the manager last time but couldn't find the place so I called him and wondered around the streets looking for it till I was able to get there. Dropped my suitcase off and grabbed a Taxi back to the station cause the time I spent wondering the streets made me late for work.

Got to work about 20 minutes late but it was ok because no one had arrived yet. Later when the students arrived one of them told me about his experience in America and how he was amazed how people ate white rice with Soy sauce. He told me that soy sauce is like poison and if you drink one glass full you can die. Pretty crazy, I didn't know that. He also told me about Benihana which I always thought was a American "Japanese" restaurant, but turns out it was started by a Japanese actor and there is one in Tokyo. I'm interested to see the one in Tokyo and see if they use as much butter as is used in the US. I've mentioned the heat before, but I guess 2 days ago it hit a record high since 100 years ago! I donno, I still think Global Warming is a big scam.

After work I headed home like usual but the Oedo line from Shinjuku station had been stopped because of a "Accident" which means someone probably jumped in front of the train to end their life. It's weird to think about but although it's someone's life, it's seen more as an inconvenience then anything else, and it definitely was, I had to take a different line to get home where I had dinner and grabbed some stuff and headed to the guest house again.

Dormitory style living is really weird, good thing I'm only doing this for one day, I don't know if I could do it much longer then that.

Cooling down, Transformers, and meeting up with a friend

Woke up today and packed most of my stuff for the temporary move out. It's much cooler today which is great. Looks like it might rain today or tomorrow. After dinner we headed out to the theater but since we got there early we walked around the attached mall and they bought me a shirt with the alligator on! Then we went back to the theater and saw Transformers. I thought it was awesome! After the movie I got a mail from my friend Aki who is working at a event in Daiba and was at the beach hanging out at the beach with some co-workers, so I met up with them and we hung out on the beach for a bit till they had to head back home.

More Heat, work, and back home.

Hot agian today. I was gonna try to meet up with the gues house manager today but we had different schedules and weren't able to meet. He is a nice guy and was ok with meeting up tomarrow or the next day so it was no big deal. At work it stayed pretty busy and I had a good time but I think becasue of going from the hot and humid outdoors to the cool airconditioned indoors I got a bit of a stuffy nose. After work I headed back home and the parents game home with another of their previous students who is leaving Japan soon. I only met him once before during the Fireworks festival but he seemed like a cool guy.

Heat, Work, and back home

Hot again today. I just had two private lessons so I got home earlier then usual, and started packing some of my stuff in preparation for the move. I had one private lesson with one of the guys from the game company and he told me how he was in charge of the release schedules for Sega games released on cell phones and we talked about all our favorite Sega games and systems.

Guest house search, Work, Heat

I don't remember it being this hot when I was here in 2005. Maybe Global warming actually exists. There was a small earthquake in Chiba around 11:00 but I didn't even feel it. Went to check out 2 of the possible places I had found to live in. The first one in Nishi Nippori is really really really small. It was a guest house but a big one with maybe 20 people so it wasn't so good. After that I headed to Asakusa to look at the other option that I was considering. I met up with the guy that ran the place and he seemed pretty cool. He backpacked all over the world and had a lot of experience staying in guest house's. His guest house was also the only guest house where he wanted to meet everyone that moved in which really says a lot I think. The house was actually pretty nice and clean but it's a dormitory style so I told the guy I was looking for a private room. He told me about another building that he had available with private rooms. So we headed to Ueno which wasn't far and actually a better location for school and work. Unfortunately, due to the time that I'm moving in I won't be able to move directly into the Ueno room but I'll be able to stay in the dormitory for the weekend until the room in Ueno is available. When considering the cost of the room and the cost of food the home stay winds up being the best option so I'll be going back to the Home Stay in September. It's pretty good because I'm able to leave a lot of my stuff at the Home Stay so I'll only take what I really need.

Headed home and grabbed some Okonomiyaki for lunch and headed to work. Got home from work and that was the day.

Fish Market, Home, and sleep

After getting back from the Onsen I changed from sandals to shoes and we headed out to Tsukiji which is a area famous for the Fish Auctions that are held there. While part of the auction is closed to visitors most of the place is still available to look around. It's pretty amazing because they have a ton of fresh fish that was caught recently and much of it is still frozen directly from the fishing boats. One of the things that you'll spend the most time doing there is trying not to get in the way of all the people driving around on small transport vehicles who are moving anything they need to on the bed of the vehicle. There is a lot of fish that are still alive for the utmost in freshness. The Fish are auctioned off and one Tuna can sell for over $10,000. This fish is then sold to local distributors. Some of the smaller items and even some of the larger ones can be bought by anyone and some is sold to the local sushi restaurants in the area. While the video is from 2001 it gives you a better Idea of the atmosphere there.

Heat, Shibuya, and Meeting a Japanese Celebrity/Talent

Did some laundry today and that was about it. After dinner Charles called me and I met up with him in Shibuya. Headed back home around 12 and received a E-mail from Andrew the guy that had stayed in the home stay before me. He was at the Arcade with a friend and I met up with them. He is really good at Dance Dance Revolution a popular dancing video game. By the time I had got there was on his 18th song. He was wearing sandals which aren't the best for that game and he wound up with a pretty bad blister.

We headed to the Onsen and once we got in I saw the guy that played Densha Otoko in the TV series by that name, and is also in two other more recent productions one of them being Saiyuuki. I guess it was pretty cool meeting a celebrity in Japan and we talked with him a lot and he told us about his trip that he took to America. After exiting the main part of the Onsen we got our pictures taken with him. We left the Onsen in the morning.

Cooling down a bit, work, and home

Today there was a nice breeze going so it felt much cooler then yesterday. I headed to work and came home to some sushi.

More Heat, and hours worth of fireworks, and more stuff for the video

Hot again today, spent the afternoon trying not to move. Kouros and I headed out with our Host Dad to check the spots on the beach where they set up some blue tarps to sit on and watch the Fireworks from. We headed back inside and waited while other previous Home Stay people showed up to join in. I guess this is one of the larger fireworks displays of the summer and the beach was totally packed with people many of the girls were wearing Yukatas which are just plain sexy. The 99yen shop and Convenience store across the street were only letting people in in groups. The Fireworks started at 7:00 and went till a little past 8:00 Some of them were huge and others made some interesting shapes like smile faces, hearts, and the planet Saturn. Our Host mom made Onigiri, Chicken, and salted cucumbers to snack on while we watched and after we all headed back to enjoy watermelon.

After everyone left Kouros and I headed out to get some more footage for the Odaiba video.

Work and ageHa

It was really hot today so I didn't do much but try and not sweat till it was time to leave for work. After work I headed back home and I got a call from Charles wanting to head to ageHa. Fortunately I got a discount ticket last time I went so it was pretty cheap for me to enter. I brought my camera just for the purpose of taking some video of the place for the blog but they didn't allow me to bring the camera in so I stuffed it in my shoe and snuck it in. While people were still going in at 2:00a.m., it wasn't nearly as packed as it was on Saturday. Some of the cool stuff that they had in the Island bar was gone and they had a small stage that people were dancing on by the pool, but everything else was about the same. The band that played in the main arena wasn't as good as the band on Saturday so it wasn't as packed as before but it was still pretty cool. I didn't want to get my camera taken or kicked out so I was trying to get the footage conspicuously so it's not the best but it gives an idea of what the place is like.

Heat, Sun, and making a video

It was really hot today, I almost died. Despite the heat Kouros and I headed out around Odaiba to start work on a video to show everyone all the cool places in the area and what there is to do.
Hopefully we'll have something up soon.

Work, Roomshare, and some clubs

Headed to work and ran through a lesson. After that I headed to Shimura-sanchome where I met up with a girl that answered my roomshare add. We went to her apartment but It was literaly a room share not a house or apartment share like I had hoped. One of the ways to live in Japan is by doing a roomshare where you move into someone's apartment or house, typically you share the same room with a person like a dorm, but sometimes people will offer a private room in their house or apartment like I have now with my host family.

On the way home when I was changing stations I saw someone dressed up in a chicken outfit, I guess this was some promotion for a TV show or movie. Instead of heading straight home I stopped at the World Trade Center and headed to the top for a look around. It was sweet.

After Dinner I got a call from Charles telling me about some parties going on. So I headed out to Roppongi and met up with him at a club called Flower. Apparently there are many temple students that work there and we were able to get in free, but it was pretty much dead so we headed out around 10:00. From there we headed over to Azabu-Juban and went to a place called the Warehouse which we also had free passes too. I guess being a Wednesday and still a little early it was dead too. I didn't want to stay out all night but the time went by a little faster then I had anticipated and I left at 12:30 to head for the train home. While I was able to make it on the last train but it only went as far as Shiodome, the Yurikamome had stopped so I had a bit of a walk to get home. I need the exercise anyhow.

Meeting a friend from 05'

I didn't have work or school today so I just kinda hung out at home most of the day. In the evening I got a call from Daniel a New Zealand guy that I met back in 05'. He got back to Japan recently and is in the process of finding a place to live. It was great to see him and his girlfriend, which he will be marring in a couple months. We met up in Shimbashi and headed to WaraWara which is a Izakaya chain across Japan.

Work, Home, and Onsen

Had one lesson in Shinjuku today. I'm really starting to enjoy my job teaching. I'm getting better at it and can explain different concepts in a easy way for the students to understand. It's really hot again but I guess it's expected since it's summer.

In Japan one of the large video rental chains is called Tsutaya. I had a membership there when I was here in 2005 but it expired so I applied for a new card today and picked up "Happy Gilmore" which in Japan is called "Golf Pro". I also saw Napoleon Dynamite, which has a title that translates to "Bus Man" in Japan.

After work I headed home and had dinner. After Dinner my Host Dad and I watched Happy Gilmore. It was his first time seeing it and he seemed to like it a lot. When Kouros got home we headed out to the Onsen which was great cause it had been a while and I felt great like I always do after.

Shibuya, Work, and home

Headed out to Shibuya to meet up with Charles, but he got held up and wasn't able to make it so I looked around checked out Club Sega where they have Taiko Drum Master 10 which is a new release, and looked around HMV before heading back home. They have a pretty cool touch screen map thing in Shibuya that basically gives the police less of a burden since all they do is give directions

After I got home, I had some dinner, changed, and headed to work. Just had one lesson today and my student and I talked about Toyota and how the US government helped them out in the past and how Toyota helped the US government out during the Korean war.

Work and a Swallow Tail butterfly

Headed to work today at 2:00 and finished around 8:00. After I got home I got a E-mail on my phone from Mike, a good friend that I met in 2005 at KCP. He studied at KCP for over a year and his Japanese is awesome. Anyhow he E-mailed me about a club that he invited me to earlier. At first I was just gonna take it easy and not go out but the club is only 7 minutes away from where I'm living.

Met up in Shinkiba with Mike, his cousin, and two other friends and we headed to the club. The place is called ageHa which means Swallow tail butterfly in Japanese. Ageha easily accommodates 3000 people and when we got there around 12:00 we waited in line for about 10 minutes before being able to enter. This line continued past 2:00 with people still pouring in. Ageha is one of the biggest clubs in the world and the biggest in Tokyo. It is definitely on the list of places that I'm taking my friends when they come to Japan.

After entering the club you enter a large area with a island bar in the center. There is music from the main arena playing and a projector . There are huge floral arrangements in glass vases which are in fish tanks with gold fish in them which just looks sweet. When you enter the arena it is awesome cause it's smoke free and it's huge! There is a huge disco ball in the center with a diameter over 5 feet. They have one of the nicest sound systems of any club in Tokyo and the speaker boxes themselves look awesome. Connected to that is a area outside where the ground is covered with sand and they have cool J-style torches. It gives the impression of a beach club or something, pretty cool. Next to that they have a area closer to the water with another bar and hammocks to hang out on. Up from there they have another DJ playing in a area with a Pool, swimming wasn't allowed but it really make for a cool atmosphere. There was a old guy there who had be to in his 70's and he was dancing all night, it was hilarious.

Around 2:30 a band called Studio Apartment started playing in the main arena so we headed back inside. They were awesome. They started with a pretty regular band with a lot of auxiliary percussion and a good female vocalist. After playing a couple songs a horn section joined them and the energy in the place just kept going up. A little later a 12 piece string section joined in and it was amazing. The concert was basically the release party for their new CD and it was great.

After that we mostly hung outside by the pool and watching the sunrise come up over the ocean was incredible. When it hit about 5:45 we headed out and headed home.

Yokosuka, Pure, and Midas

Today I met up with a friend from school and we headed to Yokosuka. I bought some Tide, a new shirt, and some Gummi Bears. After that we headed back to our respective homes.

There is a school party at a club called Super Deluxe in Roppongi which I wound up not going to. I met up with some people from school after that around 10:30 and we headed to Pure in Shibuya for another party my friend had told me about which was a after party for the show his band put on. It was kinda cool cause they have All-you-can-drink from night till morning but that was about the only plus of that club. It was pretty lame, so we headed back to Roppongi to a club called Midas. This place was really cool and looked pretty upper class, they had a really good DJ and it was actually attached to a restaurant and another club which had more of a bar scene to it.

Headed home and went to bed

Work, Heat, and Home

Today was pretty hot. Had work and looked around online for a new place to stay. I think I found a pretty good place about 30 minutes from the school at a good price. I'm still looking to see what may be available to make sure I get the best option.

In Shinjuku they started construction on a new building of which my first impression was not that good. I didn't think it looked that cool but now they have pictures posted around the perimeter of the site showing what the completed project is going to look like and it looks like some thing out of Alien or some other Si-Fi movie. It's cool.