Work and school

Work in the morning in Shinagawa. Stopped home, changed, and headed to school. From noon till 6 I prepared for my last accounting test till the final and then took the test. I think I did ok, but the last problem was pretty difficult.

Work

Headed to Shibuya like usual for work and then home.

Work and Shabu Shabu

Headed to work like usual. After work some of us headed to Ginza for Shabu Shabu at Nabezo. I love Shabu Shabu cause you just eat as much meat and vegetables as you can by cooking it yourself at the table and dipping it in different sauces.

School and end of semester party

Had my second last accounting test for the semester till the final and then headed to 82 Ale for a going away/graduation party. One of the teachers at school is leaving for a job in Europe and a lot of us are graduating. It was all you can drink/eat and it was a lot of fun. After we headed to an Izakaya nearby where the party continued till last train.

Work and Japanese Christmas food

Headed to work like usual. Christmas is a holiday which came to Japan from the west and is more for dating or partying. It's not an actual holiday here but the 23rd just before is the Emperor's birthday and is a holiday. Anyhow Christmas is pretty big date day and people often have to reserve their table at a good restaurant as much as a year in advance. There are a ton of light displays all over Tokyo and you see Christmas trees everywhere. As with the US, Christmas music plays in all stores for the whole month of December. One of the funny things is that somehow KFC has positioned themselves as the provides of the "traditional" Japanese Christmas meal of chicken. Awesome!

Work, Mikans, and School

Worked early today and then stoped home before heading back out to Harajuku where I met up with my private student for her lesson and then headed back home. In the winter in Japan Mikan's are the fruit that is in season and it's pretty much the best fruit ever. They look like tangerines but they taste better and are seedless so they are fantastic. When I get a bag, I usually wind up eating all 10 at once. Soooo good. When I got home I took a nap until it was time for accounting and after accounting I had TotoDon for dinner and headed home.

School, Supras, and Work

School like usual. I handed in my last accounting project and went to Stat. After that I headed to work like usual. I saw two Supras today which is kinda rare since many of them have been exported.

Work

Today is labor day in Japan. It's a holiday so many people take the three day weekend to take a trip or just relax. I of course work. Worked in Shiodome today and working with 10 clients with no break, I headed home.

Work

Headed to work in Shibuya, for lunch I went to Matsuya where I got the Bibin-don which is a bowl of rice with beef, kimchi, an egg, and some other vegetables. Everything at Matsuya comes with a bowl of Miso soup and is cheap. In the evening I just relaxed at home cause it was cold and I was pretty tired.

Work

Headed to work like usual. In the evening I worked on my accounting homework.

Work and school

Today I met up with my private student in Harajuku. There was another add for Mario Bros. Wii and then I headed to school to study for the second half of the accounting test. After the test I did some stuff to prepare for some lessons coming up and then headed home.

Tsukiji, school, and work

Today I met up with John for a business lunch at Restaurant Luke in Tukiji. We got the details for a project we're working on a little more together and the food and view was great. John told me about when he worked for Mitsubishi trading company and before he signed on to join the company he was sent out to the countryside where he and the other potential hires had a couple months of martial arts training as a way of gauging how much stress the guys could handle. After that was complete they brought all the new women employees and the girls could choose who they wanted to train them in martial arts. This was a way of determining the guys charisma and would effect future positions in the company. Pretty interesting how something seemingly unrelated like that could affect your career.
Since it's in Tsukiji, at the top you can see the world famous Fish market as well as the Tokyo Skyline. It was rainy and cold today so I couldn't see as much, but it was still cool. We were supposed to meet up with another guy there as well, but he couldn't make it. From there I headed to School for Stat and then to work after.

Work and school

Work early this morning at Shinagawa, then back home for a quick nap before heading to school to study for the accounting test till class. The second test was harder than the first one, but I think I'll be ok.

School and Work

School like usual in the afternoon and then work in the evening. It was really cold and rainy today but I have the biggest umbrella that I could find, so I'm good.

Work and school

Headed to work in the morning like usual and slept in the afternoon. In the evening I had class like usual and then worked on accounting at night. Also, saw an ad for New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Work

Headed to Shibuya today for work. When I got home I watched the new episode of "Sunny in Philly" and "the Office" since I hadn't had a chance to watch them on the day they came out.

Work and party

Work like usual. In the evening I met up with my friend Mike and we headed to a party at a friend's house one station over. They made a ton of food and it was pretty fun.

Work and school

Met my private student in the morning and then had school in the evening. After school I headed over to my host family's house and had dinner with them and spent the evening there. It was raining, but everything looks cooler in the rain so I took a pic near the mall there.

Work, No school, and work

Met up with my private student in the morning and headed back home before heading to school. Today is a school holiday so I didn't have class, but I didn't know that till I was already on the train there. Some people were there studying so I hung out for a bit and then headed to MiniMini the Real Estate company who I got my place through and submitted my updated information. In the evening I had work and then went home.

Work and school

Headed to work in the morning and then home till school at night.

Work and school

Met with my private student in the morning and then had school like usual.

Work and school

Worked in Shinagawa this morning and got some good pictures of the rivers of people that pour endlessly out of the station in the morning. It's crazy! Although it's very organized with people exiting the station walking down the middle and people entering walking down the sides, I always feel like I might die. In the evening I had accounting like usual.

Work

Today I had work like usual in Shibuya. It wasn't too busy so I only taught six lessons. In the evening I did some accounting study and watched part of a movie before going to bed.

Work

Work like usual and then just relaxed at home.

Work, work, and school

Today I had work in the morning in Tokyo. It's busier than Shinagawa in the morning which is good, but it takes a little longer to get there which is not so good. After that I headed back to my side of town and met up with a new private student. Her husband got transferred to the US and she will be going with him to live for three years so she wants to brush up her English before going. In the evening I had school like usual and relaxed in the evening.

Work, School, and work

Headed to Tokyo this morning for work and then to school, and then back to work in the evening. I was really tired at the end and vowed never to repeat that mistake again.

Tokyo Motor Show

Headed to the Motor show this afternoon for the last day. It's called the Tokyo Motor show but is actually located in Chiba so it takes a little more than an hour to get there. I got there around 4 and so it wasn't too crowded when I got there and I was able to get a good view of most everything.

The show this year was smaller than usual because many of the foreign manufactures didn't come due to the sad state of the auto industry currently. So it was all the major Japanese companies and Lotus.
Toyota had one crazy electric concept vehicle and a plug in Prius. The main attraction there was the FT-86 concept which is a rear-wheel drive coupe made help give Toyota a cooler image again. The display they had was awesome cause when they did their demo of it they had two girls stand by it and another girl shred an electric guitar. It was kinda weird but awesome. My first thought was, "she's kinda cute" followed by "she's really good at guitar". As usual with every car show that I've been to in Tokyo half of the people are taking pictures of the girls and half take pictures of the cars, I like to do a mix of both.

Lexus was the main reason I went to the Motor Show this year. The new LF-A. This thing was awesome. It was low but a little bigger than I had expected. 68% of the body is made from Carbon Fiber and Toyota even made special looms to weave the A-pillar on the car. Very cool stuff. They had a side room where they had a 1:1 replica of the car build out of glass and lit it up which just looked cool. The other concept was some 4-door which didn't do much for me.

Yamaha helped build and design the engine for the LF-A and they had the full on race spec version on display as well as some displays showing how they used their musical background to fine tune the engine to make it sound really awesome. I really liked the one showing the guitar and engine cover. Yamaha also had some crazy lookin' electric bikes and some cute girls who danced to "ABC" by Jackson 5.

Nissan didn't have anything really impressive. They had a couple weird concepts. The land glider which is like a motorcycle/car which seats two people. It's interesting design cause although it's a 4-wheel vehicle, it actually leans when turning not unlike a motorcycle. They also had some crazy "SUV/sports" concept which I though just looked crazy.

Subaru had some cute girls, and Lotus was showing off it's new model with a new model. Mazda was showing off their new concept and that was really about it from those three.

Last but not least was Honda. Their two main concepts were the CR-Z, the new CR-X, and the Skydeck which I think is all electric. I wasn't really paying too much attention to it. I took a picture of the Japanese Fit because I like the shape of the better since it doesn't have to meet the stringent crash test requirements of the US market.

Honda also had the Civic Type-R on display which I think was previously available only in Europe. The Honda Accord here in Japan is the Acura TSX in the US and a fine car in either country. They also had some new bike on display. When it gets close to closing time at most car shows that I've been to in Japan they line up all the girls so you can take pictures and wave goodbye which is why I always recommend staying till closing. On the way home I stopped by Koiwa where I met up with John and we went to the Koiwa Jiro. It's supposed to be the best Jiro and it didn't disappoint.