Azabu to Roppongi and back to Tamachi

Today I met up with one of my friends at Monsoon in Azabu for dinner and then we walked to Roppongi. On the way there we passed a temple that had a bunch of lanterns lit up near the entrance which looked kinda cool and then stopped over at StarBucks. Some of the Christmas lights were still up so it was kinda cool to walk around there but all the big displays were already taken down. In Tokyo Midtown they had some crazy Bamboo decoration around the one fountain that looked kinda cool. We walked around there for a bit and then headed to Tamachi where we stopped at 82. On the way back to the station some drunk old guy jumped into the bushes and it was pretty funny so I took a picture.

Work, Food, and work

Headed to work in the morning. They had the New Years decorations set up in front of the building which is a usually three pieces of bamboo. I headed to Mita for ToToDoN for lunch and passed a 3 hour line at Mita Jiro. Crazy. After I headed home. In the evening I headed back to work for my last day of the year and it was actually pretty busy.

Work, work, and out in Nishi Azabu

Headed to work in the morning in Shiodome and then home for a quick nap before heading out to Tamachi for work at night. After work I went to Nishi-Azabu where I met up with Takehito and some of his friends at a Okinawan style restaurant called "Taiyoujin"which is run by a semi-famous comedian. In the bathroom they had postcards with pictures of the girl named Reiko. It's funny cause in red it says "careful not to burn yourself" and the white near the girl says "If you eat Reiko, you will get burned" Pretty funny stuff.
When I got there Takehito and his friend's all clapped for me for about one minute to congratulate me on graduation and then I sat down and we ate some Okinawan food and had some drinks, beer and Okinawan sake. I guess Takehito often goes to this restaurant and he knew the staff pretty well and was often calling them to bring more food or drinks. Everyone was really funny and we took some pictures with the comedian girl Reiko, who was pretty nice. Around 12 I took a Taxi back to Mita with Takehito and then took the last train home from there. Good times.

Work

Today I woke up at Dave's place, headed home, showered, and changed, and headed to work in Shinjuku. For lunch I had Sukiya and then took a couple pictures in the area after work. A lot of my friends don't really like Shinjuku cause it's really crowded, but for me it's a part of Tokyo that I love. It's just got that feel that is so unique to Japan and it's got everything.

Work, Onsen, and Party

Today I woke up at Witter's house around 7, left the house while 4 other people were asleep on the floor and headed to McDonald's for Breakfast before heading to Takehito's for his lesson and then work. During my break at work I headed home, took a shower and changedinto fresh clothes. After work I headed to my host familie's place in Odaiba for dinner and then we went to the Onsen. I took the last train from Daiba to Shin-maruko where my friend Dave lives for a party there. There were 15 girls there, 5 hot, 5 cute, and 5 just ok and 9 or so guys so it was a good party. Since I arrived later than everyone else I had to catch up on drinks a bit with everyone else and then we all went to Yoshinoya for a late night Gyodon. After that I'm not really sure what happened.

Christmas

Headed to work for one lesson and then headed to Shin-Koiwa where I met up with Witter for the Christmas Party. Witter planed it and it was Japanese style which ment KFC and pizza. Near his station is a KFC and a Mos Burger so Witter gave me the receipt for the chicken from KFC while he got the chicken from Mos Burger. There was a line of people outside the KFC waiting to get Chicken but since I had the receipt from the order I was able to just go in to the second floor and pick up the bucket which had the chicken, a salad, a ceramic place, and a small cake. From there we headed to his place and in total 11 people showed up. The pizza arrived a little after most people had arrived and we ate a ton of food! There were also about 6 bottles of wine, white and red, a bottle of tequila, and a bottle of champaign which we went through before I finally missed my last train and myself and three other people crashed at Witter's place for the night. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cake

Just worked today. In Japan around Christmas time you can find every pastry shop and combini selling Christmas cakes. Usually they are pretty expensive but you can find them for 300 yen at a combini. Anyhow it's just cake with strawberries and cream. It's not that great but if someone offers it to me, I'll eat it.
The best thing about Christmas cake is that it's a term which applies to unmarried women older than 25 years old. Christmas cake may well be sweet and delicious, but no one really wants any after the 25th. So, if you're an unmarried Japanese woman, after the age of twenty five, you're in extreme danger of becoming a Christmas Cake. It's just funny... and true.
It's kinda crazy though cause it creates a pressure for women to get married before that age or they feel they will be single for life. This perception is starting to change and many young Japanese don't follow or believe this, but I think it still is in people's thoughts weather they believe this or not. This is considered an old way of thinking and most younger Japanese don't really follow it, but I think there is still some influence on people. This is clear when you see many women over 25 who go for foreign men because Japanese men aren't interested in them.

I'm Batman

Today is the birthday of the Emperor of Japan who tried to take over the world so it's a national holiday. Anyhow, I stayed home and played Batman Arkham Asylum which is the best Batman game that I've ever played. It's been a while since I was able to play a game for a full day without wanting to stop and this one has done it. The story, graphics, gameplay, and general feel of the game are all perfect. The voice acting is done by the people who did the voices in the Animated Series which just makes it cooler. Some of the levels are really intense and keep you on the edge of your seat. This is easily one of the best games of 2009.

Workin for a livin'

Worked the morning in Shiodome and then at night in Tamachi.

Work and Men's Pocky

Had work in the morning in Shiodome and then headed home for a while and then back out to work in the evening in Tamachi. I stopped in the combini and got a box of Men's Pocky. When I was here in 2005 I got a box of Men's Pocky which came with stickers of girls but now unfortunately it doesn't. It's the same as regular Pocky but with a darker more bitter chocolate. If you are a girl and try to buy this at the store they usually won't let you cause it's for men. That's not really true.

Work in Shinjuku

Headed to Shinjuku today for work. Did a lot and then went home. In the station they have huge posters advertising the new Final Fantasy. From what I heard, it's not as good as the past titles in the franchise but I'm sure it will still sell well cause of the name. I'm not a big fan of RPG's cause they don't really take any skill just time, but they are super popular here in Japan. Already I've heard stories about people being late to work because they were playing it too much. Funny stuff.

English Christmas Party for Kids

Today I worked in Koiwa for an English Christmas party for a kids school. I was the Narrator in the play that we did and then we played Bingo and Christmas Janken, which is Christmas themed Rock Paper Scissors. The kids loved it and it was fun. After some of the staff and I headed to Wara Wara for food and drinks. There was some lady there who had a really stupid sweater on so I took a picture. It looks like she cut out the elbows on the sleeves and used the cloth to make a elf hat. It was hilarious. From there we headed to Watami which is pretty much the same thing as Wara Wara and then I missed the last train. Some other people missed it as well so we all crashed at John's place.

Work

I watched a movie today and then headed to work. It's super cold today.

Work

Work like usual and home.

Work

Today I only had work in the evening so during the day I just played some games and watched Top Gun. It was actually my first time watching that movie all the way through and it's a classic.

Work, Ramen, and work

Worked in the morning in Shimbashi. It's in the Caretta building which you can reach by walking underground from the station. It's nice when it's cold cause it's a little warmer and no wind. They also have a sweet ad for Fed-Ex. Here in Japan the workers don't have trucks and have special gloves that allow them to fly. Pretty sweet.

Work and work

Headed to work this morning in Shimbashi and then home till I worked in the evening in Tamachi. It's starting to get cold now.

Work

Headed to work in Shinagawa. Had Yoshinoya for lunch and headed home. There are three main Japanese fast food places in Japan. They all serve Gyudon which is a bowl of rice with beef and onions on top being the main staple food that they all share, but all have other things in their menus which set them apart. Sukiya has the biggest selection of food items and their Gyudon is ok, but their cheese gyudon is really good. Matsuya is the cheapest but I think the Bibindon is the best thing on their menu and their gyudon is kinda weak. You can go to Matsuya in the Sega game Yakuza 3 if you want to check it out in the US. Any diehard Gyudon fan knows that Yoshinoya serves the best gyudon. The rice is better than the other two places the the onions are like butter.

Work and Christmas presents

Work like usual and then home. I got a Christmas card from one of my Aunt's and she put a folding snow globe in it which was kinda cool and my brother convinced me to post pictures of it up on my blog.

Stat party

Some of the people in the stat class and our teacher all went to Hub in Shibuya for the end of the semester party. Everytime I got to Hub in Shibuya something weird happens. Last time I was here some girl wrote down her name and phone E-mail on a piece of paper and stuffed it in my pocket and ran out before I even saw her. Through the urging of my friends I mailed her and told her to come back but she actually wasn't that cool, so we lied about going home and left to get rid of her and her friend. Later that night we saw them walking around and they knew we lied so it was just kinda funny. Anyhow this time when I was there as I was leaving some girl came up to me and invited me a speed dating even which I don't think I'll be going to.

So, everyone met up at the Hub around 7 and it was all you can eat/drink till 9. Unfortunately, a couple people didn't show up so we all had to pay about $5 more to make up for the missing people. Daniel, the kid in the red jacket raced the teacher in drinking and lost but he had a big handicap of drinking a whole pitcher. From there we went to Karaoke till last train and then home.

Work and public transportation when it's cold

Headed to work like usual. The main problem with public transportation in the winter is that you dress warm for walking to and from the station but in the train they have the heat on to keep it at a comfortable temperature but since you are wearing a coat you start to sweat in the train until you get to where you're going and then you are outside in the cold again. I need to make a jacket that allows adjustment of the temperature.

Work

Winter break is here. Now that I don't have school the only thing left to do is work. Since it's the end of the year and there are many end of the year parties in Japan it's not so busy which gives me a lot of extra time to work on language study. So I spent part of the time studying Japanese and part teaching English.

Final Final, Finally

Headed to school and took the stat final, it was hard since it's not really stat it's calculus. Still unsure why we have to learn this stuff since it is never used in real life and can be performed by computers in less than a second. Anyhow after the final I headed to Keio's cafeteria for lunch and then home.

Final and more study

Headed to school for the accounting final. It was pretty tough. After that some friends and I headed over to the Azabu campus where one of the smart kids from Stat was teaching how to do stat for the test tomorrow. It was funny cause when I first looked in the window, I thought an actual class was being held there.

Work and study

Headed to work in Shinjuku today. After I walked around the station a bit and took a couple photos of the lights and then headed home to study accounting.

Work

Headed to work like usual. In the evening some friends from work and I headed to Kua'aina for dinner.

Study day

Headed to school today and studied for the Stat and accounting final. In the evening I met up with work friends for a bit and saw a RX-7 parked in spot 7 next to my office.

Work

Just had work today and studied for the accounting final next week.

Day off

Regular class is done and I didn't have work today so I just relaxed at home.

Work and school

Headed to Tokyo this morning where I met up with my private student for her last lesson before moving to the U.S. Her English had improved a lot in the few lessons I had with her. After I headed to school for my final stat class of the semester and then went to the main campus to get some visa stuff taken care of and then headed to work. Found another subway manner poster in the station. I love these! These two are my favorite. Here and Here.