The World of Japanese Jay

Tokyo Tower - Part 3: The Architecture

2005-12-04T04:58:00.000-08:00

You all know I get artsy fartsy but the architecture of this tower was a trip! check it out!

From the back entrance of the Tower.

Another angle from the bottom
The complexity of the tower was insane! all these beams and stuff. I wonder who designed this thing.

From the main observatory. The white thing is apparently a satellite pod or something maybe they said it was for their force field when godzilla attacks.

And through the scratched up window, you can see down below. The grey thing with lines is one of the parking lots. you can see some cars parked on the streets as well.

Tokyo Tower - Part 2: Inside the Tower

2005-12-04T04:29:00.000-08:00

The Tokyo Tower stands 333 meters tall and has 2 main observatory floors. The main floor sits about 150 meters high, the second floor at 250m. The main floor was real dark so I didnt take too many pictures inside. But was amazing! Both floors allow you to view tokyo at all angles. They also had kiosks that pointed out big buildings you can identify in front of you. These kiosks were placed in each direction, N W S E.

This was the bottom floor of the main observatory. Can you see that guy standing on a brightly lit panel? Thats a window! It was really scratched up but you can see the tower right below you.

The second observatory was all decked out like a scene from Star Treck. This is the elevator entrace.
See? I'd expect some crazy super hot martian alien woman from planet Calculon 5. ok ok thats too many references to random songs and shows.

The Blue lights turned green after a while.
Then back to blue. I had to wait in line for half an hour to get up here. But it was worth it. Tokyo is simply amazing. I say that every time, but ya. wow. Lights everywhere!

Tokyo Tower - Part 1: Christmas Season

2005-12-03T23:41:00.000-08:00

Its beginning to look a lot like~ Christ~mas~!
Every~ where I go~!

I took a trip to see the Tokyo Tower. I've never seen it before and wasent expecting anything but WOW! It was amazing! So enroute to the Tower, I cut across a big hotel called Park Towers (?) and there was a garden all lit up.

The blue light christmas trees are on either side of the walk way taking up to the park like area. The Tokyo Tower in the background.
Walking up the steps, there was a Green LED christmas tree. It seemed kinda sad all by its lonesome. It looked cool though.

Up close, there was an awesome view of the tree with the Tower. The green LED's made an awesome glow.
Walking down the path, there were more blue trees. i dont know if you can see it in the thumbnail view of this picture, but there was this red rope light thing on the floor. Didnt know what that was but it looked strangely out of place.

Up top from the Tokyo Tower, it was an outline of Santa Claus! The big building you see there is the Park Tower Hotel. This was taken at the 150m floor of the tower.

This one was taken at 250 meters. This was at the top level of the Tokyo Tower. Can you see the green glow of that one chrstmas tree? It looked real cool so I'm sharing.

and this one, just cuz it turned out real cool. No Photoshopping, this was in the sidewalk area of where the christmas tree things were. neat aye?

The Move

2005-12-03T18:49:00.000-08:00

Because of the extension, I had to renew my apartment lease for 2 more weeks. BUT!!! They rented out my room already!!
Fortunately, they had an opening on the 12th floor. The new room was 2 floors directly above me. so i figured the layout would be the same right? Well it was. It was just a bit bizarre to see a room full of shit (and yes for some reason i've acquired a lot of shit) to a bare room that is exactly identical.

This is my old room without the crap. Just the last 2 bags and some small knick knacks.

The new room after i hauled everything up 2 floors. Lots of junk. The burning question is, will this all fit in my suitcase? the answer, NO! No chance in HELL~!!! I'll need to buy one of those Boston bags or whatever they're called.

The view: since it was 2 floors directly above me the view is the same. all except that i have a more elevated view of the same scene. Quite nice actually. To the left of this is the Tokyo Tower. Unfortunately, I can only see the very tip of it because of a big building blocking my view.
What I couldnt see before was this bridge. I think its called the "Rainbow Bridge". It connects tokyo to some penninsula like part on the outskirts of tokyo called Odaiba. Theres also a monorail that runs on the bottom side of this bridge. Seems cool, if i have time, im planning on checking out the view.

Two more weeks in japan!

2005-12-03T18:46:00.000-08:00

Its been a while, again, since I posted. So heres my update!!
Because of the insanity and craziness at work, my stay in Japan has extended for 2 more weeks. I think I'm returning on the 14th or so.
Hopefully, I'll have a lot of fun stories to share with y'all. be prepared for a barage of posts!

Even Japanese people have flairs!

2005-11-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

Down the street from my apartment, I found a TGI Fridays!
I was talking to Aki about Fridays and he's never heard about it. So we went during one of our lunch breaks and these people have the old uniforms!
They have to wear a minimum of 17 Flares! hahaha yet another movie reference? Everyone there was happy and chipper. Apparently most of the people there speak english too! Apparenly theres a lot of American tourists that go there. hahahaha
You go to Japan and they want to go to TGI FRIDAYS?!? I would hope they had better planning than that. BTW, there was also a McDonalds right across the street.
I guess if you want a hefty burger, you gotta go to an all american joint.

HAPPY turkey day~!!

2005-11-28T08:07:00.000-08:00

and welcome back all you blog followers!
i know that the only reason you guys check my blog is cuz it gives you guys something to do at work right!? hahaha its ok. we all know the truth. Hence the reason why I waited to post this until monday night (japan time).

This cart is for women only!?

2005-11-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

While waiting for a train going to Yokohama, I saw this sign.
Women only? hahaha thats a guy's dream come true! A train car full of women? I didnt know what it was about so I moved down a bit and waited for the train.

The sign on the door again says women only from start to 9am. I think this train route had some problems with guys feeling up on women during the morning rush. I've heard this on the news a long time ago but when you're packed like sardines in a small train, I suppose "accidents" can happen.

I had to One-UP the chicken sashimi story

2005-11-22T06:54:00.000-08:00

Anyone want to guess what that is?
...
...
...
Take a goooo~d look! Its NOTHING you'd think of eating in the states.
...
...
...
give up?
its WHALE bacon! well not really bacon, more like ham. yes that's WHALE~!!!
crazy huh?

and to TOP that one, I had one more interesting thing. I wish I had a picture of it, but for the most part, you wouldnt notice the difference but I had...
Raw,
Thin sliced,
HORSE MEAT!
Kinda like a horse meat sashimi.

ok boys and girls, you may now freak out.
hahaha
its been a few days and i'm still alive so I think I'll be ok.
Screw Mad Cow! Its all about the Crazy Horse!

I dont know if this guy things he's cool but...

2005-11-22T06:49:00.000-08:00

I couldnt resist sneaking in a snap shot of this guy. The first description that popped in my head was "No Talent Ass Clown". Can you name that movie?

This kid... guy... dood(?) was taking a smoke break in front of his store. They had clothes catered to the hipsters. I still dont know what this guy was thinking though...

Grrr~

2005-11-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

Had to color correct this one due to a massive glare.
But this was a HUGE poster! If this mean looking bad boy doesnt scare the crap out of your rottweiler I dont know what will.

Interactive Dragon Ball Game

2005-11-22T06:34:00.000-08:00

Yet another picture from Kiddyland.
As I was walking down to the bottom floor, I saw this little kid making punching motions towards the screen. It was a DragonBall Z video game!
*Think Puch-Out from the arcades. Dont remember that? well nevermind then.
I guess after you punch a bunch of times, you earn Special Move points. The girl in the Bandai jacket (I think she was a rep) was explaining to the boy how to excecute the power moves. Basically you pull back your hands and clasp them like they do in the Anime.
When you do that motion, you can hear some crazy sounds and then a "Ka~ Me~ Ha~ Me~~~..."

"...HA~!!!!!!!!"

More pictures from KiddyLand

2005-11-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

I've gotten some request to post some more pictures of the crazy toy store. So here they are! I have a bunch more, but I "hope" this is enough.

Now~ onward with the tour...
Front Entrance... Lots of people wandering around in and out.

Japanese Barbies!? they were a bit different than the typical Blonde hair'ed, big Boobed, full-of-Plastic kinds. They were fancy though.

i dont know what this guy was all about but he was kinda neat looking. Scary~!

I took the elevator from to the 6th floor and walked down to see what was on every floor. Needless to say, even the stair case was colorful. Maybe its a bit dark in this pic... but ya. lots of colors.

See? even the garbage can is all cool and crazy! Each floor had a different color theme to it. I think this one was taken on the Hello Kitty floor or something. I did NOT, however, take a picture of all the different color schemes of the garbage cans on every floor... People were looking at me like I was crazy doing this one.

Pink! that can only mean one thing... girlie stuff. hahaha

Wait! This floor is green... and theres still girlie stuff! Wheres all the cool boy toys?
That rabbit character you see is called "Miffy". I think I've seen that character when I was a kid. Maybe this one is making an oldschool revival.

And of course, theres TOTORO Everywhere! I like this blunted totoro. i think hes hiding his visine in his back pocket. lol.

J-Lo posts subliminal messages in Japan!?

2005-11-22T04:43:00.000-08:00

Note: This is NOT photoshopped!
hahaha as I was uploading this, it looks like a cheezy photoshop attempt to do some graphic design action.

Anyway JayRO?
Is that because Japanese people can't pronounce their "L"s and "R"'s?
why is it yello? when it says Jayro is white. I figured shes more brown than white... well maybe if you wash down some brown you might get yellow. *Shrugs*

w00t! back online!

2005-11-22T04:37:00.000-08:00

For my fan(s), I am now back to blogging mode! The last few days have SUCKED! From Friday on, my computer kept dying! Blue Screening and all this other mess. It stopped for a while so i thought i was good... then monday, BLAM! blue screened again!
I was finally able to get the error code and learned that this MAY be a memory problem. A MEMORY PROBLEM?! Ive been using this machine for the last few months! Well I took out one of the pieces of RAM (Fortunately i have 2 in my laptop) and so far so good.
WTF!?!?
I thought everything was fine and dandy, but while taking off the keyboard, i popped off the left ALT key. I figured i can just push it back in its place, right? RIGHT!?
hahaha well as you all figured, I wouldnt be writing about this if something didnt happen... so the answer? NO!
The ALT key sat there in place and as i ALT+TAB'ed to switch apps, i felt the key move in a wierd way. I look down and~ SHO NUFF! I popped it back in, and it works... for now. Its still a little loose and i need to push down on it and i feel it snap into place(?).

Oh well, at least I can blog again... oh and work too.

HOLY CRAP!!! part 2!!!

2005-11-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

OMFG~!!
I was just about to push the "Publish Post" button... and then BLAM!
IE Crashed on me!
well fortunately, im using Firefox... but out of no where, i got one of those "send report" popup window.
and then...
BLAMMMM~!!
Firefox crashed on me too!
Good job to the people at Blogger! They had some autosave thing which didnt wipe out my post. I was a split second away from throwing my laptop out the window.

Apparently it didnt learn its lesson when i did it the first time! muahahha~
ok, good night!

Holy Crap!!

2005-11-18T09:28:00.000-08:00

Its been a week without posting!
Actually its been a rediculously busy week for me.
So finally, i thought... TODAY!! i shall post all the stuff i wanted to and then at around 5pm, after my last meeting of the day I was attacked with the ever so painful B.S.o.D~!!

from that point on, my computer would boot up, i'd log in, and then it'll freeze there!
tried to do the small things i can, remove battery, talked nice to it, tried to feed it a cookie... EVERYTHING!!

but sadly, i dont have local admin access to my work laptop so I was screwed.

I got home at 9 and starting tinkering with it. Finally, I went down to a local 7-11 like place and bought a screw driver set. sat for about an hour and took this whole thing apart!
Reseated everything i can... put it back to gether and then... IT WORKED!!

so be prepared! Theres a few good pix i'd like to share. also went to the XboX 360 lounge. more on that later. its 2:35 am and am passing out in about 3... 2...

A Hangout for the Geeks

2005-11-12T05:58:00.000-08:00

The Last time I was in Japan, I frequently saw these "Manga Kissa" shops. I didn't really know what it was about but as the name says Manga meaning comic books, and Kissa is short for "Kissa-ten" which means cafe.

I tried to take pictures inside but it was quite dark and my pictures were a bit too out of focus so I pilfered these from google images.

The entire shop is like a book store. Stacked mile high with comic books, DVDs, magazines and video games!

When you walk in, you tell them what you want to do and they will set you up in an area. Depending on what you want to do, the price ranges vary but is somewhere along the lines of $3 per hour to hang out there.

The comic books had stuff from way before I was born to all the new releases and is all you can read for however long you want to stay.

Most of these are open 24 hours and from what i heard, people often stay there over night if they miss the last train home.

I chose the computer option because they set you up in a more private cubicle looking setup. The computers there have net access similar to what you see here. Its basically a real cramped cubicle but is enough room for you to kick back and relax.

A lot of gamers come here to play MMO RPGs late night.

I heard that people also crash in these cubes to pass out until the trains start running again. The chairs leaned back all the way and also had a small ottoman like foot rest.

The computer that was available all had flat screen monitors.

The video game cubes are also similar to this layout and is equipped with the console of your choice and headphones so you can have the volume as loud as you like. The most common console here was the PS2, then the Game Cube. Was there any xbox's there? The answer? only two...

A lot of kids come here after school to get their game on away from their nagging parents, I'm sure. If I have time, I want to go back to one again and take some action photos of me geeking out.

Did I mention theres food there too? They have a full on selection of snacks and dinner like items such as pastas and rice plates. They price is relatively cheap too! I think it maybe a bit higher than the McDonalds around the corner but definitely affordable and quite tasty.

I was a bit suprised when i found out that no one really steals from this place. They dont monitor what you do really and you can grab as many comic books as you please off the shelf. I guess the geeks in Japan are a bit more honest. Maybe its because they take care of their safe haven.

The Shabu Shabu Restaurant from Lost in Translation

2005-11-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

I'll have to update this post later, but I had dinner at the Shabu Shabu restaurant where they filmed "Lost in Translation".

Unfortunately, we were not able to get the booths like the ones in the movie. Oh well, bragging rights? Maybe. Tasty food? Mos Def!

A day in Harajuku

2005-11-12T04:46:00.000-08:00

So today, I decided to take a trip to Harajuku.
This is one of many tourists attractions out here in Tokyo. Theres a lot of local crazy stuff and a lot of local crazy people.
When I hopped out of the train station, I arrived in Snoopy Town...
I thought this was Harajuku... when did it change to Snoopy Town?

To get to the downtown area, I walked though "Harajuku Avenue(?)". This is known as the teenybopper centeral of Tokyo.

This narrow street is jam packed with people.

and more people...
and more people. LOOK! Theres a McDonalds!
Do you see that guy in the white jacket? He is one of MANY direct marketeers in Japan. They chase after people who fit a certain stereotype and give them flyers or let them know about special promotions and deals. Today, some ghetto gangsta looking Japanese kid asked me if I was "Hip Hop". I said "yes" to see what would happen and he started talking about a store down the street that has their stuff imported from America. hahaha.
Wow~! I can buy that at Walmart for $5! you want how much?

Down the street from this crazy teeny bopper area is one of the coolest toy store I've seen! Its a 6 story toy store called Kiddyland. They have a massive collection of toys from Hello Kitty stuff to Pokemon and everything cutsy in between.

The blue character you see is called "Doraemon". He's been around since the 70's or so. I grew up watching this guy and he still holds his popularity.

Whoa~! Check these transformers out! The big red one is definitely, Optimus Prime! Its a fully transforming one too!

I would have taken more pictures but I'm sure you know what happens when you put a kid in a toystore... and if this kid had a credit card... and if this toy store was filled with cool things he has never seen before... ummm~ ya... I'll probably have to go back there to uh.. take more pictures or something.

Yet Another Ferrari

2005-11-11T08:12:00.000-08:00

Yet another parked Ferrari sighting! I actually saw another one park the other day. Out of curiosity, I watched the owner get out. He was just a typical "dad" looking guy. From the passenger side, comes his wife who looks like a simple "mom, and their daughter, probably around 8 or so. Do they use this as a family car?

And~ since I'm posting about car's, heres yet another old school mini.

PS3 games already on sale on Amazon Japan!!

2005-11-11T08:06:00.000-08:00

I was surfing around to see what kind of cool toys I can find and i found a section for PS3. PS3!? yes! Theres no prices or mentions of the console but I guess these are the confirmed titles for release.

On the left column, under the text that says: プレイステーション3
They List:
- Devils May Cry 4
- Metal Gear Solid 4
- Gundam
- Tekken 6
- Vision Gran Turismo
- Ni-Oh (From what the translator said, something like Guardian Kings)
- Face Phantom Saga
- Bio Hazard 5

The great Buddah

2005-11-10T07:35:00.000-08:00

A little ways down from the Temple sits this Big Buddah made of Copper.
Standing by it, its pretty darn big.

Its hollow inside so by paying Y20 (about $.20) you can walk inside. This is a pic of the hole where his head is.

Afterwards, I went down to another temple. The details on these buildings are AMAZING! I'll have to post some more soon. But it really seemed like something from a movie set. I think I want my house to look like this on the outside.

I call this "Crouching Tiger Hidden Jay"

Since I'm on a posting spree... a few pix of my little tour

2005-11-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

Me at the entrace of the Engaku-Ji. One of the many temples in an area south of Tokyo.
So this entrance tower thing is made all out of wood. On top of that, this was built with NO NAILS or anything! its all fabricated with wood pieces that fit into each other. Kinda like an oversized lego or something.

This was amazing! This was part of the entrance door to one of their buildings. I think someone told me that this was made with one piece of wood. simply amazing...

HOLY CRAP! There were these HUGE spiders in this place! Ive never seen anything like it! The body of this scary thing was probably as big as a quarter (in length).

I wonder...

2005-11-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

If you know who this sharply dressed man is?

I saw him getting into the Limo while on my way to a meeting. What's amazing is that hes actually looking towards my camrea. A few seconds later one of his security henchmen asked me to not take pictures. Im glad the one and only turned out good.

My daily attire

2005-11-10T06:46:00.000-08:00

So not to brag or anything, but people say i dress pretty well. Mmm~ well not well per se, but at least in a cool fashion. I've told a few of you guys that i go in a suit every day and they all laughed!
hahaha. I can understand why.
So just in case you guys all forgot what i looked like, here I am!

See? you're lauging too!
D'oh!!

Evern Ballers Parallel park

2005-11-10T06:30:00.000-08:00

On my way to work one day. I noticed this car!

If you notice, its parallel parked on a busy side street. I didnt really think anything of it UNTIL~ that white truck parallel parked right in front of it! If that was MY car, I'd be freaking out! So after work, walking back, the car is still parked there! I walked closer to it this time and noticed that it had some yellow tag. i think he's illegally parked there. Now first off, who the hell illegally parks a Ferrari!?

I wanted to post this a few days ago when I first saw it but lagged.
Well THREE days later, the car is still there!! I asked my colleague why they dont tow it and he said that its probably cuz its too low and they're scared of damaging it.
We'll see if its there tomorrow.

On a side note:
I was expecting to see a lot of fancy import ...er domestic cars. Some crazy Supra's and Skylines. Well so far, I've seen 2 Supra's and about 3 Skylines. I have, however, seen at least 10 Porche's, 3 Ferarris, 1 Lamborghini, Bently's and 1 Hummer H2. Yes! In the busy streets of Japan a HUMMER! I still dont understand these crazy Japanese people. hahaha

Who's Smorking?

2005-11-07T03:00:00.000-08:00

Couldn't resist.
Found this one when i was casually walking around Shibuya.
Got nothing today...

How HEALTHY are YOU?

2005-11-06T01:20:00.000-08:00

Japanese TV has a LOT of interesting stuff. I was watching TV while ironing my clothes and there was some random show that caught my eye. They were doing a quick "test" to see if you're body is healthy. It's real easy and would like all you guys to try it out.

Grab your ear and fold it in half.
Make the Top part of your ear touch the Bottom part (your earlobe).
The fold will appear in the center towards the back of your head.

does it Hurt? do you not feel a thing?

This check tests to see if you have good blood circulation throughout your body. So now i know you're asking which is better. should it hurt? or not?
The answer is NOT. If you have good blood circulation, you should not feel pain. Those of you who felt pain, there are ways to remedy this. FYI: this was common in more FEMALES than males.

what this means? it means that you'll get sick frequently, and usually cold.

If you're one of those, you're in luck. theres a way to increase your blood circulation!!
the best way is to put water in a bottle (40 degrees c) wrap the bottle with a wet towel and put against the small of your back. do this 2 times a day for about 15 minutes. Make sure the towel is wet. it contributes moisture to the skin and promotes better circulation.

another good excersize (according to the tv show) is to do the following.
1. Lie down on your back.
2. Lift up your arms and legs (towards the ceiling).
3. Move your limbs up and down. Like you're dog paddling.
*if you cant strech your limbs all the way up, its ok.
Move them in small motions, it does not have to be agressive. do this 2 times a day for 2 minutes. Results will show in a week.

Neat huh? I dont know how these crazy Japanese people find out these things.. but anyway, there. hope everyone has a warmer white christmas.

Mini Coopers~!

2005-11-06T01:14:00.000-08:00

Saw a few so I wanted to share...

Thers a few new school ones too. But these are cooler

Just a Relaxing Sunday

2005-11-06T00:49:00.000-08:00

Its about 6pm here and its been raining all day. I figured its a good time to post the stuff i've been lagging on and do some laundry. I've been trying to figure out this washing machine for a while now.

So this compact machine is a washer AND a dryer! pretty neat huh?

On Friday, after I came home, I decided to finally try out this washing machine. ok so let's see... Instructions... instructions... ah yes here they are!

ummm.... wtf?

(Not too sure if you guys can read this but...) THERES TYPOS EVERYWHERE!!
So HOW do you DO THIS? gah~!

I figured im smart enough to figure this our right? So just incase i screw up something bad I started with towels. Threw it in... put detergent in the compartment... pushed some random buttons and VOILA! It worked!

I sat back and watched it do its thing. This little machine is pretty smart. it spun around a few times to figure out the weight of whats inside... then calculated wash time. whoa~! As it started doing its thing, i noticed that there were no suds. I opened up the detergent compartment and its still in there! There was another compartment right next to it which was all wet! doh~! I cancelled the wash, and sopped up the detergent with my wet towels.

Ok Attempt #2...
So again, the machine started doing its own thing. Spun around a few times to determine the load... but WAIT! the towels were all wet! It calculated as a full load! oh well at least it'll wash...
I stepped out for some food or something.

(a few hours pass and i get back)
I came back and took a look...
everything looked ok...
opened it up and~ crap... everything is still wet! wtf?

Lets consult with the instructions... ok, so for drying i push this button? *push* *push*. wtf? its not doing anything. "hmm~ what does this button do..?" *push* all of a sudden the machine started spinning. COOL~! did i do it right? WRONG~!!! it started washing again! Holy Mother Fark! gah~!

Anyway after a few more tries i finally figured it out. Im doing laundry now, working on my third load. hahahah

The bottons look like this.

Where are the nice pictures? i dunno. There were also a few more instructions in Engrish pasted on top... did it help? Apparently not since i couldnt figure it out.

For All you Gangstas with a sweet tooth - GET CRUNKY!

2005-11-06T00:44:00.000-08:00

I bought this when I was buying some snacks at a AMPM (its yet another 'convini' a CONVINIence store like a 7-11).

So to All you Gangsta's who wanna get cRuNk'd, its time to get CRUNKY~!

These taste real good too!
Endorsed by Lotte.

Karaoke time with Hello Kitty

2005-11-06T00:39:00.000-08:00

On my way out, I saw Hello Kitty hiding behind a tree. "BigEcho" is a Karaoke Shop... this was taken while waiting for a train at the Gotanda Train Station. This is the one closest to my place.

Plastic Packaging -VS- Jay

2005-11-05T22:50:00.000-08:00

I've been using skype because of work and have been using it quite frequently since I'm in Japan. Skype's pretty cool and best of all its free to talk (VOIP) with other skype users... even over seas! I finally decided that it'll be best to get a headset so I went down to a local electronics store and bought one.

I was going to use it and realized that this package as shut solid all the way around! I scoured my apartment looking for a sharp object and realized... I DONT HAVE ONE!!! The only thing close to what might open it was this crazy looking can opener.

The battle was intense! I stabbed and prodded the thing with little to no damage to the package. The package in return, retaliated with some super armor. The fierce battle lasted for 15 minutes as i tried to attack from its weak points... primarily that little hole up top.

After my victory, I took pictures of the aftermath. Needless to say, I won. Mmmm~ the sweet sweet taste of victory...?

Beauty Competence Team in Japan

2005-11-05T04:25:00.000-08:00

During my random wanderings, i ended up in Shibuya. There I saw a group of people dressed in white flight suits. Out of curiosity, I wandered over there to see what was going on. They were a bunch of people from some Art Academy in Germany taking surveys for thier project.

They asked me to choose from a color pallet and then explained to me what these colored pills do. I was hoping for a matrix type experience to free my mind, but since there were so many colors, i chose the brown one. They said it'll make me "feel good" so i took it one night but much to my disappointment, it was only chocolate. hahaha. They asked me to fill out a survey for them online @ beautycompetenceteam.com. Much to my surpise, under the news section, I found my picture!

Anyway the color brown signifies satisfaction.
They gave me a brown piece of chocolate and and this bandaid thing too.

A new kind of sashimi...

2005-11-03T01:57:00.000-08:00

I wish i took pictures... but last night i went to a yakitori place. A sit down restaurant, kinda think like a korean bbq place where they do all the cooking in the back and bring you the food. Anyway, on the menu, there was sashimi... sounds good right? well this sashimi wasent fish. NOT FISH!? yes not fish. In fact, it was CHICKEN! RAW, THINK SLICED CHICKEN!
and it was good.

Ice Cream anyone?

2005-11-03T01:50:00.000-08:00

I just saw this on the news but Cold Stone opened its first store in japan!
you KNOW i wouldnt be posting this unless there was something funny about it right? Well some people waited in line for 5 hours! FIVE FRICKEN HOURS to eat ice cream on a cold ass day like today. what's more funny? They sing the songs in English!
*For those of you who's never been at a Cold Stone, if you tip them, they sing a song to show appreciation. Lame spin offs of random songs... cant think of any off the top of my head.

and thats all i gotta say about that...

Japan is very environmentally concious

2005-11-02T08:50:00.000-08:00

Well we all knew that Japan is very advanced in technology and implementing new environmentally safe stuff. So aside from Hybrids and stuff, i found an all electric taxi!

*Note the big Battery on top. wow!

my apartmento

2005-11-02T01:28:00.000-08:00

Pix of the small box of an apartment i live in. lol.

The entrance and part of the room

The Bed

The Kitchen

and finally the view from my bed. i get a flat screen. neat huh?

Hmmm~ ok so more pictures it is!

2005-11-02T01:16:00.000-08:00

All right. me on the plane looking cool with my ipod

Day 1

2005-11-02T00:58:00.000-08:00

So after being awake for 22 hours i finally tried falling asleep. I dont think reality has hit me yet that I'm in Japan. I'm not as excited as I was the last 2 times. So just to soak in the greatness of Japan i took a walk around a few areas and took some snap shots.

Im trying to figure out this whole blog thing so bare with me.

This is me and my dad on at the airport.

To japan!

2005-11-01T04:48:00.000-08:00

Ok boys and girls!
This if my first time blogging. ive been resisting forever but alas, here i am. anyway i hope google will let me upload a mess load of pictures cuz i always have a lot.

So October 31st, I hopped on a plane to shinagawa, japan. This is my third business trip out here. the difference this time is that im out here for ONE WHOLE MONTH! its insane! but i figured this will be a fun way to keep in touch with everyone, rather than emailing the same story over and over again. so here we go!