Tokyo, 8:55 AM (6/21): My flight back later this afternoon is slightly over an hour shorter because we don’t have to chase the destination around the world as it spins, but instead, it actually comes towards us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m perfectly fine with it being a shorter flight (even if I hopefully will be asleep for a significant portion of it). In fact, if they wanted to shave another hour or two off the flight time, who would I be to complain?
One of the Japanese students is apparently going to be coming to the hotel sometime later this morning and taking us some places, but since I’ll have to leave to go to the airport no later than 2:00, I’m not sure if I will be going on that excursion or not. Regardless, this will be my last post from Japan. The streak lives on (semi-surprisingly), and if not even a trip to the other side of the world can break it, I’m just going to have to make one major screwup to go a day without posting.
Pictures will be forthcoming once I get home and have a chance to work with my desktop and a real mouse rather than this trackpad. Photo editing, this laptop made for was not. So, sayonara, and time to head back to a country where ordering food is no longer reliant on having a picture available to point to.
Japan, Personal - Dallas
Tokyo, 8:30 AM (6/20): As we were searching for the Hard Rock Cafe yesterday here in Tokyo, we ran across a building with a Wendy’s in it. Having already eaten at Burger King, McDonalds, and KFC this trip, I felt compelled to finish off the fast food quadfecta by getting something to eat there also. After running into slightly more trouble than the other places ordering a plain hamburger, I got my food and ate its yummyness. The only thing missing is a Whataburger, but since those don’t exist here, I’ll just have to make do with the four that I’ve found.
Aside from our presentations this morning, we’re meeting with a JET person sometime this evening just to have her talk to us. The remainder of my day will probably be spent finishing up the first season of Heroes and then likely just playing some of my games. I’m not “out” of stuff to do here, but I’ve just done everything that I’ve wanted to. Might as well save my energy so that I can refocus it into another reboot of my internal clock in the next 48 hours or so.
Japan, Personal - Dallas
Tokyo, 8:20 AM (6/19): Yesterday I finally located the holy grail for tourism in Asakusa, and I don’t even think all of the money I have access to here could even begin to touch everything that they had for sale. I now own quite a few shirts along with some other random Japanese trinkets for souvenirs, so that part of my purchasing is down. I’ll be heading back to Akihabara one last time to pick up a silver DS Lite (a color not in the US) and a game that never got released in America, and that should just about round out everything that I intend on buying.
Most of today though is probably going to be spent letting my feet rest in my hotel room and watching episodes of Heroes. I’ve turned in a draft version of my 1 minute speech (in Japanese) which will hopefully get its grammar corrected, so that would be the only class-related work I’d need to do. I also could start catching up on some of the SE stuff I’ve been missing (because lest we forget, I do have a second class this summer). However you want to look at it, it’s not so much that I’m worn out (except for my feet hurting) but rather just wanting a slight break.
Japan, Personal - Dallas
Tokyo, 7:55 AM (6/18): Yesterday was a pretty fun day as far as our activities go, but a detailed explanation will have to wait until later. This morning we have to be down in the lobby in just a couple minutes in order to go to the fish market, so my posting time is, how shall we say, limited. Fear not, however, for even a short post is better than none when the streak is concerned.
As I mentioned yesterday, today is our last day of scheduled places to go as a class. The remainder of the trip is preparing for and giving a mini-presentation over what we did while we were here. When I say mini, I mean on the order of 1 minute (for me anyway). Sure, it has to be in Japanese, but that’s why we get a whole day to prepare for it.
Japan, Personal - Dallas
Tokyo, 8:40 AM (6/17): One of the Hosei students we were meeting yesterday didn’t have any classes in the afternoon yesterday, so he just walked around with us and showed us a bunch of stuff before he ultimately had to go home at like 8 or 9 at night. Tonight we’re going back to I think sit in on their class and then have like an informal mixer afterwards, but I may not stay around for that. If this trip has taught me one thing, its that Heroes is a really, really good show.
Today is another one of those days where my feet will probably want to kill me by the end of it because we’re going to see three different things today. In order (I think), they are the Meiji Shrine, the NHK Broadcasting Center, and the Shibuya District. This is the next to last day of places that we’re going as a class, but we still have a presentation to give on Friday which is why I’m not headed back across the Pacific Ocean on a 12 hour flight until Saturday. Well, my Saturday, this blog’s Friday.
Japan, Personal - Dallas
Tokyo, 8:45 AM (6/16): On the return trip to Akihabara, we didn’t frequent any of the same places that I had gone the day before (well, except I did eat dinner at the Burger King again; “niku to pan dake” ftw!). I think the strangest thing about both trips is that all I really bought was a game for a friend and a switch for us to use in the hotel room so that both of us could use the internet at the same time. I’m sure I will eventually buy some more stuff like shirts and random stuff to sit on my desk, but for now, I’m pretty souvenirless.
All we’re doing today is going to a school that we’re doing a culture exchange with and hearing them give some presentations. We’re not ever giving any presentations to them, so I’m not really sure of the point of this trip, but I’m not the one who makes the schedule. Tomorrow we’re actually going back there to interview the students, but I’m pretty sure that has no relation to the presentations that they’re giving today.
Japan, Personal - Dallas
Tokyo, 9:40 AM (6/15): Yesterday in Akihabara we were wandering around when I decided that it would be a good time to eat something. Everyone else I was with was entertaining themselves in an arcade, so I headed across the street to get some food. What should I find but the universal restaurant that I like: a Burger King. Even though ordering was a little bit of a hassle (they apparently don’t get the word “plain”, so I had to go through and say “no …” for everything), I successfully got what I would have ordered if I was at home, and it was just as tasty. As long as there is a Burger King in a city that I go to, I shall never end up starving.
Today we’re headed back to Akihabara, this time as a class. I’m not sure exactly what we plan on seeing together, but it could be basically almost anything we did yesterday and it wouldn’t be boring (especially the giant electronics store on steroids). I will admit though that I’ve looked up the Japanese for “meat and bread only” to make future hamburger ordering excursions easier.
Japan, Personal - Dallas
Tokyo, 9:10 AM (6/14): There is something that my parents have known for a long while (even if they choose to ignore it sometimes) that all these people are learning about: I am rarely ever wrong. Every day the person who researched the location we’re going to is supposed to be our tour guide and lead us there, but my seemingly inability to get lost on the subway/rail system without knowing how to read Japanese makes people look to me for validation or even direction. Let’s just say that the people who have chosen not to follow me as far as transportation matters go generally take a longer time to get to the destination.
A couple of people left this morning to go see Mt. Fuji, and as cool as that would have been, it was two 3-hour bus rides away. So, everyone who stayed here is apparently going to the area of Tokyo that we’re going to as a class tomorrow since it’s the game/anime center of the city. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the people who came on this trip did so for the sole reason of going to this location.
Japan, Personal - Dallas
Tokyo, 7:25 AM (6/13): We did so much walking today, my feet are ready to go on strike for the rest of my time here. We left the hotel at 8:00 in the morning, we got back at 7:00 at night, and less than an hour total of that was spent *not* standing up/walking. By about 4:00 or 5:00, my feet were already showing signs of being ticked off at me, but by 7:00, they were in full out pain mode.
This morning, however, all seems to be better. I’m not sure that I could pull off another yesterday, but I should be good for at least a few hours of walking. We’re going to Tokyo University to talk with our teacher’s brother about Japanese pop culture, so hopefully it’ll be more of a “sit and listen” type day. Tomorrow is actually a free day for us, so we might go see some places that aren’t on our itinerary, or I may just go into recovery mode to get ready for the next week.
Japan, Personal - Dallas
Tokyo, 6:45 AM (6/12): The strangest thing about our hotel would have to be the fact that they keys to the room are just that: keys. There’s only one metal key for each room, so whenever any of us potentially will come back separate from our roommate, there’s a procedure where we leave the key at the front desk and then the first person back picks it up. The “keychain” for the key also has to be inserted into a slot in the room in order to turn on the electricity, so having multiple keys I guess would also kinda defeat the point of having that in place to prevent you from keeping the lights on when you leave the room.
I transferred all of the pictures I took yesterday over to my laptop, but since I haven’t gone through to resize any of them, I’m not going to post any today. I decided though that pulling off photos and organizing them in folders by trip as we go on them would probably be the best as to prevent any confusion when I go back and look at them. I’ve already taken more pictures here than on the Vegas and LA trips combined, so I should have a plethora of megabytes of images when I return.
Japan, Personal - Dallas