it's mellow in tokyo. today was rainy and cold. i liked it. anyone who knows me knows i like rain. i needed it. i'm slacking on photographs but i've said this before. i haven't purchased batteries yet. i'm saving it for a "special occation". haha. it's just been the same places, same buildings but we will be exploring new areas soon. i have been utilizing my film cameras so i'm not losing golden opportunities. digital sucks anyway.

i still can't believe i'm in tokyo. maybe i should be learning japanese right now. i just finished my 3rd book (on the road by jack kerouac, molloy by samuel beckett, and the road by cormac McCarthy). long bus rides everyday contribute to my marathon of reading. that and the school work is way easy and i'm not prowling the streets as much as i should. anyway i decided i will definitely miss tokyo when i come back. i'll miss living in a big city. everything costs money but there's always something to do if you got the "dough" as the kids say. i also can't believe i haven't been home in a month and i've only encountered minor freak outs as to be expected.

movie night! yay!

and below is from our first week? before a shady trip to ROPPONGI MUTHAF***S! (inside joke) some boys and i. i'm stealing pictures from others because my digital lacks batteries and i'd rather not spend money on new ones until i have a week that i can afford it.

all photos in this post were taken by my roommate. she's a great photographer. :)

where is kim?

can you still point me out?

mmm............do i really want to eat octopus?

never again.

HARAJUKU = CREPES

the truth is i am adapting well here. but tokyo and i have a love hate relationship sometimes. today i compared japan to a child....like me. mom loves me, no doubt, but sometimes......grr shake a fist!! haha. there is no "to go". like today. i decided that since i've been such a good student and i've been working so hard on a project i would treat myself to a cup of coffee (i haven't had a cup of REAL coffee yet. the only coffee i have had is in a can that can be drank in 2 SIPS and it's really sweet and honestly it's not my kind of coffee) so after our daily, seriously i swear i go there everyday, trip to the grocery store i would get some coffee. no. i assumed you can't get it to go because i've never seen anyone walking around with a steaming cup of coffee. it just doesn't happen and i was not about to drag my roommate into a coffee shop so i could have my fix. boo!!! shake a fist tokyo!! i've been eating a lot of chocolate instead.

whatever. what is more important is what is happening on the television. i'm going to miss japanese tv. and i'm obsessed with using chopsticks. last night the roommate and i made dinner and i used chopsticks to eat. she and a guest said "uhh....dude, you don't need to use chopsticks to eat this" and i said, "i don't care" i'd use chopsticks to eat soup if i could. i like it. thank you japan for making eating more fun and enjoyable than it already is.

and don't use a red pen for a homework assignment for a japanese professor because it is considered rude and naive. i have a homework paper to prove it.

after 2+ hours on trains, and a 30 minute? busride we arrived here. and this is really high up, i forget how high but you can start at the very bottom and climb up. anyway i really don't know what i'm talking about but in case you forget (mom) you should click on these pictures to make them bigger because i think it's better viewing.







yeah i'm not a very good landscape photographer.

fuji!!

this is the first train of many trains that took us home. "uhh....you sure this is our train?" and no this is not the kiddie train, at least i don't think so.

"i hate thomas the tank engine or whatever it is" haha. long day, can you tell? and our adventure was far from over because we had to switch trains after this one to take us to shinjuku. we bought the ticket which said otsuki to shinjuku. and upon the end of an hour+ train ride we learned we were not going to shinjuku but to yokohoma instead. oh great. lovely. anyway pointless details are over. now check out boring videos of train rides and mt. fuji.

i'll never get this order right. anyway a preview of one street in harajuku where a lot of shopping happens and crepe eating. anyway....yeah.


hey what's the leaf on my pants oh that's oh my OH GOD THAT'S NO LEAF THAT'S A MONSTER! seriously. that's a huge insect and took a lot of effort to get off my pants and left some kind of fuzz behind.

ok. so we went to this one part of akihabara (the electronic district of tokyo). it was this building that had a bookstore on one floor, toys on another, electronics and cell phones on another floor, restaurants, you get the point. we went here so a few of us could acquire cell phones but they ran out of pre-paid ones which happens a lot so i'm thinking i may never get a cell phone. oh well. anyway the picture above is an example of these vending maching kinda things and you get these little toys and things that hang on your cell phone. and there were a lot of these vending machines. two rows in fact. i wanted to purchase one of these ladies but i didn't have 300 yen (3 100 yen coins)

display case


the girls i wanted. sexy right? hahahaha

after much debate and confusion and frustration we found a place to eat. the trend is to go out in a big group which i hate and then we have this feeling that we all need to stick together which i'll never understand. anyway the roommate, patrick, and i ate together. thanks to my roommate for voicing her opinion and saying "we should just go where ever we want to go and split up the group". and it was nice. i liked the place although we felt it was like our own little jail cell. you'd have to see it to understand. "man i am stressed out i need a drink!" and a drink the three of us had. i just pointed to an item under the beer list because nothing was listed in english. you can't go wrong with beer anyway. it's all (almost all) good to me.

first part of my meal. yeah that white piece in the middle dish is squid and yes, i ate it.

2 rice balls wrapped in seaweed with what i think was seaweed in the middle of one and salmon in the middle of the other. also miso soup

harajuku

this is part of a store display with the steps leading up to the store.

uhh....is that real?? touch it!

crepes!!!

how do we eat this?

you will never know how delicious this is. strawberries, whipped cream, ice cream


so that's my cellphone with those toy things attached. and seriously everyone in japan has at least one trinket (as i call them) hanging from their cell phone.


harajuku


this was outside that store i mentioned in akihabara and some examples of the "vending machines" i talked about featuring patrick and stephanie.

now i must decide if i want to participate in climbing mt. fuji tomorrow.

today i went to shinjuku to buy art supplies. i switched trains effortlessly although i was the only one obsessively checking the map and then looking up to see what stop was next. no really. obsessively. now the problem lies in exiting the train station. i had to find sekaido (the art store) using a pathetic unspecific map. quickly i figured i was heading the wrong way but decided to enjoy the walk instead of give in to frustration. hooray for what i like to call "information stops" that can be viewed frequently when walking on busier streets. simply a map of where you are and some of the surrounding area. after walking for what seemed like an eternity and getting tired and hungry (is the roommate wondering where i am? is she eating the dinner we discussed making already?) i decided to give up and upon walking back to the station there it was.......sekaido! haha. but the journy was far from over. i spent a good hour in there picking up art supplies which is a long time because it takes at most 20 minutes to pick up the same in the states, also cheaper. stupid tokyo so expensive!! i'm shaking my fist!!! 80 bucks got me minimum MINIMUM supplies. the sun had set while i was shopping and tokyo is phenomenal at night. when i got back my roommate and i cooked a fabulous dinner of vegetables, bought at the newly discovered "market" (it's not a market but it's not a grocery store) near our housing, and rice. we agreed that the cooking gets progressively better but i give all the credit to her for knowing more about asian cooking than i do. sorry for the lack of photos. i promise i'll have some good stuff soon. probably after this weekend...i hope. whatever i have 3 months. enjoy the anticipation. :) oh and i'm totally making some of the recipes i've learned so far and then some when i get back to the states. get ready mom! can you believe i ate eggplant and enjoyed it? yeah me neither. anyway the high point of today was realizing i'm no longer afraid of the trains and am comfident to get around by myself with no one there to hold my hand. now all i have to do is learn japanese. ha!! what a slow and frustrating process!

i wanted these photos to be last but i think that's impossible. so....this is a couple examples, i wish there were better ones, of annette message's work.

i should have had more pictures but my batteries die so very quickly. i actually think have the wrong kind. it's almost impossible to explain but i know what i mean and does anyone even care anyway? so i went to the mori art museum to see the annette messager retrospective. you pay 10 bucks and you get to go to the....53rd? floor? and there is this sky gallery and you can see tokyo.......

tokyo tower

this isn't even close to how big tokyo is. i have the paper that shows the view i saw so anyone who wants can see that in december. it was beautiful and if it wasn't 10 bucks i'd go back and see it at night. tokyo is better at night anyway. you know the cones we use for mark construction and what not? they're orange? yeah they're orange here too but they light up. they're pretty. haha. EVERYTHING IS PRETTY! THE PLACE WHERE WE PUT OUR TRASH IS PLEASANT TO LOOK AT!!

ok so this was in the area where the art gallery was in roppongi hills. Louise Bourgeois. a complete surprise. i had no idea this was in tokyo. remember my spider from sculpture class? the one that is sitting in the trunk of my car? louise bourgeois inspired that.

this is underneath the spider.

mushy broccoli and chicken (hopefully fully cooked!!)

i walked to the grocery store by myself. i didn't get lost. the one problem with the grocery store is that I DONT KNOW WHAT TO BUY BECAUSE I DONT KNOW HOW TO COOK JAPANESE FOOD!!! one can try to cook recipes from home but good luck finding all the ingrediants or get ready to spend a rediculous amount of money. let's look at pasta at home. i could pay less than a dollar....right? or close to for a box of pasta. yeah good luck with that here. they might as well ask for your soul unstead of x-amount of yen. i tried looking up japanese recipes but had little success. i love food but when it comes to being on my own (even more in japan) life would be easier if i didn't have to eat. for now it's mushy broccoli and chicken (hopefully fully cooked) oh and pre-packaged sandwhiches and rice balls at the convenience stores. yay!!!

so (and this is aimed at you mom) i have been trying to be very thrifty and i cringe during every grocery store visit and every 2 dollars spent on the bus. i need a bicycle!! (which is getting purchased after the cellphone)

rough day for us in tokyo. spirits were not very high after the first day in school. so i reassured myself. it'll be ok. it's only the 5th day. not every day is going to be the best of my life. all will be ok. yes. turning things around and "viewing the glass as half full". will i ever be un-tired? 9 pm and i just want to crawl into bed. i'll spare any more details. yesterday i accompanied some boys on a trip to shibuya.

hi mom

there are these intersections where a crowd gathers waiting to cross the street and behold! chaos! well...this is right before chaos but it happens and its insane.

yeah there were places more congested than this. awesome!


couple cool buildings. WOWWWWW

cameron diaz?




umm....??

so there are commercials for this coffee...i think it's coffee...where tommy lee jones is helping out with certain tasks....wow sorry i'm pissing all over this. i'm really tired. anyway i think they are funny and i'm puzzled why this dude is in advertisements in tokyo.

cameron diaz?? she's not japanese! so why would she have a soft bank phone?! although today i was told soft bank phones work in the us. truth or not i still don't get it.

thank god there's a claire's in tokyo!

so maybe denise or her boyfriend whoever can be transfered to tokyo!

so we decided to get sushi. i just wanted to order the cucumber rolls but the dude on the left ordered for all of us and there was a mixup because we don't speak japanese so not only did i get the cucumber roll but i got raw fish on some rice, and tuna rolls. i tried each but the thought of the raw fish on rice deal made me want to puke. it was good.........just not good enough to ever have again.

your order comes on one of these plates that continuously rotate around counter? whatever you want to call it but the "cook" makes whatever you ordered in the middle. great visual i'm sure.


hi mom.