Update 8
6-16
well tonight we just finished the tv series of this sappy japanese drama, but it was interesting. it was called long vacation. anyway, ive done quite a bit since the last time i put stuff up, and only 2 weeks more in tokyo.
[ this is the station for the monorail that goes to the tokyo island odaiba ]
in fact odaiba was so cool ive given it its own page.
today while riding the bus, i saw a young girl probably 6 or 7 get on the bus by herself. she had a little change purse and dropped the coins in like a pro, better than me, and then took a seat; until her stop, she then promptly got off. i wanted to take a photo of her, but i didnt want to scare her. gaijin are scary believe me, even im scared of them. of course its not an unusual thing to see young kids using the trains/buses by themselves. kids are quite self seficiant and amazingly well behaved. last week during rush hour on the subway i saw a mom with 2 young kids squeezed between a bunch of people (me being one of them) there was a maybe 2 year old straped to her back. the little girl was very calm, in fact she was intensly observing me. it amazed me how patient and clam they were, it was hot and crowed after all.
[ familar american resturant, it felt like a warp back tot the states. it was the first and maybe last time ive had ketchup ]
mike and i went to see a movie this day. it was "innocence" (ghost in the shell 2), it wasnt subtitled, therefore we didnt understand any of it. not to mention the story was totally wacked out anyway. anyway afterward we went across the street to eat at the resturant above. mike is very picky and doesnt like any japanese food, so he was excited to have chicken and ketchup. anyway TGIF is exactly the same here! in fact its the first american resturant to be totally identitical, even macdonalds is different. they brought us SILVERWARE, it was seriously the first time in 4 weeks i had seen silverware. and NAPKINS, lot of napkins for the greasy sloppy american food. the menu was entirely in english and all of the waiters spoke english to us, it was the first time i ordered in english. it was weird, it felt like i warped home when i walked thru the door.
[ i rarely see these items in japan, not that it really bothers me. certainly not like mike ]
the weather has been very nice the last several days, so much for it raining everyday in the month of june like i heard. its been mid-70s and sunny but of course also humid, its always humid.
6-17 today before my japanese class i went to asakusa, an older area with one of the biggest shrines in tokyo. it was really nice, the sun was out and it wasn't as crowded as it was the last time i was there, during a matsuri (festival). oh and for dinner today i went to yoshinoya (a totally awesome fast food place, that has good heathly food that's faster than macdonalds in the states) and i took notice of the salary men that were eating there too. two guys sat down after me and they both finshed way before me and im a fast eater, they seriously ate a whole meal in about 5 minutes, including the time it takes to serve you (which honestly is sometimes less than a minute.
[ the entrance to asukusa kannon temple, i took so many pictures of asakusa that i gave it it's own page ]
[ this is a typical bike/car vehicle used mostly for delivery, i think this guy was sleeping on the job ]
[ probably the most popular dog in japan, miniture datsuan, i dont know the german spelling so i used the japanese writing ]
[ these 2 buildings are the headquarter of asahi, excluding the farmost left silver building. asahi is a huge drink company in japan ]
[ these buildings are along the sumida river, which bounds asakusa and sumida ]
[ hikifune station at night, this is where i go to take japanese class, not far from sumida. but about an hour from jiyugaoka ]
oh and i almost forgot, mike, katie, and i went to the imperial palace a while back. we intended to go to the east palace garden, but it closes at 4, so we missed it but we still got a few good looks at the palace from a distance. no one can actually go inside the palace anyway.
[ tokyo station, near the palace. this was built in the meiji period in a british style during the "uncompromised westernization" stage ]
[ just outside the palace ]
[ a koe (carp), a turle, and one of those wierd bugs from super mario 64 ]
[ the moat around the palace and one of the corner walls of it's fort-like structure ]
[ past the bridge in the distance is the palace, this is the best view when the gardens are closed ]
[ across the street from the palace, this is another building built in the meiji period ]
[ nearby ]
[ the diet building, the main government building in japan. it was oddly heavily gaurded that day ]
[ after the palace; mike, katie, and i decided to go see a movie in roppongi hills. this is in akasaka on the way to roppongi hills ]
[ more akasaka ]
[ an outdoor escelator in roppongi ]
[ these are what most power lines look like, crazy ]
[ views of tokyo tower in roppongi ]
[ this wall in roppongi hills lights up and the numbers change, i dont know why ]
[ the movie we saw, cutie honey. it was super cheasy but funny in that way ]