I can hardly believe that I am writing about my final night in Japan. This semester has definitely gone by the fastest out of all of them. Being in Tokyo, going through the interview process at Goldman, meeting tons of new and fantastic people, living with my host family - the list goes on and on... It has truly been an incredible experience.

My last day in Japan was pretty hectic (hand to cancel my health insurance, close my bank account, go fulfill gift requests). Something that really surprised me was how easy it was to cancel my health insurance here in Japan. I know another TUJ study abroad student who had an awful time canceling theirs. I basically walked in, told them I was returning to the US and that was it. First, anything involving the government never goes this smoothly. Second, Japanese society loves tons of arbitrary paperwork. Both of these elements were lacking... maybe I caught them on a good day? Canceling the bank account wasn't too much of a hassle either - however I had to do the entire process in Japanese. Regarding gift requests, well.... I'll have to explain that one when I get home =p.

My last night in Japan happened to coincide with my host dad's 68th birthday! We spent the first half of the night celebrating (I even have pictures!). There was a ton of delicious sushi that we used for temaki (I will do a post about sushi after I get home explaining this). It was kind of funny because instead of the traditional green tea we had coca-cola to drink. So odd! It was absolutely delicious. The sushi was followed by a small birthday cake and green tea.

I hadn't really intended on going out last night because it was Hirao-san's birthday, and I felt like it would be nice if I spent some time with them since I am leaving in (... 6 hours as of this post). However, they both said that since it is the last night I should go to see my friends in Shibuya. This made me feel less guilty, so I let everyone know I would met them at our traditional spot - Hubs. My entire plan was to go and see everyone for an hour or so, say my goodbyes then come home and get a good nights sleep. Oh how things never turn out the way they are planned. Everyone insisted that I stay out and party all night and catch the first train home in the morning. I was actually fairly reluctant but somehow I was convinced to go to Club Camelot and spent my last night in Tokyo with my friends doing what we do best.

At about 5a.m., once we were done at Camelot we went to get Soba Udon at a place called Fuji Soba (it's right near center-makku in Shibuya if you ever want to go!). A bowl of steaming hot udon at 5 a.m. is surprisingly refreshing. After the bowl of udon Nicky was still hungry, so we went to the kabob place right around the corner.

It was very odd walking around Shibuya at 5 a.m. this time since I knew that I wouldn't be coming back any time soon. After all the nights of staying up until first train, this one was definitely different. I will really miss that part of Tokyo -- I can't wait to come back and see what kind of new and crazy fashion styles the Japanese pop culture comes up with.

Once we got to the station everyone said their goodbyes and made the walk to their respective trains. We even had some Japanese girl take a picture of us - this is an awful picture of me since my eyes are closed and I have no idea why my arm is over Cliff's shoulder, but it doesn't really matter since I'm hyaku pacento (100%) positive I'll see everyone again.

Overall this semester has been an incredible experience - regardless of my opinion of TUJ, Japan is a wonderful country with a lot of things to see/do/experience, and I'm sure I only barely scratched the surface.

Until next time Japan... sayonara.

For 3.5 hours my buddy Tomas and I walked around Chidorigafuchi(千鳥ケ淵) - the huge park surrounding the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. It was also probably the last day of the cherry blossom season, as there was quite a bit of green coming up on the trees (as you'll see in the photos). This incredibly scenic area was joined by the most beautiful weather I've seen in Tokyo so far - about 65, low humidity, sunny. Talk about a great way to round off the cherry blossom season.

Today also was my first real trip into photography. I had briefly messed around with the settings on my camera, but never with the purpose of setting up a specific shot or effect. Tomas is a photography nut, and brought his $2,000+ camera... talk about getting shown up! He gave me a lot of great tips though, and seemed fairly impressed at how some of the shots were turning out from my point and shoot. I took well over 300 shots during the walk around the park, and I've posted around 100 of them, largely unedited other than some minor cropping on a few of the photos. The rest of the post will be broken down into the secquence of pictures on my web album, so if you have that open while reading, it should hopefully make this post a bit more interesting!

We started out at the Hanzomon entrance to the park, where the bulk of the cherry blossom trees are. It was very apparent that we were at the end of cherry blossom season, but there were still a decent amount of flowers left on the trees. I can't even begin to imagine how beautiful this area is when the trees are at peak bloom - it has to feel like you're walking through some kind of fantasy land.

Pictures 1-60ish

As we entered the park proper, we were greeted by this statue in the middle of a water-area. It really seemed out of place to me as this kind of art reminds me more of Italy and the Renaissance, and not Japan. There were also 3 or 4 pigeons camping out on the statues which was hilarious. I especially like the one who is asleep on the statue's head. Fat little birds! (Note: There is one shot that has a bunch of white spots against a blue background. This is my attempt at catching the peddles falling off the tree.) Around the statues is a large pathway that is lined with cherry blossoms (Sakura - 桜). You can see there are still a fairly decent amount of people doing hanami, although the numbers are down quite a bit from about a week ago.

Hanami is a pretty big event in Japan-- the best translation is "cherry blossom viewing" except it is more akin to having a picnic under the sakura, drinking, singing, and having a great time with friends and family. Ueno park is particularly well known for how crazy the people get with hanami.

As we walked along the path we came to an area overlooking the river and sakura. I really wish the sky wasn't overcast in that direction because it would have added some fantastic contrast to these shots. There are tons of pictures on the internet of the river + riverbank + the sakura that line it. None of my shots of this area really came out that well, but I didn't want to emit them all as this is one of the cooler scenic shots.

Pictures 60ish-110ish

As we were walking, Tomas made an interesting comment about how this park flows really well with the city proper. There are streets that go through the edges, which helps blur the line between park and city. It was a pretty interesting observation, especially since while you're in the park you can't hear any cars, sirens, or other common city noises.

We finally came to the huge, and I mean HUGE field area of the park. I hope some of the photos are able to express just how large this area is, because it was really terrific. It was also perfectly manicured --- さすが日本！There is a picture of a single, unimpressive tree - the reason for this picture is because it was the most green tree I had ever seen; it was so bright that it almost looked neon! There were way fewer sakura, but the ones that were here were in full bloom. Accordingly, Tomas and I took advantage of this by taking a ridiculous amount of pictures of these two trees. This is probably my favorite picture of the day:

From 千鳥ケ淵

We continued walking and were able to see some traditional Japanese architecture, which caused me to nerd out for a bit because I love old Japanese architecture.

From 千鳥ケ淵

This photo is way overexposed, and needs a lot of photoshopping and editing, but I think it has some awesome potential.

The gate was also pretty neat due to how big it was. It would have been awesome if we would have been able to go inside and see the architecture... oh well.


Photos 110ish-End

We had made the transition from Chidorigafuchi park to the Imperial Palace grounds at this point. If you have seen my pictures from the '07 Japan trip, this area will look a bit familiar. When going through the album, you will notice a long string of pictures of sky scrapers. If you cycle through them fast it will give you a panoramic 180 degree view of where I was standing. I'll stitch all these images together later and post it as one gigantic image.

Tomas was extremely eager to take the famous bridge + palace picture, so we headed to the spot were you can get the view needed. He was psyched to say the least when I pointed it out to him. Of the pictures I took, I think that the best one is:

From 千鳥ケ淵

Again... damn overcast sky in that direction! The colors in this one pop out the most in my opinion.

There are more pictures that are overexposed, and need some photoshop love, but I think a lot of these pictures came out pretty well.

Picture 163 is probably my 3rd favorite picture. If only that couple wasn't standing there, it would easily be my first. I have a feeling I'll be able to do some photoshop magic though since I have other pictures from this exact spot to fill them in with.

Picture 167 is pretty neat as well, despite the sun being crazy bright.

I have to get one of my Japanese friends to explain picture 176 to me. The sign is basically counting the number of dead people - from what, I'm not totally sure.

Overall, today was awesome. The fact that classes are over and I had zero stress while walking around this beautiful park was the icing on the cake.

Just uploaded a bunch of pictures to my hanami album in picasa - it was kind of overcast so there is poor contrast in most of the pictures between the sky and the cherry blossoms. Some of the shots came out pretty nice though; I'm going to do actual hanami on Sunday, and the weather should be great, so expect way more, and much better pictures then!

Also, I should be uploading some of these to my deviantart page: http://heijoshin.deviantart.com/art/Akasaka-Sakura-159279592

Not sure if you need an account to view, but figured I'd link anyway.

I generally try and stick to the motto of being on time, all the time *waits for 1-liner from Grandpa*. However, last night my tardiness ended up turning into one huge adventure.

Cliff, Chinami, Yuka, John, and myself were all going to Ikebukuro (池袋) last night to hang out and get dinner. This was all pretty standard operating procedure, and basically followed the same structure as my previous posts; the only caveat is that we had some freaking delicious, and I do mean delicious, ramen -- go to the bottom of this post if you want to read more about that. But I digress, back to the real story.

At 11:00pm the "we're closing the store, gtfo" music came on, so we packed up our things, and started heading back to the station. I looked at my watch, and it was around 11:15 by the time we had reached the station, bought our tickets, and parted ways. My route to get back home from Ikebukuro is this: Ikebukuro -> Akihabara -> Asakusabashi -> Inzai Maki no Hara. Entire traveling time is about 1hr 15min, which isn't too bad, however we were starting to get close to shyuden, or "last train." Pretty self explanatory - it's the very last train at the station for the night. By close, I mean danger zone close. I was running through all the stations so fast to catch the next train that I probably would have been drafted by an NFL team due to my speed (remember when I hunted you down that one day Kev? something like that). Normally I would be pulling some hilarious looks from the Japanese for this much running, but I'm pretty sure they've all been there before. As I am gliding down the stairs of Asakusabashi station I see the last train of the night pulling away into the distance. I was now faced with a decision: Dish out $150 to get a taxi, or stay in Tokyo for the entire night -- and lets be real, there isn't really any decision part in that since there is no way I'm spending $150 on a cab.

I had a 3 main plans: 1. Stay at a cheap love hotel/ capsule hotel 2. Go to a friends house 3. Find a cafe/bar/etc. that was open all night. I called up Cliff and told what had happened and what my general plans were. However 2 wouldn't work due to my relative position in Tokyo. Cliff suggested an internet cafe in Akihabara. Genius. This was a great mix between option 1 and 3. Off to Otaku-country I go!

By the time I arrived in Akihabara, it was around 12:40am. The place was like a ghost town; it was extremely eerie truthfully. I've been to Akiba 3-4 times so I'm used to it being ultra-crowded and lively. I decided to take advantage of this and walk around taking pictures and explore a bit before I headed to the internet cafe. The pictures will be under the "Akihabara" album.

The only things open at this hour were: McDonalds!, Conbini, Internet Cafes, and Don Quixote. I stopped into McDs and bought a coffee (holy crap is Japanese coffee strong) to keep me up until the next morning.

Oh, and I forgot to mention I have a Japanese chapter test the next day at 8:40am. Win.

After drinking what the Japanese refer to as coffee, I started my search for a good internet cafe to spend the rest of the night at. They all happened to be tucked in a 1block corner of Akihabara for some reason.

Walking into the Internet Cafe (IC from now on) was a funny experience. You could tell they didn't get too many white guys, but the guy at the counter was really cool about it; I could tell he was happy that I spoke Japanese (I feel like this is a reoccurring theme?). I told the guy that I wanted to rent 4 hours worth of time (It was like 2am by this point), which normally would have been $10. However, since it was a weekday night I got a special package, so it only ended up costing me $4.50 for 4 hours...nothing costs $4.50 in Tokyo. The guy explained to me how everything works: You get your own private "room" with a reclining chair, computer w/tv, internet, games, and anime/manga rental. This is a damn good deal if you ask me.

I hoped on the elevator and went to my room on the 5th floor. It was kind of like walking into an office building and seeing a ton of cubicles except the walls went all the way to the ceiling, and there were anime/game posters everywhere.

I spent the next four hours studying/doing homework/chatting with people on Facebook. When I was leaving the sun had already signaled that the new day had begun, so I grabbed the next train to TUJ.

RAMEN!

For those of you curious about the ramen I had, it was called Chyoshyuu-men. This is basically ramen that has extra pieces of pork in it. This particular ramen-ya (shop) used a pork-fat based broth that was absolutely delicious. Definitely going back to this place next time I"m in 'bukuro and hungry.

It has been a couple weeks since my last update -- the gap was due to having all of my mid terms and projects to do. However, now that those are all taken care of the updates should start being a little more frequent (plus the weather here is starting to be very nice which means I'll be more inclined to go explore).

I think I'll start this post off with this youtube video of the club I went to last night: Club Atom



I'm pretty sure this video explains everything you want to know about the club, so here is a bit more color on my night.

Last night I found myself with two options: Option 1: Stay home and relax // watch tv. Option 2: Go to Club Atom. I left my fate in the hands of a 500 yen coin (the traditional Kevin & Keith "damn, we can't make a decision" method). As the fates would have it, the coin came up heads which was the "go to Club Atom" side. Unlike last time at Womb, I didn't get very dressed up at all. I threw on my classic Have Heart tee, some jeans, and my sambas, grabbed some cash and was off.

The train ride into Tokyo was pretty boring, but I did make a couple observations about my fellow 11:30pm passengers. It was a pretty clear split between drunk salaryman and kids going out to party. All of the salarymen were asleep while the party-goers were sending out text messages as fast as their fingers could type them. Even though I was on the last train into Shibuya it was so packed I had to stand... I guess this shouldn't be too big of a surprise since it was Saturday night. When I got off the train in Shibuya I headed straight for the club.

Shibuya is so incredibly lively that I can't really convey it into words. Once I turned down the street that Atom is on I knew it was going to be a crazy night. There were probably 60-70 people all standing outside of the club. While waiting to get inside I met an english ex-pat named Kris who is here teaching at some university. He was on his way out of the club right next to Atom, and when asked how it was he pretty explicitly stated, "It was shit mate.. definitely stick to Atom." After this brief chat I got in the que, and readied my ID and $$$ for the cover. Again, unlike the seedy clubs in Roppongi, you have to show ID at the door to get in (20 and older). Cover is $10 before 11, and goes up to $30 after that; you also get 1 free drink if you're a guy and I believe 2 if you're a girl. There are lockers on the first floor, but they get filled up pretty quick. Once you get up to the club (it's on the 4th floor) there is a guy who will check your coat for $5.

Once I checked my coat I started working my way to the dance floor. It was just as packed as the video makes it look. From the front of the dance floor all the way back to the bar it was super crowded. Since I wasn't there to get drunk I just headed straight to the dance floor.

I have to say that the DJs here absolutely fantastic. There were 4 that rotated throughout the night. I think they did 30ish minute sets 3x each. I believe it is these same 4 DJs every weekend, which is not a bad thing at all as they were freaking fantastic; they got the crowd involved, had a huge variety of trance/house/hardstyle/etc., and did an overall great job adding to the experience. DJ Hosaka is probably my favorite as he played a lot of vocal trance + house mixes of rock n'roll. During his first set, he opened up with a crazy mix of Nirvana's "Smells like teen spirit" which caused the crowed to go nuts. This was followed by "Sweet Child O'Mine" which I had never heard turned into a trance tune before, but damn was it awesome. I ended up singing the song to this Japanese girl I was dancing with. There were probably another 15 rock songs that I sang along to as well. The Japanese got a kick out of watching me rock out - I even encouraged this group of Japanese to sing along with me -- hilariousness. I should also note that out of probably 1,500 people I was 1 of 4 foreigners, which is great.

At the end of the night all four DJs came out and autographed some CDs and tossed them out into the crowd  which I thought was pretty cool. Definitely going back.

This Shibuya adventure is a bit more wild than the last one was. I went to Club WOMB, which is one of Tokyo's best known clubs, from about midnight until they closed at 6am. 

Today I went on a guided tour of Akihabara. The tour guide has been living in Japan for 6 years, and does research about this particular area of Tokyo, and is an "otaku," which is basically an anime/manga fan.

We learned a lot about the history of Aki on the tour, and how it developed the unique culture. Basically, back in WWII it acted as the black market for radio parts. Small shops would be set up and sell radio parts that were taken from anywhere really. However, the entire area was destroyed, and had to be rebuilt. Right next to the main station gate there is still a huge shopping area that sells very niche electronic parts - if you gave MacGyver 10 minutes in there he could probably build a space ship, powered by anti-matter. There was also a lot of home security stuff and things like spy cams.

We then went across the street to 世界のラジオ会社 (I think the last 2 kanji are wrong, oh well) which translates to the "World Radio Company." It is so named because back in the day the top floor was used a a show room for NEC's latest technology. The building now houses tons of anime/manga/collectors shops. There was one particular floor dedicated to these resin-joint dolls. The doll itself cost $750 minimum, then the clothes/hair/eyes were all very expensive as well. Apparently this is hugely popular in Aki, and people will carry their dolls around with them; some cafes even offer doll sized tea sets so you can have lunch with it. The tour guide explained that it has become very popular with men recently as well. Who knew?

We then proceeded to walk around a bit outside, and headed over towards "Man's Mainstreet." It is so called because it is filled with maid cafes (which I will get to in one second), and stores that sells all sorts of unmentionables. There were also quite a few arcades here as well - some of them were really interesting actually. There was one in particular that stood out because it was 100% dedicated to retro games such as atari and super nintendo.

The next two stops were maid themed. The first was a maid barber shop where, for the low, low price of $100, you can get "the shittiest haircut of your life" according to the tour guide. Basically it works under the idea of anti-talent, which means it is not about their ability, but rather that they are giving it 150% effort. I don't really understand it, but apparently it's very popular in Aki.

And now the maid cafe. Admittedly, I had wanted to visit one at least once while I was here (my host family's younger son even said that I have to go at least once). First, you walk up 2 flights of narrow stairs (would fail U.S. fire codes - no questions asked). I was the first one to go inside, and had this "what the ..." moment, because about 5 feet in front of me was a 18(?) year old Japanese girl wearing something that looked like a mix between underwear and a swim suit. This girl then said "okaeri, goshyujin-sama" which is something along the lines of "welcome back, master." I'm not sure if "master" is the best translation, but the whole point they are trying to convey is they are your "maid." Regarding the swimsuit, according to the sign today was "at the beach" day. The interior looked pretty much like a regular cafe.

 The sitting down and ordering was fairly normal. Then came the "service." I ordered a cream soda (melon soda, which is freakin' delicious, with ice cream). So the girl brings it to me, but instead of just putting it down on the table for me, she gets down on her knees, and holds the drink up to me, and has me drink the first part of it while she holds the straw. The tour guide got something a bit more extravagant though -- the girl brought out a tray filled with various ingredients. They were: Natto (this will get its own post) wasabi, caramel, milk, soda, ketchup, soy sauce, and a few others that I forget. The maid then had him stand up, and play 3 rounds of Japanese rock-paper-scissors with her. If he won, he got to pick 1 ingredient. However, if he lost she picked something. He won the first round, and picked the soda. The poor guy lost the next two rounds though and ended up with a natto, caramel, and soy sauce soda. On top of this, since he lost two in a row, the maid got to smack him! I have to give the guy credit though, he drank the entire thing. As his reward, he got to take a picture with the maid. (side note: you can't take pictures in maid cafes generally w/out spending a decent amount of cash). This was a really hilarious experience, and if you are ever in Japan, I highly recommend it. Here is the link to the maid cafe I went to: http://cos-cha.com/event.html (its all in Japanese - obviously).

If you want to sit and actually eat at a maid cafe, it will be fairly expensive. The food is pretty average, but what you are paying for is the "service." The more you order, the more the maids will talk to you, and play with you. You can even get point cards, which keep track of how much you spend, and at certain point levels you can get rewards from the maids.

They also have a huge variety of maid cafes as well. They do not all have girls in maid uniforms. There are butler cafes, cross-dresser cafes, and just about what ever you can think of. Some of the more popular maid cafes can have hour long lines!!!! Some of them also offer what is called "soul comfort" which means you pay like $100, and you get to sit down with a maid for 1 hour, and just talk about what ever you want. Apparently this is supposed to make you feel better - I guess if you are an otaku who games and watches anime 24/7, getting to sit down and talk to a cute girl in a maid outfit for an hour is worth $100?

After the maid cafe, we went to a few other buildings. One in particular was named Don Quixote. It was home to a very famous maid cafe, as well as AKB48 Stage, which is where pop idols come and sing. It was really crowded since there was a performance going while we were there. We also went to an anime art gallery, and besides the fact that all the art was of scantily clad anime girls, I was really impressed at the skill level. I am by no means an expert on art though; paintings ranged from between 2.5-4.5 thousand $.

That pretty much concludes the tour. It was a very interesting experience, and I highly recommend going to these places at least once - even if you aren't into anime/manga/maids(lol) I can almost guarantee you'll laugh at least once.

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There is a chance I'll be going on a camping trip in two weeks, which should be fun.

 This week is going to be very busy though, due to a lot of projects coming due, and tests, so I probably wont post too much. Hopefully I'll have something really entertaining to post after this weekend.