The Days we Remember

It is officially my last day in Tokyo...for a month. It's been a good time with many ups and downs. Regrettably I haven't kept up with my writing of course this is mostly for my brilliant memory.

A lot has happened in the past few weeks - The Jesse Era - My first apartment search - Sara's one liner that led me to Saitama..after one day - The disappearance of Ovi - Takadanobaba good byes - fun times in Odaiba with Jared - The top of the Metropolitan Government Building - A second trip to Ueno - The strees of exam (and a practically well done job) - The chaos and the opportunity to go home.

It's been a good time, yet there is room for improvement - what important for me is that I continue pressing forward and continue on so that I can make the best of Japan before my time is up.

I've met good people and I've grown up with them here, all in all let us look to the future

Hmmm

Seems I've been a bit slacking in my posts.

Lots of school work lately, lots of time spent in shibs, and the rest at home.

Basically finals are coming up really soon and I've got to prepare. Besides that pulled a 7 day which was pretty fantastic - finished "Band of Brothers" which was amazing. Of course kept in line with politics - pretty messed up right now.

Personally I feel for Adnan whose business is essentially dependent on the USD and with the Yen so strong it kills sales, at least on exports.

Time to do my paper on Alexander Lukashenko!

Takatastic time!

school as usual until late. after that Jesse and I took the bus to Shibs got some wendys and talked to Jack and the normals at the spot for a little bit. We then decided to go back to Takadanobaba and just hang out - somehow I ended up talking to Natsumi so we decided to play a prank on her - I had Jesse text her in perfect Japanese making her think I had learned - we got her to call and then we just passed the phone back and forth - absoultely halirous. "How did your japanese get so good, why didn't you tell me, how did your learn" it was an experience. After that we ran into Teddy in the lobby who was just hanging talking to new rentee's.

We worked our way to the mid section of baba, checked out the pubabuba but it was pretty slow but we ran into this guy and started doing the Obama rain check where you basically just say his name and positive things. So he took us to another spot and treated us - he's a comedian and famous kickboxer in Japan - so he and his friend then showed us "true japanese..." took us to the spot and the man dropped 2k on the business man talking thing - it was insane! After that we went to shinjuku...Erika blah. Went back home and slept

A new world, A new president - Barack Obama

Tonight President Obama has made a speech that will unify a world. He has shown his virtue and his value and I know that he will change America for the better by listening to American's and working with them

This is a day I will never forget when a country so long divided has joined as one and America has shed new light upon itself.

President Barack Obama you have done it, and I will support you fully as my President.

God Bless America!

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HAVE BEEN WATCHING THIS SINCE JANUARY

I HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THIS

AND AMERICA HAS CHANGED

WE ARE A NEW COUNTRY

AND WE ARE A TRUE COUNTRY

BARACK OBAMA YOU HAVE WRITTEN HISTORY AND YOU ARE OUR PRESIDENT AND I COULDN'T BE MORE PROUD

OBAMA 2008
AMERICA 1776-2008
REMADE AND ANEW

207 to 135!!!!

I've seen it from the beginning from my state of Vermont to the huge victory in PA to the worry of the 2004 00 repeat until a grand state called Ohio!

Its not 207-138 with +3 From south Dakota

But this is history and thanks to MSNBC I'm watching it all from across the world.

In a few hours now America will be changed forever!!!!!!!!!!!!

TODAY IS THE DAY HISTORY IS MADE

GO OBAMA

AND

GO AMERICA

OUR COUNTRY DEPENDS ON IT

and so does the world...

P I K A T I M E T O K Y O

Days like today are why I love this city.

So its about 5ish I head off to Shibuya to meet up with Marc, there's a camera crew and everything there - big stuff so I cross a bunch of time. Marc was running a lil late thanks to traffic but w/e - we eventually met up kicked it around Shibs looking for costumes, ran into this ice cream place and got some delcious flavors - SO GOOD. So shibs was a failure in the costume departmant but no worries.

We then ran up to Roppongi by bus - hit up Donqui, I got a pika pajama (COSTUME!!) so I'm set, Marcs waiting till tomorrow to do his but its all good. So we then headed to Tokyo Midtown, got some burgers - huge burgers at this old school styled place, very nice very good - kinda expensive (midtown...) We then hit up the park behind it, checked it out got stuck in the swings... uhhh the little tiny one for kids, I managed to get all the way in, glorious sight!

We then walked up to 57 which is this super high end place Marc used to work during its opening last year so he knew people and the manager who is this super chill dude who knows ppl all around tokyo and is a pretty high up DJ who gets invites to VIP's all the time so pretty big. After that I let Marc borrow the book for our econ exam tomorrow...

So I'm heading home - the train was....lets say, slightly impaired but amusing all the same. Now I'm walking back in Takanobaba and I get a call from Ovi who's like "I'm in a tree right now" I was like umm yeah! nice! He had a little to much popcorn or something but it was a very amusing call. I'm almost home and who do I run into! Rei!!! yeah no shazzle, it was crazy - kinda wonder what she was doing in BaBa but that's for her eyes only. So crazy time tonight and tomorrow I will be Pikachu and I will be loving it!

Womb to Ropps with the Sophia gals and Marc - can't wait

Aisha's Performance

So it's monday and Aisha had her show! Me and Meggy went in together, getting totally lost trying to find the place but somehow we ran into Hugo Lilly and Aish's bf along the way. (and her mom too) So we eventually got it sorted out and Aisha found us and brought her in. 3rd basement so realll low. Waited around for a bit before Aisha dished out an incrediable performance, extremely good - amazing voice!!!

So DAMN, after which she had to take care of stuff there so me meggy hugo and lilly all went to fridays got a little meal - hit up an Irish hubab - then hit up kareoke - Hugo is a very very livly/funny man to be around very interesting singer!

We then got the train with Aisha and all went home.

G O A I S H A ! ! ! ! ! !

Yuriy and I and Natsumi

Sooo we all hung out together for a bit having a jolly old time eating popcorn and whatnot then uhhoh they both missed their trains...and have no place to go...except for....Takadanobaba because my train rocks!

So thats what happened, we had a slumber party till 5 and it was full of videos and fun. Yay!

Adv101

Headed out after a no time constraint knock on my door by Josh Chaz and Teddy, we walk to big box where we meet up with this HUGE group organized by these two Waseda kids - one who I somehow met earlier..So we head down Waseda dori to this restaurant which is super cheap and really good - but at that time I've been getting messages from Natsuki and a call from Ov's so Ov came by but later peaced out when he saw the style - not his way. I then eventually left to Shinjuku running into Tatsuya bringing another person the other way (one of the waseda students) So I hit up the pubabab in Shinjuku, have a little drama but meet a cool guy named John who will make another appearance in the near future.. I then am about to leave and go home when this girl grabs me and brings me back in...I'm like ok sure - apparently her friend digg digg "maya" so I talk it up with her, Ovi soon arrives and joins the party and some Swiss guy comes along, I offer him a seat and we talk for a bit about some cold harded folk who arn't all the friendly in comparison to myself. Natsuki comes back...AHHHH, I head outside, drama, back in, Maya leaves (ughhh) Natsu leaves. So now I'm with Ovi and our new Swiss pal, so we hit up the train to Shib's goto Pure, where we were supposed to get a big discount but since Odell wasn't there, not so much luck. Hang out there for a bit before losing Swissy who apparently wants to go back to Saitama at an ungodly hour by taxi.....yeaaa. So Ovi offers a Taxi to ropps were we go, great ride - I love driving here/being driven. We go to this neat Romanian place which is piratically empty at the time, so the light, tons of people come including Tom and Chris and so on. Fun time

Does it always get better?!

hmm.
Lets see

hubba bubba with Yuri but it was closed for a school university event so we walked to the Taka park which had all these tents going on and whatnot.

Eventually walked back getting hypnotized met Ovi at KFC got some food

Hit the pubba for a bitta before taking a quick ride to Ikebukuro to meet up with a friend for a snap. Then back

Soon worked our way once the event had ended - met up with Natsumi for a little bit.

Ovi's friend came around - From China very nice guy

Lots of mixed feelings before heading to the train - do this do that. What to do? But we caught the last one as we darted up the stairs and into the compartment.

Shibs or Ebisu - we kept on and landed in Ebisu at Ovi's request.

Hit up Lawson real quick and then wendy's (excellent 99 menu, best yet in Japan!)

Taxi or walk...long way but walked it out. Came from a different way than two weeks prior. Past Muse and up the hill.

Tons and tons of handshakes as this was Ovi's home town and all.

Hit up an undergroud half host for free, curtosy of the knowledge and the friends.

Left after a bit before meeting up with Tomo and his friend at Donkihote! A long long discussion followed with the Redw in hand. Long time later we dropped into 911 real quick but it was crowded beyond belief so we left.

Then met up with Tomo again after looking at Ipex really quick - some drama going down in the hip hop circle, very very funny.

More Whitew this time - Tomo's a crazy man with his rollerblades and all. But a very good version.

So sat around for a bit - Tomo showed his free ride technique, lots more dicussions. Random friend in the suit.

Moved forward just a little before meeting with even more TUJ students! This time from Dubai..yeah. So they were looking to hang out a little later so we all went to this nice little place close by very nice inside, great vibe. Many Europeans...

So hung around for a bit and then back out where we met up with Mr. Suit who took us to another place up the street just a tad and got a round his curtasey. We then went to another place on the 7th floor where the day drew to a close. Yuri had a big smile on his face haha.

Anywho - thats the story of Tokyo's power

Publish T.i.Z and Job interviews!

Fun day today - met up with Ovi talked about history gold and pyramids. An Italian philosopher names and the universe. It was pretty deep.

Before that I had a job interview - or just a simple little talk at Wolfgang cafe thanks to my good friend Marc! We then hung out at regular Wolfgang where I got the best burger I have ever had - it was a mushroom one with this insane sauce and lots of free testing. Marc you are the man!

And I saw and talked to Emmanuel on the train which was awesome because I knew he was always along my path but its rare to time that so well. He was sitting in the reserved seats..haha

Another grand week of school - had an R&R exam but it was all writing so I was tremendously happy with how that turned out. Absolutely excellent! But my grade will tell more truth than words.

Anwho doing the Godfather restaurant scene with my good friend Adnan which is going to be amazing.

Typical time after that

DIESEL xXx

I couldn't even begin to describe how huge and amazing this was.

It was myself, Marc, Sam (from the forces), Negra, and Jared. Eventually we met up with John and Keita. But it was insane. Huge huge huge concerts - in the size of an airport hanger, 3 huge floors and nothing but style. Going on around the world without a cent of spare change. It was the event to set the 08 bar in the history books and it was amazing.

I've got a video!!

Ovidio - the truth

Thus it was finally my term to meet the man.

Typical night - Josh and I living it up in style. Tom and Chriss of course bringing the Irish New Z good feelings. So Ovi showed up in fair fashion and as always said things took off and was a fun time. Got some bowling in totally - fun time

1stys in T's

Once again, fun week of school - exams in global and hr&r which were a far cry from any sort of the term enjoyable.

So finished a long day of school - headed back home, met up with the gang before heading out to ol' Britian. From there we hung out with Natsuki and here friends - people left eventually until it was just Chaz and I - missed the last train so we all stayed in Taka got some food and had a grand time.

Shinjuky

Kinda an odd day, but with no school it was a perfect day.

So nothing to exciting in the morning - later on I got Yuriy and we headed to Shinjuku station where after quite a bit of time we met up with Natsuki her friends and Chaz. We then hung around Shinjuku doing our thing before heading home at around 10. Good time.

FC TOKYO Football!!!

Wake up call via Ted today.

Headed out with Josh, Ted, Chaz and Ajinomoto Stadium. FC Tokyo was our team as we bought up scarves and got prepped up for the game. The place was brilliant - a capacity of over 50,000 with an attendance of 30,000 for the day. The adversary Shimizu S-Pulse in the orange.

We got pretty rowdy as the game continued on. Sadly our team was down 0-3 at half which is a far cry chance for a comeback. But early in the second we made one up and by god we went crazy. Of course our opponents didn't let that last long scoring another goal and another during overtime. So it was upsetting that our team got beat up a bit but overall the experience was incredible. I really had no idea how amazing football games were especially with the crowd the chants and the vibe. Absolutely brilliant.

From there Atom atom with Marc - Yuri - Josh later along - and Kacey!

Pub in a Tub with a Bub

Thursday - first time with Josh Chaz Ted and Brian. Watched the soccer game and had a rowdy time! Meet up with some Waseda students and eventually joined 3 girls and their follower Jared. I didn't have to try

Friday - pub a tub. So I left Josh a nice little note under his door. First I hung out with Megan and Aisha going to a place near where her gig was that was alright but not in my element. They then proceeded to shop as I tagged alone - from there we took the train back to shibuya where they didn't hold true to their promise to hang out with me, but no matter. Headed back home in a slight annoyance and somehow I ran into Chaz going the opposite way! So he turned back with me and we all went and hit up Josh's room where Ted showed up soon afterward. We then hit the roads and I finally got to meet Ovi and Tod and their strong accented buddies. Jarad and Natsuki were there from the previous night along with some of his pals from Waseda. So after a little bit we - Jared his friends Chaz I and Natsuki decided to hit the train down to Roppongi but it decided to stop at Hiro-O permanently so luckily we were close so we walked. Found Muze and proceeded away. It was a good time with a lot of odd little events. Two of the guys left to grab some food Natsuki learned some lessons along the way and Jarad the bandanna boy did his thing. Finally we busted out leaving Jarad behind - Chaz myself Natsuki and Toby - amazingly we ran into his friends once again but we eventually split paths which worked out alright. We then made our way back to Taka and had a beef bowl which was excellent except for the rice..Chaz and I said our goodbyes to our new found friend and got some well deserved rest.

Another fun day school.

Theater: we did a "create an object" game which was pretty awesome. I did a bow and arrow. Then we made little skits using imaginary objects. I love that class and even though I'm somewhat held back its always a ton of fun.

Had our presentation in H&R thus I wore a suit the entire day. But the professor just kind of annoyed me because he was far more strict with our group than the others. We got an 80 but still we definitely deserved more.

H&R

Enjoyed my time doing nothing until 3 when I had to go to school to meet up with my H&R group for our presentation tomorrow.

Aki, Lena, Jesse and...Kishan who never showed.
We are by far the least organized group - 4th time we tried to get together and we still failed. Either way I did most of the powerpoint Lena added a ton from her own and it looks good. I'm just happy I have an excuse to bust out my suit tomorrow. It should be pretty fun. Thank god for Aki and his attempts at organizing this all. Can't wait for the weekend!

Tokyo Tower was PINK today!

Honey Apple New Years?

Rosh Hashanah

Thats right - today I celebrated with Josh (after going to the Italian place with Ted and the others) He got a $14 apple and some honey and we celebrated Jewish style. Delicious - good combo - can't wait to see the awkward video!

He also showed me his friends work who is an insane editor (hired by Harvard)

Blah

Went to our weekly Italian restaurant with my #1 Josh. Gottsa pizza and sa pasta! Great stuff - its now our Japan weekend tradition.

After that I watched as plan after plan fell apart :(
On to next week then.

Yuri's Bday!!

Yakiniku in celebration of Yuriy today. Had a good number show up - at least 10 which was pretty much all the seats we had. So we ate it up for two hours - I went absolutely crazy because I love beef and I don't get enough of it, plus its a one month expensive treat so I gotta keep it heavy.

From there we worked our way to Tokyo tower and the park behind it and just went camera crazy..I'll show you what I mean =)

Called Out

1 week off and finally back in school. Good times.

Typical day up until theater where for the last 20 minutes with thanks to Aisha and her sidekick Megan I got to go up and do a little acting with Shine'y on a very interesting choice of topic. For my sake and yours I'll do my best not to mention it. It worked out alright except for the fact that I had to use my quote for the day "blood has no nationality" and I couldn't really get it clear whether that was the only source I had or not - so overall I didn't feel like I really got into it that much which is too bad. Even still - always a great class.

All I Ever Wanted

don't be too drawn in.

Once again day #7 and marking the last of my kinda oddly placed vacation.

Had a fun collision between cell mail..yay

Went to Ginza in an attempt to see the H&M store....One problem, the line was 3 blocks long which is so sad and funny. Seriously if there's a new product here you can be rest assured it's gonna get crazy attention. So instead I went to Zara and Uniqlo and got some shirts and pants to put to completion my winter needs.

I then went to school, did some homework ran into Marc and got a free taxi ride to Shibuya ($20 damnnn, Marcy's crazy to spend that much when it's 300 by train) But his choice. We met up with his friend but they had to split to do some loan business - so I wandered around for a bit and then headed back home where I watched Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World - Russell Crowe is a pretty bamf. The movie was very good.

Now I get to have an awkward moment with one of my friends tomorrow, can't wait!

SUMO!!!!

The only travesty of this day was getting up at 6am.
Either way it was worth it, as it saved 1600 yen off the ticket.
We got there (Josh Anthony and I) pretty early - we were one of the first 200. Basically the arena was empty so we grabbed front row seats for the amateurs. It was pretty amusing especially with the ritual lasting 10 times longer than the bout.

Later we got up for our lunch break, wandered aimlessly around the town - being autumn equinox everything was closed. Eventually we found a little shop and got fairly cheap meals....I really need to stop eating so much ramen. We then checked out this crazy art museum that looked something like starwars and had the craziest escalator ever - it leveled off at one point - now that invention. The museum was sick there was a giant bridge in the middle of it and it was all edo period stuff from Japan. There was a funky little folk performance and plenty of touchables to Josh's supreme delight.

After that we hit up sumo for the big matches between the pros. I was down for everything except for near the end they would literally take 10 minutes just to get psyched up, get all the advertising out there and make sure they threw salt at least 500 times. At the very end we got to see one of the grand champions who savaged a 100 yen bet I had going with Josh - and in fantastic style he improved his record to 9-1!

We also sat in pretty much every seat available - kicked bumped and moved around!

So it was a good day except for the very end in which I missed Aisha's performance because I got back so late....and got chewed out for it. :(. But one person can only do so much. SORRY AISHA, you know I never intended it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and I also got to meet a grand champion and get an autograph!!

El Capitano = Bad Translations

After a fun night, it was a chill day for me today. Met up with Josh around 3, we went to an amazing Italian restaurant - got a more than decent pizza and some pasta. Josh entertained the waiter with a little 50 50 to 100 stunt (coin exchange). After that we went and checked out each others movie collections, swapped a few. Josh entertained me to some tight music. So we then split for two hours and met back up at 7:30 along with Ted. We headed down Taka street and went into basically these peoples house which was a very small traditional restaurant. Josh talked it up with a not so sober Japanese guy in very fashionable I have no idea what your saying and vice versa - either way it was very, very amusing to watch. I got some ginger pork with miso, rice, pickels, and potatos. Good meal, little on the expensive side though. Other than that, one of my first days actually hanging out and seeing Takadanobaba for what it has to offer.

And apparently there was an earthquake this morning.....AND I BLOODY MISSED IT!!! somehow...

Truth be told - Muze muze? Woah

Since I can't seem to find it I'll just point it out - before the TUJ party I was hanging out with Marc and we randomly ran into this really cute friend of his who worked with him two years back. They reminisced and she asked if I was Japanese (which is odd because of my skin complexion) I guess my eyes tell truths that even I don't know.

The End!

But today, watched Gladiator and Blood Diamond before. I LOVE THOSE MOVIES, they are brilliant in every respect especially Djimon Hounsou.

From there I met up with Megan with Josh alongside in good fashion - also hanging with this cool guy that she knew. We found Keita who was supposed to be hanging with 5 friends...but I guess those 5 were us! He had his friend with him - a cute girl who made it clear that Keita likes all girls..alot. So we went to this really really fancy place with a pond inside and a silver tree and ate Tuna and had drinks (pricy but nice). From there most went home and Megan and I met up with Chi and went Muzing.

Midas Touch

2 for all and the one that stays behind. tsk tsk.
Midas midas - TUJ sponsored - all the friends together, plus TUJ students all over - hey, got a lot of smiles near the lockers! Fun times - but you really never know. Akasaka, just curious whats going to go down later tonight..

Hmmm

Fairly dull day today, went to Shinjuku to get some dress shoes and pants - then ran off to Roppongi where I somehow ran into Jared who was getting his cell with his uncle. Ended up going to eat at the typical ramen house that I usually go to (mainly because it's cheap and close). Then back to Donki where I got some belts, batteries, and a 250 gb portable hard drive while Jard got his phone. From there I went home and watched Man on Fire - which is an amazing movie - Denzel is king.

Skhol

14 hours of school is fun!

Race was great as always - the others wern't bad. Had theature, poor Mego and Aisha had to play the parts of angry relationship counterparts.

Mexican Food!

Didn't do much today. Did some laundry and decided to go to Roppongi to eat at a Mexican Restaurant with Keita and Marc. Walked around Tokyo Midtown with Keita while we were waiting for Marc - really nice place. John and Kevin also decided to come - so we eventually met up and got some Burrito's. And I must say, I love Mexican food. From there we stopped at McDy's realy quick and then to Donkihonte.

School tomorrow :D

Mao's Exibition, and one insane..

Got up pretty early for a weekend. I then headed out to Shinjuku getting extremely confused as to what exit I was supposed to be at. Mao eventually found me and took me to her school. There were a lot of cosplay dress and exhibits. Mao's was a serious of 14 photos in which I don't know if planned or not told a story - it was really impressive once I figured it all out, her friend had hers up too - they were drawings, very well done. I stayed there for a good three hours talking with Mao.

I then left for Harajuku where I found Marc in the massive crowd - we then met back up with a lot of people - Laura, Keita, Yuri, Danni, Vincent (who's leaving Tokyo soon :( ) etc. We ate at an all you can eat place and then worked our way back up the street and across - near to the station and went to the Meiji Jingu Shrine. It was really nice to walk in a semi forest - and the shrine was beautiful too.

After that we all went to Shinjuku and went to the bookstore near Tokyo Hands. After that Laura left with Vincent to visit Keita in Roppongi (who left earlier for work). Yuri, Marc, Kyle and I then wondered around Shinjuku and walked up and down Kabukichō which was pretty entertaining.

After that we got some conveyor belt Sushi and went to this store which sold discount designer and Zara. I finally got a bag and some plain shirts.

I then went back to Takadanobaba for a bit (seeing 6 people in the dorm!) before heading out to meet up with Megan and soon to be Eddie and his buddy. We lost Eddies friend and hung out with some people from the Philippians.

Mitsui Outlet Park

Met up with Keita in Ikebukuro where we waited for a bit and met up with John his two buds and Laura. We then hopped on a train and went out into the countryside - or greener Tokyo. We then got on a very crowded bus and slowly worked our way to the outlets.

The place was very nice, two floors in an outdoor setting (with Costco nearby). We got food - Kuri and Donuts for me. After that we circled around both floors.

I got a blazer and a jacket - the prices were pretty incredible. Some were still high but if you looked in the right spots there were solid deals.

From that little adventure we all headed back - I met up with Josh on a...funny train ride. We then went around until the last train. Although Josh had to leave a little earlier.