100 posts and Dr. Atkins

I noticed that my last post was my 100th post. Hurrah! Maybe I'll pump out 100 more of these babies before I get back.

The other day I hopped on the ol' scale again and noticed I lost another kilo. That makes a grand total loss of 7 kilos. (15.4 lbs for you British and Americans still in the past) So for all those stuck on your "low-carb diet" and not doing anything except clogging your ateries and subsidizing the bacon industry, come to Japan and lose weight without doing anything special. Yes, for the most part the food tastes like air with a crisp aroma of the sea, but that's the beauty of it.

Beautiful Weather...Harsh Penal System

Today was a another beautiful day. As in "I-Shouldn't-Have-worn-that-jacket" kind of day. Today I had another english lesson. It was quite an insightful day. She wanted my advice about her relationship with her boyfriend. Now if any of you know me, me giving relationship advice is on the same par as the Pope giving advice on sex. Oh wait, he does that. Well just input an example of someone giving advice on something they know nothing about. ...like the Pope.

Also today, I went to Shinjuku to the 7 floor massive book store to see about getting this other book I need for Japanese Literature. I told the lady at the counter I couldn't find the book and she told me it was in the other branch 5 minutes walk away. So she called the other store and had them find the book and put it in my name behind the service counter. I don't know what I will do when I get back to the US and the most polite thing anyone will do is not spit in your food.

As promised here are some pics of the cherry blossoms and such. They aren't as good as they should be. The blossoming season was a couple weeks ago, but I found some trees with blossoms still on them near the river I run by everyday.


This is on the path by the river.


A close up of the "rodent-posts" they have by this part of the path. Not sure the purpose, but they are kawai sugiru (too cute).


Cherry blossoms are pretty and all from afar, but I think they are even more beautiful upclose. Hence the many pictures.


I've got many more. Notice the lovely power lines in the background. Power lines are kind of like Japan's unofficial mascot. They are in every picture you take whether you like it or not.


With the greenery in the background.


And this is the aftermath of the Sakura. On a really windy day, it almost looks like snow there are so many little petals about.

Here are some pictures from Roppongi. Even though I've managed to avoid that place for...6 months or so, I ended up going the other day. As soon as you exit the station you get the "Hey man, good drinks, beautiful girls.." or "You want massage?". You have to know where you are going and walk in a straight line otherwise you'll get hassled by all the bar salesmen. I feel so sorry for the girls saying "massage?" though. As Quentin put it once, "What kind of trash makes women do that?".


A float advertising some sort of new pop or tea. [edit: upon actually reading it, it's for a "Wizardy Cocoa" drink. well fancy that.] With the fairy godmother on the back. All whilst blaring obnoxious pop music.


The main street in Roppongi with Tokyo Tower in the background. It looks really neat, but it's too hard to get a good picture with a normal camera.


Waiting for the subway at Roppongi Station. The line to Roppongi is supposed to be all modern and stuff, but it's sooo slow and noisy. And the most expensive line in Tokyo.

Clearly, It's a Monkey's Paw

Right before lunch time these two guys stopped us to talk to us, which doesn't happen as much as I thought. Mostly people just stare a hole into your head, too shy to say a thing. But anyways, they went on to tell me that they wanted to make "America or Canada" friends. I gave them my email and one guy emailed me and said "You can ask me everything you want to know". I'm guessing the Japanese equivalent of that phrase isn't so...cult leader-esque sounding.

In Japanese literature we started the actual "Literature" part of the course. Since I'm a dork, I find it a lot more interesting than I thought I would. We are reading a book called "Southern Exposure", an anthology of essays written by or about Okinawa. Okinawa is the southernmost prefecture of Japan. It's compareable the relationship between America and Hawaii. Okinawa is the island with the huge Marine base on it. Which is a huge issue in Okinawa. They aren't too happy about the whole thing. After all, Okinawa was actually an independent nation before Japan took it over. ..But that's a whole other subject.

Today was a nice 18 degree blue skied Tokyo day. I went with Simon and Quentin to the top of one of the older Hosei buildings since it was nice weather. It's where the "cool" kids hang out I think.


I wish I could think of a word that means "2" and goes with "French". It would be a better caption to this picture. Notice the shades on Simon there. This is an example of Japanese fashion. Only Simon could pull off these travesties.


This is a picture of the cafeteria portion of Hosei. It's been really crowded lately with first year students. We know that they are first year students because I see that they carry books and not make up.


Yasukuni shrine from the top of the building. I wish I would have got a picture of this during the cherry blossom season, but if wishes and buts were clusters of nuts, we'd all have a bowl of granola, eh?


Some camera happy moments.

I was going to add some more pictures but I need to be more organized about this. So I'll semi-organize them into categories and post individually. Yeah...that will work one time I'm guessing. Anywho, expect some sakura pictures and such soon.