Shibuya

I've been growing tired of getting out and just drinking, then seeing a couple things along the way. I set out to goto the famous Shibuya this past weekend. All I'd ever known of it is that it's one place to experience night life, and shop. Other than that all I've seen is what's in anime/manga and video games. Well first of all the day started with a slight hangover from the night before (thank God I know my limits.) So that's one thing I had against me, waking up late that is. After I'd given up on trying to find someone to explore this with me I set out on my own. I get on the local train from Sagamino Sta. then arrive at Yokohama. So then I transfer to the JR (Japan Railways) line that I thought was gonna take me directly to Shibuya. Unfortunatly I don't know Tokyo's train system that well yet so what did I do? I got lost, about an hour total of lost time. I wandered around a small city called Ichikawa for a little while. Then made my way back to Tokyo, eventually I get there to Shibuya. I felt the excitement welling up in me. As I try to find the exit of the station I see the famous "Scramble" and think to myself "this is what I'm here for, to see all this awesome stuff." The lights, the hustle and bustle, and the plethora of unbelievably beautiful women. So I see a music shop first thing outside the station, then quickly leave noticing the prices on everything. Well I wanted to see the often landmarked Shibuya 109 building, but I couldn't find it. Wandering the streets and stopping in random shops, I saw all sorts of cool things to buy. That is if I had enough money. I only brought out 15000 yen at the start of the day. Noticing all the shops and tall buildings made me realize that is was true when a friend of mine said that most Japanese thought that the area I lived in was pretty country. All around were huge buildings that were stacked with shops upon shops. It was a pretty cool way to put things into perspective. The only thing I really bought out there was a usb keyboard. That's because it was only 1200 yen. I kinda needed one for a num pad. Well after wandering around the myriad of shops I decided it was time to visit some of the landmarks. Upon entering Shibuya 109 I quickly realize this isn't for me, because EVERY SHOP WAS FOR WOMEN. I felt like a stupid Gaijin. . . but the guide I got from the JR lady said that it had other misc shops in it too. Woe is me. At this point many shops were closing, so I didn't get a chance to go inside 109 (2) which is the much smaller men's version. I saw a couple of landmarks and visited a few more shops, If anyone has played "The world ends with you" and you went to Shibuya, you'd be surprised how accurate they portrayed it in the game. The funny thing is right inside 109 (2) there's a poster that says "It's a Wonderful Thing" They Japanese title for the game is Subarashiki Kono Sekai which means "It's a Wonderful World." After doing some research after the fact, I realized I didn't even cover half of Shibuya, so I'm doing another trip there in the near future. Next time during the day so I can take better pictures.

One of the best nights ever

First of all the night wasn't awesome til the very end. My friend Will and I decided to goto Yokohama (I really like that place) and do whatever. Well the night started with us exiting the wrong side of the train station. But that wasn't without merit. We ended up in a small bar (as most bars in Japan are.) All wood decor, old school music, decent priced drinks, it made for a very relaxing enviornment. Well after tasting alcohol on my lips I felt like drinking alot, but it didn't happen like that. We ended up wandering around forever looking for the bar I went to the last time I was in Yokohama. I did find the European pub, but not the steely, trendy place with cheese. After wondering for some more we ended up in some place called "Sea Port Pub." It felt like an average Japanese bar, except they didn't have vodka (boo!) So I settled for whisky, we drank two drinks and sang karaoke. After that we got our check, a un fucking believeable ¥9600!!! That' damn near $100! Apparently the charged us for service, karaoke, and seating in addition the the high priced drinks! Fuck them! We paid our tab out of fear of getting arrested. We left with our pockets thin and our heads hung low. I still had ¥2000 and some change, so I offered to flip the next couple drinks while we searched for an ATM. Wandering some more, we found a sign that said "Orange County Bros." subtitled "Rock, Country, Blues, Jazz" I think. So we traveled up a few flights of stairs to a place that looked like a teenager's garage. Memorabilia, posters, and shabby furniture were strewn about. In addition to all that, there had to've been $1000's in equipment there. Well as soon as we walked in everyone stopped doing what they were doing and looked at us, talk about akward. So I asked "Ii des ka?" litreally meaning "is it ok?" they have us come in. There were some talented people playing. As soon as I came in and sat down, they offered a guitar to me. After a couple of seconds of getting egged on I accept. This was like nothing that's ever happened before in my life. The bassist, guitarist, and drummer are looking at me waiting. I strike a couple of repedetive chords and they follow with a much more elaborate, funky, and amazing rendition. The guitarist was incredible, the drummer was perfect, and the bassist was equally as incredible. I was jamming out with a random Japanese band, I couldn't believe this was happnening. It was like a dream. After a couple of ad-lib'ed songs I sit, still in shock. With my broken Japanese and their broken English, we managed to get the point across what we were trying to communicate. After talking with the people there, and drinking a couple of drinks they have me come back up and sing too! lol I figured since they couldn't understand me any shit could do. I guess it did. So I jammed out a little more, sang a tiny bit. These people were so kind to us, they even fed us some Udon. The whole experience was like something out of a movie or a manga. After all that was said and done we were invited to a concert that one of the guy's bands is taking part in. I plan on swinging by the place more often anyway. After all that was said and done, we left in search of more cigarettes and some coffee. At this point it was past 4AM. We got on the first train back to Sagamino Sta. (the closest station to the base) Ate beef bowl. then called it a day. That was one of the best nights of my life.

Gaming . . .

This weekend wasn't as eventful as last. However I still had fun. It all started with a bullshit room inspection. For some reason people don't know how to keep their rooms clean in the barracks here, so my supervisor (LPO) decided to make my entire division stand a room inspection at 8am Saturday. Reguardless if we failed the weekly inspection or not, which I didn't. Well immediately after I ate some MickyD's on base, yes it's just like the one in the USA. Off base McDonalds are another story, they sell sweet bread and shrimp sandwiches (I think they were shrimp.) A couple of my friends and myself decided we were gonna go to the arcade in the neighboring city of Ebina. So we all hop into my friend's car and drive over there. First thing I'll tell you is that Japanese arcades are EXPENSIVE! They do have some awesome games, one in particular was a gundam game. You paid ¥300* to get a pilot card with all your info (kinda like inital D except much more intricate, and plastic) then you paid ¥500 to get into this pilot seat. The screen was huge, the controls were realistic, you had team speak, and best of all you play all this online with other people around the country! Other than that I played an asston of Taiko drum master (or something of the sort.) After a good 15 games of that my forearms were steel, and that was ¥200 a game. The claw machines were expensive too, but they had cooler shit in them. For example an anime figure that would cost upward to $50 you could win for ¥200-500. I was particularly proud of myself that day too. The VERY first thing I did, was play Street Fighter IV. I beat that son of a bitch on ONE CREDIT. I felt on top of the world after that. Well after all the Street Fighter, drumming, and Gundam, we ate at Outback. It was pretty much the same price/food as the states. Other than that, the Bon Odori festival that was supposed to take place on Sunday was pretty much shot down. It was raining ALL DAMN DAY. I'm used to getting a couple hours of heavy rain, but all day was kinda excessive. So no luck on the meeting new people front. Although I did find one website where Japanese people are looking for English speaking people for practice and visa versa. It just so happened to be a dating site too, so I figured why the hell not lol. Well It's midnight here and I have PT in 6 hours I'll keep you guys up to date, C-ya

* Yen to dollar ammonts fluxuate everyday. It's typically around ¥100 ~ $1

Yet another weekend

Well this actually all started on Thursday, for a (introduction to Japan) class field trip. We were taken a few stations away from the base then were told to go and explore. The group I was with and myself decided on Odawara Castle. Lots of awesome history behind it. The coolest things for me were that I found the Triforce!!!! Apparently it was a emblem for the warriors and what not. Lots of artifacts displayed inside the castle bore the awesomeness that is the Triforce. If you see my pics you'll see some of the stuff in and around the castle. The elephant I snapped pics of actually bowed to me when I took a pic of it, which makes elephants the most awesome creatures ever (as if they already weren't.) On Friday I decided to go barhopping in Yokohama. Instead of heading in the direction of the shopping centers, we headed the oppisite direction of the station. First we came across this really ritzy Itallian joint, and the prices of drinks were just as ritzy. After that we saw a sign for a "European Pub" and decided to check it out. It was a story underground, a very small bar with a wooded decor. My friend and I were sitting beside each other in a small 3 ft cutout, very cramped to say the least. We had a drink there and peaced out. Right outside the bar I was smoking, and decided to interact with a older local man. Putting my Japanese skills to the test I think I came out pretty well. We exchanged names, where we were from, the weather, and how nice it was to drink in cool little places like the one we were at. Before I get further into the story, I only spoke Japanese to the bartenders/servers and locals this night. It was a good experience for me. Well after that we found ourselves in a small, classy, stylish bar. They played sports on mini lcd tvs on the wall by the tables, and projected it on a film over the window outside. Everything had a sleek, skiek look to it. The strangest thing is when we sat down, they served us cheese! I was thinking to myself "this has to be the best bar in Japan!" We discussed, drank, ate cheese, and I really enjoyed that bar. The drinks were reasonably priced, like $5-7 a drink converted from Yen. After that we went to a sit in resturant, where the drinks were even cheaper. But it was time for us to go back to base so we ate a small chicken finger basket thingy gulped our drinks and left. Now Saturday was the most interesting trip, to Akihabara. This place is known as the electronics district and they Otaku capital of the world. Every store was small like a mall store except for one thing, that's only one level of it. Some stores were a couple levels, and others were up to seven levels! If it was anime, a game, or a movie, you'd find it there. We went to a Cosplay Cafe (yes they are real!) and I hit the hardest language barrier since I arrived in Japan. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to say something that they could figure out. All the waitresses were dressed in sexy French Maid outfits, and spoke with cute little voices. The rituals behind getting food was a little strange though. You had to do some sorta Bishojo (pretty girl in Japanese) magical girl song and dance. Sorta like on lost in translation where Bill Murry was on the talk show and he had to make some sorta heart sign to the camera. Imagine something like that, but much more intricate. Well we walked out as "Level 1 Masters [My Master]" and a point card. On the menu it showed that there's mulitple levels of "Masters" and a card that corisponded with each level. A very cool experience. I'll be going back next time to shop for memerobilia and electronics. If there's anything you wanna know about Japan or anything you'd like me to explain more, just ask. Well I look forward to your responses and I can't wait to tell you about my next experience. Have fun

Yokohama is Awesome

Today I decided to do a day trip to the nearest big city to us, Yokohama. You might've heard of the brand of rims/tires or whatever. Well first and foremost, thank God I know a little bit of Japanese. If I didn't spit out some of the little I knew it would've been a long night. The train system is pretty easy. You buy these cards called "Pasmo" and load it up with money. You use them at some jiffy stores like 7-11 and AmPm (Yes they have those here!) Most importanly you use them to pay your train fare. You simply wave your wallet with the card in it over a square and it automaticly charges your fare after you exit the gate. Shopping in Yokohama is something else. Take just about any mall you've ever been to, then triple it. That's only the shopping in the Yokohama train station. The mall at the station was 10 stories. The floors weren't tiny, but neither were the prices. In the base level there was an entire food market selling fresh dango, sushi, meats, fish and aside from that an entire grocery store! Keep in mind this is just the base level of the Station mall. Inside the second book store I went to they were playing Ghostbusters on the intercom lol. The First book store I spoke my broken japanese trying to get a dictionary that had japanese in Romijai (the romanization of japanese words.) Couldn't find it so we moved on. We left the station mall and walked down the road a bit and found an arcade/resturant. Much to my dismay they didn't have DDR, so I left. Further down I saw a computer store and I just had to go. Honestly I wasn't impressed with it, they had a couple of cool models but they were slightly priced higher than what you all would buy at. So we hit up another shopping area, called Landmark Tower. There was so many things there I couldn't start. I will tell you though we ate at Wendy's! Surprisingly enough, it's priced just like it is in the US and tastes the same too! Went all around, spoke some more broke-ass japanese and decided to leave the monolith that was Landmark Tower shopping. Walking down the road I saw a sign for "Nippon-Meru Park" I figured why the hell not. It was the park where that famous ferris wheel was at. But before we got there, a street performer was set up in front of the mall by the Hard Rock (you'll see in the pics.) As soon as he noticed us "gaijin" he was pretty adamant about having us watch is show. He was amusing, and fairly talented. Then he started to pull people from the audience. He picked me. Slightly confused, nervous, and excited all at the same time I go up there. The six of us were pulling a rope 3 on each side, while he balanced on it and juggled small sharp swords lol. So yeah, I took part in a Japanese Street performance After that we decided to walk around a little bit in the park, we didn't get to far for me to notice an arcade. YOSH! (means alright) I found a DDR machine. I played a quick game, impressed some japanese which made me feel good. Then the place started to close up. That's when we headed back home. On the train home I found a sign saying how to play tetris, I had to take a pic of it lol. And now here I am. There's SO much more I could type about one simple afternoon, but I'm exhaused. Y'all have fun. I'll be having mine

Japan So far

Honestly I haven't had much of a chance to go out and experience Japan too much. I'm on what's called "white card liberty" where I have to be back at base by midnight. Last night was really fun though. I got drunk at a little bar (apparently most bars in Japan are little) and did karaoke in it's country of origin. We drank, we screamed, we tried to sing and had a good night. For those of you who don't know, Japan is VERY different from the USA. The way they drive, the way they interact, and everything else. Gas is even more expensive, but cars are cheaper. Vending machines are all over the place in random spots, serving some strange shit. They have coffee that has nicotene in it! I'll be climbing Mt. Fuji on the 16th, so I'm looking forward to that. Sometime that weekend I'll also be going to Akibahara, otaku capital of the world! I'll be updating all I've experienced on here, and those of you who messaged me sorry for not getting back to you, I'm not on my computer so much. Have fun y'all