Week 16: Days 105-111

7/14-18 Monday-Friday:
Unfortunately I don't really have anything to talk about this week... or pictures... so enjoy these Tommy Lee Jones commercials for Boss coffee:



There are a whole series of these, these are just the ones I saw on TV.

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7/19 Saturday:

From Japan: Day 110

This is Akihabara: Anime, Manga (comics), and Video Games (as well as computers and electronics, and maid cafes)

Today one of my co-workers took me on a sorta tour of Akihabara. Akihabara is THE electronics district of Japan. It's located in Tokyo. First picture is from just outside the Akihabara station; it is the Fujisoft Akihabara office (also, notice the escelators in the front are spraying a little mist, thought that was interesting). Sofmap = another electronics store like Bic Camera and Yodobashi. Pictures are pretty self explanatory. I was also taken to a maid cafe, but they don't let you take pictures inside. It's not all that exciting anyway, just girls dressed up in maid costumes serve you food. I took a picture of some that were handing out fliers later on. Akihabara is very busy, and today was apparently not as busy as other days. I also took some pictures inside Yodobashi-Akiba (Akiba = short for Akihabara). You will also find lots of HUGE signs for the newest anime/manga/music/game releases. There is a lot to see here and I never really feel comfortable taking pictures, but I tried anyway. I spent most of the rest of the day walking around, buying a few things here and there, and making plans on what to buy later. I'll definately be going back again tomorrow to do more looking/buying/planning.

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7/20 Sunday:

From Japan: Day 121

"TAMAYA!!!"

Ok, so noone really shouts that out anymore (at least noone I saw). Anyways, lots happened today, where to begin... First: spent the morning in Akihabara, did some looking around and stuff. It was definitely a lot busier today than it was yesterday. I didn't spend too much time here, I had more plans. Second: Headed off to explore more of Yokohama. I started off visiting the Akarenga storehouses that I saw before that are kinda near World Porters. Akarenga, World Porters, The Landmark Tower and that area is all part of Minato Mirai 21. Walking around Akarenga, I noticed that there were a lot of orange cones out and some food stands. A festival perhaps? Walking closer to the water I noticed that there were tarps laid out on the ground, this meant only one thing... Fireworks! Since it was still early, I had more exploring to do. Next to Akarenga is the Osanbashi Pier where a really huge cruise ship was stationed (the Asuka II). I also noticed some neat structures that poured water down the sides of it... I'm not sure if they qualify as fountains or not. Anyways, I headed toward my third destination: Yokohama Chinatown. The largest Chinatown in Asia (outside of... um... China...) and one of the largest in the world. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon walking around here. If Yokohama Chinatown had a theme, I would say it is Pandas. There are a lot of Panda stuff here, including someone in a Panda suit. There are apparently over 200 restaurants, and boy would I believe that. Being hungry, I decided to find a good place to eat. China Museum (Food Entertainment) sounded promising. Plus the outside of the building looked amazing (plus there was a Hello Kitty statue that was wearing a Panda suit). The inside of the museum was also amazing. The spiral staircase with the dragon attached to it and the lanterns everywhere were beautiful. I then spent about 20 minutes trying to decide what I was actually going to eat/figuring out how to order something. I eventually decided/figured out how to order the Panda-face meat-filled dumplings (so cute...) and some other regular meat-filled dumplings (well, I thought they were normal when I ordered them, but I never had something like this before, they had liquid inside them). Neither were quite what I expected, not necessarily bad, but not that good either. After resting a bit (it was pretty hot today) I decided to visit "Panda World" (a Panda museum in the same building, I couldn't resist). First thing you see as you enter the museum are the largest stuffed Pandas I've ever seen. And huge pictures of Pandas and baby Pandas (awwwwwww....). There were a LOT of Panda pictures here, including pictures of Panda themed things in Japan (or the World?). Plus, sooo many of the cutest Panda pictures I've ever seen. On the next floor down, there was a collection of Panda-themed items from around the world. My personal favorite is the "Too Cute!" warning sign. After the Panda museum I decided to buy a shaved-ice-like Strawberry dessert (the line was pretty long, so it took a while to actually get it). Yummy! After doing a little more wandering in Chinatown, I headed toward my fourth destination: The Yokohama Marine Tower. Which (unfortunately), like many places I have tried to go see, was under repair, so I couldn't actually go inside. So I took the long way back to Chinatown, noticing that there were a LOT of people now getting ready to view the fireworks (but there was still a fair amount of time before it would be dark). There was still a lot of Chinatown to see, so I spent the next 45 minutes walking around Chinatown, taking pictures (sorry, some didn't come out that well, and some are repeats, I haven't really gone through these).
Fifth stop: Fireworks! I headed to the place I thought would be best to view the fireworks from; the place I started, Akarenga (plus, earlier I bought a ticket for a movie at World Porters to watch later on). There were sooo many people everywhere to view the fireworks. I apologize for the strange pictures, I was trying to get some clear pictures, but it was hard to do while it was getting dark. Once I got back to Akarenga, I tried to find someplace good to view the fireworks, not easy to do, plus trying to sit so you don't block people from walking through or from viewing the fireworks is hard, and holding the camera up trying to take pictures... kinda painful... but totally worth it. The fireworks were amazing! The view with the cruise ship and the bridge in the background with the fireworks was beautiful. The fireworks themselves didn't come out too clear half the time while I took pictures, but the videos looked better. I ended up moving when the police started telling people to not block people by sitting in the walkways (police are everywhere, trying to direct people and make everything go smoothly). There were some neat things with the fireworks, like shapes such as smiley faces, planets, cat faces, squids, and huge ones that would explode and look like they were 3D (kinda hard to describe). Once the fireworks finished, I headed toward World Porters. The lights on the Ferris wheel are pretty fun to watch at night (it even does fireworks), so I took some pictures and a video. Finally, 6th and final stop: World Porters to watch "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" (or Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), the newest Studio Ghibli movie. This was probably the cutest movie I have ever seen. Definitely worth the $50 cab ride I had to take from a subway station on the way back home. Apparently the subway stops going all the way to Shonandai (where I usually get off) after 10:30pm on the weekend (although the sign says there is a transfer at the stop I got off of to get there, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out where the transfer actually was, and the guy at the train station said there wasn't anything going to Shonandai... stupid language barrier).

Week 15: Days 98-104

7/7 Monday:
Blah, blah... work... blah blah...

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7/8 Tuesday:

From Japan: Day 099

Mmmm... phridge... (peach fridge... get it? heh...)

Ahhh... everyday is peach heaven. :) Well, nothing really exciting happening. I did get some random cat outside my door. Wasn't quite sure what it wanted. I left my door open, but it didn't really want to come in, it just stood outside. Eventually I gave it some raisin bread I bought and it took that and ran away. Never saw it again... guess it was just hungry. Anyway, more peach foods: A peach fluffy cake/bread thing (wasn't as bad as it looks), peach filled freezer, different flavored (VERY sweet) ice balls; mango (I threw those away of course), peach (wohoo!), apple, and grape. "Because this icecream contains puree, you can enjoy its good taste of fruit." (yes, yes you can!). Next is, GyuGyutto (gotta love the naming, I think this is supposed either be the sound for squeezing something or breaking it apart, not really sure though). GyuGyutto is probably my second favorite peach dessert ice-thing. I also think the commercials are hilarious for it. It would take too long to describe so here: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=AbEHiPEVsB4 Then there is my peach filled fridge. Ok, not everything is peach (I also have Soy Sauce, Gyoza, rice, and Somen). Last is the awesome peach juice box drink. I love peach!

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7/9 Wednesday:
Work... zzzzzz.... Nothing to talk about... so watch this commercial instead:

Japan: can even make mosquito bug-bite medicine seem awesome.

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7/10 Thursday:

From Japan: Day 101

Yokohama's Landmark Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Japan.

I can see this place from right outside where I work. I decided to get out and take some pictures today after work of some parts of Yokohama that I haven't even been to yet. I started by walking toward the the landmark tower. I also got another shot of the ferris wheel and the strangely shaped building near it (which is also famous). The next picture is of the Fujisoft main headquarters (which I have been to a couple of times). You will notice that the whole side of part of the building is all glass (that's where the elevators are). Next is an old ship that is right next to the Landmark Tower. Next to the ship is a larger-than-lifesize statue of Ultraman and the Yokohama Maritime Museum. There also seem to be ship exhaust pipes in a park (no idea why). Random cat. Some neat gate-like buildings. Also a picture of the neat area at the base of the tower. They also have a Hard Rock Cafe here. The tower is connected to a large mall that has this weird metal structure in between it and Queen's Square. I then headed into Queen's Square, a larger, more high-classish mall. It had a large snoopy statue in it. I then headed into the other mall thats connected to the Landmark Tower. It was pretty neat inside. "Please be careful to steps." (hehe) I did a quick look outside and got a picture from a walkway over a street and the building across from the mall and then headed back inside. Next I found a neat escalator that curves around rather than a normal escalator. I wanted to invite it over but there were signs warning me to "Please do not play with escalator." (*sigh*) Did some more walking around and found an awesome Ghibli store with an awesome Ghibli display! Near that was a Pokemon center (this thing was huge). Before I left, I went back downstairs and took a picture of the neat mirror pillars that were in the area between the two malls, underneath the weird metal structure. Took a couple more neat pictures and found a cat resting on a bike while I walked back to my subway station. Eventually I will go to the top of the tower, but I want to wait until I have a clearer day (HA!) and more time (HA!).

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7/11-12 Friday-Saturday:
Unfortunately, not much to talk about. Friday was work, and Saturday I spent mostly searching again for things I still need (Gah, where the heck can I find curtains or an iron). Well, Saturday did have Gedo Senki (or Tales from Earthsea) on TV, so I got to see that. Wasn't quite as good as I was hopeing. Mabey because I didn't really understand what was happening most of the time, or maybe because it just wasn't that interesting... I'll have to watch it with subtitles sometime to find out. Not much else, so enjoy this commercial (well just the first part, ignore the stuff after the commercial):

Japan: the only place I know of that has commercials ON commercials (there are more...).

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7/13 Sunday:

From Japan: Day 104

A view from Bay Quarter (another mall elsewhere in Yokohama).

Today, in persuit of things I still need and curiousity as to what else is in Yokohama, I took the subway to Yokohama station. First stop: Yodobashi-Yokohama. Yodobashi is like Bic Camera, it's a big electronics (etc.) store. Finally I found a cheap iron (let's hope it works). Did a little wandering around near Yokohama Station then headed towards the Bay Quarter mall. The mall was pretty neat so I took a few pictures there. Then I headed across the bridge in the direction of my workplace. Pictures are pretty self-explanatory so not much to say about them. Last picture I saw a neat parking garage in the distance with whales drawn on the side.

Week 14: Days 91-97

Oh look! A new post! Yeah... I know... over a month since my last post... I've been busy... with school and stuff :P

6/30 Monday:
First day of work. Nothing exciting. Pretty boring actually. I spent most of the time studying/reading a book (in Japanese of course) on a new programming language I have never used and reviewing how to use Linux and another programming language that I have used. Unfortunately I can't use my phone at work to translate anything (can't use phones in parts of the building due to security reasons)... so it looks like I'll be doing a lot of translating with an online translator. Of course it doesn't help that the operating system(s) are in Japanese ¬_¬
Speaking of security, they have these neat sliding plastic waist-high security doors that you have to swipe your card on a scanner to get into the building (so I have a security card now). You wear it also as an identity badge from a strap around your neck while at work. It has my last name on it (I have to get used to people calling by my last name) as well as Kanji to indicate I am a "trainee" (there aren't really Interns in Japan... either you are hired or you aren't). Unfortunately I don't think I'll be taking any pictures of my workplace... the level of security makes me think I shouldn't even really ask... Work is a little laid back. Noone wears ties or suit jackets. But they do wear black pants, nice-ish shoes, and white button-down shirts. I decided to wear my suit the first week anyways. Tomorrow there will be a company meeting (for our building, which is actually only 2 floors of an 8 floor building) and I will have to introduce myself to everyone. Apparently they will be taking me out to dinner after work tomorrow... that should be interesting.

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7/1 Tuesday:
Well, my introduction to everyone was actually pretty short, and I don't think I did badly (was only really about 140 people I spoke in front of). Unfortunately noone really speaks English at work (well my group's leader speaks a little), so everything is done in Japanese (geh...). After work, my coworkers took me out to dinner. There were a total of 12 of us there (including me, the sub-leader/my group's leader, and the section boss). It ended up being REALLY expensive (about $600, there was a LOT of food). We started at about 6:15pm and went until about 10pm. A couple of things I notice: 1) EVERYONE drinks, I didn't see anyone who didn't drink (besides me). 2) A lot of people smoke, it seems a lot more common for people to smoke in Japan than in the US (well, I haven't been to many places where a lot of people smoke in America). Another thing, one of the co-workers was telling me that the plan at work-dinners like this is to get the boss drunk so he will pay for everything. We had a lot of food. They bought these huge ice-cream floats that had sparklers in them and everything (and when I say huge, I mean HUGE, like large bowl size, I will have pictures sometime later on that a co-worker took). One was melon soda and another was coke. They also introduced me to a summer mineral drink called Ramane. It's unique in that you take a small plastic cap and press down on the top to open the bottle which pushes a small glass bead into the bottle which is shaped so that the glass bead stays sorta near the top. It's kinda hard to describe, so I'll find it again later and take pictures/video. Some things about my boss: he was a Sargent and he has a Hello Kitty credit card (yeah, Japan is awesome).

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7/2-3 Wednesday:-Thursday:
Nothing exciting to say about work... well my computer at work is a piece of junk... crashes several times a day... Other than that, more boring studying. Lunches are spent eating bento ("boxed" lunches) at our desk, so I have to bring something every day (I could buy something from the many street vendors at lunch time, but I'd rather bring something since it is easier to figure out what I'm buying at a grocery store). Since I don't really have much else to talk about, here is some info I forgot to add earlier about my host family in Kyoto: My host father volunteers as a school patrol during the week, plays golf on weekends (he got a hole-in-one at one point and brought back the prize: garbage/recycle bags), and watches a lot of baseball. My host mom grows her own vegetables in a vegetable garden a little walk away from the house (she ended up replacing most her vegetables with potatoes, onions, and mostly lettuce), she shares her vegetables with neighbors (who also share things like Nori to give to me to eat), she likes a various music (except classical) which she downloads off the internet (from a chinese server... heh...), she taught preschool for 5 years, then did office work for 20 years, taught how to use a computer for 3 years, now everyday is a weekend to her so she uses the computer a lot, her future plans are to teach how to make bread. They have two grad-daughters that went to a program at UC Berkeley during the summer (not sure if they are continuing there after the summer or something). I think that's it. I may add stuff later if I remember. Tomorrow I'm supposed to have lunch with the boss or something.

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7/4 Friday:
So, today my boss' boss took me have lunch with him, his boss, the president of the company (the guy on the right, who can speak English), and someone else (I think). Not quite what I was expecting, but interesting none the less. We ate at the top floor of the main Fujisoft building in Yokohama. The building is 21 stories high and has nice elevators that have transparent sides that you can see a lot of Yokohama from (same building that had the "sit" button-seats). Mostly they talked about how much they want someone like me working for them because of plans the company has (not sure if I can actually talk about that...). Anyways, thought that was interesting. Unfortunately, they Meishi (Japanese business cards) I had ordered hadn't arrived yet, so I couldn't exchange business cards with them. At work I keep a daily schedule (check in/out) in an excel document, I have to write a weekly report (in Japanese of course), and I will have to do a presentation the last day at work (again, in Japanese). This should be interesting. Another thing, its hard to do anything without Internet, especially find someplace to actually use the internet, or know where to look. At least my group-leader helped me find someplace that I might be able to use the Internet (btw, I also can't use the Internet at work for anything besides work). Sorry if the boss' boss' boss stuff is confusing. Its like this: I work in a group with 4 other people, one of those is that's group leader (also known as the sub-leader), this small group is part of a slightly larger group that just works on the floor I work on and has a boss (the section boss/former sargent), this group is one part of several groups that work in this building which has a boss (the one that took me to have lunch with the president of the company), who also has a boss (everyone has a boss >_<). Hope that's a little clearer.

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7/5 Saturday:
Today I did some searching for things I need... like curtains... I cannot find curtains anywhere, a new pillow (they give a junky pebble-filled thing that is hard to sleep on), an iron (I can't find a cheap iron anywhere either), and a pole to hang clothes on to dry (no dryers for clothes here in Japan, everything is hung outside to dry). World Porters (which I had been to a couple of times already earlier in the week) is the main shopping mall in Yokohama. I tried to search for some things there but I still can't find a cheap iron or curtains (gah!). Changing subjects, I lucked out. This month there was a Ghibli Matsuri (Ghibli festival) on TV this month. Every Saturday they played a different Ghibli movie for 3 weeks (in celebration of the new Ghibli movie opening on the 19th). This week was Neko no Ongaeshi (or The Cat Returns), one of the few Ghibli movies I haven't seen and really wanted to see. Next week is Gedo Senki (or Tales from Earthsea), another Ghibli movie I have been wanting to see. The week after that is My Neighbor Totoro (I've already seen it so I may skip it). Tomorrow, pictures.

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7/6 Sunday:

From Japan: Day 097

My Summer home (I live on the 1st floor), and my work place.

So I finally took my camera out and took pictures of my neighborhood/outside my apartment. First is my front door, the hallway in front of my door, the security door outside the hallway (locks automatically when closed), the front door of the apartment complex (it says "Evergrace Shonan" on the right), the apartment complex itself (only 3 stories), and then the road in front (garbage/recyclables are placed under the blue netting on the left near my apartment). Now I follow the path I always take to get to work. I walk past this area that has blue netting covering trees (apple?) which I thought was interesting. When I reach the main street I walk past 31 Baskin-Robbins (so tempting). Looking to the left there is a Lawson Station on the other side of the street (these things are everywhere). I turn right at Baskin-Robbins and walk down the street to the closest Grocery store: Fuji Garden (though they are usually more expensive, so I don't usually shop there). I also walk past TOYOPET (hehe) a Toyoto car dealer (who wouldn't want a TOYOPET). I eventually reach the main intersection (taking a left leads to the Shonandai station). Across the street at the intersection is a neat cultural center, to the left is some park (usually find kids skateboarding there at night), and there is a pedestrian bridge over the road which I got a nice view of the cultural center and then the road I came from. The Shonandai Culture Center was pretty neat, I got several pictures outside (though the birds with hands for wings was kinda creepy...). I also took a picture of a map there (I live somewhere in the upper left corner of the map). Next is a picture of the Shop 99 (99 Yen shop aka 99 cent shop). Most everything there is... well... 99 Yen... go figure (and yes, that is a cigarette vending machine outside). Sotetsu Rosen is another grocery store I would sometimes go to. It also has a 100 Yen shop upstairs I bought a lot of stuff from. Daiei is the main grocery store I would go to (prices were usually best there, plus they usually had better stuff to eat/choose from). It also has a couple of floors with things like cosmetics, clothing, childrens toys, and even a small gaming arcade (for kids). Next to the subway station is a Pachinko and Slot machine Parlor (with a gaming arcade in the basement. It may look big, but it's actually only pachinko on the first floor and then slots and the gaming arcade in the basement. Notice that all the people in the pictures on the Pachinko Parlor are white women... just thought that was interesting. Of course, there is a KFC (although, sadly, no Col. Sanders outside). There is also a Denny's (first one I've seen in Japan). And of course, a McDonald's (I've seen more McDonald's in Japan than I've ever seen in America, then again I've traveled more in Japan than I have ever done in America). Next is a picture of the intersection outside the subway station in Yokohama I get off at (hmmm... IMAX Inc. is here). Some more pictures of the road I walk down to get to work (and some random buildings). The 3rd building I took a picture of here is the building I actually work at (5th floor). I took a picture of the front entrance but didn't want to really get in trouble trying to take anything closer inside (I didn't want to seem suspicious). Walking down the street to the left is another intersection which you can see some neat buildings from. Taking a right at that intersection leads towards World Porters (crossing over water). To the right of World Porters are some old buildings I'll check out some other time. There is also a neat pedestrian walkway that circles around the whole intersection. On the other side of World Porters is a famous Farris Wheel (I hope to ride it sometime). You find a lot of American eating places around here... like Cold Stone Creamery, first one I've seen in Japan ("Life is Peachful!!" I couldn't agree more). One of the floors in World Porters is very broadway-esque (heck, it's called Yokohama Broadway), same floor the movie theater is on. I decided to go see Speed Racer since it just opened (movies open in Japan on Fridays). I really enjoyed it (apparently it got bad reviews, not sure why). Movies here are expensive (1800 Yen, about $18), so I can't go as often as I would like. Some things I noticed: American movies will usually have both a subtitled (in Japanese) version and a Japanese dubbed version playing, and just about everyone stays through all the ending credits of the movie. Movies I plan to see: Gake no Ue no Ponyo (Japanese, new studio Ghibli movie), Naruto Shippuden: Kizuna (Japanese, new Naruto movie), The Dark Knight (can't wait for this), and Nekonade (Japanese, if I can find it). Well see if there is anything else interesting. Anyway, more pictures. Some random neat buildings I saw while walking back. And Hooters! (OK, different Hooters). Work again tomorrow, probably won't really have any pictures during the week... I'll try to figure something out.