Week Three

2/15/09-
Went to Harajuku- famous for the freakshow (people dressed crazy). Not as many out in force as I expected. Possibly because of the cold, and the fact it looked like it was gonna rain. But got some good pictures. Then checked out Yayogi park, and the greasers and 50's dancers. Big park, lots of people there practicing things, dance routines, skateboarding, acting, and lots of people showing off thier skills, like frisbie or bagpipe playing. Big dog park area too. Lot's of puppies.
Tried Couchsurfing, I'm not one who likes to depend on others, especially strangers, but Miriam and Nick made it very easy. Nice people, very welcoming. Nick and I shared similar interests, so we had plenty to talk about until late.

2/16/09-
Went to Akihabara. Yay, otaku (=nerd) central.
Stopped by Ikebukuro to have dinner w/ Kimie for a while too.

2/17/09-
Ueno- Right outside the station there are hundereds and hundreds of little flea market type booths and stores. Reminds me very much of the fashion district in LA. But cleaner.
Went into another one of the 5 storie video game parlors. Still a surprise to me to see ash trays attached to the machines. Something that is popular is card interactive games. It'd take to long to explain, I'll have to take a video of it later.
I found a nice little bread store. Along with the usual cream filled, chocolate, and assorted seafood pasteries they had - pizza. Yeah, I could go for some pizza. So with closer examination, I see my choices are 'Tuna Pizza' or 'Potato Pizza'. Hmmmmn... I went for potato. Not bad, but still... what!?

Shinjuku- Here is the real Shinjuku. Wow, it's a lot different then what I remember. Much bigger, in all directions. Maybe I didn't see the real Shinjuku before... I wonder.
The previous time when me and Tyler were here (or rather a different area) a short, stocky black man came up to us, "Hey guys, wanna have some fun w/ some pretty ladies". Essentially pimp'n for a strip club or massage parlor. Japanese called them 'Kyakuhiki' ("customer pullers"). Anyways, this time I was approached by two more short black guys. I wonder what is up w/ that!? Also 2 asian guys, one older and one younger. They're quite persistant. They must get some kind of commission off that, I'll have to ask next time.

2/18/09-
Checked out Roppongi at night. Nice big mall there, have to come back when it's light outside. Went to the Tokyo Tower. Took lots of pictures, and videos (which came out better). Then checked out the street famous for the clubs. The streets were lined w/ 'Kyakuhiki'. No kidding, one block had 20 black guys (not all short and stalky this time) standing around waiting to harass gaijin (=white guys/foreigners) to come to their clubs. Just down that street I had 4 of them come up to me, the others would back off when they saw another one w/ you. I was gonna pop out my camera and interview one of them, but my battery was almost dead after Tokyo tower. Plus I was getting ratherr annoyed by them. Buy the time I left I was approached by no less then 8 very persistent 'Kyakuhiki', in roughly a 30 minute period of time. I also stopped in at the famous Gaspanic. It was... small. And dead, 9:00pm and maybe 10 people in the bar!? Not a good night for clubbing I guess.

2/19/09-
Saw Shibuya. Said 'hello' to Hachiko (famous dog statue).
Got an over priced cup of coffee at a 3 lvl Starbucks (I mean overpriced even for Starbucks).
Tried a 'Freshness Burger'... meh.

2/20/09-
Went to Chiba that to meet TkyoSam. (A Youtube Video blogger, that blogs about life in Japan. My buddy Danny turned me on to those blogs right before I left. Lot's of usefull information, and fun stuuf on his videos.) His friend Asuka joined us too, and we went to a Karoke Bar. Asuka has some pipes. Then Sam and I went to get some Kaiten (carousel Sushi) at SushiRo. Only 100円　a plate. That's crazy cheap, and it was good! Good time.

2/21/09-
Went to Shizuoka. This is the city you go to when you want to climb mout Fuji. But this time a year it's only open to wxperienced mountain climbers, with equpiment. So I checked ou the city, park, and went to prime locations (biuldings) for taking pictures of mount Fuji- all closed! What kinda bum deal is that? So left that, went back to the Annex, where they were having a DJ party.

2/22/09-
Last day of my JR Pass. So I went to Himeji. Took lots of pictures of the famous Himeji-jo castle. Then met Hanako, from the LA Japanese Language Meet-up Group, in Nakano, Tokyo. She took me to a mall that is just set up for otaku (fanatic-nerds).

2/23/09-
Went to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo. Cool little museum, especially if you like seeing preproduction work for anime films. They have a small section that shows history of animation, there is also a 'Petite Louvre', that has reproductions of paintings from the Lovures (why I don't know, but it's interesting...) They played a short films about a waterspider. Looks like they have six different ones that change each week.

That's the end of week three. I've been staying at a backpackers hostel in Asakusa, Tokyo (think overcrowded college dormitory, bunk beds and all). Will probably stay here a while longer.
My sightseeing will probably be limited to once or twice a week now, but there is lots to see in and around Tokyo.