Entries for June, 2006
June 2nd, 2006
In Japan
Posted by bert at 08:53 PM on June 2, 2006 in ME.
Got into japan yesterday around 4 p.m. local time.
met up with luke in Tokyo where he works. His building is about 2 blocks away from teh royal palace so that gets THAT out of my system.
did a little sightseeing before i met up with him and his friends for a round of drinking.. and then clubbing in Roppongi. Before i knew it, it was 5 a.m. and I was crashing at my new friend Enrique's pad. (luke too).
that dumbass luke had to go to work this morning too at 8 a.m. so me and enrique are just chilling and grabbing breakfast. LoL.. i know, exciting sounding huh?
I'll do some more touristy stuff after tonight. Tonight is a huge party night too =)
June 4th, 2006
Day 2 =)
Posted by bert at 02:41 AM on June 4, 2006 in ME.
ok. last we left our hero stuck in the far east with only his wits to fend forhimself. Damn Chinese people get no luving out here I swear.
So something i forgot last time. When we were teh club in Roppongi, it was my job to be the ice breaker for all the shy tards I was hanging out with. So the "American" walks up and introduces himself to a group of girl. (yes this was me) And then one shy dude gets to come up and "save me from embarrassing myself" by saying that he's apologizing for me being an unbearable American with no manners.
So despite that fact that it is true (yes i'm unbearable and have no manners), I said sure, why not be the wingman to many a dozen short little japanese kids =). HAHAHA.. i'm 5'11 and i'm a giant... I still can't stop laughing about this one.
So anyway.. i've had a good amount of practice hitting on Japanese women now. Telling them they are beautiful does not work. Being stupidly funny, doesn't work. and being American means you can't have a real conversation with them. As always getting hit is a good thing. ok. so i hooked a boy up with this part-time model chick.. and as a "reward" i got a free lunch!. (yup. i did all that to explain how i got a free lunch).
now on with the show.
Free lunch was at this Onimiyaki (sp?) place. Essentially a japanese pizza. Fried layer of egg, with some lettuce/cabbage/garlic/onions on top, layers of udon/ramen/soba and then some toppings, with this sweet onimiyaki sauce (i bought some at a grocery too!!). Um.. 1300 yen for this tasty pizza with the largest friggen scallop ever. Amazing.
Other food notes:
- I had some sushi at one of those conveyor belt places. Bwuahaha. Hamachi is as good as ever, the sweet shrimp is good, but man.. i've had like 5 variations of Toro now.. I think the chutoro is the best. Only paid 530 yen for a small plate of two nigiri pieces. Oh yeah.. btw.. my meals are averaging about $20 us.
- Yakitori was insane. This place was grilling a bunch of itzy bitzy sticks with chicken EVERYTHING on it. so damn good. 100 yen a stick.. i ate 10. and then had $20 bucks of sushi about 1 hour later.
- I'm also averaging about $1.50 per bottled water. yes. the Beer here is cheaper than the Water.
- I ate at some irish pub too, (not by my own choosing) so nothing too great to report there besides that their guiness is watered down.
hrm.. ok what else. My days are essentially merging together, so i'm not sure where to begin. I guess yesterday was a wasted day more or less. Slept till two. Went and saw the meiji shrine in Shibuya. (this is some major shopping district too). We also hit up this mall that apparently is 10 stories that only caters to girls. And only slutty ones at that. I didn't know better, but my "guide" enrique (yes. he's dominican, shut up already. yes.. you stop laughing. He speaks fluent Japenese and has mad game), took me in to do some window shopping. These girls have nothing on some of the girls I get to see at Southcoast. I wasn't impressed.
quick note about girls in Japan.
The vast majority of them have decent looking bodies. They all mostly not overweight, have pretty toned looking legs, and petitte, and the hair isn't perverse. But man... that means like 85% of them are "bakushans" (butterfaces). I'd say more, but then again these foreign nationals are telling me otherwise. and their teeth.......
Anyway.. we kept walking towards teh shrine and my guide had this funny look on his face. Turns around and asks me if i like Gwen Stefani. my reply? "yeah, she's hot." anyway.. those harajuku girls she sings about? we run into about 18 of them on teh street corner about 10 seconds after he asks me. this fashion from area to area is so messed up. Give me my OC fashion anyday!!!. (oh and suzy would be glad to know they have just as many doggie stores/bakeries as SoCAL).
i'm in shock. but worse yet... I have to go to the bathroom. so i find this local mcdonalds to use.. and go inside.. and THANK GOD I looked before hand.. but there was no TP in my stall.. or the one next to me.. or the other one... yeah... turns out. I have to BUY my TP. wtf. I am definitely not amused.
ok.. dinner somewhere. then Karaoke. you know the girls here start singing when they're 13 or something.. They're good.. i like their voices.. and my friends friends have some cuties amongst them. or maybe my goggles were in full effect. Oh well... we ended up singing for 5 hours last night.
the train system here is whack too!!!!
it connects teh entire city in all ways shapes or forms. and then around midnight.. It shuts off. so the club scene in tokyo? it's either you party till 12.. or you go till 5 a.m. (when teh trains start up again).. because cab drivers jack up their fair by as much at 50% during those 5 hours. so yeah.. we sang for a long time. with me butchering such classics as, Living on Prayer, Faith, and Bohemian Rhapsody. Lol.. i also sang along to some of the classic Utada's that the girls chose (since i'm such a fan.)
ok.. leading to today.
woke up early, and went to Akayhabara. (the electronics place). My god.. my jaw dropped.. so much crap.. but after 2 hours.. i was bored. My buddy even resorted to teh last measure and took me to an arcade. I guess that was cool, and trust me there were more than a few cool games. but.. i am very sad to annouce.. my mental maturity has now at least moved on to 15 years old.
I'm pretty convinced i want a DS Lite, but they're sold out over here too. um.. what else? oh.. so the main road of akayabara has some random girls dressed up as anime characters to advertise for something or another. only each one is surrounds by throngs of overaged japanese dudes taking pictures of them. It's SOOOOOOOOO weird. akayhabara is crazy and definitely a nerd thing to do.. But yeah... i was bored.
ok.. i have about 10 minutes left so i'll upload some pics in a later edit.
here's some pics...
this is the royal palace. It's utterly boring.
blah.. this is a map of said palace.
I'm really not sure where this is.. I think Shinbuya, but it had pretty lights.
this is some friends (and luke on the right) that i met here. the 2nd from the left is 31 years old.. i know.. insane. and we were singing karaoke. I killed "Livin' on a prayer"
This is Shinbuya. That buidling in the middle is one of the department stores (in particular the one enrique tricked me into going with him to "window shop"
so the conversion rate is about 110 yen to $1. this "pumpkin" costs 7350 yen.. so... a bit under $70. yeah.. you read that right...
Perhaps my most favorite thing about Japan is sushi. Um. that's a Otoro and Chutoro next to each other. Gotta love eating off of a conveyor belt. I'm going to starve myself one day just to stack a bunch of plates and take a picture.. Watch out Kobayashi!!
This is Akayabara. You can't see this because i didn't really try.. but in the middle of the people there is a little circle of open space.. and inside teh open space there is a girl dressed up as an anime character that is giggling and smiling with 101238123187 sketchy japanese men taking photos of this. Seriously.. how the fuck is this considered acceptable behavior?
time for dinner. Comments added.
June 5th, 2006
Day 3'ish
Posted by bert at 04:32 PM on June 5, 2006 in ME.
Yakitori
So this thing was a cool shot. I was at the Imperial Palace (not casino) and it's this calming wooded area, with a bridge back to the financial district of downtown tokyo. I really liked the contrast (and the fact i got a japanese businessman in it too).
This is the fishmarket. it's pretty insane.. Each of these eateries can fit.. oh.. mayb 10 people max at a time. This was a huge line for the best shop. Since i'm a Gaijin anyway.. we went to one with a shorter (only 30 minute) line. Easily the best sushi I have ever had btw =)
Here's a Kabuki Theatre House in Ginza. This is pretty much the most expensive place I've seen in Japan. Saw a pair of jeans selling for roughly $450, on the SALES rack.
ugh.. it takes to long to do this right...
i'll update later.
June 7th, 2006
Day 4-5-6? Kyoto.
Posted by bert at 05:58 AM on June 7, 2006 in ME.
ok.. so... you know how we make fun of asian tourist because they have a camera around their necks and take pictures of EVERY insignificant thing? yeah.. that was me. Btw.. they're just as mean about laughing at us silly tourist as we are to them. But at least some of these girls are cute. Yes.. As a FOB (in their mind), I ask cute girls to take photos for me =) (well.. it's better than really fat euro dudes neh?)
40 hours in Kyoto now and I have a whopping 478 pictures to show for it. I have to friggen pick and choose what to load into Tabulas!
ok. so.. I made my way to kyoto obviously. Took a bullet train and it was only 2 hours from tokyo. I slept the whole way since my body is so completely out of whack right now. I'll get it back to "normal" time by clubbing out my last 3 nights in tokyo. hehehe.. i almost feel sorry for the people I'm about to meet in Roppongi. Kakuate Wa!!!
After arriving (this was unplanned.. I managed to book a tour for myself, and then make hotel reservations, walk to the hotel, check in, and THEN go to Gion for a friggen Miyuki (Geisha in training) perforamance thing.
Ok.. hotels are kinda cheap here. Getting around without a native speaker at your disposal is intimidating, but not if your muy intellegente like me!! (i'm so modest). Actually it's a lot easier since all the big places are spelled out in english. My Hotel attendant person was really cute and could speak really broken english (i took her to dinner too, but she refused to get her picture taken). I guess that always helps when a local girl can help you around. And no, Ya'll know i'm not a player, but when I'm the complete FOB, i'm not beyond flowers and suckups to get a warm shower.
Gion is amazing.. It's like NYC on crack. Sunset blvd has nothing on Gion.
Did my tour earlier today.. and hit pretty much everything. I bought this little "guide book" in the train station yesterday and it had top 10 places to visit in kyoto. By the time of this writing I've been to 7 of the top 10. That's what i call pretty impressive =). (photos of these places to come.).
what else? i'll think of more, but iknow you all really just want to see more pictures.
This is a picture of the Train Station in Kyoto. it's badass architecture.. but better yet for you ladies out there.. all these escalators leads to shops and botiques. And there's a foodcourt on the 11th floor for us guys.
This is me and Shinjikin Shrine. I'm trying yet another one of my retarded poses.
This thing is called teh Golden Shrine (since it's covered in 22k gold.
Us standing in line at the imperial palace in kyoto.
samurai armor.
some street called "cats tail" it's on our way to a temple, and it just gets packed with people.
Me washing my hands before praying to some water gods.
lets hope that water thing is working for me. This is some random shot, i don't even remember where.
Love stone. There are two.. and as rumor goes it, you have to walk from one love stone to the other succesfully and a wish will come true.
ok.. more later. g'night.
June 9th, 2006
I'm going with Day 6...
Posted by bert at 12:21 AM on June 9, 2006 in ME.
Took a detour into Hijemi instead of osaka.
why? cuz i heard osaka was "just like tokyo" and hijemi has a samurai castle.
come on.. of COURSE hijemi wins.
ok.. yeah so on with the pics neh?
Ok this was at the station at hijemi. pretty hot. Just some carrier thing. One of the sideboards said that these things took like 40-50 people to carry.
This is Hijemi Castle. It's friggen huge. I'll let the picture do the talking.
another picture.. a little closer. and without that fat chinese kid.
After hiking up the stairs with the steepest incline known to man..... (and smallest steps..) I arrive at the top to see this. It's hot.
one of the gates/doorways, i'm so tall!.
sake!
this is apparently not how you treat sake in Japan.. who cares.
look.. i'm so friggen TALL!!!!.
June 11th, 2006
and I'm back (and so is the World Cup!)
Posted by bert at 01:24 PM on June 11, 2006 in ME.
sad.. tokyo was a lot of fun, well except that whole rainy season thing that kept happening. (and walking your suitcases to teh trainstation is not very fun...)
Went partying friday and saturday night. my sleep cycle is completely out of whack.
ok.. anyway.. not much to report.. and not many touristy photos.. just photos that should see too much light =)
maybe i'll blog something reasonable after i wake up again.. and oh my... world cup is starting.. Might as well keep my Japanese sleep schedule
edit:
ok.. so after being "in town" for a good 12 hours or so. a few quirks....
I had 10 days of being "appreciated" and "respected" where every official, hostess, etc, anything... would bow and say thanks for anything. On top of that they'd always welcome you wherever you went. I was greeted to the States by a customs official who found an error in my duty reporting and held on to my $150 worth of sake. His helpfulness consisted of me being "detained further, or leave behind the falsely reported materials (sake)".
and the girls here have more tendency to be plump. Sure Cali has the hottest girls in the world.. but there are some that are well. yeah.. i shoud gift them my 24 hour membership.
but at least they have.... butts. yeah.. man.. after a week and a half of seeing just flat verticle boards for behinds.. it was nice to see a poor man's version of ghetto bootie...
everything just feels so much cheaper.
it was really weird driving stick again after going 10 days of walking and training to commute
stupid smog.
it's nice to be able to talk to people again and not just say "I can't speak Japanese" (in japanese)
but i did learn to tell a girl she is cute. kiwaii anato woot. Just need to watch out for too much sake.
June 16th, 2006
one week left...
Posted by bert at 01:55 PM on June 16, 2006 in ME.
sadly... there is only 1 week left of me being in SoCAL.
so much to do so many people to see..
aww man.. who wants to go to NC?
June 19th, 2006
Am I allowed to bitch about work?
Posted by bert at 02:36 PM on June 19, 2006 in ME.
my last day of work is on thursday? Am I still allowed to bitch about work to my co-workers? I mean.. i really want to, but I feel like it might be "rubbing it in." hrm.. then again this post was written while at work.
opinions and thoughts?
June 21st, 2006
Is Ozzie a Genius?
Posted by bert at 10:36 AM on June 21, 2006 in ME.
whitesox were up i think 20-4 at this point in time.
when sidney ponson hits a couple of batters with the bases loaded. so.. what does ozzie do? he promptly hits someone on the cardinals right back. This is why I love Ozzie.
"White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and reliever David Riske were ejected in the seventh after Chris Duncan was hit with a pitch. The benches had been warned in the bottom of the sixth after St. Louis reliever Sidney Ponson hit two White Sox batters with the bases loaded.
"I'm not going to put my teammates in jeopardy to get hurt. It looked like it was, but it wasn't. It was never my intention," Ponson said.
"Those guys are going to be mad and they have every right to do that. I would be too if I got hit like that," he said.
Riske said the pitch just got away from him. But last week Guillen had a dugout tirade when rookie pitcher Sean Tracey failed to retaliate after Pierzynski had twice been hit with pitches in Texas.
Guillen said he knew Tony La Russa, his first major-league manager, had nothing to do with two of his batters being hit.
"If Ponson says he is not hitting them on purpose, we believe it," Guillen said. "And I don't believe Riske hit anybody on purpose either."
congrats miami
Posted by bert at 03:21 PM on June 21, 2006 in ME.
the league is rigged. Dwayne Wade tho is almost a God, but please please please stop comparing him to MJ. Jason Terry was blowing by wade.. Offensively he's at the same level, but don't conveniently forget that Michael was a top 3 defender in the league for a good 10 years.
June 22nd, 2006
Amazon is annoying
Posted by bert at 01:12 AM on June 22, 2006 in ME.
so I've been an avid user of Amazon's marketplace (and Half.com) for the past 3-4 years or so. I really like the set up since I can get stuff like books/cds/dvds on the cheap.
what annoys me though is that every now and then I get a really deadbeat seller. I ordered a CD about a month ago.. and have not received it. I've e-mailed the seller a few times and never got a response. Now the next chain in the action is I'm supposed to contact amazon today (6/21) for something i purchased in may (5/16 actually). so i do... 5 weeks after the purchase... and then i get told i should give them 3 more business days. All this to get a $2 discount on a cd. well... i think i'll have to revise my thinking a bit. totally not worth buying cds on that if i have to wait SIX weeks just to tell them that the seller fucked up..
maybe we can make a better marketplace..?
ROY... GET TO WORK!. =P
We suck at soccer
Posted by bert at 09:46 AM on June 22, 2006 in ME.
i know i don't know too much about it.. but it just seemed we played very tentative and passive the whole time. Our best play was when were down 9-10 men in the game against italy. otherwise we had what? 7 shots on goal the whole tournament?
i don't feel too bad completely...
the Czech Republic was ranked ahead of teh US too.. they also failed to advance. #2 and #5 both out in the first round of elimination.
and ghana gets to play brazil Well... brazil is winning another match... *suprise*
And I'm DONE!
Posted by bert at 02:31 PM on June 22, 2006 in ME.
well except that whole getting paid thing is still in teh air.. but its nice to know i have one last paycheck coming...
I'm done with work! w00!!!!...
now... b-school.
well.. packing the rest of my crap first... THEN b-school
June 27th, 2006
In NC now...
Posted by bert at 04:46 PM on June 27, 2006 in ME.
bah.
it's humid....
and it rained today
and it sucks. =)
June 28th, 2006
AIYA!!!
Posted by bert at 07:27 PM on June 28, 2006 in ME.
the girls out here...
we sure aren't in California anymore.
omg.. what have i gotten myself into?
my most depressing post to come is next. where i talk about missing California. already...
.... nc....
Posted by bert at 08:01 PM on June 28, 2006 in ME.
Man.. less than a week, and I feel lost. SO overwhelmingly lost without the California sun… The SUN The weather The beach The other beaches The beach shops Bonfires Surfing Bodyboarding Watching in awe as kids skimboard 24/7/365 sandal weather what’s humidity? Complete lack of mosquitos cheap ass Chinese food cheap ass Vietnamese food cheap ass food friends (aww..) softball dodgeball southcoast plaza (really? Yes really) that Yosemite trip omg… vegas… kroq.. (seriously.. all I have is a bad version of kiisFM that plays like.. country) the girls that take care of themselves. My dopey ass neighbor I could keep going for days… what I don’t miss traffic gas prices housing prices what North Carolina brings to the table Bojangles! Well.. my family is here So is my dog. That’s about it.
